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In Qin Province, a young man reached the peak of a mountain range.
The youth wore a red visor cap with a Poké Ball icon, a simple black undershirt, a red and white short-sleeved jacket on the outside, and deep blue casual pants on the bottom.
On his shoulder also sat an Eevee, equipped with an automatic temperature control.
After having Dragonite fly him here, Fang Yuan began to search for the Boxing King Xu Haoran who was said to be training deep in the mountains.
"I forgot to call you out too."
As he walked, Fang Yuan paused, pulled out a Poké Ball, pressed the button, and called out Monferno.
"Woo-ah!"
After being called out, Monferno first glanced at Fang Yuan's back... Ah, no backpack.
Ever since Glutton evolved into Gengar, unless Eevee wanted to sneak into the backpack to rest or play games, most essential items were typically carried by Glutton.
This gave Monferno a sigh of relief; it seemed in the future he truly would not need to help carry the backpack anymore, and both he and Fang Yuan were indeed liberated.
.........
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Deep in the mountain range, by a giant boulder, a youth with bandages wrapped around his wrists, bare-chested and wearing white boxing shorts, was engaging in a fight with a Machamp.
This youth had explosive muscles as if endless strength converged within; with quick attacks, punches, and kicks, his dazzling offensive displayed an extremely high level of physical prowess.
After the advent of the secret location, although the physical prowess of top-level martial artists could not stand against powerful Pokémon, they could still grapple with ordinary animals like Beartic, and quite easily overpower beasts like tigers and wolves with their bare hands.
At this place, besides Machamp, there were also a bunch of other Pokémon.
Like Mienshao, Blaze Chicken, Seismitoad, Breloom, Abilang, Heracle Cros, Toxicroak, Conkeldurr, Crabby, Rolling Rock...
Every single Pokémon was engaged in combat with one another.
At the most intense moment of the training, these Pokémon suddenly stopped and all looked towards one direction.
Fang Yuan, Eevee, and Monferno were coming from the foot of the mountain, their figures growing larger as they approached these Pokémon and Xu Haoran.
"Xu Haoran," the Boxing King looked towards Fang Yuan, nodded slightly in greeting, and then spoke.
The other's height exceeding two meters, combined with his muscular build, created a formidable presence. Xu Haoran introduced himself, and Fang Yuan also said, "I'm Fang Yuan."
The two men locked eyes for a moment and simultaneously burst into a smile,
Then, Xu Haoran spoke, "Since you want to learn martial arts, you must be prepared to endure hardship. During the teaching process, I will not consider your researcher status, your psychic status, or any other status; I will treat you solely as a martial arts apprentice."
"You better not end up like Su Shu, quitting halfway and fleeing in disarray."
Xu Haoran naturally knew the purpose of Fang Yuan's visit; Fang Yuan had explained when contacting him that he hoped to have a strong physique in order to better use his superpowers.
To this, Xu Haoran understood.
Indeed, even Su Shu, the Heavenly King, had consulted him before. Xu Haoran was all too aware of the problems with these psychics—possessing immense spiritual power but lacking a matching physical prowess, they were at the opposite end of the spectrum from martial artists.
"Su Shu, the Heavenly King?"
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Fang Yuan was curious, even Su Shu came to learn fighting skills from Xu Haoran?
"That's right."
Xu Haoran spoke up, decisively selling out Su Shu.
In order to have a strong physique to support his superpowers, Su Shu had also learned martial arts, but apparently, he didn't stick with it… at least, he hadn't reached Xu Haoran's level.
Within the Four Heavenly Kings, Su Shu and Xu Haoran were two extremes.
Su Shu's ranking was above Xu Haoran's, but in fact, every time the two battled to the end, although all of Xu Haoran's Pokémon had fallen, he, as a Trainer, always stood tall in the arena.
On Su Shu's side, although his Pokémon didn't fall, he, as a Trainer, would be exhausted from overloading his Pokémon with amplifications.
Clearly, the Fighting King harbored a grudge against the Psychic King.
"I've got it."
Fang Yuan smiled, not expecting Su Shu to have such a dark history, but if the teaching was too harsh, it would have been hard for him to persist...
While Xu Haoran was talking with Fang Yuan, Fang Yuan's Monferno cast a glance at the eleven Pokémon by Xu Haoran's side.
Its eyes were filled with a fighting spirit, clearly sensing the strength of these eleven Pokémon.
Xu Haoran's eleven main Pokémon were naturally paying attention to Monferno, feeling the attraction that comes with being fellow Fighting Spirits.
Seeing this, Xu Haoran said, "Shall we have a battle?"
He also wanted to personally assess Fang Yuan's strength.
"I would welcome it," Fang Yuan replied with a slight start, nodding his head.
Through Eevee, he had already made a fairly clear assessment of Xu Haoran's strength.
As a veteran King, having eleven main Pokémon, his number of main forces completely outdid Fang Yuan's – who so far only had six main forces, and the seventh main force, Garden Keeper Bulbasaur, was still in the training phase.
Among these eleven Pokémon, both Blaze Chicken and Abilang possessed at least the strength of the first stage of the top level, and to Eevee, they felt like the sort of well-rounded top-level combat power.
Beyond that, Pokémon like Mienshao and Toxicroak felt nearly top level to Eevee – although neither exerted the pressure of top-level Pokémon, Eevee could sense a mild threat coming from them.
This meant that both Pokémon were probably on par with Monferno in Thunder Flame Mode with the first door opened, possessing means to threaten top-level combat power and just able to spar with the weakest of top-level power. Without its Predictive Ability, Eevee wouldn't have observed this so clearly.
"Eleven main forces, the weakest of which have at least master level high-end strength, mostly nearly-top level. Although not quite to Jiang Li's standards, the foundation is much richer than Sister Xie's – no wonder she only won over Shang Ren, the Heavenly King, and was unable to shake the positions of the others..."
Observing the Fighting King's strength through psychic abilities provided a clearer picture than judging from the King's tournament videos, and now, Xu Haoran had picked out one of the Pokémon, intending to start the battle with Fang Yuan.
Under Xu Haoran's choice, Mienshao, with arms covered in fur that seemed as flexible as whips, stepped forward.
"Mienshao, huh?"
Since it was a friendly battle, Fang Yuan didn't plan to let Monferno forcefully open the second door, and besides, the new Inferno Shock Turbo Guards weren't ready, so this opponent might prove to be a tough fight for Monferno, who could only activate the normal Thunder Flame Mode.
Of course... that was if Fang Yuan didn't interfere with the fight. After all, compared to a martial artist, Fang Yuan had the big cheat of the Power of the Heart.
By then, a Monferno with one door opened wouldn't just barely be able to spar with the weakest of top-level power, but would genuinely be able to threaten the top-level combatants.