Age of Elves: I started flashing with my handheld.

When Min Rou heard Ye Junlang call her "Xiao Rou", her brows furrowed unconsciously.

The group exchanged brief greetings to get acquainted, and then the four of them began to walk into the food street.

It's summer vacation, and also the time when universities recruit students. The food street, which should only open in the evening, is open early, with a constant stream of people coming and going.

"I want to eat stinky tofu!" Upon entering the snack street, Li Xiaoyu couldn't resist the sight of the stinky tofu at the first stall on her right.

"Buy!" Nanfeng said with great pride. "Now I'm a millionaire with a monthly income of one million. I can't just eat one bowl of stinky tofu and throw the other away."

"Let me pay," Ye Junlang stepped forward and blocked Nanfeng's path, then paid the bill directly.

Nanfeng looked at Li Xiaoyu, who secretly glanced at Min Rou, then silently looked up at the sky.

Okay, got it.

Min Rou's suitors.

"I want to eat lean meat balls."

"purchase"

Ye Junlang paid the bill again.

"I want to eat takoyaki (octopus balls)."

"purchase"

Ye Junlang continued to pay the bill.

As they walked, Nanfeng wondered when he'd acquired a servant to pay the bills. But what was wrong with having someone else pay? Nanfeng was happy to have such a sucker.

We walked all the way to the end of the snack street and sat down at a long table by West Lake, eating and chatting.

"How did the exam go today? Are you confident?" Li Xiaoyu asked Nanfeng as she ate a takoyaki.

"It's alright, at least the blanks were filled in."

"That should be a sure thing." Having been classmates with Nanfeng for three years, Li Xiaoyu had long since seen through the true colors of these academic high-achievers.

Fill in all the blanks = I can write everything.

I didn't do well on this test, but I'm still number one.

I forgot to review = I didn't need to review at all.

"Great breeder, can I ask you to help me write Pokémon breeding plans in the future?"

Nanfeng raised his hand and gave an "OK" sign, saying, "As an old classmate, I'll definitely give you a discount."

"Tch, so stingy," Li Xiaoyu pouted.

"Can I trouble you in the future?" Min Rou asked with an expectant look.

Before Nanfeng could answer, Ye Junlang interjected, "Xiaorou, my family has a professional high-level breeder. I'll take care of your Pokémon training from now on!"

"No need, thank you, I can make my own nurturing plan." As soon as Ye Junlang finished speaking, Min Rou immediately refused stiffly, her gentle face, devoid of expression, seemed to be covered with frost.

"It's alright, no need to be so formal," Ye Junlang thought Min Rou was just being polite.

"No need," Min Rou emphasized.

Ye Junlang could only awkwardly shut his mouth.

Nanfeng raised an eyebrow.

It seems to be another show about simps.

The atmosphere cooled down after Min Rou refused.

Li Xiaoyu continued eating her takoyaki, seemingly oblivious to everything.

Nanfeng, standing to the side, didn't feel awkward at all. On the contrary, he was quite interested. Before his rebirth, he was almost forty years old. He had never seen such a scene before. Adults knew the outcome of their love after the first test.

Just as Nanfeng was enjoying the awkward atmosphere with a smile, a startled exclamation from the West Lake drew everyone's attention.

"Congratulations to trainers Li Ming and Chen Hong for their victory, becoming the first pair of trainers to pass the qualifiers!"

Nanfeng looked in the direction from which the sound came and discovered that a special battleground had been set up on the surface of West Lake at some point.

Using West Lake as the venue, wooden planks were laid on the lake surface as stepping stones.

The elves fought their battle on the wooden plank.

The trainers on both sides stood on stone platforms driven into West Lake to direct the battle.

"West Lake Arena!" Li Xiaoyu's eyes lit up.

"What is the West Lake Arena?" Nanfeng asked.

"The West Lake Arena is a Pokémon doubles tournament organized by the West Lake scenic area to attract visitors. The winner receives rewards from the West Lake scenic area, such as Pokémon eggs or Pokémon items," explained Ye Junlang. "It's a rare opportunity, let's all participate and see?"

Ye Junlang looked at Min Rou. "Xiao Rou, you're in my group."

"No, Coco is a little tired today," Min Rou said, patting Blue Emperor.

“Buwoo~” Coco, the Blue Emperor, rubbed against her owner’s little hand contentedly.

"Nanfeng, what do you say?" Li Xiaoyu was itching to speak.

"Okay," Nanfeng readily agreed. Just like elves, they could gain experience by defeating real-world opponents.

"Come on! I'll take you flying!" Li Xiaoyu grabbed Nanfeng and ran off.

Doubles requires two people, and Ye Junlang couldn't just leave Min Rou here alone, so he could only stand silently next to Min Rou and watch Nan Feng and Li Xiaoyu go on stage.

(I forgot to play, there will be another chapter later).

24. West Lake Fighting Ground

The rules of the West Lake Arena are doubles. The preliminary rounds are fought by defeating the official trainer pairs. Only when two teams have passed the preliminary rounds can the West Lake Arena officially begin.

It's the finals from the start. One team of trainers has already defeated the official trainer team, leaving only the last spot to be contested.

Today's West Lake Arena competition is shorter than usual because it's a "special event for university freshmen."

Knowing that universities in Qiantang are recruiting, the West Lake Arena naturally wanted to capitalize on this trend. This time, only high school graduates who came to Qiantang to take the university entrance exams could register for the West Lake Arena competition.

The opponent is not strong, and there are many spectators, making it a good time to... show off in front of others.

This is probably what all the participants were thinking.

As a result, most of the participants were thoroughly beaten by the trainers sent by the official team.

Most new players have only been training their Pokémon for a month and a half, and since it's a doubles match with other players, their performance is at least appalling, if not utterly disastrous.

"Trainers Li Xiaoyu and Nanfeng, please come to the field!"

After witnessing several overconfident trainer combinations being defeated, it was finally Li Xiaoyu and Nanfeng's turn to take the field.

"Don't be afraid, watch me C," Li Xiaoyu patted Nanfeng's shoulder, with an expression that said, "Big Sister will protect you."

"Sister, I'm all ready to lie down," Nanfeng said, spreading her hands out.

The official trainers standing opposite Li Xiaoyu and Nanfeng were a pair of young brothers, who had just switched in as their opponents. The official trainers also had multiple combinations to rotate.

"Brother, a couple came up," the younger brother whispered a reminder.

The older brother's eyes narrowed as he carefully examined Nanfeng and Li Xiaoyu.

Damn it, they're handsome men and beautiful women.

"I can't stand these lovey-dovey couples, I'm going to take them on with all my might! I'll break up one couple after another!"

"That's right, are they taking advantage of the fact that none of us brothers have girlfriends!" the younger brother said indignantly.

The referee standing nearby silently cast a look of pity.

The older brother glared at his younger brother and said, "Don't shout so loudly!"

"The West Lake Arena preliminary rounds are now beginning, with trainers Zhou Yang and Zhou Yue facing off against trainers Li Xiaoyu and Nanfeng. Each trainer can use one Pokémon. The battle ends when both Pokémon on one side are unable to battle!"

"Now, both sides, please send out your Pokémon simultaneously!" the referee announced the rules of the match and gestured.

The four of them immediately grabbed Poké Balls and threw them into the sky.

With a shimmering silver light, the four sprites landed on the floating platform on the surface of West Lake.

The Zhou brothers, Zhou Yang and Zhou Yue, each sent out a giant crab and a black seahorse, respectively.

Nanfeng and Li Xiaoyu then sent out Froghead and Blue Crocodile.

As a standard water-type battle arena, most trainers who participate in the West Lake Arena send out water-type Pokémon.

"Frog?" Li Xiaoyu was surprised that Nanfeng's Pokémon had already completed an evolution.

While it's difficult to judge a Pokémon's strength from its appearance alone, for novice trainers, the number of times a Pokémon has evolved can serve as a rough indicator of its strength.

I thought that since Nanfeng chose the Breeding type, his Pokémon strength would be a weakness, but it seems that's not necessarily the case.

Once the referee confirmed both sides were in position, he immediately announced, "The battle begins!"

"Hippocampus, use Tornado!"

Zhou Yang grabbed it at the beginning.

With a nodding motion, Horsea spewed forward, creating a small whirlwind. As the initial form of the Dragon-type Pokémon "Kingdra," its dragon bloodline enabled it to master some weak Dragon-type moves even in its Horsea form!

A small whirlwind immediately stirred up the water flow, condensing into a "water tornado" that rushed forward, covering a wide area that could simultaneously engulf the blue crocodile and the frog on both floating platforms.

"Get out of the way!" Li Xiaoyu and Nanfeng gave the order at the same time.

The two elves immediately jumped into the water to the left and right respectively, avoiding the ever-growing tornado.

Just as it jumped into the water, a bright silver light came from underwater and struck the blue crocodile in the face.

"Oh!"

A pair of pincers gleaming with silver light slammed into the blue crocodile's jaw, blasting it straight out of the water.

It was a giant pincer crab. While the black seahorse used a tornado to attract everyone's attention, it jumped into West Lake and locked onto the blue crocodile from the start. When the blue crocodile jumped into the water, it launched an attack.

"Blue Crocodile, use Bite!" This wasn't Li Xiaoyu's first time fighting, and she immediately launched a counterattack.

"Howl!" The blue crocodile, which had been knocked away, suddenly lowered its head, its mouth flashing with a faint black light, and charged downwards with a ferocious expression, pouncing on the giant crab.

"Big Claw Crab, one more time, Alloy Claw!" Zhou Yue was not afraid at all.

"Black Mist!" Sunday followed up, not with an attack in mind, but to disrupt the battlefield and prevent the Froghead from intervening in the battle between the Blue Crocodile and the Giant Crab.

A thick black mist swept in, like a black curtain separating the frog and the blue crocodile, as well as Nanfeng and Li Xiaoyu.

The excessive fog completely surrounded the frogs.

Nanfeng wasn't in a hurry to give orders, but simply told the froghead frog to stay put, in case the seahorse could launch a sneak attack at any time. He believed that Li Xiaoyu and her blue crocodile could hold out for a while.

On the other side of the black fog.

No orders were given on Sunday, but the seahorse had already joined the battle between the blue crocodile and the giant crab, creating a two-on-one situation.

"Blue Crocodile, throw it to the ground!" Li Xiaoyu was not afraid at all. It was two against one, so she would take down one first.

With its immense strength, the blue crocodile forcefully bit the giant crab's claws, using all its power to twist and slam it onto the floating board.

Knocking it down again and again.

Although it suffered from the seahorse's attack during the process, as a crocodile, how could it let go after biting its prey? Three slams and punches were all it took to defeat the giant crab.

The referee immediately announced the result: "The giant crab is unable to fight."

"The giant crab has been defeated?" Nanfeng frowned slightly. The black seahorse hadn't attacked him for several minutes.

Oh no, it seems the Seahorse has teamed up with the Giant Kingler to fight one-on-one.

However, there's no rush. Even if the Blue Crocodile is defeated, your own Froghead Frog can still be the deciding factor.

And when the black smoke dissipated.

What came into Nanfeng's view was Blue Crocodile charging towards Mohair with a "Water Jet" followed by "Bite".

The blue crocodile repeatedly pounded the black seahorse on the ground like a broken sandbag.

The referee quickly announced the final result.

"Siegesbeck and Kingler are unable to fight, so the final victors are Nanfeng and Li Xiaoyu."

"Congratulations to trainers Li Ming and Chen Hong for their victory, becoming the second group to advance from the preliminaries! Please take a short break before we begin the final round!"