Chapter 759: An Ordinary Divine Beast

Due to the difficulty of communication.

Baimu decided to hold a Heart of Soul ritual with Registeel every morning.

This way, even if the two sides couldn't communicate normally through language and eye contact, it wouldn't prevent the Steel Pillar from forming an impression of him, of everyone, and of this new era.

Only.

"Watched the first-person movie again…"

He withdrew his hand and looked up at Registeel with a complicated expression.

This guy didn't seem to have any intention of communicating in person, only constantly recalling the past and showing him everything it had experienced.

Loading data?

Baimu could only comfort himself that there was no rush; after all, it wouldn't need it to provide combat power for some time to come.

Just do some battle sparring and help Mawile and the others raise their energy level.

Breakfast segment.

Still Baimu and the others eating, with Registeel "watching" beside them, occasionally emitting mechanical "beep-beep-beep" sounds.

This background music made Pokémon like Blissey, who loved taking care of others, very uncomfortable.

"Happy…"

"It probably just eats different things from us."

Baimu stroked Blissey's round head and explained comfortingly: "Some Pokémon feed on magnetic fields and electricity, and have no interest in berries or Pokémon food. So don't think it's just spacing out — it might be absorbing natural magnetic fields."

"Happy."

Blissey suddenly understood.

It never considered that its Trainer might be lying to it; after all, the fact that whatever the Trainer said was the truth had long been deeply imprinted in its heart.

The other Pokémon, upon hearing this, each showed thoughtful expressions.

The well-traveled Porygon2 initially thought it impossible, but on second thought figured it might be true.

It had also secretly sucked electricity from a phone before.

As a legendary Pokémon, Registeel's diet being unexpectedly unusual was normal — it could observe carefully.

Porygon2 thought to itself, and unlike Dragapult's covert observation born of social anxiety, Toy Duck's observation was originally based on Baimu wanting to see how Boldore and the others got along when he wasn't around.

Over time, it too developed the habit of observing its companions.

"Ge ga…"

The shiny Gengar stuffed food into its bloody maw while looking at Registeel in frustration.

As a newly promoted senior.

It actually really wanted to get close to the new junior, but the words the other said it couldn't understand at all, and when it spoke the other had no reaction.

It could be said to be purely casting flirtatious glances at a blind man.

This made Gengar quite dejected — it hadn't even gotten to show off its seniority yet!

—

Nothing to do in the morning.

Baimu had a brief discussion with Professor Suigao and decided to go to Water Route 105 to find Asahi and help her search for the island cave.

Anyway, the desert was definitely out; as for A-Ken, he could let him search slowly on his own.

Baimu's interest in Regice was also higher than in Regirock.

Before setting off.

He decided to first let Mawile and the others have a battle with Registeel; once on the ship, there wouldn't be such open space for them to fight freely.

"Chee do."

Mawile clenched its fist, hoping this legendary Pokémon would be able to take more hits than Boldore.

Don't let it down!

Hydreigon was equally eager to try — since Boldore could take it down, it also had to defeat Registeel.

The internal battle was about to erupt.

Baimu had originally thought Registeel would need his command to react, but who would have known that the moment Mawile finished Mega Evolving, the Steel Pillar naturally launched an attack.

"Beep beep beep—"

Red dot-matrix flickered, brilliant silver light gathered between its hands into a sphere of light, which then transformed into a silver pillar of light and blasted forward!

Boom!

The bright pillar of light tore through the air and came rushing straight!

Who would have expected Mega Mawile to dart to the left front first, using the side of a giant boulder as a stepping stone to form an angled route, arriving beside Registeel in the blink of an eye.

The pink fist swung out!

【Power-Up Punch】!

Bang!

Brown-red light exploded!

The heavy thud seems heavy like a hammer striking an armored steel plate; the missed silver pillar of light blasted open a cloud of dust on the ground, while the three-meter-plus Registeel was sent flying entirely off the ground!

It crashed sideways into the nearby woods.

In an instant.

The crackling of breaking branches was incessant, and even a large tree was snapped by the impact, producing a teeth-grinding creak as it toppled.

Bang!

Startled birds flew off in a flock!

"Chee do…"

The Super Lickitung let out a breath of stale air, and an orange-red glow of stat boost rose from beneath its feet.

Unlike the solid punchy feel of Aggron and Steelix, hitting Registeel made it clearly feel the hollow internal structure.

It felt as though it had just caved in that guy's "waist"…

"Doo-doo-doo! Leh! Jee!"

A sudden, loud mechanical sound shattered its thoughts.

A flash of grey-silver light in the forest, and Registeel, wreathed in silver currents, roared out like a giant cannonball!

So fast!

"Chee-doh!"

The Super Lickitung's pupils contracted sharply; it pushed off its tiptoes to dodge sideways, but Registeel's Iron Head was far faster than expected—in the blink of an eye it was right in front of it!

Fortunately, it controlled the twin jaws behind its head in time, making them shield in front.

Thud!

A heavy, forceful impact!

Registeel was flung backward by the reaction force, then adjusted its posture midair, managing to land steadily.

The Super Lickitung, taking the head-on charge, retreated four or five meters, its feet plowing a deep furrow in the ground, piling up a heap of dirt.

There were a few scuff marks on the giant twin jaws.

Huh?

The attack seemed a bit stronger than yesterday!

Such a slow start?

Sealed away for so long it's even forgotten how to use its strength properly?

Watching from the sidelines, All Baimu was quite astonished, and so was the Super Lickitung—boosted punch power really wasn't that high, but opponents who could counter this quickly after one punch were rare!

"Chee-doh…"

The twin jaws, merged into a shield, parted.

Excitement flickered in the Super Lickitung's gaze as it looked at Registeel.

"Doo-doo-doo—"

The hexagonal dot matrix on Registeel's face lit up in a clockwise sweep, then all lit together; its hands formed a ring, gathering terrifying black-purple energy at the center.

Hyper Beam!

Boom—!!

As a black-purple energy pillar several meters thick came tearing through the air, the keenly reactive Super Lickitung pushed off its tiptoes and leapt up, intending to dodge the beam.

Who would have thought the black-purple energy pillar would suddenly tilt upward!

All Baimu froze.

He hadn't expected that the moment the Super Lickitung predicted the release timing of Hyper Beam, Registeel had also predicted the direction it would dodge!

In a hair's breadth of a moment.

A pale-blue spherical barrier lit up.

It was the Super Lickitung switching tactics in time, successfully withstanding the bombardment of the black-purple energy pillar!

Hmmm—

A fierce burst of light and shadow!

The black-purple energy wave became turbulence against the spherical light shield of countless hexagons, but the shield itself was also trembling wildly under the energy impact.

Before long, spiderweb-like cracks spread across its surface, showing that its endurance was about to reach its limit.

Crash!

The brittle sound of glass shattering!

The pale-blue light shield shattered at the sound, and the remaining energy wave poured entirely onto the Super Lickitung, exploding with a bang into thick smoke.

"Doo-doo-doo—"

Registeel lowered its hands, the hexagonal dot matrix dimming instantly—like it had over-consumed energy and entered mid-cooldown mode, or like the battle-mode release posture of one certain it had defeated the Super Lickitung.

All Baimu smiled.

Midair.

The thick smoke quickly dispersed in the wind.

The Super Lickitung was seen surrounded by arcs of electricity, stepping on empty air with an indifferent expression; the Hyper Beam that came after Protect breaking through seemed to have done it no harm.

At least on its surface, aside from wisps of gunsmoke, there weren't many wounds left from the energy bombardment.

"Doo-doo-doo!"

Registeel's body trembled, the dot matrix on its face immediately flickering irregularly, the frequency so fast it was like a computer running at high speed processing massive amounts of data.

Clearly, at this moment Registeel was shocked.

At least the Pokémon watching around all took this guy's rather abnormal behavior as a sign of shock, even if no expression could be read from that dot-matrix face.

"Output really is worrying; a slow start doesn't help either."

All Baimu shook his head regretfully.

The Super Lickitung may lean toward offense, but that doesn't mean its defense is poor—on the contrary, both its defenses are very respectable.

High-power special attacks of Fire or Ground type might be hard to withstand, but special attacks of ordinary types aren't among them, let alone that a large portion of Hyper Beam's power was shed by Protect.

Of course.

In the final analysis, it was Registeel's special attack output that was unsatisfactory.

Its physical attack was even more unsatisfactory!

That Iron Head just now looked fierce, fast enough that even the Super Lickitung couldn't react in time—most likely it had borrowed force from the broken tree trunk to boost its speed.

The power wasn't much to speak of.

Ignoring the level shown in the memory fragments, its current output would probably rank fifth in the team, below fourth-place Dragonite.

Sometimes the gap between Legendary Pokémon is truly like the gap between Caterpie and Rayquaza.

It's a bit short on presence.

Baimu felt deep regret.

His gaze followed the lightning-fast descent of the Mega Gargamel, watching it bring down a foot like an axe upon Registeel's head, and he instinctively raised his hand.

Boom—!!

Amid the thunderous crash, the ground suddenly caved in; Registeel sank with a thud, like a nail hammered hard by a sledgehammer, embedded into the earth.

Wet soil and shattered stones flew everywhere, many zipping toward Baimu, blocked by his raised palm.

"It's definitely tough."

Baimu lowered his hand and saw Mega Gargamel swiftly retreating, while the small dent on Registeel's head popped back into place with a soft pop; he nodded approvingly.

After catching Registeel yesterday, he didn't even go to the Pokémon Center, because after checking, he found the thing hadn't suffered any serious damage.

So he had Happiny use two Healing Waves to restore it.

Today's battle had been lively enough.

High defenses, average offense, slow speed but excellent endurance—these four strengths made it perfect for Baimu's training needs.

The morning passed quickly.

All the Pokémon in his team had battled Registeel at least once.

However.

Don't be fooled by how Baimu just mocked the Steel Colossus as weak—in truth, none of the others except the Three Titans could beat it.

Dragonite has higher output, sure, but Registeel blocked with Iron Defense and Instant Recall one after another, turning a fight that started strong into one that couldn't land a hit.

Being criticized for insufficient power stems solely from its status as a Legendary Pokémon.

——

Yin Yu City

After bidding farewell to Absol again, Baimu arrived at the Pokémon Center.

He handed two large trays of Poké Balls to the receptionist Joy Young Lady: "I'd appreciate your help."

"Leave it to me."

Joy Young Lady smiled as she took the tray, scanned each Pokémon with a device for registration, then passed them to the Happiny nurse beside her, who carried them into the treatment room.

When Registeel's image appeared on the computer screen, her movements paused briefly.

Then.

Her smile remained unchanged as she handed all the Poké Balls to the Happiny nurse and said gently: "Please wait patiently in the resting area."

"Understood."

Baimu replied, silently praising Joy Young Lady's professionalism.

Most people would have shouted upon seeing a Legendary Pokémon, but for Joy Young Lady, safeguarding a Trainer's privacy was her professional ethics.

Besides, she'd seen plenty—her own sisters included a prosecutor who carried Latias; what was one Registeel to her?

Precisely because he trusted Joy Young Lady, Baimu had no hesitation bringing Registeel to the Pokémon Center.

If this were a xianxia or cultivation world,

What would follow would surely be a scene of "an innocent man punished for possessing something valuable"—a few people would emerge wanting to seize his Pokémon, giving him the chance to later show off and humiliate them.

Resting area.

Baimu sent Shan Ren many photos of himself with Registeel.

Buzz!

The kid replied instantly.

Shan Ren: 'Photoshopped?'

Baimu: 'Do I have that much free time to Photoshop for you?'

Shan Ren: '…'

Baimu: 'How much credibility does a Regional Champion holding a Legendary Pokémon carry? It'd top the trending charts instantly—save so much marketing cost!'

Shan Ren: 'Get lost, I don't want to talk to you right now!'

Baimu: 'What's wrong? Jealous?'

Baimu: 'Talk!'

Baimu: 'This is unreasonable—I'm telling you something serious!'

The message sank into the sea.

He realized Shan Ren had broken down again.

That guy not only couldn't understand his rapid growth, but also resented his luck with Legendary Pokémon—especially after learning he'd become friends with many of them.

Poor kid.

Baimu shook his head.

He knew promotion wasn't urgent—if it were, Shan Ren wouldn't be throwing a tantrum; he'd just been looking for an excuse to show off when he reached out to Shan Ren.

There weren't many people in this world he could casually chat with, and even fewer he could send pictures to show off.

Not long after.

The Pokémon had been checked.

Baimu hurried to the front desk to retrieve his Poké Balls.

Joy Young Lady saw him, her gentle face showing a hint of apology: "Your Pokémon are mostly restored. But Registeel's condition is unusual—the Pokémon Center's current equipment can't perform a detailed scan of it…"

"What do you mean?"

"According to all vital signs, Lei Ji is perfectly fine," Young Lady Joy said softly. "But if you're still uneasy, it would be wise to take Lei Ji to a large Pokémon Medical Center and have them perform a full diagnostic with their equipment."

"Understood."

Baimu nodded to show he understood.

This condition appearing on Lei Ji was unexpected, yet somehow understandable.

A full diagnostic...

Won't Professor Suigao help with it? Studying the Three Pillars certainly requires collecting all its physiological data.

Quickly gather them all!

Baimu left the Pokémon Center and boarded the train to Canaaz City.