CHAPTER 358: CHAPTER 298: LAND OF DARKNESS (VOTE FOR MONTHLY TICKET~)_2

Since establishing a contract with Chen Mo, it almost ate well every day. At first, it missed Mao Mao City and its parents a little.

Now it only thinks about what to eat next.

It’s indeed a bit captivated.

At night, after Chen Mo finished bathing, he took out his phone to browse Douling for a while.

This is a short video platform where Spirit Masters share their lives with spiritual beasts.

As he browsed, Chen Mo came across videos related to the [Shadow Trial].

The video was posted by a blogger named Yue Maomao, who focuses on urban legends.

Yue Maomao’s real identity is a third-year student at Shenghai City’s Spirit University. Because she always personally visits the sites of urban legends, her content is substantial and coupled with her outstanding appearance, she accumulated over 1 million followers on Douling in just a year, making her a minor internet celebrity.

Previously, she participated in the early promotion of the [Shadow Trial], and today, she luckily got chosen by the "Shadow Trial Master" for the trial while exploring an abandoned factory.

Yue Maomao vaguely felt that this [Shadow Legend] was a massive "wealth," so she hurried home, edited the video quickly, and posted it.

Sure enough, it gained over 1 million likes and tens of thousands of comments within just an hour!

This was almost ten or even dozens of times more than her previous videos!

To grab attention, the opening scene of the video shows Qian Rui taking out a rare-level delicacy from the trial space after passing two stages of the trial.

Then she began narrating the entire process of her search for the [Shadow Trial].

Other Spirit Masters in the abandoned factory, the suddenly appearing black fissure, and the encounters after entering the Shadow Trial...

Of course, after entering the trial, her Bright Moon Fox was instantly defeated.

"Meow~"

Upon seeing a video related to itself, the End Cat came over as well.

It found out it only appeared for 2 seconds, and due to the dark environment, its face couldn’t be seen, so it went back to training.

Chen Mo saw Yue Maomao was live streaming and curiously clicked in.

"The Shadow Trial has at least three stages."

Wearing white stockings and a maid outfit, Yue Maomao smiled while answering questions from the bullet comments:

"So far, only one person has passed the second stage, while other challengers didn’t even pass the first stage. Most didn’t react quickly enough and got defeated just like I did."

The bullet comments flew like snowflakes, and nearly a million people were watching the live stream, performing better than she imagined.

Maybe she could use this opportunity to become a big streamer!

"One in a hundred? This Shadow Trial is way too difficult!"

"Haven’t you seen how great the rewards are? As long as you pass the second trial, there’s a rare-level delicacy! And it might even be a rare-level delicacy suitable for your spiritual beast!"

Rare-level delicacies generally require rare to epic-level ingredients, coupled with a master Spirit Chef’s cooking, making their price often hit the million mark.

"Can a kind person tell me where this urban legend appeared? I want to try my luck too."

"+1"

"+2"

"Didn’t Yue Yue just say? It’s in an abandoned factory in the old city area of Shenghai City. You pervs, are you just there to check out her legs!?"

...

Most people in the bullet comments are curious.

Of course, there were also voices of skepticism.

"What is the origin of this Shadow Trial? Why does it give trialists such huge benefits for no reason? I never believe in free lunches; something is definitely fishy."

But it was soon refuted by others.

"If such a big event occurred, yet the officials haven’t intervened. This suggests the officials are definitely aware of the related information about the [Shadow Trial]. And they believe this urban legend is harmless."

"I think this Shadow Trial is probably a test left by some ancient big shot!"

...

As the person behind the scenes, Chen Mo watched these bullet comments and found them quite interesting.

He looked again at the completion progress of the [Shadow Trial Master] and discovered that the number of people who believed in the reality of the Shadow Trial Master had already reached over 1 million.

The first challenge was already successfully completed.

Thanks to the promotion by major media, many people believed in this urban legend.

Many videos circulating on self-media platforms, like Yue Maomao’s, were enough to prove that the [Shadow Trial] wasn’t just a fabricated urban legend, but a real Trial Land!

At this moment, Chen Mo’s Spirit Control Bracelet vibrated with an incoming call from [Dongxia Spirit General Bureau Director Feng Zheng].

"Xiao Mo, you’re not researching a new evolution path again, are you?"

Upon connecting the call, a powerful voice came from the other side.

Previously, when Chen Mo was setting up the Wish-making White Fox urban legend, Feng Zheng had specifically sent someone to investigate, only to be surprised at the end when Chen Mo came up with a new evolution path.

A few days ago, when Chen Mo came to file the [Shadow Trial], he suspected Chen Mo might be researching a new evolution path again.

"No, Mr. Feng, I’m just doing it to help my End Cat accumulate some battle experience."

"You young folks sure know how to play."

Feng Zheng laughed, then reminded him:

"But going forward, there will be a lot of Spirit Masters heading to the trial, which could lead to security issues. If you continue the trial in that abandoned factory, I will send people to maintain order."

"Alright, thank you so much, Senior."

Chen Mo had been worried about the crowd issue. Now, with official assistance, it couldn’t be better.

So, the following week, Chen Mo continued to bring his spiritual beasts to the abandoned factory daily, starting a nine-to-five lifestyle.

"Meow..."

End Cat felt quite tragic; even though it was a BOSS, it still had to work daily.

Its only solace each day was a variety of fish delicacies.

However, its battle experience and skill proficiency were growing rapidly in high-intensity battles.

Many skills were honed to a perfect level of proficiency.

Every day, numerous Spirit Masters came to challenge, and after being filtered by the Spirit Control Bureau, these Spirit Masters possessed decent strength.

Many of them were top students from renowned national spiritual schools.

Among these Spirit Masters, Chen Mo even recognized a few familiar faces.

They were contestants from other schools who had participated in the World Championships.

Although their primary spiritual beasts had reached the Commander Stage, their second or third beasts were still at the Extraordinary Rank, eligible to participate in the Shadow Trial.

For them, besides gaining rewards, completing the Shadow Trial was an honor.

They viewed [Shadow Trial] as an ultra-difficult Daoist School challenge.

Just like in the Pokémon games, defeating the Daoist School Master would earn them a badge symbolizing honor.

Though this world also had Daoist Schools, most Daoist School Masters were busy and not interested in accepting challenges from others.

Seven days later.

When End Cat swiftly eliminated a Thunderstorm Mouse, the [Shadow Trial Master] entry was finally completed!

End Cat had completed a full 1000 battles!

Among them were many powerful trialists whose spiritual beasts showed superiority in battling stronger opponents.

Alongside attribute restraint and understanding of the End Cat, ultimately, 12 Spirit Masters passed the first trial stage, with 3 passing the second.

However, up to now, the number of people who passed the third trial was still zero!

Inside the Ruins Space, Chen Mo equipped Moli with the [Shadow Trial Master] entry.

In an instant, End Cat’s aura underwent a significant change.

At the same time, a 10-meter radius around it turned into a zone of absolute darkness.

Creatures entering this area would have their vision utterly stripped, while Moli’s abilities would drastically enhance.

Shadow-element moves gained power! Shadow Element Spiritual Power recovery speed increased! Speed significantly enhanced!

Furthermore, Chen Mo discovered that any light entering this lightless zone would mysteriously disappear, as if swallowed by a "black hole."

In this way, light element spirit beasts went from countering End Cat to being countered...