The First Summoner - Chapter 49

A totem formation radiating black light spread beneath Shen Yan’s feet.

In an instant, she sensed a faint connection between her body and an otherworldly realm.

The feeling was profound and mysterious.

Through that fragile link came the roars of countless otherworldly beasts—bloodthirsty, dangerous, unknowable, and ferocious.

Shen Yan closed her eyes.

A strange force pulled her consciousness toward a distant place.

Endless darkness closed around her until she could barely breathe.

Then a pair of eerie crimson eyes opened in the void.

They stared directly at her.

From Shen Yan’s altered perspective, those beast eyes were enormous. They looked down upon her as though regarding an ant.

An icy sensation crawled across her skin, like the stare of a venomous snake.

Shen Yan suppressed her body’s instinctive trembling.

“Are you my summoned beast?”

The only answer was a disdainful sound.

“Hmph.”

Shen Yan retorted bluntly.

“Any otherworldly beast I can summon at my current level should be rather ordinary. You have little reason to act so arrogant.”

The words enraged it.

The beast seemed about to attack.

A blast of powerful mental force struck first.

Shen Yan had summoned it into her sea of consciousness. Under normal circumstances, it should have been able to withstand an attack from its summoner’s mental power.

It had not expected hers to be so strong.

Boom!

The beast was sent flying.

“You’re weaker than I expected.”

Disappointment entered Shen Yan’s voice.

The beast nearly spat blood from rage.

If it were not grievously wounded, how could the mental power of one insignificant human harm it?

Admittedly…

Her mental power was somewhat strong.

Shen Yan waited inside her sea of consciousness.

No other beast answered her summons.

Her gaze darkened.

A Summoner with supreme talent could call forth ten or twenty otherworldly beasts at once, then choose the most compatible or powerful among them for a contract.

She had summoned only one.

And this one appeared weak.

Either her cultivation was too low or she possessed little talent for summoning.

Shen Yan addressed the beast.

“Come. Form a contract with me.”

It sneered.

“Who do you think you are? You dare dream of contracting with this sovereign? Withdraw the summoning formation at once, or you’ll die without a body left to bury!”

Shen Yan fell silent.

The beast had a terrible temper and little apparent strength.

After a moment’s thought, she decided to dismiss the formation.

Before doing so, she used her mental power to beat it thoroughly.

“Aaaah! You despicable, shameless human! You’d better hope this sovereign never encounters you again! The next time we meet will be the moment you die!”

Its howls followed her out.

Shen Yan opened her eyes.

The black summoning formation beneath her vanished.

Inside the spatial domain, Feng Xingyao sensed the trace of an otherworldly beast clinging to her mental power.

His gaze darkened slightly.

That aura was…

Had she failed to contract the beast?

Perhaps her current strength was insufficient to bind something so powerful.

What a pity.

Shen Yan rested for a moment, then prepared to cast the summoning formation again.

The formation quickly took shape.

She closed her eyes and returned to her sea of consciousness.

This time, experience guided her.

She looked ahead and waited for a compatible beast to appear.

A strange, bloodthirsty aura descended.

Something had come.

When Shen Yan saw what waited in front of her, the corner of her mouth twitched.

“Why is it you again?”

The same pair of crimson beast eyes glared at her in fury.

Their owner appeared close to collapse.

“Are you tormenting this sovereign on purpose? I hadn’t even returned before you summoned me again!”

Its roar shook the darkness.

“This sovereign cannot comprehend how a weak human like you could possibly deserve such noble company!”

Shen Yan did not indulge it.

Her mental power crushed down.

She gave the beast another brutal beating.

“Didn’t you say you would kill me the next time we met? Come.”

Her mental power tormented it without mercy.

“If you’re so capable, then stop showing up in my sea of consciousness!”

The beast suffered terribly.

“Aow! It hurts! You summoned this sovereign! If you’re so capable, then stop calling me!”

Human and beast remained locked in the struggle for a long time.

For one fleeting moment, Shen Yan truly wanted to kill it.

The laws of the otherworldly realm protected summoned beasts, however.

A Summoner could not kill one inside their own sea of consciousness.

“Get out.”

Shen Yan withdrew the formation.

The beast vanished again.

She had used too much mental power.

Weakness washed through her as she sat in a chair, cold sweat beading across her forehead.

Why had both summons called only the same beast?

“Feng Xingyao.”

“Mm?”

“Why did the same otherworldly beast answer both formations?”

Interest flickered in Feng Xingyao’s eyes.

“Do you dislike the beast you summoned?”

“Our personalities are incompatible.”

Feng Xingyao laughed softly.

The truth was simple.

The summoned beast possessed an exceptionally high bloodline rank.

Once it appeared within a human’s sea of consciousness, beasts with weaker bloodlines did not dare enter the same space.

“If you refuse to contract it now, you will never summon another otherworldly beast into your sea of consciousness,” Feng Xingyao explained. “If you want the aid of more beasts in the future, you must contract this one first.”

“Why?”

Shen Yan did not understand.

Feng Xingyao explained the hierarchy of otherworldly beast bloodlines.

She fell silent.

The beast had appeared weak, yet its bloodline rank was extraordinarily high.

“Thank you.”

Shen Yan cast the summoning formation a third time.

As soon as it activated, the beast was dragged back into her sea of consciousness.

It opened its mouth to curse.

Shen Yan did not give it the chance.

Her powerful mental force invaded its true body and established a contract by force.

Before the beast recovered from its shock, it had become a human’s summoned beast.

It went mad.

“Damnable human! Release the summoning contract! This sovereign will never fight for you!”

Shen Yan answered blandly.

“If you hadn’t come, how could I have contracted you?”

“Absurd!”

It was a sovereign among the greatest otherworldly beasts.

Now it had fallen so far that a human had enslaved it.

Shen Yan opened her eyes.

She immediately formed the summoning art.

It was time to call forth her first summoned beast and finally see what kind of creature it was.