Xia Huanao fell into a deep sleep with his Pokémon amidst the sound of Tong Ruo smashing walls next door. The next morning, he saw Tong Ruo on the opposite balcony, blushing as she greeted him. Xia Huanao didn't know what to say and left after a cursory greeting.
As soon as he left, Tong Ruo turned back to Zheng Xiaoxiao inside the house, "Xia Zi, Xia has already left. Can you let me in now?"
Zheng Xiaoxiao inside the house shook her head, "No, I don't plan on letting you go today."
Meanwhile, Xia Huanao left his house and went to the cafeteria for breakfast. While eating, he received a message from Li Qiufeng. Li Qiufeng was going to take the examination for the Alliance's assessment officer and wanted to invite Xia Huanao to cheer him on.
After breakfast, Xia Huanao took a taxi to the Six Mausoleum City branch of the Pokémon Alliance. At the entrance, he met Li Qiufeng, who was preparing for his assessment officer examination.
"You're early, didn't have to wait long, did you?"
Li Qiufeng nodded, "No, I just arrived too."
The two walked into the Alliance branch together and applied for the examination.
"Good luck, Li Qiufeng."
"Thanks, Coach Xia."
Xia Huanao had originally intended to wait until autumn when the weather cooled down to take the examination, but since Li Qiufeng was taking it, he decided to do it together.
The Pokémon Alliance branches in Six Mausoleum City and Jinghai City were at different levels. In Jinghai City, the examination rooms were separate, but due to Six Mausoleum City's economic strength, the branch only had one examination room, with examinations of various levels arranged together.
The two were queuing in the battle zone for the examination, and soon it was Li Qiufeng's turn.
Li Qiufeng didn't hesitate and randomly picked three Poké Balls, "Alright, it's these three."
The battle began. Li Qiufeng's first Pokémon was a Persian, while the examiner's Pokémon was a Venusaur. After an intense battle, Persian successfully defeated Venusaur.
Xia Huanao watched from the side, nodding slightly. Persian's level was similar to Venusaur's, and its move set wasn't particularly advantageous. Li Qiufeng didn't have a significant advantage, and winning was not an easy feat.
The second match was between Zangoose and Seviper. These two Pokémon were naturally antagonistic towards each other and began to fight before their trainers could issue commands.
Neither Li Qiufeng nor the examiner had anticipated this. For a moment, they let them fight.
Later, the examiner, being more professional, was the first to command Zangoose to attack Seviper. However, Li Qiufeng, having witnessed the grand scale of battles trained by Xia Huanao, commanded Seviper without falling behind. In the end, it was a mutually destructive battle.
Xia Huanao nodded. Fighting to a draw without a positional advantage was an excellent performance. He wondered how the Alliance would judge it.
The examiner then brought out his third Pokémon, "Come on, the last round. If you win this, you'll be a certified assessment officer for our Pokémon Alliance."
Li Qiufeng also brought out his final Pokémon, "Go!"
Upon seeing Feraligatr in the last Poké Ball, Xia Huanao and Li Qiufeng exchanged knowing smiles. Feraligatr was Li Qiufeng's trump card, and the Alliance's Feraligatr would naturally not be too unfamiliar. Under Li Qiufeng's command, Feraligatr easily secured victory in the final match.
After completing the assessment officer examination, Li Qiufeng received his assessment officer certificate from the examiner and came over to Xia Huanao to show it off.
Now it was Xia Huanao's turn to be examined.
Xia Huanao approached the examiner with a Poké Ball. Unlike the junior trainer examination, where the examiner would choose a Pokémon that was at a type disadvantage, the intermediate trainer examination offered no such benefits.
Xia Huanao cut to the chase and threw out his Poké Ball, "Go, Froakie."
Froakie's opponent was a Swellow. Xia Huanao glanced at it and felt relieved. The gap between them was not significant, and Froakie could handle it easily, so there was no need to use a second Pokémon.
"Froakie, use Water Sport!"
"Swellow, use Brave Bird!"
Froakie used Water Sport to close the distance with Swellow, while Swellow turned and flew high to increase the distance from Froakie. Then, from high in the sky, it turned and dived down like an arrow.
"Froakie, use Aqua Ring to block it!"
Swellow and Froakie's Aqua Ring collided. Xia Huanao shouted, "Froakie, now, use Ice Beam!"
Froakie's Ice Beam hit Swellow at close range. Although Swellow was hit by Ice Beam, it only shook its wings and regained its momentum to fly up.
"Swellow, use Double Team!"
Swellow flickered, and more than a dozen Swellows appeared to be flying in mid-air. Froakie and Xia Huanao scanned them, trying to find the real one.
"Swellow, now, use Aerial Ace!"
All the Swellows simultaneously flew towards Froakie. Xia Huanao took a deep breath, "Froakie, jump up, then use Aqua Jet downwards!"
Froakie bent its knees and leaped up, throwing a water ball downwards, sweeping away all the Swellows.
"Froakie, grab Swellow and use Ice Beam!"
The leaping Froakie, after throwing down Aqua Jet, directly lunged at Swellow. Swellow dodged Froakie's pounce with a burst of speed.
"Swellow, keep looking for an opening!"
"Froakie, if he's willing to wait, we will too. Prepare Aqua Jet!"
Under Xia Huanao's training, preparing Aqua Jet was different from instantaneously using it. Froakie, in the process of charging Aqua Jet, began performing Tai Chi in the large circle in the center of the battleground, with a focused mind. The task of observing all directions was left to Xia Huanao.
As Froakie performed Tai Chi, the water ball in Froakie's hands grew larger and larger, and it seemed as though it would engulf Froakie entirely.
The examiner, seeing the large water ball, was also surprised. What was this? It would be unbearable for Swellow if it hit.
"We can't let this continue. Swellow, use Brave Bird!"
Xia Huanao looked at Froakie's move list. This large water ball had consumed a quarter of its energy. He wondered about its power.
Seeing Swellow charging behind Froakie, Xia Huanao commanded, "Froakie, explode it!"
Froakie clapped its hands on the water ball, and the entire water ball exploded into a large vortex, engulfing both Froakie and Swellow. When the vortex dissipated, Swellow fell to the ground in pain, and Froakie was not in a good state either. Although usually its own moves wouldn't cause itself damage, the impact of the exploding vortex still affected Froakie.
"Are you okay, Froakie?"
Froakie struggled to its feet, patted some foam on its face, and then stared at Swellow.
"Good, Froakie, use Ice Beam to end this match!"
"Swellow, let's go for one last strike, use Brave Bird!"
...
The battle ended. Froakie defeated Swellow, winning the intermediate trainer badge for Xia Huanao. Xia Huanao looked at the intermediate trainer badge and smiled, "Pretty good luck."
The two left the Pokémon Alliance and walked onto the streets of Six Mausoleum City. Xia Huanao looked at the big sun in the sky, "It was supposed to be cloudy, but it suddenly cleared up. It's so hot."
Li Qiufeng also looked at the sun, "Yeah, it's seven or eight degrees warmer than yesterday. I don't know what's going on. The highest temperature in June is already thirty degrees."
Xia Huanao casually wiped the water droplets from his forehead, "Was Six Mausoleum City always this hot?"
"No, the weather wasn't like this before."
As they were talking, someone walked out of the Alliance building and approached Li Qiufeng, "You're Li Qiufeng, the newly appointed assessment officer, right? Come with me, we have work to do today."
Li Qiufeng turned to look at Xia Huanao, "Coach Xia, I'll be going now."
Xia Huanao nodded, "Alright, go ahead and be busy. I'll head back to school."
After parting ways with Li Qiufeng, Xia Huanao took another taxi back to Six Mausoleum University. As he entered the university, Xia Huanao saw a large mascot standing in the campus distributing flyers from afar. Xia Huanao, seeing the humanoid mascot resembling a Happiny, walked quickly towards it, "What a cute mascot, can I have a flyer?"
As soon as he finished speaking, he saw the mascot put down the flyer and chase after him. Xia Huanao didn't know what was happening. Did the person inside the mascot have a grudge against him? Why was it chasing him?
However, a person wearing a mascot costume could never be as agile as Xia Huanao. He was quickly tripped by Xia Huanao's outstretched leg and fell.
Xia Huanao tapped the head of the Happiny mascot, "Come on, tell me who's inside."
The Happiny mascot didn't speak. Xia Huanao grew increasingly annoyed. What was this? It chased me, and now that it's subdued, it won't talk?
Xia Huanao, not one to shy away from trouble, sat down next to the Happiny mascot and poked it continuously with his finger, "You're not going to talk, are you? Then don't blame me for exposing you."
Seeing Xia Huanao reach out to unzip the back of the Happiny mascot, the mascot quickly got up and ran away. Watching the Happiny mascot's retreating back, Xia Huanao was about to chase it when he heard Zheng Xiaoxiao call out to him, "Alright, Xia Zi, stop chasing. If you catch it, it'll be trouble."
"Sister Xiaoxiao, why do you say that?"
Zheng Xiaoxiao took out her phone, looked around to see if anyone was watching, and then pulled up a photo to hand to Xia Huanao, "Xia Zi, look, what is this?"
Xia Huanao looked closely. The photo on the phone showed Tong Ruo in a swimsuit with her mouth gagged. Xia Huanao was stunned for a moment and then said, "Sister Xiaoxiao, you really stuffed Sister Ruo in there like that?"
"Yes, to punish her. But I'm still worried she'll get heatstroke."
Xia Huanao chuckled, "Sister Xiaoxiao, this is between you two. I don't know anything about it."
Zheng Xiaoxiao pointed to the Happiny mascot not far away, "Be aware, I only sealed her mouth, but I didn't stop her from looking around."
Xia Huanao glanced over, and even though it was the height of summer, he felt a cold sweat break out as if he had fallen into an ice cellar.