Chen Mo and his companions were currently at a location 200 meters under the sea in the Vortex Sea.
"Ding! Respected Spirit Master, welcome to the Penglai Secret Realm in the Spirit Realm. The time has now been automatically switched for you. Please ensure to check."
A prompt sound came from the Space Bracelet, and Chen Mo glanced at it, noticing that the time had become 11:40.
It was still 9:30 when they entered the elevator, so it seemed that time in the two worlds was not synchronized.
After entering the secret realm, the elevator switched from descending to ascending.
And as the elevator rose, Chen Mo and the others quickly saw the underwater scenery outside through the observation glass. Countless unnamed fish swam in the sea, and the surrounding area was filled with gigantic buildings emitting a silver-gray glow.
Initial City.
The place where the Blue Star People took root in the Penglai Secret Realm.
The elevator continued upward, finally reaching the ground floor and slowly opening.
Only when they saw the sunlight outside did everyone slowly catch their breath.
Chen Mo moved a bit and found his footsteps somewhat heavy.
The gravity in the Spirit Realm was a bit stronger than on Blue Star, but not by much. After a slight adjustment, both Chen Mo and Xiao Jiu got used to this gravity.
Stepping out of the base, what came into view was the bustling urban scene.
All around were high-rise buildings over a hundred meters tall, the streets bustling with traffic, subways and cars, flying mounts and beasts of all kinds moving about, humans and Spiritual Beasts living together in harmony. The level of prosperity could even rival the supercities of Dongxia on Blue Star.
"300 years ago, the land you're standing on was a vast ocean. An Overlord Level Dragon Turtle brought a nearby island over here, and then, with the efforts of many Spirit Masters and their Spiritual Beasts, this Initial Island and Initial City were established."
Seeing the astonishment in everyone's eyes, the guiding soldier recounted the history of Initial City with a smile.
"Your training site is on an island not far from Initial City, and you'll need to take a boat to get there. The exercise starts at 1 PM sharp, so make the most of your time!"
After a simple meal, Instructor Jiang led the students to the city gates of Initial City for the training. The gates here were similar to those seen at the base but taller.
At the city gate, many Spirit Masters and their Spiritual Beasts entered and exited, and all these Spiritual Beasts were at the Extraordinary Rank or above.
Of course, Initial City was not just inhabited by junior-level Spirit Masters and higher; there were still more ordinary people and lower-level Spirit Masters, but they were not allowed to leave the city.
After leaving the city, Chen Mo saw another scene resembling a large port. Several medium-sized boats were already docked waiting by the shore, with many more various types of Water Element Spiritual Beasts.
Once everyone was aboard, the boat set out towards the Training Island. Instructor Jiang summoned his own Spiritual Beast, Crab Marshal, which was the evolved form of Crab General, huge in size, only slightly smaller than the boat Chen Mo and the others were on.
The Crab Marshal's Lord Stage aura covered the nearby sea area, effectively preventing wild Spiritual Beasts from colliding with the boat.
About half an hour later, Chen Mo could vaguely see a green island.
Training Island, they had arrived.
"The training will last a total of seven days. Next, I'll synchronize the map of this island along with various resources and points for Spiritual Beasts to your Space Bracelets."
Just before the training was about to start, Instructor Jiang spoke.
"Furthermore, this island belongs to Initial City, so the Spiritual Beasts and resources you hunt on the island cannot be taken with you, but the points exchanged can be used to obtain corresponding rewards."
"Finally, one last reminder to you all, pay attention to safety! Although we will do our utmost to protect you, it's not absolutely safe. This training is not a child's play!"
"Understood!"
Everyone voiced in unison.
Most people were looking forward to this training with anticipation.
"Now, let the training begin!"
As soon as Instructor Jiang's words fell. The students who had formed teams in advance gathered to discuss strategies, and lone wolves like Chen Mo were in the minority.
Chen Mo was not in a hurry, observing the map he had just received.
The map was quite rudimentary, only indicating their current location and the distribution areas of Extraordinary Stage Spiritual Beasts, as well as the locations to submit resources for scoring.
"There are also rivers on this island, which is really decent. This way, I don't have to risk going to the seaside to fish."
Training Island isn't large, but it has a river running east to west.
In the middle of the river, a powerful Spiritual Beast is marked—the Ghost-faced Shark, Transcendent 3-tier, 300 points.
During the training period, points can be gained by gathering spiritual materials or hunting Spiritual Beasts, with varying points rewarded according to the levels of the Spiritual Beasts and materials.
The Spiritual Beasts at the Awakened 1st stage are worth 1 point, 2nd stage 2 points, and so on.
A Transcendent 1-stage Spiritual Beast is 100 points, 2nd stage 200 points...
The strongest Spiritual Beast on the island is a Transcendent 5th Rank Iron-Backed Turtle, worth a full 500 points.
"The Ghost-faced Shark usually only appears in the deep sea, this one here is likely one of the guarding BOSSes specially arranged by the military. If someone can defeat this Ghost-faced Shark alone, getting into the top 10 this training should be a shoo-in. I've decided on you!"
Chen Mo did not hesitate; he headed straight for the east-to-west flowing river.
After some setbacks, he finally arrived near the river marked on the map.
During this time, Chen Mo encountered two wild Spiritual Beasts interested in him, but they were just at the Awakened Stage, and Xiao Jiu knocked them out with a few electric balls.
Considering them a hassle, Chen Mo didn't even bother to exchange them for points.
"Scatter the bait, catch fish!"
Looking at the dozen meters wide river in front of him, Chen Mo took out the high-grade fish feed he had prepared beforehand from his Space Bracelet and generously scattered it into the river.
This high-grade feed contained an ingredient similar to "catnip," which would get most kinds of fish very excited.
It wasn't long before there was a lot of commotion in the river.
Fish of various appearances surfaced.
The Spiny Blackfish with sharp black horns on their heads, the Vortex Flying Fish unique to the Vortex Sea, Star-Speckled Fish, Dragon Bone Fish...
Most of them were Spirit Fish.
Though there were ordinary fish in the river, they clearly couldn't compete with the Spirit Fish and were forced to stay underwater due to intimidation.
These Spirit Fish obviously also saw Chen Mo on the shore, but at this moment, they were dizzy with the aroma of the food and began to frantically scramble for it.
"Jiu Bao, cast the net!"
"Chiu!"
Crackle and pop!
The next second, a deep purple electric net formed from Electric Spiritual Power suddenly appeared mid-air and then rapidly descended.
The moment the electric net fell, the fish that were scrambling for food fled in all directions, but the net was large enough that a small portion of the Spirit Fish could not escape.
Zap!
There was another flash of electric arcs.
The Spirit Fish that touched the electric net were shocked into a daze, floating on the surface of the water.
Chen Mo and the Blazing Flame Fox quickly took action, capturing each of the dazed Spirit Fish.
While Chen Mo and the Blazing Flame Fox were fishing, a silver-grey mechanical dragonfly flew past overhead, its camera-like "compound eye" focusing on Chen Mo by the river.
These mechanical dragonflies are not Spiritual Beasts but technological products equipped with cameras that can transmit the images of the contestants on Training Island to the monitoring room on the ship.
"This kid...he's kinda interesting!"
In the monitoring room, a scholarly-looking young man with a monocle remarked.
"He's got a unique way of thinking! A promising seedling."
Instructor Jiang also praised.
"Seems like he was well-prepared, a man with a plan!"
"Huh? Why is he releasing all those fish?"
But the next second, they witnessed a peculiar scene on the monitor.