Elf: I have a secret realm of emerald green.

Compared to others around him, Xia Shen, who has 36 hours a day, is improving his strength at a rather astonishing rate.

In the past, it was called fright.

To be fair, the Divine Tree Fruit has long been consumed, and the Steel Stone and Dragon Jade Crystals are becoming less and less effective.

Xia Shen has almost used up all the savings he had accumulated over a long period of time.

Furthermore, as the energy level increases, the rate of level progression slows down.

Two months have passed in the blink of an eye, and the energy levels of Xia Shen's elves have only increased by one or two levels.

However, Xia Shen was not in a hurry. Even without favorable winds to ride on, he could still rise to prominence step by step.

……

Time spent in the Jade Washing Secret Realm is quite interesting.

After all the elves reached level 50 and above, Xia Shen set his sights on an elf he had long coveted: Warrior Eagle.

The Warrior Eagle is a very high-level elf, requiring a full level of 54 to evolve.

However, the Warriors and Eagles that you often encounter are unlikely to be stuck at this level.

Therefore, to ensure that Brave Eagle is defeated and captured, Garchomp and Togekiss need to be strong enough to make Brave Eagle unable to escape.

This issue was perfectly resolved after Garchomp was able to Mega Evolve.

So, one morning in January, under the double attack of Mega Garchomp and Togekiss...

With nowhere to escape, a level 63 Warrior Eagle obediently entered Xia Shen's Poké Ball.

However, while the Poké Ball captured his body, it could not capture his heart.

Xia Shen tried all sorts of methods, including coercion and enticement, but the Warriors and Eagles remained unmoved.

Helpless, Xia Shen had no choice but to let him leave.

However, he didn't give up. After healing the Warrior Eagle, Xia Shen released him, and then...

Transform into a stalker, riding on Togekiss, and following far behind the Warrior Eagle.

Xia Shen always felt that there was more to the story than met the eye regarding the brave eagle's refusal to submit, even at the cost of its life.

……

Xia Shen's intuition was correct. After following the eagle for a short distance, he arrived at a cliff.

There, he discovered the family of the warrior eagle: three or four warrior eagles and six or seven fledglings.

Xia Shen understood. So the reason he didn't want to leave was because he had elderly parents and young children to care for.

That's easy, just let the whole family go together.

Xia Shen used his money power, directly throwing energy cubes at their faces, which was extremely effective against these bumpkins.

Then, when Xia Shen left the Emerald Realm, there were ten Poké Balls containing Warrior Eagle and Little Eagle in his space.

Xia Shen kept one of the little eagles that was close to him to raise, and handed over the other elves in the family to the people at the Xicui Island Research Institute to be taken there.

After that, I caught some more Pokémon to expand my Pokédex, and before I knew it, it was March.

------

Early March.

In the university regional league, Chongqing University has achieved an impressive eleven-game winning streak and leads the standings.

The second place undoubtedly belongs to Sichuan University, which lost to Chongqing University by only one game.

After that... Xia Shen stopped caring about those schools that posed no threat.

It's unclear whether this was intentional on the part of the organizers, but it was a crucial match to determine the champion of the Sichuan-Chongqing region.

This means that the second encounter between Chongqing University and Sichuan University was scheduled for the final round at the end of April.

As for the previous six rounds of matches, Xia Shen, who had already faced them once, didn't care.

What he cares more about is the professional assessment that will begin in early March, which is in a couple of days.

This was a day he had been looking forward to for more than half a year.

The timing of professional assessments isn't so rigid; trainers can register and queue at their local trainer association whenever they wish.

However, there is one exception: trainers like Xia Shen who have never participated in professional assessments before.

To facilitate management, registration, and certificate issuance, their first assessment is uniformly scheduled for a few days in early March.

Thinking back to March of last year, Xia Shen also participated in a trainer assessment.

However, that was an amateur event.

Only Xia Shen could have accomplished the feat of having only a year between his first amateur and first professional qualifying matches.

Unintentionally, he broke another record.

However, this small record is insignificant in the history created by Xia Shen, so not many people paid attention to it.

What the general public is more concerned about is where Xia Shen will be ranked in his first professional assessment match.

…………

The unique feature of the amateur assessment tournament is that no matter how much you know about Pokémon battles, as long as you have Pokémon, you can sign up to participate.

Therefore, if amateur assessments are a carnival for everyone, then professional assessments are a feast for trainers.

Although compared to the former, the latter had far fewer participants and fewer matches.

However, in terms of the excitement of the competition, the professional assessment matches are far superior.

Moreover, because the first professional assessment of newcomers is highly instructive and educational, many regional trainer associations will even broadcast the competition live on official channels.

The Sichuan-Chongqing region is one of them.

Because he was located in Chongqing, one of the two major competition venues in the Sichuan-Chongqing region, Xia Shen didn't need to run around like people from other cities.

After a good eight hours of sleep at Qiyao Mountain, Xia Shen leisurely arrived at the examination venue, which was also their home stadium for the league over the past few months: the Fog City Elf Arena.

Xia Shen's biggest preparation for this competition was to postpone today's secret realm time until the end of the competition.

There's really nothing else to prepare.

At 9:00 a.m. sharp, Xia Shen arrived at the Fog City Elf Arena on time to draw his exam number.

"Shop C, Unit 16"

Looking at the letters and numbers appearing on her phone, Xia Shen frowned; this number was quite large.

A match lasts at least ten minutes. If it's the receiving team... well, it depends on how much they can take.

I hope I can get a number on the 16th in the morning.

Xia Shen put away her phone and walked alone to Zone C.

Compared to the groups of college students around him, Xia Shen, who went alone, stood out in the crowd.

It's not that he's not popular.

After getting to know his teammates on the school team, Xia Shen at least gained a few superficial friends.

But they had already participated in this assessment a long time ago. In fact, Xia Shen was the only oddball who entered the school team without ever participating in the assessment.

As for his classmates... they don't yet have the ability to participate in professional assessments.

Besides, we're really not familiar with each other.

So, all alone, Xia Shen sat quietly in the corner of the waiting area in section C, closing her eyes and meditating as she waited.

Unbeknownst to him, as the biggest "star" in the entire arena, before the match even began, Rotom the Flying had already set up his camera on him...

…………

At this moment, in the live broadcast room of the Chongqing exam venue, which was so lively it didn't seem like a professional assessment competition, the barrage of comments had already begun to discuss excitedly.

"Give the director a bonus! He knows what we want to see! We're looking forward to Shenbao breaking another record today and going straight to professional 9-dan!"

"Just a heads-up, in case you're a casual trainer and don't know, starting from the fifth rank, it's a completely different system, a full 6v6 battle. The only suspense today is whether Xia Shen can reach the fourth rank."

"Is Xia Shen asleep? Sleeping during a professional assessment? How can someone your age and stage of life fall asleep like that?!"

"Xia Shen's sleeping face is so beautiful, husband, I'm in love!"

"That netizen named [Huang Wenhao won't change his name until he reaches the professional level], please tone it down. Your flamboyant zero-player identity has been exposed."

"But to be fair, Xia Shen does have the right to be arrogant. You know, even Yan Yu, who was 18 years old when she first participated in the professional assessment competition, only reached the second dan. Xia Shen has already defeated three professional second dan players in the league. There must be a whole platoon of them."

"He's already won; he's far, far ahead of his peers..."

…………

The competition started promptly at 9:30.

Strangely, the live stream chat volume actually decreased after the match officially started.

Because the scene on the screen switched from Xia Shen to the actual match.

Clearly, viewers would rather watch Xia Shen sleep than see him battle as an ordinary trainer...

The bad news is that Xia Shen had a total of fifteen games before he took the court.

The good news is that none of these fifteen people are particularly cowardly.

That's normal. In the game, it's fine; you can raise any Pokémon without any cost and easily form a team.

In real life, those who play the submissive role... that's definitely true love, and they're probably a little bit cynical at heart.

There are no such people in Zone C so far.

So, Xia Shen, who drew number sixteen, didn't have to wait long. After lunch, he came back and waited for Xi to close his eyes and meditate for a while before it was finally his turn.

When the name "Xia Shen, No. 15, Zone C" appeared on the big screen, the long-silent bullet comments finally came alive again.

The man I'd been waiting for all day finally arrived!

------

The rules for the professional assessment are simple: 3v3.

Candidates are free to choose their own Pokémon, while the examinee's Pokémon lineup is determined by drawing lots.