The First Summoner - Chapter 88

“You wouldn’t understand.” Zhuge Youlin offered no explanation.

Shen Yan did not ask again. At the entrance to the Beast-Martial Arena, they removed their blue, fanged masks and returned them.

Then they left.

Someone was indeed following them in secret. Shen Yan and Zhuge Youlin exchanged a silent glance before blending into the crowd. Their pursuers became wary and did not dare attack rashly.

The rest of the journey passed smoothly.

Shen Yan escorted Zhuge Youlin back to the inn.

Zhuge Weiran frowned deeply when he saw his brother’s grave injuries. At the sight of the tablecloth wrapped around Zhuge Youlin’s head, he did not know whether to laugh or cry. He sighed, then skillfully took pills and bandages from his storage space.

“I’m leaving,” Shen Yan said after bringing him to his room.

Zhuge Youlin immediately looked up. “Thanks.”

“Thank you, Second Miss Shen.” Zhuge Weiran paused and turned to her with sincere gratitude.

Shen Yan nodded, then left.

She returned to her own room and was about to treat her wounds when Feng Xingyao’s voice sounded again.

“Where are my clothes?”

Shen Yan paused, took several new outfits from her storage space, and sent them into the ability space.

She herself did not enter.

Inside, Feng Xingyao swept an indifferent glance over the neatly folded clothes, his eyes darkening slightly.

She had not come in…

He had little interest in the clothes themselves, but she had bought them. He wanted to see her taste.

He picked them up and examined them.

They came in red, black, white, and purple.

The white one was acceptable. It was simple.

The other three were each ugly in their own way.

…

After bandaging her wounds, Shen Yan meditated to regulate her breathing.

Once she had recovered somewhat, she returned to the Beast-Martial Arena alone.

It was the fastest place to improve her cultivation and combat experience. She needed to remain there.

That evening, Zhuge Weiran went to invite her to dinner, but no one answered despite his repeated knocking.

He asked Zhuge Youlin, “It’s so late. Where could Shen Yan have gone?”

Zhuge Youlin’s pale lips curved faintly. Peeling a banana, he took a bite.

“The Beast-Martial Arena.”

Zhuge Weiran frowned, worry flashing through his eyes.

Zhuge Youlin laughed. “Seventh Brother, don’t worry about her. She’s much stronger than you imagine. If I hadn’t been injured and begged her to bring me back, she would have stayed there all night.”

…

The brothers expected Shen Yan to return the next morning.

They waited, but even by the following evening, she had not appeared.

Suspecting something had happened, Zhuge Weiran wanted to search the Beast-Martial Arena.

Zhuge Youlin stopped him.

“Seventh Brother, I’ll go.”

“No. I can go myself.”

Zhuge Youlin stared at him suspiciously. “Seventh Brother, you care so much about Shen Yan. Don’t tell me you like her?”

Zhuge Weiran’s cheeks reddened, and he hurriedly denied it.

“I don’t.”

Zhuge Youlin laughed. “If you don’t like her, you must at least have a soft spot for her. Come on. We’ll go find her together.”

Zhuge Weiran hesitated. “But your injuries haven’t healed.”

“Let’s go.” Zhuge Youlin grabbed him and pulled him outside.

They quickly found Shen Yan at the arena.

She was fighting a beast.

Blood stained her purple dress red—some hers, some the spirit beast’s. She killed decisively, every strike swift, vicious, and accurate, aimed directly at a vital point. She won one match after another.

Zhuge Weiran watched with his heart in his throat.

It was his first time seeing Shen Yan fight. She was clean and decisive, without the slightest wasted motion.

He felt inferior by comparison.

Zhuge Youlin smiled as he watched.

Powerful.

At equal cultivation, he might not be able to defeat her.

Zhuge Youlin decided… to bet on Shen Yan.

“Seventh Brother, place a bet for me. Shen Yan will win!”

Zhuge Weiran looked at the single tael of gold his ninth brother offered, his expression complicated.

He knew Zhuge Youlin treasured money as much as life itself. For him to risk his own gold on an uncertain match proved he acknowledged Second Miss Shen’s strength.

“All right.”

…

Neither brother expected Shen Yan to remain in the Beast-Martial Arena for ten days.

Throughout that time, she fought either beasts or people.

It was as though she had gone mad with bloodlust, entering match after match without pause.

Because she never lost, the arena’s regulars gradually remembered her. Her habit of killing by crushing skulls or running bodies through left an especially deep impression.

Many tried to befriend her, only to retreat beneath the fierce killing intent in her eyes.

Shen Yan also chose her opponents intelligently. She did not arrogantly challenge someone overwhelmingly strong at once. She defeated weaker foes first, then climbed steadily upward.

With three days remaining before Western Region Academy’s entrance test, she returned to the inn with the Zhuge brothers.

Seeing the severity of her injuries, Zhuge Weiran went out of his way to find a female physician in Western Region City to treat her.

Shen Yan was somewhat surprised. After the physician finished treating and bandaging her, she tried to repay Zhuge Weiran, but he waved her off.

“If you consider me a friend, don’t keep such strict accounts.”

Shen Yan was silent for a moment, then nodded.

Back in her room, she was preparing to sleep properly when Feng Xingyao’s voice sounded in her sea of consciousness.

“Come inside.”

“I’m tired. Whatever it is, just tell me.” Shen Yan climbed onto the bed as she spoke.

Feng Xingyao did not answer.

Ignoring him, Shen Yan lay down. Just as she prepared to sleep, she sensed something and instinctively summoned the Crimson Flame Dagger, stabbing toward her side.

A hand caught her wrist midway.

Shen Yan opened her eyes. Surprise crossed her face when she saw who had come.

“How did you get out?”

This was the first time he had truly emerged since entering her ability space.

The man wore the white robe embroidered with begonia blossoms. Reclining beside her, he looked breathtakingly bewitching. The white added an inexplicable trace of cool aloofness to his appearance.

His deep, seductive eyes fixed on her. A smile played on his lips, unable to conceal his wild, unrestrained air.

He chuckled. “Am I handsome?”

Shen Yan stared at him.

“You’re insane.”