Chen Meng is a person of her word.
20 minutes later, when Chen Mo arrived at his grandmother's hospital room and inquired with the doctor, he learned that the cancer cells in his grandmother's body had completely disappeared.
Grandma said that a very beautiful woman had visited her, and her Bright Unicorn had precipitated a rain of light, after which she was cured.
This made Chen Mo quite emotional.
Those powerful Spiritual Beasts could truly turn decay into a miracle, creating wonders.
"Xiao Mo, did that girl say you've joined the research department of Hongmeng Company?"
There was a hint of doubt in the old lady's eyes.
How come she had never known her grandson to possess such talents?
"Yes, a research paper I published in school on mutant Spiritual Beasts caught the attention of Hongmeng Company, so they invited me to join them. Soon, your grandson will become a rising star in the academic world!" Chen Mo spoke.
He had already thought of how to answer in a way that would put the old lady's mind at ease before coming.
"Grandma, I may have to join a related department soon to work on a new project, so I can't be with you every day. But now we have video calls, which are very convenient, so I'll call you when I get the chance."
"Okay!"
--------------------------------
September 1st.
The first day of school.
The first thing Chen Mo did when he woke up was to check this month's monthly challenge.
Last month's Thunderbolt King was indeed very impressive, and he wondered what challenges this month would present.
Muscle King (Blue)
Complete intense fitness workouts every day, no less than 8 hours, for an entire month.
Entry Effect: Physical constitution and strength increase, slight increase in resilience, minor increase in agility, master the "Muscle Burst" skill.
This entry could be said to be an upgraded version of the white entry "Fitness Master".
Although the effects were not bad, working out for 8 hours every day would just be too much of a hindrance to his cultivation. And just picturing Xiao Jiu turning into a muscle-bound fox, Chen Mo mentally passed on this entry in his heart.
Refresh!
The blue light of text shattered, and once again, without turning purple, it was still a blue light.
Fishing Master (Blue)
Within one month, catch 50 different species of fish, including no less than 10 types of Spirit Fish and at least one Extraordinary Level Spirit Fish.
Entry Effect: In the wilderness, you're more likely to encounter rare fish, your fishing skills become peerless, and you inflict +100% damage to fish-type Spiritual Beasts.
"This is even worse than Muscle King! Where am I supposed to catch all these Spirit Fish!"
Chen Mo was speechless.
Although with the merging of the two worlds, some Spirit Fish would appear in the rivers and mountains of Blue Star, their numbers were exceedingly rare.
Moreover, due to the thin Spiritual Energy on Blue Star, wild Extraordinary Level Spirit Fish would hardly ever be born.
Chen Mo went online to find information about Spirit Master fishing competitions and discovered that most of these events were held in the Spirit Realm. The only fishing competition held on Blue Star wasn't taking place this month.
Which meant, if he wanted to complete the challenge, he would have to make a trip to the Spirit Realm.
The problem was—under normal circumstances, only a Primary Spirit Master had the qualifications to venture to the Spirit Realm for exploration!
"Wait a minute! I remember there's an excursion to the Spirit Realm this month for the special class!"
Chen Mo suddenly remembered something and began searching for Shenghai City's Spirit Realm node—Penglai Secret Realm.
As of now, every sudden emergence of a spatial passage on Blue Star ultimately leads to some location in the Spirit Realm.
However, due to the vastness of the Spirit Realm, each node leading to it is situated far from each other.
To differentiate them, people referred to the larger areas connected by each Spirit Realm node as secret realms.
"Vortex Sea, Penglai Islands... I can't believe my luck, there's actually a sea within the Penglai Secret Realm!"
Glimpsing information about the Penglai Secret Realm online, Chen Mo felt pleasantly surprised.
The likelihood of completing the [Fishing Master] challenge just got much higher.
After checking the monthly challenges, Chen Mo casually glanced at the daily challenges.
Today's daily challenge listed a green entry—
Social Ruffian (Green)
Get to know 20 new Spiritual Beasts within 1 day and become superficial friends with them.
Entry Effect: You gain a slight increase in charm towards Spiritual Beasts, and a slight increase in the initial favorability of wild Spiritual Beasts.
"Cheep!" (Master, we're going to be late!)
At this moment, the Blazing Flame Fox rubbed against Chen Mo's cheek as a reminder.
This search had consumed a significant amount of Chen Mo's time, and if he didn't get up soon, he'd be late for the first day of school!
Following his memory, Chen Mo arrived at Experimental Class (1).
By the time he entered the classroom, most of the seats were already occupied.
As soon as Chen Mo walked in, he realized that everyone's gaze was fixed on him... or more precisely, on the Blazing Flame Fox on his shoulder.
Many from Experimental Class (1) had participated in this edition of the Eaglet Cup, but most of them were eliminated during the auditions.
Later on, after watching Chen Mo's matches through various channels and seeing the Blazing Flame Fox at Awakening 7th Rank advancing triumphantly, even defeating a Dawn Feather Crow at Transcendent 3-tier and securing second place, they were filled with envy and disbelief.
Chen Mo hadn't even opened his Spiritual Space before the summer break.
Clearly, this was a case of a Spirit Master being boosted by a Spiritual Beast.
Chen Mo didn't care much for the attention, but he didn't refuse anyone who came up to chat.
Xiao Jiu, snug in his arms, seized the opportunity to demonstrate his formidable social skills.
As a stray Spiritual Beast, Xiao Jiu had always been fearless; before meeting Chen Mo, one could say he grew up eating at a hundred different homes, so he quickly became pals with the other students' Spiritual Beasts.
He was a new-generation "social-phobe"—a social menace.
Chen Mo checked the [Entry Handbook] and saw that the Social Ruffian entry had been completed.
Pretty nice.
The morning's two classes were "Spiritual Material Identification" and "Spirit Realm Language." Most of the coursework in the Spirit Manipulation Department was related to the Spirit Realm, as it was an unavoidable place for most Spirit Masters.
Chen Mo listened attentively to both classes, while Xiao Jiu was diligently cultivating in the Spiritual Space.
As the contemporary "King of Diligence," he would not waste a single minute of cultivation time.
As the "Spirit Realm Language" class was about to end, the class advisor Lao Bai cleared his throat and said:
"Before class is dismissed, I have something important to tell you. Next week, we'll be going on a training excursion to the secret realms of the Spirit Realm."
"This excursion is a joint event organized by 8 high schools in Shenghai City, with elite classes from all schools participating. The training location is a small island within the Penglai Secret Realm. The Spiritual Beasts there have been cleared once, and the strongest among them is at the Extraordinary 5th Rank. Your goal is to survive on the island for a week and hunt the island's Spiritual Beasts and gather spiritual materials to earn points."
"This excursion is also a competition between the eight schools, with cash prizes for students who excel. The first place will receive 500,000, the second place 300,000, the third 100,000, and the top 10 each get 10,000."
Lao Bai cleared his throat and took a sip of tea, then continued:
"Additionally, teachers from the Shenghai Spirit University's admissions office as well as leaders from major groups such as Qingluan Group and Hongmeng Group will be present as guests throughout the event. Excellent performance could lead to early admission to Shenghai Spirit University and these major groups."
Shenghai Spirit University, located within the Penglai Secret Realm, is one of the top ten Spirit Master schools in Dongxia.
Chen Mo, however, was indifferent to this.
He was about to become a mere worker, bypassing the university phase altogether!