CHAPTER 352: CHAPTER 295: SHADOW TRIAL, BEGIN!_2

Since Chen Mo’s Wish-making White Fox shined brightly at the World Championship, imitators have become countless.

In the video, the Blazing Flame Fox walks amidst the dilapidated houses of the old city. After passing through several alleys, it arrives at an abandoned and rundown factory.

The Blazing Flame Fox enters the abandoned factory and begins training various techniques.

Because formal training grounds require a fee, it’s evident that the Blazing Flame Fox and its Spirit Master chose to train here to save money.

Shu! Shu!

Fireworks burst forth.

The Blazing Flame Fox continually releases techniques inside the abandoned factory.

This inevitably reminds Qian Rui of when he was in high school; he and the little sea lion also liked to choose desolate areas to train day and night.

However, just as he reminisces about the past, a black rift suddenly appears behind the Blazing Flame Fox in the video!

The Blazing Flame Fox doesn’t even have time to react before the black rift, like a massive torn mouth, swallows it whole.

Quickly following this, the camera begins to shake violently and swiftly approaches the black rift.

Obviously, after seeing his Spiritual Beast consumed, the Blazing Flame Fox’s Spirit Master quickly ran towards the black rift.

The black rift gets bigger and bigger...

At the same time, the screen starts to flicker and blur, even showing signs of a snowy screen.

When in zero proximity with the black rift, the image in the video suddenly turns pitch black.

Clearly, the Spirit Master filming the video entered the black rift.

"Is this a new movie? It’s quite something!"

Qian Rui feels the person filming has great camera skills, giving a sense of watching a blockbuster.

"It’s not a movie, keep watching."

The chubby Wang Bo says with a grin, selling a bit of suspense.

The next second, countless points of fluorescence appear in the boundless darkness.

Then, these spots of fluorescence form a line of faint blue glowing text—

[Welcome to the Shadow Trial]

"What is this?"

Qian Rui can’t help but ask again.

"I’ll tell you after you finish watching."

The glowing text quickly shatters, then reassembles into a new line of text—

[Next, you will face the trials from the shadows. Each time you pass a level of the Shadow Trial, you will receive generous rewards]

[The first level begins now!]

These glowing texts are actually formed by Starlight Glowing Butterflies, so the participants can more intuitively understand the trial rules. Hence, Chen Mo rented several Starlight Glowing Butterflies.

At the moment the glowing text completely dissipated, the hidden hunters in the darkness began their "hunting time"!

The Blazing Flame Fox’s body ignited with flames, but only illuminated an area of about 1 meter around it.

The next second, it abruptly swung its claws forward, striking with scorching hot flames at a certain spot in the darkness.

In the faint firelight, a shadow could barely be seen flashing by in the dark.

Clang!

A crisp sound, clearly the claws of the Blazing Flame Fox colliding with a monster in the dark.

Clang clang clang!

A series of rapid, dense metallic clattering can be heard.

Although the camera remains pitch black, the atmosphere suddenly becomes tense, accompanied from time to time by the sound of fire explosions.

Clearly, the Blazing Flame Fox is engaged in a fierce battle with some kind of "monster" in the dark!

About 1 minute later, the sounds of battle ceased.

The white fox in the firelight appeared with several "scars," but it seemed to have won.

Meanwhile, a line of glowing blue text reappeared in the darkness ahead—

[Congratulations on passing the first level of the trial]

Immediately, a can of milk materialized out of thin air in front of the Blazing Flame Fox, with "Moo Moo Milk, quickly restores injuries, and heals hidden health issues" written on it in green fluorescent ink.

The Blazing Flame Fox drank it in one go, and its wounds began to heal visibly.

In just over ten seconds, it returned to its original state.

[Second level of the trial begins!]

After the glowing text disappeared, the creatures hidden in the night attacked again. However, this time, the Blazing Flame Fox was defeated in merely 30 seconds.

A piece of "Black Forest Cake" appeared in front of the Blazing Flame Fox, which was a reward for passing the first level.

At the same time, the screen once again flickered and blurred with patches of "snowflakes."

The next second, the camera returned to the real world, with the Spirit Master holding an elusive "Black Forest Cake" as proof that they had just participated in the Shadow Trial.

The video ends here, with the highest-liked comment in the comments section being the publisher’s brief description of the experience.

In summary, he claims to have encountered a "chance encounter" in this abandoned factory.

He also claims to have returned to the abandoned factory several times and seen the black rift again, but perhaps because he had already participated in one [Shadow Trial], he couldn’t enter again.

So he wanted to encourage those who watched the video to give it a try.

"What is this?"

Qian Rui couldn’t help but ask again.

"It’s an urban legend called [Shadow Trial], just recently posted a few hours ago, and it’s already in the top ten trending searches on major websites. Rumor has it that if you pass the trial, you can get considerable rewards."

Wang Bo’s expression is full of excitement, clearly very interested in it.

"Even if you fail, there’s nothing to lose; that Moo Moo Milk from the video can instantly heal wounds and can even restore the dark ailments of a spiritual beast. Doesn’t your Blade Tooth Sea Lion have a dark ailment? Perhaps this Moo Moo Milk will work! Shall we try our luck?"

Upon hearing this, Qian Rui’s breathing became rapid.

Although he feels this video might be staged. Instant injury-healing [Moo Moo Milk] must at least be a rare treasure, it’s impossible to get for free even if you fail, isn’t it?

Could it be that the Shadow Trial Master is here for charity?

"Alright!"

Qian Rui said firmly.

Even if there’s only a slim chance, he doesn’t want to give up.

"I’ve checked, the Shadow Trial ground appeared in the northern old city area of Shenghai City, very close to us."

Shenghai City’s Spirit Middle School is inside Initial City, leaving the Penglai Secret Realm is Shenghai City.

"Let’s go! We’ll head there now!"

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"Oh my god! Why are there so many people!"

When Qian Rui and Wang Bo arrived at the abandoned factory, they found that what used to be deserted was now crowded.

Wang Bo never expected that in just a few short hours, so many Spirit Masters would come looking for the [Shadow Trial]!

Equally astonished was Chen Mo.

"The ones responsible for starting the instance aren’t even here yet! How did you all get here?!"

But naturally, the more people the better; the entry challenge requires 1000 trials to be completed in a month, averaging at least 34 trials a day.

Besides, interestingly, amongst the crowd, he saw many Spirit Masters wearing white fox masks and their white fox-like spiritual beasts.

They moved through the crowd, inquiring about other Spirit Masters’ wishes.

For instance—

"Hello, please tell me your wish?"

"I wish to meet the Shadow Trial Master immediately."

"Sorry, can’t make that come true!"

The white fox turned away without hesitation and immediately asked the next person.

"Hello, do you have a wish?"

"I wish to get 500 bucks."

"Okay, as you wish!"

...

As Xiao Jiu wildly leveled up in battles during the World Championships, the popularity of the [Urban Legend Wish-making White Fox] skyrocketed, becoming a well-known urban legend.

People are already accustomed to seeing Spirit Masters wearing fox masks on the streets, fulfilling others’ wishes wherever they go.

At such times, by making simple wishes, like asking for money directly, these Wish-making White Foxes are usually more than happy to oblige.

Although the desire generated this way is scarce, the collective wish power of these "working foxes" is really considerable.

Seeing this scene, Chen Mo himself also wanted to transform into a [Wish-making White Fox] and help these people wish to enter the Shadow Trial.

The amount of wish power correlates with the wisher’s inner yearnings.

If the wish of entering the Shadow Trial was successfully granted, Xiao Jiu might gain a fair amount of wish power.

But upon contemplation, Chen Mo dismissed the idea.

Today he intended to complete the [Shadow Trial Master] entry challenge without creating additional issues.

Plus, with thousands of working foxes accumulating wish power, there’s no reason for him to "work" himself.

"Moli, are you ready?"

"Meow~"

The End Cat nodded, yet felt a bit uneasy inside.

Being a BOSS for the first time, it’s rather nerve-wracking.

"Then next—— Let’s randomly select a lucky audience member!"

...

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PS: Dear readers, it’s the end of the month, asking for a wave of votes~