Who needs a girlfriend when you have Pokémon?

The name "Aotu Mountain Road" may sound hard to criticize, but once you learn more about it, you'll find that it's a name that perfectly matches the place's dramatic and unfortunate appearance.

Asha had been training in Chimney Mountain since she was a child, so she was quite familiar with this rugged mountain path. Although it was Luo Wei's first time, he had grown up under his father's training since childhood, and his physical fitness far exceeded that of his peers.

Only Lillie struggled with the rugged mountain path, but thankfully she persevered.

It seems that this period of experience has been a very meaningful growth experience for the little princess. Perhaps it was not part of her original life plan, but at least for now, this unplanned trip has been very interesting.

Loew reached out and pulled Lillie along. With Gardevoir's psychic support from behind, Lillie pushed off with her feet and successfully stepped onto the last protruding rock, leaping onto a relatively flat mountain path.

With Loki reaching out to pull them up, Gardevoir simply lent a helping hand with its psychic powers. In reality, given the strength of Gardevoir's psychic abilities, it wouldn't have been difficult for it to lift everyone up the mountain.

However, considering that there is likely to be a tough battle going up there, it would be good to save some psychic energy. Moreover, since Lowell, as the trainer and owner, has already offered his help, Gardevoir naturally obediently became a support.

She never tries to steal the spotlight from the trainers; that's part of her gentleness.

"All right……"

Asha easily stepped onto the mountain path, then pointed upwards, "After this point, it's all flat..."

Of course, this flat road is relative to the extreme rock climbing section we just went through. In fact, compared to a proper road, it is definitely still quite rugged and difficult to walk. However, having experienced the extreme rock climbing section, this originally rugged mountain road suddenly became cute and pleasing to the eye in the eyes of Rowe and Lillie.

It just goes to show that contrast truly creates beauty, and after arriving here, they clearly felt one thing...

"...Something's definitely strange. There should be plenty of Pokémon here by now."

Asha looked around and saw that the surroundings were bare and full of jagged rocks, with no trace of Pokémon in sight. Normally, once you reach this halfway up the mountain, you've already entered the area where wild Pokémon live.

Normally, tourists would only take the cable car up to this point and then follow another road to Fuyan Town.

This is also the only road connecting Fuyan Town to the outside world. As a closed town surrounded by mountains on three sides, this is a road that can only be entered and exited in one direction.

This path was completely opposite to the one Luo Wei and the others were going down; that path led downwards, while the path ahead led upwards.

In a sense, this is the boundary between the areas where humans and wild Pokémon live. Thousands of years of coexistence have formed a tacit understanding between them. Unless there is an emergency, wild Pokémon will not invade the areas where humans live, and vice versa.

In other words, if you step into an area where wild Pokémon are active, you can only escape on your own if you are attacked, because you entered their territory first, so being attacked is only natural.

Therefore, apart from trainers who specifically train themselves, no one will go down this path.

But at this moment, the road is clean and tidy, with no wild Pokémon that should be living here.

"And...it's so hot..."

Luo Wei wiped the sweat from his brow, then casually took out a spray bottle from his backpack, sprayed it on himself, and handed it to Lillie beside him.

The other person thanked him, accepted the spray, and then sprayed himself with it as well.

After spraying the mist, the heat on his body subsided considerably, but he could still feel that the surrounding temperature was far above normal. Luo Wei took out the Navigator and glanced at it; the reading of 44 made him exclaim "Wow!" in his mind...

...44 degrees Celsius, that's practically torture level, and this is only halfway up the mountain. Who knows what the summit will look like?

"I think I need to go back and get two Ice-type Pokémon to save the day..."

Luo Wei considered this very seriously. After all, although there was a cooling spray, this kind of spray, which was made by extracting various secretions from Ice-type Pokémon, was ultimately not as effective as the Ice-type Pokémon themselves.

When traveling, it's advisable to prepare a variety of Pokémon to deal with extreme weather conditions.

"Is this the normal temperature here?" Luo Wei asked Asha, who was more familiar with the area. She promptly shook her head in denial, "No, it's usually hotter than normal, but definitely not this extreme..."

"Then there really is a problem..."

Luo Wei still clearly remembered the contents of the mural: the Earth God awakened, leaving desolation in his wake. Even a large number of Water and Ice type Pokémon were powerless to fight against him. The materialized embodiment of nature was just that unreasonable.

However, it's quite frightening that he is supposed to be the god of the earth, yet all he leaves behind is desolation. But thinking about it, it doesn't seem to make much of a difference.

He is the god of the earth, not the god of life or the god of nature. Xerneas, the god of life, is in charge of the growth of all things. Whether the earth is fertile or barren has nothing to do with the earth itself.

...All living things that grow on the earth are, in the eyes of the earth god, nothing more than "parasites" attached to his body. Whether they are born or die, prosper or decline, none of this has anything to do with the earth itself.

God, or rather the concept of nature, doesn't care about any of this; that's God...

...Destruction or prosperity...God doesn't care!

To want to awaken such a being and take its power for one's own selfish desires is truly naive or arrogant.

There's no way around it; without having witnessed the existence of gods firsthand, one can't comprehend that this power is something beyond the reach of common sense. One might think that gods are nothing more than Pokémon...

...Since it's a Pokémon, it can be caught!

With such thoughts in mind, it's not surprising that they would attempt to conquer the power of the gods.

What we are about to face is a group of people who are trying to control God. Regardless of whether this idea is right or wrong, their various actions to awaken God have already brought a lot of trouble to the whole world.

Lowe stopped moving forward, and Asha also stopped moving. Only Lillie, who was slow to realize what was happening, stopped halfway through.

"what happened?"

"...They've arrived."

As soon as Luo Wei finished speaking, one after another, figures in red uniforms appeared from all directions...

...Elite members of Team Lava arrived.

Chapter 155 That's all the family's assets.

Team Lava's elite members arrived...

Luo Wei glanced around and saw that there were about twenty or thirty people on the other side. He didn't see any familiar faces. Neither Huo Yan nor Huo Cun, the two cadres, were present. Naturally, Chi Yan Song, the leader, was also nowhere to be seen.

Since that's the case, they're just a bunch of high-ranking grunts, and Luo Wei naturally has no interest in wasting much time with them.

"...Then I'll trouble you all to obediently become experience points~"

As Luo Wei spoke, he wiped away a bead of sweat. They were already a few degrees higher up the mountainside, and the temperature had reached an absurd level.

To be honest, rising temperatures can easily make people irritable, and Luo Wei is already finding it hard to stand it.

Not only was he unable to withstand it, but Aysa was also a little overwhelmed. She raised her hand and released her Lava Snail and Torkoal, which stood side by side with Lowe's Meowth and Gardevoir.

Four Pokémon against twenty or thirty opponents—in terms of numbers, Lowe's side was at an overwhelming disadvantage... but...

...This time it wasn't a place like a large cave where you couldn't really move freely. This was a desolate mountain volcano, surrounded by nothing but rocks on all sides, not even a blade of grass in sight, so naturally, the environment didn't matter.

Asha grew up and trained in this place. When she closes her eyes, all she sees are memories. This place is as familiar as her own backyard.

It's undoubtedly a home-field advantage situation. Since the players have already been released, there's absolutely no need to waste any effort...

"bring it on!"

Meanwhile, at the summit...

A man dressed in the Lava Team uniform rushed over and gave a brief report to the Crimson Flame Pine, who was staring blankly at the crater.

"Oh, so... someone has already come looking for us on the mountain? It's the gym leader of the Furnace Town Gym, and that kid named Luo Wei..."

As the Gym Leader, and with Team Magma having infiltrated LavaCity with their own people, they are quite familiar with Aysa's situation.

Aysa's strength is considered relatively new among gym leaders, partly because her actual strength is still inferior to that of other gym leaders, and partly because of her mentality.

Due to pressure and mindset issues, she did not fully realize her abilities and potential, so it is understandable that she was not as skilled as others.

Of course, this is a good thing for Crimson Flame Pine. At least it's much better than having someone standing here right now who is Mikoli, who is his natural counter in terms of both attributes and strength, or Qianli, that overpowered monster.

As for Rowe...

...Qianli's son has already obtained three badges. Of course, if it were just three badges, it wouldn't be a problem for the officers of Crimson Pine and Lava Team. The problem is that it is said that he obtained these three badges under high difficulty.

In other words, the value of Rowe's three badges is quite astonishing, and the fact is that Rowe's current strength might even be stronger than that of his colleague, Aysa.

In a sense, Lowe was the main force this time, while Aysa was his assistant. It's just that the League is obviously led by the Gym Leader on the surface.

On the other hand, Crimson Pine did not believe that the alliance would only send two people to stop him, especially after they had already failed once before.

Moreover, aside from the League, Crimson Pine also has to face Team Ocean. Although Team Ocean is no match for the League in terms of raw strength, rivals are enemies. The League is a large organization with many things to manage, and it's impossible for them to focus all their energy on Team Lava.

Even now, the league still has to be wary of various evil organizations in other regions that want to cause trouble. Ever since the Rockets were eliminated, all these previously inconspicuous organizations have suddenly emerged.

Team Ocean is different; they can use all their resources to annoy Team Lava, just as Team Lava can use all their resources to annoy Team Ocean.

While they were pondering this, the loud explosions coming from the mountainside could be faintly heard. It seemed that both Luo Wei and Ya Sha were indeed quite irritable.

Those elites of the Lava Team were, to put it mildly, selected experts, the best of the best who stood out from the minions of the Lava Team. Although the minions themselves were quite weak and of poor quality, only twenty or thirty people were carefully selected.

Well, even in the worst place, you can always find a few useful talents if you look carefully. Although most of these underlings have already been screened by the alliance and the real talents have been picked out long ago, you can still find one or two talents among the remaining people.

Unfortunately, it seems all these talented individuals will be leaving today...

As he pondered this, Chi Yansong looked at the two people beside him: a short, stout young man and a petite girl. These two were none other than Fire Village and Fire Goose, officers of the Lava Team, both of whom had met Luo Wei once before.

"...Go and help them out. If you can stop them, do so. If you really can't, just stall for time and find a chance to escape."

After all, those dozen or so elites are probably all going to be taken in, and these two officers are the only ones left who can do the work. If they are also taken in, the Lava Team will probably fall apart.

Therefore, Chi Yansong's orders to the two were simple: block if you can, and if you can't, find a chance to run away as soon as possible, and whatever you do, don't get yourself killed.

“Especially you… Fire Goose…”

Chi Yansong was not willing to accept Huocun at all. This young man had a strong temper and was opportunistic. If things went wrong, he would run away faster than anyone else.

But Huoyan is different. This seemingly lazy girl is actually someone who can't control herself once she gets into a trance.

"Okay, I'll try."

"...This is an answer that makes it impossible to feel at ease."

Although they still wanted to complain, the two of them had already set off and were rushing down the mountain, so Chi Yansong could only shrug helplessly.

His attention then turned to the device beside him.

The meteorite placed inside had already shone brightly, and a large amount of energy was extracted from it and injected into the volcano, but it was still not enough...

...The energy injected at this moment is still insufficient to awaken the earth god sleeping beneath the volcano; more stimulation and more energy are needed.

It was originally expected to take two to three more days, but now only one night has passed...

...Of course, considering what he had done, it was understandable that he would be investigated immediately, so now it depended on his abilities.