Chapter 416: It's Fine, His Skills Aren't as Good as Ours!

The entire Ice Sculpture Competition venue was divided into three zones.

The first was the competition area where the contestants created their works, which also occupied the largest surface area.

The second was the zone designated for the scoring judges and the numerous spectators who had come to watch.

The third was a zone set apart from the first two by a certain distance, designed to prevent wild Pokémon from Frostbite Mountain from suddenly bursting in to cause trouble, thereby giving security personnel and Pokémon a reaction time.

Essentially, these three zones resembled three overlapping circles, established on the rare, large expanse of flat ground found atop the steep Frostbite Mountain.

After bidding farewell to Grusha, who was still immersed in joy over the treatment his legs had received, Luo Mu, with considerable flair, arrived at the competition grounds alongside Lei Guan Wang and Snowstorm Horse.

At this moment, quite a few competing contestants were already scattered across the competition grounds.

Since he himself was a mere novice who had just entered the field and possessed no relevant connections,

Luo Mu did not recognize a single one of these people, let alone know whether they were professional ice sculpting artists or idle onlookers like himself who had simply come on a whim to join the fun.

Thus, he showed no desire to interact with others; instead, his gaze wandered among them as he searched for the event staff.

Although Luo Mu paid no attention to others, that did not mean others were not paying attention to him.

Many discreet glances were cast toward Luo Mu, or more accurately, toward the incredibly handsome Snowstorm Horse beside him and Lei Guan Wang riding atop it.

"How come that person is accompanied by a bunch of Pokémon I've never seen before?"

Some people from the Alola region recognized the Vulpix, but they were completely baffled regarding the identities of Lei Guan Wang and Snowstorm Horse.

Some, itching to act, wanted to step forward and strike up a conversation with Luo Mu, hoping that through casual chat they could indirectly ask what the Pokémon beside him were called, which region they came from, so they could go catch a few themselves.

However, often before they could even take a step, they were intimidated by the indescribable aura emanating from Lei Guan Wang, causing them to hesitate and recoil, secretly startled.

"That Pokémon with the somewhat large head; why does its presence and temperament seem even more terrifying than my own mother and father?"

Clearly, although Lei Guan Wang had already made the choice to retire from being the King of Galar, that dignified aura which commanded respect without anger was not something that could simply vanish completely.

After scanning left and right several times, Luo Mu finally spotted the whereabouts of the staff members.

The staff of the Ice Sculpture Competition all wore red vests that stood out conspicuously in this silver-clad world, with name badges pinned to their chests representing their status as staff.

The main reason Luo Mu had taken so long to find them was that just moments ago, a muscular male contestant had completely blocked his view of a female staff member whose figure appeared slightly petite in comparison to him.

He asked Lei Guan Wang and Snowstorm Horse to wait a moment with the Vulpix.

Approaching this petite female staff member, Luo Mu greeted her, "Hello, are you available right now?"

Simultaneously, Luo Mu's gaze lingered for an instant on the name badge pinned to the vest on her chest, committing her name to memory.

Mumu.

Having just rejected a contestant with no sense of boundaries who wanted to ask her out to see the snow, Mumu hadn't yet had time to breathe a sigh of relief when Luo Mu's call nearly scared two-thirds of her soul out of her body.

"No way! Again?"

Even though her heart was churning with turbulent waves, Mumu still maintained a perfectly appropriate smile, turned around, and said enthusiastically, "Hello! Do you have questions regarding the competition procedure?"

At the same time, her eyes cautiously darted a glance at Luo Mu, confirming that he was wearing the small green vest representing a contestant's identity, ensuring she hadn't made a mistake.

Luo Mu looked at Mumu strangely, feeling that her smile was slightly too professional, but since he had no need to meddle in other people's affairs, he decided it was better to secure a spot first.

So he stated directly, "I intend to confirm my area for when the competition begins shortly; could you help me demarcate it and register it?"

"Ah?" Mumu froze for a moment, then upon realizing, nodded rapidly like a chick pecking at rice, "Okay, I understand! Please follow me."

With over fifty contestants in total, it was possible that conflicts or even physical altercations could arise between individuals who had their eyes on the same working area.

The probability of such a situation might seem low, but it was certainly not zero.

Therefore, the organizers had considered this issue long ago and issued a rule.

"Contestants may freely choose an area within the competition grounds as their workspace, but they must not seize a workspace that has already been confirmed and registered by another person; otherwise, they will be disqualified with a score of zero."

Although this regulation seemed domineering, it directly suppressed the emergence of this hidden danger.

After all, this was merely an ordinary ice sculpture competition testing skill, not a lordship game comparing who had the bigger fists to seize territory.

In a certain sense, this was a rule where whoever arrived early secured the good positions.

Turning to lead the way, Mumu asked Luo Mu as a matter of routine, "How large of an ice sculpture do you plan to create, and what radius of workspace do you require?"

"Hmm, let me think."

Luo Mu put on a troubled expression; truth be told, he genuinely did not know how large of a workspace would be suitable for him.

Looking at Luo Mu, who seemed somewhat unreliable,

Mumu thought that this young man before her might even be younger than herself, and his skills were probably not much to speak of; after all, she, who could barely be considered half an insider, had never seen or heard the name of an ice sculpting art master called Luo Mu.

He was probably just here to experience the atmosphere.

Thinking this, Mumu subtly changed her direction of travel, intending to lead Luo Mu to the area where novices typically gathered, so he wouldn't stay alongside the true masters competing for prizes and accidentally suffer a blow to his confidence.

At this moment, Luo Mu finally finished his estimation and said hesitantly, "My ice sculpture will probably be about twenty to thirty meters long, and on top of that needing to leave some space for movement, I'm afraid the area required will be very large."

Mumu's footsteps halted abruptly as she led the way; she stiffly twisted her neck and looked at Luo Mu with an expression that asked, "Are you kidding me?"

Even Teacher Shana, the favorite to win this very competition, probably wouldn't dare to make such an outrageous request!

Yet Luo Mu's expression was utterly sincere, which threw Mumu into confusion.

"Could it be... does he actually possess real skill?"

After a brief moment of thought, Mumu said softly, "Since the competition is about to begin very soon, the workspaces that meet your requirements are likely limited to a few unpopular locations."

"Unpopular?" Luo Mu asked with a puzzled look.

"Mm." Mumu nodded and still spoke honestly, "The places that meet your requirements are either fragmented due to the divisions made by other contestants, or they are large vacant areas caused by the presence of certain contestants."

"To put it bluntly, if you insist on this, you will become 'neighbors' with those professional contestants, which may not be very advantageous during the judging phase where works are viewed sequentially."

In the end, Luo Mu still let Mumu lead him to the vacant area next to that "professional contestant," becoming his neighbor.

As Mumu was leaving, he also learned from her the identity of his neighbor.

It was precisely Ms. Shana, the professional ice sculptor and defending champion of the Ice Sculpture Competition, who was the trainer of the Weavile, Lapras, and Frosmoth seen in the video he had shown to Vulpix.

The ice sculptures carved by Shana were renowned for their delicacy, exquisiteness, lifelike quality, and the eye-catching special effects that complemented them. Just as in the video Luo Mu had shown Vulpix, Shana would have her Pokémon equip different "special effects" tailored to the characteristics of each ice sculpture.

As a Bug and Ice-type Pokémon, Frosmoth was undoubtedly one of the Pokémon most suitable for producing special effects.

The work in the video—"Polar and Tundra Bear Brothers"—was exactly like that.

Above the heads of the Tundra Bear Brothers gazing at the night sky, the scattered ice-scale powder resembled stars, while the magnificent and dreamlike aurora perfectly presented the artistic conception of this work.

It was said that even a league intended to purchase this work to use as a representative piece for promoting environmental protection, and had invited Sha Hua to travel around the world alongside the ice sculpture exhibition to provide the indispensable "special effects."

It could be said that, as an ice sculpting artist, Sha Hua had already reached the pinnacle.

Luo Mu and Lei Guan Wang silently organized the tools they would need next, while Snowstorm Horse slowly chewed and savored the ice radish Luo Mu had given it.

Recently, Lei Guan Wang had been strictly limiting its intake of ice radishes, seemingly saying that eating only radishes was unhealthy.

Since it was not easy for Luo Mu to give it a special treat just once, how could Wang say anything against it? Naturally, it had to savor it slowly.

Vulpix, having nothing to do for the moment, looked to the side.

Luo Mu had said that over there was the working area of the strongest opponent in this competition; she herself did not even need to arrive early in the morning, as the organizers had already arranged the most suitable climax position for her.

In a certain sense, the stubborn Luo Mu, who was not afraid of comparison, had benefited from her light, picking up a decent spot for free.

Vulpix felt slightly nervous, recalling that scene from the video in its mind, thinking how wonderful it would be if it could also unfold such a beautiful curtain of aurora.

If that happened, the work Luo Mu and the others had prepared would surely stand out even more.

Vulpix did not notice that under a large tree slightly farther away, a small white head resembling a straw hat had poked out; upon seeing their side, and especially upon seeing Luo Mu, its eyes lit up.

A moment later.

The time finally arrived at ten o'clock; all the contestants had orderly waited in their selected areas, ready to begin their ice sculpting work as soon as the staff gave the order.

Unlike those heated and highly spectacular Pokémon battles, Contests, or even various professional field competitions.

The ice sculpting competition itself did not possess strong spectacle; the entire carving process was dry and boring, and only the moment the final cut was made was when many non-professional spectators became interested.

The moment all the contestants had arrived, Luo Mu finally got to see what that mysterious Lady Sha Hua looked like.

She appeared to be around thirty years old; her beautiful face was well-maintained, and her temperament was very mature, looking nothing like someone who would be arrogant and domineering due to her status in her field.

Noticing that Luo Mu beside her had occupied such a large area, Sha Hua looked over here with considerable surprise; her gaze collided squarely with Luo Mu's, and she nodded gently in acknowledgment.

This Lady Sha Hua seemed quite friendly.

Luo Mu silently made this judgment in his heart.

Then, the enthusiastic host, beaming with joy, announced the start of the Ice Sculpting Grand Prix, and numerous contestants released their Pokémon one after another.

The first procedure was—making ice! Since the contestants came from all over the world, their Pokémon also hailed from various regions.

Jynx from Johto, Glalie and Froslass from Hoenn, Vanilluxe, Beartic from Unova, and so on—but all these Pokémon instantly became dimmed the moment Luo Mu released Regice.

The legend of the King of Abundance had almost ceased to circulate in Frostbite Village, so no one could recognize Lei Guan Wang, this forgotten King, or Snowstorm Horse.

But Regice was different.

Among Ice-type trainers, Regice's reputation was just like the various Legendary Dragon-type Pokémon that Dragon-type trainers yearned for; it ranked first alongside Articuno on the list of Pokémon that Ice-type trainers most wanted to catch.

No one had never fantasized about catching a Legendary Pokémon, and Lady Sha Hua was no exception.

She glanced in Luo Mu's direction in surprise, her mind shaken, so much so that she even forgot to have her Lapras use Ice Beam to create ice.

On the periphery.

Grusha, who had already recovered, did not know what to say anymore.

Lei Guan Wang, Snowstorm Horse, and even Regice—could being a farm owner really offer such opportunities?

Grusha felt as though he had eaten a whole jin of lemons.

It was sour to death.

After releasing Regice, Luo Mu sequentially called out the Sandslash couple, Mimikyu, and Cangyan Cangyan Rengui.

Since this was a super-large ice sculpture, if he only had three Pokémon assistants each performing their own duties like Lady Sha Hua, two days would absolutely not be enough time to complete the task.

At least in terms of assistants, Luo Mu was leading by a cliff-like margin.

Several Pokémon gathered together and, following Lei Guan Wang's guidance, exhaled patches of Icy Wind.

Lei Guan Wang then used psychic power to arrange this Icy Wind, mixed with ice and snow, into the shape of Rayquaza, and then looked toward Regice.

In fact, Regice could almost reproduce the same ice blocks it had made before at a one-to-one ratio, just like a living 3D printer.

But Lei Guan Wang worried that Regice might feel some discomfort performing a proportional enlargement for the first time, so it simply decided to guide Regice itself.

The yellow circular spots on Regice's face flashed once; under its control, cold air immediately began to spread, and in just a few breaths' time, it filled the "mold" created by Lei Guan Wang, condensing into an extremely solid giant layer of ice.

This speed made many contestants watch with intense envy.

Looking at their own ice-making speed, and then looking at the ice-making speed of Luo Mu's Regice, there was simply no comparability!

Coming back to her senses, Sha Hua had no time to be envious; she hurriedly instructed her Lapras, Weavile, and Snom to create ice blocks.

For this competition, she wanted to try breaking through her limits and create an ice sculpture several times larger than her previous ones; time was tight, so where would she find the energy to pay attention to others?

After taking the lead and finishing the ice-making in one go, Luo Mu led his Pokémon to begin the preliminary shaping of the ice layer, removing the excess parts.

The moment they began acting, they exposed the fact that their skills were not so proficient before the professionals who now filled the entire venue—

Whether it was the usage of tools or the processing methods, everything was too rough; even after accidentally creating a crack, Luo Mu simply smashed that section directly and remade a new ice block to splice onto it.

All of this exposed the fact that they were not so professional.

This made many contestants whose goal was to fight for second place breathe a sigh of relief.

Fortunately, this lord was just here to play; even though the quality of his Pokémon crushed everyone else, his skills were not better than ours!

(End of Chapter)