Pokémon: I picked up a reborn Eevee at the start of the game.

She was wearing a black swimsuit with a lot of fabric. Although she wasn't as eye-catching as Mingyi at first glance, she had a unique kind of cool beauty.

As a trainer, and a gym leader at that, Qishu's physique is the kind of healthy beauty that comes from years of training.

Her slender waist had a clearly defined V-line, and although her upper body was not as full as Mingyi's, it was still small and cute.

As the two beautiful girls, like twin lotus blossoms, walked hand in hand toward him, Xia Chen, this innocent young man, couldn't help but feel his heart race.

He couldn't help but think to himself, going to sea was indeed the wisest choice!

…………

"How's it going? Does it look good?"

Mingyi teased with a smile.

Xia Chen blinked his dry eyes and replied, his words contradicting his true feelings, "It's alright."

We can't let Mingyi become so easily arrogant and complacent. Xia Chen is playing the long game.

Qi Shu scoffed and glanced disdainfully at Xia Chen, who was blatantly lying.

Throughout the entire journey, this guy didn't blink even once!

Knowing his lie was clumsy, Xia Chen changed the subject, saying, "I just used the ship's radar to detect that a group of ferocious light cods live in this area. You should be careful."

Light cod are the dominant species in the Padian waters, and legend has it that the Swamp King was forced to come ashore because he couldn't compete with them for territory.

These creatures possess powerful regenerative abilities; they often shed excess fat to become stronger before chasing prey.

The sea area where Xia Chen and his group are now is quite a distance from the mainland. The elves here may not have seen humans before, and they might launch a sneak attack.

Although Xia Chen and his group brought quite a few Pokémon, only Milotic, Froakie, and Gardevoir, which can use psychic powers to create barriers, are truly capable of fighting in the water.

If it's on the sea, the giant water lily is also a threat, so swimming in the sea still carries certain risks.

"Minatra, keep an eye on their safety."

Xia Chen gave Minas some instructions.

"Fuwoo!"

Milotic raised its head and let out a proud cry.

If they were in the water, he was even confident that he could hold his own against a Gym Leader-level Pokémon.

"Gardedoll, come with me, we're going to get something."

"Sana~"

Gardevoir liked the arrangement very much and nodded happily.

Mingyi asked curiously, "What are you two going to do?"

Xia Chen kept everyone in suspense, saying, "You'll find out in a bit."

He wanted to collect some of the excess meat shed by the light cod, which was said to be very delicious. As a chef, Xia Chen certainly wouldn't let go of a new ingredient he had never tried before.

With everything arranged, the three of them jumped from the deck into the water, splashing up waves.

The remaining elves had no interest in swimming and continued to play on the deck or in the cabin.

Only Nian Nian Bao stared blankly at the western sky, a strange premonition suddenly welling up in his heart.

…………

With his own and Gardevoir's mental detection abilities, Xia Chen's journey to collect the Light Cod's excess fat went very smoothly.

In no time, the net bag that Xia Chen brought down was already half full.

But the good times didn't last long; when the mesh bag was half full, it could no longer detect the presence of excess fat.

That's normal. Light cod don't just wiggle their flesh for fun; they only do that when they see prey.

Wait, prey

Xia Chen suddenly had a bold idea.

He pointed upwards at Gardevoir, who understood and, with a quick movement, took Xia Chen's arm and teleported him to the surface of the sea.

Taking a deep breath of fresh sea air, Xia Chen called out to the ship, "Zoroark, can you come and help me?"

"Suo?"

Although he was on the top of the cabin, Zoroark, with his keen hearing, immediately ran down after hearing the summons and looked at Xia Chen with a puzzled expression.

Xia Chen explained simply, "Come down and help us cosplay as fish bait."

Although he didn't quite understand Xia Chen's request, Zoroark obediently jumped down.

"You transform into a giant tongue clam, and then just run around when you see a light-bodied cod. I want the meat that falls off its body."

Xia Chen explained his simple plan.

Trolley shellfish are one of the favorite foods of swarf cod; no swarf cod can resist their allure.

Although the plan is simple, dealing with these mindless wild elves doesn't require any particularly sophisticated methods.

Moreover, who could have imagined that an ordinary-looking giant trolley shell in the sea would be Zoroark transformed?

After finalizing the plan, Xia Chen and the two elves went back into the water.

The giant trolley, which Zoroark had transformed into, swam leisurely in the sea, soon attracting the attention of a shrew with sharp teeth and claws.

It swayed its tail slightly, and several pieces of snow-white, clean fish meat fell off its body. Xia Chen was delighted and quietly swam under it and put it into the net bag.

The light cod ignored the fish thief; its eyes were only on the tender and plump giant clams.

Shedding its excess fat, the slender cod's body, as fluid as a shuttle, suddenly sprang into action, lunging fiercely at the leisurely giant clam.

Then it came to nothing.

The light-bodied cod shook its head, utterly puzzled. How did that giant tongue clam suddenly disappear to?

Its mind, preoccupied with the delicious clam meat, couldn't think too much. It flung the meat at the giant tongue clam again, and then... missed once more.

The light cod felt like it was seeing a ghost; it was the first time it had ever encountered prey that it had failed to catch after two attempts to catch it.

Even with its powerful regenerative abilities, two consecutive instances of losing weight caused its kidneys to start to ache slightly.

But since I shrunk it twice, wouldn't it be a bigger loss if I didn't eat this giant clam?

Driven by the fear of sunk costs, the slender cod charged again, only to fail in their hunt once more.

A few minutes later, looking at the light cod that was almost just a fish skeleton, Xia Chen felt that he had been too cruel and quickly gestured for Zoroark to turn back and leave.

He then threw down a few Power Cubes as compensation, before returning to the surface of the sea with Gardevoir in his arms.

Looking at the full net bag of snow-white fish meat in his hand, Xia Chen nodded in satisfaction. This much should be enough for them to eat.

…………

Back in the galley, Xia Chen put the fresh, light cod fillets into the freezer to chill before returning to the deck.

Just as he was about to jump into the sea to play with the two swimsuit-clad beauties, the sticky creature at his feet grabbed him with its tentacles.

"What's wrong, Sticky Baby?"

Xia Chen lowered his head and asked.

"sticky--"

Sticky Baby pointed to the western sky with its antennae, its expression showing a hint of worry.

Knowing that his Pokémon possessed extraordinary skills, Xia Chen naturally dared not be negligent and gazed in the direction that Sticky Pokémon was pointing.

Everywhere you look, there are blue skies and white clouds, gentle breezes and bright sunshine—it all seems perfectly normal.

But Nian Nian Bao certainly wouldn't do anything meaningless. Just to be on the safe side, Xia Chen first called Ming Yi and Qi Shu, who were still in the sea, up, and then went back to the cabin to use the ship's radar, which had a coverage range of several nautical miles, to detect them.

Before long, an unidentified flying object appeared in the western sky at an extremely high speed, even exceeding the speed of sound!

Xia Chen looked at the strange tree beside him, "Can your Electric Seagull reach this speed?"

Qi Shu's expression was solemn. "Not even one-tenth."

Xia Chen was stunned. If even the Gym Leader-level Electric Seagull, known for its speed, was like this, then what kind of strength would this thing have if it were a Pokémon?

If it's not an elf, then what could it be to have such speed?

He suddenly recalled his terrifying experience of being hunted by Yveltal in Carlos. This feeling of déjà vu... could it be...?

There was no time to think about this. Xia Chen frowned and asked Rotom, who was controlling the driving system, "Rotom, analyze its direction and destination. Is it possible that we will run into it?"

The answer he naturally hoped to hear was no.

But fate had other plans. After analyzing the situation, Rotom replied, "We're on its flight path! It'll be passing us in a minute!"

Chapter 254 Even if I, Guleton, jump off the ship and starve to death!

(7.6k, 46)

Xia Chen was completely stunned. Even if he wanted to run, how far could this dilapidated yacht go in a minute?

Including start-up time, it can only run a few hundred meters at most?

But for that mysterious elf, it was only a matter of a second or two.

He couldn't help but ponder a serious matter: if this unknown, mysterious object, whose nature was still uncertain, was truly an existence no less powerful than Yveltal, what should he do now?

Xia Chen has always been accustomed to preparing for the worst.

Undoubtedly, the worst-case scenario is that this guy is a legendary elf who is unfriendly to humans.

If that's the case, let alone one strange tree, even ten strange trees combined wouldn't be enough to defeat it.

Most importantly, Xia Chen knew nothing about the legendary spirits of the Padia region.

We know nothing about its attributes, characteristics, or whether it is human-friendly.

In his moment of utter confusion, a surge of warm emotional energy flowed into Xia Chen's heart, soothing his anxiety and tension.

"Sana~"

Xia Chen turned around and saw Gardevoir gently shaking its head and looking at him, without any sign of tension on its face, as if telling Xia Chen that there was no need to worry.

He suddenly remembered something. Around this time last year, before Yveltal woke up, not only did Sylveon warn him, but Gardevoir, who was still Ralts at the time, also gave a warning.