He knows Pokémon better than me.

The next day, beside the wooden bridge in the pearl settlement.

Members of the Ginkgo Merchant Guild, along with several powerful horses, were methodically moving goods across the bridge and loading them onto carriages on the other side.

Of course, the trailer wasn't carrying fiery horses or mud-drawn horses, but rather two plump ivory pigs.

That thick layer of fat and cold resistance was enough to drag a luggage cart across the pure white frozen ground for more than ten days.

Yinren was slacking off by the "pig cart" while smoking a pipe, not urging Xiaozhi, who was saying goodbye to Team Pearl on the other side of the wooden bridge.

"I'll be going now, Zhubei. I'll come find you again next time!"

Before leaving, Ash pointed at Flareon, indicating that he shouldn't forget the Flame-Starter strategy he taught him.

Unfortunately, this world has no cell phones or internet, so communication is impossible.

However, perhaps because both his and Xiaoguang's Rotom phones were enchanted by Arceus phone cases, they could still have real-time conversations even without the internet.

"Be careful on the road!"

Zhubei watched Xiaozhi leave, waving goodbye with reluctance.

I've already made up my mind that once I've dealt with the Pearl Team matters here, I'll go to Zhuqing Village to play with Xiaozhi!

The other members of Team Pearl were all impressed by Ash's fighting prowess and had long since lost their initial resistance, instead welcoming him quite warmly.

"It seems like it would be a good thing for someone like that to marry into our Pearl Team!"

"That's right, only a trainer like this is worthy of Lord Tamabe!"

Of course, the group was soon rewarded with a sharp rap on the head by Zhu Bei.

After crossing the wooden bridge, Ash, still wearing the "Ginkgo Merchant Guild" costume, arrived before Gintoki:
"Let's go, Mr. Yinren!"

The latter nodded, tacitly approving of Xiao Zhi's disguise, so that he could follow their convoy into Zhuqing Village later.

After spending the last few days with him, Yinren realized that Xiaozhi's background was mysterious. He was neither a member of Team Pearl or Team Kong, nor a person from Zhuqing Village, and most likely not even a Xicui person.

No problem. Yinren trusted his intuition more. As long as he knew that Xiaozhi wasn't a bad person, he didn't bother to check his identity.

"Moo!" "Moo!"

He gently patted the dozing ivory pigs, and the two pigs straightened their knees and began to slowly move forward, dragging the fully loaded cart of luggage.

The Yinren Chamber of Commerce typically travels in a loop along the route of "Zhuqing Village - Jingang Settlement - Pearl Settlement - Zhuqing Village", acquiring goods along the way.

And the time when they go to Zhuqing Village is also when the stock of goods is at its highest.

After all, in this era, Zhuqing Village can be said to be the place with the highest spending power, and people usually stay in the village the longest.

This trip doesn't involve returning via the same route from the Red Lotus Wetland. Instead, we head southwest towards the pure white tundra, which will take us directly to the Obsidian Plains where Zhuqing Village is located.

Along the way, Ash was not idle either. Whenever the caravan rested, he would release his Kuma, and Yinren would release his old boxer, Floating Weasel, to practice the secrets of the Water Stream Rock Smash Fist.

"can't read"

"It looks quite ordinary."

As the two Pokémon, one large and one small, slowly swung their fists, several members of the Ginkgo Merchant Guild stared blankly, almost yawning, unable to see anything special about it.

Most members of the Ginkgo Merchant Guild are not skilled in Pokémon battles; the only ones with sufficient combat ability are their leader, Ginren, and Wangluo, who is passionate about archaeology. They exchanged bewildered glances at Ash, this "dark-skinned" member who seemed to have appeared out of nowhere, but since Guild Leader Ginren had no objections, they naturally remained silent.

"It feels like you've made a little progress?"

Ash was also watching closely from the side. Around the second day of their journey, he could vaguely see that when Kuma waved, his palm created a faint blue ripple arc.

The snorkeling weasel was very satisfied with this; it was clear they hadn't misjudged him!

Because they also had to drag two carts full of luggage, the journey was not fast. Yinren estimated that it would take four days to reach Zhuqing Village.

As night fell, after a simple dinner, the group from the Ginkgo Merchant Guild found a cave where they could defend themselves against enemies and fell into a deep sleep.

This area is roughly in the middle of the pure white permafrost, and it's a bit warmer now that we're away from the northernmost Lake Wisdom region.

"I should be able to reach your Zhuqing Village in about three days!"

Before going to bed, Xiao Zhi, with his big eyes wide open and full of energy, even sent a text message to Xiao Guang.

The main problem is that I've been kept up late every night by Zhubei this week, so it's been hard for me to go to bed early.

Soon, Xiaoguang's message also arrived on his Rotom phone:
"Oh, I'm still out of town right now. But I should be able to get back to Zhuqing Village in three days!"

Compared to Ash, who has been training by the ice pool, Dawn's life has been much more exciting these days.

He has been helping Dr. Laben complete various encyclopedia projects and accumulating points through research. He has now been upgraded to a four-star member.

During this time, they also helped many villagers in Zhuqing Village complete various tasks, including catching Pokémon of different sizes and patterns, finding berries and herbs, and even pickling stones, and making all sorts of props.
"I've become quite popular in Zhuqing Village now!"

On the other end of the Rotom phone, Xiao Guang sent a message with a smug look on his face.

It feels like I'm a very famous Coordinator in the Sinnoh region!

"Oh, right, I also received a 'Ghost Fire' quest. The villagers gave me a cracked stone and asked me to collect will-o'-the-wisps from various places."

"Cracked stone, will-o'-the-wisp?"

After a little analysis, Ash quickly guessed that it must be the "Wedge Stone" that sealed the Rockruff.
However, when he subdued the Flower Rock Monster, he subdued it directly without any extra steps.

However, it seems that Hikaru will need to personally collect 108 souls from various locations to subdue the Flower Rock Monster in the Washi region.

It is said that the hero of the past in the Xicui region sealed it away and scattered its soul in 108 places, including the Obsidian Plains and the Pure White Frozen Soil, which made it quite troublesome for Xiaoguang to collect them.

"Unfortunately, I didn't bring my Rockruff with me, otherwise it might have been able to help you~"

Ash sent a helpless emoji.

"No problem, anyway, I have the monstrous deer helping me now, so I can move around quite freely in the Xicui area~"

Xiao Guang said that the only regret was that the horned deer could only perform a "single jump," and many mountain roads and slopes could not be climbed for the time being.

It seems there are other riding Pokémon in the Greenland region that can assist in mountain climbing, but she hasn't been recognized yet.

Ash suddenly remembered something and quickly started operating the Rotom on his phone.

"By the way, I have a rock climbing skill machine here. You can teach your Speaker Crawler that skill, and it should be able to traverse the entire map!"

He had a lot of skill-based video games stored inside, and he sent them over after finding the rock climbing video! (End of Chapter)