Chapter 418: The Snowy's Gratitude

The Snom, as this temporary makeshift master, was undoubtedly enthusiastic.

After Vulpix clearly expressed its desire to learn Aurora Veil, Snom, not shy in the least, fluttered its beautiful translucent wings down onto the snow and immediately began teaching in Pokémon language with "Moss, moss."

Luo Mu looked toward Calyrex, only to find it intently observing the brilliant Aurora Veil in the sky, nodding occasionally, wearing a thoughtful expression while murmuring softly.

"So that's how it is; is this the energy structure?"

Funny enough, though Calyrex had lived through such long years and had indeed seen other Ice-type Pokémon release Aurora Veil before, some obscure power had hindered it from learning this move.

At that time, Calyrex did not care much about it.

If it couldn't learn it, then so be it; with its own power, constructing a psychic shield would be far more practical than these moves.

Had it not been unable to offer even a decent suggestion to Vulpix, Calyrex would not have cared so much about Aurora Veil, let alone chosen to research it alone now.

To Calyrex, the secret of Aurora Veil was like thin paper that breaks with a single poke; once examined seriously, its operating principles could be quickly understood.

But just like Teleport, Calyrex could directly warp space with its vast, powerful psychic force, and Aurora Veil was no different; Calyrex could also manipulate the arrangement and construction of psychic power and Ice-type energy to create an "artificial" Aurora Veil.

Yet it could not make this technique exist objectively as one of its moves; by now, its knowledge reserve for teaching Vulpix Aurora Veil was sufficient, but Vulpix already had a master.

Calyrex opened its eyes and shook its head helplessly.

"Never mind, I won't join in on this fun."

Saying this, it floated over to Luo Mu and said, "I'll go with you to carve the ice sculpture; although I'm not very familiar with the techniques, replicating them one-to-one using psychic power is still within my ability."

"That would be perfect."

Luo Mu smiled and nodded; with Calyrex helping alongside him, he probably wouldn't be so busy that his feet wouldn't touch the ground for the rest of the time.

Pokémon assistance was already within the allowed rules, so Luo Mu had no resistance to this.

While Luo Mu rummaged through his backpack to prepare two sets of carving tools, Calyrex approached Spectrier and gently stroked its back.

"My beloved horse, I leave Vulpix in your care; if necessary, call upon Regice as well."

Spectrier looked at Vulpix, who was pulling a serious face and listening intently to the lesson, and nodded without hesitation.

Little Vulpix was so cute; surely it needed protection from being led astray by bad guys from the outside.

In a corner known to no one, Spectrier suddenly awakened a remarkable new hobby.

At this moment, Luo Mu poked his head out again to remind Regice, who had finished its work and was now obediently "sitting" there, staring blankly at a small yellow flower blooming in the snow.

"Be careful, don't freeze the tea set!"

"Du du du lei ji ai si."

Regice nodded lightly (with its body), then stared blankly at the small yellow flower again, who knew what it was thinking about.

Night fell.

Luo Mu and Calyrex had roughly carved out the dense dragon scales on the ice sculpture of Rayquaza, which were hard to distinguish with the naked eye, as well as its distinctive ring structures.

Nearby, Cangyan Cangyan Rengui, Mimikyu, and the Sandslash couple occasionally helped out with odd jobs—

mainly assisting Luo Mu in dealing with ice shavings that were a bit difficult to scrape off with his strength, and serving as carving tools.

That's right, they could even serve as professional ice carving tools for once.

Ever since Luo Mu realized that his tools felt somewhat like using a fruit knife to slaughter an ox when working on the ice produced by Regice, he had been pondering what tools might be more handy.

Until Luo Mu saw the rows of sharp and keen ice needles on the backs of the Sandslash couple.

What actually grew on Sandslash's back were steel needles, but due to the massive leakage of Ice-type energy, these steel needles were encased in thick layers of ice.

Luo Mu estimated that the thinner few among these ice needles should be quite handy.

Fortunately, Sandslash naturally had the habit of replacing their steel needles, so it was no problem for Luo Mu to pluck a few sharp ice needles of varying thicknesses from them.

Holding these ice needles in hand and thrusting them forward, unlike the strenuous effort required by carving knives, the ice needles smoothly pierced through the ice layer's defense.

This also meant that Luo Mu could save half his strength.

Luo Mu carefully set down the ice needle in his hand to avoid accidentally injuring himself with it.

After all, once stabbed by this thing, with such a sharp surface, who knew how large a wound it might cause, not to mention that the ice needle could even cause the wound to suffer further frostbite.

Then, he stepped back several paces and looked at the work he had spent an entire day carving.

Limited by the characteristics of ice blocks, even with the help of the Pokémon, he could at most add supports beneath the ice sculpture to make it appear as if it were flying.

That's right, it only looked as if it were flying.

As the Sky High Pokémon, having Rayquaza's ice sculpture resting on the ground would feel a bit strange to people, or so Luo Mu thought.

He came up with an idea.

First, let the ice sculpture be supported by many props, keeping it at a certain distance from the ground; next, create ice "mountain bodies" capable of hiding those supports; finally, supplement it with special effects brought by Pokémon moves.

Perhaps in the end, this would achieve the appearance Luo Mu had envisioned.

But whether the idea would succeed or not could only be known after actual implementation upon completion tomorrow.

Leading the Pokémon, Luo Mu returned to the tent set up beside the ice sculpture.

By now, Cangyan Cangyan Rengui had already started a fire, and the lit kerosene lamp instantly made the pitch-black environment bright.

By this time, the audience here had long left the venue to spend the night in the nearby Iceberg Town.

Apart from those responsible for security, the organizers had also mostly departed.

Many contestants, just like Luo Mu, had set up temporary tents to guard their works.

After all, at night, security personnel could not perfectly prevent invasions by wild Pokémon; what if some wild Pokémon or even some ill-intentioned peers took advantage of the dark and windy night to do something unethical? Even Luo Mu planned to take turns standing watch tonight with Cangyan Cangyan Rengui, Mimikyu, and Calyrex.

Just as Luo Mu was drinking hot tea and pondering what to eat for dinner, Vulpix came bounding back.

Upon returning, Vulpix proudly spun in a circle before Luo Mu, crying "Miu wu, miu wu," as if expecting Luo Mu to discover something.

Luo Mu looked for a long time but couldn't figure anything out, so he could only awkwardly change the subject.

"Where is your Snom teacher?"

Vulpix paused its movement and shook its head, "Miu wu~" (Teacher Snom went back home, saying we'll continue tomorrow~) "Oh~ Then can you show me what progress you made today?"

Luo Mu scooped up Vulpix and vigorously ruffled its small head, which felt extremely pleasant to the touch.

The Cang Yan Ren Gui's motion of slicing vegetables with its great flame sword paused for a moment, then it casually resumed chopping with a clatter-clatter-clatter.

Yet its gaze remained stuck on the pair of hands atop the six-tailed fox's head, its emotions stirring slightly.

"As expected, Luo Mu prefers the fluffy six-tailed fox over cold, icy armor," the Cang Yan Ren Gui thought with a touch of envy, wondering if there was any way for it to grow such fluffy fur as well. Compared to the Cang Yan Ren Gui's silence, the Mimikyu nearby was far more proactive in expressing its feelings.

"Qiqi!" It spread its pair of sharp shadow claws, which looked slightly frightening, and cried out several times, attempting to attract Luo Mu's attention.

Just as Mimikyu wished, Luo Mu's attention was drawn to it; he set down the six-tailed fox, who was about to perform a talent, and picked up Mimikyu instead, allowing the six-tailed fox to demonstrate the results of a day's training before himself, Lei Guan Wang, and the other Pokémon.

A short while later.

After eating and drinking their fill, watching the little six-tailed fox sound asleep in its sleeping bag, Luo Mu let out a long sigh of relief.

Lei Guan Wang drifted over silently like a ghost and murmured softly, "That Frosmoth is quite skilled at teaching."

Luo Mu nodded in agreement and lowered his voice, saying, "At this pace, in another day or two, the six-tailed fox should be able to master Aurora Veil proficiently."

"In that case, it won't be ready for tomorrow night's presentation segment," Lei Guan Wang mused, then suggested, "Otherwise, when I prepare the white mist, I could also use my psychic power to create a patch of aurora?"

Lei Guan Wang was confident that even without the miraculous effects of Aurora Veil, creating a beautiful aurora to illuminate the artwork was something it could certainly accomplish.

Luo Mu nodded slightly. "That's the only option left."

Not long after.

Just as Luo Mu was cleaning up the cookware and preparing to rest.

He suddenly saw that over by the tents in the distance, a figure whose back resembled Grusha's had paid a visit there.

Luo Mu remembered that area was where the tent of Shava, the owner of the Frosmoth and reportedly the defending champion of this ice sculpture competition, was located.

His thoughts weren't so extreme that seeing a man and woman meet would make him assume something shady was going on; he merely muttered a low, puzzled remark.

"Do they know each other?"

Luo Mu could vaguely see that Shava over there seemed very happy, excitedly circling around Grusha, acting like two fools as they jumped up and down in the ice and snow.

Just as Luo Mu had anticipated, after interacting and exchanging words with Shava for a short while, Grusha picked up a lantern and left that spot, heading toward Luo Mu's location?

What did he come to find me for? Before Luo Mu could figure anything out, a noisy sound suddenly erupted in this otherwise extremely quiet place, full of presence.

Most of the sounds were humans making a racket, but in an inconspicuous corner within the noise, there seemed to be a few Pokémon cries mixed in.

Grusha over there hadn't expected this sudden accident either; his steps halted, and he immediately ran toward Luo Mu's direction.

Because behind Luo Mu was where the sound originated.

Luo Mu shouted an inquiry to Grusha, who was getting closer and closer: "What happened?"

Grusha put down his walkie-talkie and said to Luo Mu, "Nothing major; it seems some wild Pokémon are trying to force their way into the venue. I'll just go drive them away."

"Oh."

Luo Mu nodded; originally, he thought that since it was like this, he could just go rest and leave the task of guarding the venue's safety to Grusha.

But for some reason, Luo Mu suddenly felt a pang of anxiety in his heart.

It was as if he would regret it if he didn't go.

At this moment, Little Little Dandan inside the tent, seeming to know something, said in a faint voice, "I'll keep watch here; if you want to go, you can go take a look."

Since Lei Guan Wang had said so, after a brief consideration, Luo Mu decided to trust his intuition; he grabbed the gloves on the table and shouted to Grusha, who had just walked past him, "I'll go too."

Grusha didn't stop his steps, nor did he intend to stop Luo Mu's actions.

Even though he was now extremely grateful to Luo Mu and Lei Guan Wang, he wouldn't say anything about not letting his benefactors venture into danger—

Luo Mu's strength was far greater than his own, plus he had two legs; could Grusha possibly hold his head down and tell him not to come? Grusha didn't want to waste that effort; with that spare time, it was better to hurry to the scene.

Waking up the Mimikyu dozing in his shadow, Luo Mu put on his cold-proof gloves and followed directly.

Very soon, they arrived at the source of the noisy sounds.

Several security personnel wearing red vests, together with their Pokémon, were vigilantly staring at two huge creatures before them, each over two meters tall, their facial expressions solemn.

"Aren't they creatures that almost never appear in places where humans gather?"

One person murmured in a low voice, his expression somewhat tense.

Although Frostbite Mountain didn't have wild Pokémon that were all untouchable big shots like the Silver Mountains in the distant Johto region, the wild Pokémon here were similarly not weak in strength.

Not to mention the two Abomasnow before them, whose aura was impressive; they were simply not something ordinary trainers carrying Chatots or Sandaconda could resist.

When Grusha arrived, these people's first reaction was relief; they looked at Grusha as if he were a savior and chattered all at once, recounting the sequence of events.

Luo Mu, following closely behind, also heard the general gist of it.

For some unknown reason, those two Abomasnow insisted on entering the venue, yet for some reason, they showed no intention of attacking; after the initial conflict, both sides had simply reached a standoff.

For some reason, as Luo Mu looked at those two Abomasnow, he felt they were slightly familiar.

Nearby, Grusha blew a whistle, summoning an elegantly posed Altaria to land, intending to drive the two Abomasnow away without harming them.

As someone who had dealt with Ice-type Pokémon year-round and even established a gym on Frostbite Mountain, Grusha still understood the temperament of Abomasnow.

Under normal circumstances, as long as there was no trigger to provoke their anger, Abomasnow were actually very easy to get along with.

Seeing Altaria make its entrance, the emotions of the two Abomasnow instantly became tense.

They knew that Altaria was far stronger than themselves.

This caused them to huddle even closer together, firmly protecting whatever existed behind them.

Luo Mu, who had been observing the movements of the two familiar-looking Abomasnow, saw their actions and fell into thoughtful contemplation.

This movement looked less like fear and more like they were protecting something.

Judging by their characteristics, the genders of these two Abomasnow were clearly one female and one male; what they wanted to protect was already obvious.

After a brief consideration, realizing a certain possibility, Luo Mu decided to give it a try.

He stepped forward and said to Grusha, "Wait a moment; those two Abomasnow might be acquainted with me."

Grusha froze, looked deeply at Luo Mu for a moment, then stepped aside to clear the path.

Although the staff members were puzzled, since Grusha had done this, they couldn't say anything; they only watched Luo Mu walk over with worry, silently praying in their hearts.

This contestant must not come to any harm; otherwise, the boss will surely skin us alive.

Contrary to their expectations, when the Abomasnow noticed Luo Mu walking toward them, they did not grow more tense; instead, they breathed a sigh of relief.

Then, from behind them, a small head wearing a white straw hat popped out.

It was the child of the Abomasnow, a Pokémon that had not yet evolved into an Abomasnow: a Xue Li Guai.

Upon spotting Luo Mu's arrival, the Xue Li Guai's eyes lit up; cupping a beautiful stone patterned like snowflakes in its hands, which resembled fresh pine sprouts, it ran happily toward Luo Mu.

(End of Chapter)