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Clang! Clang!
Doublade tapped its body with its blades, giving Li Xiang a "don't call on me next time" look, but Li Xiang knew this guy would still come next time.
The instinct to chop ingredients was deeply ingrained in its very soul. There was no escape.
Quietly returning to the kitchen, Li Xiang began preparing the dinner for Incineroar.
The ingredients were, without a doubt, the best available. The recipe was a gift from Bai Wanhua, reportedly a secret formula from a famous master.
Which master?
Mo Ye's mother.
A veteran Pokémon Breeder of the Zhu Xia Pokémon League with nearly fifty years of Pokémon rearing experience. Whether it was making Pokémon food, Pokémon massage, or preparing potions, she was highly skilled.
After all, decades ago, the field of Pokémon Breeding wasn't so specialized; everyone was a generalist. Some breeders even doubled as Coordinators, often participating in Contests—incredibly impressive.
Nowadays, people tend to specialize.
Of course, specialization is stronger than the old jack-of-all-trades approach. Not everyone has that much energy or such great talent.
Some things are enough for a person to study for a lifetime.
As for Li Xiang, he was unexpectedly talented on the path of a Pokémon Breeder. He grasped many concepts quickly, as if this body had inherited his mother Mrs. Yin's talent.
Speaking of which, his mother had planned to take the exam for the Advanced Breeder title a while ago; he wondered if she had passed.
Becoming an Advanced Breeder in her early thirties was quite an achievement. Furthermore, this title would be her ticket to campaign for the director position. Looking at it that way, his mom's career was also steadily climbing.
Business was good on his dad's side too; he heard they were planning to buy more ships. Who knows, maybe one day Qingcheng Shipping would become their family's private enterprise.
Life was smooth sailing.
Li Xiang watched the food bubbling in the pot, feeling a sense of joy, and started chuckling to himself in the kitchen.
Living room.
Incineroar, bored and reading the newspaper, and Riolu beside it exchanged glances, a slight chill running down their spines. They had a feeling dinner might be disastrous.
Riolu hesitated but didn't dare go to the kitchen to look.
Even knowing death might be imminent, it wanted to delay it a little longer, but fortunately, dinner was quite normal.
And it tasted good.
Before, they only found it delicious because of the emotional connection. Now, even without that, they could wolf it down.
Metagross even had the courage to ask for another bowl.
"Add alloy steel?"
"Meta!" (Add a big piece!)
"You got it."
Li Xiang silently pulled out a piece of metal with a somewhat uneven surface from a bag nearby.
Metagross took it joyfully, tossed it into its large mouth, and started crunching on it noisily, like a dog with a bone. This made Corviknight nearby extremely envious.
It had no teeth; it absorbed metal entirely by swallowing it, relying on special stomach acids for digestion.
Considering the need for rapid digestion, steel ingots weren't very suitable for it. Reluctantly, it could only consume iron powder.
'Sigh. Why can't crows have teeth? I want good teeth like that too.'
Corviknight was jealous to the point of feeling sour, thinking the food in its mouth tasted acidic.
In a sense, it was common knowledge that Steel-type Pokémon needed to consume metal, but this wasn't an absolute rule.
Some Berries and plants could, to a certain extent, replace metal as their food and Pokémon themselves, like humans, were omnivorous.
Many Grass-type Pokémon could survive on photosynthesis alone, while plants at least needed to absorb carbon, phosphorus, potassium, etc., from the soil.
Some Pokémon could even live just by drinking water. Others could feed on emotions or consciousness.
Li Xiang watched silently from the side, holding Doublade in his arms, while Doublade held a steel ingot.
Among all the Pokémon, this mouthless sword was the hardest to take care of.
During meals, it could only barely sustain itself by absorbing metal.
Li Xiang had considered letting it absorb a bit of his life energy, but Doublade itself refused.
As a Ghost-type Pokémon, it could perfectly well feed on moonlight, absorbing the essence of heaven and earth... Ahem, ahem.
That sounded a bit far-fetched. But it was true that basking in moonlight could slowly restore its strength. Furthermore, every time it used Phantom Force and went to the alternate dimension, the special energy pervasive there could also satisfy its needs.
'Alternate dimension…'
When Li Xiang heard this term, he felt this place was either the Spirit World from the anime or the Distortion World where Giratina resided.
In the Pokémon Adventures manga, after humans died, they were guided to the Distortion World where Giratina resided, merging into one there.
This was the personal experience of Archie and Maxie.
From this perspective, the Distortion World and the Spirit World might be equivalent, but this was just speculation. Pokémon couldn't take humans to that alternate dimension, nor could they describe its appearance to them.
They weren't very clear about it themselves; their ability to observe the alternate dimension was extremely limited, and the time they spent there was very short.
The move Phantom Force involved opening an entrance in one place and an exit in another, using the alternate dimension as a bridge.
It wasn't like the game description, where they sneakily hide in the alternate dimension.
'The Distortion World. I wonder if I'll ever get the chance to visit it.'
Li Xiang stared blankly at the dining table. He was quite interested in the real-world Distortion World; it seemed fascinating.
...
After everyone had eaten and drunk their fill, someone came to the door.
It wasn't Song Jie, but Su Qian, holding the adorable Sylveon. Seeing him open the door, she greeted him with a smile.
"Good evening, Junior. Have you eaten?"
"Good evening."
Li Xiang nodded, welcomed Su Qian in, kicked Incineroar on the sofa to make it move, found some tea leaves, and made her a cup of tea.
"You didn't have to go through the trouble... Thank you."
Su Qian put Sylveon down and reluctantly took the cup.
The two sat down at a nearby table.
Once on the floor, the pink-eared, plump bunny looked around curiously. Upon seeing the bored-looking Incineroar, it couldn't resist its curiosity and approached.
"Sylveon?" (Hello?)
Sylveon's ribbons fluttered gently as it looked up at the tall Incineroar.
"Roar..." (Hey.)
Incineroar responded casually, showing little interest in this cute little thing.
It preferred tougher opponents, preferably ones that looked more fierce. Even knowing Sylveon was likely very strong, it just couldn't muster much interest.
It was a lot like a certain short girl.
Sylveon's attempt to socialize didn't go far, but it wasn't annoyed. It ran to the living room's French window and looked at Riolu, who was sitting cross-legged in the corridor outside. It thought about calling out but, after some consideration, decided not to disturb it.
"Ninja?" (What's up?)
A voice suddenly sounded from behind.
Sylveon was startled, its two ribbons shooting towards the back but finding nothing.
It looked up, searching the dark ceiling for the figure stirring the air, creating ripples.
Result…
Poke poke on the shoulder~
Sylveon turned its head abruptly, only to find a finger already pressed against its chubby cheek.
"Ninja.." (Boo.)
Greninja, kneeling on the floor, tilted its head with a "what are you looking for?" expression.
"Sylveon..." (Oh...)
Sylveon looked surprised but didn't react as strongly as before. It ran over to Greninja and sniffed at it gently.
But it found it couldn't smell anything. Greninja's scent was no different from the dew in the air.
'A Pokémon without a scent!? Are you made of water?'
Sylveon looked at Greninja in shock. Greninja scratched its head in confusion. It had just watered the flowers and given itself a bath with foam wash.
In the distance, Su Qian blew on the steaming hot tea, her gaze sweeping over the suddenly appearing Greninja. "Junior, the main reason I came to see you tonight is to talk about tomorrow."
"Tomorrow?"
"Mm. The opening ceremony is tomorrow. The school hopes you can give a speech as the freshman representative. The reward is one hundred credit points."
"Uh... Is it absolutely necessary that I do it?"
"Who do you think is more suitable to be the freshman representative than you?"
"Alright."
"Besides the opening ceremony, Uncle He hopes you try not to reveal too much of your strength, especially in front of non-team students. Intra-school rankings aren't important."
As expected of the team coach. Only he would dare say that intra-school rankings weren't important.
"I understand." Li Xiang thought to himself but agreed outwardly.
The more strength he hid now, the more advantage he would have when he eventually stepped onto the Junior World Tournament stage.
The intra-school ranking matches were crowded and chaotic. Like this afternoon, Li Xiang had no idea where or when the person who took the video had recorded it.
Their stealth filming skills were truly first-class.
Even at Mist City University, there were inevitably students willing to leak information to other schools in exchange for money or resources.
After all, "everyone has their own aspirations."
"One more thing. Although you need to participate in the intra-school selection matches, Uncle He already considers you part of the team. So, probably in a few days, he'll take you to the training facility for testing."
Su Qian slurped her tea; it was clear she quite liked the tea Li Xiang's father had roasted.
"Testing? You mean, laying all my cards on the table?"
Li Xiang asked quietly. As a member of the team, it was naturally necessary for the coach to know his exact capabilities.
Otherwise, how could he assign positions or arrange his matches?
But to be honest, Li Xiang wasn't very comfortable with the idea of sharing his secrets. There were many things about Incineroar and the others that he hadn't even told Song Jie or his parents.
"This is an obligation for everyone on the team. You can't avoid it. Even if you did, you'd end up using those things in matches later anyway."
Su Qian patted Li Xiang's shoulder. "Relax. The seniors on the team are tight-lipped; they won't spread things around. And you'll get to know our 'secrets' too."
"I understand."
Li Xiang nodded. It wasn't that he didn't understand the reasoning; he just wasn't used to it.
Transitioning from an individual to a team and all that.
But, as Su Qian said, he would have to get used to it sooner or later. And many things were bound to be exposed eventually.
There was no need to be secretive; he might as well be open about it.