I haven't decided on a name for my Pokémon trainer yet.

Ning Xian's combat power was negligible under those circumstances.

Previously, if Articuno hadn't taken on most of the pressure, Ning Xian and her team would have had no chance of escaping and would probably have been wiped out in the first wave of attacks.

Even so, their escape was quite miserable.

As for having Ye Feng conduct research while fighting...

Even a serious researcher needs time and effort to work on something entirely new, let alone someone like Ye Feng who isn't exactly serious...

"As expected, I should apply for a protection team from the association." After considering it for a moment, Ye Feng decided to use his status as a Pokémon Studies PhD to apply for a stronger team from the association.

Without hesitation, Ye Feng logged into the association forum and submitted a research application, requesting the association to provide a protection team of 20 people, and at least 5 senior trainers.

Research applications for Pokémon Studies are highly valued, especially when it involves a Pokémon that has never appeared before, so the application was approved very quickly.

However, because Ye Feng requested a large number of people, it would take the association at least two days to mobilize the personnel, during which time Ye Feng could only wait patiently.

Chapter 457 Mysterious Rift

While waiting for the association to transfer personnel, Ye Feng settled down in Jiangning City with peace of mind.

As for why they didn't just stay at the Little Sawtooth Research Institute... well, it's a legitimate research institute, not a hotel or anything like that...

The main reason was that a large group of single researchers at the institute simply couldn't stand Ye Feng and Ning Xian being together all the time, and that's why they physically chased them away...

As for Ning Xian, her research progress had to be temporarily halted before she could capture that mysterious spirit. She had no other projects on her hands, so she simply took a vacation with Ye Feng.

The two had a great time for two days until a news story topped the trending searches online.

A few days ago, on the very night Ye Feng left the capital and arrived in Jiangning City, a crack suddenly appeared somewhere in H Country.

The moment the crack appeared, it destroyed all the nearby buildings. Everyone was caught off guard in the middle of the night, resulting in heavy casualties.

There are many different opinions about this crack online.

Some say it's a newly arrived secret realm, teeming with countless rare and powerful spirits; others say it's a portal connecting to another world; still others say it's a time tunnel linking to the past...

Regardless of what the crack was, Country H immediately blocked all related information and, while arranging rescue efforts, dispatched an exploration team to investigate.

However, the exploration team never returned, and the H country government sent teams in one after another, but all of them disappeared without a trace.

For two consecutive days, the investigation made no progress.

Now the news could no longer be kept secret.

The information blockade imposed on Country H could not last long, especially for those who had left Country H, who initially did not pay much attention to it.

After all, nowadays (specifically after Ye Feng's transmigration), the arrival of secret realms is a common occurrence. The association has corresponding predictions and countermeasures for this, and everyone is used to it. They just secretly pray that one day it won't suddenly appear above their heads.

Those who encounter such people can only accept their bad luck if they rely on their own abilities to survive.

However, after communicating with their friends and classmates who remained in H country, they learned that several exploration teams had gone missing in succession and realized that this rift was not simple. They immediately posted the news online.

As is human nature to enjoy a spectacle, this news quickly went viral, becoming the number one trending topic.

In this world, internet control is not so strict. Unless deliberately blocked, information exchange between countries is generally smooth—except for matters involving secrets, of course.

Every piece of information related to the cracks was posted online without exception.

After all, the location of this crack was not a no-man's land, but a bustling city, and above a famous university. Countless people saw it; the H country government had no way to relocate so many people to other places. They only have such a small territory, and even if they wanted to, they couldn't find a place to do so.

We can't just kick them out of the country, can we?

Ye Feng was idly browsing the web when he stumbled upon this message.

"Mysterious rift? Travel to another world? Time portal? This generation of netizens has such wild imaginations!" Ye Feng looked at the comments with the most likes and was speechless.

"What? Let me see." Ning Xian leaned closer and lay down on Ye Feng's chest to look at him.

Ye Feng pinched Ning Xian's soft little face and said, "A spatial rift that seems to be a secret realm has appeared in H country. It's all over the internet, and there are all sorts of rumors."

"That's interesting. It's a pity it's not in our country, otherwise I would really like to go and see it," Ning Xian said regretfully.

Ye Feng pinched Ning Xian's soft little face again and turned the page.

Hmm? Seoul National University was destroyed? Seoul National University... that name sounds familiar.

Upon seeing a name that was both familiar and somewhat unfamiliar, Ye Feng paused for a moment, but couldn't recall it immediately, so he put it aside for the time being.

"Several exploration teams have lost contact, and Country H has temporarily sealed off the area around the rift, not allowing anyone to approach..." Ye Feng stroked his chin, becoming interested.

If a team went missing, then the personnel sent later must be even stronger. If they still went missing, what exactly is in that crack?

Could it be a forbidden-level secret realm?

The danger levels of the secret realms range from E to S. Above S, there are the most dangerous forbidden areas. Ye Feng has never been to the forbidden areas and doesn't know what they are like.

However, the secret realm where the World Tree is located is a forbidden area... at least it poses no danger to Ye Feng.

Just then, a message popped up on WeChat.

Ye Feng opened it and saw that it was a message from Haozi.

"Captain, look at this!" A link was attached.

"What is it?" Ning Xian asked curiously.

Ye Feng, with his sharp eyes, spotted several strings of erotic text in the link, but he couldn't understand them. However, the link seemed to be circulating in China, and Ye Feng noticed the word "leaked" in it.

"Uh..." Ye Feng hesitated for a moment. Could it be some small, unknown website? Haozi had sent him a few before; he could just take a look and forget about them, but Ning Xian was still there...

It's no wonder Ye Feng was suspicious. When guys suddenly send each other a link and tell you to watch it quickly, especially if it contains the word "leaked," there's a high probability it's some kind of website or video with explicit content.

Right?

Ning Xian didn't think too much about it. Seeing that Ye Feng didn't move, she clicked in herself.

Ye Feng didn't have time to stop it.

Clicking the link leads to a video with the title "Live Stream Video Leaked! Unknown Mysterious Spirit!"

Mysterious elves? Ye Feng was taken aback, then breathed a slight sigh of relief—he'd hide those websites well in advance, lest Ning Xian discover them…

The video was shaky, and the person filming seemed to be in a difficult place, with various destroyed and collapsed buildings in sight.

"Hello everyone, I'm ***. Today I'll be taking you to explore a mysterious rift that has recently appeared..." the streamer began, speaking in pure erotic language. However, the video had apparently been edited in post-production, as subtitles were thoughtfully added.

According to the streamer, the video was filmed near the crack. The streamer went through great lengths to sneak in, all to bring his fans the exciting first-hand footage.

People these days will do anything for clicks, are they risking their lives? Ye Feng thought to himself.

Despite the criticism, I still have to watch the video.

The camera was shaky and kept jumping around, clearly indicating that the path to the crevice was difficult. They even encountered several patrolling people along the way, but the streamer was quite clever and managed to dodge them several times.

The video started to speed up, and then the perspective quickly came to a stop.

The announcer began speaking again: "Very good, we have reached the closest point to the rift, but please forgive me, I dare not approach any closer... Now, let's see the true face of the rift!"

As he spoke, the camera slowly peered out, and in mid-air, a small, dark corner slowly appeared on the screen.

Chapter 458 First-person live stream of the Rift

As the viewpoint shifted, the small, dark horn slowly revealed its true form—

It was enormous—at least it looked enormous in the video—its color was an indescribable black, and its edges were covered with countless sharp cracks, hanging abruptly in mid-air.

The crack seemed to be breathing, expanding and contracting rhythmically. Just watching the video gave one a sense of oppression.

"Is this the crack?" Ye Feng narrowed his eyes.

At first glance, there was nothing special about it, but the sense of oppression emanating from the screen was somewhat similar to the entrance to the secret realm that I had seen before.

"Could it really be a forbidden area?" The entrance is similar to the secret realm, so the crack could very well lead to the secret realm.

The fact that several exploration teams could be kept out of contact without any news could be attributed to H country's excellent secrecy, but Ye Feng leans towards the former, and it's likely that only the Forbidden Zone could have accomplished this.

"Feng, I feel this thing is a bit scary..." Ning Xian said, shrinking her head.

"It's nothing, it's just a video call," Ye Feng said, kissing Ning Xian's head to comfort her.

"Hmm..." Ning Xian nodded gently, then suddenly exclaimed, "Wait, what's that?"

"Huh?" Ye Feng was stunned. He hadn't seen anything.

"Give me the phone." Ning Xian snatched the phone, fiddled with it for a while, and then turned the screen towards Ye Feng. "Look at this."

Ye Feng leaned closer, but still didn't see anything special: "What is it?"

"Look at this!" Ning Xian zoomed in on the image.

Ye Feng looked over, and his eyes immediately narrowed.

The image was slightly blurry due to magnification, but fortunately the camera had a high resolution, so it was still possible to roughly make out a white, slender figure. Although it was only for a brief moment, Ye Feng was certain that the figure was indeed looking in this direction—to be precise, looking at the streamer filming the video, which was why the camera was able to capture it.

"What is this?" Ye Feng asked, puzzled.

Ning Xian shook her head, indicating that she didn't know either.

But its appearance in the video at this time, especially around the mysterious crack, suggests that it might be some special entity, perhaps even something that came out of that crack.

Could it be an elf? Ye Feng wondered to himself.

Many people were watching at the same time. Ye Feng casually clicked on the comments and found that there were a lot of people leaving messages. The comments were refreshing very quickly. After flipping through a few pages, sure enough, some people had also noticed the fleeting figure.