Chapter 371: Whatever—Chen Mo Will Handle It!

After that, with Lucario’s help, Chen Mo entered the deepest layers of his consciousness several more times. Yet no matter what he did, those pitch-black memory fragments remained completely motionless, never again assembling themselves into a door as they had the first time.

On the system interface, Trial of the Aura on the Guiding Star had changed from “In Progress” to “Completed.”

This inevitably led Chen Mo to wonder whether the reason he possessed the system at all was connected to the two mysterious doors hidden within the deepest part of his consciousness.

“Find the answers yourself, huh…”

Within the temporal rift, protected by the Unown, Chen Mo gazed into the depths of that space, where deep purple and dark blue intertwined. In his mind, he recalled that violent figure overflowing with an aura of destruction.

“Unown…”

Clearly sensing what Chen Mo was thinking, the Unown leading the way temporarily stopped and turned around, silently questioning him.

Chen Mo shook his head.

“No need. Let’s just get out.”

Though he lacked sufficient evidence, Chen Mo had a feeling that even if he waited within the space-time rift for much longer, Giratina would not appear again.

Soon, with the Unown’s assistance, Chen Mo and his Pokémon left the secret realm and returned to Earth.

It was two in the afternoon outside.

When Zoroark and Lucario stepped through the spatial rift and onto the damp, sandy ground of the island, a moist sea breeze immediately washed over them.

Looking into the distance, the sky was an immaculate blue. Golden sunlight, as clear and brilliant as glass, streamed through thin white clouds and scattered across the azure sea, causing the waves to shimmer.

Zoroark stared blankly at the scene.

It had no idea how many years it had been since it last saw such a sight.

“Zoroark.”

A gentle call interrupted its thoughts.

It turned around and looked somewhat puzzledly at the young man beside it.

“Is something the matter, Lord Chen Mo?”

“No.”

Chen Mo shook his head.

Then he turned toward Lucario and gave the blue canine Pokémon a bright, cheerful smile.

“I just wanted to tell you something.”

“Welcome to Earth.”

“From now on, this is your new home.”

Beside them, waves gently lapped against the rocks.

Carried along with the sound of the surf, Chen Mo’s words washed deep into Zoroark’s ears.

It stood still for a moment. Just as it was about to nod in response, it suddenly seemed to remember something and hurriedly turned toward Lucario.

Lucario was smiling.

Chen Mo hesitated briefly before deciding to ask the big blue dog directly.

“Lucario, once the Tree of the World’s Beginning has been transferred to Earth, what are you planning to do?”

“Me…”

Lucario answered steadily.

“The task Lord Aaron left me was to ensure the Tree of the World’s Beginning recovers. Therefore, in the years to come, I will remain with the tree and wait until it has fully recovered.”

Upon hearing those words, Zoroark instinctively wanted to say that it would stay with Lucario as well.

But immediately afterward, another memory surfaced in its mind—the agreement it had made with Chen Mo beside the campfire that night.

It was conflicted!

Zoroark was conflicted to the extreme!

Just as it had no idea how to respond, a shout from nearby temporarily rescued it from this dilemma.

“Xiao Mo!”

Hearing the familiar voice, Chen Mo turned toward the source.

Hu Chengliang was approaching with a large group of official personnel.

“Brother Hu, sorry for causing you all so much trouble!”

“You brat…”

Hu Chengliang looked at Chen Mo, who was hanging his head slightly with an apologetic expression, apparently waiting to be scolded.

Hu Chengliang opened his mouth, stopped, and finally sighed helplessly.

“It’s enough that you came back safely.”

—

Immediately after returning, Chen Mo was brought by Hu Chengliang to the temporary base’s conference room.

Transferring the Tree of the World’s Beginning was not as simple as everyone had initially imagined. Although the Unown had already investigated the secret realm and confirmed that the transfer could be carried out, there were still countless consequences to consider once the tree descended into reality.

“At the moment, the biggest problem is still the wild Pokémon gathered in the surrounding waters.”

Professor Zhou pointed at several images captured by drones and spoke slowly.

As the Unown began their preparations, the secret realm containing the Tree of the World’s Beginning was gradually becoming more integrated with reality. The aura leaking from the tree was attracting an increasing number of wild Pokémon to the waters surrounding the island.

Before Chen Mo returned, the authorities had already taken various measures to communicate with the wild Pokémon in the sea.

Unfortunately, many of them were completely indifferent to the authorities’ warnings about the danger and continued wandering around the nearby waters as they pleased.

Everyone at the meeting looked deeply troubled.

Once the Tree of the World’s Beginning descended, how could the small island they were currently on possibly accommodate it? According to the Bureau’s estimates, a vast area of the surrounding ocean would eventually be swallowed up by the land brought down along with the secret realm.

By then, any wild Pokémon that had failed to evacuate would certainly not meet a pleasant end.

“The Magikarp are definitely the most troublesome. Every time we try to discuss something with them, they just stare blankly and blow bubbles. Abba abba. It’s driving me insane.”

“Don’t even mention it. Yesterday, I had the Bureau’s Pokémon negotiate with a school of Lumineon. We promised them an abundant food supply as long as they temporarily left these waters.

“They agreed readily enough, took the boxes and boxes of Pokéblocks we gave them, and quickly swam away.

“But guess what?

“This morning, I saw those same Lumineon again! The leader even had exactly the same scar on its fin! And it was pretending not to recognize me!

“They obviously just wanted to scam us out of more Pokéblocks! Absolutely shameless!”

“Apparently, not every Pokémon is so pure after all. Uh… Teacher Mo, I’m not questioning your explanations. I’m just speaking from personal experience.”

Everyone began complaining one after another.

Sitting among them, Chen Mo smiled helplessly.

Although many Pokémon truly were as innocent as blank sheets of paper, Pokémon could sometimes be just like humans—the more they experienced, the more complicated they became.

Lumineon, for example, generally lived in the pitch-black depths of the sea, where conditions were harsh and food was extremely scarce. Because of this, Lumineon frequently engaged in fierce struggles with another Pokémon species known as Lanturn.

Given the environment they lived in, it was understandable that some Lumineon would develop worse personalities than other Pokémon.

Nevertheless, regardless of the reason, the wild Pokémon’s refusal to leave remained a serious problem.

The authorities could not delay indefinitely.

If they were unable to persuade the wild Pokémon to evacuate in a short period of time, then there was another solution—one everyone present was well aware of.

Use force to drive them away!

Of course, that approach came with many negative consequences.

More importantly, the number of wild Pokémon gathered in the surrounding waters was simply too large. If the Bureau wanted to drive them away by force, it first had to consider the consequences of provoking the Pokémon into fighting back together.

Unless…

They sent a Legendary Pokémon to intimidate them.

That was currently the best solution.

After all, all the Bureau needed was for the wild Pokémon to temporarily flee these waters. They were not permanently sealing off the area.

From that perspective, Zapdos, which had previously made an agreement with humanity, would have been an excellent choice. As an Electric-type Legendary Pokémon, its oppressive presence against the Water-type Pokémon living in the sea would be overwhelming.

Zapdos would only need to make a slight move, and most wild Pokémon would probably no longer dare linger in the area.

Unfortunately, Zapdos had gone out to visit relatives and had yet to send back any news.

As for the other Legendary Pokémon…

Everyone gradually turned their eyes toward Chen Mo.

Although Chen Mo had only publicly revealed a handful of Pokémon, no one present doubted that he could summon a Legendary Pokémon if necessary.

“Hmm…”

Chen Mo pondered for a moment before slowly speaking.

“If no one objects, could I try talking to those wild Pokémon first?”

For some reason, the moment Chen Mo said those words, everyone in the room immediately felt reassured.

It was as if there was no problem in the world that Chen Mo could not solve.

Professor Zhou silently nodded.

“Xiao Mo, we’ll leave it to you.”

As soon as he said that, Professor Zhou noticed the looks in the eyes of those around him.

Perhaps this did not apply to the entire world.

But within the lands of Zhuxia, Chen Mo was the brightest star of all—and the person most trusted by both the public and the authorities.

After thinking about it, Professor Zhou added:

“Don’t force yourself. Just do what you can.”

“I understand.”

Chen Mo smiled.

—

Before long, news that Chen Mo was about to take action had spread throughout the temporary base.

The island and the ships around it were packed with spectators.

“It’s settled, it’s settled! Once Teacher Mo takes action, those wild Pokémon will flee in utter defeat!”

“I’m seriously fed up with communicating with those Pokémon. They refuse to leave no matter what we say. I swear I’ve lost weight from all the frustration these past few days.”

“Doesn’t matter. Chen Mo will handle it!”

The crowd buzzed with excitement.

After all, there was another important possibility.

This time, they might get to see an entirely new Legendary Pokémon make an appearance.

Not a Legendary Pokémon in a video.

Not one depicted only in ancient murals.

But a living, breathing Legendary Pokémon—standing right before them.

“Why do I feel like something’s off…”

Hu Chengliang watched the young man’s retreating figure as Chen Mo walked step by step toward the beach, his brows slightly furrowed.

He had a feeling that, unless absolutely necessary, the Chen Mo he knew would never use a Legendary Pokémon to frighten these wild Pokémon.

“Could it be that Xiao Mo plans to find some way to notify the Prince of the Sea? Hmm… that seems likely. Given that Legendary Pokémon’s abilities, handling something like this should be easy enough.”

Just as Hu Chengliang was thinking, an indescribably strange sensation suddenly surged through his heart.

“Nido…”

Looking down, he saw that the Nidoran♀, which had been quietly following beside him, had suddenly become restless.

“Nidoran…”

Hu Chengliang turned his head.

He discovered that it was not only Nidoran♀. The other Pokémon around them were also beginning to behave strangely.

Before Hu Chengliang could figure out what was happening—

It finally seemed as though some critical threshold had been reached.

The increasingly restless Pokémon could no longer restrain themselves and suddenly charged in a single direction.

And that direction—

Was precisely where Chen Mo stood!

“Nidoran!”

Hu Chengliang hurriedly chased after his Pokémon.

But after only taking a few steps, that strange sensation suddenly weakened considerably.

Then the Nidoran♀ running ahead of him—and the other Pokémon as well—stopped in their tracks and looked around with confused expressions.

“What on earth…”

The strange phenomenon had caused the gathered crowd to erupt into noisy discussion.

Hu Chengliang stared at the young man ahead.

Not only him.

Many people had realized that the Pokémon’s sudden abnormal behavior was undoubtedly connected to Chen Mo.

But no one could understand what exactly had happened.

“Sorry, sorry.”

Chen Mo’s voice suddenly came from ahead.

He looked apologetically at everyone around him.

“It’s my first time using this ability, so I’m still not very familiar with it. But I’ve more or less figured it out now. There shouldn’t be any more accidents.”

Everyone who heard those words fell silent for a moment.

Then the crowd immediately erupted.

Hu Chengliang was also filled with question marks.

“Aura.”

Professor Zhou, who had somehow arrived beside Hu Chengliang, suddenly spoke a single word.

Hu Chengliang looked even more confused.

Chen Mo had previously explained Aura while inside the secret realm, but based on his earlier displays, Aura had never left a particularly deep impression on them.

“Given the relationship between the Tree of the World’s Beginning and Aura Guardians, Xiao Mo must have gained quite a lot from this trip into the secret realm.”

Professor Zhou spoke calmly.

Hu Chengliang, however, was becoming increasingly bewildered.

“Professor, are you saying that Xiao Mo doesn’t intend to borrow a Legendary Pokémon’s power this time?”

“But plans to deal with all these wild Pokémon himself?”

“Mm. That seems to be the case.”

“This…”

Hu Chengliang did not know what to say.

He did not understand Aura.

But—

Using one’s own power to face such an enormous number of wild Pokémon?

That… that was already completely beyond the realm of ordinary humanity!

Not far away, Chen Mo, having reorganized his thoughts, paid no attention to what everyone else was thinking.

After reclaiming his Aura, he had yet to test the various pieces of knowledge that had appeared within his mind.

Now happened to be the perfect opportunity.

Let’s give it a try.

This power that belongs to me.

Chen Mo closed his eyes and silently murmured within his heart.

“The power of Aura… is within me!”

The next instant—

As Chen Mo completely removed the restraints he had placed upon himself, an incomparably powerful Aura burst forth.

Centered upon the entire island, that strange energy spread outward like an overwhelming tide, sweeping across the surrounding sea in every direction!

🌟 The story is already written… waiting to be unleashed.

Go check it out and dive into the full experience.