After staying at the Cavendish family for a while, Julian was preparing to leave and return home, but a phone call delayed his plan.
Orient City, at the Hearth family residence.
"Champion Walker."
Travis Hearth, the head of the Hearth family and Ember's father, was present, along with Ember's grandmother, Rose, who was also Julian's grandaunt.
"Uncle, there's no need for formalities," Julian said.
With the relationship through Rose and Ember being one of the few friends Julian acknowledged, his attitude remained quite respectful.
"What exactly happened to Ember?" Julian asked.
He had originally been about to return to Lake City, but Rose had called him, saying that Ember had gone missing, which was why Julian came to the Hearth family.
"Let's go inside and talk," Travis said.
Julian nodded, and the group walked into the main hall of the Hearth family.
After taking their seats, Travis gathered his thoughts and said, "Ember entered the Flame Mountain Secret Realm six months ago and hasn't returned yet."
"The people we sent in also couldn't find her."
The Flame Mountain was a Special Advanced-level secret realm, similar to the Walker family's Oreburgh Great Wall and the Drake family's Dragon's Den.
The secret realm was inhabited solely by Fire-type Pokémon, with no other Types present.
This secret realm was jointly managed by the Hearth family and Drakoria, and it was also the main reason why the Hearth family had long held the top position among Fire-type trainers.
Each year, there were only ten entry slots—five for the Hearth family, and the remaining five allocated by Drakoria.
After all, since this secret realm was jointly managed by the Hearth family and the nation, it was impossible for all the slots to belong to the Hearth family alone.
"Your family should be very familiar with the Flame Mountain secret realm. And Ember even told me before that she had entered this secret realm before—so how could she still go missing?"
Hearing that, Julian immediately became puzzled.
The Hearth family was, of course, very familiar with a secret realm they had controlled for centuries, and they even updated its information annually.
Ember was also not entering it for the first time, yet under such circumstances, she had still disappeared.
"The two Pseudo-Champions in the family have already searched the entire secret realm, but still couldn't find her. They even fired signal flares, but Ember gave no response."
A worried expression appeared on Rose's aged face. Ember was the granddaughter she valued the most and had already been designated as the next successor of the Hearth family.
And now she had actually gone missing.
"Could it be—"
An unpleasant thought crossed Julian's mind.
"No." Travis beside him shook his head, his expression extremely certain.
Then, under Julian's puzzled gaze, he took out a faint red crystal ball.
Inside it were ten tiny flickers that looked like burning flames.
[Bloodline Crystal: Drop blood onto it—if the person who shed the blood dies, the Blood Flame within the crystal will disappear.]
[Note: It can hold up to ten people's blood.]
"A Bloodline Crystal?"
Julian said, the words slipping out before he could stop himself.
Travis had been about to explain what the object was, but Julian had already named it, catching him quite off guard.
"Champion Walker is indeed knowledgeable," Travis said, clearly surprised. "I didn't expect you to know of this special treasure. It seems the Walker family should also have one."
Julian: 'We really don't.'
This Bloodline Crystal was categorized as a treasure, but it belonged to the category of Special-grade treasures.
What were Special-grade treasures? Simply put, they were items with bizarre and unusual effects.
"This flame is Ember's."
Travis pointed to the third flame on the left.
As long as the flame hadn't disappeared, it meant Ember wasn't dead.
These ten flames inside the Bloodline Crystal represented the ten most important members of the Hearth family.
And since Ember wasn't dead, there was still hope.
"In a Special Advanced-level secret realm, the human body can only endure about half a year at most, or else you will be eroded by the realm's energy," Julian said.
Ember had already been inside for half a year, yet she still seemed unharmed—this made Julian somewhat curious.
"Ember has some resistance to the realm energy of the Flame Mountain. For us, the limit is half a year, but she can stay for eight months."
Julian nodded—that explained it.
Having resistance to a secret realm's energy erosion wasn't unusual.
Everyone's physique was different; some fortunate individuals were naturally resistant to secret realm energy erosion, allowing them to stay longer inside and naturally reap more benefits.
"If nothing unexpected had happened, Ember would have come out after half a year, but she didn't. And the two elders we sent in couldn't find her either."
"She must have encountered trouble inside the secret realm."
Rose's hands clenched slightly. If not for her body being unable to endure entering a harsh environment like the Flame Mountain's, she would have wanted to go in and look for Ember herself.
"Grandaunt, you don't need to worry too much. Ember is a Pseudo-Champion—with that level of strength, the odds of something going wrong even in a Top-tier secret realm are slim, let alone in a relatively familiar secret realm," Julian quickly reassured her.
"It's precisely because of that that I'm worried," Rose said.
A familiar place should naturally be relatively safe, but if something goes wrong in a familiar place, then the problem was bound to be anything but small.
"I'll head in right now to look for Ember."
Julian stood up. He took this matter very seriously—Ember was one of his few friends and also his distant cousin.
Even though this cousin had a rather troublesome personality.
"We'll be troubling you, Champion Walker," Travis said.
He didn't stand on ceremony. If the one in trouble wasn't Ember, he wouldn't have gone to such lengths.
Moreover, the Hearth family had already used all the methods they could, yet still couldn't find Ember. Only after confirming that she was still alive did they turn to Julian.
"This contains all the information about the Flame Mountain Secret Realm."
Travis handed over a notebook, which contained the most detailed information about the secret realm.
Metagross copied all the data into its supercomputer.
The information was extremely thorough, to a degree similar to what Metagross itself would record. Most likely, the data had been recorded by a Metagross or other Psychic-type Pokémon.
After all, only a handful of Pokémon were capable of something like this.
Julian had already informed his grandfather about this matter. Otherwise, if he disappeared without saying anything, his family would definitely worry when they couldn't contact him.
"Julian, please, you must find her."
Rose grasped Julian's hand, her eyes filled with hope.
"Grandaunt, don't worry. I will definitely bring Ember back to you safely," Julian nodded.
After receiving Julian's promise, the expressions of Rose and Travis visibly relaxed.
Julian's strength was the greatest source of their confidence in him, and along his journey, he had always carried a strong sense of mystery, which invisibly increased their level of trust in him.
*****
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