Arbok stared blankly at the shattered Poké Ball in Aoki's hand, the ethereal sensation completely gone.
At this moment, an indescribable feeling surged in Arbok's heart.
Was it joy? It didn't seem to be that level of happiness.
Was it sadness? Yet, there was no such feeling.
It just felt a bit sudden, but it had already prepared for it, so it accepted everything calmly.
This was not only because it couldn't offer much help to Aoki now, but also because it had grown accustomed to and fond of life here.
"Cha--" Arbok slowly got up and gently nudged the Ekans beside it towards Aoki.
Ekans didn't resist, its curious eyes fixed on Aoki.
But honestly, being stared at by a snake like that wasn't exactly a pleasant feeling.
"You want me to take him out? To find a suitable trainer for him?" Aoki understood Arbok's intention.
Though Trial Island was vast, it was ultimately just an island. A Pokémon that had been with a trainer for some time knew how much help having a trainer could provide.
It didn't ask Aoki to take its child, only that he find a good trainer for its child.
Aoki nodded, "I understand."
With that, he took out a brand new Poké Ball and captured the Ekans, which was only level fifteen and had a light green aptitude.
Considering Aoki's current strength, this Ekans certainly didn't catch his eye, but that didn't stop Aoki from finding a suitable owner for it.
Seeing Aoki capture the Ekans, Arbok's wish was fulfilled. It slowly retreated into the depths of the jungle, its reunion with Aoki ending this way.
Aoki also observed Arbok's strength: peak quasi-Elite Four.
It could dominate this area but couldn't get too close to the central region, as that place was quite dangerous for it.
Aoki's two main objectives on Trial Island this time were complete.
Exploring the Gastly Cave and releasing Arbok.
The subsequent exploration of Trial Island proceeded systematically. With the cooperation of Lucario and Venusaur, as long as Elite Four-level Pokémon didn't appear, the two of them combined could virtually defeat any opponent.
However, there were still some Pokémon inside Trial Island that had lived there for a long time and had broken through to Elite Four level.
But after Aoki summoned Salamence, everything ceased to be a problem.
The entire map of Trial Island was almost completely lit up in the system.
This island was quite large, and the variety of Pokémon on it was sufficient. This was also a result of Team Rocket sending people to clear it out periodically.
They needed to provide enough pressure for the trial participants but couldn't let the situation be completely one-sided.
As for these Elite Four and quasi-Elite Four level Pokémon, they wouldn't have much effect on the trial participants. Their existence was merely to maintain order and the ecological environment on Trial Island to a certain extent.
Living in the very center of Trial Island, and also known as the King of Trial Island, was an Elite Four-level Nidoking and Nidoqueen.
However, after being directly defeated by Aoki's Salamence, the title of King of Trial Island was officially transferred to Salamence.
Aoki also successfully seized the most central area of Trial Island.
Anyway, with Jessie and James' personalities, for them to truly understand the cruelty of this world, they still needed to struggle among these trial participants for a while.
Aoki didn't specifically instruct Arbok to look after Jessie and James, so Arbok didn't know Aoki's purpose for coming to the island this time, nor did he know that these two were specially cared for by Giovanni.
However, judging by their luck, it would be quite difficult for them to get by among the trial participants, especially since they only had a Meowth that could talk but couldn't battle. But it would be quite difficult for them to directly lose their lives.
More tempering would also be beneficial for better discipline later.
Aoki didn't have the leisure to indulge them like Giovanni did in the future.
In Aoki's view, to have a better life, one must first possess sufficient strength.
Many things in this world seemed to be destined, but Aoki wanted to see if Jessie and James could achieve decent strength under his intentional guidance.
At least not like the trio in Aoki's memory.
Jessie inherited her mother's strengths and was actually a trainer with considerable potential. If she could focus on training Pokémon, she might even have the possibility of becoming an executive.
Compared to Jessie, Aoki was more optimistic about James.
James had a lot of love for Pokémon and treated his Pokémon with sincerity, so his Pokémon all liked James, though their expressions of affection were a bit excessive.
This was most evident with his Grass-type Pokémon; almost every Grass-type Pokémon he released from its Poké Ball would attack him, which was their way of showing affection.
Overall, both of them actually had strong potential; they just lacked correct values and proper training methods.
Perhaps it was due to Team Rocket's ingrained thinking, or perhaps habits formed on Trial Island, but when they saw other people's Pokémon, their first thought was always to steal them.
It couldn't be said that this idea was wrong, as the opponent's Pokémon were indeed stronger than theirs.
To fundamentally correct this idea, they needed to train their own Pokémon to be excellent enough, so excellent that they wouldn't look down on others' Pokémon. Over time, this would be corrected.
After some thought on how to handle and settle Jessie and James, Aoki came to this conclusion.
For now, he put it aside. Aoki summoned his Pokémon and prepared to train them here for a while.
He, meanwhile, sat aside and began to research how to help Darkrai recover from its current state.
Unlike other Pokémon, Darkrai didn't need to improve its strength through battle and training, because at this moment, its strength was due to the erosion of Ghost-type energy.
The only way to help it improve its strength was to remove the damage caused by the Ghost-type energy erosion.
However, Darkrai could also train a little; after all, it had been in that state for who knows how many years, and no matter how strong its body was, it must have rusted. A little exercise would also be beneficial for recovery.
Moreover, Darkrai's battle habits were definitely at odds with Aoki's battle philosophy. If possible, Aoki certainly hoped that Darkrai, as his Pokémon, could gradually mesh with him.
This process was long, but it was a path that had to be taken.
Aoki also had a slight idea of how to help him. Although complete recovery wasn't possible, there were at least some methods.
This was all thanks to the red plants Slowking had found.