Fish Leaps Over the Dragon Gate

Chapter 22 Fish Leaps Over the Dragon Gate

The family of four walked until they reached the two large trees on the plateau. This is one of the highest points on the Nibel Plateau, and from here, one can see most of the plateau.

The city of Azot can also be clearly seen in the distance.

"Let's rest here for a bit," Anjie suggested, plopping down on the grass.

Diancie and Snorlax sat down on either side of Ange.

"Angie, are you looking at the capital city of Azot?" Tianxi suddenly asked when she saw Anjie lost in thought.

Anjie snapped out of her reverie and replied with a smile, "Yes, I wonder what Azot's capital city looks like now."

Diancie nodded. "I'm curious too."

The little Snorlax looked very confused when it saw Ange and Diancie mentioning Azot Royal City repeatedly.

Seeing this, Ange patted its head and explained with a smile, "Azot Royal City is the hometown of me and Diancie." He then pointed to the location of Azot Royal City, "See it? That's it!"

The little Snorlax nodded as if it understood.

"Gang~ Gang~~" Master, are you homesick?

"A little," Ange replied. (The translation process for Tianxi is omitted here.)

Upon hearing this, the little Snorlax became anxious.

"G-G-G-G-" Master, will you leave Nibel Plateau? Will you abandon me?!

"Why would you think that?" Ange looked at the little Snorlax in surprise. "Of course not! Nibel Plateau is already my home. Of course I'm going to stay here forever. I'm not going anywhere else, and I'll never abandon you!"

"Gang~ Gang~"

Hearing this, the little Snorlax was overjoyed and immediately jumped into Angie's arms, hugging Angie's waist and acting all cute.

The little Snorlax recently leveled up again, so it became stronger, and Angel was almost knocked out of breath by it.

He gently patted Munchlax's back and said, "Mumplax, have you gotten fatter lately?"

Upon hearing this, the little Snorlax immediately became unhappy and sat up from Anja's arms, pounding its chest with its fist in rebuttal: "Gam~~Gam~~" This isn't fat, it's strong!

"Pfft~~~" Anjie chuckled, pinching its soft belly. "Yes, yes, yes~~~ It's strong, not fat!"

Munchlax's ability is Thick Fat, which makes it particularly prone to gaining weight, and being fat is indeed equivalent to being strong for it.

After playing with Munchlax for a while, Diancie asked again, "When are you planning to go to Azoth Castle?"

Anjie thought for a moment, "Let's do it tomorrow. It doesn't matter which day we go, the sooner we go, the sooner we can come back."

Tianxi nodded. "Okay."

------

The next morning, after Angel and Munchlax made breakfast for the Pokémon, they packed their things and prepared to head to Azoth Castle.

"Chiru~ Chiru~~"

Just then, the blue cotton bird that hadn't left yet flew over.

"What's wrong, Blue Cottonbird?" Anjie asked, puzzled.

"Chiru~ Chiru~"

The blue cotton bird gestured for a while, but Anjie couldn't understand a word, so he had to call Tianxi to translate.

"Chiru~ Chiru~" Anjie, I heard you have something to do in the capital of Azot, is that right?

"The blue cotton bird asked."

"Yes, how did you know?" Anjie asked curiously.

"Chiru~~" is what the little Snorlax told me.

"I see~~ So why did you come here?" Anjie was even more puzzled.

"Chirp~ Chirp~~" My mom said she can send you there.

"The blue cotton bird said."

Anjie's eyes lit up when he heard this. "Really?" He was a little surprised. He didn't expect that the grumpy and stubborn mother cotton bird would be willing to help him. It was really unexpected.

"Chiru~ Chiru~" Really, come with me!

The blue cotton bird flapped its wings at Anjie.

"Okay!" Angie said, running over to greet Tianxi.

"Do you need me to come with you?" Tianxi asked.

Anjie waved her hand and said, "No need. Once we get there, I'll just summon you. Have you forgotten that I can summon you anytime, anywhere?"

Tianxi had really forgotten about it. "Okay, I'll be waiting for you."

"Snorlax, Komaru, watch the house!" Angel greeted Snorlax and Komaru.

"Gang~~" Snorlax waved and wished Anja a safe journey.

The koala, clutching its tree pillow, slept soundly, completely ignoring Anjie's instructions.

Anjie was led by the blue cotton bird to the shore of Lake Nibel. He asked, puzzled, "Didn't you say your mother would take me? Why did you bring me to the lake?" Surely the blue cotton bird's mother isn't in the lake.

"Chiru~ Chiru~"

The blue-feathered bird gestured for a while before Anjie finally understood that it wasn't the mother blue-feathered bird who wanted to personally send Anjie off, but rather that she had asked a friend to do so.

Come to think of it, the mother cottonbird used to hate humans so much, how could she change her mind overnight, and how could she let humans ride on her back!

"Chiru~ Chiru~~"

The blue cotton bird called out to the lake, but only a wave rose up. Anjie saw a Laplace slowly emerge from the water and quickly swim to the shore.

"Waaah~~"

Once they reached the shore, Chenglong greeted Anjie warmly.

Unlike other Pokémon on the Nebel Plateau, this Lapras is not afraid of humans at all.

Strictly speaking, Lapras cannot be considered a pure Nebel Plateau Pokémon, because it lives in the Nebel River, which flows out of the mountains in the northwest of the Nebel Plateau, flows through the Nebel Plateau, and then flows southward. The river is very wide, and Lapras spends most of its time migrating and does not always live on the Nebel Plateau.

Furthermore, Lapras is a Pokémon that is naturally friendly to humans and enjoys carrying them on their travels, so it wouldn't resist Ange.

"Chenglong, I'm counting on you this time."

As Anjie spoke, she took a soft steamed bun from her system backpack and handed it to Chenglong. The system backpack also had a preservation function, so Anjie had prepared some steamed buns and dumplings in it, intending to use them as lunch.

"Waaah~~"

Chenglong swallowed the steamed bun in one gulp, squinting his eyes as he chewed with a look of enjoyment.

Happiness points +100

"Waaah~~"

After finishing their meal, Chenglong called out to Anjie, signaling that Anjie could set off.

Anjie leaped onto the dragon's back and sat down, then turned to the blue cotton bird and said, "Blue cotton bird, you should go home now, don't worry about me."

"Chiru~ Chiru~~"

The blue cotton bird flapped its wings and said goodbye to Anjie.

"Waaah~~"

After the dragon let out a soft roar and set off, Anjie immediately felt the surrounding scenery begin to rush past.

Although the dragon boat swims very fast, and Anjie can no longer see the blue cotton bird on the shore in the blink of an eye, it swims very smoothly, and he can hardly feel any shaking or bumping.

As expected of a Pokémon carrier.

Lake Nebel is vast. As Lapras glides swiftly across its calm surface, Angel can spot the various Pokémon that inhabit it, the graceful Swans floating on the water and the ducklings following behind them, Goldeen and Goldeen racing each other, and the Lovefish cuddling together in affection...

Anjie was overjoyed to see so many adorable creatures.

Suddenly, he seemed to hear the roar of the water.

"Are we at the waterfall up ahead?"

Anjie knew that the point where Lake Nibel and the Nibel River meet was a rushing waterfall.

Chenglong nodded slightly.

Anjie looked terrified upon hearing this. "Are we going to jump off the waterfall?"

"Waaah~~"

Chenglong was amused by Anjie, its eyes crinkling into crescent moons with laughter. It gently shook its head, indicating that it would not pass by the waterfall.

No matter how good its swimming skills are, it can't handle that tall and fast waterfall!

"That's good, that's good." Anjie breathed a sigh of relief. "My little heart can't take a scare."

As they got closer to the waterfall, Anjie saw Chenglong swim toward the side of the waterfall, and soon a channel with a gentle current appeared in his sight.

Following this passage, Anjie and his group successfully arrived at the bottom of the waterfall.

Looking up from below, Anjie felt the waterfall was even more magnificent and imposing.

Just as Anjie turned around to admire the magnificent waterfall, he suddenly saw a flash of red in the white water.

"What is that?"

"Waaah~~"

Upon hearing this, Chenglong turned its head and looked over. It seemed to understand, and then tried to explain something to Anjie, but unfortunately Anjie couldn't understand.

After staring at it for a long time, Anjie saw more and more red in his vision, and then he realized that they were carp climbing the waterfall.

"Is this a fish leaping over the dragon gate?"

Chenglong nodded slightly, confirming Anjie's guess.

Every year at this time, Magikarp, having honed their jumping abilities throughout the year, gather at the foot of the waterfall in the lower reaches of the Nibel River and use their leaping skills to climb upstream against the current.

If they manage to cross this formidable waterfall, they will evolve into powerful Gyarados and continue westward along the Nebel River to seek out and challenge even stronger opponents.

If they cannot cross the river, they can only continue to fight again in the form of Magikarp the following year. If they still cannot cross the river, they can only reproduce and die in the form of Magikarp downstream.

Of course, some Magikarp evolve into Gyarados without crossing the waterfall. In these cases, they will choose to give up the challenge of climbing the waterfall and settle peacefully in the lower reaches of the Nebel River.

Gyarados are proud. If they cannot leap over the waterfall in their Magikarp form, they will consider themselves unworthy of challenging the "Leap of Fat" challenge.

Seeing that An Jie was engrossed in watching, Chenglong simply stopped.

Watching one Magikarp after another relentlessly climb towards the top of the waterfall, never giving up even when swept away by the current, until they were exhausted and disappeared into the riverbed, Anjie was deeply moved.

This is the power of life!

Magikarp is too weak and is known as the weakest Pokémon in the world, so after watching for most of the day, Ange didn't see any of them successfully climb the waterfall.

But the more this happened, the more Magikarp continued to charge forward.

After a long while, realizing that they could not delay any longer, Anja said to Lapras, "Lapras, let's go." At the same time, he silently offered his blessings to the Magikarp.

Go Magikarp, guys!

However, just as he turned around, a loud roar erupted, almost drowning out the sound of the waterfall.

Anjie turned around in surprise and saw a powerful Gyarados roaring at the top of the waterfall, expressing its excitement and pride.

Encouraged by the roar, the Magikarp below the waterfall seemed to see hope and once again bravely climbed upwards.

Congratulations!

After silently offering his blessings to the Gyarados, Anja patted Lapras's neck and said, "Let's go."

"Waaah~~"

Lapras let out a soft roar, seemingly encouraged by the Gyarados it had just encountered, and its voice became louder.

As the waterfall receded into the distance, Anjie couldn't help but ask, "How long does it typically take for a dragon to leap over the dragon gate?"

"Waaaaah~ Waaaah~"

Chenglong cried out three times in a row.

"You mean three days?" Anjie asked.

Chenglong nodded.

"Then let's hope that enough Magikarp can leap over the Dragon Gate in these three days," Angie sincerely wished.

"Waaah~~"

Riding the dragon, he let out a soft cry and offered his own blessing.

As we gradually leave the area of ​​the Nibel Plateau, the Nibel River's flow becomes increasingly gentle, and the trees on both banks gradually grow taller.

Anjie can see monkey monsters and fiery monkeys leaping in the jungle, seasonal deer drinking water by the river, and Lulili and Marilu playing by the water...

Once they were completely out of the Nibel Plateau, Ange noticed that the surrounding plants were starting to wither and turn yellow everywhere, and even the temperature was gradually dropping.

Anjie then realized that it was already late autumn outside the Nibel Plateau.

The Nibel Plateau is so vibrant not only because of its unique geographical location, but also because, it is said, a special Pokémon lives there.

It is because of that Pokémon that the climate of the Nibel Plateau remains spring-like all year round.

The ability to influence the climate of an entire region led Anjie to speculate that it might be a legendary Pokémon, but unfortunately, he never got to see it.

Not long after, the towering walls of the royal city of Azot came into clear view of Ange.

Were the city walls of the royal city always this high? Anjie tried hard to recall.

Once Chenglong had carried Anjie to the section of the river closest to the capital city of Azot, he leaped onto the riverbank. "Chenglong, thank you for your hard work. Please wait for me here."

As he spoke, he took out another steamed bun and handed it to Chenglong.

"Waaah~~"

As Chenglong chewed, it nodded. After finishing the steamed bun, it plunged into the water and disappeared, leaving only ripples in its wake.

Finding a secluded patch of grass, Angel used his summoning ability to summon Diancie to his side. Diancie must be very curious about what has become of Azot's capital.

Seeing Diancie, who was originally far away on the Nibel Plateau, suddenly appear in front of him, Ange couldn't help but marvel at how amazing the system's ability was!

"Wow, that's amazing!" Tianxi herself was also surprised.

"Let's go."

Looking at the nearby capital of Azot, Anjie took a deep breath and said.

(End of this chapter)