Pokémon: Starting with a Pokémon Ranch.

Chapter 97 Wool Inspection

Just as Yang Hao was explaining the entire competition process to Su Yu.

Suddenly, a few passersby brought up something that piqued Su Yu's interest.

"Have you heard? Among the top sixteen in this year's rancher competition, that rancher named Ah Xian was defeated by his family's monstrous strength..."

"You were *?"

"Huh? No way, I remember his family's monstrous dog is male, this kind of thing can't possibly happen, right?" The third passerby was shocked to hear what the first passerby said.

Seeing this, the fourth passerby clapped the third passerby's hand and interrupted:

"Oh, what do you know? What's so scary about a female Machamp? A male Machamp with the 'No Guard' ability is terrifying, okay? It can take down a trainer with one punch..."

The words of these passersby piqued Su Yu's interest. Ah Xian? Isn't that the Machamp trainer who was instantly defeated by Tropius last time?

Su Yu also pondered the ability in the game that has no defensive characteristics. It seems that... both sides' moves will definitely hit?

This characteristic seems like it would be perfect for fencing?

Ouch... that's a bit scary, my butt is starting to hurt.

Su Yu touched his buttocks, and Yang Hao, who was standing next to him, gave him a strange look, as if he had discovered some strange quirk of Su Yu's.

Just then, Su Yu spotted Gu Lihuo in the crowd. Gu Lihuo also saw Su Yu and immediately squeezed through the crowd, smiling as he said to Su Yu:

"senior!"

"You're here to participate in this wool competition too?" Su Yu was quite surprised to see Gu Lihuo there as well.

Upon hearing this, Gu Lihuo smiled and said:

"Yes, the sheep are starting to produce wool again now. Since there's a wool competition here, I thought I'd come and participate. Whether I win or not, it's all about participating."

"By the way, senior, a few days ago I followed your teachings on 'treating Pokémon with care' and persuaded those Throwing Monkeys in the orchard. Now they're all in my orchard, helping me with the orchard restoration."

Throwing monkey?

Su Yu vaguely remembered this; it seemed Gu Lihuo had mentioned it during their first meeting. Not long after he returned to the ranch, a group of throwing monkeys destroyed his grandfather's orchard and fled into the forest.

Gu Lihuo actually managed to make peace with those throwing monkeys and even get them to help him restore his orchard?

Su Yu briefly imagined a group of throwing monkeys living in an orchard, working diligently every day. Hmm... that seems pretty good, a good idea.

"That's great. That way, your ranch can get back to operation more quickly."

Su Yu naturally hoped that the surrounding pastures would get better and better. After all, only when they were doing better would they have the money to buy the goat milk he had.

Goat milk, which is good for health, is something these people absolutely need to buy, no matter what. The only difference is whether they can afford it.

Su Yu was about to chat with Gu Lihuo about the orchard, since he also planned to set up an orchard on the ranch in the future. However, at that moment, the judges and staff on the platform started to move.

"Has the wool competition started yet?" Yang Hao muttered to himself upon seeing this.

Meanwhile, some staff members have already begun to descend from the platform, register the identities of the contestants one by one, and take wool samples.

……

The wool sampling process is not complicated. It simply involves verifying the identities of the ranchers and the sheep Pokémon they have, and then cutting a tuft of wool from those sheep Pokémon.

What's truly nerve-wracking is the wait for the wool to be sent for testing.

Shortly after the staff took wool samples, ranchers began receiving the test results for their wool.

Some were disappointed, some were happy. Those who passed the test were probably the happiest; they were all extremely excited, some even wanting to raise their arms in celebration.

The majority of those who were disappointed were those who were filtered out; they were the majority of the population.

It seems that just this round of testing might eliminate about 70% of the people.

"It seems the standards for this test result are quite high?" Su Yu asked in confusion.

Upon hearing this, Yang Hao nodded and replied:

"So some ranchers come to participate every year, but still can't even get their samples approved for testing. And there are still a lot of people like that."

"However, my family's goat should be able to pass the test without a doubt, but it just failed to win the favor of the brand in the previous few attempts."

Beside Yang Hao stood a large sheep-like Pokémon with long horns, the evolved form of the Mount Goat.

The evolved goat mount can reach a height of 1.7 meters, which is quite impressive.

And this is the Pokémon that Yang Hao brought to the competition. The quality of the wool produced by this mountain goat seems to be the highest in Yang Hao's ranch.

At this point, it was Su Yu and his group's turn to submit samples for testing. Seeing this, Su Yu released two woolly-horned sheep for the staff to collect samples from.

As soon as they appeared, the woolly-horned sheep noticed the tall and imposing mountain goat beside them. Compared to the woolly-horned sheep's height of 1.3 meters, they looked like a group of dwarfs next to the mountain goat.

"Mah..."

Immediately, the woolly horned sheep bleated warily, seemingly quite uneasy in the presence of this large creature.

Seeing this, Su Yu took out a few pieces of grass cake and stuffed them into the mouths of the woolly-horned sheep to soothe their emotions.

Seeing the snacks Su Yu had taken out, Gu Lihuo asked curiously:

"Senior, what is that thing? How could you feed it to a woolly sheep?"

"It's nothing, just some strange pastries I made myself by adding grass, and it just so happens that the woolly sheep really like them." Su Yu waved his hand and replied.

"Oh..." Gu Lihuo nodded in agreement. His admiration for Su Yu grew even stronger.

—You're really amazing, senior. You have a deep understanding of Pokémon food. No wonder you can run your ranch so well.

Yang Hao, standing to the side, wasn't curious about this situation. He had already witnessed the power of the grass cake made by Su Yu at the unicorn rhinoceros's place, but he also had some doubts in his heart.

Do woolly sheep actually like this kind of food?

I wonder if the one-horned rhinoceroses would like to eat some of these pastries if I make them when I get back?

Shortly after the samples were submitted for testing, Su Yu and Yang Hao received notification that they had passed the first round.

Both of them seemed quite unfazed by the situation. After all, they were already very confident that they could pass the first round.

To Su Yu's surprise, Gu Lihuo's sheep, Mali, also passed the first round of testing. Just a few days ago, this sheep hadn't even produced any wool...

How could it have reached the level required for testing so quickly?

This is something that nearly 70% of ranchers can't achieve...

Gu Lihuo was also very excited about this, and he smiled and said to Su Yu:

"Senior, this must be thanks to the goat milk you sent. Without your goat milk, the Mali goats could not have recovered so quickly, nor could they have produced wool of such high quality."

"I really have to thank you for all of this, senior. You've helped me so much!"

Upon hearing this, Su Yu remembered. He had almost forgotten that this Mare sheep had been drinking pure, undiluted sheep milk. It wasn't surprising that it had grown to this size.

(End of this chapter)