Chapter 160: The City Wall

Chapter 60: The City Wall

Feitang did not plan to return to Dragon-Inciting City with Luyun and the others.

Although unexpected circumstances had arisen during the mission and a fellow teammate had lost their life, the mission to transport the supplies was, after all, not yet completed.

As the sole Pokémon trainer and backbone of the convoy at this moment, despite her partner Pokémon sustaining severe injuries and losing the ability to battle, Feitang still decided to accompany the convoy to Xiarong Town.

It was no longer far to Xiarong Town, and encountering a nightmare Pokémon on the road had already been sheer bad luck. The probability of running into another one was practically zero, so there should be no further danger.

On the other hand, this encounter had indeed left a deep shadow in the heart of the red-haired girl.

She urgently wanted to return to her home in Xiarong Town, pour her heart out to her parents about the ordeal she had just been through, and take the opportunity to rest well for a period of time.

Waving goodbye to Luyun and the others, Feitang opened the door of the off-road vehicle and climbed inside.

"Vroom."

The dull roar of the engine echoed in the damp air, and dark grey exhaust fumes rose from the tailpipe.

The convoy of steel formed a long dragon, driving along the road into the distance.

Luyun and Elle stood quietly in place, watching for a while until the convoy became a tiny black dot on the horizon, before withdrawing their gazes.

They turned around and began walking toward the other side of the road.

"Jingle, jingle..."

Faintly, crisp and clear bell sounds seemed to drift from the receding convoy.

Like a delicate and gentle stream, it flowed quietly through the air.

......

......

Dragon-Inciting City was one of the primary cities that resisted nightmare Pokémon decades ago. Due to the powerful League forces stationed within its walls and the massive population left over from the Age of Light, it had become one of the nine major human metropolises in the present world.

The name "Dragon-Inciting" was inspired by the city's guardian deity, a Champion-tier Dragonite.

Centuries had passed, and even now, though the offensive of the nightmare Pokémon had slowed and their presence had nearly vanished within a radius of hundreds of kilometers, the guardian deity of Dragon-Inciting City still secretly and silently protected this human city, preserving the spark of hope for the last remnants of humanity.

After spending nearly the entire morning, the magnificent silhouette of Dragon-Inciting City finally appeared within Luyun's field of vision.

A terrifying height of nearly forty meters had, decades ago, blocked almost sixty percent of the attacking nightmare Pokémon.

Dark grey wall bricks bearing mottled bloodstains fit closely together, radiating a thick sense of history and iron-blooded determination.

Unlike ordinary stone, the surface of Dragon-Inciting City's wall bricks emitted a faint metallic texture.

Such a towering city wall, capable of deterring countless nightmare Pokémon wielding various elemental powers, was naturally far from simple.

The wall bricks of Dragon-Inciting City had been crafted by numerous human scientists who poured their heart and soul into the endeavor, synthesizing defensive capabilities, practicality, cost-effectiveness, durability, and various other aspects while combining numerous rare materials.

In that dark era when most technology became unusable due to electromagnetic storms, to build this land of human hope, the League expended an untold amount of manpower and resources, finishing it just before the large-scale, systematic assault of the nightmare Pokémon arrived.

Today, this magnificent city located at the intersection of the Kolong Wasteland and the Misty Forest had become a defensive frontline guarded by tens of thousands of trainers, a sturdy sanctuary for millions of people, and one of the nine proud major cities of humanity.

Relying on Luyun's powerful Pokémon sensory abilities, merely standing beneath the city wall made him feel as though he were in the very center of a battlefield. He could perceive waves of rich, boundless bloody aura as vast as the ocean, and hear the roars and shouts of warriors fighting to the death countless years ago.

Luyun could not help shivering slightly, goosebumps erupting all over his body.

A surge of hot blood rushed to his head, making him yearn to immediately charge onto the battlefield and fight with clenched fists.

"Hoo..."

Luyun closed his eyes, taking a few deep breaths before gradually calming down.

For Luyun at this moment, a Pokémon's formidable sensory abilities could be described as having both advantages and disadvantages.

The advantage was that it made him more sensitive to the movements and attacks of enemies during battle, and he could even perceive certain hidden dangers lurking in the shadows as if foreseeing the future;

The disadvantage was precisely what he was experiencing now: such hyper-sensitive perception allowed Luyun to detect massive amounts of lingering mental energy formed by special illusory forces, such as powerful wills,

which in turn influenced his mindset and willpower, causing him to exhibit behaviors distinctly out of character or generate strange, unintended impulses.

This was something Luyun, who always strived to maintain a state of calm, deeply resented.

However, facing the magnificent city wall of Dragon-Inciting City at this moment, despite his internal aversion, Luyun felt an even stronger wave of deep admiration.

Luyun reached out and gently stroked the city wall.

A cold touch lingered on his fingertips, and faintly, he seemed to sense a strange warmth.

It was as if he had returned to that dark era, where the blood of countless fallen heroes was spilled across this magnificent, seemingly endless wall...

Luyun snapped back to reality with a start, patting his chest in relief.

"Phew, that was close. I almost got sucked in again."

This ancient city wall, possessing immense depth and breadth in terms of history, forced a Pokémon with sensitive perception like Luyun to maintain a state of constant vigilance while in its vicinity.

Otherwise, a momentary lapse in focus could plunge him into its protracted history, unable to extricate himself for a long time.

Only after pulling back the spiritual energy scattered around his body and locking it firmly within himself did Luyun let out a slight breath of relief.

Tapping Elle on the shoulder—who was looking at him with a strange gaze—Luyun spoke up,

"Alright, let's enter the city."

Though he did not understand why Luyun had stood dazedly beneath the city wall for so long, Elle knew he was unharmed,

so he nodded and walked with him toward the city gates.

These were a pair of extremely wide and tall dark-grey gates, made of a material similar to the surrounding walls, gleaming with a metallic luster. However, because of the people bustling back and forth through them, they felt slightly less bloodthirsty and ferocious, and carried more of a lively, everyday human atmosphere compared to the walls.

Contrary to the tragic scenes Luyun had imagined, the people walking in and out of the city gates, while not dressed in luxurious attire, were nonetheless neatly dressed and high-spirited. Luyun did not even see a single beggar.

What he did not know was that perhaps during the era when the nightmare Pokémon's offensives were fierce, human life might have been rather miserable;

yet decades had already passed since the temporary lull in the nightmare Pokémon's attacks, and the surrounding area of Dragon-Inciting City had long been cleared out by the League.

Most of the ordinary citizens living inside Dragon-Inciting City nowadays might never have truly laid eyes on a nightmare Pokémon with their own flesh and blood in their entire lives.

Without the threat of their ultimate enemy, even though humanity had not yet fully recovered to the peak of its technological prowess, simply relying on the lucid Pokémon within the city to help humans solve their most basic needs for food and clothing was quite effortless.

To put it into perspective, perhaps just the weakest Oddish could, through its wondrous Grass-type abilities, accelerate the growth of human-planted crops and double their yields.

The various conveniences brought by other Pokémon went without saying.