Not a trainer this time.

Chapter 511 Articuno: So, what is the price?
At the bottom of the ice cave on the Twin Islands, bursts of milky white cold air continued to emanate from the ice-blue lake.

The two bird Pokémon floated at opposite ends of the lake, their eyes meeting in mid-air.

"Chirp!"

The Zapdos stared at the Articuno in front of it with sharp eyes and let out a sharp cry.

Seeing the malicious look of Zapdos, Articuno's heart suddenly started to alarm.

It calmly asked back: "Buxiyi?" (What are you doing here?)

Zapdos: "Come with me and leave here! I'll take you to a good place where you will be reborn!"

Hearing this, Articuno was slightly stunned. It didn't quite understand what Zapdos meant.

Get out of here? Get a new life?
Articuno narrowed his eyes, always feeling that Zapdos was weird.

It looked up and down at the bird Pokémon it hadn't seen for a long time, and then asked in confusion: "Buxiyi?" (What's wrong with you?)

Lightning Bird explained in detail: "Chiu." (It's okay, I just have some treasures to share with you and Moltres. Come with me, and you will gain more powerful power there.)
Articuno felt that the Zapdos in front of him was increasingly strange, and he was somewhat interested in what Zapdos said.

But Articuno, which has existed in this world for hundreds of years, is very smart.

It was not immediately attracted by Zapdos's words, but pretended to be uninterested:
"Boo-hoo!" (I'm not interested in what you're saying, so please leave here!)
Zapdos thought Articuno would agree to it, but when it saw Articuno refuse, it frowned slightly.

But soon, Lightning Bird figured out one thing.

To make steamed buns, you don’t need the Pokémon themselves to be present, all you need are their feathers!

Realizing this, Zapdos immediately decided to take the simplest and most brutal method.

It let out a sharp cry towards the sky, and crackling electricity rushed out of its body. The yellow electric light instantly illuminated the cold cave.

The huge amount of electrical energy gathered at one point, turning into a beam of light that suddenly blasted towards the Articuno on the opposite side.

One hundred thousand volts!

"Buh-hi-hi!"

Articuno looked extremely serious, and it quickly used its wings to protect itself in front of it to resist.

In the blink of an eye, the dense electric lights drowned Articuno.

Articuno, who was in a defensive state, noticed the powerful electric current out of the corner of his eye and was greatly shocked.

That power...

No, that's not right! When did that lightning bird become so powerful? !
Could it be that Zapdos hadn't just lied to it? Was everything he said true?
Just as Articuno was stunned, the Zapdos on the opposite side suddenly stopped, flapped its wings, and flew towards Articuno.

A white light burst out from the beak of the lightning bird, and in a flash, the lightning bird pecked at the body of the freezing bird.
"Buh-hi-hi!"

The sudden attack caught Articuno off guard, causing it to let out a scream.

Then, it saw its beautiful blue feathers being pecked off by the Zapdos and slowly falling to the ground.

"Buh-hi-hi!"

Articuno was angry.

And along with its anger, the entire ice cave around it began to tremble violently.

Cracks quickly spread along the ice covering the walls of the cave, and a bone-chilling chill surged out of Articuno's body, smashing towards Zapdos like an avalanche.

Realizing the danger, Zapdos immediately flew backwards without hesitation, with Articuno chasing closely behind.

The two bird Pokémon started an extremely fierce chase in this narrow cave.

But in the end, Zapdos is the winner because it is much faster than Articuno!

In addition, the passages in this ice cave are interconnected, and some places are connected end to end. Zapdos quickly thought of using the terrain to his advantage, thereby speeding up and going around behind Articuno.

He used his full strength of 100,000 volts, and the dazzling electric light instantly engulfed the Articuno in front of him.

The sudden attack caused Articuno to lose its balance instantly, and it stopped in a panic after breaking several icicles in succession.

The Zapdos slowly landed in front of Articuno, and then picked up the ice-blue feathers on the ground with its mouth in front of it.

Are those... the feathers it just shed?

Looking at this scene, Articuno was slightly stunned. It stared at what the Zapdos did in disbelief.

However, after Zapdos collected all of Articuno's feathers, it used its mouth to take out a bottle of life-giving goat's milk that Naoki had prepared for it from its bag and placed it next to Articuno.

"Chirp!"

Articuno was slightly stunned.

Its eyes glanced at the satchel on Zapdos again.

Articuno recognized it as a human creation at a glance.

"Boo-hoo!" (You have been conquered by humans!)

Could it be that what Zapdos just said was about using human power to help them become stronger? !
This thought came to Articuno's mind.

Lightning Bird glanced at it, and Naoki's smiling face appeared in his mind. He shook his head and said:
"Chiu." (He didn't conquer me. He is a very good person. I am willing to stay by his side.)
It’s a pity that Naoki has many powerful Pokémon, so it can’t be of much help.

However, since we don’t need to fight on a regular basis and we all live together on the ranch, it doesn’t matter.

Hearing this, Articuno was stunned again.

Is Zapdos giving away money?

At this moment, Articuno suddenly wanted to know what kind of human could make the proud Zapdos willing to become his Pokémon from the bottom of his heart.

However, Zapdos did not say much, as it had achieved the purpose of its trip.

Since Articuno doesn't want to go over, there is no need for it to stay here.

Thinking of this, Zapdos turned around and prepared to leave to look for Moltres.

However, just as it was about to flap its wings, the Articuno behind it suddenly called out to it.

Zapdos heard it and asked, "So, what's the price?"

It's impossible for humans to help them for no reason, right?

Articuno looked at the Zapdos in front of him, waiting for its answer.

The lightning bird shook its head, opened its mouth and uttered a few words: "Chirp." (Your feathers.)
Articuno: “?”

*
It's a brand new day at Naoki Ranch.

That afternoon, it was a rare occasion that no wild trainers came to challenge the ranch.

Naoki had nothing to do, so he just started to sort out the clutter that had accumulated at home.

Not only Naoki, but also Gulden and the others became idle.

Small Pokémon like Eevee and Lucky stayed at home and played around, playing hide-and-seek.

They were running around on the stairwell and on the floor, with feather dusters in their hands. The brother, Ai Guanshi, who was doing housework, looked at the noisy Pokémon helplessly.

Pokémon like Motorlizard and Uruk-O, which like warm environment and sunshine, all ran to the grass in the pasture to bask in the sun leisurely. Only Gulden was an exception, and would go to harass Naoki from time to time.

The sunlight outside the window was just right, shining into the room through the window and filling the entire desk.

Naoki sat on the desk and picked up a large box.

Then he took out postcards and photos with bear and cat paw prints on them, as well as a small box containing various stones and glass marbles.

These were sent back by Menghuan and Bear Baby who were traveling abroad.

After the Chinese New Year, the two Pokémon went to the Sinnoh region.

In just a few months, they went to many places and met many Pokémon.

As before, Bear Baby and Mew will ask their wild Pokémon friends to help return the photos they took and the treasures they picked up to the ranch.

Before, Naoki was either looking for the ancient tripod deer, ancient jade fish, etc., or busy receiving visiting challengers, so he didn't have much time to check.

Now the ancient deer have been tamed, and the challengers have all been taken away by Ye Ci.

Naoki had nothing to do, so he decided to take this opportunity to take a closer look at the things that Bear Baby and Mew had sent back from the wild flying Pokémon.

There are a lot of photos, all taken with Pokémon, and most of those Pokémon are from the Sinnoh region.

With the company and encouragement of the expedition team, Pogaman, who was afraid of water, successfully overcame his fear and went into the water again.

Helped the lost swimming ring weasel find its family,

Help two loving sea slugs solve the troubles of a long-distance relationship and allow them to reunite across the entire Sinnoh continent.

In addition, Naoki also saw an old turtle that was so tired that it couldn't straighten its back because there were too many wild Pokémon living on its back.

It was a turtle that was much larger than the ordinary turtle.

It has a huge body shaped like a beautiful garden, and its huge back shell is covered with lush green grass and trees.

Squirtle is a very interesting Pokémon. It evolves from the grass-attribute starter Pokémon of the Sinnoh region, Squirtle.

After evolving to the final stage, the earth turtle will become lazy and often stay in one place without moving.

At this time, it will attract some small Pokémon to gather in the "forest" on its back and build nests.

There are even some Pokémon that are born on the back of a Tortoise and spend their entire lives on its back.

Naoki had previously read history books compiled by humans in the Pokémon world.

The book records that in the distant past, some ancient scholars imagined that there was a giant tortoise under the earth, and that all humans lived on the back of the tortoise.

The huge Toei was crushed by the large number of Pokémon living on its back, and was forced to seek help from a passing expedition team.

Mew and Bearcat used Naoki's experience of building homes for the Pokémon on the ranch as a prototype, and eventually used wood, branches, and dirt to help the smaller Pokémon build homes around Squirtle.

The turtle finally straightened up and was able to walk normally.

Later, Tortoise became the patron saint of the "Pokémon Village" and lived there with those Pokémon.

"Tsk, I wonder what expressions those Pokémon scholars would have if they discovered this village with only Pokémon." Naoki couldn't help but laugh.

At that time they will definitely be shocked, thinking that Pokémon can also develop civilization and eventually become an unsolved mystery of the world.

Gulden, who walked in quietly and was about to scare Naoki, saw Naoki laughing there and couldn't help but run up curiously.

"Ah gah?"

"Look at this turtle..." Naoki held up the photo and told Gulden the story behind it.

As for how he knew, it was all thanks to the Rotom phone in Mew and Bear Baby's hands that helped translate.

However, Gulden was not very interested in all this.

"Ah, gah..." Its eyes turned to the small box next to it: "Ah, gah?"

"This?" Naoki held up the box. "These are the treasures that Baby Bear has brought back during this period. Its characteristic is picking up. Pokémon with this characteristic like to pick up treasures on the road and bring them home to collect."

As he said that, Naoki opened the box.

There are pearls, star sand in transparent glass bottles, scales shed by wild Milotic, teeth dropped by Dragon Pokémon in battle, and more.

Naoki took out these props one by one, so Lewton watched curiously from the side.

"This seems to be called Dragon's Fang?" Naoki took out the Dragon's Fang and gestured on Gulden twice.

If he remembered correctly, this item could increase the power of dragon-attribute moves used by Pokémon.

Gulden didn't have any props on him at the moment, and Naoki suddenly became interested: "Gulden, do you want to try wearing it?"

However, Gulden's face was full of disgust.

It doesn't want the teeth that other Dragon-type Pokémon have shed!
Naoki: "..."

Well! It turns out that Gulerton is a dragon with mysophobia.

"Okay, then don't wear it if you don't want to." Naoki put the Dragon's Fang away. There was no need for fighting on the ranch anyway, so Leton didn't need it at all now.

At this moment, Naoki suddenly found a round stone like a bead at the bottom of the box.

"what?"

Looking at the egg-like stone, Naoki initially thought it was the egg of a Pokémon, but when he looked closely, he realized that it was just a stone.

Unable to recognize it with the naked eye, Naoki asked the Rotom phone to scan it for him and search on the Internet.

Soon, the Rotom phone gave the answer.

[Round Stone: A magical stone that can make certain Pokémon evolve. It is as round as a bead and is the favorite gift for Pokémon like Lucky Egg. If Lucky Egg carries it, it has a chance to evolve into Lucky Egg.]

Hmm? What is this?
As soon as he stood up, he was attracted by it.

Baby Bear is so awesome, he knows what he needs and sends it back to him!
Is this also part of [super luck]?
Long live baby bear!
Naoki happily kissed Gulden's forehead, then stood up and walked out the door.

He found the little lucky egg playing hide-and-seek with the Eevees on the second floor.

When he saw Naoki, Xiao Fudan made a quiet gesture to indicate that he was playing hide-and-seek with Eevee and the others and couldn't go out yet.

Until Naoki took out the round stone.

Little lucky egg: "!!!"

Sure enough, just as Naoki expected, the moment he saw the round stone, Xiao Fudan's eyes lit up.

"Buku!"

It didn't even bother playing hide-and-seek. It crawled out from under the bed and ran to Naoki, looking at the round stone that looked like an "egg" with great excitement.

"Boku..."

What a beautiful stone! Big, round and white, this is exactly the treasure it has always dreamed of!
"Do you like it?" Naoki asked with a smile.

"Buku!" Little Fukudan nodded repeatedly, then jumped up and happily hugged Naoki with his short little arms.

(End of this chapter)