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

Xia Chen naturally dared not be careless, and nodded solemnly, promising, "Please rest assured, I will raise it well."

Although it was just a verbal promise with no legal effect, the words conveyed a certain reassuring power, and Volcano nodded silently.

Adek chuckled and said, "Alright, don't be so serious. I can tell just by looking at how you interact with your elves."

The egg exchange has ended, and from today onwards, Xia Chen will be the future trainer of this unborn Burning Bug.

After placing the Pokémon egg and its incubator in the temporary Pokémon center and entrusting it to Nurse Joy's care, Xia Chen took the opportunity to invite Alder to stay there for a few days, which Alder readily agreed to.

After being upset by Gadriya and losing the championship, this guy has basically settled into a retirement life that Xia Chen envies. Making videos and doing commentary online are just hobbies, and he doesn't make money from them.

Don't even speculate if a champion can't achieve financial freedom after retirement; that's simply impossible.

Although he has retired, he still cares about the major events happening in the Pokémon world, and the two naturally started talking about the Mega Evolution that was just announced last month.

…………

"Brother Xia Chen, you've quietly accomplished another great feat. Did you see the battle a few days ago? The power displayed by Mega Gardevoir was truly astonishing."

Adecker was referring to the championship challenge that took place in the Carlos region, where challenger Karune faced off against Fire-type Elite Four member Pachira.

In this match, Karune's Gardevoir underwent Mega Evolution and decisively defeated Pachira's three Pokémon, helping her secure the qualification to challenge for the championship!

This competition, which can be considered the world's first to feature super-evolution in the strictest sense, has sparked widespread discussion around the world.

After all, the power of Mega Rayquaza can be attributed to the inherent power of a legendary Pokémon, and the power of Mega Sylveon can be explained by its unique and special form.

But while it's possible once or twice, it's not possible a third time. The power displayed by this Mega Gardevoir has completely solidified the important significance of Mega Evolution.

"That match was so exciting, it got my blood pumping! Speaking of which, do I have any Pokémon that can Mega Evolve?"

Adek asked with great interest.

Although he's no longer in the game, how could he miss out on something so interesting?

However, Alder was not among those invited to the experiment, so he naturally did not know which Pokémon were on that list.

Xia Chen thought about it carefully and realized that there really wasn't one.

Not only his Pokémon, but among all the native Pokémon in the Unova region, it seems that only one Pokémon, Cointodo, can Mega Evolve, which is quite strange.

He told Adek the less-than-good news, but the latter wasn't too disappointed, simply saying that they would raise another elf.

This firm attitude suggests that he is determined to try Mega Evolution. Xia Chen didn't hide anything and gave him a list of Pokémon that can Mega Evolve, since this thing isn't exactly a treasure.

Alder was never one to think things through. After looking at the list of Pokémon, he immediately decided to raise a Charizard.

This guy is quite capricious, going wherever his mind takes him. As soon as he made this decision, he set off overnight to find a Charizard he liked.

Raising a Charmander from a baby form takes too much time, since not every Pokémon grows as fast as Goodra.

Xia Chen reminded him to make sure he had a strong enough bond with Charizard, and Alder turned around and smiled confidently, looking very confident about it.

He then left Yuanling Island on his warrior eagle.

…………

Several groups of guests came and went, and the construction of the Yuanling Island residences entered the final decoration stage during this period.

Since this is where Xia Chen will spend most of his time in the future, he and the elves are very concerned about it. Basically, the style of each room is designed by the elves living here, and each elf is naturally different.

For example, Gardevoir has an elegant and girly style, Sylveon's princess bed is pink and tender, Zoroark's overall color scheme is dark, while Cypher has a very gaudy gold style.

It even funded the making of all the furniture in the room out of gold, which completely stunned the decorator in charge.

Incidentally, Saifuhao's resource resale business has expanded very rapidly and has accumulated a very high level of popularity in the industry. Xia Chen directly invested in it to establish a company called "Saifuhao Luxury Elf Props Co., Ltd."

Since the legal representative can only be a human being, Xia Chen acted as the acting boss, but behind the scenes, Sai Fuhao was in charge.

Sai Fuhao has a great talent for capital and business. In less than half a year, the company's monthly revenue has reached a stable level of over one billion.

Based on its exaggerated profit margin, Xia Chen even guessed that this thing could make more money than he could earn by doing his hard research.

Simultaneously, Sai Fuhao's strength has grown at a terrifying rate.

Logically speaking, once you reach the Gym level or higher, the rate at which Pokémon progresses will slow down considerably; this was the case with Milotic and Sylveon before.

But Sai Fuhao is an exception. He shows no sign of slowing down and continues to speed along the highway. He even seems to be showing signs of overtaking on the curves and joining the ranks of the top tier in the team.

This further confirmed Xia Chen's suspicion that he possessed some kind of [pay-to-win system].

The other Pokémon did not slack off in their training after moving to the island, especially with Saifuyu closely following behind and Milotic finding a powerful backer in the distance.

The competitive elves didn't want Milotic to leave them far behind by the time it returned, so they all doubled their efforts in their own unique "way".

The end result was that, even though Xia Chen had come to Yuanling Island for a relaxing vacation and some construction work, the elves quietly spun around again, becoming so self-disciplined that Xia Chen felt a little ashamed and devoted a little more of his time each day to meditation.

However, hard work pays off. The Pokémon's efforts have brought about a considerable increase in strength. In mid-November, after Sai Fuhao defeated Gardevoir for the first time in an intra-team training match, Xia Chen decided to challenge a special competition - the Gym Assessment Match.

It's special because this is a competition specifically used by the league to assess trainers who want to become gym leaders.

Many dojos may not change their leaders for twenty years, so it is quite rare. In the Donghuang region, because there are many dojos, it is better, with a dojo challenge tournament held on average every two years.

It's already November, and there hasn't been a single one yet, so when this application was submitted to the alliance headquarters in Beijing, Lian Shuxiang, the former fighting style king of Donghuang who was in charge of managing the dojo, was quite surprised.

When he saw that the person who applied to start the dojo's qualifying tournament was Xia Chen, his surprise increased even further—

In less than half a year, this little guy already has the strength of a gym leader?

According to his estimate at the time, it would take until at least the middle of the following year to be close to completion.

However, Xia Chen has always given the impression of being reliable, and the fact that he dared to take on the challenge so early suggests that he must have a considerable degree of confidence.

After thinking it over, he decided to approve Xia Chen's application.

However, when it came to choosing Xia Chen's opponent, Lian Shuxiang faced another dilemma.

Should we give him easy mode, hard mode, or hell mode?

Chapter 347 Gym Battle: Mega Gardevoir vs. Dragonite!

The rules for the Dojo Challenge are simple: a 6v6 all-out battle common to all leagues.

The apprentice gym leader's opponent, or examiner, is a gym leader sent by the league.

As is well known, there are differences between gym leaders, especially in the Donghuang region, which boasts seventeen gyms.

The strong ones need no further explanation. At their peak, there are gym leaders like Ryuno of the Dragon Gym who don't even want to be champions. At their lowest, there are gyms like the Bug-type Tennan Gym, which are so weak that they're just a must-visit spot for trainers to check off their daily routines.

Therefore, the opponent in the assessment match will determine the difficulty of the match – it could be the most ordinary dojo match, or it could be a top-level match between a champion or even someone close to the championship.

Lian Shuxiang thought for a long time, considering that Xia Chen was only an eighteen-year-old boy, so he put a checkmark after Qianlong Martial Arts Hall·Longye.

He's still just a child, so he needs to experience more trials and challenges!

Lian Shuxiang smiled kindly.

It wasn't that he was intentionally making things difficult for Xia Chen. In fact, Lian Shuxiang greatly admired Xia Chen, and if nothing unexpected happened, he would be the face of the Donghuang region's trainers for the next twenty or even thirty years.

But that's precisely why he intentionally set up some small obstacles for him on his path to adulthood.

Early exposure to truly top-tier trainers will be more beneficial for his future.

Therefore, Lian Shuxiang chose Long Ye as Xia Chen's opponent.

However, although the opponent has been decided to be the powerful Master Ryūno, it does not mean that you must defeat him to pass the test.

Just like a regular dojo challenge, you don't necessarily need to defeat your opponent to succeed in the assessment; you only need to gain their approval.

Although this is a very subjective judgment criterion, the dojo assessment tournament is an open competition with public oversight, so the credibility of the competition is still quite good.

Whether the examinee is capable of serving as the gym leader will be revealed after this all-out battle.

As for Ryūno's strength, generally speaking, any Pokémon that can defeat him is fully qualified to be a Gym Leader.

If the process is exciting, even one is acceptable.

Considering that Xia Chen's Sylveon can Mega Evolve and that he has several Fairy-type Pokémon that are natural counters to Dragon-type Pokémon, raising the requirement to three is also acceptable.

Any more than that would be unrealistic.

After making the decision, Lian Shuxiang sent the official alliance document to Xia Chen and also posted it online.

As a result, this long-awaited dojo assessment competition in the Donghuang region quickly attracted the attention of onlookers.

…………

Journalists have gradually figured out a pattern: if a headline includes the name "Xia Chen," the number of views for that news story will increase dramatically—it's practically the answer in the news industry.

After being silent for over a month, Xia Chen stirred up trouble again, unsurprisingly making it back to the top of the trending searches.

Gym Leader Xia Chen? The Gym Tournament Open will begin on November 15th at Qianlong Gym! VS. The strongest Gym Leader, Long Ye!

The title is concise, but it contains a great deal of information.

Is Xia Chen going to become the gym leader? Which gym in Donghuang would be suitable for him to take over?

People initially thought the news headlines were clickbait.

Because the construction of Yuanling Island and the application for Yuanling Dojo were not made public, this news was only known to a small group of people around Xia Chen until now, when it has become known to the public.

Xia Chen's longtime fans on Pixiv are quite emotional - from the first day he started making videos, Xia Chen never hid his dream of becoming a "salted fish restaurant owner" in the future. Unexpectedly, he actually realized it, and in just three years!

His inspiring, almost fantastical life story has once again redefined people's understanding of genius.

However, according to the official announcement from the league, the "examiner" for this assessment match is Longye, which is somewhat ominous.

Known as the "strongest Gym Leader in the East," Ryuno is a face of the East's trainers. In last year's World Gym Leader Tournament, he narrowly lost to Giovanni and finished as runner-up—which is the best result in the East's World Tournament in recent years.

At the same time, he is also the strongest in his class in the world, and as a gym leader, he has squeezed into the top fifteen.

Only two people from Donghuang made it into the top twenty: Long Ye and Gu Kunshan, the Donghuang champion currently ranked tenth in the world. This shows how strong Long Ye is.

And this person is actually Xia Chen's opponent in the assessment competition?

It has to be said that the league knows exactly what the general public wants to see.

This match is going to be interesting.

Netizens have been discussing this extensively, but Xia Chen, the person involved, has no way to express his suffering.

He hadn't expected his first official battle against his old acquaintance, Ryūno, to come so soon—although he had challenged the Hidden Dragon Gym before, the two were on completely different levels.

The intensity of this battle is a bit too outrageous.

Even so, Xia Chen wasn't particularly worried.