The Whispering Wind

After Qing Wu rushed out of Ghost Mountain, he went to the nearby lakeshore with a grim expression. He took off the slime-covered Black Robe and had Magmar burn it to ashes with a flame.

"Fortunately, I wore a Black Robe that covered my whole body." Now, only Qing Wu's wrists were still sticky with disgusting slime.

This slime needed to be washed off as soon as possible. Otherwise, the germs in the slime might invade the human body through broken wounds on the skin, and he might even contract a blood disease.

Golbat was much worse off, with about a quarter of its body covered in slime.

Golbat was so disgusted that it washed itself in the lake over a dozen times before the slime was finally removed.

However, a disgusting smell still emanated from Golbat's body.

Qing Wu had no choice but to take out an Orange Fruit from his backpack and use the citrus scent from its peel to mask the smell.

Qing Wu knew that this smell would cling to him like a leech; it would take at least a week to completely get rid of it.

Qing Wu soothed Golbat carefully, and only then did Golbat calm down.

This was the last trial. Qing Wu believed a tough battle awaited, so he needed to finalize the training direction for his Pokémon.

"Everyone come out," Qing Wu released Magmar, Squirtle, and Deino, the remaining three Pokémon.

Although this Magmar was a bit unruly, under Qing Wu's "carrot and stick" education, it had become quite docile.

It would absolutely do as it was told. Originally, Qing Wu wanted to train Houndoom as his dark-type Pokémon.

However, he hadn't found a Houndour with excellent potential yet, so he was using Magmar as a substitute for now.

Once he found a Houndour, Qing Wu would send Magmar to the training center to be its guardian Pokémon.

After all, the training center only had Gardevoir and Gallade, which was far from enough.

"Magmar, your use of skills is terrible. Your training task today is simple." Qing Wu snapped his fingers, and Golbat immediately used Air Slash on a dead tree. The tree instantly split into countless small wooden bowls, demonstrating Golbat's precise control over flying energy.

"Magmar, what you need to learn is to use your flame techniques to boil the water in the wooden bowls, but the bowls cannot have any scorch marks." This was the training technique Qing Wu wanted Magmar to learn.

By boiling water, it would learn to skillfully utilize Fire-type energy.

"Your weakness is relying too much on the power boost from lava and Flame Orb. Without these external aids, you're like a toothless tiger. At most, you can manage a few Flamethrows before running out of stamina. Therefore, you need to learn precise control of Fire-type energy," Qing Wu analyzed thoroughly.

Magmar thought about it and agreed. Without the amplification from Flame Orb and lava, it always felt like it lacked staying power.

This was because when it used Fire-type moves, it always liked to charge in headfirst, not understanding how to control the consumption of Fire-type energy.

Its Flamethrower might be stronger than other Fire-type Pokémon, but it also consumed more energy than other Fire-type Pokémon.

Before, it had been arrogant because of the continuous boost from Flame Orb. Now that Flame Orb was gone, it was like a poor peasant who had to learn to be thrifty and live within its means.

Seeing the expression on Magmar's face, Qing Wu knew it had taken his words to heart. He then gave Squirtle its task.

"Squirtle, it's your turn to train now. Let's start with something basic. At this distance, fill these wooden bowls with water. Be careful not to spill any," Qing Wu brought Squirtle to a distance of three meters and drew a line on the grass with a branch.

Qing Wu signaled that Squirtle could not cross this line. This method would improve Squirtle's shooting accuracy.

In his previous life, Qing Wu had seen a trainer's Blastoise that had 100% accuracy even before Mega Evolution.

After Mega Evolving, with the boost from the Mega Launcher ability, Mega Blastoise was practically divine.

Qing Wu had once approached the trainer and asked how to train Squirtle. The trainer's first response was, "It's all about practice."

The trainer then explained the general process of training Squirtle to Qing Wu.

From a young age, Squirtle had undergone precision training. Using a bowl, Squirtle would stand three meters away and use Water Gun, with the requirement that the amount of water Squirtle shot out could be neither too much nor too little, just enough to fill the bowl completely without overflowing.

Initially, Squirtle couldn't control the amount and power of Water Gun well. Sometimes it overfilled the bowl, sometimes it underfilled it, and sometimes the Water Gun would split the bowl in half.

Once Squirtle could control the distance and power of Water Gun well, the bowls were replaced with movable targets, progressing from easy to difficult, constantly improving Squirtle's shooting accuracy.

Later, this Blastoise's attacks in battles were always on target, whether it was against Flying-type Pokémon soaring in the sky, Normal-type Pokémon running at high speeds on land, or Water-type Pokémon moving rapidly in the water.

As long as Blastoise attacked, it never missed, always hitting its target.

"Keep it up, Squirtle, you can do it," Qing Wu gently stroked Squirtle's smooth little head, cheering it on.

"Kecleon, you've already mastered your Rock-type moves with ease. Now, you need to focus more on the use of Steel-type energy," Qing Wu said sternly to Kecleon.

After all, Kecleon's evolved form, Aggron, was a very powerful Pokémon and one of the top-tier Steel-types. Qing Wu didn't want to waste Kecleon's potential.

"Today, you will use Steel Claw one thousand times and Iron Head one thousand times on the lake water," Qing Wu had Kecleon use its moves on the lake for a reason.

Kecleon was already afraid of water, so doing this could reduce its aversion to it.

Secondly, Kecleon's Steel Claw was very powerful, but there weren't many rocks for it to smash.

Moreover, by using its moves on the lake water, Qing Wu wanted to see if Kecleon could learn to overcome hardness with softness.

After being assigned its training task, although Kecleon internally expressed strong resistance to water, it diligently and meticulously followed Qing Wu's instructions.

"As for Deino..." Qing Wu looked at the "one-shot wonder" in front of him, who had exhausted its stamina with a single Dragon Pulse.

"Then, you'll run around this big tree one hundred laps first." Qing Wu looked at the tree by the lakeside that would take five or six people to encircle. One lap was estimated to be about [number missing] meters. One hundred laps would be at least [number missing] kilometers. Qing Wu wanted Deino to build up its stamina first before training its moves.

Dragon-type Pokémon had a long growth cycle, so Qing Wu was not in a hurry.

"Golbat, you're the last one." Qing Wu looked at Golbat's move list; it hadn't learned moves like Steel Wing or Wing Attack yet.

Golbat had always been trained by Qing Wu to excel at long-range attacks, and it hadn't learned many close-combat moves.

"Golbat, see if you can learn Wing Attack," Qing Wu explained the principle of Wing Attack to Golbat. Golbat thought about it. Wasn't it just about channeling Flying-type energy into its wings and then attacking the enemy?

Having learned Tailwind, there was no reason Golbat couldn't learn Wing Attack.

Golbat quickly channeled Flying-type energy into its wings and charged rapidly towards a large tree that 2-3 people could encircle. However, it failed to split a section of the trunk in half.

It only managed to make the tree rustle, causing countless fallen leaves to drop to the ground. A Caterpie even fell from the tree, but it quickly burrowed its body and climbed back up.

"Golbat, did you notice that when you were about to hit the tree trunk, your Flying-type energy didn't condense smoothly? Instead, it dispersed the moment you collided with the trunk," Qing Wu immediately spotted Golbat's problem.

"Squeak squeak," Golbat nodded in agreement. It did indeed feel its Flying-type energy scatter at the instant of impact.

"Keep practicing; you'll get the hang of it after a few more tries. Oh, and don't neglect your Shadow Ball training," Qing Wu said, affectionately patting Golbat's head.

He suddenly remembered there were some unused Poffins in his backpack and reached for them, only to find that many were missing.

"That's strange. I don't remember using that many Poffins. Is my memory faulty?" Qing Wu remembered very clearly that he had stored a lot of Ghost-type specific Poffins in his backpack.

He had used some on Ghost Mountain, but not this many.

"Fortunately, there are still some Poffins in my bracelet," Qing Wu quickly checked his bracelet. The Poffins there were still intact.

Qing Wu didn't dwell on such trivial matters. He was now fully focused on preparing for the trial.

Qing Wu recalled that this trial was quite grand, with not only the Four Generals attending but also Sakaki making an appearance.

If he could achieve first place, it would be like soaring to the heavens.