The First Summoner - Chapter 8

With Shen Tianhao hovering anxiously at her side, Shen Yan entered Xicui Courtyard. Flat flagstones paved the ground. They crossed a garden bursting with color and reached the far end of the grounds.

Shen Yan looked up at a tall pavilion with sweeping, upturned eaves, half hidden among flowering trees swaying in the breeze.

This was where the original Shen Yan had lived.

The girl might have been scorned by the Shen family—and even by all of Nanxiao Kingdom—but with Shen Tianhao behind her, her treatment had never been too poor.

She simply received no cultivation resources.

Whenever Shen Tianhao was away, almost no one in the family showed her a pleasant face. More than a few had tormented her in secret.

“Yan’er, the physician will be here soon.”

Shen Tianhao supported her with the utmost care. At the sight of her wounds and all the dried blood covering her, his eyes stung.

Shen Yan drew her gaze back to him.

“Father, if I kill Shen Xue one day, what will you think of me?”

His heart jolted.

Then hatred hardened his voice. “That she received exactly what she deserved.”

“Yan’er, I’m sorry. It isn’t that Father refuses to avenge you. Right now, Xue—Shen Xue has the protection of your grandfather, all the elders, and nearly everyone else in the family…”

His voice trailed off.

His expression froze as realization struck.

What kind of fool had he been all these years? How had he never noticed that Shen Xue wore one face before him and another behind his back? The girl was frighteningly skilled at winning people over.

And if she had resented Yan’er from the beginning…

Shen Tianhao looked at her urgently. “Yan’er, has she been bullying you all these years?”

“Yes.”

Shen Yan did not deny it.

In the original owner’s memories, Shen Xue had directly or indirectly caused many of her injuries. She had also steadily ruined the girl’s reputation.

Shen Tianhao’s fists clenched. Veins bulged along his neck.

Finally unable to bear it, he turned to confront Shen Xue—

Someone caught his sleeve.

He looked back and found Yan’er watching him with unnatural calm.

“Father, there is no hurry for revenge.”

“But…” Tears flooded Shen Tianhao’s eyes.

In the end, he wrapped his strong arms tightly around her. His voice was heavy with suppressed emotion.

“Father has failed you. I didn’t take care of you when you needed me. I’m sorry, Yan’er. I cannot even avenge you.”

Shen Yan went rigid, deeply uncomfortable.

It had been a very long time since anyone had held her so tightly.

In truth, Shen Tianhao had done well as a father.

The original Shen Yan had been simple-minded, yet in this family that devoured its own, she had still received the care and treatment she was due. Shen Tianhao was the sole reason.

As for the birth mother of Shen Yan and Shen Huai, she had never appeared.

It was said that fourteen or fifteen years ago, on a night of violent storms, Shen Tianhao—the genius Summoner who had been away from home for years—suddenly returned to the Shen family gravely wounded, carrying a pair of newborn twins in his arms.

He announced only that the twins were his children.

He never said a word about their mother.

Even now, the mysterious woman remained forbidden territory within the Shen family.

Before Shen Huai left for the Western Region Academy, he had once deliberately asked Shen Tianhao about her. Shen Tianhao flew into a rage and punished him according to family law, forcing him to kneel in the ancestral hall for three days and three nights.

With those memories in mind, Shen Yan spoke.

“Father, I want to cultivate. Whether it is Shen Xue or Nangong Yu, I want to deal with them myself.”

Shen Tianhao stared at her.

“Yan’er, you…”

Shen Yan quickly explained, “On my way back, I met a strange old man with unfathomable power. He said I could cultivate spiritual power, as long as I found a Blood-Devouring Pearl.”

Shen Tianhao’s brows drew tight, uncertainty and suspicion crossing his face.

Seeing his reaction, Shen Yan suddenly had an idea. Her eyes shifted as she probed further.

“The old man also said that my Core Spirit Bone had been sealed by a strange toxin…”

Shen Tianhao’s expression changed drastically.

“How could…”

He stared at her in disbelief. Both hands closed around her arms, and his lips trembled violently. Several times, he tried to speak and failed.

Shen Yan frowned. “Father, what is it?”

He looked utterly lost, as though some painful memory had seized him. Tears filled his eyes.

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry, Yan’er. This is all Father’s fault!”

Shen Yan watched him, thoughts stirring behind her eyes.

She could now be certain of two things.

Her father had not known that a toxin sealed her Core Spirit Bone.

But he very likely knew who had sealed it.

Just then, a servant arrived with the physician.

“Young Master, Physician Huang is here.”

Shen Tianhao swiftly forced his emotions under control.

Without wasting a moment, he had Shen Yan taken inside, then asked Physician Huang to examine both her internal and external injuries.

Physician Huang was a woman, which made it convenient for her to perform a full examination.

Shen Tianhao and the servant withdrew from the room.

A pretty maid named Lingyuan reached for Shen Yan’s bloodstained clothes.

“Wait,” Shen Yan said.

Lingyuan paused, then a trace of disgust entered her eyes.

“Wait for what?”

She did not know Shen Yan had regained her senses. Treating her as roughly as she always had, she grabbed the girl’s clothes and began tugging.

The moment she did, a hand clamped around her wrist with enough force to nearly crush the bone.

“Ow! It hurts!” Lingyuan shrieked.

Physician Huang froze. She was about to step closer to examine the situation when Shen Yan glanced at her.

That single look struck like an all-consuming frost.

Physician Huang stopped where she was, fear stirring in her heart.

Shen Yan’s voice was ice-cold.

“I said, wait.”

She released Lingyuan’s wrist.

The pain drove the maid beyond reason. In her fury, she raised a hand to slap Shen Yan as she had so many times before.

“You idiot! How dare you hurt me?”

Her palm never reached Shen Yan’s face.

Thud!

Lingyuan was kicked across the room. She crashed into the dressing table, sending objects clattering in every direction. The shattered bronze mirror sliced into her skin.

“Aah!” Pain tore through her lower back.

When her hand came away covered in blood, she screamed in terror.

Outside the room, Shen Tianhao and the guards heard the commotion. Their expressions changed.

Shen Tianhao nearly charged into his daughter’s bedchamber, but held himself back at the last moment.

“Yan’er, what happened in there?”

Shen Yan gave the panicking Lingyuan an indifferent glance.

“Nothing,” she replied calmly. “Just a little rat crashing into things.”