Chapter 405: Sacred Fire?

Luo Mu knew.

Ordinary Fire Birds simply did not possess any special ability known as a "Flame of Life."

All they possessed was the same capability found in the legends of the Western world before Luo Mu's transmigration: like the mythical creatures "Immortal Bird" or "Phoenix," they could burn their entire bodies in volcanic lava to heal their wounds.

The only fire that could barely be related to spewing flames with the power to heal scars was the Sacred Fire of Ho-Oh, a legendary Pokémon.

But in the game, Sacred Fire was a purely physical damage move; rather than believing it possessed the power to heal scars, Luo Mu preferred to think it was Ho-Oh's own special ability that granted these colorful sacred flames the power to either kill enemies or provide healing.

Regarding the "fire seed capable of healing scars" mentioned by Chairman Damalanchi, Luo Mu felt it was necessary for him to thoroughly investigate the matter.

The Fire Bird, which had most likely been gifted a fire seed by that flame possessing life, was the protagonist of this moment.

Cangyan Cangyan Rengui nodded gently, indicating he understood his duty.

As for the Fire Bird, it looked somewhat confused and hesitant to speak.

In fact, since returning from the Shi Ying Plateau, at least from the Fire Bird's own perspective, aside from the resonance with nature mentioned by Lugia while on the Asia Island—which allowed for a deeper connection with nature and easier borrowing of natural power—its body had not undergone any noteworthy changes.

To describe its current state in general terms, it could tentatively be regarded as a "youth version" of the Fire God state.

It was simply more durable, could consume and expend more energy, and was more sensitive to changes in nature.

But since Luo Mu had said so, the Fire Bird, having already accepted its incorporation into the team, was naturally willing to cooperate with Luo Mu for the test.

It nodded lightly, thereby accepting the task.

Seeing that both Pokémon were ready, Luo Mu did not delay and immediately initiated the actual verification process.

The process was extremely simple.

The Fire Bird only needed to continuously release Fire-type moves toward Cangyan Cangyan Rengui.

Cangyan Cangyan Rengui would use his Ability "Flash Fire" to absorb and analyze the Fire Bird's Fire-type moves, then report the conclusions to Luo Mu.

During this time, Luo Mu would also focus his attention on observing the Fire Bird's flames to confirm whether any subtle changes appeared.

Luo Mu took a step back, clapped his hands lightly, and announced the start of the test.

The Fire Bird let out a high-pitched cry, and the flames burning on its wings grew increasingly bright and intense.

It flapped its wings, turning masses of flame into fiery meteors that twinkled across the sky; then, heavenly fire descended, just as it had on the day it first arrived at the farm.

Meanwhile, Cangyan Cangyan Rengui still stood calmly in place, the seemingly solid flames burning in his pupils swaying slightly, indicating that Cangyan Cangyan Rengui had entered a state of intense concentration.

Of course, this was not because the Fire Bird's flames posed a threat to Cangyan Cangyan Rengui.

Possessing the "Flash Fire" Ability, Cangyan Cangyan Rengui actually feared very few Fire-type moves released by most Fire-type Pokémon.

Only Fire-type moves from Fire-type Pokémon that were stronger than him—strong to an excessive degree—qualified to overwhelm his Flash Fire Ability and injure him with Fire-type attacks.

The Fire Bird was currently still a bit far from reaching that level—

Just as the flames were about to crash onto the ground, a sharp light flashed in Cangyan Cangyan Rengui's eyes; he actively triggered his Flash Fire Ability, increasing his "attraction" to the flames.

The falling heavenly fire paused quite neatly, then, as if having found a target, collectively altered their originally intended trajectories and trembled as they flew toward Cangyan Cangyan Rengui, just as if Cangyan Cangyan Rengui were a black hole attracting everything.

As the flames merged into his body, Cangyan Cangyan Rengui felt the energy containing a faint, barely perceptible trace of natural aura, along with the power flooding his entire being; although his expression remained cold and unchanged, his emotions continued to fluctuate.

He closed his eyes to feel.

It had to be said that as a legendary Pokémon, the Fire Bird was not even on the same starting line as them, not to mention that the Fire Bird had gained further opportunities during the operations on Asia Island.

This rather pure energy, imbued with a natural aura, was at least something Cangyan Cangyan Rengui could not utilize.

Despite the praise, after confirming several times that he had missed nothing, Cangyan Cangyan Rengui opened his eyes and shook his head at Luo Mu, who was likewise waiting eagerly for his answer without having gained any results himself.

"Si-luo." (Almost no difference from usual.)

In Cangyan Cangyan Rengui's view, even without his Flash Fire Ability, being hit by such flames would only cause injury; he had not sensed even a shred of power related to healing scars.

"Is that so."

Hearing this, Luo Mu felt somewhat disappointed.

But this was only the first test; perhaps, like those Pokémon who had just mastered a certain move, the Fire Bird needed to try several more times to succeed, to master the ability more skillfully, and to find the feeling.

Over the next hour, the Fire Bird began continuously using Fire-type moves on Cangyan Cangyan Rengui, hardly stopping to rest.

Cangyan Cangyan Rengui was also starting to feel numb, while simultaneously envying the Fire Bird's energy endurance.

Judging by its condition, continuing to spew fire for another half-day would be no problem at all.

Later, the Fire Bird even started spewing fire in various patterns.

Whether it was Fire Blast, Triple Fire Blast, or Grass-Character Fire Blast—it was having great fun, yet alas, there was still not the slightest sign of any traces appearing.

Both the Fire Bird and Luo Mu were beginning to suspect that the scene on the Shi Ying Plateau had been merely an illusion, or that the living, conscious sacred fire and Damalanchi were simply playing tricks on them.

At this moment, perhaps noticing the extremely rich Fire-type aura here, Victini flew over, naturally plopped its butt onto Luo Mu's shoulder, and let out a curious cry.

"Bi-mi bi-mi~?" (What are you guys doing~?)

Luo Mu pinched Victini's little face; even though he couldn't understand what Victini was saying, he could roughly deduce its meaning from its expression and tone.

In just a few words, Luo Mu explained the situation to Victini and asked puzzledly, "Didn't Wisgor say you went to play with Vulpix and the others? Why did you come over?"

Victini tried to act cute to muddle through; it didn't want to admit that it had wanted to observe the Sandslash couple's Pokémon Egg up close, but because its Fire-type aura was too strong, the Sandslash couple, worried about affecting their child, had chased it out, after which it noticed the commotion here and rushed over.

Fortunately, Luo Mu had no intention of pressing the matter to the bottom of the pot; anyway, Victini was now just like a street wanderer, one moment wandering into the Ice Snow Elf cabin to build snowmen with Vulpix, the next wandering into the Salt House to make the Salandit produce salt so it could count the salt, and another moment running to Thunder Lake to ask Hakuryu and the others to take it swimming.

However, its arrival was timely, as Luo Mu happened to have another idea he wanted to try.

Urging Victini, who wanted to slack off, to restore the stamina of both Cangyan Cangyan Rengui and the Fire Bird, Luo Mu reminded Cangyan Cangyan Rengui, "In a moment, the power of the moves will be several levels stronger; let's try to proceed slowly."

"Si-luo."

Cangyan Cangyan Rengui indicated he understood; without being careless, he immediately assumed a defensive stance.

After all, with Victini's blessing, even Vulpix could instantly defeat the Dark Trio, members of the notorious Team Plasma in the Unova region who possessed considerable strength and status.

With Victini's help, under a single full-power attack, the gap between him and the Fire Bird might truly shrink to an extremely small degree.

A moment later.

Victini sat on the Fire Bird's back, its entire body shining with a brilliant golden aura.

These auras were one manifestation of infinite energy; under Victini's control, the Fire Bird immediately received an enhancement correction, feeling the energy within its body become more abundant and active.

Originally, this attempt, including the one involving Moltres, held little expectation; it was merely a test to see if, under Victini's enhancement, there might be a chance to trigger deeper power latent within its body.

Just as Moltres, as usual, prepared to gather energy and spit a "Flamethrower" at the Ceruledge on the ground, a sudden anomaly occurred.

The infinite energy that had been lingering around the Fire-type energy within its body seemed to be attracted by some existence—no, it was forcibly dragged away.

Just like when Ceruledge activates its Flash Fire ability, a suction force suddenly arose, and Victini's universal infinite energy was absorbed.

And Moltres finally got a glimpse of the true form of that "thief."

It was precisely that cluster of fire seeds gifted to it by the existence manifested from the flames left behind by what was suspected to be its own kin within the Indigo Plateau.

However, seemingly due to absorbing Victini's infinite energy, that flame, like a long-shriveled sponge meeting water, expanded at an extremely rapid speed, unrestrainedly stretching its form.

In just a few breaths, the flame swelled into a mass of fire radiating a seven-colored halo.

"Tini!?"

At this moment, a terrified cry came from Victini on Moltres's back.

Watching the infinite energy flowing continuously into Moltres's body beyond its own control, it was nearly scared out of its wits.

Victini's enhancement had always adhered to the principle of causing not the slightest burden to the target; for Moltres to absorb such a vast amount of its infinite energy continuously, its body might not be able to withstand it! Moltres also noticed this, and its expression turned somewhat grim.

It could perceive it.

As the infinite energy was injected, the pressure borne by its body was constantly increasing.

Even though there was still a large margin of error before its body would completely fail to withstand it, Moltres did not want to hand over the initiative to the colorful flame wildly devouring the infinite energy within its body.

Its own body, its own power, under its own control!

With such a massive amount of Victini's infinite energy joining in, intuition told Moltres that the power of this strike would be extremely formidable; Moltres's expression grew even more serious as it charged up, its gaze shifting across the ground below, searching for a suitable area.

But no matter where it chose, it could not guarantee that the farm would not be affected.

Releasing it into the sky might turn it into a rain of fire, causing even greater harm.

Releasing it toward the ground might affect the nearby farming zones, especially the most precious among them: the secret seasoning ingredients.

On the ground, Luo Mu and Ceruledge also noticed that Moltres and Victini seemed to have shown signs of something going wrong within just a few seconds.

When he saw Victini trying to pull back yet having its infinite energy continuously absorbed, Luo Mu knew trouble was coming.

He immediately took out his phone, intending to call Lei Guan Wang over.

At this moment, Ceruledge stepped forward and shouted toward Moltres in the sky: "Silo!" (Come at me!)

It would absorb every last wisp of what Moltres released, ensuring the flames would not harm Luo Mu's important farm! Perhaps infected by Ceruledge's determined gaze, Moltres nodded lightly, indicating it would try its best to control its output and power.

The next instant.

Moltres let out a high-pitched cry that echoed across the entire farm sky, its body enveloped in flames burning even more fiercely.

Looking closely, those flames were faintly entwined with a colorful halo, exuding an aura of something sacred and solemn.

As Moltres tucked its wings, the seven-colored blazing fire, as if finding an outlet, gushed forth, spreading and burning from the sky down to the ground, causing the surrounding air to begin twisting violently.

"Silo."

Watching the flames released by Moltres, different from any previous time, a trace of surprise flashed through Emperor Yan Di's eyes, along with some emotion hidden extremely deep that it could not clearly name or describe.

It was as if that flame made it, a Fire-type Pokémon, both tremble and leap with excitement.

As Ceruledge actively activated its "Flash Fire" at maximum power, all these flames were drawn toward it; not even a single wisp threatened Luo Mu, who had just taken out his phone and dialed.

Seeing these seven-colored flames, Luo Mu's movements paused, and his pupils constricted sharply.

"This is..."

At this moment, Ceruledge seemed to be situated in "ice and fire, two extremes."

On one side was a flame of extremely strong destructive power, so terrifying that it, as a Fire-type Pokémon, was on the verge of falling into a "burn" status.

On the other side was a flame full of vital energy, making it, as a Ghost-type Pokémon, feel immensely excited, constantly repairing the damage caused by the other side.

In this bizarre situation, even Ceruledge's expression changed repeatedly.

Fortunately, the commotion here had already caught Lei Guan Wang's attention.

Even though it was at the other end of the farm.

Vast psychic power directly distorted space, and Lei Guan Wang descended directly while riding Spectrier.

Upon seeing Moltres releasing the seven-colored flames, Victini on its back, and Ceruledge continuously enduring the scorching and healing of the seven-colored flames, Lei Guan Wang frowned.

Surging spiritual power gushed forth, on one hand blocking Moltres as the source of the seven-colored flames and separating Victini from Moltres, and on the other hand helping Ceruledge extinguish the remaining seven-colored flames.

Under Lei Guan Wang's decisive intervention, the suddenly out-of-control situation was successfully quelled.

Moltres and Victini landed on the ground somewhat exhausted, while Ceruledge, under Lei Guan Wang's treatment, had its "burn" status removed.

After doing all this, Lei Guan Wang looked at Luo Mu somewhat confusedly and asked in bewilderment: "Weren't you testing power? How did it suddenly go out of control?"

"And... could that ball of fire from just now be the Sacred Fire of Moltres that you mentioned?"

"That is quite an impressive flame... even in my experience, there are very few flames that can compare to it."

Hearing Lei Guan Wang's questions, Luo Mu, who had checked the conditions of Ceruledge, Moltres, and Victini one by one, lifted his head and said with a slightly hoarse voice:

"That flame... I have a slight impression of it."

At this moment, Luo Mu's heart was as turbulent as the sea in a storm.

But his brain was calmer than ever before.

What flame of Moltres healing scars?

The seven-colored, iridescent flame from just now was clearly—

"That flame is very likely related to Ho-Oh, one of the legendary Pokémon and objects of faith in the Kanto and Johto regions."

"The name of that flame is probably... Sacred Fire."

(End of Chapter)