Pokémon: Trainers Start as Bounty Hunters.

He looked at Tetsuya.

When Tetsuya first offered his explanation, he was somewhat skeptical, but the priestess's message was almost identical to his.

In his view, this was a rather powerful ability.

"A shrine maiden?" Tetsuya thought the title was quite retro and had a distinctly Johto regional feel to it.

The five sisters from Yuanzhu City were actually in a similar profession, except they were aiming for Ho-Oh, which was much more advanced.

The villagers left the canyon in twos and threes and returned to their own villages nearby.

No rain means another busy day.

"Is it over that easily?" Xiao Gang was a little disappointed.

The villager gave him a strange look: "Of course, unless something major happens, the natural bird only makes predictions about the weather."

Xiao Gang persisted: "So, have any of the natural birds here foretold any major events?"

"It's about the great flood that happened a long time ago, but only the priestess knows the specifics. We only know that there was such a prophecy."

The villager was getting impatient. He pointed to the shrine maiden above, who was also preparing to leave, and said, "Go ask the shrine maiden for details. I need to go back to work."

With that, he led his family away from the canyon.

Tetsuya felt that Kogo's body had turned gray.

He patted the other person on the shoulder: "It's normal. These things are marked on the map, aren't they?"

"I thought I would have a great experience in every place."

Xiao Gang, who had never traveled far from home before, was a little disappointed.

Tetsuya laughed and said, "That's nonsense. Boring is the norm on a journey. How could something big happen in every place we go?"

He and Xiaogang are neither Ash Ketchum nor Conan, so how could they possibly encounter disasters or major events wherever they go?

If every trainer's life were this "colorful," the Pokémon world would have long since become a chaotic mess, making normal life impossible.

"Let's go ask the shrine maiden what's going on."

Tetsuya suggested with great interest.

He was still somewhat interested in this prophecy that had lasted for nearly a century.

Birds in their natural habitat have a peculiar habit: after silently watching the rising sun and offering a prayer, they will spend the entire day almost motionless.

People believe that the reason why a bird remains motionless all day is because it is frightened by the terrible things that are foreseen to happen in the future.

In many regions, there is a saying that his right eye can see the future and his left eye can see the past.

But such a long-term prophecy is truly quite rare.

The two quickly arrived at the high platform in the canyon.

A being known as a shrine maiden is feeding the wild birds.

Tetsuya took a look and saw that there were only two yellow stripes on the waist, indicating that it was a female bird (males have three stripes).

The bird, which stands upright like a human, is entirely green. Its white wings are folded together in front of its chest, making the patterns on its body look like red eyes. Two long red feathers extend from behind the bird's head.

Judging from its appearance, it really does have the air of a prophet.

Xiao Gang stepped forward and explained his purpose.

Zheye thought to himself, "Looks like it has to be a young and pretty older sister. Xiaogang is quite picky."

"Ah"

Xiao Gang, who was talking to the shrine maiden, suddenly sneezed.

"I'm sorry, I was rude." His face was a little red.

The priestess didn't care: "The prophecy of the flood? That was a long time ago."

"Back then, my grandmother was the shrine maiden who communicated with the natural bird." She stroked the motionless natural bird beside her and said, "It should be true, after all, it and its predecessors have never made a mistake in their weather predictions."

"Didn't they say how long it would take for the flood to occur?" Xiao Gang asked.

The priestess shook her head: "She only said that it would be about a hundred years from now, or about seven or eight years from now."

"Seven or eight years." Xiao Gang suddenly became dejected.

In his view, by then he had long since become Pewter's Gym Leader and could no longer travel, so he could not witness the truth of the prophecy firsthand.

Tetsuya calculated the time; could it be that Ash encountered it again?

Although he didn't recall ever watching the show, Xiao Zhi would most likely be involved in something like this at this time.

After all, they are the protagonists of the world.

The witch continued, "I firmly believe that the flood will come, but divination is never meant to provide solutions to problems."

Divination can give people courage; it may be accurate or it may not. However, those who rely solely on divination will be led by the nose by it.

Everyone's life is determined by themselves.

While natural birds possess the power to foresee the future, they lack the power to change it.

The reason it remains motionless is perhaps because, although it can foresee the future, the changes in that future are not what it desires, hence its stillness.

"That's very philosophical," Xiao Gang exclaimed.

Tetsuya agreed.

He has never believed in the so-called future he has seen.

Even though Naz had shown some related behavior before, he still felt that Naz was most likely mistaken for someone else.

Or rather, the Tetsuya that the other person saw might not actually be him.

The possible changes in the future cannot be clearly predicted by a single person or an elf.

For example, if Ash from the future experiences the Celebi incident and encounters Professor Oak in his younger days, is it because of this incident that Ash meets Pikachu, or is it that he was destined to meet Pikachu?

This is a completely unknowable and unprovable question, and there is no point in discussing it.

The future others see is not the future you will eventually encounter; everything must be experienced by yourself to determine its course.

Tetsuya grinned, lost in thought. "A future without a future isn't the future I want. That's probably it."

"What are you laughing at?" Xiao Gang looked at Tetsuya strangely.

"I remembered something happy." Tetsuya shrugged.

He quickly changed the subject: "But right now, aren't the villagers here being led by the nose by the prophecy?"

The priestess's smile faltered, and she said with a hint of helplessness, "There's nothing we can do about it."

The prophecy of an impending flood weighed heavily on everyone's hearts; until it occurred, people's lives remained inseparable from nature.

She also hoped that the villagers would stop believing in the bird's prophecy, but if that happened, it would be troublesome if a flood actually occurred.

"Is it because they believe too much in the prophecy of the natural bird that they are unwilling to move? Do they think that the natural bird can use its prophecy to lead them to escape?"

Xiao Gang quickly understood what the villagers were thinking.

It's not that it's wrong, but it certainly lacks a bit of initiative.

"I've tried, but it's just too hard for us, who have lived here for generations, to leave." The shrine maiden looked at the natural bird, a hint of confusion in her eyes.

Perhaps, this situation will only change when a flood occurs.

"Let's not talk about that anymore. Do you need Natural Bird to show you your future?"

She said with a smile.

Tetsuya and Kogo naturally thanked them.

It's better to know as little as possible about such a meaningless future.

The two quickly left the area.

Watching Tetsuya and Kogoro disappear, Natural Bird turned its head, a rare occurrence for it.

"Is one person's future diverse, while another person's future is both certain and diverse?" The witch understood its meaning. "It seems you're getting old; you can even make such a vague prophecy."

Either definitive or varied; in the past, natural birds would only offer these two definitive options.

The former are mostly ordinary people, while the latter are mostly famous people.

However, the combination of the two has never occurred.

Although the shrine maiden believed in the natural bird, she still thought this was a sign of its dementia.

After its earlier movement, the bird returned to a motionless state, leaving one wondering what it had seen.

Chapter 430 Deep into the Leibo Mountain Cave

After leaving the Grand Canyon where the natural bird divination was performed, Tetsuya and Koga officially entered Mount Raibo.

Looking at the rolling foothills, Xiao Gang asked a crucial question: "Which way should we go?"

Don't be fooled by the fact that there are only three openings in front of you; the passages inside extend in all directions.

To put it in more detail, the Leiboshan Cave as a whole is like a giant tree, and the three initial entrances are the trunk.

Besides the main road, the side roads are like branches extending from the trunk of a tree.

Moreover, these forks in the road may extend into other smaller branches, thus forming a complex network of underground caves.

As one of the few super-large underground caves in the world, it would take several months to explore even the known areas completely.

Not to mention that normal trainers generally do not choose to explore known areas; they only explore unknown areas based on their current level.

In addition to factors such as the digging by wild elves underground, the area of ​​the underground caves in Leibo Mountain continues to expand.

According to information provided by the alliance, the shallowest layer of the underground caves at Leibo Mountain currently encompasses nearly one-fifth of the City Capital Continent, with an additional portion extending eastward into the Kanto region.

If it weren't for the fact that the known areas change periodically due to the migration of the elves, the exploration of the underground caves of Mount Leibo would have been much faster.

“The middle level, I guess.” Tetsuya pointed to the cave entrance in the middle. “The shallow level is too easy, and the bottom level is a waste of time. I’m afraid we’ll miss the event in Yanmo City.”

That's right, these three entrances actually correspond to underground caves at different depths.

The types of spirits living there, their strength, and even the items they produce vary greatly, and the extent to which humans explore them decreases as the depth increases.

As we all know, powerful elves who live underground don't really like to come to the surface.

On the one hand, they are not used to the completely different environment; on the other hand, they are also trying to avoid humans.

This means that the deeper trainers go underground, the more difficult it becomes for them to explore.

Of course, the profits will increase accordingly.

Furthermore, it's not that choosing a shallow entrance means you can't go deeper. The simplest way is to have your Pokémon that knows how to dig dig down, and you'll eventually get there—which is another reason why the underground caves of Mt. Leybo are so incredibly complex.

You dig a little, I dig a little, and even if we magnified the termite mound a thousand or ten thousand times, it wouldn't be much different.

Thankfully, the League sends people to mark several fixed routes inside every now and then, so that trainers can find their way out. Otherwise, countless trainers would be lost in the cave maze below.

Even so, the disappearance rate of Leiboshan Cave remains one of the highest among all wilderness environments.

In such an environment, disappearing is almost synonymous with death.

Compared to the man-made Dark Cave near Kikyo City, the Raiba Mountain Cave is a hellish level of difficulty.

Xiao Gang did not raise any objections; he felt that the middle management position was indeed very suitable for the two of them.

Although he came out this time to truly experience life in the wild, he didn't intend to stay underground for two or three months.

If that were the case, his irresponsible father would definitely beat him to death.

He ignored the dangers at the bottom, since he had two of his grandfather's spirits with him.

Even if Aerodactyl has difficulty maneuvering, the near-champion's Solrock is enough to allow them to roam freely underground. Wild champion Pokémon are not so rampant that they can be seen everywhere.

The two figures quickly disappeared into the passage.

The trainers in the vicinity were used to it; at most, they were just surprised that the two had reached the middle level so young.

Most of them opted to play it safe and entered through the shallower passage.

Only a small number of people, and a very small number of those who are confident that they have reached their peak or who value money over their lives, still chose the other two paths despite knowing that they lacked the strength.

Unfortunately, there are very few people in this world who can truly understand their own position, especially when it comes to matters of interest.