Chapter 499: Unstoppable Momentum!

Among the photos transmitted back by the Messenger Bird via the black sphere, some remained aerial shots of the temple named "Phoenix King Courtyard."

However, that place was far livelier than not long ago; many people dressed in runner attire were departing from there one after another, scattering along the road leading to the Silver Conference, holding unlit torches in their hands.

The Messenger Bird had clearly been lying in wait there for a long time, solely to capture photographs of the sacred flame.

The subsequent photos were basically candid shots of runners sprinting while holding the sacred flame.

Kanto and Johto place greater emphasis on tradition; whenever a special festival or League Conference opens, they always conduct this relay, whereas other Leagues have no such custom.

The following several photos were obviously taken from above the venue; looking closely, Luo Mu discovered they were actually photographs of the Silver Conference's opening ceremony.

"I remember the opening ceremony; the rules of the Silver Conference seem somewhat different from other conferences."

Frowning, Luo Mu turned on his computer, spent considerable effort connecting to the internet in Kanto and Johto, and began searching.

Before long, he obtained the answer.

Due to the time difference between the Johto region and the Paldea region, the preliminary selection tournament for the Silver Conference had already concluded late last night.

The so-called selection tournament is a screening competition held before the conference begins, eliminating over two hundred trainers down to forty-eight to determine qualification for the preliminary league.

There are three battles in total, all one-on-one matches.

At this very moment, following the conclusion of the opening ceremony, the preliminary league is about to commence.

Skilled at surfing the web, Luo Mu found the official website of the Silver Conference after a short search; upon logging in, he could not only view the Pokémon registered by participating trainers but also check their battle records.

Tapping the keyboard a few times, he entered the name "Ash," pressed the "magnifying glass" icon, and results appeared shortly thereafter.

"Hmm, three victories in the selection tournament battles; opponents were Sentret, Machamp, and Exeggutor respectively, while the Pokémon used were Larvitar, Donphan, and Tan Xiao Shi."

Gazing at the computer screen glowing faintly, Luo Mu raised an eyebrow.

Not bad.

This was Luo Mu's evaluation.

Especially since, after browsing Ash's registered Pokémon, essentially everyone was present except for Pidgeot, who was still in the forest outside Pallet Town and hadn't been retrieved yet.

He looked entirely ready to charge for the conference championship.

Since he had already gone to Mount Silver and Larvitar was still in his team, it seemed he had either persuaded Tyranitar to relocate to Professor Oak's backyard or to become his bodyguard.

Luo Mu would not concern himself with that aspect.

Just then.

Clemont finally successfully rebooted from his system crash, his voice and fingers trembling slightly.

"Br-Brother Luo Mu, what exactly is that—"

Luo Mu, who was attempting to pull up the live television broadcast from the Johto region to see if he could catch Ash's first preliminary league match before bed, paused his movements.

Then, he handed the black sphere, which had reverted to its spherical form, to Clemont.

"This is a tool developed by a friend of mine; its function is..."

Luo Mu briefly introduced the functions of the black sphere.

The more Clemont listened, the more something felt off.

Not a Poké Ball, yet capable of transmitting items across half a planet, consuming only electrical energy, and requiring no careful charging method—one simply discharges electricity into it, and that's it.

Listen to what you're saying? At least based on Clemont's current scientific knowledge, such a technological creation must be metaphysical technology, or perhaps alien technology; it feels like it belongs to an entirely different tech tree.

He completely couldn't fathom the principles behind it!

Seeing Clemont, this genius inventor, wearing such a defeated expression, Luo Mu admitted he felt a bit secretly pleased.

He had been intellectually crushed by Mewtwo, and now Clemont had been shown up by Mewtwo's technology; doing the math, didn't that mean he ≈ Clemont, this genius inventor? Discharged!

Noticing signs that Clemont seemed to be drilling into a dead end, Luo Mu simply snatched the black sphere back, rapped his knuckles on the desk, and turned the laptop toward him.

"The road is walked step by step; don't dwell on these things. First, figure out your Rotom Pokédex integration."

"As for now... don't think about anything; watch the Silver Conference live broadcast with me."

"After watching this match, we'll go to sleep."

Having said this, Luo Mu pressed the play button, and the laptop speakers emitted the announcer's excited voice.

"Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Preliminary League Group H battle of the Silver Conference!"

"The rules for the Preliminary League are a three-person round-robin points system; each match is a three-on-three single-elimination format, where the winner gains 3 points, the loser 0 points, and a draw grants 1 point to each; the individual with the highest score among the three advances to the final tournament!"

"The first battle will be between—"

"Trainer Xiaomeng from Mahogany Town, and Trainer Ash from Pallet Town!"

The camera gradually zoomed out, encompassing the entire battlefield from an aerial perspective.

The pigtailed girl on the left, Ash on the right, and Misty, Brock, and Pikachu (in cheerleader form) providing close-range support as friends and family all came into view.

Clemont's attention was immediately drawn into the images on the laptop screen.

"The Johto region's League Conference..."

He was somewhat puzzled as to why Luo Mu wanted him to watch this, but Luo Mu was right; what he should be worrying about now was the combined research and development of Rotom and the Pokédex, not other matters.

Let's just treat it as relaxing the mind; Clemont began watching seriously.

Luo Mu originally intended to ask You You Lijia if she wanted to watch the battle; he recalled that this child seemingly intended to become a trainer in the future.

Although she would be a trainer who travels to catch a home-region Sliggoo.

Her lineup would probably be Dedenne, Espurr, Lapras, Tyrunt, and the Zygarde Core.

In the Kalos region a few years later—

Novice trainer You You Lijia embarked on the path of challenging the Kalos League.

One month later... Mingrentang: Lead Dedenne, Second Tyrunt, Core Lapras, Vice Espurr, Ace Zygarde.

One really felt like mourning the 20-year-old young actress Diantha for a few seconds.

But when Luo Mu turned his gaze in that direction, he discovered the few little ones had probably played themselves tired; huddled together, eyes tightly shut, they were sleeping soundly.

Including You You Lijia.

The living room would be heated in the evening, so there was no need to specially cover You You Lijia and Victini with a thin blanket; Luo Mu simply silently lowered the volume of his laptop.

Holding the Volcarona, its thick fur and the faintly radiating warmth made it an excellent hand warmer.

The movements of the Oranguru serving nearby also became much gentler.

As for Calyrex, acting as a "good father," it had taken Cosmog to lie on the roof of the small villa, absorbing the moonlight as it fell asleep; during the day, it had still displayed its mighty power, using psychic abilities to warp space and directly teleport the entire Salazzle flock to a cave rich in natural resources within the wild mines of Montenevera Town.

The strategy of Serperior and Milotic was highly successful; the white mist mixed with ice particles, which lowered the temperature, effectively reduced the agility of the Salandit within the Salazzle flock.

Furthermore, with Oranguru commanding the "army" and intentionally controlling the temperature by utilizing the Flash Fire traits of Houndoom and Houndour, while the Houndoom leader and Herdier carried out a righteous one-versus-two battle, they successfully subdued the Salazzle flock.

However, when asked afterward about the Salazzle flock's choice, those Salandit—no, those Sneasler—chose to follow Her Majesty the Salazzle Queen to the death, while the Salazzle chose a new territory.

The incident could barely be considered concluded.

The next morning.

Luo Mu slept until he woke naturally; he had to attend class this afternoon, while the morning was reserved for showing the two siblings around the farm, making for a tight schedule.

Fortunately, he had given the Houndoom flock a full day to rest and recuperate today, postponing the arrangement and fulfillment of promises until tomorrow, otherwise he would surely be running around in circles.

As for the Silver Conference, last night he and Citron had watched the round-robin matches of Group H before going to sleep.

Citron slept in the guest room where Ash had previously stayed, while You You Lijia slept together with the Pokémon.

As expected, the preliminary league, which Ash could even clear in the anime, was absolutely no problem for the Ash of today.

In the first match, Ash battled against Xiaomeng, whose Pokémon were Electabuzz, Quilava, and Magcargo; having improved slightly, Ash did not play against type advantages for the first time, sending out Wartortle, Marshtomp, and Charcadet with the Flash Fire trait.

He achieved an easy three-to-zero victory without any complications.

In the third match, Ash battled against Junichi; Luo Mu recalled that in the anime, it seemed to have ended in a draw.

The opponent's Pokémon were Azumarill, a Shiny Magneton, and Meganium, all of very high quality.

Ash sent out Pikachu, Quilava, and his own Meganium.

After a fierce battle, Pikachu defeated Azumarill but was then defeated by the Shiny Magneton; Quilava defeated the Shiny Magneton, after which Ash switched in Meganium to decide the outcome in a final duel against the opponent's Meganium.

Ash qualified for the final tournament by winning both of his battles.

After the matches ended, probably driven by curiosity, Luo Mu asked Citron what he felt after watching the competition.

Citron said somewhat shyly that he envied trainers like Ash, feeling as though the other possessed some kind of charm that attracted his gaze.

It sounded a bit strange.

After urging Citron to return to the guest room to sleep, Luo Mu went back to his own bedroom and, before sleeping, looked up the lineup of that Hoenn region trainer named "Ye He Yue" once more.

Blaziken, Houndoom, Sneasel, Kecleon, Hypno, Miltank, and Steelix.

Two of the Pokémon were from the Hoenn region, while the others should have been caught in the Johto region.

It crossed versions, but not completely; at least, none of them held Mega Evolution.

The Ash of now should be able to defeat him head-on, but before that, he still had to go through a fated rival battle.

That was also a matter for tonight.

Luo Mu did not pay too much attention to it; whatever results could be achieved depended entirely on Ash, and his worrying was useless.

He still had his own life to continue.

After getting up and washing up, Luo Mu took the two siblings, Citron and You You Lijia, to tour the farm.

First, they visited the farming area; as city children who had grown up in Lumiose City, the most developed metropolis in the Kalos region, the two had never seen farmland before and were extremely excited, wandering around with great enthusiasm for a long time before they were willing to stop.

Next was the ranch area, the lake area, and even the newly established orchard; Luo Mu took them to tour all of these.

The two maintained an expression of being amazed by everything throughout, especially You You Lijia, who remained in a state of excitement the whole time, as if there were so many Pokémon on the farm that she was nearly dazzled.

Riding on Arcanine, Spectrier, and Glastrier for a joyride, sitting on the shoulders of Garganacl, watching Swampert perform opening a watermelon with one hand, and using Thundurus's neck as a slide—

They even received small ice sculptures of people crafted jointly by Ninetales and Regice as gifts.

The two felt that life here was truly too interesting.

For lunch, Luo Mu had prepared a very sumptuous meal, while the after-dinner dessert consisted of handmade cakes by Alcremie, along with specialties from Lumiose City that the two had brought with them.

After the meal.

There was still a while before class time, so the schedule was relatively relaxed.

Before sending the siblings Citron and You You Lijia back to Levincia City to board an international flight returning to Lumiose City, Luo Mu, after some consideration, took out the hard drive that Alder had given him.

"Citron, if it were you, could you reproduce the technology inside this?" Luo Mu asked.

Citron, whose belly was round from eating, had relaxed a bit; he involuntarily let out a burp, forced himself to sit up, and cast his gaze toward the hard drive in Luo Mu's hand.

He hesitated, saying, "Can I take a look first?"

Luo Mu nodded slightly. "Yes, you can."

Citron took the laptop from Luo Mu and began reviewing the files on the hard drive.

The more he reviewed, the more astonished his expression became.

"This is... the complete design blueprint and technical principles of that Ecological Dome from the Unova region!?"

Citron's voice trembled slightly; he felt as if the mouse in his hand weighed a thousand jin.

After all, when the Ecological Dome was unveiled, it shocked the entire world, and all inventors flocked to the technologies constituting the Ecological Dome.

This naturally included Citron.

He had never claimed to be a genius inventor, but his love for invention was indeed impossible to conceal.

At this moment, his eyes seemed glued to the laptop screen, and a voice in his heart urged him: Keep looking, this is what you have always dreamed of!

Citron was undoubtedly a kind and excellent youth with extremely high moral standards; suppressing the impulse to continue watching, he closed the laptop.

"I'm sorry, for the current me, I have not yet reached that level."

"However—"

Citron's voice paused, and he looked seriously at Luo Mu.

"If Big Brother Luo Mu is willing to trust me, please wait until I have completed my current goals and my technology has improved before letting me access these technologies."

"At that time, I will certainly be able to lend you a hand."

To speak honestly, Luo Mu had not expected Citron's willpower to be so strong, able to withstand such temptation.

If it were him, he would definitely want to examine the complete technology of the Ecological Giant Egg no matter what.

He smiled lightly and replied, "Good, then it's a deal."

"When the time comes, I will formally invite you to join the plan to build a second Ecological Giant Egg as a technical staff member."

(End of Chapter)