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"So, how do I open this?" Chris touched the invisible barrier in front of him, his mind racing as he considered his options.
The treasure's approximate location was already locked onto his device, but he couldn't enter to retrieve it. This situation was extremely frustrating.
"Maybe I should use the power of Aura to see through it?" The power of Aura was known to be a universal ability, and it might be able to help him "unlock" whatever was blocking his path.
Chris concentrated and tried to release his Aura power, but the invisible barrier remained unaffected. His Aura abilities weren't particularly strong, so he decided to have Gardevoir teleport over the team member who was most skilled with Aura powers.
Even that attempt yielded nothing.
"I wonder if the Fang family has ever been to this place before?" Chris pondered, stroking his chin thoughtfully.
According to Roy, the Aura Secret Realm had existed since ancient times. "No one knows exactly when it first appeared or how long the city has been guarding this place. But it's been protected for at least several hundred years," Roy had explained.[T/N: The bird secret realm has been changed to aura secret realm.]
As the guardians of this realm, the Fang family must have discovered this special location long ago, even though the Aura phenomena only appeared once every few years.
Whether the Fang family had been blocked by this same invisible wall was impossible to know. Chris hoped they had found a way to enter.
Otherwise, he probably wouldn't be able to find an entrance anytime soon.
Should he try a direct attack? Chris quickly dismissed the idea. If the Fang family knew about this place, and if this invisible barrier was some kind of purposeful defense mechanism protecting something extremely valuable, breaking it by force would likely make the Fang family his permanent enemies.
"Gardevoir, use Confusion to scan the barrier in front of us. Present the patterns through your psychic power," Chris commanded carefully. He wanted to see the outline of the invisible barrier, hoping it might give him clues about what lay inside.
"Garde~" Gardevoir nodded without hesitation and immediately began spreading its Confusion attack.
Psychic energy erupted from beneath its feet, rushing outward in all directions and spreading rapidly until it covered the entire range of the invisible barrier.
Within just a few minutes, Gardevoir had created a detailed "three-dimensional image" in Chris's mind, showing everything its psychic powers had detected.
What appeared before Chris looked like an enormous dome.
This was a massive raised dome structure, with its highest point reaching hundreds of meters above the ground.
The outline wasn't perfectly clear, but Chris could definitely tell that something important was contained within it.
However, this scanning attempt wasn't completely fruitless.
Chris had found a way to enter the dome.
Because Gardevoir had used overlapping psychic scans, the pattern it presented was remarkably detailed. Every inch of the invisible barrier's surface had been thoroughly examined.
Chris could see that there was a small gap in the sky, about 200 meters to his left and roughly 30 meters above the ground. The opening was just large enough for Pokemon the size of Pikachu, Togepi, or Pidgey to pass through freely.
The hole was quite small, but that wasn't a major problem. As long as he could get inside somehow, he could have Gardevoir teleport him in properly!
"Gardevoir, let's go in and take a look."
"Garde!" Chris's figure flickered, and in the next instant, he had passed through the invisible barrier and entered the dome.
Solid ground stretched out beneath his feet, surrounded by lush green forests. At first glance, there seemed to be no difference between the inside and outside of this invisible barrier.
But when Chris raised his head and looked around, his breath caught in his throat.
Right in front of him, only tens of meters away, stood an enormous tree made entirely of rock. It towered hundreds of meters into the sky, with thick branches and dense foliage that blocked out the sun and covered an area of over a thousand meters!
"What... what is this thing?" Chris whispered, his voice filled with awe and confusion.
Almost immediately, he felt an incredibly strong Aura force emanating from the tree. The power was overwhelming!
Looking up, he watched as light blue ripples rapidly spread upward and outward from the rock tree, moving like waves of pure light.
The waves pulsed rhythmically, and Aura power flowed from the rock tree's branches and leaves like a rushing tide!
If Chris's guess was correct, the Aura Secret Realm he was currently standing in possessed such incredibly strong Aura power fluctuations precisely because of this magnificent tree.
Could this tree actually produce and emit Aura power?
What in the world was this thing?
Chris pulled out his treasure detector to get a better reading.
The treasure detector's arrow pointed directly at the rock tree.
"Is the treasure detector pointing to the rock tree itself, or is there something hidden inside the rock tree?" Chris used his Flying-type energy manipulation to float upward, carefully examining the massive rock tree before him.
The treasures that could be detected by his device weren't limited to just items and tools. Berries and Berry trees could also be detected as long as they reached a certain level of value and rarity.
As he flew in circles around the tree, Chris realized that he had seen many towering ancient trees in real life, but compared to this enormous rock tree, even the largest natural trees seemed tiny!
As he moved closer and observed more carefully, Chris immediately noticed that a large number of Pokemon were living peacefully on the rock tree.
Furret families, Zigzagoon families, Jumpluff families, Geodude families, and Shiftry families were all there.
All kinds of Pokemon were living happily throughout the rock tree's massive structure.
The rock tree didn't appear to be completely solid either. It was hollow inside with pathways running through it, because Chris could frequently see Pokemon emerging from various openings, walking and swaying as they moved from one part of the tree to another.
"Zhizhi..." Suddenly, an unfamiliar mechanical sound echoed through the air.
It wasn't coming from any Pokemon, but rather sounded like some kind of ancient mechanism being activated.
"BOOM!"
A thunderous crash suddenly erupted in front of Chris.
An enormous khaki-colored body, standing at least ten meters tall, fell from the sky and landed directly in front of him.
Chris instinctively looked up and saw seven glowing red orbs arranged in the shape of an "H" pattern. In the next second, the massive figure stood upright, revealing its rock body that looked as tough and imposing as a mountain fortress.
A rock body... with seven orbs forming the letter "H".
After a moment of stunned silence, Chris immediately recognized the identity of the Pokemon standing before him.
Regirock! The Rock Pillar Pokemon!
Before Chris could fully process his surprise at encountering the legendary Pokemon Regirock in this place, two more thunderous "BOOM!" sounds echoed around him.
A second figure appeared, featuring seven glowing yellow orbs arranged in a "+" pattern across its torso. This was the legendary Ice Pillar Pokemon, Regice, with its body composed entirely of pristine ice crystals.
Then came a third figure, displaying seven brilliant red orbs arranged in a hexagonal pattern across its metallic torso. This was the legendary Steel Pillar Pokemon, Registeel, forged entirely from the strongest metals.
All three had appeared one after another.
"The original three Regi Pokemon are all here?" Chris's eyelids twitched wildly as he tried to process what he was seeing.
What kind of incredible significance did this massive rock tree have to warrant the presence of all three legendary guardians?
Wait a minute!
Chris looked up at the enormous rock tree towering above him, then looked down at the three Regi Pokemon standing nearby.
A scene from one of the Pokemon movies suddenly flashed through his memory.
He remembered now.
This was the Tree of Beginning!