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Li Xiang had now seen all of Gong Xu's Pokémon.
Just as he had guessed, this guy genuinely loved the color gold. Specializing in Dark and Ghost types, almost every one of his Pokémon incorporated golden elements.
The first one:
An Umbreon with golden rings, Level 50.
Its special ability somewhat overlapped with Lycanroc and Bronzong—similarly unfazed by pain and unaffected by it.
At the same time, it possessed extremely strong psychic perception.
This was granted by its Ability, Inner Focus, and it was scalable. As long as Umbreon continued to train its mental strength, it would keep growing.
Additionally, being exceptionally tanky was also a characteristic of this black rabbit. Its endurance was absurd; it could use Foul Play to toy with physical attackers, using their strength against them. It was skilled in many status-inflicting moves.
In Gong Xu's strategy, Umbreon was a durable tank, meant to take hits for teammates and inflict status conditions on opponents. It knew moves like Yawn, Toxic, and Confuse Ray. Mean Look could trap opponents on the field.
It could also use Wish to restore its teammates' HP. Failing that, it could use Baton Pass to switch out.
The second one:
A Dusknoir with the Pressure Ability, Level 51.
A Pokémon with decent physical attack and tankiness, capable of setting up screens or Trick Room for teammates, draining the opponent's PP, and securing KOs.
As for its special ability, aside from the vague and hard-to-verify reception of spiritual radio waves, it could open the giant mouth on its belly to capture moves like Flamethrower, Thunderbolt, and Ice Beam.
It would then find a suitable opportunity to launch them in another direction.
This was somewhat similar to the Spiritomb belonging to Cynthia in the Pokémon Adventures manga, which could also capture moves.
In short, it was a Pokémon that took damage soaking to the extreme.
The third one:
A Shiny Drifblim with the Unburden Ability, Level 50. Its entire body was golden, as if painted with gold leaf.
Yet another support specialist.
Its favorite tactic was to hold a Sitrus Berry with its streamers, use Tailwind, then consume the berry to restore PP and trigger Unburden.
Once its PP was depleted to a certain level, it would use Recycle to reuse the Sitrus Berry's effect. This allowed it to stay on the field for extended periods.
However, despite having the Unburden Ability, it surprisingly lacked much autonomous mobility. True to its name, it was a "Drif"blim, moving by drifting with the wind.
Because of this, it heavily relied on the moves Tailwind, Ominous Wind, and Gust for movement.
Carrying a Sitrus Berry was likely for this reason.
As for its special ability, it could store a large amount of air inside its body to inflate itself.
Its body was extremely elastic, able to expand several times its size without issue.
Moreover, when inflated to its limit, using Explosion would result in devastating power.
Fully comparable to some STAB Explosion.
The fourth one:
A Generation VII Ghost/Grass-type Pokémon, Dhelmise, composed of a rusty giant anchor, a giant ship's wheel, and its main body—seaweed.
When upright, it stood over four meters tall, terrifyingly imposing.
Part of this guy's ship wheel was golden. With the Steelworker Ability, which boosted the power of Steel-type moves, Level 49.
A typical slow-paced attacker with immense strength. Its green seaweed could extend dozens of meters like chains, entangling opponents and draining their HP.
The most terrifying was its attack where it swung the ship's wheel, reminiscent of Hercules wielding his axe, with a very wide attack range.
Li Xiang had seen it several times, but it never failed to shock him.
The fifth one:
A Bisharp with a golden axe on its head, clad in crimson armor with sharp blades. It had the Defiant Ability, Level 49, and had reportedly evolved not long ago.
A typical counter to Intimidate users. It could form a 'You Dare Intimidate Me!?' boy band with Corviknight. It looked fierce and menacing but had a surprisingly gentle personality, often peeling fruit for Li Xiang after training sessions.
It excelled at crouching low, placing its axe at the forefront in a pose resembling an airplane taking off, before launching into a deadly charge.
It also possessed superb slashing skills.
Speaking of which, this guy also knew "Iaido," but not the Cut move kind. It was the human swordsmanship style of Iaido.
Placing the blade of the heart in hand, then executing an extremely fast slash.
This was Psycho Cut.
It looked pretty cool. Li Xiang thought Doublade could learn it, since Psycho Cut wasn't exactly rare.
The sixth one:
A Shiny Sableye with the Prankster Ability. Overall, it was a yellowish, gold-leaning color, with two platinum-colored gems embedded in its forehead and a bright green gem on its chest.
There wasn't much to say about this one, Level 46. A pure support Pokémon, incredibly fragile, with little staying power for dealing damage. It only became somewhat usable after Mega Evolving.
Under Gong Xu's efforts, its support techniques had improved significantly, and it had become slightly more durable.
At least it could stay on the field now.
The seventh one:
No wonder Gong Xu said it would surprise Li Xiang.
Anyone with even a bit of decency wouldn't love gold to this insane degree. What appeared on the field was a Pokémon with golden accents on its head, resembling a salamander and an airplane, with large eyes.
—The Generation VIII Pseudo-Legendary, Dragon/Ghost-type Dreepy.
With the Clear Body Ability, Level 36.
The key point: this thing was Shiny.
"You've gone too far! How many is that? The third one!"
Li Xiang couldn't help but knock on the glass wall. Although he also had two Shiny Pokémon, his weren't truly legitimate Shinies, except for Metagross.
But Gong Xu's Drifblim and Dreepy were clearly the most legitimate Shinies.
Gong Xu turned his head and chuckled, "Can't be helped, it's a personal preference. I just can't accept not having a bit of gold."
Truly the son of the Yuzhou Association President. His financial power was truly unmatched.
Li Xiang's face showed emotion, envying Gong Xu's status as a privileged successor.
Song Jie silently turned his head away, hiding his disdainful expression.
Since it had been obtained less than half a year ago, Gong Xu's Dreepy hadn't demonstrated many impressive qualities yet.
Furthermore, Dreepy only became truly powerful upon final evolution, and its final evolution occurred between Levels 57 and 63.
There was still a long way to go.
This also meant Gong Xu wouldn't be able to use Dreepy as a proper combatant for a very long time.
At least for the next two or three years, Dreepy would mostly be a decorative piece.
With this, all three of their strengths and weaknesses were fully exposed to Xu He. After recording everything, Xu He dismissed the trio, planning to take the recorded videos back for further study.
Heading outdoors, it was just lunchtime.
The four of them ate at the cafeteria.
After the meal, Gong Xu pestered Li Xiang, wanting to practice Double Battle coordination with him.
Unfortunately, the timing wasn't great because Li Xiang had to go to the Tang Martial Arts School for training.
Gong Xu didn't understand Li Xiang's desire to practice martial arts. In his view, nothing was more important than training coordination at this stage, but he certainly couldn't dictate Li Xiang's thoughts. He could only frown and watch as Li Xiang, after finishing his meal, was driven away by Su Qian.
Song Jie was the same. However, his expression was much calmer, as he wasn't as focused on Double Battles and naturally did whatever he wanted.
"...Since Li Xiang isn't here, you'll do."
Just as Song Jie turned to leave, Gong Xu stopped him.
"Me?"
Song Jie frowned, pointing at himself, wondering where this guy got the nerve to call him out.
"That's right. Double Battle coordination. You're interested in Double Battles too, aren't you?"
Gong Xu smiled. "Even though you act indifferent, you're often watching by the window."
Song Jie's frown deepened. He was about to refuse when Gong Xu cut in first, "Li Xiang, he's really looking forward to doing Double Battles with you."
"..." Song Jie fell silent.
Gong Xu's smile widened. "Let's go. You'll have to experience it sooner or later. Your Bronzong and Aerodactyl are both good for Double Battles, aren't they?"
Having said that, he headed towards the battle area.
It was the weekend. The battle area at Mist City University was open 24/7, and Double Battle fields were plentiful.
As long as they went, they were bound to find opponents.
Song Jie touched the PokéBalls on his belt. His expression towards Gong Xu's retreating back was extremely cold, but he still followed.
After all, what the other said wasn't wrong. He also wanted to try Double Battles.
...
Tang Martial Arts School.
Li Xiang had been coming here for lessons for almost a month now.
He had already initially grasped the set routines and techniques of the Ten Forms of Ksitigarbha. The next step was to understand their essence and concepts, after which he could basically consider his training complete and practice on his own.
He wouldn't need to come every day like now.
At most, he might come once or twice a week for Tang Hu to check his progress.
Tang Hu had also noticed this and was quite reluctant to let go of Li Xiang, this diligent student who unfailingly came every afternoon to practice.
"Xiao Li, are you sure you don't want to learn Tang Style Fist? Our Tang Style Fist isn't inferior to Beng Quan."
He tried to persuade Li Xiang, "How about I give you a 20% discount... no, a 50% discount!"
"Brother Tang, it's not really about whether I want to learn it or not. You know I'm a Trainer. Being able to spare time for martial arts practice daily is already pushing it. Where would I find time to learn another martial art?"
Li Xiang waved his hand in refusal. He was already busy enough with Single Battles, Double Battles, Pokémon training, martial arts, and self-studying Breeder knowledge.
His daily schedule was stretched to the limit, with absolutely no surplus time to dedicate to learning Tang Style Fist.
If he added more, it might start eating into his sleep time.
For a Trainer, sleep deprivation was a major taboo, making it easy to fail to dodge moves they normally could, leading to injury.
Getting skin wounds or broken bones was minor, but if vital areas were injured, like the eyes, ears, or internal organs, Li Xiang would basically have to consider alternative paths to becoming a powerful Trainer.
He couldn't gamble like that. He'd rather learn less than sacrifice rest time.
Seeing Li Xiang's firm attitude, Tang Hu could only sigh and give up. He then walked into his office.
After fiddling around for a few minutes, he came out holding a USB drive.
"This is a detailed explanation of the Ten Forms of Ksitigarbha, recorded by my mother practicing herself. Her health isn't great now, so she can't teach you personally. This is the only way."
Tang Hu stuffed the USB drive into Li Xiang's hand. "Don't spread it around recklessly. I still rely on teaching martial arts for a living."
Li Xiang stared blankly at the USB drive in his hand. "Brother Tang, this..."
"Just for you calling me 'Brother,' there's nothing more to say. Take it. Don't be sentimental, big guy."
Tang Hu patted his shoulder.
"Brother Tang, thank you so much." Li Xiang couldn't help but show a touched expression, surprised that Tang Hu trusted him so much.
"Alright, it's getting late. Hurry back. I think it might rain soon."
Tang Hu glanced at the sky and reminded him.
"Okay!"
Li Xiang nodded vigorously.