Elf: Is the bear apprentice the weakest? I'll shatter the sky with my fists.

Lin Lin suddenly stammered, then chuckled awkwardly and blocked Li Chen's hand that was about to hit him on the head, "Ahem... well, to replenish the trace elements needed by a Champion-level trainer every day!"

The clinking of beer cans startled the scavenging rats in the bushes, and in the moonlight, two shadows gradually leaned together, just like they had back in their high school days on the rooftop.

"How often do you go back to Water City High School these days? Don't stay in the secret realm for too long and stop communicating with the outside world."

Li Chen flicked a beer can with his finger, the vibration sound particularly crisp in the night: "Don't spend all your time in the secret realm like a savage."

He gestured with his chin toward the faintly glowing barrier of the secret realm in the distance. "I ran into Old Class yesterday, and he asked me if you'd been kidnapped by some elf."

"Cough cough..."

Lin Lin's ears suddenly turned red. He took a swig of beer to cover his guilt: "How could that be! I go shopping at the mall every Tuesday, Thursday, and Sunday without fail. Last week, I just took my apprentices to the Water City High School's open day..."

He suddenly pulled a waterproof bag out of his pocket, filled with colorful handmade greeting cards: "Look! These were from those classmates. That troublemaker from Class Two is now chasing me around every day asking how to train Fighting-type Pokémon."

"Ah~"

Li Chen picked up a skewer of pork belly and took a big bite, letting out a satisfied sigh as the aroma of the fat exploded between his lips and teeth.

"A person's life is all about this taste."

Before he finished speaking, Lin Lin suddenly shoved a slice of toasted bread near his mouth: "And this! Aunt Zhang's special sauce from the cafeteria, I secretly learned how to make it for three years..."

"Damn it, I finally managed to say something and you interrupted me, huh?"

Before she could finish speaking, Li Chen grabbed her head and ruffled her hair. The two of them laughed and joked, and knocked over a beer can.

The amber-colored liquid meandered across the rocks, reflecting starlight like shattered diamonds.

"Let's go! Whoever collapses first today is a bear's apprentice!"

Lin Lin tilted his head back and gulped down the entire glass of beer, his Adam's apple bobbing violently.

The wine slid down his chin, leaving a glistening mark on his already flushed neck.

He suddenly turned the empty cup upside down on the stone, making a crisp "bang".

His hazy eyes revealed a youthful stubbornness: "The last time... the last time I drank like this was when I skipped class in the second semester of my junior year, right? It took our homeroom teacher and Principal Chen's Pokémon to catch me and bring me back."

Huhu~

The night breeze carried the lingering warmth of the grill as Lin Lin shook his head, a few drops of wine splashing onto Li Chen's sleeve.

That expensive custom-made jacket belonging to the superstar was now casually placed under the greasy barbecue bag.

"You really want to compete with me?"

Li Chen opened the can with one hand, his Adam's apple bobbing up and down with each swallow: "I still remember clearly how someone passed out after just three drinks when we drank together on the rooftop last time..."

"Nonsense!"

Lin Lin suddenly straightened up, but her elbow knocked over the paper bag containing the skewers.

He grabbed two cans of beer haphazardly, the clinking of the aluminum cans ringing out sharply on the cliff edge: "This time... hiccup... absolutely..."

Before he could finish speaking, he suddenly tumbled forward like a Magikarp whose bones had been removed.

Li Chen reached out in time and scooped the drunkard's head up onto his backpack.

Lin Lin's fingertips were still stubbornly hooking the beer tab, muttering in his sleep, "One more round..."

The cries of Steel-armored Ravens drifted from afar, and Li Chen chuckled as he draped his coat over the other person.

The moonlight cast a silvery glow on Lin Lin's flushed cheeks, and his eyelashes trembled slightly in his drunken state, just like the boy who cried until he hiccuped when he broke up with his girlfriend in the second semester of his junior year of high school.

"Hey, your alcohol tolerance is still like a kid's. I guess you'll be sitting at the same table as the kids from now on."

Li Chen shook his head and chuckled. He casually picked up a string of cooled grilled oysters, the garlic cloves on the oyster meat glistening in the night.

"It would be a waste not to eat all this food."

Li Chen sighed as he looked at the almost untouched leeks and oysters.

As the last piece of chives slid down his throat, he deftly hoisted the completely drunk Lin Lin onto his back.

"Waaaah... Don't leave me... Xiaoyu, I really love you so much..."

The boy's breath, choked with sobs, sprayed onto his neck, carrying the scent of fermenting malt.

"Damn it, you still can't forget it after a year, huh?"

The lights of the wooden house in the distance blurred in the mist as Li Chen carried the other person over.

After settling Lin Lin in, his steps unconsciously turned towards the end of the corridor.

Li Chen pushed the door open a crack, and moonlight flowed into the room like silver gauze.

Eileen curled up in the down comforter, her hair scattered on the pillow like melting gold leaf.

Her eyelashes trembled gently as she drifted into a dream, and a sweet smile lingered on her lips.

"Li Chen...I want to ride that Ferris wheel that lights up..."

Eileen's murmured words trailed off in a coquettish tone as she hugged the pillow tightly: "And that... cotton candy, I want the pink one..."

Li Chen leaned against the door frame, a tenderness that he himself did not realize well rising in his eyes.

He reached out and gently stroked the girl's fingers as they frantically reached for the air, softly replying, "Okay, whatever you say."

Suddenly, Latias's figure flashed past the window.

The blue light from the heart's droplet casts a colorful, amusement park-like halo on the wall.

As if sensing something, Eileen's smile deepened even more as she slept.

"Li Chen."

The voices of Rehiram and Zekrom came through.

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

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Chapter 549 Resonance Arrives

"Li Chen."

The voices of Rehiram and Zekrom came through.

Li Chen's fingertips suddenly hovered in mid-air, a glint of gold flashing in his pupils.

Rahiram's whisper resonated deep within his mind.

"The frozen balancer is tearing apart the folds of spacetime..."

Then, Zekrom's electromagnetic waves pierced his nerves, causing distorted aurora images to appear on his retina: "...but this time He chose the most dangerous resonance to descend."

Li Chen's waveguide power overflowed uncontrollably, scorching the floor of the room.

Eileen seemed to sense something in her sleep and unconsciously clenched the corner of the blanket.

Outside the window, eerie indigo cracks began to seep into the sky at the edge of the secret realm.

Li Chen's brows furrowed suddenly, and his wave-guiding power formed fine arcs of electricity around his body: "What is meant by resonance descent?"

"He no longer tears through space...but instead chooses the youngest hero as his vessel..."

The supplementary information from Czechoslovakia is directly rendered as a three-dimensional projection.

Countless illusory figures of eighteen-year-old boys and girls, formed from condensed ice crystals, floated in the air, each bearing the Kyurem's Gene Wedge emblem on their chest:

"...Only souls untouched by time can withstand this fusion; the secret realm has automatically generated an age barrier."

Suddenly, a cracking sound came from outside the window as ice began to spread, and Li Chen turned his head sharply.

Under the moonlight, the forest on the eastern side of the secret realm was crystallizing at a visible speed, with huge countdown icicles appearing among the treetops:

【17:59:59】

The countdown timer outside the window shimmered with a ghostly blue light; with each tick of the numbers, the crystallization in the forest spread an inch further.

Li Chen stared at the string of cold numbers, stroking the Poké Ball at his waist.

"Eighteen hours later..."

He murmured, "Can all trainers who are eighteen years of age or older enter the secret realm?"

Reshiram's voice echoed in his mind: "Yes, this is Kyurem's first resonance summoning in thousands of years. He is searching for a human soul whose wavelength perfectly matches his own..."

Zekrom added, accompanied by the static of electromagnetic interference: "The Ice Dragon chose to descend in the gentlest way, but the price is..."

"The chosen trainer will become a temporary messenger of the gods?"

Li Chen suddenly spoke up, his pupils contracting slightly, "But why is it limited to eighteen years old?"

Moonlight pierced through the ice crystals, casting patterns of gene wedges onto the floor.

The pattern resembles the most intense heartbeat frequency of a person at eighteen years old.

"The ice of Kyurem...is fundamentally different from other legends."

Rahiram's voice suddenly turned serious, and fragments of ancient memories suddenly appeared in Li Chen's vision.

He saw countless human figures, like ice sculptures, each with crystal veins extending from their chests.

That was the lifeline eroded by the eternal freezing air.

"His ice devours time. The souls of adult humans, like burning embers, only accelerate this erosion..."

Czechrom added, accompanied by a stream of data flashing across his retina: "Eighteen is the critical point. Souls older than that will be directly crystallized by the freezing air, just like..."

The scene suddenly shifts to a trainer attempting to forcefully break through the barrier; his fingertips turn into icy powder the instant they touch the edge of the secret realm...

The countdown timer outside the window suddenly accelerated, casting Li Chen's solemn profile in flickering light.

Li Chen's fingertips dug deeply into his palms, but he suddenly released them when he touched the Poké Ball at his waist.

He gazed out the window at the ever-crystallizing forest, his breath forming frost flowers on the glass.

"It's too late..."

"But, since that's the case..."

The projection of the Gene Wedge suddenly unfolded in the center of the room, and data on countless eighteen-year-old trainers fluttered like snowflakes.

Li Chen reached out and traced the light and shadow, finally stopping on a League ID card with a childlike appearance.

"I'm going out to inform all the dojos."

"Prepare for the largest coming-of-age ceremony in history."

The last three words landed on Eileen's slightly trembling eyelashes, and the sleeping girl instinctively curled up, as if sensing the coming of some icy era...

......

......

Outside the secret territory.

As soon as Li Chen stepped out of the secret realm barrier, his phone screen lit up with a blinding red light.

Before he could press the answer button, a holographic image of champion Zhong Lixuan was already projected from the watch he had taken from the league.

The usually composed champion now had a look of frost on his brow.

"It seems Rayquaza has already informed you."

Li Chen's shoes crushed the newly formed ice crystals on the ground, the crunching sound carrying through the radio waves. "That saves me the trouble of reporting."

In the holographic image, Champion Zhong Lixuan suddenly unbuttoned his collar, revealing a faint black dragon pattern on his collarbone.

"Decades ago, I also received the Azure Cloud Token from Lie Kongzuo in the secret realm."

He ran his fingertips over the faded mark, a bitter smile tinged with reminiscence: "Back then, I was... also eighteen years old."

A distant rumble of ice breaking apart echoed as the two looked up at the distorted sky.

Zhong Lixuan's projection suddenly flickered violently, as if interfered with by some force: "This time... it's probably even more..." than what happened back then.

The intermittent voice message was eventually cut off by a jarring busy tone...

Then, Li Chen opened another chat interface.

With his thumb hovering above the screen, he hesitated for a moment before typing a line of text heavily.

The moment the send button was pressed, the distant secret realm barrier suddenly erupted with a blinding blue light.