Chapter 422: They Say the Apples in Northern Village Are Big and Round

Afterward.

Luo Mu still declined the organizer's invitation to display the award, and instead, with the medal and the Icy Rock in tow, asked Lei Guan Wang to warp space with psychic power, moving that massive Rayquaza ice sculpture to the ice cellar beneath the farm.

Suddenly experiencing this spatial displacement, the married couple of Abomasnow and the Snover were directly startled.

The Snover especially felt a churning in its stomach.

After returning to the ice cellar, Luo Mu, with Lei Guan Wang's help, first placed the ice sculpture in a corner of the cellar.

Although it occupied a large area and required Regice and Ninetales to periodically gather cold air every day to preserve the sculpture's integrity,

once the farm expansion was completed and winter arrived, this huge ice sculpture could be moved outdoors to serve as a play platform for the farm's Pokémon.

It was just unknown whether Rayquaza, upon seeing it from the sky, would fly into a rage and attack again.

The next day.

On the soft sofa in the living room.

Luo Mu scratched Sister Eevee's chin and accepted several design drawings handed over by Oranguru.

After carefully browsing through them once, surprise floated across Luo Mu's brows and eyes, "Isn't this a bit too luxurious and eye-catching?"

Oranguru's telepathic voice rang out.

"To realize all the functions you mentioned earlier, only a structure of this magnitude is sufficient."

"Given the current liquid funds available in the farm's account, even if we build a residence like this, the capital chain will not break; the funds brought in by the milk delivery business and the sale of the farm's specialty crops far exceed your imagination."

"Moreover, it is almost impossible for us to encounter a situation where the capital chain breaks."

Oranguru's voice carried thick confidence.

Speaking conservatively, even if a crisis truly occurred, its private stash still had a sum of money that could be mobilized for use; these were funds it had saved over the years working as a butler, enough to solve immediate urgent problems without any issue.

With Lei Guan Wang's presence on the farm, it would certainly not sit idly by; at that time, with just some seeds, overnight the farm would be filled with mature crops of the highest quality.

Worries about the future simply did not exist from the very beginning.

Luo Mu thought Oranguru was right; if worst came to worst, he could still go out and take on missions to support the family, so he nodded, "Then I'll leave the follow-up to you; wait until the people from Pingdie Town come to hand over the land boundaries with me before preparing to start construction."

Oranguru nodded lightly and exited the living room.

It still had to perform its daily routine: checking the status of those three special berry tree seedlings that Luo Mu had brought back from the Indigo Plateau.

Among all the crops on the entire farm, aside from the Secret Herbs, those were the most precious.

Furthermore, the Pecha Berry tree among them was linked to its goal of wiping away past shame.

After it matured, Oranguru would spend its own money to buy plane tickets, personally take Luo Mu to Melemele Island in the Alola region, find that same species in the forest, let Luo Mu act as the referee, and compete to see whose Pecha Berry juice tasted better.

After Oranguru left, Sister Eevee jumped onto Luo Mu's lap, stared at the several drawings in his hand, and let out a confused cry.

"Eevui?"

Hearing Eevee's soft, sticky cry, Luo Mu couldn't help but rub its little head again, then, as if he understood what Eevee was asking, replied, "Isn't our home quite small? With this, in a little while, we'll be able to live in a new home that is bright, warm, and convenient."

"Eevee Eevui!?"

Eevee's eyes instantly became bright and sparkling, full of expectation and longing.

In the past, to avoid powerful wild Pokémon, she and her sister had dug a burrow specifically, but whenever it rained, water would flood in, the place was always filled with a damp atmosphere, and occasionally some stray Diglett would wander in and make a mess of the burrow.

When they moved into the farm's house that was warm in winter and cool in summer, Eevee had thought she was dreaming.

As a result, now Luo Mu was actually telling her that in the future they could live in an even bigger and more comfortable house!? Eevee once again felt that her decision to give herself away that night had been absolutely correct! Moreover, with a new big house, Sister Shuang Nai Xian wouldn't have to keep shrinking herself in that tiny kitchen to make desserts, and there would be room to set up many machines capable of making delicious sweets!

Doctor Comfey wouldn't need to diagnose and treat patients in such a narrow medical room either; Pokémon like Feng Su Gou already couldn't fit inside now.

After playing for a while with the slightly scheming, cute-begging Eevee, Luo Mu gently patted its head and reminded, "Your sister should be waking up around this time; go keep her company. I also need to go check on the progress of Luxray and the others' special training."

Lying on its back and cleverly using its cute appearance to gain affection, Eevee froze, greatly alarmed.

Oh no, while focusing on acting cute to boost favorability, I almost forgot about my sister! Licking Luo Mu's fingertips with its little pink tongue as a farewell, Eevee agilely flipped over, jumped up, and vanished in a flash.

Seeing that Eevee was no longer in sight, Luo Mu smiled helplessly, picked up the drawings, and continued examining them.

Besides adding many new rooms, the drawings designed the first floor to be more suitable for Pokémon on the farm like Shuang Nai Xian and Comfey, who hold important positions and require independent spaces.

A bright and spacious medical room that, except for Meng Lei Gu whose neck was simply too long, could basically accommodate large-bodied Pokémon like Snowy Abomasnow, Shadow Rider Calyrex, Feng Su Gou, and even future Garganacl.

A spacious kitchen fully equipped to make gourmet food for the farm's Pokémon had everything one could need.

But if one were to speak of the design that made Luo Mu's eyes light up the most, it belonged to the new house's overall heating, cooling, and air circulation system in the drawings.

Not only could it rely on electric power to drive normal system operations, but it could also directly switch to manual mode, allowing Ice-type, Fire-type, and Flying-type Pokémon to provide cold or warm air according to different needs.

For example, in the height of summer, one only needed to have Ninetales, Regice, or Snowy Abomasnow come to a specific area and blow cold air into the special pipes; this cold air would then be transported to every part of the new house. In winter, Moltres's hot wind could be operated in the same way.

One could even have Dragonite manipulate airflow to rapidly circulate and replace the air inside the new house, keeping it fresh, and at night when sleeping, have Comfey transport the aroma of Aromatherapy into the new house to promote sleep quality.

After putting down the drawings, Luo Mu came to the open ground.

Combee, Applin, and Tropius were completing their daily training items under the high temperatures, while nearby Ninetales sat gracefully, manipulating Ice-type energy to bring down a small range of snowflakes, the cold air from which also benefited Combee and the others.

Having experienced the initial surprise, the three Pokémon had already adapted to their companion disappearing for two days only to transform into an elegant and noble Ninetales, and were now enjoying the conveniences Ninetales brought.

After evolving, Ninetales had learned quite a few moves, filling its somewhat meager move pool.

Paired with the Snow Warning ability, there was Aurora Veil for defense, the versatile offensive move Ice Beam, Freeze-Dry which was particularly effective against Water-type Pokémon and expanded its coverage, and after gaining the new Fairy type, it had also learned Dazzling Gleam.

The Icy Rock rewarded from the Ice Sculpture Competition had already been given by Luo Mu to Ninetales, allowing it, while practicing the proficiency of its new moves, to also train its control over its ability just like Politoed did, striving to always maintain an advantage in weather contests.

After all, real-world weather contests weren't like in the games where moving later could overwrite your weather; what was being compared was still one's own control over the weather, energy reserves, and other factors.

It was impossible for a Pelipper flying in the sky to rotate in and make the Ground God Groudon, without Primal Reversion, repeatedly suffer setbacks.

After inspecting the training progress of the four Pokémon, Luo Mu walked forward a bit more and arrived at the area near Thunder Lake.

At this moment, thunder rolled continuously here, violent air currents whipped chaotically across the ground, blowing the ordinary weeds that had grown who-knows-when almost up by their roots.

Heavy rain fell from the sky, presenting the starkest contrast to the sunny weather with snow behind where Ninetales and the others were, and the clear sunny sky even further away.

Several special weather conditions converging in the same area would be very difficult to achieve without relying on the power of Pokémon.

Luo Mu took out an umbrella he had prepared long ago, opened it over his head, let the raindrops patter onto the umbrella, and focused intently on the "fierce" battle ahead; between Dragonite's Hurricane and Luxray's Thunder, in terms of output, they could already be considered the peak among Pokémon of the same level.

Yet even so, when such wind-and-rain-like attacks slammed into the psychic barrier expanded by Lei Guan Wang, all they could do was cause ripples like ocean waves to ripple across it, creating a faint tremor.

As a legendary Pokémon that had existed for countless millennia, and having regained the power of its prime within the unity of horse and rider, Lei Guan Wang was by no means weak in terms of spiritual energy reserves. Just like in the XY anime special, where Alain's Mega Charizard and Steven's Mega Metagross attacked Primal Groudon and Primal Kyogre, the attacks of those two Pokémon were equivalent to scratching an itch against the bottomless health bars of those two ancient Pokémon.

While Lei Guan Wang might be slightly inferior to those two ancient Pokémon when not in the unity of horse and rider state, it was by no means poor; for Luxray and Dragonite to achieve this much was already no small feat.

At this moment, the sound of footsteps coming from behind caught Luo Mu's attention.

Looking back, he discovered Swampert passing by, carrying several thick, sturdy trees on its shoulder.

Luo Mu called Swampert down and asked, "Have we arrived?"

"Marshtomp," Swampert nodded.

"You've worked hard, then go ahead quickly!"

Luo Mu waved his hand, letting Swampert attend to its own business, then turned back to watch with full concentration as Luxray and Dragonite worked on breaking through Lei Guan Wang's psychic barrier.

The large trees Swampert was transporting were a cold-resistant variety Luo Mu had ordered earlier that morning, intended primarily to be temporarily planted inside the ice cellar to create an environment suitable for the Abomasnow couple and Xue Li Guai to live in.

How could one plant trees in an ice cellar that had neither sunlight nor soil?

Everything was left to the all-powerful Lei Guan A-Meng!

About ten minutes after Swampert left, Luxray and Dragonite made their final attempt.

Dragonite hovered high in the sky, its dragon wings beating at high speed, utilizing the Wind Mystery it had learned from Lugia to create violently rotating, high-speed wind blades.

Meanwhile, Luxray roared toward the sky; within the thick rain clouds, snakes of lightning darted about, transforming in an instant into numerous bolts of lightning that struck down, and under Luxray's control, these lightning bolts landed precisely upon the wind blades created by Dragonite, adding several degrees of destructive power to their already super-strong penetration.

Wind, rain, thunder, and lightning; the compatibility between Flying-type moves and Electric-type moves was much higher than Luo Mu had anticipated.

He watched with focus as the combination technique that Dragonite and Luxray had developed over this period fell like an overwhelming tide, striking the psychic barrier upheld by Lei Guan Wang.

A moment later, the roaring sounds brought by the moves subsided; Dragonite descended, and together with Luxray, panted heavily while looking at the center of the smoke.

The invisible storm composed of psychic power instantly swept the smoke away; there was smoke but no injury—the facts seemed to have some discrepancy.

Lei Guan Wang lowered its raised hands, the corners of its eyes smiling.

"If I hadn't increased my output of psychic power, you would have broken the barrier just now; very good."

Hearing Lei Guan Wang's praise, Luxray and Dragonite exchanged a glance; beyond the joy expressed on their surfaces, the emotions hidden in their eyes were mostly dissatisfaction.

At merely this level, it was not enough for that black Rayquaza; it was far from reaching the point where revenge was possible.

Not to mention this was only a combination technique; what they sought was a further breakthrough in their own personal strength, and their current level was still far from sufficient.

They knew how fantastical it was for ordinary Pokémon to seek revenge against the legendary Sky Dragon, but this was not a reason for them to sit quietly and eat dirt without doing anything.

Luo Mu stepped forward, the disturbance of his foot stepping into a puddle catching the attention of Dragonite and Luxray.

Just now, they had been fully concentrated on thinking about how to break through Lei Guan Wang's psychic barrier and had completely failed to notice Luo Mu's arrival.

The two Pokémon, still somewhat wet, gathered around; however, to avoid getting Luo Mu's clothes wet, they merely stood beside him and did not rashly press up against him like Feng Su Gou would.

Lei Guan Wang also spoke without surprise: "The progress of Luxray and Dragonite is obvious."

"Mm." Luo Mu nodded slightly; as a Trainer who understood the power of Pokémon better than anyone, he naturally also noticed matters such as Luxray's lightning having become more powerful and Dragonite's control over air currents having reached another level.

Luo Mu put down his umbrella and said to Luxray and Dragonite, who were looking at him: "If you want to do it, then do it; I will fully support you."

Luxray and Dragonite exchanged a glance; perhaps due to the fluctuation of emotions, they could not control their bodies and tackled Luo Mu to the ground, happily rubbing against him.

As a consequence, the one human and two Pokémon, now covered in mud, could only walk to the side of Thunder Lake and ask Politoed to help clean the stains with Bubble Beam.

After informing Lei Guan Wang that Swampert was transporting the trees into the ice cellar, Luo Mu took Luxray and Dragonite to the farm entrance.

At this time, the truck that had delivered the trees was still parked at the farm entrance, with more than half of the trees still piled on top of it.

Luo Mu, who had originally intended to open the mailbox to see if there were any new letters, let his gaze fall upon the cabin of the truck.

A familiar person and Pokémon were sitting inside.

Luo Mu walked up and greeted the burly man and Primeape, who had not noticed this side: "Mr. Xiao En, why are you delivering goods today?"

Usually, Xiao En was engaged in the work of purchasing crops, so seeing him come to deliver goods was rare.

"Wah!"

Xiao En, who was sharing a particularly ruddy apple with Primeape, was startled; leaning against the car door, he looked at Luo Mu as if he had seen a ghost.

Savoring the apple, Primeape rolled its eyes at Xiao En; it had noticed Luo Mu's arrival long ago but simply couldn't be bothered to remind Xiao En, whose vigilance was zero.

A moment later, having recovered his wits, Xiao En looked at Luo Mu with a complaining expression, muttering something about how old uncles couldn't take scares, and how young people walked like Ghost-type Pokémon, silently and without a sound.

Luo Mu could only smile apologetically.

Xiao En then answered Luo Mu's initial question.

"Today I'm making a delivery run for a friend; the one who received me just now was that Pokémon capable of telepathy, who called itself your butler."

"Sure enough, doing big business makes a difference; you've even hired a Pokémon butler. Your Tapu Tapu Moumou fresh milk business has quite the reputation in town; supply completely cannot meet demand."

There was no sourness in Xiao En's tone, only pure envy.

It was hard to imagine that at the beginning of the year, this farm, which looked so dilapidated, was becoming more and more prosperous; even the crops he purchased from here could be sold at higher prices than crops from other farms.

However, the biggest reason was that Luo Mu was both someone willing to throw money around and possessed connections and strength far exceeding those of ordinary farm owners.

Which family's Champion-level Trainer retires directly to run a farm? Nowadays, many people in town knew Luo Mu's identity; those who were jealous of his thriving business dared not pop up, fearing that if they used any means of commercial competition, they would wake up in the middle of the night to find Luo Mu sitting right by their bedside.

Wouldn't that be the end of them?

"Just lucky, that's all." Stared at by Xiao En's strange gaze, Luo Mu replied modestly.

His gaze fell upon the half-apple in Xiao En's hand, and he asked curiously, "Mr. Xiao En, is that apple in your hand freshly harvested? It doesn't look like a variety of apple native to Paldea."

After purchasing crops from the farm, Xiao En often tasted them personally; knowing this, Luo Mu naturally assumed the apple in Xiao En's hand was one he had purchased.

But Xiao En waved the fingers of his free left hand, with an expression of 'you wouldn't know,' and chuckled: "As expected of a farm owner, your eye is sharp."

"To be honest, this apple is a rare item air-freighted from Kitakami, given to me by someone; there is only this one."

"It is said that the apples of Kitakami are large and round, with flesh that is plump and juicy; now that I've tasted one, the rumors are not false in the slightest."

(End of Chapter)