Live Stream Treasure Appraisal: Your elf isn't thriving!

Chapter 670 Different Colors for Males and Females, Quicksand Doesn't Sweat, Ground-Type Pokémon Sprays Sand from Nostrils?

About a week later.

Ye Yinchuan handed over the follow-up work at Tingfeng Temple to the professional team at the Pokémon Center. Fenglingling recovered well, and Xiao Su applied medicine on time every day. The ringing of the six bells also quieted down, and every morning and evening, the crisp tinkling sound could be heard throughout the ancient temple.

It is said that the number of tourists going up the mountain has tripled compared to before.

Ye Yinchuan brought the Rock Golem's wedge stone back to the Elf Paradise, where it was safest to keep it in its own private space. Diancie would check on it every day and reinforce the outer layer of protection with a diamond barrier.

Miss Skirt is responsible for nourishing the benevolent soul within with healing fluctuations.

Ye Yinchuan himself could also sense the changes inside the wedge stone through the aura of heaven. The light of the benevolent soul was getting brighter day by day, while the restlessness of the malevolent soul was getting weaker day by day.

The direction is correct.

As for how long it will take to completely assimilate—that's a matter of time.

"Alright, friends, welcome to another episode of Kirby's Treasure Hunt live stream."

Ye Yinchuan appeared in front of the camera. Sunlight from the Pokémon Paradise streamed through the floor-to-ceiling windows behind him, where Snorlax was snoring on its special sofa, clutching half a berry in one hand.

Within three seconds of starting the broadcast, the number of online viewers exceeded 50 million.

The barrage of comments surged in like a tidal wave.

[The host is back! I watched the episode about Tingfeng Temple eight times!]

How is the wind chime now? Is the bell still ringing?

[Where's the Flower Rock Monster? Where's the Keystone? Hopefully it won't explode!]

[Hey streamer, when will Giratina's egg hatch?! I'm getting impatient!]

The last comment sparked Ye Yinchuan's thoughts.

After the last simulation ended, the system clearly indicated that ten live streams were required as a prerequisite for the cooling-off period.

Only then can I use Giratina's egg as a medium to conduct a legend simulation and obtain the possibility of restoration.

As for Giratina's eggs.

It's highly anticipated, with the entire internet eagerly awaiting its release. "I don't know exactly when it will hatch, but I might have some clues. Just wait and see."

As soon as he said that, the live chat exploded with comments.

[Is this for real? I saw someone say the streamer has run out of options!]

[Yosh, only Giratina can stand up to Dialga!]

[That's not necessarily true. Could a legendary beast of Ho-Oh's caliber really be afraid of some unknown legendary beast that hasn't even hatched yet?]

[What do you mean "unknown"? This is the God of Time, after all, not to be underestimated!]

Ye Yinchuan did not continue to respond to these comments, but switched to the live chat interface and began to browse through the applications.

"Let me see what's interesting today—"

My finger swiped across screen after screen of applications.

An unidentified Pokémon was found in the city's drainage pipes.

Someone's cat got into a fight with a wild Pokémon.

Someone found a moving stone on the beach.

A wide variety of things.

Ye Yinchuan's gaze lingered on one of the applications.

[Hello host, I'm an engineer doing geological exploration in the Cort Desert. Our construction team has had three drill bits break in a row while drilling. The geological report indicates that the underground layer should be ordinary sandstone, and there shouldn't be anything this hard. Today, when the fourth drill bit went in, a section of the ground suddenly collapsed, and a yellowish Pokémon emerged from the pit, covered in sand, looking like a small hippopotamus. It didn't attack anyone, but it turned our entire construction site into a sandstorm, and we can't see anything. Now it's squatting next to our bulldozer and won't leave. Can you help me figure out what's going on?]

Cort Desert.

Ye Yinchuan recognized the place name. It was a vast desert in the central part of the continent, arid with little rain and extreme temperature differences between day and night, and one of the few Pokémon habitats dominated by desert landscape.

"A yellowish little hippo —" he muttered the description, a slight smile spreading across his face.

connected.

The screen lights up.

A dark-skinned, middle-aged man wearing a hard hat appeared in front of the camera. His face was covered in ash, and his work clothes were covered in fine sand. Behind him was a typical desert geological exploration site: several large drilling rigs, two bulldozers, and scattered iron pipes and equipment boxes.

"Wow! It's connected? Hello, host!"

The man had a loud voice with a northern accent, and his speech was crisp and clear.

"My name is Lao Zheng, and I've been doing geological exploration for twenty years. I've seen all kinds of hard rocks—granite, basalt, diorite, I've drilled them all. But what happened today—it's weird."

"Don't rush, let me see that Pokémon first," Ye Yinchuan said.

"Okay! It's right over there. Look, Lao Zheng turns the camera around."

At the edge of the construction site, where yellow sand filled the sky, stood a bulldozer that had stopped working.

A Pokémon is sitting quietly on the ground.

It is not large, about knee-high to an adult. Its body is round and plump, and its four short legs are strong and powerful, making a steady thud as it walks on the sand.

Its main color is light yellow.

From head to back, it is covered with a layer of dark brown patterns that look like natural mud and sand patterns.

A big face.

A pair of small eyes.

Two large, round nostrils took up nearly a third of her face.

It has some mottled patterns and a small hole on its body.

It was staring intently at the bulldozer's tires with its little eyes.

His expression was calm, even a little blank.

But the sand beneath it is spreading outward at an extremely slow pace—as if it itself were a small sand-making machine, with sand grains constantly being secreted from its body and accumulating around it.

[Haha, what's this? A hippopotamus made of sand?]

Why is it staring at the bulldozer? Is it studying human technology?

[Wow, that expression is so blank! It doesn't look like an aggressive Pokémon at all!]

Wait, is it shedding sand?

Ye Yinchuan looked at the quiet little guy on the screen, a golden stream of data flashing in his eyes.

With discerning eyes, open.

Pokémon: Hippowdon

[Attribute: Ground]

[Gender: Female]

[Feature: Sand flow]

[Rank: Lv.27]

[Status: Healthy/Alert/Mild Anxiety]

"Do you recognize it?" Ye Yinchuan looked at the camera.

The comments section was filled with speculation.

[Hippopotamus! It must be a hippopotamus-type Pokémon!]

[I found it in the Pokédex! It's a Hippopotamus! A Ground-type!]

[A sand hippo? You mean one of those Pokémon that lives in the desert? I've only ever seen them in books, this is the first time I've seen one alive!]

"That's right. A sand hippopotamus." Ye Yinchuan nodded. "Purely terrestrial, a native of desert regions. But, Lao Zheng, I have to correct you on what you said about it being 'yellowish'."

Old Zheng was taken aback: "What's wrong?"

"This hippo is female."

"Huh?" Old Zheng scratched his helmet. "You can even tell the gender?"

Ye Yinchuan chuckled: "The differences between male and female sand hippos are quite obvious. Male sand hippos are light yellow, while females are tan. If you look closely, this one's main color is darker, with an earthy texture."

Old Zheng moved the camera closer.

The hippopotamus was startled by the suddenly approaching camera, hissed, and simultaneously expelled two fine clouds of sand from its two large nostrils.

Old Zheng got a mouthful of sand.

"Ptooey! Ptooey! Ptooey!"

[Hahahaha! Old Zheng, you're too brave! Why did you get so close?!]

[Sand spraying from nostrils! I love this defense mechanism!]

[The streamer said she's female, and she's a shy young woman, why are you getting so close!]

Old Zheng spat out sand and took two steps back. The sand hippo glared at him, then squatted back down and continued staring at the bulldozer tires.

Ye Yinchuan then began his popular science explanation.

"Hippopotamus is a Pokémon that lives on dry land. Contrary to what most people imagine, despite having 'hippopotamus' in its name, it doesn't like water. Its body secretes sand instead of sweat."

"Secreting sand?" Old Zheng's voice came from off-screen. "You mean the sand on its body didn't stick from the ground, but grew from its own body?"

"To be precise, it's secreted," Ye Yinchuan explained. "Sand hippos use this method to coat their entire bodies with sand to prevent bacterial invasion. You can think of it as—the sand is their skin care product."

[Sand mask?]

Humans use skincare products, hippos use sand. How incredibly simple.

What if it gets wet?

"If it gets wet, it will be very uncomfortable," Ye Yinchuan replied to this comment. "Just like human sunscreen being washed away by water, once the sand layer on a hippopotamus's body is damaged by water, it's like losing its first layer of protection. So they really avoid damp environments."

Old Zheng nodded repeatedly, "That explains it. We sprayed water in this area yesterday to reduce dust, and it sprouted from underground today. Could it be because the water seeped into the ground and wet its nest?"

Ye Yinchuan's eyes flickered.

"The information you've provided is crucial."

"what?"

"Sand hippos are large and bulky, but they have a unique habit—they dig into the soil to hide. They can close their nostrils tightly and move through the sand as if walking. So it's very difficult to spot them."

"And the fact that your drill bit broke three times is probably not because there are any hard rock layers underground."

Ye Yinchuan's tone changed.

"It's because your drill hit its nest."

Old Zheng's expression froze.

Off-screen, you can hear the murmurs of other members of the construction team.

"What? We raided their base?"

"Was the drill bit bitten off by this thing?"

Ye Yinchuan shook his head: "Hippopotamus teeth aren't that hard. It's more likely that your drill bit hit a hardened layer of sand. The sand around the underground dens where hippos live will gradually harden due to the minerals contained in the sand grains continuously secreted by the hippos, forming an exceptionally hard shell."

He paused.

"That's why your geological report says it's an ordinary sandstone layer, but when you actually drill into it, it's harder than granite. That's not a natural rock layer; it's the 'home' of the sand hippopotamus."

The live stream chat exploded.

So they weren't doing geological surveys, they were demolishing people's houses???

[Hippopotamus: I won't say anything if you demolish my house, but you even throw water on it???]

No wonder the hippopotamus looked so aggrieved as it squatted next to the bulldozer! It was guarding its home!

My heart aches for this sand hippo —

Old Zheng's face was filled with embarrassment. He glanced back at the hippopotamus still squatting next to the bulldozer and suddenly noticed a detail he hadn't seen before.

"Host—wait a minute—"

Old Zheng's voice rose by half a beat.

"The ground next to this hippopotamus looks like it's moving."

The camera panned and focused on the sandy ground next to the hippopotamus.

Ye Yinchuan saw it clearly.

About two meters away from the female sand hippopotamus, the yellow sand was undulating at an extremely subtle frequency.

It wasn't blown by the wind.

It came up from below.

One drumbeat after another.

It has rhythm.

Like breathing.

"Old Zheng, where did your drill bit first break off?"

Old Zheng recalled for a moment and pointed in a direction: "It's right here—about twelve meters north of where that hippopotamus was squatting."

"What about the second one?"

"It veered five meters to the east."

"The third one?"

"The third one—" Old Zheng's voice became hesitant, "The third one—is near that undulating sandy area."

Ye Yinchuan's expression changed.

It wasn't nervousness. It was solemnity.

His Eye of Insight was operating at full power, piercing through the screen and the yellow sand, probing beneath the undulating ground. This was a hidden effect brought about by the increase in reputation level; all original exclusive abilities would be enhanced, and this was the vision-seeing ability of the Eye of Insight.

He saw it.

It is located about three meters underground.

A huge figure was huddled in a space encased in hardened sand.

Its size is more than six times that of the sand hippopotamus on the ground.

A light brown body.

It has six protruding holes on its back.

A short, black tail.

The area around the nose, eyelids, feet, and back is all black.

Its mouth was slightly open.

It is nearly two meters in diameter.

A hippopotamus.

The evolutionary form of the sand hippopotamus.

A desert overlord with a quick temper and a tendency to get angry.

It can open its mouth, which is two meters in diameter, and bite a car into scrap metal.

And at this moment—there is a thin, long wound on its body surface.

It is located on its left abdomen.

The wound was shaped like a straight, metallic-looking cut line.

That was from the sharp point of the drill bit piercing through the sand.

Ye Yinchuan closed his eyes briefly.

The third drill bit.

It's not broken.

It was bitten off by it.

It was injured.

It hurts.

It is enduring.

It lay underground, wounded and in pain, without uttering a sound.

The female hippopotamus on the ground emerged from underground and squatted next to the bulldozer, refusing to leave—not because its den was wet.

It was because its companion was injured.

It is guarding.

It is using its body and its very existence to tell the humans before it—stop invading!

Ye Yinchuan looked at the camera, his gaze turning serious.

"Old Zheng."

"exist."

"Stop your construction immediately."

Old Zheng was taken aback.

"What's wrong?"

"Because three meters below your feet," Ye Yinchuan said, enunciating each word clearly, "there's a hippopotamus. An evolved form of the sand hippopotamus. It's about the same size as your bulldozer."

Old Zheng's face turned pale for a moment.

"Your third drill bit damaged it."

Old Zheng's face turned from white to green.

"And it is now."

Ye Yinchuan hadn't finished speaking.

The frequency of the vibrations on that undulating sandy land suddenly changed.

From a slow, restrained breathing rhythm.

It turned into a rapid, restless trembling.

Sand began to gush upwards from the cracks in the ground.

It's not a single point.

It's the entire area.

The sand within a 30-meter diameter radius began to tremble.

The female sand hippo suddenly stood up.

It simultaneously spewed out thick yellow sand from its two large nostrils.

It wasn't the light sandstorm we had before.

It is high-pressure injection.

Like two fire hoses.

Shahema turned around and faced the direction of Lao Zheng and his group.

The calmness vanished from its small eyes.

Instead, a warning was issued.

A final warning.

"Old Zheng," Ye Yinchuan said in a low voice.

"Your men, step back one hundred meters."

"immediately."

"immediately."

Old Zheng didn't ask why. Twenty years of wilderness experience had given him an instinctive sense of danger. He turned and yelled, "Everyone retreat! Back up! Quickly!"

The construction team hadn't fully reacted yet.

But the ground provided the best answer for Ye Yinchuan.

boom!!

The sand beneath their feet cracked open.

A thick, dense, yellowish-brown column of sand shot into the sky from the depths of the earth.

Height – 20 meters.

Thirty meters.

Fifty meters!

A sandstorm that blotted out the sky swept outwards from one point in all directions.

The sky darkened.

The sun was swallowed up.

The entire construction site was completely submerged by an artificial sandstorm within three seconds.

And at the center of that sand pillar.

A massive figure is slowly rising from the ground.

It opened its mouth.

The live stream feed was shaking violently.

Old Zheng's roar was swallowed up by the sandstorm.

The camera view was filled with yellow sand.

The final frame shows the hippopotamus's enormous mouth filled with teeth of varying numbers, enough to crush steel.

[So strong, definitely a hegemon!!!]

[This is way more powerful than a tank skunk's fart!!!]

Which is tougher, a bulldozer or a hippopotamus? Need help urgently!

[Old Zheng, are you still alive? Old Zheng??? Old Zheng!!!]

Ye Yinchuan's expression remained calm.

He simply stared at the blacked-out connection screen and tapped the table lightly.

"Don't rush."

"Although the hippopotamus has a bad temper, it doesn't have the habit of actively pursuing prey. As long as Old Zheng and the others retreat quickly enough—"

He paused.

"But the problem is..."

He saw it, but just now, he hadn't had a chance to say it.

"Directly below this construction area." Ye Yinchuan's voice was soft, yet it touched a nerve.

"There isn't just one hippopotamus."

"That place is the habitat of an entire population of sand hippos."

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