Pokémon: I picked up a reborn Eevee at the start of the game

But for elves, whose competitive spirit is ingrained in their very being, battles are not their entire life, but they are an indispensable part of it.

It had been a long time since Ma Xiu had seen such a radiant smile on Pokkis's face after defeating such a powerful enemy.

It's not that Tokiss is unhappy in normal times, but the warm and trivial happiness in daily life is very different from this kind of fulfilling joy.

Ma Xiu was delighted to see such a smile.

As it turns out, the strength of a Pokémon is not the only important factor on the battlefield; the trainer's command skills are equally important.

Most of those who advanced to the second round were top trainers like Cynthia, Cattleya, and Alder, even though the Pokémon they drew weren't as strong as their opponents on paper.

Whether by coincidence or not, Xia Chen encountered his good teacher, Gadriya, in the second round.

…………

The duel between the two superpowered individuals drew cheers from the onlookers, who eagerly prepared their snacks and drinks, ready to enjoy this tale of "kindness between teacher and student."

The two players drew equally strong Pokémon, both having champion-level powerhouses and support Pokémon like Serperior. It was hard to predict who would win before the match.

After a fierce battle lasting nearly half an hour, the rebellious disciple Xia Chen finally managed to defeat Cattleya through a difficult underhanded act.

Despite showing no anger at yesterday's first-round exit, Gadriya's face hardened after this match's defeat.

Although she usually doesn't show much expression on her face, her emotions were clearly fluctuating a lot at this moment.

After leaving the field, Xia Chen chuckled and said, "What, you're not convinced?"

Caldelia ignored him, having already answered the question with her actions.

In the end, Xia Chen took the initiative to back down, repeatedly saying that "it's mainly because of Teacher Jia Deliya's good teaching," and only then did this girl with no special abilities give up after whining.

Meanwhile, on the battlefield near Xia Chen's new home, a new round of attacks and skills were unleashed.

It's only because Gullit was there to oversee things on the sidelines; otherwise, the aftershocks of his moves alone would have been enough to hurt the people on the sidelines.

In addition to the mentor-student showdown between Xia Chen and Gadriya, the second round also replicated the classic battle from the Masters 8 tournament two years ago: Cynthia vs. Adek.

It is widely believed that that match forced Aldeck into retirement.

Although there seems to be a direct causal relationship in terms of time, only Teacher A knows the truth.

What Xia Chen didn't know was what Alderk was really thinking beneath his cheerful expression when he suffered another defeat at Cynthia's hands.

At the very least, it probably won't be pleasant...

Time passed amidst a series of interesting battles and the constant laughter and cheers that filled the battlefield, until evening arrived.

After two rounds of competition, the final four contestants have been determined. Apart from Xia Chen and Cynthia, the other two are Karune and Professor Oak.

A result that wasn't entirely unexpected—

The former is a top trainer with a chance to become the new Carlos champion, while the latter is a former big shot who has achieved great success.

Xia Chen's next opponent is none other than the legendary figure in the Pokémon world, Yukito Ooki, with whom he has a mentor-student and friend relationship.

…………

In a way, Xia Chen and Professor Oak have some strange similarities—both made huge contributions to the Pokémon academic world that are destined to be recorded in history, and both were legendary trainers who dominated their time.

Although Xia Chen is not yet, no one doubts that he will be in the future.

In fact, back in Professor Oak's time, there were far fewer trainers than there are now, and their strength was certainly much less.

However, people always tend to praise the past and belittle the present. Even today, many people believe that if the ancient masters had faced off against the legendary Masde in today's Masters Tournament, they could have easily crushed the opponent.

However, after Xia Chen came into contact with this level of big shots, he gradually realized that if he didn't bring his martial arts master Xiong Shi along, this legendary fighter would most likely only be eliminated in the first round of the modern eight masters tournament.

As the terminator of the hegemony of that era, Yukinari Ōki's strength was undoubtedly high.

Of course, the name Professor Oak has a deeper meaning for Xia Chen—he is almost the starting point for every Pokémon fan to understand the series.

Whether it's games, anime, or comics.

Pallet Town, a late-arriving boy, and a professor who sends out a problematic starter Pokémon.

This is my youth!

And today, to actually have to battle Professor Oak in such a informal competition, how strange...

Xia Chen thought to himself with these thoughts.

Standing on the field, the two, who were far apart in age, silently looked at each other.

Professor Oak laughed heartily and spoke first: "Today I'll show you what this old man is capable of, kid!"

Chapter 358 The Burning Insect Encounters Danger in the Dream, Milotic Dragon King Returns (1 words, 1/5)

"When I was eight years old, my father took me to see my first Pokémon battle, the Kanto Championship match between Professor Oak and Elite Four member Agatha Christie. More than thirty years have passed in the blink of an eye..."

On the sidelines of the battlefield, Adek remarked with these thoughts.

As the undisputed king of the previous generation, he is actually more than one generation younger than Professor Oak.

Caldelia, standing nearby, sharply remarked, "So, Senior Adek is only in his forties? I thought he was already sixty."

"Hey, sixty is too much. I'm a post-80s generation, after all."

This year marks the end of 2025. The earliest generation of "post-80s" who represented the golden years of their lives are now approaching fifty, making people sigh at the fleeting nature of youth.

However, it has been more than 30 years since Professor Oak became the Kanto Champion. If you're not old enough, you've probably never seen Professor Oak's matches.

Among the people around him, apart from the old guy Alder, almost all the others were young trainers in their teens and twenties. They had watched a lot of academic videos about Professor Oak, but they had never actually watched any real battles.

Although this match wasn't exactly a formal one, they were quite curious to see how the veteran would perform.

Professor Oak was much luckier than Xia Chen, as he selected three Pokémon: Cyndaquil's Garchomp, Da Ye's Infernape, and Brock's Rhyperior.

Leaving aside the incredibly powerful Garchomp, the other two Pokémon possess considerable strength, unlike Xia Chen's Serperior, which is somewhat of a liability.

The first half of the match was extremely intense. Although Garchomp was indeed so powerful that it was almost unbeatable, Xia Chen had a Togekiss with a type advantage.

Dragons are immune to fairies, and ground creatures are immune to flying creatures; they possess dual immunity.

However, as Cynthia's ace, Garchomp is naturally proficient in more than just two STAB moves; Crunch, Poison Jab, Rock Slide, and other moves are also readily available to it.

In addition, it can fly and is not suppressed by air-to-ground firepower. At first, Tokiss really couldn't withstand the champion-level speed and powerful impact, and was almost unable to fight back.

It wasn't until two consecutive air slashes landed with incredible luck, triggering the fear effect, that the situation was finally stabilized.

Unfortunately, the difference in strength between the two sides was still too great. After a hard-fought battle for nearly ten minutes, Togekiss was defeated, and Garchomp also paid a heavy price, being defeated by Lucario, who came in afterward, with considerable effort.

Afterwards, Lucario and Infernape faced off with their most prized fighting techniques. Although they didn't fight to the death, the battle was still quite intense.

Lucario won a hard-fought victory, but then... fell to Rhyperior's Rock Bomb.

Serpent was given a critical mission, and despite having a four-fold advantage over its opponent, it ultimately suffered a narrow defeat due to the vast difference in overall strength.

Xia Chen thus lost his chance to win the first "Yuanling Cup" championship.

The final was very interesting, with Professor Oak facing off against Cynthia, who had fought her way through the competition with her Dragonite.

That Dragonite was none other than Yukinari Oki's ace.

This match, in which both sides swapped their aces, was exceptionally exciting.

It's hard to say whether Professor Oak's Pokémon were stronger or Cynthia's on-the-spot command skills surpassed her predecessors. In the end, the current Sinnoh Champion defeated the previous Kanto Champion to claim the title.

Cynthia left the arena with a bright smile, seemingly in a good mood, despite not receiving any championship reward.

…………

After the Yuanling Cup, Xia Chen's new home party was almost over.

Several busy people with gym leader and champion titles flew away that very night, while others like Professor Oak and Alder, who had been retired for a long time and had nothing to do, planned to stay on the island for a few more days.

Professor Oak mainly wanted to study Xia Chen's special Pokémon, such as Ghost Zoroark and Green Goodra, while Alder wanted to let his Volcarona and Flareon, a mother and child he had never seen since birth, spend some time together.

Xia Chen naturally extended a warm welcome to these two big names in the Pokémon academic and battling worlds, since he didn't have much to do before Milotic returned anyway.

Just then, the newly established Xicui Research Institute made new progress in its research on Niu Meilong, so Xia Chen took the opportunity to invite this academic luminary to go and take a look.

The research institute is located in a remote area on the outskirts of Zhijiang, covering a large area.

It wasn't actually that big at first, but later, at Gardevoir's suggestion, the research institute added two ecological parks simulating snow and wetlands.

Judging from Gardevoir's not-so-subtle hints, these two locations are the habitats of Zoroark and Goodra, respectively, so Xia Chen naturally chose to trust them unconditionally.

As it turns out, Gardevoir's information source is very reliable. With the simulation of the environment, the subsequent research went more and more smoothly, and a few days ago, a Pokémon egg was successfully replicated using the genes of two Pokémon.

If all goes well, these Pokémon eggs will hatch into the extinct Goomy and Zoroark.

Gardevoir brought Xia Chen more than just this information. There was also a crucial piece of information: the Green Region once had an evolved form of Ursaring, which required an evolution item.

Perhaps the loss of the evolution item caused Ursaring's evolved form to disappear.

However, Gardevoir only told Xia Chen this news; the specific information about the evolution item remains a mystery.

So Xia Chen kept the matter to himself for the time being and didn't bother with it.

…………

The research on the Emerald Sprites is progressing well, and the newly hatched Burning Worms have unsurprisingly shown extraordinary qualities.

Xia Chen originally intended to take advantage of Volcarona's presence on the island to give Burning Bug a simple introductory training session on moves.

However, the latter's fire-based talent was frighteningly exaggerated...

Generally speaking, Pokémon moves have a progressive evolution, the simplest being Fire-type moves like Ember, Flamethrower, and Fire Blast.

The underlying principles of energy utilization are not significantly different; the difference in energy intensity is the key reason for the change in the form of expression.

One very illogical thing about the Burning Worm is that, although Volcarona taught her Spark, she used Flame Burst instead...

This situation has never occurred with previous Sticky Baby.

This terrified her mother... This strange statement wasn't meant to be an insult.

When the Volcano saw the scorching flame bursting from the mouth of the Burning Bug, it was first stunned, then fell into deep thought.

Finally, she turned her gaze to Xia Chen, who was standing beside her, and exclaimed in amazement, "Your training skills are just too amazing!"

Xia Chen gave him an innocent look—"I can't reach it?"

Isn't this your child?

Both sides assumed it was the other's doing, but in another house not far away, the Azure Flame Blade Demon, who was refining pills, was slightly taken aback—