Pokémon: Trainers Start as Bounty Hunters.

Moreover, this brings him one step closer to his goal of "collecting" the mythical beast encyclopedia.

It's worth mentioning that this small goal was set on a whim after he last met the Three Holy Beasts.

Although it seems like a long way off or even a pipe dream, considering Ash's legendary Pokémon relationship chain, it doesn't seem like an impossible task.

"Then let's go. We can use the power of your Electric-type Pokémon to heal Zapdos."

With that, Cynthia strode outside with a swift and decisive motion.

Unlike her usual indecisiveness, she was quite decisive this time.

Several elves soared into the sky from a corner outside the town.

Yuan Haitang Luping looked around and realized with grief and indignation that his own elf was the least prestigious.

Cynthia was riding her ace Pokémon, Garchomp, whose size, several times larger than its kind, and the imposing aura it exuded were enough to demonstrate its power.

Xiao Gang rode a fossil pterosaur, a fossil spirit and an ancient overlord, whose rarity is self-evident.

Tetsuya's Pidgeot is another story altogether. After being blessed by the sacred fire, its appearance is quite different from that of its kind, becoming incredibly majestic.

"Would you like to sit on my Pidgeot's back?"

Tetsuya, sitting cross-legged on Pidgeot's back, extended an invitation to Hara Kaidou Shikahei beside him: "Otherwise, it would be a waste of time."

Hara Kaidou Shikahei, who was being held by the collar and flying through the air by the cross-bat, was originally going to agree.

Upon hearing Tetsuya's last sentence, he immediately changed his attitude: "No need, I can do it, Crossbat, speed up!"

"click"

The cross-bat responded with a sound, then began flapping its wings frantically.

But it's obvious that the other three sprites are much faster than it.

Half an hour later.

In a remote, deep forest on the outskirts of the city.

Several elves slowly landed on an open ground.

Hara Kaidou Shikahei slid off Tetsuya's Hidden Gem with a sullen expression.

He eventually gave in.

There was no other way; if we didn't take a ride, it would have taken at least another half hour, which wasn't worth it.

Cynthia also landed on the ground from Garchomp's back.

She glanced around, her eyes looking slightly lost.

For a moment, the forest was quiet.

After sensing the imposing aura of the four aerial sprites, the weak wild creatures obediently hid.

"just"

Garchomp silently raised one claw and pointed in a direction.

"Aha, yes, that's it, let's go."

Cynthia nodded in satisfaction and took a long stride.

Garchomp followed behind without any surprise, and even waved its paw to signal the others to follow.

Along the way, many electric-type Pokémon appeared in various places in the deep mountains and forests.

"What is this?" Tetsuya asked, somewhat curious.

“These are going to the lake near Zapdos, just like us,” Cynthia explained.

Yuan Haitang Luping raised an eyebrow: "You've been saying that Electric-type Pokémon restored Zapdos, is that related to that so-called 'converter'?"

"You'll see when you get there."

Cynthia didn't say much about this.

The four people and one elf walked silently along the road.

After walking for about ten more minutes, the view suddenly opened up.

A clear lake came into view.

"The lake at the top of the mountain looks a lot like Lake Caldera in Kanto," Xiao Gang remarked involuntarily.

However, the beautiful scenery clearly couldn't completely capture their attention.

In the center of the lake, in a small, glowing area, a yellow-feathered bird spirit floats on the water with its eyes closed.

It has black ring-shaped feathers around its eyes, a long, pointed orange beak, numerous spike-like feathers on its wings and tail, black feathers on the back of its wings and the inside of its tail feathers, and a large tuft of sharp feathers on its crest that is extremely prominent.

Electric arcs flickered around them.

In addition, many Electric-type Pokémon were soaking in the surrounding lake water, their faces showing a comfortable expression.

"If you have any Electric-type Pokémon, you can release them too. The lake water here is quite effective for them," Cynthia said with a smile.

"Come forth, Electivire, Roentgenin." "Come forth, Electro Dragon."

Tetsuya and Hara Kaidou Shikahei immediately took action upon hearing her words.

The three elves quickly submerged themselves in the water.

In the same scene, amidst the flickering electric arcs, their expressions became incredibly relaxed.

Xiao Gang took out paper and pen to write: "It's very strange. Is it because of the middle area? It seems that the electric-type Pokémon and Zapdos are exchanging electricity, and they are mutually promoting each other."

Chapter 456 The Mysterious Crystal, Zapdos's Lightning (Revised, about half an hour)

"Let's go take a look."

Cynthia stepped onto the speedboat that was parked to the side and called to Tetsuya and the other two.

Lu Ping asked, "Should we just get this close to Zapdos like this? Won't it suddenly get angry?"

Like most Electric-type Pokémon, Zapdos is quite impulsive and often summons lightning strikes to defeat its enemies.

He didn't want to be turned into charred remains for no reason.

"Don't worry, if Zapdos got angry, it would have already taken you down. This is its territory, and legendary Pokémon aren't that sensitive."

Tetsuya followed Cynthia onto the speedboat without saying a word.

He was very curious about the bright area in the middle of the lake.

Just as Tetsuya said, Zapdos had already detected their arrival, even while they were still in the air.

Zapdos was no stranger to Cynthia's Garchomp's undisguised Champion-level Pokémon aura.

Not to mention, among the three she brought, one of them had a scent that Zapdos found quite familiar.

"Articuno, and Ho-Oh?"

Zapdos, which was recovering, twitched its eyelids slightly.

Sensing the rapidly approaching humans, it didn't say anything, but instead slightly turned over to make way for them.

"This is it."

Despite Zapdos's actions, Cynthia, who was piloting the speedboat, didn't venture too far in, instead stopping at a more peripheral position.

She went to the middle of the speedboat and opened a deck to the surprise of the three men.

Below the deck, a transparent square glass panel reveals the underwater scenery.

"That's... a ruin?" Xiao Gang murmured.

Through the glass, what came into view was an ancient ruin resembling broken remains.

In the center, there is a stone pillar standing there.

A huge crystal was placed at the top of the stone pillar.

“That’s the ‘converter’ I was talking about,” Cynthia said.

"This crystal? How did you do that?"

Driven by his researcher's instincts, Lu Ping asked the question subconsciously.

He immediately realized that he had been somewhat presumptuous.

An item capable of healing a divine beast from serious injuries is, after all, a top secret of the League, and he shouldn't know such information.

"No, the 'converter' is that pillar, and the ruins."

Cynthia directly refuted Lu Ping's question, "However, that crystal was indeed the direct cause of Zapdos's recovery, while the pillar's role was more about conversion and acceleration."

"The legendary crystal?" Tetsuya asked thoughtfully.

He seemed to have seen a record of this crystal in one of the books at the Tokiwa Library.

"Legend has it that this crystal was born on a high mountain. One day, countless lightning bolts struck the mountaintop. After the storm subsided, most of the mountaintop 'disappeared,' leaving only a crystal in the crater."

It possesses some incredible power, capable of transforming ordinary lake water into healing water suitable for Electric-type Pokémon to recover.

“That’s right.” Cynthia nodded in affirmation of Tetsuya’s statement. “However, simply soaking it in the lake water would have a very weak effect and wouldn’t emit such a strong light.”

"This pattern... I feel like I've seen it somewhere before?"

Tetsuya, whose eyesight was excellent, fell into deep thought as he looked at the ruins in the lake.

Meanwhile, Lu Ping asked Cynthia for more information about the crystal.

As a researcher, he was eager to learn about the unknown.

This may be why he has been so successful.

Xiao Gang looked at Zapdos and wrote furiously, as if he wanted to record it.

From a breeder's perspective, each legendary Pokémon can be seen as a perfect breeding example for its category.

This applies to everything, from the hair on the body's surface to the energy within.

With Xiaogang's eyes, he can see things much more profoundly than the average person.

"Those marks, are they made of silver?"

Suddenly, Tetsuya spoke up and asked.

Cynthia, who was explaining history to Lu Ping, immediately turned to look at him: "That's right, it seems you have quite a good understanding of this subject."

Her eyes sparkled with a light called "interest".

Tetsuya smiled and said, "I once entered an underground ruin near Shion Town, and there were similar patterns there."

It was there that he obtained the Shining Stone that Steven had mentioned, and also captured a shiny Rattata, which lived happily ever after at Professor Oak's lab.

"This is the crystallization of the wisdom of the ancient civilization of Atlantis."

Hirona, whose main profession is mythology scholar and part-time historian, is clearly much more knowledgeable than Tetsuya in this regard.

"The Alliance has discovered similar ruins in various places. These mechanisms, which are made of shadow-filled engraved patterns, are not uncommon, but their functions vary greatly depending on the direction of the engraved patterns."

The patterns below that serve a transformation function are also one that the Alliance has explored.

Atlantis, another familiar name.

Previously, Natsume asked Tetsuya to protect an archaeological team exploring a ruin that also belonged to Atlantis.

"It's strange that the technology of ancient civilizations was actually more advanced than ours."

Xiao Gang, who had no knowledge of or interest in these things, expressed considerable doubt.

"That's not quite right," Tetsuya shook his head. "It's just that ancient civilizations developed differently from us in some aspects."

After all, elves used to be called magical beasts, and the relationship between humans and them was not as harmonious and stable as it is now.

At that time, much of the technology was not based on harnessing the power of the spirits, but on defending against them.

However, overall, our current technology is absolutely at the forefront.

People from long, long ago could never have imagined that one day humans would be able to capture Pokémon in a Poké Ball the size of a fist.

Moreover, the size of a fist is not the limit; the smallest size can even be held between two fingers.

"So, that crystal can be said to have gathered natural lightning energy, which is why it can have a restorative effect?"