Chapter 247: Let

The night was cold and the dew heavy; mountain wind swept the chill of the temple ruins through the stone cracks, but the fire beside him burned brightly, orange‑red flames leaping and driving away most of the cold.

It was Huo La who lit it after Cyndaquil woke up and turned.

At this moment, the two little ones were curled on his left and right in his arms, sleeping soundly.

Cyndaquil's small head rested on his arm; Eevee curled into a ball, its fluffy tail covering its paws.

After escaping the threat of death, Huo La's first action was to roll and crawl to the stone pillar and check the condition of the two Pokémon.

Fortunately, they were only stunned by Deoxys's Psychic power, with only minor skin abrasions; after taking medicine, they quickly recovered their spirits.

Huo La leaned against a mottled beam and stone pillar behind him, his gaze fixed on the ground not far away—where a Master Ball lay silently, its surface shimmering faintly, occasionally trembling slightly, clearly because the Deoxys inside was not yet fully settled.

"Deoxys… Arceus's avatar… the revival of the Time‑Space Dual Gods… the Eighteen Plates…" these keywords whirled in his mind like a rotating lantern, finally all settling on the task Arceus left before departing.

The Eighteen Plates weighed heavily on his heart.

He recalled that the Eighteen Plates corresponded to the eighteen Pokémon types—Normal, Fire, Water, Electric, Grass, Ice, Fighting, Poison, Ground, Flying, Psychic, Bug, Rock, Ghost, Dragon, Dark, Steel, Fairy.

Each plate could grant Arceus the power of its respective type, a symbol of Creator God Power.

The problem was, how could Arceus's plates be scattered here? All eighteen of them in the Hisui Region? It seemed like a far‑fetched tale.

Unless… these plates, like Arceus's avatar, are "tokens" it left in this time‑space;

Or perhaps this world is the so‑called "Main World", the origin of all stories.

Arceus has already confirmed that this place is two thousand years before the Pokémon world he originally came from.

"Sigh… plates… where the hell am I supposed to find them," Huo La muttered, looking up at the broken dome of the temple, gazing at the star‑filled night sky beyond, and letting out a long sigh.

He vaguely remembered that a few kings in the Hisui Region indeed had traces of the plates by their sides.

But that was only a handful; what about the remaining plates?

Does it mean he has to turn the entire Hisui upside down?

"Arceus, Arceus, at least give me a route to find them," he muttered helplessly, his tone full of resignation. "If nothing else, a golden finger that can sense the plates would do. With just a line 'collect the Eighteen Plates,' when am I supposed to finish?"

The night wind carried his complaints, dissipating into the silent ruins. Days of travel and last night's near‑death had already drained his spirit.

Amidst his intermittent grumbling, his exhausted nerves finally gave out; Huo La's eyelids grew heavier, and at last he tilted his head, leaned against the stone pillar, and, accompanied by the breathing of the two little ones, fell into a deep sleep.

When he woke again, it was the sun overhead that roused him.

The golden sunlight streamed through the temple's broken hole, scorching his face with a burning pain.

Huo La frowned, rubbed his eyes, and as he tried to stretch, a piercing ache shot through his whole body, making him grit his teeth and gasp a cold breath.

Last night he had only been grateful to have snatched a life back, paying no heed to his injuries.

Now that his spirit relaxed, the blood marks left by Deoxys's tentacles and the bruises from falling onto stones began to protest loudly. He lifted his shirt, revealing several interlaced purplish bruises on his waist and abdomen, some even forming thin scabs.

"Keeping this life alive isn't fucking easy," Huo La snarled, slowly leaning on the stone pillar to stand up and shake his stiff limbs.

His gaze swept around and he saw that the two little ones in his arms had already woken.

Cyndaquil crouched by the fire, practicing fire‑breathing on a pile of rubble; its tiny body stood rigid, each burst of flame steadier and brighter than the last;

Eevee sat on a clean stone tablet nearby, diligently licking its fur to clear away the dust, its fluffy tail wagging, looking noticeably more spirited.

Seeing this, the gloom in Huo La's heart lifted considerably, and a faint smile tugged at his lips.

His eyes then fell on the system icon in the corner of his view that only he could see; the icon still glowed, clearly still powered and not in standby.

Huo La thought for a moment and opened the system interface.

The interface still displayed the low‑energy warning popup, but the energy value in the lower right corner had changed to 3%.

Apparently, the meteor energy of Deoxys that the system had absorbed wasn't fully siphoned, leaving just a sliver behind.

"System, system…" Huo La murmured, looking at the numbers, his heart a mix of emotions—both love and hate for this system.

Back in Kanto, when he was forcibly eliminated by Sakaki's subordinates, if the system hadn't suddenly erupted and whisked him through time and space, he would have been dead long ago.

This time, too, the system's forced absorption of Deoxys's energy triggered the whole calamity, eventually nearly causing his death again.

He stared at the 3% energy, his fingers unconsciously stroking it lightly.

This meager energy was only enough to open the Pokémon attribute interface, but at least… the system wasn't fully dormant.

Huo La took a deep breath, resolved to collect the Eighteen Plates, subdue Deoxys, and find a way home… the road ahead was long and fraught with danger.

"At least I know where I am," Huo La said, rubbing his still‑tingling waist and abdomen, murmuring, "First I'll get something to eat and fill my stomach, then head back to Zhuqing Village to report safety, and maybe check if Wang Luo is still around."

He stroked his chin, pondering—searching for the Eighteen Plates alone, he feared he couldn't even grasp their shadows.

But Wang Luo was different; he was a member of the Ginkgo Guild, whose caravans traversed all of Hisui, keeping well‑informed, and if all went well, Wang Luo's goal was also Arceus.

Huo La looked up toward the mountains beyond the temple, his gaze clear.

The Hisui map could roughly be divided into five core regions, with the Tian Guan Mountain Foothills being the most unique—situated in the interior, surrounded tightly by the other four, and the Sinnoh Temple where he now stood perched atop the mountains deep within the foothills.

The Obsidian Fieldlands and Zhuqing Village lay to the southwest of the Tian Guan Mountain Foothills, not far in a straight line, though the mountain paths were rugged.

"Good sense of direction is the best; it keeps you from getting lost," Huo La brushed the dust off his hands. "Let's go, little ones, we'll figure out how to get down the mountain first."