I caught a Pokémon

“That’s what I’m saying.” Makomo was clearly confused as well. “Doesn’t he have a lot of rare Pokémon? Why does it feel like… like he’s catching a Pokémon for the first time?”

“Perhaps it’s because this Pokémon is very meaningful to him.” In response to the two’s puzzlement, Yami smiled and said, “Didn’t he say before that Meloetta was on his wish list? Now that he has caught it, it can be considered that his wish has been fulfilled.”

Xia You was indeed very happy. After all, Meloetta, like Gardevoir and Mewtwo, was one of his favorite Pokémon before he transmigrated. Now that he had captured it, just as the others said, it was indeed a wish fulfilled.

But this good mood didn't last long.

It's raining.

And it was a torrential downpour.

The heavy rain came too suddenly, catching the group off guard. In the forest, they had nowhere to take shelter from the rain. Fortunately, Mewtwo was there, and the barrier it created effectively blocked the onslaught of the rain.

But this is clearly not a long-term solution.

The heavy rain is unlikely to stop anytime soon.

Large raindrops pounded on the invisible barrier erected by Mewtwo, making a dense "pitter-patter" sound.

The water cascaded down the curved edge of the barrier like a waterfall, obscuring their view.

The light in the forest quickly dimmed, and the once clear path became blurred and indistinct as it was covered by water and mud.

"This rain is too heavy!"

Xiao Guang hid next to Ya Mi. Even with the barrier in place, the splashing mud and howling wind still made her shrink back. Her trousers and shoes were quickly soaked, and a chill crept up her ankles.

Yami and Makomo were in no better shape; their skirts and coat hems were covered in mud, and their hair was damp and stuck to their cheeks.

"We need to find shelter from the rain; this can't go on!"

Makomo pushed up her glasses, which were fogged up by the rain, and looked around. But as a newcomer, how could she possibly know where to take shelter from the rain nearby?

Helpless, Xia You could only turn her head to look at Mewtwo.

"Can you detect any places nearby where we can take shelter from the rain? Caves or rock shelters would be fine."

In fact, with Mewtwo's power, it could easily fly to the sky and then dispel the rain clouds covering its head.

But Xia You wouldn't do that.

After all, this heavy rain was not caused by any Pokémon; it was a natural phenomenon, an inevitable result of climate change after the natural cycle.

Therefore, he will not interfere with such natural phenomena.

Even though it caused him some trouble, he understood that it was this rain that nurtured the surrounding forests, making the place so vibrant now.

Upon hearing Xia You's words, Mewtwo's amethyst-like eyes gleamed, and its powerful mental energy spread outwards like invisible radar waves.

A few seconds later, it stretched out its hand and pointed to a hillside to the left that was partially hidden by vines and dense bushes.

"Over there, I sense a cavity inside the rock structure. The entrance is hidden by plants, and there's enough space inside for you to hide."

Xia You nodded and waved to the people beside her.

"Come on, let's go to the cave ahead to take shelter from the rain!"

Guided by Mewtwo and protected by the barrier, the group trudged up the hillside, their steps uneven.

The rain made the ground extremely slippery and muddy, and people frequently slipped and fell. Fortunately, they helped each other and no one fell.

As they painstakingly pushed aside the damp vines and bushes, a dark, irregularly shaped hole, about two people high, was revealed.

Water was flowing into the cave entrance along the cracks in the rocks, but the inside looked quite dry, and there was a relatively cool breeze carrying a dusty smell.

This is indeed a great place to take shelter from the rain!

Xia You stepped into the cave first, then turned around to help Xiao Guang and the others in.

Mewtwo was the last to enter, and the moment it retracted its barrier, the noisy rain outside the cave, now unobstructed, became even louder.

"Phew... at least I have a place to shelter from the rain."

Xiao Guang breathed a sigh of relief and, using the faint light filtering through the cave entrance, looked around at the temporary shelter.

The cave interior is more spacious than the entrance, with a relatively flat rock floor and dry walls. There is no obvious water accumulation or stalactites, making it look like a naturally formed cave.

Yami took out several dry towels from her backpack and distributed them to everyone to wipe the water droplets off their faces and hair.

Makomo then took out a portable flashlight, turned it on, and the beam of light pierced the darkness of the cave.

However, just as they settled in and were preparing to start a fire to dry their clothes—

Rumble...!!!

A deep, muffled thud came from the direction of the cave entrance, followed by the clamor of a large amount of soil, gravel, and broken wood rolling down!

The sound caused the entire cave to tremble slightly, and dust fell in a flurry.

"What's wrong!?"

Xiao Guang exclaimed in surprise, and the others turned around to look at the cave entrance at the same time.

The opening that once let in sunlight was now completely blocked by a large amount of fallen soil, rocks, and broken plant roots, leaving only a few gaps, so that not even a sliver of light could get in.

Outside, the sounds of pattering water and the soft rustling of mud sliding down could be faintly heard.

"It's a landslide! The rainwater has loosened the mountainside!"

Makomo's expression changed, and she immediately shone her flashlight into the buried hole.

But it was completely blocked, and no one knew how thick it was, but one thing was certain: if you tried to dig it out by hand, it would probably take days.

"This is terrible! We're buried inside!"

Xiao Guang's voice carried a hint of panic; after all, anyone suddenly being buried alive in a cave would feel uneasy.

Ya Mi frowned and looked at Xia You with concern.

Xia You, however, appeared quite calm. He walked to the entrance of the buried cave, reached out and touched the damp soil and stones, listened to the sounds outside, and then turned to give the nervous girls a reassuring smile.

"Don't panic, it's just a small landslide. Although the entrance is blocked, it's not a big problem for us."

He patted Mewtwo beside him, looking nonchalant: "Don't worry, even if the landslide buries us all here, don't forget, this guy can bring us all out safely!"

Chapter 1342 Earthquake

Hearing Xia You's words and seeing his calm and composed expression, Xiao Guang and the others realized that, unlike ordinary people like them, this man could not be judged by common sense.

Yes, with Xia You around and his powerful Pokémon, a mere landslide is really nothing.

This immediately put their minds at ease.

Thinking this, Xiao Guang couldn't help but stick out his tongue.

"It's all Xiao Zhi's fault. He's always been so unlucky when we travel together, that we always run into situations like this. I'm starting to have a stress response. Now that it's happened again, I subconsciously think we're doomed again. I completely forgot that Xia You isn't like him. No matter what kind of predicament we're in, he can always get us out of there safely!"

Thank you for trusting me so much...

Xia You experienced both a sense of accomplishment from being trusted and a sense of pressure stemming from that trust.

After all, the feeling of being completely trusted by others makes it seem as if you would let them down if you relaxed even slightly.

But speaking of Ash...

He asked curiously, "I saw Ash contacted you before we left the Pokémon Center yesterday. How is he doing now?"

Xiao Guang thought for a moment: "He seemed to say that he met two new companions. I forgot the name of the girl, but the other one seems to be one of the gym leaders we met in Sanyo City before!"

Yami asked, somewhat puzzled, "A gym leader traveling with Ash?"

Xiao Guang nodded: "It seems so, but I don't know exactly who it is yet. But Yami-nee, have you forgotten? Didn't Ash travel with the Gym Leader before? It was Brock, who used to be the Gym Leader of the Kanto region!"

Upon hearing her reminder, Yami instantly recalled the lecherous-looking man with small eyes who had always followed Ash in the Sinnoh region.

So his name was Little...Little Dang...

"That's really impressive. I have to say, this kid always manages to attract all sorts of people. I wonder which of the three is traveling with him."

Others may not know, but Xia You knows it all too well.

Ash's two companions must be Iris and Cilan.

As expected, just like in the anime, Ash encountered his two companions by chance, officially beginning his new journey in this region.

That hasn't changed at all.

However, compared to his own progress, Ash is indeed much slower.

But at least through this timeline, using Xiaozhi as a time axis, we can roughly grasp the progress of each event.

Of course, it's not really that useful anyway.

Ignoring Xiao Zhi, Xia You took out her flashlight, turned it on, and shone it at the completely sealed entrance.

Hearing the continued patter of rain outside, he shook his head and said, "It's still raining outside. Even if we go out now, there's nowhere to go. Why don't we..."

At this point, he turned the flashlight beam into the depths of the cave, where the light disappeared into the profound darkness, continuing to extend inwards, pitch black, its destination unknown.

"Since we're already here, and we're just killing time anyway, why not go further in and see if there are any rare Pokémon deep inside this cave?"

"An adventure?" Makomo's eyes lit up noticeably. "Great! Great! I've always had this idea, but I've never actually explored such a deep cave before! Could there be ancient ruins inside? Or sleeping Pokémon? Or perhaps some rare minerals?"

I can tell from the sound.

Makomo was genuinely interested in this kind of adventure. For a well-behaved girl like her who had always sat in the research lab, exploring and investigating unknown caves could indeed bring her a different kind of novelty.

Compared to her, Yami hesitated for a moment before glancing at the dark cave.

She was born with a fear of darkness and ghosts, and even with Xia You by her side, she still instinctively felt fear and resistance towards them.

I don't know why, but it just feels really scary inside.

If she had a choice, she certainly wouldn't risk going into a place like this, but now…

"Is it... safe inside?" Yami hesitated. "I mean... is the air circulation okay? It feels like it might be stuffy... and with the collapse just now, could it have affected the inside of the cave?"

"Don't worry, it was just a landslide on the surface of the mountain because of the rain. It won't affect the cave."

The speaker was Dawn. Despite being the youngest, she, like Ash, had a strong interest in all kinds of adventures and was very brave. Darkness was not an obstacle for her.

Seeing that two people agreed, and that more than half were in favor, Xia You immediately made the decision to explore the cave.

Before taking action, however, he gently reassured Yami: "It's nothing serious. Just stay by my side. No matter what happens, I will protect you."

The power of love undoubtedly makes people braver. Yami nodded gently and reached out to hug Xia You's arm.

Faced with this 'sour' smell of love and their public display of affection, Makomo and Hikaru exchanged a helpless glance, then shook their heads and looked elsewhere.

Makomo rummaged through her backpack, took out a strange device, and held it in her hand.

Although her backpack wasn't like Ash's companion Clemont's when they traveled in the Kalos region, which could pull out all sorts of technological devices and even some large equipment, it was clearly well-stocked and contained all the necessary equipment.

The device she's holding right now is used to monitor rock data.

The beam of a powerful flashlight cut through the darkness deep within the cave, and the group carefully descended along the naturally formed rock passage.

Surprisingly, the cave was not completely dark inside.

After walking for about several dozen meters, moss and mushrooms with a soft fluorescent glow began to appear on the rock walls on both sides.

These fluorescent organisms vary in size; some resemble tiny stars, while others cluster together, forming pale blue or light green halos that illuminate certain areas in a hazy and dreamlike manner.

Deeper inside, you can occasionally see clusters of shimmering crystals embedded in the rock walls, like sleeping gems, refracting enchanting fragments of light when a flashlight beam shines through them.

"Wow...so beautiful!" Makomo was immediately drawn to them, exclaiming in amazement while curiously looking around. "I've never seen these glowing mushrooms and rocks before. What are they called?"

No one, not even Xia You, Xiao Guang, Ya Mi, or Mewtwo, could answer this question for her.

After all, they weren't scholars, and they had never paid attention to these 'commonplace' things before, so how could they possibly know the names of these things?

Before they could answer, Makomo had already fully entered research mode.

Holding a flashlight in one hand and the testing equipment in the other, she would occasionally crouch down to gently touch the glowing moss with her gloved fingers, or get closer to observe the crystal clusters on the rock wall, muttering to herself: "The fluorescence index is stable, the wavelength is in the blue-green band of the visible light spectrum... The symbiotic bacteria of this moss may be the key... The composition of the crystals needs to be sampled and analyzed..."

He then quickly pulled out his phone, opened the recording app, took photos, and recorded data, busy as a bee. His eyes behind his glasses sparkled with excitement, as if he were completely immersed in his own world.

After doing all this, but still not hearing a response from anyone, Makomo belatedly turned around and saw the expressions on Xia You and the others' faces, realizing that she had asked in vain.

She shook her head, no longer paying attention to these things. Instead, she took out several small transparent bags from somewhere, opened them, collected some samples with a brush, and then continued forward with them.

It was clear that she knew this was not a place to stay for long, so she wanted to wait until she had time to conduct further research.

Seeing all this, Xiao Guang was secretly amazed.

Turning to Xia You and Ya Mi, she whispered, "Is this what a dedicated PhD student looks like? It seems like nothing that happens around her can affect her anymore."