Chapter 258

Xiaoxia from the White World entrusted her Torchic to Ash for safekeeping in preparation for winning the Pokémon Beauty Contest, focusing on specialized training for her Beautifly.

Ash and his friends were not only entrusted by Misty to look after Pokémon, but also by Miss Joey to help care for three Pokémon for health checkups.

Because those three Pokémon were received by new trainers, after the health checkup, Miss Joey again entrusted Ash and his friends to look after these Pokémon.

An accident occurred: that lively, disobedient Torchic kept trying to escape. To catch it, Ash sent out his Crabrawler to battle. Unexpectedly, that Torchic was very strong, defeating the Crabrawler and even evolving into a Combusken by accident.

Ash secretly used Misty's Torchic as a substitute, and even tried to fool new trainers into choosing Woodguard or Splashfish, but he still couldn't hide it.

The Team Rocket Trio came out for a brief appearance, giving Combusken a chance to show off.

However, everything remained peaceful, every Pokémon was chosen by someone, and Miss Joey decided to keep Combusken.

【Xiba: This Torchic evolved so quickly? If given to a new trainer, it would probably be harder to handle than Ash's Charizard.】

【Ma Zhishi: That Combusken looks very strong, and it evolved with the help of Ash's Crabrawler, so it feels very suitable for Ash.】

【Ash: I miscalculated—I didn't expect that Torchic to be so fierce; defeating the Crabrawler caused it to evolve, which is somewhat similar to when my Charmander evolved back then.】

Combusken?

In the Johto Region, I only have one Woodguard as a starter Pokémon, so having an extra Combusken wouldn't be bad, and it could significantly increase the strength of my Pokémon team.

Ash recalled Xiaoxia's Fire Chicken—back then, I battled it with my Charizard and lost, nearly winning.

After long training, Xiaoxia finally awaited the day of the Pokémon Beauty Contest.

The first round's theme was charm and performance; Xiaoxia's Poison Rose received high marks, and Xiaoxia's Beautifly used the Silver Whirlwind she had trained hard for, also passing the first review.

The second review was a Beauty Battle decided by strength; Xiaoxia's Beautifly faced off against Xiaoxia's Poison Rose.

Battle is Xiaoxia's weakness; facing the effortless Xiaoxia, her Beautifly naturally couldn't defeat the Poison Rose.

In their first clash, Xiaoxia won!

For Xiaoxia, this is a kind of training; only through continuous effort, learning to grow from failure, will one become even better!

The Pokémon Beauty Contest concluded, and Ash and his friends visited the Ocean Museum, but due to the Team Rocket Trio causing trouble and imprisoning Ash, the Magma Team snatched the rocks collected by Curator Kusunoki.

Finally, when Ash and the Magma Team fought over the rocks, Ash accidentally split the rock into two halves, and the larger half was taken by the Magma Team.

After a narrow escape battle with the Magma Team, Ash and his friends tidied up and continued onward toward Lavender Town.

Along the way, they encountered many things and even saw Jigglypuff again after a long time.

They didn't expect Jigglypuff to actually follow them all the way here.

Everyone still thought Ash would catch that Jigglypuff, but they overestimated—he still didn't catch it.

Ash and his friends arrived in Lavender Town and immediately ran to challenge the Gym.

【Tie Xuan: Cough cough... this doesn't need to be released, right?】

【Xiaoju'er: Why?】

【Ma Zhishi: Could it be that Ash can't even beat one of his Pokémon?】

How did this guy know that?

Tie Xuan's heart skipped a beat; after watching the Gym battles for so long, he felt Ash defeating his Gym was the easiest, almost like getting something for free.

Ash and his friends entered the Lavender Gym, defeated the mechanical Raikou, and then Gym Leader Tie Xuan came out to battle Ash in a Gym match.

Tie Xuan's first Pokémon was a Mini Magneton, and Pikachu's one 100,000 Volts knocked it out instantly.

The second Pokémon sent out was an Electrode, and when it used noise, Pikachu's one 100,000 Volts knocked it out instantly.

Finally, Tie Xuan sent out a Magneton Trio, and Pikachu's one Thunder attack knocked it out instantly.

All three of his Pokémon were knocked out by Pikachu.

Moreover, Pikachu remained unharmed; after this battle, Tie Xuan directly doubted life, feeling he had been swept through three.

【Ma Zhishi: Swept through three? I didn't missee, did I? Is that really Pikachu?】

Seeing Pikachu's valiant performance inside the White Light Curtain, Ma Zhishi stared wide-eyed, his whole body frozen.

It wasn't just Ma Zhishi having this reaction; other Electric-type Gym Leaders reacted the same way.

【Xiaoju'er: Did Pikachu, an Electric-type, use just one Electric-type move to defeat the Electric-type Pokémon sent out by Gym Leader Tie Xuan?】

【Dian Ci: Is Pikachu's electricity too strong?!】

Coincidentally, after the great battle, Pikachu developed a fever, and only then did people realize Pikachu had absorbed the electricity from the mechanical Raikou created by Tie Xuan, which made it so fierce.

Finally, thanks to the assistance of the Team Rocket Trio, the truth about Pikachu's power surge was revealed, and Tie Xuan likewise gave Ash the Badge; judging solely by Ash's battle performance, he deserved this Badge.

Moreover, if they battled again, he might still not be able to defeat Ash.

【Tie Xuan: Everyone, the mechanical Raikou will no longer appear in the Gym!】

【Ma Zhishi: Those are all your own doing—insisting on using those machines to scare trainers; this time you got a lesson, hope you remember it well!】

This time, the Black Light Curtain lit up.

Due to no interference from the Team Rocket Trio, Ash and his friends directly arrived in Fuchsia City.

Xiaoxia was preparing for this Pokémon Beauty Contest.

After checking into the Pokémon Center, Ash and his friends helped Xiaoxia train on the beach; they also trained regularly, and as the contest day approached, Xiaoxia, as a newcomer, naturally felt very nervous.

Beautifly became very strong, very strong, able to fight back and forth with Ash's Pride Swallow.

Xiaoxia watching the Black Light Curtain felt amazed and envious; the Black World's Beautifly was so much stronger, that Silver Whirlwind used so beautifully, and in the later battle against Xiaoxia, perhaps victory would be hers!

Xiaoxia eagerly anticipated it!

When the Black World's Pride Swallow battled Beautifly, it was caught in Beautifly's Silver Whirlwind, Pride Swallow forcefully broke out, and its body emitted a dazzling white light.

Pride Swallow evolved into Great King Swallow, appearance changed little, but its gaze became sharper.

Evolved?

Xiaoxia exclaimed in surprise: "You attacked me once, and just like that, you evolved?"

It seems that regular training had accumulated a lot of energy in Pride Swallow, and just now being hit by the Silver Whirlwind caused it to release all its energy, leading to this evolution.

Ash felt that Great King Swallow's aura was even more striking.

"Sister, now that catching Butterfree has become this strong, the Grand Festival shouldn't be a problem, right?"

Xiaosheng isn't confident in his own sister; he's confident in Ash, because Hunting Butterfree often trains together with Ash's Poké Balls, and its strength has increased rapidly.

"I don't know, I've never participated before, and I don't know how strong the other competitors are."

Misty still felt a bit worried in her heart.

"Being worried is right, the Poké Ball Grand Festival isn't as simple as ordinary Poké Ball battles."

A boy leaned on the railing and said disdainfully.

He was Xiaoshun.