“Old Shen, I’m here!”
Su Aoxue shouted as he walked toward Shen Yan. Soon, the two of them spotted each other.
“Are… are you all right?”
Shen Yan had seen Su Aoxue from a distance, looking disheveled and covered in blood. He immediately ran over to check Su Aoxue’s injuries.
Seeing this, Su Aoxue looked down at his blood-stained clothes and said, “I’m fine. Although it looks a bit scary, I won’t die.”
“By the way, how did you know I was — “
Just as Su Aoxue was wondering how Shen Yan knew to find him here, the latter suddenly hugged him, interrupting his words.
“Holy crap, brother, give me some air! You’re going to hug me to death!” Su Aoxue said with difficulty, feeling the strength of Shen Yan’s embrace.
“It’s good that you’re okay. It’s good that you’re okay.”
Shen Yan’s tone was slightly excited. In a corner Su Aoxue couldn’t see, his eyes seemed full of the emotions of a reunion between old friends.
“You…”
Seeing his brother’s obvious concern, Su Aoxue felt slightly moved but also a bit frustrated. “If you keep hugging me like this, I really will be in trouble!”
Hearing this, Shen Yan finally let go of Su Aoxue. Although Shen Yan had many doubts in his heart at this moment, he ultimately chose to hide them.
“Let’s go. We should leave first. The City Guard needs to clear the scene, so it’s not appropriate for us to stay here.”
“Since you look so disheveled, why don’t we go to the mall and get you a change of clothes?”
Shen Yan looked at Su Aoxue, whose face clearly said ‘I have something on my mind’ but who seemed to be in a decent mental state, and couldn’t help but speak up.
“All right, we definitely need to leave.” Su Aoxue glanced around.
When he noticed the corpses of the Abyssal Creatures in the vicinity, images of those creatures being killed flashed through his mind, and he couldn’t help but take a deep breath.
He then left the area side by side with Shen Yan.
As Shen Yan walked beside Su Aoxue, his thoughts had already drifted far away.
In truth, Shen Yan was a regressor. In his previous life, he had died of exhaustion after a long battle in the Abyss.
He had even managed to kill one of the two supreme beings of the Gray Mist and Abyss before falling.
He hadn’t expected to return to his senior year.
The reason Shen Yan had come to find Su Aoxue was that Su Aoxue was his dearest friend — his only true brother.
After he couldn’t get through to Su Aoxue on the phone, Shen Yan used his memories of his past life to recall that an Abyssal Creature invasion had occurred near Su Aoxue’s part-time job. He had rushed over in a panic.
In Shen Yan’s memory, his brother’s fate in his past life wasn’t good — it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to call it tragic.
His only two relatives were killed, causing his personality to become increasingly cold, and his contact with Shen Yan slowly dwindled.
At that time, Shen Yan was busy with work and couldn’t leave the front lines. Unless he took the initiative to contact Su Aoxue, Su Aoxue would never reach out to him.
The last time he had heard news of this childhood friend in his past life was the report of his death.
He had been killed by that damn Frost Calamity Witch!
This had left Shen Yan filled with regret.
However, the Witch organization was massive, and combined with complex relationships, Shen Yan had been unable to avenge his brother in his past life.
What made it even more frustrating was that every time he went to fight the Frost Calamity Witch, he miserably discovered that he simply couldn’t beat her.
The Frost Calamity Witch seemed to be toying with him. She wouldn’t kill him; instead, she defeated him every time and let him go!
Even though he clearly radiated killing intent, someone with her reputation should have killed him long ago!
This matter had once become a knot in his heart.
Fortunately, he had now been reborn back to the year he was eighteen, a time when all the tragedies had yet to occur.
As a regressor, and as someone whose power had stood at the peak of humanity in his past life, he had the confidence and strength to change his best friend’s difficult life!
However, his friend’s current situation made his head spin a bit.
It was clear that his friend was definitely injured; otherwise, his shirt wouldn’t be torn and covered in so much blood.
But strangely, the injuries on his friend’s body had miraculously recovered completely?
Suddenly, Su Aoxue turned his head to glance at Shen Yan. Feeling the other’s intense gaze, he felt goosebumps and shook his body. “Why are you staring at me?”
“Nothing, I’m just curious why you haven’t sustained even a single injury.”
Shen Yan asked tentatively.
Hearing this, Su Aoxue’s face stiffened. “I hid the moment I saw the Abyssal Creatures. So, that’s why I’m not hurt… How about it, I’m quite lucky, right?”
Listening to Su Aoxue’s stumbling explanation, Shen Yan didn’t believe a word of it.
After all, Shen Yan knew about this Abyssal Creature invasion; it had caused thousands of injuries and hundreds of deaths.
In his previous life, Shen Yan thought Su Aoxue had escaped because he was far from the scene.
But after being reborn, he had found Su Aoxue in the very center of the invasion area.
Furthermore, when he found Su Aoxue, the City Guard had only just arrived, yet those Abyssal Creatures were already dead. Someone else had killed them!
It wasn’t at all like what the previous life had reported — that the City Guard had resolved the crisis!
This led Shen Yan to suspect that Su Aoxue might have his own secrets.
Su Aoxue must have encountered something or someone.
But since his brother didn’t want to talk, Shen Yan couldn’t press him. He could only keep an eye out and pay more attention.
Damn it, why couldn’t his brother just speak up!
‘Maybe Su Aoxue’s gradually fading emotions in the previous life were related to this incident?’
Shen Yan thought privately, but there were too few clues to see the truth.
At that moment, as if remembering something, Shen Yan spoke up. “Tomorrow is the Martial Artist Aptitude Awakening Test. Shall we go to Jiuquan Martial Arts University in Base City No. 7 together?”
The sudden sentence made Su Aoxue, whose thoughts were already in a mess, pause for a moment.
“You’re so confident you can get into a martial arts university ranked in the top three of the entire Base City?”
To this, Shen Yan said with full confidence, “Of course.”
After all, he had the memories of his past life, so he naturally knew that Su Aoxue would eventually awaken an A-rank talent, Frostfall.
It actually suited his name quite well.
With that talent, combined with Su Aoxue’s own combat and theory scores, which were in the top three of the school, getting into Jiuquan Martial Arts University was more than possible.
As for his own talent and strength, there was even less pressure.
The reason he wanted Su Aoxue to apply for the same university was to keep Su Aoxue by his side.
It would be easier to figure out why Su Aoxue’s personality became so distant in the future.
At the same time, with his memories of the past life, it would be easier to obtain opportunities and help his best friend become stronger.
In the past life, Su Aoxue hadn’t chosen Jiuquan Martial Arts University but rather the university ranked fifth in the Base City.
That was why Shen Yan brought it up now.
He was already prepared to become this kid’s godfather!
“Tch, you’re pretty confident.”
Su Aoxue hesitated for a moment before continuing, “We’ll see about that when the time comes.”
‘Apply for a martial arts university? I still have a Witch Evaluation to complete, and I don’t even know what will happen after it’s done. I’ll just have to take it one step at a time.’ Su Aoxue felt a bit annoyed as he thought of this.
At the same time, he thought of the Witch Form he had just obtained.
‘Will the Witch Form affect the normal awakening of my original talent?’
Su Aoxue silently drew a question mark after that thought.
“Is that so? All right.”
Seeing Su Aoxue’s preoccupied look, Shen Yan didn’t ask further.
……
A while later, in the mall’s fitting room.
After Su Aoxue entered the fitting room and shed his clothes, he fell into silence as he looked at his suddenly fair skin.
Su Aoxue didn’t remember his skin tone being this delicate and white. Years of martial arts training had made his body rough and covered in scars.
But now, not only had his skin become smooth, but his scars were also gone!
After carefully examining his current body, Su Aoxue theorized, ‘My current body seems to be somewhat influenced by the Witch Form?’
‘I wouldn’t completely turn into the Witch, would I?’
‘Probably… unlikely, right?’
Su Aoxue patted his cheeks and murmured, ‘Maybe that power is just affecting my physical body a little?’
‘It should only make me resemble the Witch Form; it shouldn’t be possible to fully transform… right, how could I become a Witch!’
‘I am the master of this body; how could a mere Witch’s power change my will!’