The First Summoner - Chapter 50

The instant the art was complete, a black shadow abruptly appeared before her.

Shen Yan looked closely. What met her eyes was a black… snake. Its horns were short and straight, without any branches, and rippling scales covered its body. It had four legs, but nearly every inch of the black snake was wounded, and none of those injuries had fully healed.

Wounds this severe were not her doing.

It had already been gravely injured before she summoned it.

Its tiny crimson beast eyes fixed on her with a murderous glare.

“You truly dared to contract this sovereign! Once this sovereign recovers, I will kill you!” it roared in fury.

“Are you a snake?” Shen Yan asked.

It exploded. “What snake? Are you insulting this sovereign? This sovereign is a flood dragon!”

Shen Yan paused. “…You don’t need to be so irritable.”

The black flood dragon’s eyes bulged. With a whoosh, it shot at Shen Yan, intending to bite through a vital point in one snap—

But something unexpected happened.

Shen Yan raised a hand and caught it.

Then, without the slightest hesitation, she squeezed its body hard.

“Aaaah… That hurts, that hurts!” The black flood dragon coughed up blood from the pain. Desperate for relief, it hurriedly begged, “This sovereign was wrong! I was wrong!”

Shen Yan eased her grip slightly, but her expression remained cold.

“Now that you’re my summoned beast, we share both glory and ruin. You want to kill me? Think carefully about what will happen to you afterward. Do you believe I wanted you as my summoned beast? Don’t flatter yourself.”

The black flood dragon opened its mouth to argue, but before it could speak, Shen Yan tightened her grip in warning.

The pain made its tongue loll out. Its eyes nearly rolled back in its head.

It looked utterly ridiculous.

Inside the ability space, the corner of Feng Xingyao’s mouth lifted.

He had never expected the flood dragon—once a supreme ruler who had called the wind and rain in the other dimension, and one of the ancient Seven Primordial Beasts—to fall into her hands, much less be subdued by her.

The Seven Primordial Beasts of the other dimension stood above every otherworldly beast in strength.

Their bloodline ranks might not equal those of the four great divine beasts of antiquity, but they were the most powerful beasts in existence. They had been born in the primordial age, when countless members of the beast race had roamed the world. After a catastrophic natural disaster, only these seven primordial beasts had survived.

The flood dragon was one of them.

Its status required no explanation.

Yet the flood dragon was now gravely wounded. Even its foundation seemed damaged. It could not possibly return to its peak within the next hundred years…

What exactly had happened in the other dimension?

Feng Xingyao’s eyes grew colder.

Soon, Shen Yan’s movements drew his attention once more.

He had to admit that he increasingly admired both her temperament and her methods. At times she acted recklessly, but she never regretted what she had done.

Every living being had flaws, after all.

No one could be perfect.

…

The black flood dragon could no longer withstand her torment. Its body and spirit had already suffered terrible damage. If it accidentally enraged this human now, she would certainly strangle it to death.

To preserve its miserable life, it could only yield.

Its voice was hoarse and exhausted.

“…This sovereign surrenders.”

“Good.”

Shen Yan released it.

The moment she did, it dropped to the floor with a soft thud and lost consciousness.

Shen Yan frowned. She bent down, picked it up, and placed it on the table.

The black flood dragon was already at death’s door.

She could feel its life force rapidly fading.

Her brow furrowed. She decided to feed it a bottle of medicine.

She pried open its mouth and poured the medicine straight down its throat. Then she used her wound powder to stop its bleeding and treat its injuries.

It did little good.

The flood dragon remained terribly weak and sank into a deep coma.

Shen Yan lowered her eyes and studied it for a moment before heaving a long sigh. She had not even sent it into battle, yet it had already collapsed.

And now a contract bound them.

She could not simply watch it die.

She remembered the miraculous medicinal effects of this world’s pills.

She would have to ask Hongri and Yinyue about them.

Just as the thought occurred to her, two sets of footsteps sounded outside.

Shen Yan lifted her gaze, then sent the unconscious flood dragon into the ability space and asked Ninefold to watch over it.

Knock, knock—

Someone rapped on the door.

“Miss, are you there?”

“Yes.”

Shen Yan wiped the blood from her hands with a handkerchief, then opened the door.

Hongri said, “Miss, we’ve returned with the information you asked for.”

“Come in.”

Shen Yan called them into the room.

“Miss,” Hongri began, “this servant made inquiries. The young master has remained confined, and he hasn’t continued to resist. Everything has been quiet.”

Shen Yan’s heart clenched. That did not resemble her father’s way of handling matters at all. Could something have happened to him?

Yinyue continued, “Miss, this servant also asked about the auction in Xuanwu Kingdom. Influential factions of sufficient status will receive invitations. But independent cultivators and people without an established identity must purchase an entry invitation in advance. Each one costs one hundred taels of gold.”

“Miss, that’s far too expensive!” Hongri said with a frown.

Even Shen Yan had not expected a single entry invitation to cost so much.

She looked up. “Will the auction have medicinal pills?”

“Yes.” Yinyue nodded with certainty. “The highest-grade pills will reach the third grade.”

“Can they be bought anywhere else?”

Yinyue froze, then shook her head.

“There is nowhere in Nanxiao Kingdom where medicinal pills can be purchased. Alchemists are too rare, so demand far exceeds supply. The major factions also recruit alchemists into their service to establish monopolies.”

Shen Yan fell silent for a moment.

Then the auction was her only choice.

She wondered whether it would have any pill formulas as well.

If it did, she wanted to try refining medicinal pills herself.

At that moment, Hongri’s expression turned grave.

“Miss, we heard about something else today—something enormous!”

“What happened?”

Hongri frowned. “The Tianfang Sect, the foremost sect in our Pingze Western Region, was annihilated by a group of mysterious experts yesterday! Its sect master, elders, and disciples were all killed. They say blood flowed like a river and the scene was horrifying. Those mysterious experts even severed the Tianfang Sect master’s head and took it away.”

The news shook Shen Yan.

She could not help but sigh inwardly.

Only yesterday in Lingyan Forest, Jiang Xianyue had told her about the Tianfang Sect, the greatest sect in the Western Region.

What had impressed her most was Jiang Xianyue’s description of the Tianfang Sect young master. He was only eighteen, yet tremendously powerful and extraordinarily gifted—the acknowledged leader of the younger generation…

Had someone like that died as well?

Shen Yan’s expression grew increasingly solemn. She realized she would have to become incomparably powerful if she wanted to live freely in this world.

At that moment, Shen Yan did not know…

That the Tianfang Sect’s young master would one day become entwined with her fate.