Chapter 440: Ancient Tomb

Countless bird Pokémon took flight from the forest, a rumbling sound ringing without end.

The ground trembled ceaselessly.

Not long after Absol vanished, a great many wild Pokémon burst out from among the trees, fleeing in panic past Baimu and Chansey on either side.

Beastly roars and bird cries flanked them on both sides.

Clearly they had been badly startled by this sudden mudslide.

Baimu frowned, and only relaxed after confirming that their side would probably not be affected.

It was just that the mudslide blocked the way, and the little path ahead would be hard to travel; taking a detour would add at least half a day to the journey.

Looks like he'd have to think of some other method.

In a daze.

He suddenly caught a flash of white near the disaster site, pulled a telescope from his pocket and took a look — it was unmistakably that Absol weaving through the rolling boulders, its perilous movements making him break out in a cold sweat.

And in its mouth it was carrying a Seviper, while its curved horn was being clung to desperately by another Seviper with its eyes shut and hissing.

So it had gone to rescue the wild Pokémon!

No wonder its hidden Ability is 【Justified】 — a perfect match.

Baimu handed the telescope to Chansey beside him, who was looking curious; Chansey first gasped in shock upon looking, then heaved a sigh of relief — Absol had clearly already escaped danger.

What a pity.

Under normal circumstances, meeting such a friendly big cat with a black face and white fur, he'd have rushed right over to feed it something, satisfying his fluffy-fan obsession along the way.

【A stably running novel app for years, comparable to the old version of the bug-catching source-switching App everyone uses, huanyuanapp.】

But right now it was raining so hard, and inside the raincoat the exertion of traveling had him drenched in sweat; combined with the road ahead being a total mess, he was in no mood at all.

Mm.

His own cultivation level really wasn't high enough yet.

Baimu turned his head and saw Chansey holding its little hands before its chest, gazing at the devastated mountainside in the distance — it was probably worrying whether any other unlucky souls had been caught up in the mudslide.

The kind-hearted pink big egg, even after evolving, still hadn't changed its good-natured nature.

"... Shall we go over and take a look?"

He didn't mind making the trip, to put his own Pokémon's mind at ease.

"Happy."

Chansey thought it over, then shook its head.

The mudslide was too dangerous — it didn't want its trainer casually charging into a place where accidents were likely to happen; Young Lady Joy had once taught it that the prerequisite for helping others was ensuring one's own safety.

And specialized matters should be left to specialized people.

Baimu reached out, trying to pat Chansey's head, but paused just before touching it and instead stroked the curls on either side of its head. "It's fine, we'll just fly over."

"Happy?"

Chansey didn't catch on for a moment, until it saw its trainer pull out the simple teleportation device and then understood.

Not long after.

Bang!

A Poké Ball opened.

"Roar!"

A colossal Steelix shot toward the sky like a long dragon, but upon reaching its peak discovered that its head hadn't even passed the treetops — not even halfway — and immediately froze.

And when the sparse raindrops landed on its body, it grew even more speechless.

"Roar?"

Steelix lowered its head, glaring at its trainer with bronze-cast red eyes, and greeted Chansey along the way.

You do remember I'm a Water-weak type, right? Calling me out on a rainy day — isn't that a bit much?

Baimu laughed. "Oops, I just had no choice — you're the biggest one at home, able to carry me and Chansey. Besides, don't tell me a Pokémon that can burrow into a stream and turn it into a waterslide is afraid of rain."

Unlike Onix, which wails at the slightest touch of water, Steelix, though also Water-weak, actually has quite strong resistance to rain.

As long as the water droplets on its body surface are wiped dry in time to prevent rust at the joints, there won't be any problem.

Due to its size, this fellow's joint areas are actually quite fragile — to the point that once struck, it basically counts as a critical hit.

"We're heading over there to take a look — I'm counting on you." He patted its thick, hard horizontal steel bone.

"Roar..."

Steelix, hearing this, obediently lowered its broad head, letting its trainer and Chansey step onto it; as it used electromagnetism to levitate and take off, there was still a note of complaint in its voice. "Roooar~"

This wretched weather.

"The climate in special areas is just like this."

Baimu settled himself on its head; Chansey sat leaning against its trainer, becoming his backrest, but its gaze remained fixed on the mud, water, and vegetation still rolling in the distance.

Steelix flew very fast.

In no time at all, they had already arrived above the raging mudslide.

The mudslide rolled all the way to flatter ground without stopping, continuing to crush countless lush trees ahead — either smashing them in half at the waist with boulders, or tearing them up by the roots, toppling them forward together.

Just watching was terrifying, but fortunately Baimu and Chansey had seen even more exaggerated scenes before.

All three lowered their heads to look down, searching for those in distress.

"Visibility is too low — not easy to spot anyone."

Baimu strained his eyes, but the overcast clouds blocked the sunlight; seeing clearly was genuinely difficult.

He simply pulled out the high-beam flashlight he'd used in the Spirit World earlier, directly summoning the "sun" to descend, to help him see whether any unlucky souls were caught up in it.

Fortunately, unlike a flash flood, the mudslide stopped once part of the mountain's rock layer had collapsed, leaving only a scene of utter devastation — though the lower portion was still rolling.

"Happy!"

The Happiny suddenly let out a startled cry.

"What is it? Where?" All Baimu hurried over, and saw Happiny's eyes light up blue, its whole face scrunching up as if exerting all its strength.

Then a clump of jagged, strange rock flew up out of the mudslide.

He looked closely and found it was five or six Roggenrola with their arms crossed and hugging each other tight, none of them daring to open their eyes—

Understandable.

A mudslide spares nothing, not even boulders weighing several tons; they get swept along, and the collisions inevitably shatter and crumble them. For these Roggenrola weighing only forty or fifty jin apiece, huddling together for warmth is all they can do.

"Whoa! Sharp eyes as always!"

All Baimu couldn't help but praise when he saw the Roggenrola had been moved to the joint section behind Onix.

"Ha, happy!"

Happiny replied with a smile, slightly panting. If it had only been lifting those six Roggenrola with psychic power, it wouldn't have been this tired—the main thing was having to resist the crushing force of the mud and sand.

That was really no easy feat.

The huddled Roggenrola suddenly realized they'd been moved somewhere else. First they looked around in panic, then joyfully broke apart and hopped about on Onix's back.

Two of them nearly hopped right off—thankfully Happiny reacted fast and used Psychic to block them.

Nothing makes a Pokémon happier than surviving a disaster.

But as they hopped, they realized they were on top of some enormous creature, and couldn't help showing uneasy expressions. Two of the more timid ones even hid behind their companions.

"It's fine, it's fine, hop all you want—Onix is very magnanimous." All Baimu waved his hand generously, and after a short rest Happiny released a Heal Pulse toward the Roggenrola.

In Iron Town, Onix could serve as a slide without getting angry—a few Roggenrola hopping around is nothing.

"Roar~"

An affirming roar followed.

The Roggenrola exchanged glances, saw that the words were true, and only then settled at ease.

Then All Baimu continued searching for Pokémon that might be in trouble, while Happiny ran to the back to do a quick check on the Roggenrola's condition, confirming they hadn't suffered any other serious injuries.

Suddenly.

"Huh?"

All Baimu gave a slight start, his gaze locking onto something in the mud and sand. He instinctively patted Onix's head. "Drop down a bit."

"Roar~"

The latter obediently lowered its height.

The clearer outline of the strange hillock immediately came into view.

Calling it some kind of building didn't quite fit, but it did indeed have the air of an ancient ruin—just buried into this state, making it hard to tell.

"Go down a little more, let me get a closer look."

All Baimu kept patting Onix's head, and when he realized what he was doing, he sighed.

Old habits really aren't easy to break.

Whatever.

And with Onix's cooperation, he faintly made out a strange doorway, dark and seemingly not completely blocked off by sand and stone.

All Baimu thought for a few seconds, then turned to Happiny and said, "Let's send them out first?"

The mudslide may have stopped, but who knows if a second one might come. To be safe, it's better to take the Roggenrola somewhere safe.

"Happy!"

Happiny gave its approval.

Two minutes later.

Onix picked an absolutely safe spot to descend, and the Roggenrola on its back exchanged glances, very politely called out twice to All Baimu and Happiny, then left.

"Let's go, head back and take a proper look at that place."

All Baimu was eager to figure out what that place was. He even took off his hat and let the rain cool his head, to keep his ears and eyes sharp.

Logically speaking, he had some vague memory of that thing in his head, but the raincoat was making him so hot and stuffy that he couldn't recall it for the moment.

"Route 120, strange cave ruin… Drought Cave?"

That thing popped into his head, but he quickly dismissed it, because the Drought Cave in his memory was located in the middle of a lake, not on a mountainside.

Back at the original spot.

All Baimu couldn't wait to have Onix dig with its tail, to unearth that doorway-like thing on the front.

"Roar~"

Onix did as told, its steel tail spinning like a drill with a hum as it bored into the mud and sand, and soon cleared out a large space.

And when he saw the strange dots on the doorway, realization dawned.

"Ah! It's an ancient tomb!"

Ancient tomb.

The resting place of one of the legendary giants—Registeel.

There's one at the deepest part of Route 111 too, but that's a desert ruin, and since All Baimu had only walked around the outer perimeter without going deep inside, he hadn't seen it.

Who would have thought he could see an ancient tomb here.

He excitedly jumped down from Onix's head, and Happiny, seeing this, hurriedly and anxiously followed.

"These are all ancient Braille…"

All Baimu ran his hand over the mud-covered doorway, took out his phone to photograph it, and had the Porygon2 in his phone try to help translate.

The ancient language bestowed upon him by the calligrapher didn't include Braille, so he couldn't decipher it either.

—No corresponding knowledge base found!

Porygon2 brought him bad news.

"Didn't find it? No way?"

All Baimu stared at it in surprise. He had assumed the Porygon-II, with its built-in search engine, would decode the Braille without any trouble, but to his dismay it couldn't either.

"Can't find it, there's nothing I can do about it either…"

Porygon-II was equally helpless. A search engine isn't all-powerful — a lot of knowledge is locked away in someone's personal computer database, and there's no way to get hold of it in a short time.

"Fine."

All Baimu nodded in disappointment, then heard the Onix above letting out a furious roar at something, seemingly on the verge of attacking.

He hurriedly climbed up along Onix's tail, and immediately spotted three people standing not far off in the mountain forest, holding "firearms" and dressed head to toe in hunter gear.

The three had been wearing wild, gleeful grins, but the moment they saw All Baimu climb up, their expressions sobered at once.

"Tch! So it has an owner! Just as I thought!"

One of them spat on the ground, looking very disgruntled.

…Poachers?

No.

This isn't a Pokémon Preserve, so the correct term is Pokémon Hunter.

All Baimu's brow furrowed. Outfits that standard made it impossible to mistake them for ordinary travelers — what normal person goes around carrying hunting "firearms"?

But why would they show up near a disaster zone?

When it came to these underhanded sorts, he had never minded assuming the worst of their intentions.

After all—

Not a single Pokémon Hunter is any good!

This is something the international police at large agree on — and it isn't even a case of painting them all with the same brush. They've arrested so many Pokémon Hunters and never once come across an innocent one.

Indiscriminate trapping and capture, large-scale destruction of mountain forests, trespassing into Pokémon Preserves, ignoring local laws and regulations to act as they please, attacking passing trainers out in the wild, even robbing them of their Pokémon.

There's nothing they wouldn't stoop to.

All Baimu watched the three warily, patted Onix on the head to signal a retreat. He didn't for a second believe these guys would obediently leave just because they saw Onix had a trainer — they were bound to come looking for trouble.

Sure enough.

After a brief, whispered conference among the three in the forest, the sickening smiles resurfaced on their faces as they looked back at him.

"—Grab him!"

One of them shouted.

The other two promptly darted into Lin Zili, and within seconds they shot back out standing on two flying boards, clearly intending to chase Onix.

At the same time.

They didn't forget to open their Poké Balls either.

Bang bang bang bang bang!

Amid the volley of noise, several Murkrow and a Golbat burst out and swiftly closed in on Onix's position.

All Baimu looked at these Pokémon, then at the two Pokémon Hunters riding their boards in pursuit, and wondered to himself when the last time he'd punched someone was.

Less than two weeks ago, wasn't it?

The Hoenn region really isn't peaceful…

He silently opened his Poké Ball and released an eager Hydreigon and a Dragapult that had already started rattling its Poké Ball.

"Two minutes. I want to see them face-down in the mud."

"Sha-sang!"

Hydreigon let out an excited roar, while Dragapult wordlessly charged straight at the Murkrow and Golbat — it could tell All Baimu was furious, so it didn't know how to respond.

So it simply didn't respond at all.

Meanwhile, the Pokémon Hunters, seeing All Baimu choose to engage, not only showed no fear but actually started shouting in excitement.

"Little brat, let us show you our—"

"Heavy Slam."

The words had barely fallen.

A silvery-white radiance blazed with dazzling color through the curtain of rain.