Volume 2: Shenzhou Academy & The Battle of Venice
Chapter 103
Dormitory Roommates and the Beast Arena
Dormitory Block A of the Shenzhou Magic Academy nestled peacefully along the emerald, pine-clad hillside on the eastern perimeter of the sprawling campus.
It was an elegant four-story residential complex crafted in semi-classical European architecture, its exterior walls faced with cream-colored granite slabs and punctuated by broad, arched glass windows that caught every cool, invigorating sweep of the maritime breeze. Unlike the cramped, eight-bunk communal dormitories typical of ordinary high schools, Block A was reserved exclusively for special-admissions recruits and students possessing rare, aberrant elemental affinities. Each unit was structured as a self-contained four-person suite, featuring a shared central living room, a magiteck-plumbed washroom, and individual private bedrooms thoroughly soundproofed with thick marble partitions.
Lin Feng turned the heavy brass key in the lock and pushed open the solid oak door to Suite 402.
The moment he stepped into the living area, his eyes were greeted by an opulent spectacle. Piles of luxury parcels wrapped in shimmering golden silk and stamped with high-end designer seals were stacked carelessly in the entryway. Across the spacious room, lounging casually atop an expensive leather sofa, was a youth of roughly Lin Feng’s age. The boy had one leg crossed languidly over the other, holding a frosted crystal goblet of mana-infused fruit wine in one hand while his thumb idly flicked across a gold-plated, diamond-rimmed optical tablet in the other.
The young man possessed a fair, strikingly handsome face, hair immaculately styled with glossy pomade, and an understated platinum chain resting around his neck that bore a thumb-sized Light Element mana gem, radiating a warm, gentle luminescence.
At the click of the latch, the youth glanced up.
Seeing Lin Feng clad in a plain gray windbreaker with a weathered canvas rucksack slung over one shoulder, the youth’s eyes didn’t harbor the slightest shred of aristocratic arrogance or sneering contempt—the kind Lin Feng had grown all too accustomed to from scions like Ling Bai back in Bo’an City. Instead, the young man’s eyes lit up with unbridled excitement, as though he had just struck a vein of pure gold.
“Whoa! The new roommate has arrived! Come in, come on in, brother—grab a seat!”
The boy sprang up from the couch like a coiled spring, striding forward with overflowing enthusiasm to take the rucksack from Lin Feng’s shoulder.
“I’m Xie Zhaoyuan, freshman over in the Light Faculty! Born and bred right here in the Magic Capital. My family just runs a modest chain of mana-gem jewelry boutiques and a small private commercial bank in the central financial district—nothing worth bragging about, really! What’s your name, brother? Where are you from?”
His cadence was boisterous, breezy, and unapologetically flamboyant, yet beneath the flashy exterior lay a disarming warmth and unmistakable sincerity that instantly earned Lin Feng’s goodwill.
Lin Feng accepted Xie Zhaoyuan’s outstretched hand with a firm shake. “I’m Lin Feng. Transferred down from the northern frontier.”
“The northern frontier? Damn, that’s awesome!” Xie Zhaoyuan barked out a hearty laugh. “Men from the border garrisons are all fearless badasses with real combat grit! You’ve actually looked wild beasts in the teeth!”
He swept his arm toward the dining area, where a massive mahogany table was already laden with an extravagant spread of steaming delicacies. “You couldn’t have timed it better! I just had a five-star hotel down in the marina district deliver a banquet for lunch. Come over, dig in! Oh, and that’s Zhang Meng over there—our third roommate. He rolled in early this morning.”
Lin Feng glanced toward the kitchen counter. Standing there was a lean, slightly gaunt youth with weathered, sun-baked skin, wearing a faded collared shirt and awkwardly gripping a heavy silver fork.
Meeting Lin Feng’s gaze, Zhang Meng offered a shy, cautious nod. “Hel... hello, Lin Feng. I’m Zhang Meng, Earth Faculty... I come from the foothills of the Qinling Range.”
“Good to meet you, Zhang Meng,” Lin Feng said with an easy smile.
The three sat down around the banquet table. Xie Zhaoyuan’s generous nature was on full display as he continuously scooped tender cuts of braised mana-beast venison and roasted poultry onto Lin Feng’s and Zhang Meng’s plates, chattering away without pause about everything under the sun in the Magic Capital.
“Our suite has four slots on paper,” Xie Zhaoyuan said between bites, waving his fork dismissively. “Word through the grapevine is that the fourth slot belonged to some pampered young master from the Liu Clan over in the Wind Faculty. But the moment that snob saw the campus dorms, he complained that the rooms were too cramped for his delicate sensibilities and threw down cash to lease a private seaside villa off-campus. Good riddance, honestly! Leaves the three of us with twice the elbow room!”
Taking a refreshing gulp of chilled berry juice, Xie Zhaoyuan leaned across the table, his eyes twinkling with curiosity as he locked onto Lin Feng.
“Say, Lin Feng... landing a bed in Block A means you’re definitely a special-admissions recruit, right? Which faculty did you get assigned to? Fire or Lightning? Looking at that calm, battle-hardened demeanor of yours, I’d bet my trust fund you’re an explosive Fire maniac who loves blowing things to kingdom come!”
Zhang Meng paused his chewing, looking up with genuine curiosity as well.
Lin Feng took a leisurely sip of warm jasmine tea, setting his porcelain cup down with a soft click.
“I’m in the Summoning Faculty.”
Cough... COUGH-COUGH-HACK!
Xie Zhaoyuan, who had just swallowed a generous mouthful of magical abalone bisque, choked violently. He erupted into a fit of hacking coughs, his face flushing deep crimson all the way to the tips of his ears.
His eyes bulged wide as saucers as he stared at Lin Feng, looking at him as though a three-headed alien from outer space had just manifested across the dining table.
“You... What in the hell did you just say?!” Xie Zhaoyuan wheezed, pounding his chest to clear his airway. “The Summoning Faculty?!”
Beside him, Zhang Meng’s mouth fell wide open. His hand jerked, and his silver spoon nearly slipped through his trembling fingers onto the polished floor.
“Yeah, the Summoning Faculty,” Lin Feng said placidly, unfazed. “Is there an issue?”
Xie Zhaoyuan slammed his soup bowl onto the table with a clatter. He clutched his temples with both hands, his expression a theatrical mixture of profound pity and absolute tragedy.
“Merciful heavens above! Brother... oh, my sweet, naive brother! What possessed you to leap headfirst into that volcanic pit of doom?! Do you have even the faintest clue what’s scheduled for next week?!”
“Dean Xiao mentioned something about it,” Lin Feng replied smoothly. “The Beast Battle Tournament, right?”
“Not ‘mentioned something’—it’s a bloodbath!” Xie Zhaoyuan lowered his voice to a conspiratorial hiss, leaning forward across the table as if leaking top-secret military intelligence. “Do you understand what that Beast Battle Tournament actually is? It’s a public slaughterhouse! A sacrificial altar where the university ties the Summoning Faculty to the stake and serves you up raw for five thousand ravenous freshmen to tear to pieces!”
He dragged his chair closer to Lin Feng, laying out the grim reality with frantic gestures:
“Shenzhou Magic University has a brutal, cutthroat rule of resource competition that’s notorious across the entire nation: Freshman cultivation resources aren’t handed out equally per capita! Everything—every single mana stone, every cultivation token—is staked entirely on the outcome of the Beast Battle Tournament! Next week, all five thousand freshmen across the Fire, Lightning, Ice, Wind, Earth, Water, and Light faculties will pack the tiered stands of the Demon Sky Arena until the rafters groan. And you seven poor bastards from the Summoning Faculty are required to take the center stage of the colosseum, enduring relentless, back-to-back challenges from the entire student body!”
Xie Zhaoyuan held up a single finger, his tone grave. “If your seven summoners can somehow hold the line and defeat one hundred consecutive challengers, the Summoning Faculty gets to keep its standard baseline resource allocation. If you manage to crush one hundred and fifty challengers, your faculty’s budget doubles!”
His voice dropped another octave, a genuine shudder rippling through his shoulders. “But if you lose... If your seven-man cohort gets wiped out before crossing that one-hundred-challenger threshold...”
Xie Zhaoyuan swallowed hard, his throat bobbing.
“Every single mana stone stipend, every subterranean meditation pass, and every single entry voucher into the Spirit Convergence Tower earmarked for the Summoning Faculty for the entire freshman year will be stripped clean! Annihilated! Every scrap of that confiscated treasure will be carved up and divided among the challengers who took you down! Think about it, Lin Feng! Five thousand resource-starved wolves, staring down seven lone summoners in the center of a pit... How is that any different from dangling seven prime slabs of wagyu beef before a pack of starving beasts?!”
Hearing this, Zhang Meng visibly shuddered, his complexion paling as he chimed in timidly:
“I... I heard from the upperclassmen in my hometown association... Last year, the freshman Summoning cohort only held out until the seventy-eighth challenger. Their primary combat beast had its front legs shattered by a combined barrage of Fire and Earth spells, and the summoner had to be carried off the sand on a stretcher, unconscious and bleeding. For that entire academic year, not a single Summoning student received even a sliver of mana stones for cultivation. Whenever they walked through the campus quads, students from the other faculties would point at them and mock them openly. They couldn’t hold their heads up for twelve straight months...”
Lin Feng listened in silence, his expression calm and unruffled like an ancient well. He lightly tapped the edge of the mahogany table with an index finger, his thoughts turning over the information.
“Do the other six summoners in the faculty possess no strength to fight back?”
“Those six are an entirely different breed!” Xie Zhaoyuan let out a heavy sigh, shaking his head. “I’ve already dug up the dossiers on those other six. Every single one of them is the direct heir of a top-tier magical conglomerate or a storied aristocratic clan from Jinghai and the surrounding maritime provinces! Their families arranged elite beast eggs for them before they even took their first breaths, marinating nascent beast marrow in sacred spirit elixirs. The second those creatures cracked their shells, they were already High-tier Soldier-class beasts, or even half-step Warrior rank! On top of that, those kids are loaded down with defensive magic equipment, enchanted rings, and entire dynasties backing their every move!”
Xie Zhaoyuan turned his gaze back to Lin Feng, genuine anxiety and sympathy brimming in his eyes.
“What about you, Lin Feng? What species is your contracted summon beast? Is it a Mid-tier Soldier class, or did you manage to secure a High-tier Soldier?”
Lin Feng picked up his teacup and took another calm sip. A faint, enigmatic smirk played at the corner of his lips.
“I... haven’t contracted a beast yet.”
“WHAT IN THE NINE HELLS?!!”
This time, Xie Zhaoyuan catapulted straight out of his chair, nearly knocking his plate of roasted poultry onto the carpet. His jaw practically unhinged, his eyes bulging as if ready to pop out of their sockets.
“You don’t have a summon beast yet?! The damn tournament is next week! How can you step onto the arena floor without a beast?! Were you planning to march out there bare-handed and throw bare-knuckle punches against third-tier Fire Bursts and Lightning Strikes?!”
“Well, I just need to find one between now and next week, don’t I?” Lin Feng replied with a breezy smile. He set his cup down, pushed his chair back, and began neatly stacking his dishes.
Watching Lin Feng’s leisurely, unhurried figure stroll toward the corridor and slip into his private bedroom, Xie Zhaoyuan stood frozen in place like a petrified statue. Slowly, he turned his head toward Zhang Meng, his face the very picture of existential dread.
“Zhang Meng... do you think our brother Lin Feng... took some kind of blunt-force head trauma on his journey down from the northern wasteland?”
Zhang Meng shook his head vigorously, but deep within his eyes, an overwhelming wave of worry churned for the grim fate awaiting their new roommate.
Late at night.
Inside Lin Feng’s private bedroom, the world was plunged into profound, absolute silence. Heavy blackout drapes had been drawn tight across the arched windows, and the soundproofing marble wards within the doorframe had been engaged to maximum isolation.
Lin Feng sat cross-legged atop a woven meditation mat in the center of the room. His eyes were gently closed, his breathing deep, rhythmic, and perfectly synchronized with the quiet pulse of the night.
Resting against the skin of his chest beneath his shirt, the Primordial Dragon Pendant hummed softly, radiating continuous, soothing ripples of ancient thermal energy through his meridians.
No summon beast yet? Lin Feng murmured within the quiet sanctuary of his soul, a haughty, unyielding sneer curving his lips in the dark. That was true until now... But tonight, that changes!
WHOOSH——!
Lin Feng’s divine intent plunged downward like a falling comet, piercing straight into the fathomless expanse of his Sea of Consciousness.
In the southern quadrant of that vast mental cosmos, seven sapphire Summoning Stars ignited simultaneously. Their cerulean brilliance blazed with pure, pristine luminescence, linking together into an ethereal, iridescent Star Path that arched through the cosmic void like a celestial rainbow.
The fateful moment to pierce the spatial barrier and tear open the gates to the Otherworldly Summoning Realm... had officially arrived!