Ash, with his invincible physical body, wants to become a Pokémon Master...

However, to Ash's surprise, he didn't see his old acquaintances, Yamato and Saburo, among these Team Rocket members.

But it didn't matter. With Team Rocket's help, Ash's regional prestige and favorability increased by more than 20 points.

Professor Nanbo, who was at the underwater base, hated Ash so much that his teeth itched.

Of the several reconnaissance teams sent out, eight out of ten were defeated by Ash. This guy is simply a jinx to Team Rocket!

This delayed his search for Lugia, causing him to lose several more strands of hair from worry.

Ash, of course, didn't care about him. Now, after taking a special route to bypass all the incredibly powerful whirlpools, Water 7 finally appeared in front of Ash and his friends.

"Celebi, please restore all these Pokémon."

"Compare!"

After the green garlic cloves flew happily through the air and circled around for a while, the piles of floating corpses beside the dragon's enormous body gradually regained their spirits.

Ash then encouraged his main opponent, Blackie, who had just been in battle.

[Ding! Lugia (Little Black): Affection +2; Intimacy +2]

Dr. Kongmu's formula was truly effective; in just one month, Xiao Hei's body grew another fifty centimeters.

At this rate, it feels like Black will reach the size of an adult Lugia in a few months.

Then Ash will be able to bring Blackie to wreak havoc everywhere. I'm getting a little excited just thinking about it.

Upon arriving in Water 7, Ash put Lapras and the others into Poké Balls and hurried to the Pokémon Center.

At this point, Ash and Misty's Whirlpool Islands tour is complete.

Thanks to Xiaozhi's tireless efforts along the way, they successfully completed the registration half an hour before the deadline.

[Ding! Congratulations on triggering a new side quest, "Who is the King of the Preliminaries!": Complete all the preliminaries with an undefeated record!]

【奖励：联盟币+4000；速度+2；攻击+2；自由属性点+2；道具“贝壳之铃”+1】

Ash and Misty breathed a sigh of relief as they left the Pokémon Center; all they had to do now was wait for the preliminary rounds to begin in the afternoon.

"This city is so beautiful!" Misty was immediately captivated by the cityscape as soon as she stepped out of the Pokémon Center.

The city of Maodorei is very similar to Venice, the water city in Ash's memory, as both are cities submerged in the sea.

However, the environment here is better, the air is very fresh, and it is a beautiful city with beautiful scenery.

"Yes, it has a very romantic feel to it, and look, ta-da!" Serena skipped and hopped quickly to Ash and the others, showing them the notebook in her hand.

"I just got the tourist guide for this place. Let's explore the city after the preliminary rounds." She had been looking forward to visiting Water City for a long time.

Especially after Serena read about the legend of the small boat in the guidebook.

"Happiness can be found by holding hands with your loved one, sitting in a small boat, and sailing around the Water City..."

"That sounds amazing!" Xiaoxia was also quite interested in this kind of thing.

But in Xiao Zhi's opinion, this was clearly just an unreliable little story deliberately released by the boatmen of those small boats for marketing purposes.

It's simply a tactic to attract more business for myself.

But seeing how much they were looking forward to it, Xiaozhi didn't care anymore.

"Whatever makes you happy."

It's true that it's easiest to make money off couples.

Xiao Zhi is now wondering if he should launch some kind of special offer for his air taxi business, such as a romantic air trip.

If they get people to make up some love-related legends, they might make a lot of money.

————Clean and lustrous————

Because there are so many people participating in the Vortex Tournament, the preliminary rounds are very tight, with a match held almost every half day.

So, right after noon, Ash and his friends went to the Pokémon Center again to draw lots.

Xiaoxia was the first to draw, and she immediately drew field number 9, while Xiaozhi drew field number 1.

This is also good news, as the different venues mean that Misty won't run into Ash in the preliminaries.

Each participant needs to win three consecutive matches to pass the preliminary round.

Soon the first preliminary match of the afternoon began. After the draw, Ash and his friends immediately went to the arena in the central stadium of Water City to prepare for the battle.

The competition order starts from field number one, and then the next field starts every half hour. Ash's match is the first match in field number one.

The Whirlpool Islands Tour is a grand event for the entire archipelago, so the stadium was packed with people, filling all the surrounding stands.

Misty and Serena, who were brought in by the contestants, can sit in the family section, which is Ash's coaching section, to watch the game up close.

The entire battlefield is a water platform. In the center of the field is a large pool of water, and in each half of the field, there are several large pillars with their tops protruding about 20 centimeters above the water surface to serve as platforms.

Ash and his rival quickly took their positions on either side of the field.

The opponent was a red-haired girl wearing a white painter's beret, with a slightly peculiar hairstyle but very cute.

Her eyes were fixed on Xiaozhi, and her expression was very serious.

However, for some reason, Ash suddenly sensed that there seemed to be two more gazes in the sky.

But when he looked up, the two gazes vanished instantly, and there was nothing in the sky.

"strangeness……"

Although puzzled, Ash saw no malice in the gaze, so he didn't bother to investigate further with his Aura Sense and decided to focus on the battle first.

Finally, the referee arrived on the battlefield.

"The rules of the match are two against two, and the other side wins when all of one side's Pokémon are unable to battle!"

"Then, Ash from Pallet Town will face Canon from Water Seven. The match shall officially begin!"

"So the girl across from me is called Canon." And she's a local.

On the water field, both sides immediately sent out their respective Pokémon, with Ash's first Pokémon being Feraligatr.

On the other side, Kanon released a giant flying fish.

"The other party is also a powerful individual who has completed the island tour. The Giant Winged Flying Fish should not underestimate him."

That being said, Canon is also confident in its own capabilities.

Even with her grandfather urging her to come back quickly to entertain important guests, she still managed to complete the pilgrimage.

"What do you mean, this is an important duty of our clan to protect the Water City..." Kanon still thinks his grandfather is long-winded.

Although those two guests were indeed very important, and I quite liked them, I still felt I had to pursue my dreams to feel satisfied.

Yesterday, the younger sister of the two guests said she wanted to come watch my match, but I don't know if she came or not. Thinking this, Kanon looked up at the sky and around.

Unfortunately, the opponent had the ability to become invisible, and Canon couldn't find it. The competition was still the priority.

"Giant Flying Fish, use the Seed Machine Gun!"

This move was specifically taught to Manta Ray by Kanon in order to gain a type advantage in tournaments dominated by Water-type Pokémon.

After a lot of training, the Giant Flying Fish Seed Machine Gun fired with considerable power, creating several high splashes on the water's surface.

Hitting the crocodile will make it feel some pain.

"Wow, that guy is really strong." Xiaoxia didn't expect that Xiaozhi's first opponent would be such a formidable player.

This Whirlpool Tournament attracted a large number of Water-type Pokémon Trainers, making it a truly formidable competition. Misty was already starting to feel nervous about her upcoming battles.

Of course, Ash's Feraligatr is no pushover either; it was one of the animals Ash focused on training during this period.

The progress Feraligatr has made is evident from the mountains of wild Pokémon "corpses" piled up along the flight path.

"The crocodile leaped from the terrace into the water, dodging the follow-up barrage from the seed machine gun!"

“Even if we jump into the water, my giant flying fish won’t lose. Let’s dive down and use our ramming attack.”

Upon hearing Ash's command, Feraligatr immediately slid to the bottom of the arena, followed closely by Manta Ray.

Canon's giant flying fish was incredibly fast, clearly having been carefully trained for speed, and it relentlessly pursued the Mighty Crocodile.

But what Ash wanted was this: "Frigid, use Aqua Tail now and stir up the whole pool!"

The crocodile's tail instantly became entangled in the swirling water, and then it used its tail and arms as stirring rods, frantically churning the entire pool.

Relying on its already powerful strength, and with the added boost from the Force ability and the 60% power increase from the Life Orb, the entire arena instantly transformed into a giant vortex centered on the location of Feraligatr.

The swirling water currents engulfed the giant flying fish, rendering it completely immobile.

"My God, what incredible power! The entire arena is awestruck by the power of the Crocodile!" The commentator was also shocked by the Crocodile's astonishing strength.

"Come on, giant flying fish! Break free quickly and use your jump to fly into the sky!"

"It's too late! The crocodile pulls its opponent to its side and uses Crunch!"

Because the giant flying fish's attributes are water and flight, it has the ability to fly for short periods of time, but no matter how much it struggles, it can never escape the huge suction force brought by the water flow.

Drifting around in the raging waves, they soon arrived at the mouth of the giant crocodile.

The bite hit successfully, the vortex subsided, and the giant flying fish was torn apart and thrown onto the platform of the arena by the crocodile.

"Mighty Crocodile, Freeze Punch!"

"Oh no, giant flying fish! Get out of the way!" Canon was sweating profusely.

But the mighty crocodile, leaping high out of the water, swiftly slammed its gleaming left arm into the giant flying fish's head.

The attack was extremely powerful; it chipped a corner off the platform, and a thin layer of ice immediately formed where the crocodile struck.

With a bang, the ice covering the giant flying fish shattered.

"Giant Flying Fish, incapacitated!"

Both sides' Pokémon displayed formidable strength, prompting enthusiastic applause from the audience.

Despite losing the first round, Canon was not discouraged and quickly sent out her second Pokémon, Tentacruel.

"Stemless Jellyfish, use your stinger!"

The Pokémon on the other side maintained Canon's usual high speed, and its Poison Sting was released very quickly. It was also a very well-trained Pokémon.

Ash's weakness is his speed. Although he was on guard, he was still accidentally pricked in the arm by several poison needles.

The crocodile was immediately poisoned.