Chapter 290: Zapdos and Articuno, Mewtwo and the Sage Slowking

Shinji!?

How did he end up attending classes at Grandma Ju Zi Academy?

Luo Mu recalled that a few months ago, Lei Si had come challenging him because of his Dragonite, only to be swept one-versus-six by Moltres, after which he had departed with Shinji; according to Luo Mu's memory, they should have gone to challenge the Battle Frontier.

Once Lei Si finished challenging the Battle Frontier, Shinji would become a cold child who kept "useless things" on his lips and subjected Pokémon to harsh training.

However, regarding upbringing, Shinji still had no flaws; when seeing a powerful senior Trainer, he was quite polite.

Luo Mu was also unclear whether, under his influence, the slightly changed Lei Si would achieve a different result in his battle against Pyramid King Brandon, and whether this change would have a positive impact on the shift in Shinji's mindset.

In any case, intuition told Luo Mu that Shinji was likely coming for him; otherwise, he wouldn't have skipped traveling in the Kanto region and instead traveled ten thousand li from his hometown of Veilstone City in the Sinnoh region, crossing half the planet just to attend classes at Grandma Ju Zi Academy.

Wait, no; by the time Shinji came to school, Grandma Ju Zi Academy would have already become Grape Academy.

"Then I'll head back first."

As if worrying about his future teaching career, Luo Mu slowly sighed, closed the file, and handed it back to Geeta.

Geeta glanced thoughtfully at Luo Mu and reminded him, "Don't forget about the matter of the Dragon Clan in the Johto region."

Luo Mu merely waved his hand to indicate he understood, then left the Chairman's office without looking back.

Returning to the farm, Luo Mu and Oranguru began inspecting the newly constructed buildings ordered during this period.

The open-air sunshade and rain shelter in the pasture area had been repaired; since Luo Mu returned right at noon when the sunlight was most vicious, Miltank, Stantler, and the Skiddo were already staying inside to avoid the sun.

Mudsdale, on the other hand, was rolling around in its mud pit, completely unconcerned by the scorching sun; its stamina was already excellent, not to mention the boost from its Ability "Stamina," which made Mudsdale's already outstanding stamina utterly ridiculous.

Furthermore, the mud in that pit helped Mudsdale with sun protection and heat insulation.

On the other side of the sunshade, a Pokémon House large enough for even the biggest Mudsdale to enter and exit freely had also been completed.

It was naturally equipped with air conditioning, so if the Pokémon in the pasture area couldn't withstand the high temperatures, they could enter the small house to blow AC and escape the heat.

After the inspection ended, Luo Mu turned to look at Oranguru, who had remained silent the whole time, and discovered it was staring in a certain direction.

Luo Mu couldn't help but ask curiously, "What are you looking at?"

Following Oranguru's line of sight, Luo Mu saw it was watching two Stantler huddled together to escape the heat, and a meaningful smile appeared on its face.

Luo Mu was first stunned, then quickly realized what was happening.

If you're escaping the heat, just escape the heat; why huddle so closely? Luo Mu wasn't someone who hadn't touched a Stantler before; he knew perfectly well just how thick the deer fur on their bodies was.

"Could it be... hiss."

Shock instantly filled Luo Mu's entire face; if it weren't for Oranguru, he truly wouldn't have noticed the condition of the two Stantler.

After all, in his view, the two Stantler, as partners supporting each other, should have had purely comradely feelings, yet he never expected it would turn out like this...

Having witnessed countless romances between humans and Pokémon, Oranguru smiled slightly, fanned itself with its fan, enjoyed the cool breeze blowing against its face, and spoke to Luo Mu via telepathy: "Young Master, let's go; let's pretend we saw nothing."

Luo Mu nodded, wearing an expression that said, "I understand."

Except when picking tea leaves, it was better not to disturb the young couple while they were falling in love~

Perhaps in a little while, the Stantler would bring him a surprise.

Luo Mu was very curious to see which couple would succeed first: the Sandslash husband and wife in the ice cellar, or the Stantler.

Back at the house, Oranguru immediately busied itself with cleaning; it always wanted to keep the house in a dust-free state, cleaning at least twice a day, with countless additional dustings.

Through the window, Luo Mu watched the air outside, which was slightly distorted due to the high temperature, as well as Arcanine and Stoutland lying under the leaves of an Arboliva in front of the chicken coop, cooling off while constantly sticking out their tongues; he didn't understand how Arcanine, a Fire/Rock-type Pokémon with a quadruple resistance to Fire, could get so hot that it was panting.

After pondering for a moment, Luo Mu bent down, took a large bag of mung beans from the cupboard, poured them into a container, added water, and began washing them.

The farm did not grow mung beans; these were something he had just seen being sold while purchasing daily necessities not produced on the farm in Pingdie Town, reminding him that when speaking of summer heat relief, one thought of mung bean soup and mung bean shaved ice pops.

After rinsing the mung beans with clean water several times until the water became clear, Luo Mu drained the water, set up a large clay pot, added pure drinking water and the mung beans, and began boiling them over high heat.

About forty minutes later, Luo Mu lifted the lid of the clay pot, and a fresh aroma of mung beans wafted to his nose; as the scent spread, Serperior, who was looking after the children in the living room, poked its head out to look toward the kitchen, beginning to wonder what delicious thing Luo Mu was making today.

At this point, the mung beans had fully bloomed, and the soup color had completely turned a pale red; Luo Mu added a small amount of sugar and honey for seasoning, stirred evenly, and then let the mung bean soup sit for a while.

Once the temperature of the mung bean soup in the clay pot had dropped from scalding to roughly room temperature, Luo Mu directly called Vulpix over from the Ice House; rather than letting it cool slowly in the refrigerator, it was better to go straight to the source.

After returning to the farm, Luo Mu had been feeding Vulpix well during this period, causing its energy reserves to increase significantly, and even the temperature of its Powder Snow had decreased somewhat.

As Vulpix spat out its frosty Powder Snow from its mouth, within just a few minutes, the room-temperature mung bean soup in the clay pot turned into ice-cold iced mung bean soup, without needing to add any ice cubes.

Under the drooling gazes of Vulpix and the arriving Applin and Tropius, Luo Mu scooped up a spoonful of mung bean soup and sent it into his mouth.

In an instant, the mung bean soup was like a gentle breeze blowing across one's face in summer, carrying away all the heat and irritability from the bottom of his heart.

The icy mung bean soup slid across the tip of the tongue, bringing an indescribable sensation of coolness; the mung beans, cooked to perfection, had a soft and glutinous texture without losing their chewiness, perfectly blending with the icy, sweet soup—truly a divine tool for escaping the heat.

Luo Mu's eyes brightened slightly, and he quickly prepared a bowl for Serperior, who looked utterly impatient.

Not missing Serperior's action of saying no while its body betrayed yes, Luo Mu smiled slightly, directly carried the clay pot out of the room, portioned out the mung bean soup, and with Oranguru's help, distributed it to all the Pokémon on the farm.

A bowl of cool, iced mung bean soup carried away the heat of the approaching midsummer, adding a touch of coolness to the farm.

In the evening, Luo Mu went to the power generation and storage facility group to check the remaining electricity.

Over these past few days, about one percent had been used up, but with the addition of new electrical appliances he had purchased and their continuous energy consumption, the rate of power decline was accelerating.

However, the current power level should be sufficient to last until Mimikyu and Moltres returned with Zapdos; once Zapdos filled the storage warehouse with electricity, in another few days, Luo Mu would be about ready to depart for the Johto region.

Looking toward the horizon where the sky was dyed a dim yellow hue, Luo Mu murmured to himself, "It's been almost two days; they should be back soon."

As if responding to Luo Mu's voice, on that side of the sky, a trace of firelight slightly illuminated the firmament; with his 5.0 vision, Luo Mu could see a pair of flame wings beating in a steady rhythm.

It was Moltres.

Because of the illumination from Moltres's pair of flame wings, Luo Mu could see the scenery around it even more clearly.

Besides a divine bird that seemed as if cast entirely from gold, there was another divine bird trailing beautiful ice-blue tail feathers, from which crystalline ice flakes drifted down with every beat of its wings.

Zapdos... and Articuno!

Luo Mu hadn't expected that Articuno would be brought back to the farm as well.

After all, at the time he had only said it casually, without holding any expectations.

Zapdos had said that Articuno liked traveling outside and might not return to its island even once in several years.

Around the Ju Zi Islands, Aria Island.

Watching the messenger bird and the mysterious "person" cloaked in a hood suddenly appear in its cave, Slowking did not panic; it wisely narrowed its eyes slowly, having just sensed an extremely concealed psychic fluctuation.

It was Teleport; it seemed the mysterious "person" under the cloak was either a human psychic or some kind of humanoid Psychic-type Pokémon.

Just like Meowth, Slowking could speak without needing telepathy: "Hello to you both."

"Deli-li!?"

The messenger bird immediately showed a surprised expression; had it heard wrong? Did Slowking just open its mouth and speak?

It was not some telepathy, but human language emitted directly from vocal cords!

Mewtwo's purple eyes, hidden beneath its hood, fixed on Slowking, thinking, 'So this is the wise Slowking Luo Mu mentioned?'

After a moment of silence, facing another Pokémon, Mewtwo did not hide itself; it lifted its hood and looked straight at Slowking: "Are you the Sage of the Sea?"

Looking at Mewtwo's appearance, which was beyond its expectations and something it had never seen before, a trace of surprise flashed in Slowking's eyes.

It neither admitted nor denied it; instead, it walked past Mewtwo and the messenger bird with its hands behind its back, gazing out at the sparkling sea with its back to them: "I am merely an ordinary Slowking residing in this place."

"I am Mewtwo; do you have any insights regarding the crisis that is about to arrive?"

Mewtwo turned and stood beside Slowking; it could sense that Slowking's spiritual power was vast, indicating its level of wisdom was quite high.

When it had just used its psychic power to scan the entire island, Mewtwo discovered a temple and an altar at the island's edge, where there was quite a bit of this Slowking's aura.

It believed Slowking must know something.

Slowking's gaze swept across the sea surface, landing on those three adjacent islands.

Although it did not understand the purpose of this mysterious Pokémon, Mewtwo, and still felt a very powerful sense of oppression and threat emanating from it,

Slowking still dutifully began to recount the prophecy of Asertia.

"The God of Fire, the God of Thunder, and the God of Ice must not be touched arbitrarily; otherwise, the wrath of heaven and earth will lead the world to destruction."

"The God of the Sea will only appear when saving 【the world】 from destruction, but even it alone cannot stop the world's demise."

"Only the emergence of an excellent commander can quell the wrath of the gods."

"This is a prophecy passed down through generations on this island; quite a headache, isn't it?"

Slowking shook its head and looked at Mewtwo.

"Do the God of Fire, the God of Thunder, and the God of Ice refer to Moltres, Zapdos, and Articuno living on those three islands?"

Mewtwo furrowed its brows again; although it had not investigated carefully, when it had Teleported with the messenger bird to the skies above Asertia Island, it had indeed vaguely sensed extraordinary auras on those three islands and known the identities of their owners.

However, what made Mewtwo feel most irritable was not the existence of the three legendary birds, but Slowking's phrase about the world's destruction.

"They are not particularly strong; why would they be linked to the destruction of the world?"

"Because they are closely related to the climate of this world; their emotions influence changes in the world's climate. When they fall into rage, natural disasters and abnormal phenomena will appear all over the world."

For some reason, while chatting with Mewtwo, Slowking unconsciously revealed everything it knew; this feeling made Slowking feel incredibly novel.

This mysterious Mewtwo was probably even more extraordinary than it had imagined.

The messenger bird listened from the side, not daring to breathe loudly; until now, it still felt somewhat like it was in a dream, treading on cotton with a light, floating sensation.

The messenger bird did not understand how things had suddenly become linked to the destruction of the world.

It was now already considering the possibility of immediately using a slipper to shake Luo Mu awake.

"Closely related to the climate..."

As a murmur-like self-talk arose, Mewtwo raised its right hand; psychokinetic energy formed from its spiritual power spread out with its movement, covering the entire Asertia Island in an instant.

Every word and deed of the humans on the island was entirely within its control.

But Mewtwo was not satisfied with this; more and vaster psychokinetic energy surged forth, spreading toward the three islands not far from Asertia Island, capturing the auras of three unique legendary birds currently resting.

At least for now, the three legendary birds showed no abnormalities.

But Slowking's statement that they were closely related to the climate reminded Mewtwo of some information it had previously extracted from the technological wreckage of Team Rocket on New Island.

Speaking of legendary Pokémon somewhat related to the climate, the remaining data of Team Rocket recorded a Pokémon named Lugia, living in the seas near the Whirl Islands in the Johto region; Team Rocket had not yet pinpointed its specific location.

But according to the data collected by Team Rocket, Lugia has an extremely tight connection with the ocean currents at the bottom of this world's seas; if it is the God of the Sea, and combined with the God of Fire, the God of Thunder, and the God of Ice, which are closely related to nature and climate, all encountering trouble,

perhaps it could truly cause a disaster sweeping across the entire planet.

Mewtwo was not interested in what would happen to other humans on the planet, but the cloned Pokémon it had worked so hard to settle were still living on this planet.

Such a thing as the destruction of the world—it would absolutely not allow it to happen!

Promoting a friend's book

"A Maze on the Tip of the Tongue"

A fantasy food adventure similar to Delicious in Dungeon, relaxed slice-of-life, featuring a uniquely conceived dungeon ecosystem (with food illustrations at key moments)

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(End of Chapter)