"It should be stable now," Fang Yuan thought to himself as he watched Xie Qingyi from the spectator seats.
On the field, with her short chestnut hair, Xie Qingyi had perfectly merged with the power of Fairy Light, resembling a battle goddess under the moonlight, capturing everyone's attention.
Since Diamond Princess Di Anxi, whom Fang Yuan was expecting, did not show up, there was no suspense left for the champion of the Fairy-Type event.
This gold medal belonged to nobody else but Xie Qingyi.
Her Alolan Ninetails was so powerful that it left the other contestants helpless.
With both Ice and Fairy types at the top tier and spiritual power qualities also at top level, her strength had already surpassed that of Luo Kuo.
It was even a notch above that of Su Shu's Monferno.
"Sister Xie's talent is really amazing…" Fang Yuan smiled, no wonder there were rumors that Shang Ren was once again crushed by Xie Qingyi within their team.
During the King Tournament, Shang Ren lost to Xie Qingyi because he lacked top-level combat power.
Now, even though Shang Ren finally had top-level combat power, Xie Qingyi's Alolan Ninetails had already become as powerful as Ninetales belonging to the seasoned Kings like Jiang Li, Yun Kai, and Xu Haoran.
Her strength was even beginning to transition to the Top Second Stage; it would be odd if Shang Ren could win.
"Three golds, two bronzes!"
Soon after, the results were announced.
That was the final tally for Hua Nation's first team, a dominant showing compared to most other countries.
The three gold medals were won by Jiang Li, Su Shu, and Xie Qingyi, respectively.
The two bronze medals, one was won by Xie Qingyi, and the other by Yun Kai. As for the Boxing King Xu Haoran, he withdrew into his shell.
Accurately speaking, both Yun Kai and Xu Haoran felt withdrawn.
Dragon and Fighting are popular attributes with many strong contenders, and lacking the power to overwhelm competitors of the same attribute led to their unfortunate outcomes.
Although there were many strong contenders in the Ghost Type events as well, Jiang Li clearly possessed undeniable strength.
And on the Psychic Type side, Su Shu was in a league of his own, completely unreasonable in his strength.
Xie Qingyi, on the other hand, was facing almost no competition in the less popular Fairy Type, making the gold medal something she simply picked up.
In the arena, as she claimed victory, Xie Qingyi's face broke into a radiant smile, and countless cameras began to capture her expression; unsurprisingly, her popularity in Hua Nation was set to rise even higher.
Fang Yuan and the others were swept up in the celebratory mood, feeling overjoyed.
"Next, the first and second teams will merge, and we will conduct the strategy meeting together."
After the Fairy-Type event concluded, Jiang Li sighed in relief.
It was finally over; to be honest, he didn't like this kind of competition very much, and at most, the results had only referential value.
He preferred to battle in earnest, as such victories were more convincing.
"Merging already?"
"Yeah, great!" As soon as Jiang Li spoke, Shang Ren was the first to respond.
Looks like it was time to switch to a new leader's command...
Even though Fang Yuan's random drawing method was very convenient, it always gave Shang Ren a tingling feeling of discomfort, and with that thought, Shang Ren sneakily glanced at Fang Yuan.
"Old Shang, what are you looking at?" Fang Yuan noticed Shang Ren's gaze and looked back, prompting Shang Ren to immediately turn his head away in guilt.
"No, I wasn't looking at anything."
Tang Xinlan, Mu Fan, and Zheng Hongyi smirked—they all knew what he was thinking, so there was no need for him to pretend.
......
After Xie Qingyi collected her gold medal, both the first and second teams, a total of ten members, celebrated the second team's advancement and the first team's good results with a meal and enjoyed a good night's rest.
After the dinner, everyone returned to their dormitories. They would have the next day, the 6th, to relax, except that team leaders from every country needed to draw lots in the morning. The rest of the day was free.
However, the decisive Championship Tournament would officially begin on the 7th, so probably no team was relaxed enough to take the day off; they would likely spend most of their time researching their opponents.
At ten o'clock in the evening, night had fallen.
Fang Yuan was already planning to go to sleep, but on the sofa, Eevee suddenly started "bwwoing," asking Fang Yuan to check the group chat.
"Making such a fuss." Fang Yuan rubbed his eyes, feeling extremely sleepy even though he had just taken a bath.
Indeed, I'm getting old.
Fang Yuan walked over, picked up his mobile phone, and then squinted his eyes.
The national team's group chat had exploded, with members of both first and second teams fiercely spamming the chat.
The reason was a video of a battle that Jiang Li had shared, lasting over five minutes.
The competitors in the battle were a brawny young man with tall stature and dyed orange-red hair and another young man with a heavy beard and lots of body hair, his skin pale.
The two engaged in a 3-on-3 Pokémon battle.
Jiang Li: [This is a battle video of the American Champion Gura and the former Russian Four Heavenly Kings Champion. Everyone, take a look.]
In the video, the first battle featured Volcarona and Double-axe Battle Dragon.
Volcarona spread Scale Powder while flying all around. The special combination of Scale Powder and flames created a sea of Sun Fire, with the fiery blaze transforming the arena into a sea of fire.
The fierce flames, like the wrath of the sun under the influence of the Storm technique, constantly changed shape, forming a prison of Hellfire that trapped the Double-axe Battle Dragon.
In just a minute, the Double-axe Battle Dragon was scorched black and collapsed, its body charred.
After that, Volcarona faced its second opponent, Gyarados.
With its flames suppressed by Water flow, Volcarona changed its tactics, stopped using Hurricane to control the sea of fire, and began performing Butterfly Dance, condensing the sea of fire into a cocoon of raging flames forming a fiery armor around itself.
Wrapped in the cocoon of fire, Volcarona's flames seemed highly concentrated, its body's flame hot enough to instantly evaporate any Water flow.
""
Fang Yuan let out a sigh, "Flame Body ability combined with a special Scale Powder to form a fiery armor? Is its power that formidable?"
At last, the Pokémon World was tragically defeated, withstanding the Outrage with Volcarona's dance of flames, virtually bulldozed in the onslaught.
The third match was between Glalie and Volcarona.
This Glalie was incredibly powerful. Despite its disadvantageous type matchup, the breath it exhaled could freeze even the flame armor.
It was precisely this Glalie that had the longest battle against Volcarona.
The other two matches combined took less than two minutes, but this one lasted nearly four.
On the field, with just a thought, Glalie transformed a sea of flames into a glacial world.
However, Volcarona didn't fall behind in the slightest. As it used the Sunny Day Move, harnessing the power of the natural sun, its strength instantly climbed a notch.
Facing Volcarona, which could use Sun Power to an extraordinary degree, Glalie powerlessly watched its opponent gradually increase the advantage.
Afterward, Volcarona used its abundant physical strength to corner Glalie into a tight spot.
In the end, even an Explosion technique from Glalie failed to take down Volcarona.
"Is that all you've got?" Gura stood next to the heavily wounded Volcarona, looking arrogantly at his opponent, speaking disdainfully.
And his opponent's face had turned completely ashen.
Mu Fan: "What the... What's going on here?"
"Russian Andrei, the previous Champion, was a Hall of Fame Trainer from the last edition."
According to the World Championship rules, each tournament selects five "Most Valuable Trainers" to be recorded in the Pokémon Alliance Hall of Fame, becoming Hall of Fame Trainers.
This Most Valuable Trainer selection is based on the trainers' performance during the matches.
Theoretically speaking, within a team, the trainer who performs best, brings the team good results, and plays a decisive role in the outcome is the one who earns the title.
In short, those few who are eligible to become Hall of Fame Trainers of each championship are champion-level figures from the major nations.
Russian Andrei, the previous Four Heavenly Kings Champion, led Russia to outstanding achievements in the World Sprite Alliance tournament and was selected for that year's Hall of Fame. His strength was monstrous.
Especially his trump card elf, Glalie, whose body armor of ice was formed of extremely ancient Unmelting Ice and was known as the Ice King.
Such a figure should have already retired, so why was he competing against America's champion, Gura?
And looking at the situation, it seems it has happened recently?
Jiang Li: "This battle video is from today; the venue is a public battle arena on Alliance Island..."
At this moment, Jiang Li was also baffled and had not expected Gura to be so fierce as to engage in such high-intensity battles before the Championship finals.
Isn't he worried about revealing his strength?
Accurately speaking, much has already been revealed, after all, his opponent was a previous Hall of Fame Trainer.
Is Gura foolish, arrogant, or just confident?
Moreover, to let the entire battle video leak out like this...
The Hua Nation quickly understood the reason: Gura was a substitute player for the previous Mi Country team competing in the last Alliance championship. However, back then, he was relatively unknown.
In that competition, Gura had a conflict with Andrei, and, as expected, Gura was humiliated and crushed.
Not many people knew about this saga; if it weren't for this battle, no one would have taken the trouble to delve into such gossip. It's quite normal for any trainer to face setbacks in their youth.
However, what no one expected was that Gura would challenge Andrei again on Alliance Island four years later and even succeed in a one-on-three matchup.
Yun Kai: "This Volcarona is too abnormal. Andrei's Double-axe Battle Dragon was definitely strong... yet it couldn't even break through the basic sea of flames."
Su Shu: "It's a pity it's just a video; I wish I had been there to see it in person..."
Xu Haoran: "I am no match for him."
Xie Qingyi: "Indeed, they are all very strong... What does Jiang think?"
Jiang Li: "This Volcarona, its physical stamina is ridiculously exaggerated. It was only in the final match against Glalie that it fully revealed itself. Such an intense battle is something my Pokémon would struggle with, but it handled things with ease. If I were to face it, I might need to combine several Pokémon just to barely take it down."
Top Tier Level Three...
This represents the true strength of this Volcarona.
And Glalie should also be at this level of strength.
During this time, Shang Ren, Zheng Hongyi, and Tang Xinlan simply kept sending "...", evidently only ellipses could express their emotions about this topic.
Fang Yuan had stayed submerged for a long while before he finally surfaced.
Fang Yuan: "Too arrogant..."
However, it seemed the opponent truly had the capital to be arrogant. Because even if he had revealed his strength, it would only pressure the opponents.
At least for now, Jiang Li felt a greater pressure.
He began to contemplate the consequences of not defeating Gura, expecting that if those tactics failed, he would probably have to rely on Su Shu.
Jiang Li: "Everyone just watch for now. Tomorrow, this video is likely to spread widely... Sigh, whoever draws Mi Country First Team for the first match in tomorrow's lottery ceremony will probably explode mentally..."
......
The next day, May 6th, the news of America's champion Gura challenging Russia's previous champion Andrei on Alliance Island took over the headlines.
Combining Gura's overwhelming performance in the Fire Type competition with his recent achievements, he instantly gained the title "Fire God."
In just one day, Gura's fanbase swelled exponentially, and he was proclaimed the super Hall of Fame contender for this Alliance championship.
Arrogant, powerful, insane.
Challenging another nation's previous Four Heavenly Kings Champion before the official matches, this move allowed the competitors from other countries to deeply understand Gura's strength.