Greatest Pokémon Trainer

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The Road of Champions challenge features progressively harder difficulties: the first four, the middle three, and the last three gates.

So far, Fang Yuan had managed to pass the first four gates rather smoothly, with not too much exhaustion.

One characteristic of the first four gates is that the Gatekeeper only has one Pokemon trained to its Species Limit, which is not very strong.

Moreover, the challenge rules are relatively less restrictive for the challenger.

For instance, at the third gate with Master Ye Hui, the opponent only had one Pokemon that could battle, while Fang Yuan could use a rotation battle and send out 12 Pokemon.

With rules like that, if Fang Yuan couldn't pass, he might as well find a Ditto and collide with it to death.

The smooth passage through the first four gates caused Fang Yuan to swell a bit with pride.

"The fifth gate, I should go and check in at the fifth gate next."

Having completed the fourth gate, Fang Yuan immediately left the gloomy valley, behind Master Jiang Liu, who was left in tears with a bunch of Ghost Pokemon.

Jiang Liu, all the Ghosts: T~T

If they had known, they wouldn't have become Gatekeepers. The Ghost Realm tactics seemed to clash with Fang Yuan's team...

............

After combining rest with travel, at around a quarter past nine, Fang Yuan arrived at the plain where the fifth gate was located.

By this time, Eevee, Glutton, and Monferno had pretty much finished resting.

The energy spent on executing a few Moves had been fully replenished.

Fang Yuan himself also rested for a long time.

In fact, it was Fang Yuan who needed rest the most.

Even though he was very restrained when using Aura power and didn't exert much energy, compared to the Pokemon's recovery speed, he was still too weak.

With Fang Yuan's current physical strength, he estimated that he could only support one more Z-Move before becoming exhausted.

Therefore, he absolutely could not casually use the wave-guiding power again...

He wasn't like an Eevee that could replenish its physical strength by eating Energy Blocks.

"Why can't I eat Energy Blocks to replenish my strength?"

Fang Yuan harbored a deep grudge. He had mastered Aura and Superpower; calling him a humanoid Pokemon wasn't an exaggeration, right?

Even if he couldn't enter a Poké Ball, but to not be able to fully absorb the nutrition from some foods?

Shivering with the cold, when could Trainers stand up for themselves.

He really wanted a Crabby's stomach...

"Rotom, do you have any ideas?"

Fang Yuan asked Rotom.

Maybe with the intelligence Rotom had developed under his influence, it could figure out Energy Blocks for Psychics to eat.

Rotom pondered for a moment and then played an advertisement.

"Drink XX Kidney Treasure, good for you and your Pokemon!"

"One bottle to refresh the mind, two bottles for tireless energy, three bottles for eternal youth."

Fang Yuan: ???

If there's no way, then no way, what's with the ad then?

"Boo-woh!"

Just as Fang Yuan was feeling aggrieved again, Dragonite suddenly cried out.

It had spotted a small black dot not far away, which must be the next Gatekeeper.

"Accelerate," Fang Yuan said.

At this point, Fang Yuan's expression became serious.

The information indicated that the fifth gate would be a quantum leap in difficulty compared to the first four gates, and he was eager to see how much experience it would provide for the Spirit egg if he passed.

Fang Yuan had a feeling that the Pokemon egg would be able to hatch soon.

For this Pokemon egg, he had been struggling for months, through low-quality battles and high-quality battles alike; surely the little one inside had had its fill by now!

Hatching Eevee back then didn't even take this much effort.

Soon, Dragonite flew to the figure.

After jumping down from Dragonite, Fang Yuan turned towards the Gatekeeper who had been waiting for him for a while and fell silent.

"Master Qiao Jing..."

This Gatekeeper possessed a certain age, with grey and white curly hair, and was smiling kindly at Fang Yuan.

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It was none other than one of the Twelve Branches, the leader in the healing domain, Wei Yang Qiao Jing.

Fang Yuan felt a twinge of toothache, why was he facing one of the Twelve Branches on the fifth challenge, who could tell him???

"You've finally made it here," Master Qiao Jing said with a beaming smile, "Arriving at the fifth challenge in three hours is not a bad speed, but the difficulty will now increase. Are you ready for it?"

"I suppose we are ready," Fang Yuan said, slightly tilting his head as he glanced at Eevee, the Self-detonating Magnetic Monster, Glutton, and Monferno.

His Pokemon were all in good condition, now ready to take on the fifth challenge!

"Very well, the rule for the fifth challenge is a 12VS2 standard battle. You can send out 12 Pokemon to fight, but I will only use two. However, you can only switch out when a Pokemon in battle is no longer able to fight."

Master Qiao Jing simply laid out the rules.

This rule was very much like the one Fang Yuan had during his challenge against Master Ye Hui.

The challenger could use all 12 of his Pokemon, whereas the gatekeeper could only use a fixed number of two.

This meant that even though his opponent was one of the Twelve Branches, Fang Yuan had no reason not to pass this test.

However, Fang Yuan had a feeling that it wouldn't be that simple.

Although it was said that Master Qiao Jing was the least skilled at battling among the Twelve Branches, ranking high surely meant her strength was definitely not weak.

"Is the goal still to wear down my strength?" Fang Yuan wondered.

Though the first four challenges had indeed consumed some of his energy, it was still within a manageable range. However, he didn't know how substantial the drain would be facing the trial of the Twelve Branches.

Anyway, he would have to give it a try!

..........

Inside the round table conference room where the Twelve Branches gathered.

As soon as Fang Yuan met with Master Qiao Jing, everyone there revealed a smile.

Battle God Fu Hei even squinted his eyes, looking forward with great anticipation.

Fang Yuan might not be aware, but Fu Hei, who had battled Qiao Jing, was very clear about her combat style.

The Wei Yang of the Twelve Branches, also known as the "non-aggressive trainer," could wear down her opponent to collapse with just defense and healing moves, even without using offensive moves.

Master Qiao Jing indeed was such a person; she disliked fighting, so her Pokemon were trained in a very extreme direction of defense and healing.

And it was this extremity that had countered many trainers.

This battle would not end as quickly for Fang Yuan as the previous ones had, which had been settled in minutes.

...

The battlefield for the fifth challenge was a plain.

Master Qiao Jing and Fang Yuan stood on opposite sides of a large area, observing each other.

As soon as Fang Yuan decided to begin the challenge, Master Qiao Jing immediately sent out her first Pokemon.

"Wooooosh!"

With a flash of white light and a sound emanating from the glow, a Pokemon with a blue body and a black tail appeared on the field.

This Pokemon also had a pair of eyes that seemed to be enduring something, which gave it a rather comical expression.

A Psychic Type, indeed, Wobbuffet.

"A Wobbuffet trained to its species limit, huh..." Fang Yuan said as he sensed its immense physical strength, which immediately gave him a headache.

Wobbuffet was a Pokemon that would not initiate attacks, only counter them.

If the force of the move wasn't overwhelming in its defense, the opponent would be in for a long battle of attrition.

Fang Yuan had no doubts about this Wobbuffet's defensive ability. A Wobbuffet of this caliber could probably be immune to similar level moves.

In his team, there were very few Pokemon that might pose a threat to this Wobbuffet, only two in total.

The Armed Magnetic Monster was a Three-in-one and did not conform to the rules, so it could not fight; Monferno couldn't open the four gates on its own and was also ineligible.

Thus, his only choices were Eevee and Gengar.

The fifth challenge, his opponent had merely sent out one Pokemon, one that didn't initiate attacks, yet it already placed immense pressure on Fang Yuan.

"Glutton!!" After pondering for a moment, Fang Yuan made his decision.

Eevee's basic power was too weak to penetrate the defense and the energy consumption of the Z-Move was more than he could afford, so he had to send in Super Gengar first.

"Kehehehe!!!" Following Fang Yuan's command, his Glutton floated slowly towards the field, eyeing the comically-faced Wobbuffet across from it with a strange expression.

It could feel that Fang Yuan's mood was very serious. Was this opponent difficult to deal with?

"Gengar, eh?" Master Qiao Jing saw Fang Yuan send out Gengar and nodded slightly. A good choice, she thought. So next, it should be a Mega Evolution, right?