After walking a hundred meters, Zhou Lu spotted the Red-tailed Fox.
It strode elegantly along the road carpeted with red leaves, its fur sleek and beautiful. Its red tail swayed back and forth, sweeping the fallen red leaves from its body onto the ground.
This was the Red-tailed Fox's normal state. When it entered battle mode, scorching red flames appeared on its tail, and its eyes turned crimson as well.
The Red-tailed Fox was an extremely vigilant species.
Zhou Lu could only advance with the utmost caution, ducking behind rocks whenever the Red-tailed Fox turned around to avoid its line of sight.
The placement of these rocks had been meticulously recorded in the setting guide. While preparing for the exam, Zhou Lu had already decided which rocks he could hide behind to approach the Red-tailed Fox more quickly and discreetly.
Like everyone else's exam, Zhou Lu's actions in the simulated secret realm were being livestreamed on the giant screen, visible to all the students waiting for their exams.
Some students who had already failed their exams did not hurry away. Instead, they stayed to watch Zhou Lu's test.
More than anyone else, they looked forward to seeing him fail. It was as though, if Zhou Lu failed, their own failures would not seem quite so humiliating.
Look, even a perfect-score genius couldn't pass. Isn't it perfectly normal that I didn't pass either?
"Letting his spirit pet split up and act separately? How young and reckless," someone muttered in the quiet hall.
That was, in fact, what many people were thinking.
Inside a secret realm, they usually wished they could stick to their spirit pets every second of every day. Who would be like Zhou Lu, sending his spirit pet off alone while sneaking over himself?
And besides, how did he plan to lure the Red-tailed Fox out of the Red Leaf Forest?
When Zhou Lu crept to the edge of the Red Leaf Forest, everyone held their breath.
Yet Zhou Lu did not immediately carry out his plan. He was waiting.
Huohuo did not yet possess any skill that could speed up its vines.
Considering the Red-tailed Fox's charge skill could instantly close the distance between them, Zhou Lu needed to give Huohuo enough time to use Earth Escape to plant enough buried offshoots across the open ground between the forest and the lake.
The time was about right.
Zhou Lu estimated the timing in his head, then pulled a lighter from his pocket.
Wait! Why were you carrying a lighter?!
The instant Zhou Lu pulled out the lighter, everyone watching the exam was dumbfounded.
What was this kid planning to do? Light a cigarette for the Red-tailed Fox with that lighter?
Then they watched Zhou Lu use it to ignite the fallen leaves nearby.
The red maple leaves burst into flame in an instant.
The next second, with the leaves Zhou Lu had ignited as the center, surging flames rippled rapidly outward into the distance.
Boom!
Red maple leaves contained abundant oils, and their structure made them exceptionally flammable. Once piled together and ignited, they produced an effect like setting willow catkins alight.
The raging blaze directly ignited every fallen leaf in the Red Leaf Forest. Flames climbed the trees, and before long, the entire Red Leaf Forest had been set ablaze.
No way...
Was this guy planning to burn the Red-tailed Fox to death?
Using fire against a fire-element spirit beast—wasn't that a little too fantastical?
Was this really one of the only two perfect scorers in this year's preliminary combat exam?
"Pfft."
Someone failed to hold it in and burst out laughing.
That laughter seemed hugely contagious, immediately setting everyone else off as well.
Some people had even pulled out their phones and started posting on the forums.
Help! Someone is trying to burn a fire-element spirit beast to death with fire during the Exploration Permit exam!
In truth, burning a fire-element spirit beast to death was not entirely a fantasy, but it required one's own spirit beast to possess absolutely crushing strength over its opponent.
In any case, something like that was absolutely impossible in an Exploration Permit exam.
Did they really think legends like the Sword God of Ten-Mile Slope could still exist in this era?
Zhou Lu had no idea about the commotion outside. Looking at the blazing inferno before him, he could not help but complain inwardly: These red maples seem even more outrageous than the information I found. They caught fire so quickly.
As a fire-element spirit beast, the Red-tailed Fox naturally remained unaffected by the sudden blaze.
It strolled through the flames with relaxed steps.
This environment even made it feel somewhat more comfortable.
Only...
The maple leaves filling the sky had been burned into ash, and black soot drifted down from above.
Ash fell like a curtain across the heavens and earth, and the Red-tailed Fox naturally could not avoid getting covered in it.
So dirty! So dirty! So dirty!
The Red-tailed Fox wore a look of disgust.
Even wild Red-tailed Foxes were renowned among spirit beasts for their love of cleanliness, let alone spirit pets.
Seeing the ash on its body, the Red-tailed Fox irritably shook itself.
It helped, but fresh ash quickly covered it again.
It had to leave this place at once.
The Red-tailed Fox looked in Zhou Lu's direction.
A human's scent was impossible to hide from a spirit beast's senses.
The instant the Red-tailed Fox locked onto him, every hair on Zhou Lu's body stood on end, and he clutched Huohuo's vine tightly in his hand.
But the Red-tailed Fox merely glanced at Zhou Lu before turning away and heading toward the lakeshore.
It had no time to deal with this human right now.
It needed to hurry to the lake and wash up.
So dirty! So dirty! So dirty!
With that thought, the Red-tailed Fox quickened its pace and rushed toward the lakeshore.
The moment they saw the Red-tailed Fox rush out of the Red Leaf Forest and head for the lake, the laughter in the hall stopped abruptly.
That was no exaggeration.
Someone really choked themselves from the rapid shift in emotion from mockery to shock.
Even more people were simply stunned and bewildered.
What? How did setting a fire force the Red-tailed Fox out? Were fire-element spirit beasts actually afraid of fire?
The Red-tailed Fox reached the lake and cautiously prepared to use the water to clean its fur.
As a fire-element spirit beast, it ultimately disliked water, and it was still in the middle of an exam...
"Huohuo!" Zhou Lu shouted decisively the instant the Red-tailed Fox hesitated.
Huohuo moved even faster than Zhou Lu's command.
Countless vines shot out from the offshoots Huohuo had buried by the lake, winding toward the Red-tailed Fox.
The Red-tailed Fox stumbled and was yanked straight into the lake by Huohuo.
Boom!
Scorching flames erupted from the Red-tailed Fox's tail, instantly burning through Huohuo's vines.
The Red-tailed Fox leaped out of the water in a bedraggled state and roared furiously at Huohuo.
But what greeted it were Huohuo's vines, coated in Sticky Slime.
The Red-tailed Fox tried to repeat the same trick and burn through the vines with flames, but to its shock, the vines showed no sign of being affected by the intense heat.
Sticky Baby's slime protected Huohuo's vines perfectly.
Scrub fox! Scrub fox!
Having caught such a pretty fox, Huohuo immediately became excited and swiftly used its newly learned craft to bundle the fox up.
The Red-tailed Fox had never suffered such humiliation. It opened its mouth, intending to use a skill and give Huohuo a thorough roasting.
Huh? What was this can?
The Red-tailed Fox saw Huohuo pull a steel canister from its flowerpot.
Psssh—!
Huohuo activated the fire extinguisher and sprayed the Red-tailed Fox right in the face.
The new generation of Sticky Baby fire extinguishers was incredibly efficient. It not only put out the fire in the Red-tailed Fox's mouth, but extinguished the flames on its tail as well.
What? Why could he use a fire extinguisher during an exam?!
Seeing this, everyone was dumbfounded.
Who took an exam like this?!
Second update... Three updates today, please keep reading!
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