Elf: I have a secret realm of emerald green.

Page 192

After giving the Warhammer Dragons and Craniosaurus that had already submitted a quick treatment for their previous injuries, Xia Shen recalled them, mounted the Moon Bear, and continued on his way.

He could sense that the spatial fluctuations nearby were becoming increasingly intense, and if nothing unexpected happened, the spatial rift should be not far away.

Whether it's the Black Stone or the expansion of the Pokédex, this journey through distorted spacetime has completely achieved its intended goals.

Now we can devote ourselves wholeheartedly to the final task of this trip: mending the spatial rift.

If you follow the direction with higher spacetime fluctuation energy, the number of Pokémon on the road will decrease significantly.

Moreover, most of the routes he encountered were running in the opposite direction from Xia Shen's direction, which made him even more certain that he had not misjudged the direction.

Finally, after a half-hour journey, Xia Shen found the spatial rift that connected to the unknown space-time.

Calling it a "crack" is also accurate, because its shape looks like a vertical eye.

It neither transmits nor absorbs light; it simply exists there quietly, as if it has never changed since time immemorial.

The surroundings were completely empty, without a single elf in sight. Even more strangely, the plants and trees beside the vertical pupil of time and space were completely still, and didn't even look like living things.

Xia Shen didn't dare to enter rashly, so he picked up a pebble from the ground and threw it in as a test.

An unusual phenomenon occurred: the pebble, which was originally moving according to the laws of nature, suddenly stopped at a certain point when it approached the spacetime rift region.

The pause, in the literal sense, neither disappeared nor fell; it simply... remained suspended in mid-air.

Xia Shen frowned deeply. This was too abnormal. Could it be that this area was not under Newton's jurisdiction? How could he possibly go in and mend the spacetime rift?

He stared intently at the pebble, defying gravity and suspended motionless in mid-air...

No, it's not completely still; the pebble seems to be moving slowly.

Worried that it might be his imagination, he released Garchomp, whose dynamic vision was better, to observe together.

A moment later, Garchomp nodded at him.

In other words, the pebble is not stationary, but moving at an extremely slow speed.

No... if it's due to the spacetime rift, it might not be because the stones slowed down.

Rather... time has slowed down in that region.

Therefore, at a normal flow rate, the phenomenon I observe is that the pebble is flying along its trajectory at an extremely slow speed.

This is most likely the case; it can explain the movement of the stones and also fits the characteristics of a spacetime rift.

Xia Shen did not probe further, mainly because there was no way to verify his conjecture. He recalled the elves and proceeded alone.

Although he felt his guess was correct, he still needed to be on the safe side. If he was wrong, he could "force himself offline," leaving the elves stranded there.

…………

Without any hindrance, Xia Shen entered the invisible, intangible barrier.

He realized he had entered because, in his eyes, the pebble that had been suspended in mid-air suddenly accelerated and then fell.

The surrounding flowers, plants, and trees swayed in the wind, full of vitality.

Xia Shen breathed a sigh of relief. As expected, everything remained unchanged except for the flow of time.

Wait...it seems like something's been overlooked.

Xia Shen suddenly realized that if the flow of time in the outside world was normal, then wouldn't it be slowed down ten or even a hundred times?

Just like the plot of the movie Interstellar, the protagonist returns to the spaceship from a planet with an extremely slow flow of time. His teammates have actually been waiting for more than ten years, but in his eyes, it has only been a few hours.

The problem now is that I only have a few hours to spend washing jade.

Although it only takes a few minutes to get to that spatial rift, who knows how long it will take outside? If the time is up, won't I be forced offline?

Thinking of this, Xia Shen hurriedly summoned Garchomp, and before he could even climb onto its back, he shouted, "Quick, take me there as fast as you can!"

Unconditionally trusting Xia Shen, the ferocious Garchomp lifted him up around the waist, its toes barely touching the ground as it leaped into the air.

Even faster than before, it instantly increased its speed to the maximum and flew towards the spatial rift.

Xia Shen wasn't idle either. In those few seconds, he took out the red chain that Ke Xi had given him from his phone's storage and held it in his hand.

Garchomp's speed at full power was astonishing; it took him less than half a minute to bring Xia Shen to the spatial rift, covering a distance of nearly one kilometer.

Xia Shen gazed at the increasingly close vertical pupil-shaped spatial rift, the red chain in his hand already poised to strike.

According to Yukshi, the crack will disappear instantly if the red chain is thrown in.

Seeing that the distance was close enough, Xia Shen swung the chain forcefully, and it flew into the crack.

Just before the vertical pupil-like spatial rift closed, a sudden change occurred.

…………

Suddenly, two beams of light appeared in that empty vertical pupil... no, two eyes!

The red irises and black pupils were so striking in that place where there should have been no light.

Time seemed to freeze for a moment, and the red chains stopped in mid-air.

Then, a sharp-edged gemstone, almost transparent in color, flew out and stopped in front of Xia Shen.

The pair of eyes peeking through the crack were looking in this direction, it was unclear whether they were staring at Xia Shen or at the gemstone.

"Should I put this stone away?" Xia Shen couldn't help but ask the creature that resembled Dialga.

Only Dialga could have the ability to control the flow of time at will, right?

In other words, he deliberately adjusted the flow of time to the lowest speed in order to wait for me?

The two eyes twitched up and down a few times, and Xia Shen could imagine that Dialga was nodding.

Without further hesitation, Xia Shen put away the dazzling, seemingly diamond-like object in front of him.

In an instant, all the abnormalities before my eyes disappeared.

The red chains, the spatial rift, and those... eyes that seemed to belong to Dialga vanished into thin air.

Along with it, this spacetime distortion also disappeared.

The sun shone brightly on the earth again, and the original, verdant native spirits suddenly reappeared.

Everything was as if it had never happened, and the verdant land returned to its former tranquility.

Only the precious pearl in his hand told Xia Shen that everything that had happened before was real.

…………

Xia Shen glanced at the time on his phone. It was 8 a.m. before he entered the space-time distortion, but now it was 2 p.m., a full six hours later.

Adding to the previous two hours, I was almost forced offline, and I won't be able to log back in until a day later. Who knows what will happen in the spacetime distortion?

Fortunately, they fulfilled their mission and completed it before the deadline, thus safeguarding the peace of this land.

Saving the world for the first time isn't that difficult!

Xia Shen was basking in a moment of self-satisfaction when the scenery before him suddenly changed.

The next moment, he found himself in a dimly lit environment.

The two mushrooms, one yellow and one red, in front of Xia Shen told him that he must have been teleported back by them.

……

[Well done, Xia Shen! I knew you could do it!]

Yu Kexi flew excitedly around Xia Shen, his joy overflowing.

Even Emredo, who hadn't given Xia Shen a friendly look from the very beginning, was sincerely praising him.

[Not bad, you do have some skills, enough to be my friend, Emrido!]

Xia Shen rolled her eyes, as if nobody cared.

Whether it was the eye roll that betrayed his thoughts or Amrido that read his emotions, Amrido's jewel-encrusted gray tail slapped Xia Shen on the head.

[Do you still want the reward?]

Xia Shen wasn't going to let her get away with it. "What, you're trying to back out? Is this the attitude of the God of Emotions?"

Emridor was speechless, and angrily flew to the side, leaving Yukshi and Xia Shen to communicate.

[Oh, Xia Shen, don't be angry! Emrido is a tsundere, he's like that with us too. The reward is already prepared for you!]

Yuxi stopped in front of Xia Shen, its tail wagging, and the red gem on its tail slowly fell off and flew to Xia Shen.

[This is an energy crystal containing my primal power. You and Tibrim can both use it. It's yours.]

Xia Shen looked at Yukshi's suddenly thinned tail and couldn't help but ask, "Then what are you going to do? Isn't the power of origin very important to you?"

[It's okay, just like Slowpoke's tail, it can grow back, it just might take a little longer.]

"I can comfort you," said Kexi.

Over there, instead of Emredo, a ruby of the same shape but slightly different color flew over.

Without a doubt, this should be one of the ones on Amrita's tail.

Xia Shen smiled slightly. He really is a proud and aloof person.

"Oh, right, I have another question I wanted to ask you." Xia Shen suddenly remembered something, so he summoned Tibrim.

"Tibrim should have evolved by now, but it hasn't. What's going on?"

“Bu~” Tibrim nodded, seeking guidance from the God of Knowledge.

Yukshi emitted a mental energy to probe Tibrim, then fell into deep thought.

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Author's Remarks

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