Chapter 690: Time Flows, the Caiyou Conference Opens!

After repeating the count many times and ensuring no errors or omissions.

Finally, Luo Mu tallied the total number of silver and gold series berries on the three trees.

Wildberry tree:

Ordinary wildberries are not counted, roughly three to four hundred.

Silver wildberries are fewer, only ten.

Gold wildberries are even fewer, only two.

Bananaberry tree:

Ordinary bananaberries are not counted, roughly two to three hundred clusters.

Since bananaberries resemble bananas in shape, their actual yield is even higher than the wildberry tree’s.

Silver bananaberries are scarce, only three clusters, each bearing four to five individual silver bananaberries.

Gold bananaberries are rarer still, only one cluster—but fortunately, it bore five individual gold bananaberries.

Lastly, the suspected “luck-enhancing” Phoenixpear tree:

Ordinary phoenixpears number roughly four hundred.

Silver phoenixpears total only nine.

The “yield rate” of gold phoenixpears was surprisingly high—reaching one-third of the silver ones, totaling three.

Though Buji bananaberries in output, it’s still quite impressive.

“I wonder how many silver or gold series berries are needed? Otherwise, given the growth and fruiting speed of these three trees, without external intervention, it might take a whole year to accumulate just a few.”

Luo Mu muttered to himself, pondering whether to deploy Regieleki for a short-term mass harvest.

Soon, after Luxio arrived with Alcremie, Regieleki, and the other Pokémon, Luo Mu got his answer.

After understanding the situation, Regieleki carefully observed the three trees, then its soothing voice resonated in Luo Mu’s mind.

“I can accelerate ripening, but it’s unnecessary.”

This wasn’t because Regieleki refused to help Luo Mu or deliberately restricted Luxio’s growth.

Simply put, in its view, even consuming large quantities of these strange berries from the strange trees might not achieve Luo Mu’s desired effect.

Change is gradual, evolving slowly over time.

Instant effects from massive consumption are mutations—potentially bringing unbearable side effects or aftereffects.

Regieleki personally does not recommend it.

Listening to Regieleki’s detailed explanation, Luo Mu could only nod.

Indeed, he had no urgent need to rush this.

No life-or-death crisis, no task requiring Luxio’s evolution to be handled.

He naturally chose the Wentuo and safe method.

Time?

He had more than enough of it!

For the next half-month, Luo Mu’s life was remarkably peaceful and comfortable.

No sudden incidents, no legendary Pokémon intruding.

He simply kept busy with spring plowing on the farm, teaching at Orange Academy two to three times a week, and continuing his medical studies with Nurse Joy of Flatstone Town.

Regarding the Fire Ruins near the Chaotic Waterfall, Luo Mu briefly explained the matter to Piplup and the others during the second class after reopening.

Upon learning it was a shrine sealing a calamity artifact, all of them were visibly shaken and immediately made a zipping motion across their lips, vowing never to speak of it.

Another point also troubled Luo Mu.

Reh, who had asked him last month when he’d begin unsealing and purifying the sealing pillar and the calamity shrine, had not approached him since.

According to Principal Cravell, Reh barely stayed on campus after class lately—no one knew what she was doing outside.

Luo Mu had speculated she might be investigating alone, but according to the information he accessed via his Champion-level permissions, no unusual incidents had been reported in any of the four shrine regions across Paldea.

He could only decide to ask her what she’d been up to the next time they met.

Over these past half-months, Uli and Danyu had grown accustomed to life in Paldea and settled into their studies.

Both were now considering whether to capture new Pokémon and had even come to Luo Mu for recommendations.

This gave Luo Mu some trouble.

Unlike Pipa or Mudan , who had clear specialization goals, these two siblings showed no preference for any single type, making recommendations genuinely taxing.

He also had to consider whether they’d even develop interest in the Pokémon he suggested.

Fortunately, neither sibling was impulsive; as their teacher, Luo Mu had ample time to ponder which Pokémon would suit them best.

But ultimately, it would come down to their personal connection.

Aside from academy matters,

the farm’s recent development was also quite promising.

Spring plowing was nearly complete; daily care alone would soon bring a bountiful harvest.

—With the Harvest King on the farm and the exclusive composite grassland enhancing growth, Luo Mu saw no reason it wouldn’t yield abundantly.

As for the pasture area, though profits didn’t match the explosive returns from Rock Salt dropped by Rockruff, Moo-Moo Milk and Rideau Milk remained among the farm’s most stable income sources.

Upon returning to the farm, the Messenger Bird, with no travel plans for now, joined the morning milk delivery team, fully leveraging its natural role as a common delivery Pokémon.

Many customers left messages on Alcremie’s website praising its speed, punctuality, and cuteness.

It was so flattered it became shy.

Luo Mu even received several embroidered banners from elderly residents of Flatstone Town.

But the banners weren’t for him—they were for the Messenger Bird.

Only after asking the elderly visitors who came to deliver them did Luo Mu learn why.

—The Messenger Bird, during its milk deliveries, had used its travel experience and knowledge to help them solve numerous problems, even scaring off a group of Sneasel that kept sneaking into an old man’s house to steal food.

In this half-month, another relatively important event occurred.

Dr. Futu and Dr. Aulin ended their vacation, departed with Gholdengo and Meltodon transported from the past via the Time Machine, and, under Qingmu’s escort, returned to the Paldea Pit to resume research in Zone Zero.

Piplup was down for several days, but afterward, his motivation visibly surged.

It spared Luo Mu the trouble of comforting him.

Personally, Luo Mu actually hoped the two doctors would return to Zone Zero quickly.

—The item to awaken Iron Valiant, “Drive Energy,” still hadn’t been developed.

At the same time, Luo Mu became more attentive to conditions there.

This was likely the moment.

—Whether developing “Drive Energy,” or creating “Futu AI” and “Aulin AI” to assist research and boost efficiency, even the Ancient No.2 Gholdengo and Future No.2 Meltodon would gradually emerge as technology advanced.

At that point, if left un Ganyu , events might unfold as they did in the game.

Doing good deeds to the end—especially since Piplup was his student—Luo Mu certainly didn’t want to see this boy become the Paldea Batman.

February 16, morning.

Luo Mu thanked the dusty middle-aged man: “Thanks for traveling all across Paldea and digging deep underground.”

“Hahaha, no problem!” The long-absent leader laughed heartily, slapping his chest. “I love exploring these places anyway, and you paid me well and gave me plenty of interesting sites.”

“This is all within my duties.”

As he spoke, the leader cheerfully shoved a bag into Luo Mu’s arms.

As he did, several crisp clinks came from inside the bag.

“These are the gold coins from this trip.”

“Good.”

Luo Mu took the bag and counted the Paldean ancient gold coins inside.

Fifteen coins—this haul was quite impressive.

Most gold coins from ancient ruins or noble tombs of the old Paldean Empire had already been carried off by wild Tynamo.

If he remembered correctly, adding these fifteen to his existing stock, the total had just surpassed six hundred!

Only a little less than half away from the goal of one thousand Paldean ancient gold coins!

In Luo Mu’s view, whether buying or commissioning, the return on investment was extremely high.

He didn’t have to dig up and down the earth every day.

Once he successfully collected one thousand Paldean ancient gold coins, Tynamo would evolve into Tinkaton—and true “coin freedom” would be achieved!

“When that happens, I must build a golden statue of Tinkaton inside the completed Ecological Egg, declaring it the greatest investor to the world.”

This idea suddenly flashed in Luo Mu’s mind—he nearly laughed at his own brilliance.

Would this make people mistakenly believe Tinkaton was some Pokémon-world “God of Wealth,” turning it into a legendary “God of Wealth Pokémon” someday?

Honestly, that’d be kind of fun.

After accepting the bag of Paldean ancient gold coins, Luo Mu promptly transferred payment to the leader. He’d planned to invite him to lunch, but got a reply that he was already heading to his next dig site.

The leader’s “money-driven” demeanor reminded Luo Mu of the legendary office worker, Qingmu.

—I wonder if his Kabutops has stopped laying eggs.

Adopting one to ease Qingmu’s burden would be easy enough.

But if the number grew too large, it’d become troublesome.

After all, besides wanting a lazy life, Luo Mu also planned to make money to save up for the Ecological Egg.

If he fed all farm produce to Kabutops, how could he possibly make any profit?

Worried the farm would soon welcome a huge eater, Luo Mu returned home.

Today he had no intention of going out, and even took a day off from Joy Lin.

The reason was that after half a month, the “upcoming” Kalos Conference, which he had frequently heard about during his vacation in Hoenn, was finally beginning today.

Originally, if only Ash were participating, Luo Mu had no interest in watching live broadcasts of such a low-level competition.

Ash had already won once at the Silver Conference, so there was little emotional attachment left.

He could simply watch a few important or interesting match recordings online when he had time.

——But this time, things were slightly different.

Not only was Ash participating in the Kalos Conference, but also his own student Shinsuke, and Joy Shizuka, would be competing in this event.

After collecting all eight Gym Badges from Hoenn, they had excitedly called to tell Luo Mu about it.

Although he wouldn’t go all the way to the venue to watch, watching on television at home was no problem.

“The opening ceremony ended last night; today the matches begin. The morning session is the preliminary rounds, and the afternoon is the preliminary championship, mainly used to narrow down the number of participants.”

A Simipour, wearing black-rimmed glasses, glanced at the tablet in its hand and calmly explained via telepathy the day’s schedule it had retrieved.

“Most League Conferences follow this format.”

Luo Mu nodded slightly, his gaze returning to the live broadcast before him.

As expected, in yesterday’s torch relay, Team Rocket’s trio once again performed their traditional act, attempting to steal the torch, only to be stopped again by Ash and his newly met Trainer.

Today, Team Rocket’s trio would, as they had at the Quartz Conference, “unintentionally” interfere with Ash’s competition.

Unfortunately, the Ash of today was no longer the Ash of the Quartz Conference, and besides, this was only the preliminary stage; Luo Mu remembered Ash’s opponents seemed quite ordinary.

So rather than worrying about Ash’s Chichiweidao , who had yet to appear in the broadcast, Luo Mu remained calm and pondered other matters.

Due to his influence, this Kalos Conference had added Shinsuke—who should have met Ash only in Sinnoh—and Joy Shizuka, who was not originally part of the storyline.

With the quality of Shizuka’s team and her battling style, Luo Mu had no doubt she would achieve a strong result.

The issue lay with Ash and Shinsuke, these two former rivals who had met prematurely.

Since the plot had changed, Luo Mu could not be certain whether they would even face each other, or who would win.

Ash’s team was strong, and like at the Silver Conference, he would consciously switch out his Pokémon to reduce the chance of being targeted.

On the other side, Shinsuke had received considerable guidance from him and had undergone a transformation during his time training abroad.

For now, Luo Mu truly could not say who would emerge victorious if they met.

Added to that were the several strong opponents Ash originally faced in the Kalos Conference.

The situation had suddenly become interesting.

(End of Chapter)