Pokémon: Hard work pays off, moves can be upgraded infinitely.

..............................

[Ding! Alola Ninetales (33) has defeated Parasect (30). Permanent Quest 1: Battle Completed. The opponent's level is equal to yours. Congratulations, host! You have gained 30 points. Alola Ninetales' growth level has been slightly increased!]

..............................

[Ding! Target detected as Short-Term Mission 12: Leaving the Dense Forest, a non-wild Pokémon. Congratulations, host, you have gained an extra 150 points!]

..............................

"Brother Zhou, until we meet again!"

After hearing the system notification, Mu Yun bowed to Zhou Ping, who was still in a daze, and then left gracefully with Bingbing.

All that remained was Paraster, frozen solid, and Zhou Ping, staring wide-eyed with utter incomprehension.

"Wait, what's going on?"

Zhou Ping scratched his head, his eyes showing no anger at being ambushed, only confusion and bewilderment.

Zhou Ping's doubts would not affect Mu Yun. Mu Yun had no intention of sacrificing his time to score points to answer questions for strangers.

After securing Paraster's points, Mu Yun continued to roam the forest, trying to find "wild monsters".

With his powerful physique and keen senses, Mu Yun was able to find an ambush perpetrator or a student being attacked by an ambush perpetrator almost every now and then.

The result was either that the ambushers were captured by Mu Yun, or that the ambushers and the students' elves were captured together.

Without exception!

..............................

Secret Realm Training Camp Headquarters.

"Team Leader Zou, another one of our men has gone missing!"

"I'm wearing headphones and I'm in charge of communications," a staff member said with some concern.

Since the students entered the secret realm in the morning, members of the Blazing Fire Brigade have been going missing one after another.

Because the Secret Forest area is quite large, in order to give most students a perfect "baptism of fire" experience, they dispatched eight squads from the Flowing Fire Brigade and the Flowing Cloud Brigade, scattered in the four corners of the east, west, south, and north.

At first everything was fine, but for some reason, people started going missing in the southeast corner area.

This situation even gradually spread from the southeast to the southwest.

It's as if an invisible black hand is gradually uprooting their members scattered throughout the forest.

"Are this year's students really that strong?"

"A dark-faced instructor next to Zou Mingli exclaimed in surprise."

"That shouldn't be the case. The monster from the Ling family and the boy from the Liu family already came out long ago. That chubby kid from the Yu family also left from the southeast exit at noon. King Lü's niece and disciple just left from the northwest exit. How can so many people still be missing..."

Zou Mingli frowned, his eyes scanning the list in his hand repeatedly.

These people were mostly members of large or small families in the three provinces of Northeast China, and they were the "troublemakers" he planned to focus on.

"Is it possible that he's a commoner trainer who didn't come from a family?"

"This is what the stern-faced instructor Zhang De said from the side."

Upon hearing this, Zou Mingli suddenly pictured himself with a Beedrill and a Pidgeot beside him.

"It's not impossible. Didn't each province hold its own provincial competition this year? Are there any lists of the top four from three provinces?"

A sudden inspiration struck Zou Mingli, and he asked.

"Yes, Captain Zou."

The person in charge of intelligence recording tapped a few times on a tablet, and soon a list of the top four finalists from the three provincial competitions was brought up.

From top to bottom, they are the top four from Heijiang Province, the top four from Shenyang-Liaoning Province, and the top four from Changqing Province.

"Ling Ruijie, the provincial champion of Heijiang Province; Yu Bo, the provincial champion of Shenyang-Liaoning Province; Liu, the provincial champion of Changqing Province... wait, Mu Yun?"

"The provincial champion of Changqing Province isn't from the Liu family?"

The top four teams from the first two provincial competitions were within Zou Mingli's comprehension, but the top four teams from the last Changqing province left him somewhat dumbfounded.

Neither the Liu family's monster this year nor Lu Tianwang's niece won the championship.

The champion was a name he had never heard of before.

Are there any other families with the surname Mu in Changqing?

Zou Mingli looked at the dark-faced instructor beside him.

"I don't know, maybe he's the descendant of some lucky trainer." The dark-faced instructor shook his head.

With such a large population in Evergreen Province, unless you are from a particularly famous family or a Champion-level trainer, you are basically unknown to anyone outside your own city.

"His Pokémon setup is quite interesting, with Beedrill, Pidgeotto, and the recently announced Xenomorph Vulpix, a rather mixed set of types." The dark-faced instructor glanced at Mu Yun's Pokémon information and said with some surprise.

Upon hearing this, Zou Mingli was certain that the handsome young man who had been surrounded by Beedrill, Pidgeot, and Ninetales was none other than Mu Yun, the provincial champion of Changqing Province!

Regardless of his background, his record of defeating the Liu and Lü families is enough to demonstrate his strength!

In other words, he is most likely the one who caused the various squads of the Blazing Fire Brigade to lose contact!

But why did he do that?

Based on the order in which the members initially lost contact, he was clearly close to the exit, but instead of leaving, he turned back and headed southwest.

This was clearly intentional.

"Is this a genius's arrogant counterattack, or simply a provocation?"

Zou Mingli pinched his chin, a glint of shrewdness flashing in his eyes.

Regardless, judging from his movements, he clearly didn't take the garrison troops seriously at all.

He doesn't dislike arrogant geniuses, but only if they have enough talent and resources.

Otherwise, once you're on his turf, no matter who you are, you'll have to stay here obediently!

"Old Black, you're in charge of the rest of the command!"

"Xiao He, give me real-time updates on the location of the missing personnel. I'm going to meet our little genius."

After saying a few words, Zou Mingli took out a Poké Ball.

A huge tropical dragon appeared in the camp.

With a leap, Zou Mingli nimbly landed on the tropical dragon's back.

"Set off!"

..............................

The secret forest, southwest corner.

"It's getting dark!"

Watching the sun gradually set on the horizon, Mu Yun murmured something unconsciously.

Although the secret realm is a unique space independent of the real world, it still has day and night cycles similar to those in the outside world.

However, the secret realm seems to have its own rules and is not completely connected to the outside world.

For example, Heijiang City is still in winter now, with short days and long nights, and the weather is extremely cold.

But inside the secret realm, the trees and leaves were lush and the temperature was like spring. He had been inside for nearly ten hours. Logically, it should have been dark outside long ago, but here there were only just signs of sunset.

"Ten hours have passed, everyone who was going to leave has left, and I probably won't run into many people after this. It's about time to leave."

Mu Yun picked up the map, compared it a few times, and selected the nearest exit.

After searching for nearly ten hours, he missed out on being among the top ten to leave the dense forest, but he gained a lot of points and experience.

Leaving aside the points for now, the experience gained from growth alone is quite substantial.

Bo Feng broke through to level 39, just one step away from the elite level. Bing Bing, who was at a lower level, leveled up twice, from level 33 when she first entered the secret realm to level 35 now.

The reason for such a significant improvement is mainly because she is the one making the decisions most of the time.

There's no way around it; the Ice Beam is really useful as a starting move for sneak attacks.

Xiao Du's level hasn't changed; it's still level 38, the same as when he defeated the Lava Snail.

Adding in the points reward for the hundred people who emerge from the dense forest, today's harvest is quite good.

This is only the first day. If there are more similar activities in the training days to come, we can probably earn a lot more points.

Most importantly, the sparring partner's level is just right!

"Shhh~~~"

Just as Mu Yun was choosing his route, a rustling sound from the bushes suddenly reached his ears.

Mu Yun immediately became alert and commanded Bo Feng, who was resting nearby, to take action.

"Namikaze, the Air Blade!"