Chapter 690: Time Passes, The Colorful Grand Festival Opens!

After repeating the count many times to ensure no mistakes or omissions were made.

Luo Mu finally tallied the total quantity of all Gold and Silver series Berries harvested from the three Gold and Silver series Berry trees.

Grepa Berry Tree:

The count for ordinary Grepa Berries was not kept, totaling approximately three to four hundred berries.

The number of Silver Grepa Berries was relatively small, with only ten.

The number of Golden Grepa Berries was even smaller, with only two.

Nanab Berry Tree:

The count for ordinary Nanab Berries was not kept, totaling approximately two to three hundred bunches.

Since Nanab Berries are berries shaped like bananas, their actual yield was even higher than that of the Grepa Berry trees.

The number of Silver Nanab Berries was relatively small, with only three bunches, each bearing four to five individual Silver Nanab Berries.

The number of Golden Nanab Berries was even smaller, with only one bunch, though fortunately, it bore five individual Golden Nanab Berries.

Finally, there was the Maranga Berry tree of the Gold and Silver series, suspected of being able to "boost luck":

There were approximately four hundred ordinary Maranga Berries.

There were only nine Silver Maranga Berries.

The "drop rate" for Golden Maranga Berries was quite pleasantly surprising, actually reaching one-third that of the Silver Maranga Berries, totaling a full three berries.

Even if it couldn't compare to the yield of the Nanab Berries, it was still quite considerable.

"I don't know how many Silver or Golden series Berries will be enough; otherwise, judging by the growth and fruiting speed of these three trees, it will be difficult to stockpile even a few throughout the year without external interference."

Luo Mu murmured to himself, pondering whether to mobilize Lei Guan Wang to stockpile a large quantity in a short time.

Soon, after Luxray brought Hatterene, Lei Guan Wang, and other Pokémon over, Luo Mu received his answer.

After understanding the situation, Lei Guan Wang carefully observed the three trees for a while; then, its warm voice resonated within Luo Mu's mind.

"They can be forced to ripen, but there is no need."

This was not because Lei Guan Wang was unwilling to help Luo Mu, nor was it intentionally restricting Luxray from becoming stronger.

It was simply that, in its view, even consuming large quantities of the strange fruits borne by these strange tree species would likely fail to achieve the effect Luo Mu desired.

Change is gradual and evolves slowly with the passage of time.

Consuming large quantities for instant effects is called mutation, which might even bring unbearable side effects or aftereffects.

Lei Guan Wang, as an "individual," did not really recommend it.

Listening to Lei Guan Wang's detailed explanation, Luo Mu could only nod.

Indeed, he had no necessity to rush this particular matter.

There was neither any life-or-death crisis, nor any matter at present that required Luxray's transformation to handle.

Naturally, he chose the steady and safe method.

Time?

What he lacked least was time!

Over the next half-month, Luo Mu's life could be described as quite pleasant and stable.

There were no sudden incidents, nor any intruding Legendary Pokémon.

He simply busied himself with the farm's spring plowing, teaching at Orange Academy two to three times a week every other day, and continuing to study medical knowledge with Young Lady Joy from Montenevera Town.

Regarding the issue of the Fire Shrine near Raging Falls, Luo Mu also briefly explained it to Arven and the others during the second class after school resumed.

Upon hearing that it was actually a shrine sealing Treasures of Ruin, the few of them were clearly shocked to varying degrees; they hurriedly made a zipping motion across their lips with their fingers, indicating they would absolutely never speak of this matter.

There was also one point that concerned Luo Mu quite a bit.

Seeing Lei He, who had asked him last month when he would start working on unsealing and purifying the sealing stakes and the Shrines of Ruin, had surprisingly not sought him out at all.

According to Director Clavell, she basically never stayed on campus after finishing her classes recently, and no one knew what she was busy with outside.

Luo Mu had also guessed whether she had chosen to launch an investigation and take action alone, but according to the information he accessed through his privileges as a Champion-rank Trainer, there were no reports of strange occurrences in the four shrine regions of the Paldea region that he was monitoring.

He could only decide to wait until he encountered Seeing Lei He someday to ask her what she had been doing recently.

During this half-month, Kieran and Carmine had also grown accustomed to life in the Paldea region, and their studies had gotten on track.

Both of them were recently considering whether to catch new Pokémon, and had even sought help from Luo Mu, hoping he could make some recommendations.

Regarding this, Luo Mu felt slightly troubled.

After all, compared to Trainers like Rika and Penny who had specialized goals, these two siblings had no inclination toward any single type, so making recommendations truly required some brainpower.

After all, he also had to consider whether they themselves would feel interested in the Pokémon he recommended.

Fortunately, neither of the two siblings had an impatient personality; as their teacher, Luo Mu still had ample time to ponder which Pokémon would suit them better.

However, in the end, it would still depend on their own affinity.

Aside from academy matters.

The farm's recent development was also quite good.

Spring plowing was basically completely finished; from now on, only daily care was needed to welcome a bountiful harvest in the near future.

—With the King of Abundance present at the farm, plus the unique boost of the composite Grassy Terrain, Luo Mu believed there was absolutely no reason for the harvest not to be abundant.

As for the development of the ranch area, although the profits did not match the exorbitant gains from the rock salt dropped by the Garganacl, Tapu Tapu Moumou's fresh milk and Wooloo milk remained basically one of the farm's most stable sources of income.

After returning to the farm, the Delibird, who currently had no plans to continue traveling, also joined the morning milk delivery queue, maximizing its characteristics as a common Messenger Pokémon.

Many customers would leave messages on the website built by Hatterene, praising it for delivering quickly and punctually, and for being very cute.

The compliments made the Delibird quite shy.

Luo Mu even received several silk banners sent by elderly folks residing in Montenevera Town.

It was just that the silk banners were not for him, but for the Delibird.

It was only after Luo Mu asked the few elderly folks who had specially come to deliver the silk banners that he learned the reason.

—It turned out that during the intervals between milk deliveries, the Messenger Bird had utilized its own experience and knowledge gained from traveling abroad to solve quite a few troubles for them, even helping an old man drive away a group of Sneasels who would occasionally sneak into the house to steal food.

During this half-month, another matter that could be considered relatively important also occurred.

Professors Turo and Sada ended their vacation and, accompanied by Koraidon and Miraidon who had traveled to the present via the time machine, set off under Brother Brother Qingmu's escort to return to the Great Crater of Paldea, preparing to continue their research in Area Zero.

That kid Peper had been in low spirits for several days, but after that, his fighting spirit was ignited at a speed visible to the naked eye.

This also saved Luo Mu the trouble of comforting him.

After all, for Luo Mu personally, he actually hoped the two professors would return to Area Zero as soon as possible.

—The item needed to awaken Iron Valiant, "Boost Energy," had not yet been developed.

At the same time, Luo Mu also began to pay attention to the situation there.

This would likely be the only time.

—Whether it was the development of "Boost Energy," the creation of the "Turo AI" and "Sada AI" designed to assist his own research and improve efficiency, or even the second ancient Koraidon and the second future Miraidon, all would emerge one by one as technology advanced.

By that time, if no intervention was made, fearfully the same events as in the game would occur.

Since one should see a good deed through to the end, and besides, Peper was his own student, Luo Mu naturally would not wish to see this kid become the Paldean Batman.

February 16th, morning.

Luo Mu expressed his gratitude to the middle-aged man before him, who was covered in wind and dust: "Troubling you to run all over Paldea and constantly burrow underground."

"Hahaha, it's nothing!" The Leader, who hadn't shown his face for a long time, laughed heartily and patted his chest, "I already love exploring these things, not to mention you paid a reward and provided me with quite a few interesting locations."

"These are all within my duties."

Having finished speaking, the Leader cheerfully stuffed a bag into Luo Mu's arms.

As he moved, several crisp sounds of objects colliding emanated from inside the bag.

"These are the gold coins for this time."

"Good."

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

Fifteen coins; it seemed the harvest this time was quite substantial.

After all, a large portion of the gold coins in most ruins or in the tombs of high officials and nobles of the ancient Paldean Empire had basically been taken away by wild Gimmighouls.

If he remembered correctly, counting the stock of ancient Paldean gold coins already on hand plus these fifteen, the total amount had just broken through the six hundred mark!

They were only a little more than halfway away from the goal of one thousand ancient Paldean gold coins!

In Luo Mu's view, whether it was purchasing or commissioning, the funds provided were investments with extremely high returns.

Not only did he not have to climb to the heavens and drill into the earth every day, running around chaotically.

Once they successfully collected one thousand ancient Paldean gold coins in the future, the Gimmighoul could evolve into Gholdengo, and then they would truly achieve "gold coin freedom"!

"At that time, we must erect a golden statue of Gholdengo within the completed Ecological Dome to declare to the world that it is the greatest investor."

This thought suddenly floated into Luo Mu's mind, and he was nearly amused by his own genius idea.

If he went through with this, wouldn't people later mistakenly believe Gholdengo to be some kind of "God of Wealth" in the Pokémon world, causing it to inexplicably become that "legendary God of Wealth Pokémon" one day in the future?

To be honest, it was quite interesting.

After accepting this bag of ancient Paldean gold coins, Luo Mu promptly transferred the payment to the Leader; he originally intended to invite him to stay for lunch, but received a reply that the other party was already preparing to head to the next excavation site.

The Leader's appearance, resembling a money-driven donkey, inevitably reminded Luo Mu of the legendary office worker, big brother Brother Qingmu.

—He wondered if the Snorlax in that guy's house had stopped laying eggs.

Although adopting one here to alleviate big brother Brother Qingmu's pressure would be quite easy.

But if the numbers grew large, that would indeed be somewhat troublesome.

After all, besides wanting to be a salted fish, the reason he opened the farm was to earn some money, saving it up to contribute bricks and tiles to the future Ecological Dome.

If all the agricultural products were fed to the Snorlax, how the hell would he make any money?

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

Today he had no plans to go out, and had even taken a day off from Joy Rin.

The reason for this was that after half a month had passed, the Ever Grande Conference, which he had often heard was "about to be held" while vacationing in the Hoenn region, was finally starting today.

Originally, if it were only Ash participating, Luo Mu would have had no interest in watching a live broadcast of such a competition that wasn't of too high a level.

Ash had also won a championship at the Silver Conference, so there wasn't too strong an influence of "nostalgia."

It would suffice to find time later to watch recordings of a few relatively important or interesting matches online.

—But the situation this time was slightly different.

Not only was Ash participating in the Ever Grande Conference, but his own student, Paul, and Joy Shizuka would also be participating in this conference.

After collecting all eight Mei Hui Zhang from the Hoenn region, they had excitedly called to tell Luo Mu about this matter.

Although it wasn't necessary to specially rush to the scene to watch the battles, staying at home to watch on the television was no problem.

"The opening ceremony ended last night; today the competition begins. The morning session is the preliminary round, and the afternoon is the preliminary tournament, basically used to filter the number of participants."

Oranguru, who had somehow put on a pair of black-rimmed glasses, fixed his gaze on the tablet in his hand and explained the day's schedule he had looked up via telepathy in a steady tone.

"Most League Conferences basically follow this process."

Luo Mu nodded slightly, his gaze falling once again on the live broadcast before him.

As expected, during yesterday's torch relay, the Rocket Trio had performed their traditional skill once again, attempting to snatch the sacred flame, only to be dealt with by Ash and his companions along with a Trainer he had just met.

And today, the Rocket Trio would, just like at the previous Indigo Conference, "unconsciously" interfere with Ash going to compete.

It was just a pity that the current Ash was no longer the Ash from the time of the Indigo Conference, not to mention that this was still only the preliminary stage; Luo Mu remembered that Ash's opponent's strength seemed to be quite average as well.

So, compared to the Ash who had yet to arrive as reported in the TV live broadcast, Luo Mu, who felt not the slightest panic, began to think about other issues.

Due to his own influence, the participants in this Ever Grande Conference had added Paul, who was originally supposed to meet Ash in the Sinnoh region, and Shizuka, this Young Lady Joy.

Given the quality of Shizuka's team and her battle style, Luo Mu had no doubt she could achieve a good result.

The problem still lay with these two destined rivals, Ash and Paul, who had met ahead of schedule.

Because the plot had already changed, Luo Mu could not be certain whether they would meet or who would emerge victorious.

Ash's lineup was not poor; just like at the Silver Conference, he would consciously switch his battling Pokémon according to his own requirements to reduce the probability of being countered.

On the other side, Paul had also received considerable guidance, and during this period of training abroad, his strength had undergone a transformation.

For a moment, Luo Mu truly could not say who would claim victory if the two were to clash.

Added to this were those several rivals of Ash's from the original plot at the Lily of the Valley Conference.

Things suddenly seemed to have become interesting.

(End of Chapter)