The First Summoner - Chapter 79

The guards finally reacted and rushed to the middle-aged man’s side.

“Elder Gao, are you all right?!”

“Are you blind? Does this look all right to you?”

Elder Gao bared his teeth in pain and said urgently, “Bring the young lady here! Have her remove this thread for me!”

“Yes, Elder Gao!”

One guard raced back toward their camp. As soon as he arrived, he reported Elder Gao’s condition to the young woman standing beside the stream.

Her back had been turned to him. At his words, she slowly turned around.

She wore a plain-colored gown and had delicate features, red lips, white teeth, and a tall, slender figure. Her hair was half pinned up, lending her a gentle and charming air.

“They escaped?” Rather than ask after Elder Gao, the young woman focused immediately on Shen Yan’s trio.

The guard stiffened.

“Yes.”

“Useless,” she said coldly.

The frightened guard lowered his head. The young woman started toward Elder Gao, and several powerful cultivators immediately fell in behind her in a protective formation.

When she reached him, she crouched and examined the semitransparent thread embedded in his calf.

“Thread…” She frowned as though recalling something.

“That person from the Santong Organization has come too. I wonder if he was among those three just now.”

“The Santong Organization?” Elder Gao froze, then looked at her tensely. “Young Lady, if they truly belong to the Santong Organization, haven’t we made an enemy of them?”

“This was nothing more than a minor scuffle. It hardly counts.”

She personally extracted the semitransparent thread, then used a healing light technique on his wound.

Afterward, she took out a fourth-grade pill and handed it to him.

“Swallow it.”

Elder Gao’s eyes brightened. He immediately gulped down the pill.

He regarded the young woman with deep respect. She was not only Qi Lingxuan, daughter of the Imperial Dragon Sect’s master, but also a gifted alchemist. Though only twenty, she was already a fourth-grade alchemist.

Among the younger generation of the Pingze Western Region, no alchemist possessed greater talent than she did.

The Imperial Dragon Sect ranked fourth among all sects in the Pingze Western Region.

Qi Lingxuan’s status and position were self-evident.

Elder Gao, meanwhile, was merely one of the Imperial Dragon Sect’s outer elders.

The powerful figures currently accompanying Qi Lingxuan were all inner elders of the Imperial Dragon Sect. They had come to escort her to Western Region Academy’s entrance test.

Throughout the Pingze Western Region, Western Region Academy was the place where every young cultivator longed to study.

It was not the region’s only academy, of course, but it was unquestionably the finest.

Everyone admitted was a genius from some corner of the region.

Once Qi Lingxuan finished treating Elder Gao, she stood and covered her nose with her fingers in distaste. She hated the smell of roasted meat.

More precisely, she disliked the smoke and smells of ordinary cooking.

One of the powerful cultivators said, “Young Lady, it seems an exceptional number of people want to enter Western Region Academy this year. Even Chi Yue, the Chi Clan’s famously reclusive young master, has come.”

“What does it matter how many come?” Qi Lingxuan’s gaze was cold. “Those who deserve elimination will still be eliminated. Only the victors will be worthy of comparison with me.”

…

Elsewhere, Shen Yan and the Zhuge brothers fled swiftly. Before long, they were more than two thousand meters from their former position.

Zhuge Youlin gave Shen Yan a beaming thumbs-up. “Shen Yan, that was beautifully done!”

“I was afraid you’d drag me into your trouble.”

He choked. “You’re far too honest.”

The three officially set off for Western Region City.

Half a day later, they finally arrived before nightfall.

Western Region City’s signboard was imposing and magnificent. Its walls had been built from obsidian, giving them an austere elegance. The sheer scale of the gates was staggering—they were more than ten times larger than those of Nanxiao Kingdom’s imperial capital.

Shen Yan marveled inwardly.

She entered Western Region City with the brothers.

Night had fallen and the first lanterns were aglow. Lights filled the streets, shops lined both sides of every road, and crowds flowed through the prosperous city in an endless stream.

Zhuge Youlin grinned. “Western Region City is so lively at night!”

“It is.” Zhuge Weiran’s mood inexplicably lifted at the sight.

Shen Yan had planned to part ways with them, but faced with the bustling scene, she somehow could not bring herself to say goodbye.

Perhaps in an atmosphere this lively, it was better to have companions beside her.

Zhuge Weiran suggested, “Let’s find an inn first.”

“All right.”

The three searched together, only to discover that most inns were full. Western Region Academy’s entrance test was fast approaching, and countless factions and geniuses had already arrived and occupied most of the available rooms.

At last, they found lodging in a relatively secluded inn.

As they paid their deposits to the owner, several young people in the first-floor hall were discussing the upcoming test.

“I heard Western Region Academy is only accepting a hundred students this year. The heads of the other academies in the Pingze Western Region have all rushed to Western Region City, hoping to recruit the talented candidates left over.”

“Sigh. It’s going to be so difficult!”

“If I can’t enter Western Region Academy, I just hope I can get into a reasonably good academy.”

Their conversation carried to Shen Yan and the brothers.

Zhuge Youlin laughed. “There are seventy-eight academies in the Pingze Western Region. Every time Western Region Academy recruits students, the others come here to pick through the leftovers. I have to admit, they’re clever. They save resources and get to see who the true geniuses are.”

Zhuge Weiran looked puzzled. “Western Region Academy admitted two hundred students last time. Why did they suddenly cut the number in half?”

Zhuge Youlin speculated, “Western Region Academy only wants the finest geniuses. Maybe they no longer have any interest in ordinary ones.”

He turned toward Shen Yan, teasing in his voice.

“Shen Yan, why have you gone quiet? Afraid you won’t make it into Western Region Academy?”

“I am concerned about that,” she admitted without concealing her true thoughts.

Zhuge Youlin froze.

“Shen Yan, you are definitely not weak.”

She raised her eyes to him and nodded.

“We’ll register together tomorrow.”

“All right.”

…

The three returned to their respective rooms.

After Shen Yan washed and bathed, she noticed the communication crystal in her storage space glowing. It was the one her father had left her.

She quickly took it out and extended her spiritual sense into it.

Her father’s voice sounded from within.

“Yan’er, I won’t be able to contact you for a long time. You must protect yourself while you’re alone. I know you’ve already left the Shen family and are on your way to Western Region City.

“Yan’er, whether you enter Western Region Academy isn’t important. More than anything, I want you to be safe. I will continue investigating Huai’er’s disappearance. If you decide you want to come to the Central Region, tell your Uncle Zhuang. He will come and collect you.”