Chapter 661

Night.

Baimu and Shi Yuan Zhi had dinner together at Old Qingliu's house.

The old man had a great-granddaughter named Yuzi, about five years old, who never let go of a soft, sticky toy, spoke in a tiny voice, and looked soft and adorable.

She adored Baimu and had clung to his sleeve since he entered the house.

Funny enough, Shi Yuan Zhi also seemed to like Yuzi, but she dared not even glance at him, as if afraid he would eat her.

Baimu noticed a hint of wounded pride beneath the old king's stern face and wanted to laugh but dared not.

The key was, he couldn't understand why all the children feared Shi Yuan Zhi—after all, Xiao Zhi and Xiao Yao had treated him normally and even visited his boat for sightseeing.

A mindset issue?

That must be it.

Overall, the dinner atmosphere was pleasant; Shi Yuan Zhi was in high spirits and recounted again his youthful experience of losing endlessly due to blind arrogance—

Well, in his view, Baimu was hearing it for the first time.

Simply put, Shi Yuan Zhi had won too many battles in his youth, grown arrogant and inflated, until he suffered consecutive defeats until his scalp tingled, only then awakening and correcting himself, after which he soared to become the pinnacle of the Hoenn Four Kings.

Thus, he felt deeply relieved that Baimu, despite achieving such outstanding results and receiving endless praise, showed no signs of overconfidence.

In fact,

such empty fame would never make Baimu swell with pride.

As for true fame, fortune, and power, when the Sand Team first seized the Dog Pack's territory and the Salvation Organization had not yet fully revealed itself, the hype had been far more extreme.

Though Huang Tie Town was but a speck compared to the outside world, at that time Baimu had been promoted by Cang Zhi Lang to a rank equal to Master Liu Ge, overseeing several street districts, with nearly ten thousand people dependent on his favor.

If he disliked someone, a single word was enough—the next day, that person would vanish without a trace; every day, people came to offer gifts and beg for favor, and he had long grown tired of hearing flattery.

Yet facing the inevitable collapse of the Sand Team and the old Shadow Team led by Elder Ejin, Baimu, adhering to his principles, believed he had done nothing wrong and stood firmly beside Master Liu Ge and Shan Nian.

Thus, the hollow honors from this festival victory or tournament win were utterly insignificant.

Besides, he bore the expectations of countless others.

After dinner,

Baimu entered his favorite part—the interaction with others' Pokémon.

Old Qingliu's Milotic was old, its blue down dulling slightly, but it still possessed a magnificent voice, clear and perfect for the lead singer of the Meteor Village's a cappella choir.

Shi Yuan Zhi's Pokémon mostly mirrored his own temperament: regardless of their fearsome appearances, they were mostly quiet and rarely made a sound, likely due to age.

Like the lazy lot in the Dragon's Nest who did nothing but stare blankly or sleep.

The Armored Pokémon was adorable; though it rarely moved, it occasionally joined in the antics of the Dragon-type siblings, its tiny eyes darting about, especially amusing.

The Flygon had strangely grown close to the Bastiodon, and the two even went out together to admire the moon…

It felt like an elder brother cherishing a younger one.

When Baimu approached, "Snow Auntie" had even greeted him warmly, showing not a trace of battle fury, even squinting slightly, as if an old man and woman were looking at someone.

Presbyopia?

Yet given the lifespan of Dragon-type Pokémon, non-pathological injuries shouldn't cause presbyopia—Shi Yuan Zhi's own eyes were still perfectly fine!

He assumed it was just Flygon's peculiar habit.

Meanwhile, Shi Yuan Zhi's Sandile seemed instantly smitten with the Shiny Milotic, showering it with attention since dinner.

You old lecher!

A dragon-fly in his fifties fancying a girl who's ten… no, less than five years old!

Fortunately, the three-headed Dragon, strong in internal strife and even stronger in external conflict, used its body as a shield, firmly blocking Sandile from getting too close to Milotic.

This caused the two dragons to now dislike each other intensely, even arguing once—until Shi Yuan Zhi caught them and they stopped.

Through the vivid translation of the Multi-Form II, Baimu learned their argument was that Sandile believed the three-headed Dragon had won only by luck—the resonance was merely a chance-triggered event.

The three-headed Dragon mocked it: "You're no better—your electric flash is that fast? If you were truly fast, you'd have used it already."

So they agreed to fight again tomorrow, without trainers directing them.

It seemed removing the trainer's interference could reveal true ability.

By the way,

Dragonite had gone into self-imposed isolation again.

Baimu was already used to it.

This thing was reclusive, rarely communicated with other Pokémon, loved to observe secretly, and spent all day thinking bizarre thoughts—so whenever it lost a battle, it hid in the corner and drew circles.

At first, it ran away and was caught by the three-headed Dragon; after Baimu comforted it and then threatened it—

"Run off again, I'll paint you with glow paint, take you to the crowded city center to sing, then go to the Dragon's Nest and find ten female Dragonites to interrogate you one by one about why you stole Little Dragon's black history."

Though Dragonite had looked at him then as if he were a demon, after subsequent beatings by Adam and Mi Ke Li left it in shock, it never ran again.

Good to see.

But expecting it to figure things out on its own was impossible—it needed to keep battling, and winning would solve everything.

If it didn't win?

Fight again.

Even if it kept losing to Shi Yuan Zhi's Pokémon, fighting more matches against other trainers' Pokémon could rebuild its confidence.

Its mindset was truly terrible—it wasn't nearly as bold as when it was wild.

Perhaps that's the power hatred brings.

Ghost-type Pokémon feed on negative emotions and excel at tormenting other living beings; their moves are all based on negativity—like Nightmare, Curse, Malice, Scary Face, Bad Luck, and so on.

After dinner, they headed home.

The road had no streetlights; only dim yellow lights from houses illuminated scattered patches.

Banette especially loved this environment, running wild with the Dragon-type siblings, until it annoyed a resting Flygon and nearly got clawed, then scrambled back in panic.

"A bunch of idiots!"

Baimu gave them each a heavy punch to the head.

He reached the halfway point.

A faint light shot suddenly from afar, like a flickering white ghost flame, terrifying the Happiny—who had just watched a horror movie with Big Mouth Kid two days earlier and hated the dark.

Only when the figure seemed to notice him and began shouting while approaching did the vigilant Pokémon realize it was their trainer's acquaintance holding up a phone.

"Baimu! We finally found you!"

The chubby Riolu panted heavily, hard to imagine someone with that build could be one of the Three Pillars of the Meteor Tribe's village guard.

He asked: "What happened?"

"I—I talked it over with others, and we wondered if you could post today's battle online," Riolu held up his phone, showing an edited clip of the fight.

Baimu said in surprise: "When did you record this?"

He didn't remember any camera during the battle… well, the quality was clearly from a phone.

"Hehehe, of course we secretly filmed it with our phones. The quality isn't great, but we figured since you're not entering the Champion League, posting this video should shut those online jerks up!"

Riolu's small eyes were full of seriousness.

Upon learning Baimu wouldn't enter the Champion League, Dragon Tamers rushed online to check the news.

They discovered that yesterday afternoon, the Hoenn Branch of the League Executive Committee—the organization where Darumaka was based—officially announced his withdrawal from the Champion League to prepare for the Orre Regional League.

The internet erupted instantly.

It even topped trending lists for a short time before dropping.

Just two days ago everyone was debating whether Baimu could defeat Champion Dawu and become the new Hoenn Champion—now he's not entering at all?

In fact, champions who won tournaments but skipped the Champion League were not uncommon.

His withdrawal caused such a stir mainly because Shanren and the Hoenn League had been overdoing their marketing.

No young trainer besides Champion Dan Di had ever appeared so frequently on blog trending lists.

But he's the undefeated king!

The Galar Champion!

What title does your Baimu have?

You can't even use "tournament winner" or "festival champion"—titles you get once a year—as justification—

Okay.

The Pokémon world's internet was relatively civilized, not yet this extreme; otherwise, Baimu would've been nicknamed "Big Baimu Teacher" within hours.

Currently, the dominant sentiment was skepticism and speculation.

Some believed Baimu couldn't defeat Hoenn's Four Guardians and Champion, feared losing his undefeated record, and used preparing for the Orre Regional League as an excuse.

Like how he skipped other Super Contests to enter the Slateport Contest.

Afraid of losing, afraid of breaking the winning streak myth.

Though partially correct in some ways, these voices weren't strong—on one hand, Shanren worried it would affect Baimu's mindset, so he arranged Rainbow Team members to report them.

On the other hand, Metagross II directly blocked most hostile comments using keywords, denying trainers any chance to see them.

Really.

It's a miracle it didn't crawl through the wires to punch people!

After the trending died down, mainstream online discussion shifted from Baimu to Orre, focusing mainly on Orre's plan to host its first-ever Pokémon League.

People weren't uniformly supportive.

A significant portion thought Orre was moving too fast.

A small league from a remote region…

No, not even a proper league had been established yet—the background info said there weren't even many trainers—how many could possibly participate in its first League?

Even if they reached the numbers, how good would those trainers be?

For most trainers, Regional Champion was a sacred title—if a small region's Champion couldn't even match other regions' Four Guardians, it would tarnish the Champion's prestige!

Thus, netizens believed the winner of Orre's inaugural League might not deserve the title "Champion."

Baimu's announcement that he was preparing for the Orre League gained many supporters but also made many doubt whether the Orre Champion would carry sufficient prestige.

Blog arguments raged so loudly that other regions' visibility faded.

Shanren welcomed the online criticism.

He knew well that any region's development inevitably drew outside scrutiny; accepting outside aid also risked gradual erosion by outsiders.

Becoming a top-tier politician or business magnate like Lohz was too hard—the rise of Galar had already made financial giants who missed the chance regret it; Orre's emergence reignited their interest.

As a local,

Shanren had little nationalism, but he didn't want Orre to become a chaotic place swallowed by other regions—so establishing a local beacon was vital.

Baimu was that beacon.

No matter how loud the online noise, when Baimu proved himself, the backlash would be fiercer—and would better ignite Orre people's sense of identity.

【Our Champion defeated all doubt】!

In Shanren's vision, Baimu would unite Orre people into one force, truly pouring their passion into regional development, not just going through the motions.

The Rescue Organization's goal was never just to improve Orre people's living conditions—it was to save their spirit and mindset!

But this meant Baimu would bear far heavier pressure than becoming an ordinary Champion—Shanren had no doubt Baimu could handle it; he'd endured worse, so what were a few words?

Still, for safety's sake, he told Baimu to stay off the internet and train more.

Who knew—

Riolu's good intentions made Baimu, previously shielded by Shanren and Metagross II, realize the online storm.

"Thanks, Riolu—and thanks to everyone for caring so much, it's making me embarrassed. But I need to ask Shi Yuan Zhi, the Sky King, first—what if this affects his reputation?"

He patted Lianzuo's shoulder, deeply moved by these friends' concern for him.

As for the comments online.

Being a little uncomfortable was inevitable — he hadn't yet reached the sage-like realm of not being elated by external things or saddened by personal affairs — but to say he was so worked up he couldn't eat or sleep would be a huge exaggeration.

What Baimu cared about more now was what ship Shi Yuan Zhi would charter to carry them back to Oure.

A three-masted sailing ship?

Afraid it would take a year to sail, and by the time they arrived at their destination, they'd just barely make it in time for the Oure Conference after the venue construction was finished.

Hiss…

He felt a bit of a tingling scalp.

And Lianzuo, hearing Baimu's words, was momentarily stunned. Realizing it really was necessary to seek Shi Yuan Zhi the Heavenly King's opinion, without a second word he went huffing and puffing as he ran toward Old Qingliu's place.

"Wait for me! Baimu! I'll definitely convince the Heavenly King!"

He shouted as he ran, his noise drawing an irritated furious roar from the Salamence that had been provoked earlier by the Gengar and the Dragonite siblings, and then successfully woke up even more Dragon-type Pokémon, their roars merging into one.

Metagross and the other Pokémon exchanged glances.

"Why are they acting like Mareep."

Baimu shook his head, took out his phone, and called Yamatsumi.

He knew Shi Yuan Zhi definitely wouldn't refuse, so a video of battling and defeating a Heavenly King could play a huge role in shaping public opinion.

Most people in the mainstream regions were kind-hearted — the fiercer the uproar now, the more hearts he'd win once he proved his strength, like some kind of compensation mechanism of the world.

Yamatsumi might be able to maximize the utility of this video.

The call connected.

"Hello? I've got a battle video here of me defeating Heavenly King Shi Yuan Zhi — it's a bit blurry, but you can generally make out the battle situation. Do you want me to send it to you, or should I post it myself?"

Baimu got straight to the point. At this hour Oure hadn't gotten dark yet, so he should be busy.

Yamatsumi: 【…Say that again?】

"I, Baimu, defeated the Hoenn region's top Heavenly King, the Dragon-type master Shi Yuan Zhi! Right now I have the battle video…"

【Shut up, I don't want to talk to a non-human creature.】

"…"