The ground trembled faintly.
Chen Mo narrowed his eyes as he watched the golden radiance erupt ahead of him.
He had more or less guessed which move Kartana was using.
Sacred Sword.
A slashing move. While it was not an exclusive technique of a Legendary Pokémon like Behemoth Blade, very few Pokémon were capable of learning Sacred Sword, and a large proportion of those who could were Legendary Pokémon.
Among them, the most famous—and the ones most closely associated with Sacred Sword—were the group of Sacred Swordsmen Meloetta had once mentioned.
This was Chen Mo's first time seeing the move in reality.
The dazzling golden light gave him an inexplicably warm and comfortable feeling.
"What a miraculous move…"
Just as countless viewers in the livestream were mesmerized by the brilliant golden radiance, many of them suddenly saw a streak of dazzling white light bloom from deep within it.
"They're actually doing it!?"
Hu Chengliang's eyes widened slightly, his expression resembling that of a startled fox.
He could understand the Unown opening spatial rifts. After all, the Unown species had always possessed an inseparable connection to time and space.
But forcefully tearing open a spatial rift through what was practically brute force...
That...
Even Hu Chengliang found it utterly outrageous.
Very quickly, the white light on the screen grew brighter and brighter. Cracks began spreading around the white opening, and beams of deep blue and dark purple light slowly spilled out from within.
The Ultra Wormhole had completely formed.
"It... it really split open space..."
William stared at the familiar scene with his mouth hanging open, his eyes filled with disbelief.
At the same time, the livestream chat had descended into complete chaos.
[Where are all the people who said Kartana couldn't cut through space now?]
[Recently, I've been using all kinds of translation tools to catch up on everything I could find about Pokémon from Zhuxia, but honestly, seeing this Pokémon called Kartana literally cut open space like this is still difficult for me to accept.]
[Isn't this a god...?]
[According to some information obtained by the Zhuxia region, there were indeed humans in the other world who worshiped Legendary Pokémon as gods. So I suppose it wouldn't be wrong to regard Legendary Pokémon as gods. That said, we prefer calling them Legendary Beasts.]
[A lot of the people arguing earlier suddenly disappeared. Well, let me just give my opinion. We really should start considering coexistence with Pokémon. If nothing else, based on the abilities Pokémon have displayed so far, we simply have no way of completely exterminating them.]
Kartana's absurd display of slicing apart space instantly silenced countless viewers from other countries who had previously been clamoring to drive all the magical beasts away.
At first, when they heard that Legendary Pokémon were known as "walking natural disasters," they had been extremely dismissive.
Indeed.
Judging from Kartana's earlier combat performance, although its destructive power was astonishing, humans were capable of similar feats.
Especially since...
Humanity possessed a method capable of planting enormous mushrooms all over the Earth.
Countless people firmly believed that as long as they planted one of those mushrooms, no matter what kind of Pokémon or magical beast they faced, everything would be completely wiped out.
But now...
That endlessly debated question had to be marked with an enormous question mark.
Nukes were invincible?
Against Legendary Pokémon capable of directly cutting apart space, the Pokémon might simply escape to another world before the mushroom even had a chance to explode.
How were they supposed to fight that!?
[Don't be so pessimistic. Even if the mushrooms can't deal with magical beasts capable of cutting space apart, can't they at least deal with ordinary magical beasts?]
A comment drifted through William's livestream.
But very few viewers responded.
For millions of years, ever since humanity first stood upright and picked up weapons, humans had always been Earth's dominant species.
But now, humanity had no choice but to acknowledge that its position at the top was no longer as secure as it once had been.
Pokémon were an existence they could no longer ignore.
However, compared with viewers from other countries, who were only now learning about Legendary Pokémon for the first time, viewers in the Zhuxia region were far more accepting.
After all, based on Chen Mo's previous explanations, Legendary Pokémon such as Ho-Oh, Regigigas, and Mew were, in certain respects, even more outrageous than Kartana.
"Chao..."
Facing the Ultra Wormhole before it, Kartana's paper-thin body rose and fell violently. Clearly, the effort had exhausted it tremendously.
The spatial structure here was obviously unstable, yet it had still been impossible to cut through.
If not for the energy Jirachi had lent it, Kartana felt that even after recovering to its peak condition, it would probably have found it extremely difficult to sever this space directly.
"Chao..."
(A strange place...)
After carefully sensing its current physical condition, Kartana's gratitude toward Jirachi—and toward the human named Chen Mo—deepened even further.
With that thought in mind, Kartana turned around.
Ahead of it, Chen Mo was quickly approaching with Jirachi and the other Pokémon.
"Chao."
(Thank you very much for helping me.)
Kartana raised its right arm high and bowed slightly. Beneath the sunlight, its blade-like arm gleamed with faint white light.
This was the highest form of gratitude in Kartana's world.
Although Chen Mo did not understand the exact significance of the gesture, he could feel Kartana's emotions and could not help but smile faintly.
"Now that the passage is open, you should hurry home."
Kartana had merely been practicing its swordsmanship in its own world when it was suddenly pulled into this one. Its arrival had also coincided with the unusual moment when the Unown summoned the Tree of World's Beginning.
Because of that, Chen Mo could not help suspecting that their actions had somehow caused Kartana's accidental arrival.
As a result, he still felt somewhat guilty about the matter.
But Kartana knew nothing about any of this.
From its perspective, it had forcibly intruded into someone else's home, attacked the owner, and then failed to defeat them.
If Kartana itself had encountered such an intruder, it probably would have already cut the offender in two.
Yet Chen Mo had not done that.
Not only had he patiently listened to Kartana's explanation, he had also allowed his Pokémon to treat its injuries—and finally, he had even given it a ticket home.
This human, and his Pokémon, were so kind that Kartana had never encountered anything like them before.
"Chao..."
(There's something rather presumptuous I would like to ask... Would you be willing to visit my world?)
As it extended the invitation, even Kartana's heart—tempered into stillness through countless years of sword practice—could not help feeling a little nervous.
"Gengar!"
The moment it heard about visiting another world, Gengar's eyes immediately lit up.
Chen Mo, who understood Gengar's thoughts perfectly, reached up and lightly flicked its head before shaking his head at Kartana.
"Thank you for the invitation, but we still have many things to do in this world, so we can't go with you."
"Chao..."
Although Kartana had already expected such an answer, hearing it from Chen Mo still caused its mood to sink.
Then, Chen Mo's voice sounded again.
"However, Kartana, since you're willing to invite me, that means we're friends now. One day, when I have some free time, I'll come find you. When that day comes, I hope you won't mind my sudden visit."
"Chao!"
(Of course I won't!)
Kartana's mood instantly brightened.
It was just about to say something more when it suddenly sensed something and sharply turned its head.
The light spilling from the Ultra Wormhole was gradually beginning to dim.
Realizing that this was a sign that the Ultra Wormhole was about to close, Chen Mo smiled.
"Go home."
"..."
Kartana fell silent for a moment before nodding heavily twice.
Then, facing Chen Mo, it slowly backed away, gradually disappearing into the Ultra Wormhole.
In its field of vision, the human wore a gentle smile Kartana had never seen before.
He lightly waved at it and said in a warm voice,
"Kartana, it was great meeting you. I look forward to our next meeting."
As soon as those words fell—
Before Kartana could respond, the Ultra Wormhole closed completely, separating the two sides forever... at least for now.
...
With the arrival of the Tree of World's Beginning and Kartana's departure, today's livestream—broadcast not only to Zhuxia, but arguably to the entire world—finally came to an end.
Major online forums erupted into heated discussions over everything that had happened today.
But for the authorities, the real work was only beginning.
A whole series of arrangements concerning the Tree of World's Beginning had to be put on the agenda.
Although the Tree of World's Beginning's defensive system was still operating autonomously, preventing the authorities from conducting a thorough investigation of its interior, discussions among the various departments had already concluded at the request of higher authorities.
They had decided to rapidly construct defensive facilities around its outer perimeter and completely seal off the Tree of World's Beginning.
"Still thinking about Kartana?"
By the shore, Hu Chengliang found Chen Mo again.
Chen Mo was sitting in a lounge chair, gazing up at the distant clear sky.
At Hu Chengliang's question, Chen Mo smiled.
"A little. I wonder whether that guy managed to get home safely."
After Kartana left, Chen Mo had gone to ask the Unown about several things.
According to them, the Ultra Wormhole Kartana had cut open was somewhat different from the spatial rifts Chen Mo had previously traveled through.
The other spaces Chen Mo had entered through those rifts had already developed a certain degree of overlap with his current world. He only needed to cross a relatively short stretch of space to reach his destination.
But the Ultra Wormhole Kartana had opened was clearly connected to a place much farther away from this world.
The difference between the two was like the difference between a short-distance trip and a long-distance journey.
Furthermore, Kartana had opened the Ultra Wormhole through brute force. During such a long journey, there was always the possibility that something unexpected might happen.
Chen Mo could not help feeling somewhat worried.
"I should've told Kartana to wait a little longer."
Chen Mo sighed softly.
Hu Chengliang looked helpless.
"You've already done more than enough. Besides, Kartana was the one in a hurry to leave."
After chatting briefly, Hu Chengliang soon changed the subject.
"There aren't any other people here, so I'll ask directly. The Tree of World's Beginning should have been the purpose of your trip this time, right? Now that it has safely arrived in our world, the problem is mostly resolved. So, what are you planning to do next?"
"As expected, I couldn't hide it from you all."
Chen Mo was not surprised in the slightest.
He stretched lazily and looked toward Zoroark, who was training with Lucario on the distant beach.
"My plans from here on... Hmm. During our voyage at sea, I didn't really get the chance to properly introduce the Pokémon living in the ocean. So, for the next while, I'll use this island as a base and give a proper introduction to the wild Pokémon living in these waters."
"And after that?"
Hu Chengliang continued pressing him.
Chen Mo was just about to answer when he suddenly sensed that something was off.
He looked at Hu Chengliang and asked suspiciously,
"Brother Hu, you've got something you want to ask me, don't you?"
"It's not really anything major."
Nidoran, standing by Hu Chengliang's feet, glanced at the Pikachu in Chen Mo's arms and could not help rubbing against Hu Chengliang's leg.
Understanding what his Pokémon wanted, Hu Chengliang crouched down and picked Nidoran up, his expression carrying a hint of helplessness.
"Didn't we already decide to hold a preliminary Trainer qualification examination in Anping City? If you count the days, it should have started a while ago, but the plan was temporarily postponed because of the Tree of World's Beginning."
"Simply put, if you don't have anything particularly important to do for the next while, head back to Anping City and help the others at the bureau organize the examination."
"And don't worry about it being too troublesome. I know what you're like, so we won't assign you anything too demanding during the examination. Of course, as the expert, if you have any thoughts about the process, the higher-ups have given you the authority to intervene in any aspect of the examination at any time."
At that point, Hu Chengliang paused.
After hesitating for a moment, he finally continued.
"If you're tired, go back to Anping City and relax for a while."
"Was it really that obvious?"
"Yeah. What did you think?"
Hu Chengliang rolled his eyes at him.
Chen Mo gave an honest smile.
To be honest, this trip had not been particularly exhausting physically.
But everything he had experienced had given him far more things to think about.
"The examination, huh..."
Chen Mo thought for a moment.
Watching a new generation of Trainers take their first steps and occasionally experiencing that kind of lively, cheerful atmosphere did sound rather nice.
Just as Chen Mo was about to agree—
A young voice suddenly echoed in his mind.
"Chen Mo, I want to talk with you too."
"As the Guide of Shadows."
🌟 The story is already written… waiting to be unleashed.
Go check it out and dive into the full experience.
Claim early access here: [email protected]/plotwired
🔓 You hold the keys to bonus chapters:💬 10 reviews unlock 1 bonus chapter🔷 100 Power Stones summon another
🔥 Your power determines how fast the tale unfolds.