Aoki had a preliminary understanding of the strength of these two individuals.
"Phoebe, I'll help you get your things back," Aoki said with a smile to Phoebe. At this moment, he felt much more at ease, and his initial anger had quickly subsided, achieving a state where he no longer showed his emotions easily.
His smile towards Phoebe was simply because of her inexplicable trust in him.
Hearing Aoki's words, Phoebe immediately cast all of the words aside, her eyes sparkling with surprise, or rather, delight.
"Really? But they already have them. Aoki, how are you going to get them back?"
Phoebe's big eyes darted around, clearly, with her small mind, she couldn't figure out how Aoki would snatch her things back.
Aoki smiled mysteriously.
He didn't hide his words at all; although they weren't very loud, in front of two psychics, it was impossible for them not to hear.
"Heh! The items are right here. How do you plan to take them?" The middle-aged man in yellow was confident, certain that Aoki wouldn't dare to attack first.
Otherwise, he was confident that he could team up with Itsuki to quickly deal with Aoki.
The one who attacks often has more weaknesses than the one who defends.
But as soon as he finished speaking, Aoki's eyes suddenly glowed blue, and his psychic energy surged.
"Not good!" Although Itsuki's psychic ability didn't sense anything, his keen sixth sense made him instinctively dodge to the side.
However, the middle-aged man in yellow beside him didn't have such awareness.
This was the lacking aspect for those who had lived comfortably here for twenty-five years, compared to true powerhouses.
The intuition of a powerhouse!
This was something that people accustomed to a comfortable life couldn't experience. Overconfident individuals wouldn't consider the possibilities of a problem or event from multiple angles.
Hiss—
Itsuki dodged in time, but the blue backpack slung over his shoulder, along with a sleeve of his clothing, was fiercely torn off by a dark claw, leaving three fresh red marks on Itsuki's arm.
Gengar darted out from Itsuki's shadow, and it was precisely because Itsuki used his psychic ability that he was able to evade Gengar's attack.
Phoebe saw her backpack snatched by Gengar, but she didn't show a happy expression. Instead, her eyes widened, staring intently at the middle-aged man in yellow who hadn't dodged in time.
A dark, sharp claw pierced through his chest, and from the junction of the claw and skin, a large amount of fresh blood flowed out like an endless spring.
Besides Gengar, there was also another pitch-black Pokémon, even stronger and more elusive: Darkrai!
Darkrai's hand directly penetrated the middle-aged man in yellow's chest.
Whether it was the middle-aged man in yellow, Aoki, or Itsuki, they all appeared somewhat surprised or shocked.
In fact, Gengar and Darkrai had already left Aoki's shadow when he first approached the spatial device.
Because the electric attacks of Jolteon and Ampharos were truly too powerful, and they were explosive area attacks.
Under such intense light, not only Aoki, but even Itsuki and the middle-aged man in yellow couldn't clearly see if anything was mixed in.
Furthermore, the energy shock generated by the electric energy explosion also prevented their psychic abilities from sensing any Pokémon silently entering their shadows through the ground's shadows.
This was the so-called "light under the lamp is dark."
They also didn't expect that in such a situation, Aoki would choose to leave a trump card instead of having Gengar and Darkrai protect his personal safety.
At that time, if the strong current splattered onto him, it would cause him great harm, and if the splattered location was particularly sensitive, he might even lose his life directly.
However, this also showed Aoki's trust in Salamence, the combination of will between trainer and Pokémon after Mega Evolution, and the feeling of being able to control everything.
After Gengar and Darkrai hid in Itsuki's and the yellow-clothed middle-aged man's shadows respectively, it was impossible for them to be discovered again.
Ghost-type Gengar and Dark-type Darkrai both have a certain degree of resistance to psychic abilities. As long as they wanted to hide, they were almost impossible to detect.
They only suddenly darted out from their shadows to attack after Aoki gave them the command to attack.
Actually, Aoki's initial goal was truly just to have Gengar and Darkrai snatch Phoebe's backpack back.
In his opinion, as long as the opponent's psychic ability was focused enough, they could still dodge Gengar and Darkrai's attacks. After all, this kind of attack was meant to be a surprise, and could not use charged-up skills, only the most basic punches and kicks, etc.
Itsuki's reaction was flawless. Although his psychic ability didn't detect Gengar first, his intuition matched his strength. This level of power was clearly honed in various complex and dangerous environments. While not perfect, it was already quite good.
However, the middle-aged man in yellow truly surprised Aoki. The opponent's psychic ability was clearly stronger than Itsuki's, yet he seemed overly confident in his own safety, directly getting hit in a vital spot by Darkrai's most basic attack. And judging by where Darkrai's hand passed through, it seemed the opponent didn't even make the most basic attempt to dodge.
He just passed away so ordinarily!
Although Darkrai's strength is greater than Gengar's, and as a Dark-type Pokémon, its advantage against Psychic-types is more severe, for a Champion-level powerhouse, and a psychic no less skilled than Aoki, to lack even this level of reaction time and crisis intuition is truly surprising.
Just as Aoki had initially thought, Darkrai and Gengar would cause some trouble for the opponent, and might even cause a bit of damage, such as Itsuki's arm injury, or at most, the loss of an arm if it were more severe.
He never expected such an outcome.
So, all four people present were shocked at the same time.
Perhaps Itsuki's shock was the same as Aoki's: how could this person appear so strong on the surface, yet have such terrible reaction time?!
It was also this middle-aged man in yellow whose decisive methods and displayed strength when dealing with Phoebe had awed both Phoebe and Itsuki, but when the outcome turned out like this, no one could have truly predicted it.
The middle-aged man in yellow felt something inexplicably pierce his chest.
Just as he was about to display his strength, ready to return to the Pokémon world and show his immense power to everyone who had once looked down on him, he was cut down right here.
He died before he even had a chance to achieve success!
The frustration and indignation in his heart were something no one could feel at that moment.
A mouthful of fresh blood spurted from his mouth. Feeling his body temperature dropping, his limbs becoming increasingly weak, and even his eyelids starting to feel heavy, he knew he was dying.
And at this moment, standing before him, his Pokémon, Jolteon and Ampharos, also wore expressions of shock.
As Pokémon, this was the first time they had seen their trainer die in front of them. For a moment, they were at a loss, unsure what to do, and had not received any commands from their trainer.
Thus, a very eerie silence fell among the four, everyone unsure of what they should do at that moment.
Pfft—
It wasn't until the middle-aged man in yellow coughed up another mouthful of blood and his eyes began to glaze over that Aoki and Itsuki reacted.
Itsuki, with a flash, rushed towards the middle-aged man in yellow, protected by his two Pokémon. More precisely, he rushed towards the Poké Balls at his waist.
And Aoki's first reaction was also to order Darkrai to snatch all the Poké Balls from the opponent's waist!
Darkrai immediately withdrew its blood-stained arm, then reached for the middle-aged man in yellow's waist, while its other arm struck out at the charging Itsuki.
Bang!!! Bang!!!
With two dull thuds, the two Pokémon accompanying Itsuki, including Itsuki himself, were all sent flying backward.
However, Itsuki was not injured; in fact, a smile even appeared on his face as he flew backward.
In his hand, he tightly clutched three Poké Balls, and then, enveloped in psychic energy, he and his Pokémon rapidly retreated as they were sent flying.
On the other side, Darkrai also tightly clutched three Poké Balls and a special spatial storage device.
Seeing Itsuki rapidly retreating, Gengar, who had initially snatched Phoebe's backpack, threw the backpack to the ground and quickly darted towards Itsuki.
Gengar's speed was very fast, and Darkrai, realizing what was happening, immediately put down the items in its hand and rushed towards Itsuki.
Boom!!!
But at this crucial moment, the spatial rift in mid-air suddenly let out a massive roar. A large amount of black lightning, much faster than before, surged into this space. Then, as if it had exhausted its last energy, this spatial rift slowly closed on its own.
Aoki and Itsuki's expressions changed simultaneously.
Aoki's expression became solemn, while Itsuki's expression became exceptionally delighted. This time, Lady Luck was on his side!
At this crucial moment, the spatial rift, which had been working for a long time, had just completed its mission.
The spatial blockade of this continent had been successfully broken!
During this period when the spatial restriction was weakest, space on this continent would no longer be a limitation, and the psychic abilities of all psychics and psychic Pokémon would be able to function normally.
That, of course, included the Teleportation that Aoki had originally relied heavily on.
Itsuki's eyes stared intently at Aoki for a moment again, then his lips moved slightly a few times before the psychic energy enveloping him and his Pokémon suddenly vanished mid-flight.
Aoki's reaction speed was still very fast. The moment he sensed the spatial blockade disappear, he threw out a Poké Ball and summoned Slowking!
But summoning a Pokémon still took some time. By the time Slowking appeared, Itsuki and his Pokémon had already vanished.
Without thinking, Aoki immediately placed his palm on Slowking's back, and his psychic ability and Slowking's psychic ability instantly surged out and merged together.
Spatial Block!
To counter Teleportation, one could only use psychic power to block it.
Aoki and Slowking, with their eyes tightly shut, opened them simultaneously three seconds later, and a hint of regret could be seen in both their eyes.
They couldn't stop the opponent from escaping, but they did interfere with their Teleportation. Itsuki's two Pokémon used all their strength to protect him, allowing the Teleportation to succeed, but these two Pokémon would likely be unable to participate in any battles for a short period, and Itsuki's own psychic ability was severely damaged.
Although the opponent had snatched three Poké Balls, this was completely acceptable to Aoki.
Originally, he had prepared for a tough battle, even preparing to be jointly tormented by Itsuki and the middle-aged man in yellow. As long as he could stall until Steven and the others arrived, Aoki and Phoebe's crisis would be resolved.
From the current perspective, being able to resolve the opponent without a fight, driving away Itsuki, and obtaining the middle-aged man in yellow's three Poké Balls, as well as the large amount of resources he had accumulated for twenty-five years, was a huge win.
Aoki estimated it shouldn't be much less than what Joker had.
Gengar and Darkrai returned together.
Gengar returned the blue backpack in his hand to Phoebe.
As someone with a strong affinity for Ghost-type Pokémon, Aoki's Gengar had a great fondness for Phoebe, and it wasn't their first time meeting.
Phoebe carefully took the backpack and said to Gengar, "Thank you, Gengar."
Gengar just smiled naively.
Phoebe quickly rummaged through her backpack twice, making sure all her Poké Balls were there, before letting out a long sigh of relief.
As long as the Pokémon were all there, it was fine. As for resources and such, they could be slowly collected and found again.
For a trainer, Pokémon were their foundation.
"How is it? Are they all there?" Aoki asked with a smile.
Phoebe immediately nodded happily, "Only some materials are missing. Most of the things are there, and most importantly, my partners are all here."
Only now could a truly heartfelt smile be seen on Phoebe's face. The most worrying thing had, after all, not happened.
Aoki also nodded in satisfaction, gently rubbing Phoebe's head, then took the three Poké Balls, which Darkrai had already cleaned, and a special spatial storage device from Darkrai's hand.
He first placed the spatial storage device in Phoebe's hand. "Consider the materials inside as comfort for you. See if there's anything you need. If not, I have more here."
However, Phoebe quickly pushed the item back. "I'm already very satisfied to get my Pokémon back. What I lost were just some materials. This is your spoils of war, I can't take it."
"Besides... besides, these materials are useless to me. I'm not a breeder, so I won't use the materials most efficiently. They'll be most valuable in your hands."
"When you convert these materials into finished products, I'll come to you for them then. You can't refuse me!"
As she spoke, she even waved her two small fists twice.
Having finally found a reason to convince Aoki, her little mind was also working faster and faster.
Phoebe inwardly praised her own quick wit.
Aoki smiled helplessly, shook his head, and didn't give the item back to Phoebe. Instead, he put it away himself, planning to organize the spoils when he had time.
He then looked at the three Poké Balls in his hand.
He saw that only one Poké Ball contained a Pokémon, while the other two were empty.
Aoki's face once again showed a satisfied smile, the Jolteon and Ampharos Poké Balls!
These two Pokémon should be the strongest ones in the hands of the yellow-clothed middle-aged man. Just looking at their data put a lot of pressure on Aoki, but he didn't expect their trainer to be so useless, unable to unleash their full combat power before losing his own life.
Aoki casually recalled the still dazed Jolteon and Ampharos, then locked their Poké Balls and placed them together with the two Poké Balls he had previously obtained from Jokley.
One Leafeon, one Jolteon. I wonder if there's any special connection between them.
After putting everything away, Aoki glanced at Tyranitar, who immediately understood.
Its thick tail gently slapped the ground, and instantly the ground here began to undulate, and the entire landscape changed to some extent, burying the yellow-clothed middle-aged man deep underground.
At this point, this matter finally came to an end. Aoki and Phoebe, whose mind was full of questions, were finally ready to leave.
"Aoki, can I ask now? Why did your Salamence change its appearance? It looks even more handsome and majestic!
And, and, that dark, incredibly cool and handsome Pokémon, is it the legendary Darkrai? You've actually caught a legendary Pokémon! But, he's really so handsome!"
Darkrai floated silently in mid-air, the black, flame-like things on his body moving without any wind.
At first glance, he looked a bit like a wanderer, and indeed, he could attract the attention of many young girls.
"That's right, he is Darkrai, but there isn't only one Darkrai in this world, so strictly speaking, he cannot be considered a true legendary Pokémon." Aoki smiled and nodded. Regarding Darkrai, Aoki didn't intend to hide anything anymore.
After all, Alliance trainers like Adams also capture legendary Pokémon like Latios. If they were to be compared, Darkrai, apart from being a bit rarer than Latios and Latias, the difference between the few Pokémon is not very significant.
"Ya dong!" Just as Aoki was about to say more to Phoebe, Slowking let out a low growl from the side.
Aoki instantly extended his psychic power.
"So many spatial fluctuations!" After a slight stunned, Aoki immediately felt a sense of urgency.
The spatial blockade has completely disappeared!
If this is truly what the Divine Cult designed and hoped for, then they will soon descend upon this continent!
Aoki could barely handle one or two people, but if seven or eight people came at once, let alone him, even someone with Adams' strength might not be able to deal with them.
"Someone is coming this way, Phoebe, we have to go!" Aoki said decisively.
Then he recalled all the Pokémon except Slowking. Gengar and Darkrai very consciously slipped into Aoki's shadow.
Before Phoebe could react, Aoki took her hand and placed it on Slowking's back.
In a single breath, the two of them and Slowking disappeared from their original spot.
The successful use of Teleport once again proved that the spatial blockade on this Time and Space Continent had been temporarily broken, leaving only the final time enhancement. Now, calling it the Time Continent is not impossible.
Aoki and Slowking could both sense Gardevoir's location. Although she was moving quickly, for Slowking, who could now use Teleport, this was not a problem.
"Gardevoir!!!" Gardevoir, who was currently riding on Lance's Charizard with Cynthia and Diantha, showed a surprised expression.
She also sensed the disappearance of the spatial blockade. Just as she was hesitating whether to teleport everyone to Aoki's side, she sensed familiar spatial fluctuations, and those familiar two psychic powers!
One was Aoki's, and the other was her teacher Slowking's.
As Gardevoir showed a surprised expression, Slowking and Aoki appeared together on Charizard's back. If Aoki hadn't given Slowking a heads-up beforehand, their sudden appearance might have directly crushed Charizard.
However, now Slowking's psychic power enveloped Aoki and Phoebe, suspending them in mid-air. With the psychic connection between Gardevoir and Slowking, they were able to maintain normal flight.
But even so, it still startled Cynthia and Diantha, and of course, Lance and Steven.
"Aoki! (Phoebe!)" Two names were called out from the mouths of the five people. Although the names were different, the surprise and astonishment in their tones were exactly the same.
Lance's Dragonite and Charizard, as well as Steven's Aerodactyl, simultaneously stopped their rapid flight.
Seeing the confusion in everyone's eyes, Aoki spoke before they could, "The situation has changed. I'll explain the details later. For now, we can't maintain high-altitude flight. Let's quickly land and find a hidden place to hide!"
Everyone saw Aoki's serious expression and knew that something they didn't know about must have happened.
But this was not the time to hesitate. The three Pokémon flapped their wings again and quickly flew towards a dense small forest below.
Aoki, Slowking, and Gardevoir, on the other hand, lagged behind, working together to erase the spatial traces of their Teleportation, including psychic traces and any other traces that could be tracked.
Soon, everyone landed on a small hill.
Aoki was the first to act, throwing out a Poké Ball and summoning Drapion. He was going to... dig a hole!
Seeing Aoki's actions, everyone was stunned for a moment, but they quickly followed suit, summoning their own Pokémon to help. Soon, a cave large enough to accommodate several people was dug out, and then Aoki took care of the finishing touches, blocking up the cave.
After everything was done, Aoki let out a long sigh of relief.
Steven and the others didn't know what had happened, but seeing Aoki's expression, they knew it wasn't simple.
When had they ever seen Aoki so nervous?
"Aoki, what exactly happened? Why are you so nervous?" Steven voiced everyone's thoughts, even Fuyong, who had been with Aoki the whole time, didn't know what was going on.
"Trouble has arrived!" Aoki said with a solemn expression.
....
In the place where Aoki and Itsuki were confronting each other, after Aoki and Phoebe left, spatial fluctuations appeared.
Following a burst of spatial tremors, a person was the first to squeeze out of the space.
He stretched out a long yawn, accompanied by the sound of his bones, and casually said, "The spatial blockade is finally lifted. I'm finally in. You guys are too slow."
But after his words fell, after a moment, no one responded to him. Only then did he realize that there was no one else here besides him, it was desolate.
If two Murkrow were flying by at this moment, they would definitely be shouting, "Idiot... idiot..." and with punctuation marks.
"Ahem." The person also coughed awkwardly, hoping that this cough would alleviate his self-consciousness.
Although there was no one here and no one saw this scene, he still felt embarrassed himself.
But then, his brows furrowed. He looked around and found no traces of battle, except for a piece of land that seemed to have been turned over.
The spatial instrument, which the Divine Cult had spent a huge price to create, was casually discarded after completing its mission, with no one paying attention to it.
This was very abnormal. Although the instrument's function was over, its value was very high, and it should at least be recovered. Moreover, according to the plan, there should have been two guardians here to protect this instrument.
Now it seemed so abnormal.
The man waved his hand, and the spatial instrument in the distance flew to him, enveloped in psychic power, and then he put it away.
With another wave of his hand, the ground that Tyranitar had disturbed undulated, and the corpse of a middle-aged man in yellow clothes slowly turned up.
The man's brows furrowed again. He squatted down, disregarding the dirt, and fumbled for something on the yellow-clothed middle-aged man's body, but found nothing.
Immediately, his face gradually darkened, and he coldly spat out two words,
"Useless!"
As his anger rose, his extremely terrifying psychic power swept through this area. If Aoki were here, he would know how powerful and terrifying this man's psychic power was. His own advanced psychic abilities were completely insignificant in front of this man.
This was probably what the Divine Cult called a true advanced psychic, while someone like Aoki would only be considered a mid-level psychic in ancient times.
However, very quickly, his psychic power detected two spatial teleportation channels.
"Tsk, let's go take a look." The man's face really changed like summer weather, it changed in an instant. Just now there was a feeling of an impending storm, but now it suddenly turned into spring blossoms, a feeling of gentle breeze and warm sunshine. It was not just a change in his expression, but also a change in his aura.
As soon as he finished speaking, the man flashed and disappeared from his original spot.
A person with such powerful psychic abilities, one doesn't even know if he should be called a human or a Pokémon now.
With his current abilities, there really wasn't much difference.
When he reappeared, it was in mid-air, exactly where Aoki and Slowking had teleported to.
And the man just floated there in mid-air.
"Huh—" The man's face showed surprise. This spatial channel disappeared here, indicating that the other party had teleported here.
But he had just scanned the surroundings with his psychic power and found no traces.
Let alone traces of psychic power and spatial energy, there weren't even traces of Pokémon activity, whether wild Pokémon or trainer's Pokémon, nothing at all, except for the breeze and air.
"Interesting, quite alert. Being able to clean up so thoroughly means the other party also sensed something. Is it our people, or their people? Or..." The man muttered to himself in mid-air. After his words fell, he disappeared from the spot.
When the entire sky fell silent again, without any energy fluctuations or sounds, another five minutes passed.
The man reappeared here, his powerful psychic power sweeping out. This time, it wasn't to check the high altitude, but to check the ground.
Finding no traces, the man frowned again. After a moment of contemplation, he let out a long breath, and the carefree smile returned to his face, "Forget it, let someone else worry about it. I'm just here to make up the numbers anyway."
Only then did he truly leave this place.
...
In the small forest directly below him, in the cave that Aoki and the others had dug themselves.
Aoki felt that the powerful psychic power had finally left, and only then did he put his heart back in his chest, retracting all the psychic power he had tried to expand, and wiping the sweat from his forehead.
Steven and the others also looked nervous. Seeing Aoki seemingly relieved, they cautiously asked, "Are they gone?"
Aoki nodded, his mood somewhat heavy.
The Divine Cult's arrival was too sudden, and he had no preparations at all.
Fortunately, he reacted in time, otherwise it would have been really troublesome.
It wasn't that Aoki was afraid of the extremely powerful psychic man in the sky earlier. There were seven powerful people here, the weakest being at the peak of quasi-champion. Such a force could almost dominate one side in the Pokémon world, so they weren't afraid of one person.
The reason he was so cautious was that Aoki had sensed many people trying to squeeze in from outside the space in the area just now.
Without the spatial blockade, any psychic with stronger abilities could enter.
And the man who came in first must be the strongest psychic among this group of Divine Cult members. If he were to be held up for a while, and all the Divine Cult members entered, Aoki and his group would definitely be in great danger.
Before determining the number of opponents, their strength, and their goals, Aoki was absolutely unwilling to have too much contact with them.
If he hadn't figured out these points before, Aoki wouldn't even be willing to contact them. It was best to avoid them if possible!
"Continuing our previous topic, so the spatial blockade here has lost its effect, and the Divine Cult is invading on a large scale, and the Alliance might not even be aware of this?" Lance's expression also became solemn.
If it was really as Aoki said, then they would truly be in danger!