He knows Pokémon better than me.

The two quickly looked at their spoils—

In addition to the usual six experience candies of varying sizes, there was also a dark stone, a dark green herb, and a pink mushroom.

"The rewards are pretty good!"

The dark green herb is the resurrection herb. Feeding it to a Pokémon will revive it at full health, but it will lower its friendship level.

Through processing, it can be manufactured into vitality fragments or vitality blocks.

If we take it back to Lucario, it can be used as a raw material for Vitality Pills.

As for this pink, flat-topped mushroom, it has a spiral pattern on top, with a large mushroom connected to two smaller mushrooms in the middle. It looks like some kind of dangerous, poisonous mushroom.
"I'm so lucky, I got a Dynamax Fungus on my first try!"

Ash exclaimed with delight that he had encountered this in previous Dynamax raids, but he had thought it was some useless poison mushroom and had casually given it to the others.

Now, we have the main ingredients for a bowl of Dynamax Soup!
As for how to divide the spoils—

Mary didn't want any of them at first, since she already had the best reward: the Slayer Commander.

However, Ash still gave the Dark Stone to Marnie. Since she likes Dark-type characters, she should be able to use this stone.

Mary blushed, but in the end, she carefully accepted the Dark Stone.

As for the rest, Xiao Zhi accepted them all without hesitation.

"If we fight a few more rounds like this, we should be able to gather all the materials needed for both Max Soup and Lucario, right?"

The flames of passion in Ash's heart began to burn fiercely again!

Whether it's a leader Pokémon or a den Pokémon, it's all the same principle!
"Oh, right, and there's also the young Teng Cu!"

After putting away his spoils, Ash belatedly remembered and quickly turned around to look.

Just then, the battle on the lakeshore also came to an end.

At this moment, with the ladybug shell behind Eulop fully open, it was clear that it had released its full power. Its powerful mental force grabbed the little general Tengju from a distance and lifted him into the air, constantly squeezing the latter's body.

This means they're preparing to use their mental power to decide the winner in one fell swoop.

So Ash took over the command and immediately said:

"Young warrior, use the throwing technique!"

The latter understood, and a faint black light instantly emanated from his body, causing the mental energy binding him to dissipate in an instant.

Once it enters the Dark attribute, its psychic attacks become completely ineffective.

Boom!

The young general kicked the stone at his feet with a "throwing" technique, which is a move that counters the opponent's evil attribute.

"Lup?!"

Oulu was startled and immediately rose up to dodge. What happened? The superpower that was working just now suddenly became completely ineffective!
Xiao Zhi smiled and waved his hand:
"Hehe, use a fireball!"

The young warrior leaped high into the air once more, causing the stones to ignite, before kicking them out with fierce force.

*Whoosh—Bang!*
The fireball shot out and hit Eurupe precisely. The flames exploded on Eurupe's body, and he was sent flying backward in an instant.

Outstanding effect!

The latter was charred black all over, unable to float, and finally fell to the ground, completely unconscious.

"Aww~!"

Tengchu Xiaojiang immediately shouted at Xiaozhi to express his gratitude.

The Free Spirit ability makes it quite difficult for Pokémon to act on their own. Switching between the 18 types at the most appropriate time requires teamwork with the trainer.

"The characteristics of free agents are really outrageous~" Mary couldn't help but sigh beside her.

Compared to Freeman and Grassmaker, Galar's three Water-type starter Pokémon suddenly seem mediocre.

Ash wasn't particularly interested in the Galar Bugs, so he didn't choose to capture this Orpheus Bug; he preferred Butterfree.

Even if you want to catch them, you should start raising them from the Caterpie stage, since Bug Pokémon evolve quickly and there's no need to catch the fully evolved form directly.

"By the way, the Butterfree in the Pokémon den before could also Gigantamax."

Ash looked at the Dynamax mushroom in his hand. It was time to call Gengar, Butterfree, and the others over to the Galar region.

Anyway, the castle is finished being renovated and has enough space to accommodate these veterans.

Having successfully achieved their goal, the two slowed down their pace.

Next, Mary needs to work on getting along well with this cleaver.

Once you're familiar with the latter's fighting style, you can basically take it directly to fight the Fairy Gym.

After all, in a gym battle, Popira from Dancing Town won't go all out, so the difficulty isn't that high.

I guess we'll see the latter's true level at the upcoming Galar League conference.
As for Xiao Zhi, he was even less in a hurry.

With his older cousin looking after things at home, he can now be a hands-off manager, only needing to collect materials from other places.

The World Championships schedule is still far off, with plenty of time to improve one's ranking.

But now that we've come to this wonderful place...
It would be a waste not to train properly!

So Ash and Marie put their hands together and reached a consensus to stay in this wilderness for two or three days, where there were plenty of suitable opponents!

The most urgent task is to find a suitable place to live.

"Oh, right, there's a campsite belonging to the Watt Merchant up ahead."

Mary took out her encyclopedia and looked at the map for a while, then pointed northeast to a place called Quan Guan Hill.

That area is on the edge of the Wild Area, adjacent to Motostoke City, so the density of wild Pokémon is naturally much lower.

Watt merchants who usually pass by will choose to camp there. Over time, trainers adventuring in the wilderness have also gotten used to choosing that place as their campsite, as it is considered a safe zone.

"The Watt merchant?"

Ash walked beside Mary, holding his head and muttering to himself.

Isn't that Xiaoyou's colleague? Maybe we'll even see Xiaoyou.

Before long, the two arrived at the Quanju Hills, where the magnificent Quanju City came into view.

The towering city walls still blocked their way, with several bluffing demons standing guard to prevent outsiders from smuggling themselves across.

"It feels pretty good~"

Ash looked around and saw that what was called the Hammerlocke Hills was actually just a grassy open space next to the city wall, without any bushes or jungles that would attract wild Pokémon.

There are even several tents already pitched here.

Nearby, several Watt merchants in uniforms could be seen talking, but they were all burly men, and the familiar girl was nowhere to be seen.

Ash grimaced and could only choose an open space nearby with Marie, where they opened the portable tent they had bought in Strangetown and put their luggage away.

He turned around, his gaze fixed intently on the open field.

"Now we can start our special training!"

He wasn't just targeting wild Pokémon, but also those rising pillars of light from Pokémon dens—he wasn't going to let any of them escape! (End of Chapter)