He ran for an unknown amount of time, to an unknown place.
In the leeward side of a mountain peak, Miraidon stopped, panting.
"Phew... Phew... They didn't catch up, right?"
Chen Kai looked back, let out a sigh of relief, and confirmed, "They didn't catch up."
After speaking, he released the Applin from his arms.
The Applin cautiously peeked its eyes out, looking around, and after confirming it was safe, extended its tail.
Wrapped around its tail was a plant, but this plant emitted a faint red glow.
"Yes, that's it!" Miraidon swallowed, seeing the plant, and its eyes, which resembled LED lights, burst forth with an incandescent brightness!
Chen Kai looked at the plant in front of him, a look of sudden understanding on his face: "So that's it! How could I have forgotten?"
Miraidon wiped its drool and asked, "What's wrong?"
"Do you remember I said that in the world I was in before, you, Miraidon, were a Legendary Pokémon in the game of that world?"
Miraidon nodded: "I remember."
"In the game, Miraidon also initially lost all its power, and players needed to collect 5 kinds of legendary seasonings to help Miraidon recover its power.
And this, this should be one of the legendary seasonings—the Spicy Herb." With that, Chen Kai took out a sandwich from his backpack.
"According to the game's setting, it should be like this. I'll give it a try."
He plucked a few leaves, crushed them, and mixed them into the sandwich. As soon as he closed it, the sandwich instantly burst into flames, startling him so much that his hand trembled, almost dropping the sandwich.
Fortunately, the fire only looked intimidating and didn't harm anyone, just like in standard food dramas where a dish needs some special effects to look impressive.
After thinking about it, he recalled that in the game, sandwiches with Spicy Herb had flame effects, which finally put Chen Kai at ease.
He handed the sandwich, which had some flame effects, to Miraidon: "It's done. You should be able to recover some power after eating this."
Miraidon's small LED eyes showed great confusion.
Can I really eat this? I feel like there's no difference from just eating the leaves directly...
However, out of respect for Chen Kai, and because its 'nose' told him that eating this sandwich would be beneficial, Miraidon took a bite.
Miraidon took a bite of the sandwich.
After only a few chews, a faint red light emanated from its body, and its eyes turned into flames!
But it didn't stop eating; the red light on its body grew brighter and brighter, gradually forming the shape of fireworks.
Chen Kai poked the flames with his finger and found that this should still be a special effect and would not harm Miraidon.
At the same time, Miraidon lay quietly on the ground, closing its eyes to rest. It, which had no breath, began to inhale, and the yellow and purple intertwined patterns on its body became even brighter. Some black, viscous liquid was also discharged from the gaps in its scales.
Under the scorching of the flames, vitality and vigor seemed to return to this broken body.
Chen Kai felt relieved and called out Xiao Mei from a Poké Ball.
"It seems the method is right! We still have a few pieces of Spicy Herb. Let's try putting them in bread too!"
Saying that, he took out three pieces of bread and added the leaves to the bread's core.
These three pieces of bread also burst into red flame effects.
"Mei?" (Can this really be eaten?) Xiao Mei looked at the bread with disbelief.
"Absolutely! I'll eat first as a sign of respect." Chen Kai took a bite of half a bread, and in an instant, a strong and stimulating spiciness, like a raging fire dragon, rampaged through his mouth.
His tongue felt like a lit fuse, burning every nerve. However, amidst this fiery impact, a rich and unique aroma also diffused.
The aroma Domineeringly occupied his nasal cavity, mixing the pungent scent of chili with the wheaty fragrance of bread, strange and alluring.
Despite his mouth being almost numb from the spiciness and his throat feeling like it was burning, this unique aroma made him unable to stop, and he couldn't help but chew bite after bite.
Magically, as this spiciness and aroma spread through his body, a warm current rose from his stomach, gradually spreading throughout his entire body. Every pore opened up, as if being gently soothed.
Sweat beaded on his forehead, his cheeks were flushed, and he kept breathing out, yet he still couldn't stop enjoying this wonderfully spicy and fragrant taste.
This seemingly contradictory combination brought him unprecedented pleasure and relaxation, like a carnival on the tip of his tongue, making him intoxicated and unable to extricate himself.
After finishing the bread, he gasped with his mouth open from the spiciness, while continuing to recommend it to the two Pokémon.
"Oh, oh, oh!!!
So spicy! But so delicious!
Xiao Mei, you try it too, Applin, you try it too. This is fruit-filled bread."
Xiao Mei and Applin took the bread and took a bite, also overwhelmed by the spiciness, but the bread was so delicious that they couldn't stop eating, wanting another after finishing one.
However, this was medicine used to restore Miraidon's body, and worried that Miraidon had not eaten enough, Chen Kai still dared not eat more, just a taste was enough.
Chen Kai and the two Pokémon shared a bottle of water, remembering Applin's request.
"Applin, what did you say you needed my help with before?"
Applin's two large eyes were a bit shy. After a while, it said:
"App... App." (I want to... evolve!)
"Evolve?"
Having spent some time together, Chen Kai could understand what Applin roughly meant. He thought about it; Applin's evolution required eating special apples.
"So, what do you want to evolve into?"
What kind?
Hearing Chen Kai ask this, Applin was stunned. It hadn't thought that it could choose its evolved form.
Since its birth, it had always stayed in that Leppa Berry forest. Its instinctive subconscious told it that it needed to evolve.
At the same time, deep in its subconscious, it felt that as long as it stayed in this fruit forest, it would have a chance to evolve.
So every day it diligently maintained the fruit trees, sprinkling water when it was hot and helping cover them with weeds when it was cold.
If insects or other Pokémon came, it would do its best to drive them away, even though it might not have the strength, and being covered in wounds was common.
It wanted to protect its fruit forest.
But protecting this fruit forest required strength. It was too weak; only evolution could bring change.
In its mind, the desire to evolve became even stronger.
A few days ago, it witnessed Xiao Mei's evolution, and then a hateful Hydreigon destroyed its fruit forest!
Its desire to evolve became very urgent. It wanted to evolve immediately, it wanted to become strong immediately!
To go back and severely beat that Hydreigon!
"App?" (Which one is the strongest?)
Chen Kai thought for a moment: "That would probably be Hydrapple, right? After all, it evolves one more time."
"App!?" (Hydrapple?!)
Applin heard this name for the first time.
"Yes, if you evolve into Hydrapple, you'll grow several heads, and each head can fight. It's quite powerful."
As he spoke, Chen Kai continued with some trepidation: "It's just that each head seems to have its own thoughts... It seems quite troublesome..."
"App!" (As long as it's powerful!)
"Alright, later when I take you out of the secret realm, I'll help you figure out how to get a honey apple."
Applin's big eyes shook with excitement.
"App!" (Okay!)
Although it didn't know what a secret realm or honey apple was, it felt that this human could make that sheep evolve, so he could definitely make it evolve too.
Seeing that Miraidon hadn't opened its eyes yet, Chen Kai, having nothing to do, chatted with Applin and learned that it had lived alone since birth and also knew that it wanted revenge on the Hydreigon.
...
I've really created karma, the guilt is even deeper.
At the same time, Chen Kai briefly explained the general situation of Applin's evolution.
If Applins eat Tart Apples, they will evolve into a thin, flying form.
If they eat sweet apples, they will evolve into a plump form.
There is also a last type, which is the one it chose: eating a juicy apple. The change won't be too big, but it will grow another head, and it can evolve further, with more and more heads.
After hearing Chen Kai explain their three evolutionary forms, Applin hesitated for a while. Actually, it really liked eating sweets, and it thought being able to fly was very cool.
However, since Chen Kai said that eating a honey apple was the strongest, it finally said firmly to Chen Kai:
"App!" (I still want the honey apple!)"