I caught a Pokémon

They even know more than I do!

Ash and his friends were unaware of Alice's thoughts, but seeing that she seemed to have grasped something, they didn't bring it up. Instead, they waited until they could clearly see the symbols under the musical scale before carefully searching under the relief.

You know what, having more people makes things easier.

Although there were more than a hundred CDs and they were widely distributed, there were still too many of them!

With just a glance, Yami suddenly noticed something. Pointing to the first record under the big tree beneath Alice's grandmother Alicia in the relief, she exclaimed in surprise, "Look there! The symbols on that record are the same as in the photograph!"

The group looked up and found that the symbols on the plate matched the photos. Without being told, Xiao Zhi and Xiao Gang stepped forward, turned the large disc on the plate, brought the sound plate to their faces, took it down, and brought it back to Xia You.

It was only at this point that Xia You and the others truly saw the audio disc clearly.

Actually, it's called 'Zhang', but it would be more accurate to describe it as 'Kuai'.

It is flat, but has a certain thickness and a stone-like texture and weight. It looks like a manhole cover that has been shrunk several times. Although it is yellowish-brown, it is carved with exquisite patterns. Through the outer shell, you can see that there are also rings of patterns inside. It is probably like those common records, which are used to record and play sound.

Even for a complete newbie like Ash, holding it felt a bit heavy.

"This is a CD?"

The others also gathered around, examining the work with astonishment at the exquisite craftsmanship of something from seventy or eighty years ago.

Alice then said to Xia You, "This is indeed Orasion's sound disc. Now it's yours. So... what do you plan to do?"

"No rush." ​​Xia You took the music disc and found that it was indeed heavier than expected. "It's not the right time yet. Don't worry, I will use it properly."

Since Xia You had said so, Alice had no doubts and simply said, "Alright, then let me take you to visit the playback room. After all, only by putting the audio disc there can you play sound. But be prepared, it's at the very top of this Tower of Time and Space, and it will take a long time to climb up there!"

"No problem!" Xiao Zhi patted his chest loudly, looking completely unconcerned. "It's just climbing stairs, this is no challenge for me!"

Led by Alice, the group left the central hall and headed to the spiral staircase, where they began to ascend.

In fact, whether it's Xia You, Xiao Zhi, or the others, they have been traveling constantly, so their physical strength is naturally not a problem.

only……

When they reached the sixth floor, they felt completely relaxed and didn't even have to catch their breath.

When I reached the tenth floor, I still felt okay.

But when they climbed to about the twentieth floor without stopping, whether it was Haruka, Hikari, Yami, or Alice, they were all a little out of breath. Tony, who had been staying in the research lab all year round, was even more exhausted and broke out in a cold sweat!

This staircase is just too convoluted!

Even though they kept looking out and spiraling upwards, they still felt a little dizzy.

Only Xia You, Xiao Zhi, and Xiao Gang can hold on for the time being.

"I'm so tired..." Xiao Guang said with a pained expression. "How much higher do we have to go before we get there?"

Alice took a deep breath: "There's still more than half the height left, that's why I told you to get ready!"

"Useless!" Seeing Xiao Guang's expression, Xiao Zhi turned his hat back and said, "Alright, next, let me be the first person to climb to the top!"

As he spoke, he strode up the stairs, and as he passed by Xia You, he didn't forget to look back at her.

"Brother Xia You, how about a match with me!?"

"Forget it..." Xia You shook her head. "I have absolutely no interest in this kind of competition. You should just do your best."

"Tch, you guys are so unmotivated! Pikachu, let's go!!"

Ash laughed loudly, then, carrying Pikachu, charged straight up, disappearing completely from their sight in just a dozen steps.

Seeing his boundless energy, the others shook their heads speechlessly, but let Xiao Zhi go. However, after going up two more floors, when they reached a platform, Alice suddenly stopped.

Pointing to a hot air balloon parked on the platform, she said to the group, "Because it's a building from seventy or eighty years ago, and due to design reasons, there's no elevator installed. However, to make it easier to get to the rooftop, I specially left a hot air balloon here. Now we just need to take the hot air balloon up!"

"Huh?" May looked around but didn't see Ash, and was taken aback. "Then Ash..."

Alice gave a helpless, bitter smile.

"Actually, I wanted to call him back just now, but before I could even speak, he had already run far away..."

Hearing this, Xiao Guang chuckled, a smug look on his face: "Well, there's nothing we can do about it. It's just that Xiao Zhi is so impatient. Let's ignore him. Once we get to the top floor, he'll know who will be number one!"

Chapter 980 Begins

The hot air balloon carried Xia You and her group upwards.

However, after flying for only a short while, they saw Ash from the tower's window, still climbing upwards inside the tower.

At this moment, Ash's appearance was completely different from the enthusiastic state he had been just a few minutes ago.

Both he and Pikachu were completely unrefined, crawling and lifting themselves up step by step!

Clearly, they were completely exhausted.

This is an extremely rare scene for Ash Ketchum, a true rookie.

Seeing that Xiaoyao was about to call out to Xiaozhi, Xiayou stopped her with a smile.

"Let's not call him yet," he said, shaking his head. "Anyway, Xiaozhi can't jump out of the window and ride the hot air balloon right now, so let's sneak up first and give him a 'surprise' later!"

Hearing him say that, the others couldn't help but smile knowingly, remembering how Ash had just wanted to compete against them.

“That’s right!” Xiao Guang laughed. “Let’s give this guy a big surprise!”

It has to be said that compared to Xiao Zhi, who is still struggling to climb, going upstairs by hot air balloon is really pleasant, especially as the height increases and the whole town becomes smaller and smaller below them, giving them a different feeling.

The remaining twenty-odd floors were quickly reached.

Once they reached the rooftop platform, they disembarked from the hot air balloon, but Xiao Zhi was still nowhere in sight.

Once inside the tower again, the first thing you see is a huge device. Judging from its appearance, it is electrically powered. Through the gaps in the metal casing, you can see various embedded circuits and gears of different sizes, all slowly turning.

Besides this huge machine, it has also been used as a nesting place for many bird Pokémon. You can see many wild Pokémon living here. However, perhaps because someone cleans it regularly, it is still very clean even though so many have gathered here. There is no accumulation of droppings, feathers and debris that would affect the operation of the machine.

Walking up to the machine, Alice gestured and explained, "This is the core of this Time Tower, and also the control room for playing the audio discs. All the discs are connected to this machine and then transmitted to the entire town through the tower's loudspeakers."

Xia You nodded, her gaze sweeping over the huge machine, and casually asked, "If I want to play this CD in my hand, how do I operate it?"

"It's very simple."

Alice took the disc from Xia You, went to the machine and stepped on a pedal. As the casing popped open, she placed the disc into the central slot.

After doing all this, she pointed to a pull switch next to her and said to Xia You, "Next, just pull this switch all the way down, and it will start playing the disk."

Xia You nodded again, then asked, "This device needs electricity to operate, right? If the power suddenly goes out, where will it be replenished?"

"A power outage?" Alice was taken aback, then laughed. "That's impossible. There's a stable power supply here. In all the years since this Tower of Time was built, this has never happened before!"

Xia You didn't laugh, but looked at her calmly: "Nothing in this world is absolute. Just like before, didn't you also not expect Darkrai to cause a riot?"

Alice was initially surprised, then frowned. After a two-second silence, she pointed to the two electric needles on the machine: "Okay, you're right. There's nothing absolute. If there's a power outage and we happen to encounter an emergency, we can just use an Electric-type Pokémon to generate electricity for these two needles. However, to make the playback device work, it needs a lot of power. Ordinary Electric-type Pokémon can't do that, so to start it, it might require several Electric-type Pokémon to work together."

Xia You said no more, and just then, heavy footsteps could be heard from down the stairs, along with the sound of a broken bellows breathing heavily!

The group turned to look and saw Xiao Zhi, his eyes wide, trembling, and panting heavily as he climbed up!

Large beads of sweat dripped from his cheeks and onto the floor, clearly indicating that he was extremely exhausted.

Behind him, Pikachu was in just the same predicament, and it also had to climb up using both its hands and feet!

Xiao Zhi, who had just climbed up, was about to sit down on the ground to rest when he looked up and saw Xia You and her group looking at him leisurely. He immediately felt uncomfortable.

"You...you...you all..."

Pointing at these people, Xiao Zhi said "you" several times in a row, but he was still out of breath and couldn't say anything coherent.

Seeing his disheveled appearance, Xiao Guang walked up to him, put one hand on his hip, and couldn't help but laugh, "Don't blame us, you ran too fast before, so now... you finally know who's number one, right!?"

What else can Ash say?

Seeing Xiaoguang's smug look, he could only angrily turn his head away and refuse to look at her.

The group stood atop the tower and admired the view for a while. Then, Alice took out the Oracion CD and replaced it with another ordinary song. Under her control, a light and beautiful melody echoed over the town.

Through the observation telescope above, Xia You could clearly see the residents of the town, who seemed to be quite used to the sudden music playing.

Even on the streets and in the squares, you can see many people dancing to the music.

It really is a small town with a very relaxed pace of life...

In fact, whether it's the scenery or the development of the town, it's a great place for people to travel and settle down. No wonder there are so many people here every day.

After a few more minutes, Alice suggested that they go downstairs again for a stroll.

Apart from Ash, the others had no objections. However, Ash, having just exhausted all his strength to climb up and still sweating, was naturally reluctant to have to go down again.

However, he knew there was nothing to see here, so he had no choice but to return to the ground in a hot air balloon with the others.

And so they arrived at this point. Faced with Ash and the others' desire to go back to the town square, Xia You suddenly spoke up.

"Let's split up for now."

Hearing him say that, Xiao Zhi and the others all turned to look at him: "Hey? Brother Xia You, where are you going?"

"I have some personal matters to attend to." Xia You shook her head, not only without stating it explicitly, but also saying to Ya Mi and Xiao Yao, "You two should go with them too. I'll meet up with you after I've finished my business here."

Although the group was puzzled, they didn't ask any questions and instead watched him walk toward the Pokémon Center.

"Strange..." After Xia You walked away, Xiao Zhi couldn't help but scratch his head and say, "What did Brother Xia You go to do? Did he secretly go to find someone to battle?"

"No." Xiao Gang narrowed his eyes. "Maybe he's going to see some woman!"

"You two!" Xiao Yao's forehead creased with displeasure. She glanced at the two of them and said, "Can't Brother Xia You have his own things to do? Stop talking nonsense and get going!"

After all, they were travel companions who had traveled together before. When Ash and Brock saw that May was about to go berserk, they couldn't help but chuckle, but they didn't dare to provoke her any further.

But I can't help but sigh. It was one thing for Xiaoxia back then, but how come Xiaoyao, whose personality is completely different from Xiaoxia's, would also side with Xia You like this?

On the other side, after parting ways with Ash and the others, Xia You returned to the Pokémon Center alone.

After all, there's not much time left before 'starting'.

He also needs to make one last adjustment before the riots break out!

He went straight to the Poké Ball Teleporter, took out his phone, and contacted Sabrina and Tama to teleport his three legendary birds and Raikou over.

The main force in this upcoming battle is naturally Deoxys and Black Rayquaza, but just as he asked Iris, whether the Oracion sound disc can be played smoothly is also very important, which is why Raikou and Zapdos were brought to his side.

Although he doesn't have that many Electric-type Pokémon, these two powerful legendary Pokémon alone are enough to solve the problem of generating electricity.

As for the remaining Moltres and Articuno, they were naturally kept by their side as trump cards, in case some factors beyond their control occurred!

However, this still didn't seem safe enough. After thinking for a moment, he contacted Rika again and had her Celebi teleport over.

After doing all that, he returned to the street and immediately released the Charizard, which carried him back to the broadcasting room of the Tower of Time.

There was only one thing left for him to do.

That means staying here and waiting for the event to begin!

……

Located in the best vantage point in the entire Baiyang Town, Xia You was able to clearly see the situation in the town using the existing standing binoculars.

He saw more and more tourists flocking to the streets, strolling and exploring, making the town more and more lively. He also saw the busy side of people, and even saw Ash and his friends battling in the square.

Although their faces were too far away to see clearly, they could be easily identified by their clothing and appearance.

Their opponents were the same trio from yesterday, who were carrying Sinnoh starter Pokémon.

I really don't know... what kind of fate brought them together again!

What a coincidence!

Moreover, judging from the way Ash is jumping around in the binoculars, it seems he's determined to settle things with the man with the Torterra today!

Unfortunately, Ash's wish was destined to be in vain.

Just as Ash was locked in fierce combat with his opponent, the same spatial tremor they had experienced the day before struck again!

Moreover, this was no ordinary strong wind. A dazzling light suddenly burst forth from a certain point high in the Tower of Time and Space, instantly enveloping the entire town of Baiyang!

The light was so dazzling that, under such light pollution, people stopped what they were doing and looked up at the top of the Tower of Time and Space!

Before they could see anything clearly, the light suddenly receded and disappeared completely, as if it had just been a hallucination!

But everyone knew that it was definitely not a hallucination.

Just as people on the streets were discussing what that had just happened, Xia You, in the playback room at the top of the Tower of Time and Space, suddenly had her eyes light up.

After waiting for so long, it's finally starting...