Upon hearing those words, Xu Youyou's face paled drastically.
“Impossible!”
“We killed our final prey at the exact same time, and our specter bodies fully formed at the exact same time too!”
“I even saw Brother An's silhouette right before I lost consciousness!”
“Even though I didn't see the whole process, if even I succeeded, how could Brother An possibly fail?!”
He refused to believe it. He hurriedly pressed, “Instructor, could he have been dropped in some remote corner and just hasn't been found yet?”
“Like me—the moment I succeeded, I was dropped outside Sin Hunter City, and I walked for over twenty minutes before I saw you coming to pick me up. Maybe Brother An is still out there somewhere...”
An Wen calmly cut him off.
“Enough.”
Xu Youyou's breathing was heavy. He stopped talking, but his expression made it clear he still didn't believe it.
An Wen said, “Once a student successfully becomes a Human-Specter Symbiont, the moment they succeed, they are sent out of Sin Hunter City and randomly dropped somewhere outside.”
“You also know there are many training bases around the outskirts of Sin Hunter City. The distances between each training base are roughly the same, and there are people patrolling outside at irregular intervals.”
“Once someone comes out, they can be sensed immediately.”
“Just like you...”
“Though I arrived a bit late, it was because a patrolling instructor sensed a specter aura, recognized your identity, and called me to pick you up.”
Xu Youyou was now a Human-Specter Symbiont.
But he was still a complete novice, utterly unfamiliar with his own power.
Thus, his specter aura was constantly leaking outward, making it incredibly easy for experienced Specter Masters like the patrolling instructors to sense him.
An Wen continued, “Today... or rather, these past few days up until now, you are the only person who has emerged from Sin Hunter City.”
Xu Youyou calmed down slightly, but he still shook his head.
“No, I don't believe it!”
“Brother An would definitely succeed!”
“I want to wait a bit longer!”
An Wen sighed. Knowing that Xu Youyou and Zuo Lin'an shared a close bond, he didn't try to persuade him further.
“Let's head back to the training base first. Get some good rest tonight, and come to Classroom One on the top floor tomorrow morning at nine. We'll continue with the next lessons.”
He didn't say much about the classes, as Xu Youyou was in no state to listen right now.
He hoped a night's time would allow the boy to clear his head.
The two of them remained silent for the rest of the ride.
After returning to the training base, An Wen escorted the sullen and dazed Xu Youyou back to his dormitory.
He only left after watching the boy close his door.
“Sigh...”
In truth, An Wen also found it hard to believe that Zuo Lin'an—who had chosen such a brutal method of execution as skinning, deboning, and dismemberment—had actually failed in the end.
After all, since the establishment of the training base, while Zuo Lin'an wasn't the first student to devise such a bloody and cruel method of execution...
He was, however, the first student to actually master it.
The previous students had also wanted to design the most sadistic execution methods for themselves, but once they faced real combat, every single one of them chickened out.
He had originally thought that either both of them would fail, or both would succeed.
If one of them had to succeed while the other failed...
Then the one who succeeded should have been Zuo Lin'an.
And yet...
“As expected, you really can't draw conclusions until the very last step.”
He couldn't help but feel a touch of melancholy.
The once bright, cheerful, and energetic youth, Xu Youyou... his expression just now had been barely distinguishable from a specter's.
Perhaps he would rarely smile again.
Returning to his office, An Wen quickly composed his emotions. Having stayed at the training base for many years, he had witnessed such situations several times.
Long accustomed to it, he only felt a bit of regret. After all, he had poured a lot of effort into training Zuo Lin'an and had harbored high hopes for him.
Time ticked away, minute by minute.
When the clock struck 3:10 PM, An Wen's phone rang.
He casually pulled it out and glanced at it. “Hm?”
It was a call from an unfamiliar instructor at another training base.
Furthermore, that training base was located on the exact opposite side of Sin Hunter City, positioned diagonally from his own.
“Why is he calling me?”
Somewhat puzzled, he answered the call.
“Hello?”
An unfamiliar male voice came from the other end.
“Is this Instructor An Wen?”
“Yes, it's me. What's the matter?”
“Ah, we just found a student who emerged from Sin Hunter City near our training base. His name is Zuo Lin'an. He said you're his instructor. If everything checks out, could you come over and pick him up?”
An Wen bolted upright in his seat.
“What did you say? Zuo Lin'an?!”
The other party was startled by his intense reaction, but on second thought, it was only natural to be excited.
After all, his student had succeeded!
And two of them at once!
The news of Xu Youyou's return had already spread to all the training bases.
It was their tradition to hold a small joint celebration whenever a new Human-Specter Symbiont successfully emerged.
As their instructor, An Wen had naturally become the talk of the town.
But how long had it been?
Barely an hour?
Yet another one had appeared, and he was also An Wen's student.
An Wen could hardly believe it. According to what Xu Youyou had said, Zuo Lin'an had killed his final prey at the exact same time as him.
This meant their specter bodies had fully formed at the exact same moment.
Now, not only was Zuo Lin'an perfectly fine, but he had also successfully become a Human-Specter Symbiont and emerged from Sin Hunter City.
Did this mean his fusion process had lasted for an entire hour?!
How was that even possible?!
“Instructor An Wen?”
An Wen snapped out of his daze. “Oh, right, right. Could you please pass the phone to him?”
“Sure, hold on.”
Soon, another person picked up the phone.
“Instructor An Wen, it's me.”
“I'm Zuo Lin'an.”
By now, An Wen had already grabbed his keys and rushed out of his office.
Hearing the familiar voice over the line, he knew without a doubt that it was indeed Zuo Lin'an.
“Is it really you?”
“What on earth happened?”
“How did you...”
Instead of answering, Zuo Lin'an asked a different question.
“Instructor, did Youyou succeed?”
An Wen had just gotten into his car and was about to start the engine when he heard the question about Xu Youyou. Only then did he remember that he still needed to notify that fool.
Otherwise, the kid would just sit in his dorm room drowning in grief.
“Of course he succeeded. He was just worrying about you a moment ago.”
“Wait there. I'm coming to pick you up right now.”
“Alright,” Zuo Lin'an replied.
An Wen added, “By the way, you...”
“Instructor, let's talk about my situation when we meet.”
An Wen thought about it and didn't refuse. “Fine.”
He drove his car straight to the dormitory building. Hanging up the phone, he rolled down the window and yelled toward the building, “Xu Youyou, get out here! There's news of him!”
Rate on N.U.
