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Hanging Island was the most mysterious among the mere dozen S-rank Secret Realms in China.
Its entrance was located at the northernmost tip of China, high in the mountains that remained covered with ice and snow throughout the entire year.
The entrance to the teleportation gate was even shrouded by strange spatial powers.
Without sufficient knowledge of space manipulation, a person might not be able to locate the entrance at all, let alone successfully enter Hanging Island.
This held true even for Elite Four members and Champion-level powerhouses.
It was precisely because of this extreme difficulty that very few Trainers ever ventured into the Secret Realm of Hanging Island.
Consequently, no cities had developed around this Secret Realm entrance like they had for more accessible locations.
Chris and Vladimir arrived by plane at "Ice City," the northernmost major city in China. From there, it would normally take two full days by car to reach the Secret Realm of Hanging Island.
Fortunately, both of them were powerful enough to take a more direct route.
Chris used Lugia to clear a path through the harsh weather while Gardevoir's Barrier served as protective clothing. With this approach, it took less than an hour to reach the Secret Realm of Hanging Island.
When they arrived, a snowstorm was raging, turning the entire world into a scene of pure white.
Standing high in the sky, Chris's eyes swept across the entire mountain range. Halfway up the mountain, approximately ten meters above the ground, there was a strange distortion in the falling ice and snow—similar to how light refracts slightly when entering water.
"The first person to discover this Secret Realm also came here on a snowy day," Vladimir explained.
Chris nodded in understanding. If someone were standing on the mountainside looking up at the sky, they would see only blue and wouldn't notice the spatial distortion at all.
Only during snowy weather, when snowflakes were actively falling through the air, did the spatial distortion become particularly obvious and visible.
"Gardevoir," Chris called out.
Gardevoir immediately materialized, clasping its hands before its chest. It unfurled a faint psychic power while simultaneously channeling the spatial energy from the Lustrous Orb.
Soon, the concealing spatial barrier was neutralized.
A light blue portal appeared directly in front of Chris and Vladimir.
Lugia flapped its powerful wings and carried the two of them through the portal.
The ice and snow vanished completely.
An island appeared before Chris and Vladimir.
The island had an extremely strange appearance, as if everything was covered with a layer of grayness that couldn't be washed away. Even the supposedly vibrant flowers, plants, and trees swaying in the breeze gave off an unsettling, unnatural feeling.
Looking upward, there was no blue sky visible overhead—only tiny, pixelated colors that appeared weird and artificial.
"It's called a Secret Realm, but this place is actually more like a spatial rift—similar to the space crack you entered when you went to rescue Theodore," Vladimir explained.
"However, there's a slight but crucial difference. This place isn't only isolated from normal space—it's also isolated from the normal flow of time."
Chris immediately understood the significance.
When he had gone to rescue Theodore previously, he'd entered a spatial rift and conquered his shiny Zeraora there.
That particular space crack had been just an ordinary spatial anomaly.
Without sunlight or any source of natural energy, the abundant resources within that space crack had been exhausted over time. Eventually, it had become a completely desolate wasteland without any life whatsoever.
That was why Zapdos, who was proficient in spatial manipulation and could freely travel between dimensions, had used that location as its base of operations, transporting countless Electric-type Pokémon there to work as its servants.
However, the spatial rift before him now was fundamentally different from that previous space crack.
This was the exceptional case Vladimir had mentioned earlier.
There had once been a powerful Trainer who discovered an entire miniature world existing within a spatial rift.
That world had been roughly the size of a small town, with sunshine and breezes coming from nonexistent sources. The humans, Pokémon, and all creatures within it never suffered from aging, illness, or death.
They existed like a movie playing on an endless loop.
Therefore, the flowers, plants, and trees visible before them—which should have withered long ago due to lack of proper light—were still somehow alive. Even though there was no actual wind in this space, these plants swayed gently as if they could feel a breeze that didn't exist.
Chris vaguely recalled that he had originally speculated the appearance of such Secret Realms might result from the influence of two Pokémon who controlled the powers of time clashing during battle.
The origin of this theory came from a movie Chris had watched in his previous life.
"The Rise of Darkrai" - where Dialga and Palkia had battled.
The fierce battle between Dialga, the God of Time, and Palkia, the God of Space, had caused an entire town to become shrouded in both spatial and temporal power, nearly dragging it into a dimensional rift forever.
"We've definitely come to the right place," Chris remarked, raising his eyebrows as he gazed into the distance. There were numerous islands that had been pulled into this spatial rift. "This isn't something ordinary Pokémon could accomplish."
This could very well be the result of actions taken by Dialga and Palkia themselves.
"Professor, please take me to where you found the Lustrous Orb," Chris requested.
"Alright, but let's descend first. We shouldn't continue using Flying-types to travel here," Vladimir advised.
Lugia soon landed on the nearest island.
Dismounting from Lugia's back, Vladimir retrieved a Poké Ball and released his Gengar.
"Have your Gardevoir maintain its spatial power actively. The space here is extremely unstable. All sorts of inexplicable objects keep flying in and out through spatial tears."
The moment Vladimir finished speaking, a dilapidated brown wooden cabinet suddenly materialized twenty meters in front of Chris and him, hurtling toward them at lightning speed.
However, just as Gardevoir and Gengar prepared to defend against it, the cabinet vanished into thin air approximately ten meters away from them. It seemed as if what everyone had witnessed was merely an illusion.
"That certainly qualifies as inexplicable," Chris couldn't help but mutter to himself. There were no human-inhabited towns on any of these islands, so the sudden appearance of a wooden cabinet was genuinely bizarre.
Gengar took the lead position while Gardevoir activated Future Sight and simultaneously maintained spatial power for defensive purposes.
Chris and Vladimir began making their way across the island.
"By the way, Professor, are there any Pokémon living here?" Chris suddenly grew curious.
If time truly stood still in this place, then any Pokémon originally inhabiting this area should have lived for countless years. Even if they experienced the same day repeatedly, that Pokémon's move proficiency and skill mastery would be ridiculously high by now.
"When the Secret Realm of Hanging Island was first discovered, there were indeed Pokémon present. However, those Pokémon were all removed and taken elsewhere for research purposes," Vladimir explained.
"Currently... there shouldn't be any Pokémon remaining in the Hanging Island Secret Realm. However, if any do exist, they're either unlucky Pokémon that accidentally wandered in through a spatial tear, or Pokémon proficient in spatial manipulation who are deliberately training here."
Vladimir paused thoughtfully before adding, "I actually brought my Gengar here to train as well."
"Koujie~!" Gengar raised one hand cheerfully.
Chris nodded with understanding. That made perfect sense. If there were Pokémon matching his original speculation, they wouldn't still be in this location at all.
It appeared that the S-rank rating assigned to this Hanging Island Secret Realm came entirely from its bizarre and dangerous environment, not from the strength of any Pokémon inhabiting it.
However, just as Professor Vladimir had suggested, it seemed Chris could also have his Gardevoir undergo intensive training here to further develop its spatial abilities.