The First Summoner - Chapter 110

Even after being injured, Xiao Zechuan adjusted almost instantly.

As Shen Yan pressed closer, he suddenly drove the crescent saber into the ground and barked a command.

“Sink!”

Danger prickled through Shen Yan’s instincts.

Sure enough, the ground beneath her churned violently as if about to collapse. In truth, it had become more like a swamp. The softened earth dragged both her feet downward.

Startled, Shen Yan quickly planted her longsword in the ground and used it to vault into the air.

At that critical instant, Xiao Zechuan closed in with his saber. His target was clearly the token at her waist.

Shen Yan raised her sword to block.

Clang!

The impact rang out with exceptional force.

Outside the secret realm, a large portion of the spectators had fixed their attention on Shen Yan and Xiao Zechuan’s battle.

In theory, someone with Xiao Zechuan’s strength should have been able to eliminate Shen Yan quickly. But her swordsmanship was exquisite, she could fight above her level, and most crucially, she had a powerful otherworldly beast helping her.

For the moment, victory remained undecided.

The spectators were surprised to see Xiao Zechuan use his saber to invoke a sand formation.

He must have understood formations to some degree. Otherwise, he could never have activated one so quickly.

“Who do you think will eliminate the other—Xiao Zechuan or Shen Yan?”

“Xiao Zechuan, of course!”

“I think Shen Yan will win!”

“Xiao Zechuan’s cultivation is stronger. Shen Yan may have an otherworldly beast helping her, but the difference is still too great. If this stalemate continues, her stamina will give out, and then the beast will be forced to disappear.”

“That makes some sense.”

A portion of the power required to summon an otherworldly beast came from the Summoner. Once the Summoner exhausted their spiritual power, the beast could naturally no longer remain and fight.

Unless…

The Summoner had formed a contract with the beast—and that contract was a soul contract.

Then the two would support each other.

Even if the Summoner fell, the otherworldly beast could continue to exist in the physical world.

Someone sighed and shook his head. “Shen Yan is terribly unlucky to have run into Xiao Zechuan. If she’s eliminated, I wonder whether she’ll still make the top hundred.”

The secret-realm trial did not rank contestants by when they were eliminated. It ranked them by how many opponents they had eliminated. A contestant with enough eliminations could still place within the top hundred even if they were removed early.

“There’s no need to worry about Shen Yan. Even if she’s eliminated, Western Region Academy will still give her a special admission token. After all, she’s a rare genius with Transcendent Heaven-rank aptitude!”

“True.”

Yet the outcome was far beyond anything they expected.

A third person suddenly entered Shen Yan and Xiao Zechuan’s battle.

It was Elder Hong Xian’s nephew—Pei Wusu.

The crowd was startled.

“Damn, Pei Wusu is here! With his strength, even Shen Yan and Xiao Zechuan together might not be able to beat him!”

“This is getting exciting! Pei Wusu has the highest cultivation among all these geniuses!”

…

Inside the secret realm—

As Shen Yan and Xiao Zechuan fought, someone suddenly arrived and separated them with one forceful sword strike, driving them to opposite sides.

Shen Yan focused and saw Pei Wusu.

He wore black. His face was ordinary, but the steady, cold aura surrounding him made his presence impossible to ignore.

Xiao Zechuan narrowed his eyes.

“Pei Wusu.”

His voice was low.

Pei Wusu’s expression was cold. Wielding his pitch-black longsword, he flashed in front of Xiao Zechuan and slashed downward!

Boom—

Xiao Zechuan raised his saber to block, his brows tightening as Pei Wusu’s immense spiritual power bore down on him. A baleful aura radiated from Pei Wusu, as though he were the final survivor to emerge from a mountain of corpses—dangerous, vicious, bone-chilling, and unfathomable!

Pei Wusu was strong!

Xiao Zechuan did not dare lower his guard. Pei Wusu already suppressed him in cultivation alone.

When fighting Shen Yan, Xiao Zechuan stood so far above her in cultivation that even Shen Yan and Wuying together could only battle him back and forth.

Pei Wusu and Xiao Zechuan clashed.

Shen Yan frowned slightly and gave Pei Wusu a long look.

Then she recalled Wuying, decisively turned around, and left.

The spectators outside were surprised to see her simply carry her sword away, but they understood her decision. Both Xiao Zechuan and Pei Wusu had higher cultivation, and she was already injured…

Leaving was indeed her best choice.

What puzzled them was why Pei Wusu had not stopped her.

“Why do I get the feeling Pei Wusu came to help Shen Yan?”

“Help her? They don’t even know each other. Why would he?”

“I think Pei Wusu has a grudge against Xiao Zechuan!”

“I bet Pei Wusu will eliminate him!”

“Wait—what is Shen Yan doing?!”

Everyone looked at the crystal screen. After traveling some distance, Shen Yan sat cross-legged on the spot, and the radiance of a breakthrough enveloped her.

“She’s breaking through?!”

“So what if she is? With that kind of aptitude, isn’t it to be expected? Come to think of it, isn’t it strange that someone with Transcendent Heaven-rank aptitude is only at the third stage of the Mystic-rank realm?”

“Don’t forget that Shen Yan is only fifteen or sixteen!”

At that moment, Shen Yan broke through.

She advanced from the third to the fourth stage of the Mystic-rank realm!

Just when everyone thought her breakthrough was complete, the light erupted around her again.

The crowd stared in astonishment.

“She’s breaking through again!”

“What a genius!”

“Two minor stages in a row! As expected of a genius with Transcendent Heaven-rank aptitude!”

The elders and instructors of Western Region Academy regarded her with satisfaction.

Shen Yan advanced to the fifth stage of the Mystic-rank realm.

If she had not encountered Xiao Zechuan, she might not have broken through so quickly.

Pain throbbed in her abdomen. Looking down, she saw the wound from Xiao Zechuan’s saber still bleeding. Fortunately, it was not deep.

She quickly took wound powder from her storage space, applied it, and wrapped the injury with a simple bandage.

Feng Xingyao remained silent within her ability space, but he was watching everything happening outside.

He rested his chin lazily on one hand, his eyes dark and unreadable.

He did not speak to distract Shen Yan.

Ever since the tests began, Shen Yan had stopped paying attention to his every move. She had temporarily forgotten his presence, while he watched her through the space.

Shen Yan did not take a pill because pills were… too expensive.

Suddenly, she understood Zhuge Youlin a little better.

But her injury was only minor. If it had been severe, she certainly would have taken one. Zhuge Youlin was different. Even if he were gravely injured and on the verge of death, he still would not spend money on pills.

Shen Yan checked the current rankings again.

She was now forty-third.

Pei Wusu held first place with fifty-one eliminations.

Nearly three hundred contestants had been eliminated in total.

Only a little over five hundred remained.

Shen Yan frowned. She could not keep searching for contestants one by one. It wasted too much time. She decided to…

Summon a horde of beasts.