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Early April.
Li Xiang truly became a designated beneficiary of the reserve team's 'resources.'
Thanks to Xu He's arrangements, his daily tasks consisted of battling for candy, and battling for more candy.
Continuous battles, just like in the Youth Training Camp, constantly fueled Li Xiang's growth.
In less than a week, almost every reserve team member had faced him in practice matches, providing him with a massive amount of candy.
Including that boy surnamed Wei.
This guy came forward with a red face and left with a red face.
The first redness was from excitement—he wanted to prove to his father that this student they were all so eager about wasn't that impressive.
The second redness was from anger and embarrassment.
Angry at losing to a newly enrolled junior, and embarrassed for talking big at the start only to get thoroughly beaten.
His face was figuratively slapped swollen.
Under such circumstances, it was hard for anyone to remain tough. From that day on, unless it was a practice match, this guy generally avoided Li Xiang, acting like he didn't dare to meet him face-to-face or make eye contact.
It felt very much like the old days in the Youth Training Camp.
"You really are a man of profound sin."
Song Jie sighed, offering this assessment.
"Oh, give me a break! Clean up the friend requests in your WeChat before you say that to me."
Li Xiang rolled his eyes. This guy had such good looks but didn't use them to attract girls. Countless senior sisters probably lamented this.
Song Jie silently closed his mouth and reached his hands toward Li Xiang's neck.
Beside them, Gong Xu wore an expression of complete nonchalance.
It was hard to tell if this guy had low or high emotional intelligence. During double battles, when girls came to watch his matches, if they made any noise, his face would turn as black as coal, glaring at them fiercely.
Fortunately, they were far enough away not to notice.
And after the match, when the girls came to say hello, he could chat with them as if nothing had happened.
A strange guy.
However, this person's luck finally turned. Li Xiang, who had only attracted older women his whole life and had no luck with girls, finally gained favor from peers and senior sisters close to his age.
While rejecting their friend requests, Li Xiang couldn't help but marvel at how this school integrated high school and university.
They didn't even prevent students from dating, which was pretty impressive.
Relying entirely on self-discipline?
That seemed to overestimate these adolescent youngsters.
Moreover, if even Mist City University was like this, it was hard to imagine other higher institutions.
A girlfriend was time-consuming, energy-draining, and expensive. Right now, Li Xiang even had to swallow his pride and ask Wu Tuo—the supervising teacher of the school team—for resources to cover Incineroar and the others' food.
Where would he find the spare money to date?
Even if he had it, time and Incineroar and the others wouldn't allow it.
These underage "individuals" couldn't do without him for now, just as he couldn't do without them.
Thus, Li Xiang's life gradually stabilized.
Every day, besides studying, cooking, training, and attending specialized classes taught by high-ranking trainers, it was battles, battles, and more battles.
Extremely monotonous. Downright dry and boring.
Only the daily candy rewards could cheer him up, driving him to keep moving forward.
But strangely, recently, Incineroar and several other Pokémon seemed somewhat sleepy. Besides battling, they were sleeping, as if they hadn't rested well at night.
Their morning training also seemed listless.
Trouble adjusting to a new bed?
Impossible; it had been so long.
When Li Xiang asked them why, they all said they had recently fallen in love with taking walks at night because the environment was nice.
Group walks?
Faced with this peculiar hobby, Li Xiang stared at them for a long time until they broke out in a cold sweat, then said to make sure it didn't affect their health. Walks could be taken anytime, but they should go to bed early at night.
It was mainly for health reasons; otherwise, it didn't matter.
Incineroar and the others didn't have much else to do normally. In their PokéBalls, they slept; out of them, they fought.
Having some hobbies was good. Excessive pressure could lead to mental breakdown for anyone, and the same went for Pokémon.
Incineroar and the others readily agreed.
...
That night.
The bright moonlight spilled over the campus, combining with the dim streetlights to illuminate paths large and small.
Volbeat and Illumise rapidly fluttered their wings, tails glowing faintly, enjoying the night that belonged to them.
In the trees, Hoothoot emitted soft calls, one eye closed, one eye open.
In the grass, several Kricketot sang faint, elusive melodies, huddled together in sleep.
Oddish and Gloom buried themselves in the earth, drawing nutrients from the soil.
Everything seemed peaceful and serene.
However, by the shimmering Misty Lake, many dark figures moved quietly. Their bodies, large and small, rubbed against the ground and grass, emitting rustling sounds.
Seemingly scattered yet somewhat orderly.
Their destination was the mountain range west of Mist City University.
That giant that seemed to lie on its side, exhaling misty, formless fog, quietly sleeping.
In Li Xiang's villa.
In the pitch-black environment, several pairs of eyes slowly opened, sparkling under the pure white moonlight.
"Roar?"
'Has Li Xiang fallen asleep?'
By the bedroom door, a huge crouching figure let out an extremely suppressed cry.
The flame ring around its waist flickered like an Ultraman's energy indicator, brightening and dimming.
On the bed, a small figure floated up gingerly, making no sound of breathing. Facing the door, it similarly used a thread-like voice:
"Riolu~"
'He's asleep, he's asleep. He's been very tired lately and won't wake up for a while.'
"Roar!"
'Alright then! Let's go!'
The huge figure decisively stood up, whoosh—causing a violent gust of wind, revealing its black and red body.
'Too! Loud!'
Riolu covered its mouth, face contorted in fright!
By the door, Incineroar's slitted pupils instantly shrunk finer than a hair strand, its eyes fixed on Li Xiang on the bed. Seeing no reaction, it slightly let out a sigh of relief.
This felt even more guilty than being a thief, even though they were all embodiments of justice.
Riolu glared at it and floated out.
On the other side of Li Xiang, Doublade opened its eyes and closed them again. A homebody wouldn't go out.
It didn't want to fool around with this group at night.
The two Pokémon arrived in the living room.
Greninja, it's entire body pitch black, almost blending into the night, stood by the floor-to-ceiling window, gazing up at the bright moon.
"Roar!"
'Stop looking, stop looking! Let's go, quick!'
Incineroar patted its shoulder, quietly slid open the floor-to-ceiling window, then quickly slipped out, letting out a long breath.
"Ninja."
'The moonlight is so beautiful today; I won't go.'
Greninja looked at its two companions who had come outdoors, turned its head, "Ninja...."
'Anyway, no one would pay attention to me if I went.'
It muttered to itself.
Incineroar glanced at it, "Roar?"
'Really not going?'
"Ninja."
'Not going.'
Hearing this, Incineroar turned back without any lingering sentiment, giving Greninja no chance to change its mind.
Riolu opened its mouth but didn't speak up to persuade. After all, if Greninja went, it would indeed just stand on the sidelines as a spectator, having nothing to do with it.
The large and small two Pokémon turned and left.
Seeing that they didn't even try to persuade it, Greninja felt unloved, its heart aching deeply. It flipped upstairs to admire the flowers.
Nowadays, only those delicate flowers could comfort it.
Outside the house, on an antenna, a current flashed, traveling all the way to the study.
The twenty-seven-inch screen turned on automatically, revealing a muttering Rotom.
It was muttering about something like一'must buy a drone'.
Beside it, Metagross lay with its mouth open, dark golden pupils narrowed to slits, snoring loudly.
The simple-minded one usually played games until 11:30 PM and got up after just five hours of rest.
During that time, it was in deep sleep and couldn't be awakened.
On the rooftop, Greninja looked at Corviknight sleeping soundly in its nest, its gaze revealing a hint of envy.
If only it didn't know.
'...No.'
It still couldn't resist. Even watching from the shadows was good. After all, it had Concealment and natural Protective Coloring!
Greninja glanced in the direction Incineroar had left and sneakily followed.
Elsewhere, Riolu sat on Incineroar's shoulder, clasping its neck, using Magnet Rise to carry it along at high-speed flight.
"Roar?"
'Can't you really change your posture?'
Incineroar couldn't help but complain; its neck hurt.
"Riolu."
'Endure it a bit. If we don't do this, we'll be late.'
Riolu said casually, focusing intently on flying, a faint, barely perceptible smile appearing on its face before quickly disappearing.
'Damn you... I can't fly, so I'll endure.'
Incineroar gritted its teeth. This shorty was deliberately getting back at it!
But it had no choice but to endure because if they didn't hurry, they'd be late, and who knew what would happen.
One cat and one dog sped forward.
Not far behind them, a Greninja stepped on the air, silently following, sneakily, taking one step and pausing.
Their destination was also the distant mountain.
...
Xian Mountain.
That was the name of the mountain range west of Mist City University.
Altitude over 1,700 meters. Home to countless wild Pokémon.
But the most crucial point was that it connected to the Mist City Conservation Base on the other side. So strictly speaking, it was also part of the conservation base.
The boundary between this mountain and Mist City University was just a layer of seemingly very flimsy wire fence.
No electricity, no cameras, not even patrolling Pokémon—its symbolic significance was greater than its practical significance.
And precisely because of this, no one knew when this wire fence connecting to the wilderness got a hole big enough for an Aggron to crawl through.
Of course, whether there was a hole or not made no difference to the flying cat and dog.
They crossed this layer of wire fence and flew deeper into the mountain, soon disappearing into the dense forest.
Their flight was fast. Or rather, rushed, as if rushing to an event.
Why was that?
Half an hour later, the cat and dog flying out from the dense forest, bidding farewell to silence and darkness to embrace noise and light again, brought the answer.
Before them was a stone forest composed of large and small rocks.
At the edge of the stone forest, bonfires lit by flames illuminated the hundreds of Pokémon inside.
Large, small, tall, short, fat, thin.
Among them, the most numerous were cat Pokémon and dog Pokémon.
They gathered separately in groups, assembling by species, forming seven or eight groups, staring coldly at each other with cold gazes.
In the center, on several huge stone platforms, several Pokémon clashed fiercely, continuously attacking each other with moves.
When Incineroar and Riolu appeared, the cat groups' eyes lit up, emitting meows to get their attention.
Among them, two small-bodied Meowth called out most excitedly.
They looked at Incineroar excitedly, as if seeing a savior.
"Meow~ Meow~"
'Over here! Over here!'
In the distance, the dog groups frowned slightly upon seeing Incineroar, and upon seeing Riolu, their eyes could hardly conceal rejection.
A Mightyena growled and stood up, seeming to want to go over, but was stopped by a Stoutland beside it.
"Growl."
'Don't go.'
Hearing this, the Mightyena looked at Riolu unwillingly and lay back down.