The First Summoner - Chapter 108

Less than fifteen minutes had probably passed. Shen Yan was indeed a clever girl—and fast at escaping too.

Once she left the town and saw that Instructor Xue Erniang had not followed, she formed a conjecture. Xue Erniang likely could not leave that place.

There should be other instructors elsewhere in the trial realm.

She would have to be even more careful from now on.

She had escaped Xue Erniang this time because the many ruined houses had concealed her movements. Other locations might not offer the same cover.

Shen Yan entered the forest and soon encountered a youth.

His expression changed in alarm when he saw her. He remembered how she had severed Zhu Hezhou’s arm during the combat test. Her cultivation might be low, but she was powerful.

Coming back to his senses, the youth turned and ran.

Naturally, Shen Yan would not let the opportunity pass. She moved with incredible speed and caught up to him in moments.

She summoned the Crimson Flame Dagger and slashed at his chest. He bent backward to evade it—exactly as she intended!

Turning her wrist, Shen Yan angled the dagger downward and sliced through the cord holding his token.

As the token fell, she stooped, snatched it from the air, and crushed it without hesitation.

The youth stared in utter shock.

“You!”

Shocked and furious, he was transported out of the secret realm before he could even curse her.

Shen Yan put away the Crimson Flame Dagger and touched the token hanging from her own belt. The top-one-hundred rankings instantly appeared.

Her name was on the list.

Thirty-seventh place. Eliminations: one.

The current leader was Xiao Zechuan of Nanshang Kingdom, with ten eliminations.

She remembered him. He possessed Heaven-rank aptitude, and the light from his test had completely filled the pillar.

Xiao Zechuan was taciturn and very low-key.

But his aptitude was not the only reason Shen Yan had noticed him. Her instincts told her he radiated danger.

He was the same kind of person as Jiang Xianyue.

So far, Xiao Zechuan had yet to reveal his true strength. He had not even fought anyone. If Shen Yan encountered him, she would have to stay completely alert.

Her brows lowered as she read the names behind his: Pei Wusu, Qiu Yaqian, Chi Yue…

Chi Yue had actually eliminated seven people?

Had he woken up?

Shen Yan skimmed the list but did not find Jiang Xianyue or the Zhuge brothers.

She ventured deeper into the forest.

Along the way, she encountered several contestants and eliminated them all.

Yet her ranking continued to fall, because everyone else’s elimination count was rising as well.

A saying suddenly occurred to her: failing to advance was the greatest form of falling behind.

Her gaze sharpened. She needed to move faster.

There were only eight hundred and fifty contestants in total. If she did not eliminate her opponents, someone else would. Before long, hardly anyone would remain.

A sense of urgency gripped Shen Yan.

She had to achieve a high ranking and make Western Region Academy value her. Only then would she have the chance to participate in the academy’s Three Top-Secret Missions.

She raised a slender hand and summoned the Spirit Phoenix Divine Sword.

Her expression turned severe.

…

Meanwhile, within a stone forest somewhere in the secret realm, a girl with two braided pigtails finally escaped an instructor’s control. Her cheeks were flushed, and she raised a hand to wipe the sweat from her brow.

She checked the rankings.

Jiang Xianyue frowned tightly.

This was bad.

Nearly a hundred people had already been eliminated.

That left only seven hundred and fifty contestants.

If she wanted to enter the top one hundred…

Her gaze darkened. Suddenly, she heard movement nearby. Judging from the three sets of uneven footsteps, there should be three people.

Had they formed a team?

Jiang Xianyue sped toward them. When she sensed that their cultivation was only at the first or second stage of the Mystic-rank realm, she decisively went on the attack!

Light on her feet, she stepped into the air and charged without a word.

The three panicked when they saw who it was.

Jiang Xianyue had trained in kicking techniques. She lashed out, every kick striking a vulnerable pressure point, before finishing with a sweeping side kick.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

All three flew through the air and crashed heavily into the boulders.

Blood streamed from their broken heads.

Jiang Xianyue had no time to entangle herself with them. She snatched their tokens and crushed them at once.

After the three were transported out, she saw that her name had finally squeezed onto the rankings. Still, it was not enough.

She wanted to catch up to Yanyan.

Jiang Xianyue’s expression suddenly changed. Zhuge Youlin had entered the rankings in one leap and shot all the way to third place, eliminating eleven people at once.

She could imagine the smug look on his face without even seeing it.

She had no intention of losing to Zhuge Youlin.

Just wait!

…

Outside the secret realm, the spectators watched the names on the rankings constantly shift and sighed inwardly.

When they saw the red-haired Zhuge Youlin sitting on the trunk of a towering tree, moving all ten fingers as he used spirit threads to slice through contestants’ tokens from afar, their eyelids twitched.

Someone exclaimed, “Zhuge Youlin has the makings of an exceptional assassin!”

“He certainly does.”

“Someone who controls spirit threads is terrifying!”

The eleven eliminated contestants were utterly bewildered. They had no idea how they had lost.

They surrounded the referee. “Referee, what happened? Why did our tokens suddenly crack? Were they defective?”

The referee directed their attention to the image showing Zhuge Youlin.

The moment they saw how he had eliminated them, they ground their teeth in fury!

One youth protested vehemently, “That shouldn’t count! Referee, he never even showed himself! No gentleman would act that way. It’s the conduct of a scoundrel!”

“That is his ability,” the referee replied. “Your vigilance was simply too poor.”

The youths Zhuge Youlin had eliminated felt both aggrieved and furious.

Three or four of them even burst into tears.

If not for Zhuge Youlin, they might have entered Western Region Academy.

Just then, one person’s rank soared, placing him first with sixteen eliminations.

The name was unfamiliar.

“Who’s Qi Cang?”

“I remember! Qi Cang was the youth whose aptitude fell just short of Heaven rank! I think he comes from some faction in the Southern Region…”

“I remember him too. I noticed him scatter a handful of powder into the air. Every contestant who passed through that area collapsed. Then he crushed their tokens.”

“He used poison?”

“It had to be a sleeping drug or some other poison.”

Everyone turned toward the scene showing Qi Cang. Another figure suddenly entered the image, startling them.

It was…

Shen Yan!