Pokémon: The Journey of Ordinary People

Cerulean City is quite far from the Quartz Plateau, mainly because there is no direct road. If you want to ride Kentaro, it will probably take 4 days.

In order to save time, Zhang Yu and Liliai decided to fly there - Pidgeot Airlines.

This way, it only takes two days to reach the venue of the gorgeous competition.

"Pido——" Three Pidgeots flapped their wings and flew towards the west.

Zhang Yu and Liliai each had one, and they also rented a Pidgeot to transport the luggage.

Zhang Yu was very excited as he watched Hualan City gradually shrinking below him. No matter what, flying on a big bird was so cool! It was even better than flying on an airplane!

Liliae was used to it, as she participated in many fancy competitions and often used the Pidgeot.

"We'll wait until this afternoon to rest in Deep Gray City, and then we'll be able to reach the Quartz Plateau by flying for another day tomorrow."

Zhang Yu planned his time, otherwise even Pidgeot would not be able to bear flying for two consecutive days.

The two set off in the morning and flew until noon. They ate something when they landed. Zhang Yu also took out food from the bag that Pidgeot carried with him and gave it to them - this was the "fuel money" that Pidgeot Airlines provided.

We continued to move forward, and finally when the sky turned orange, we saw the dark gray city not far away.

"Pi——" The three Pidgeots began to slowly descend, preparing to land.

But just as they were about to reach Deep Gray City, a rumbling sound suddenly came from the rocky mountains behind them.

"This is?"

A group of one-horned rhinos passed by Pidgeot. Each of them weighed more than 200 kilograms and raised a large cloud of dust when they ran.

There is a man riding a giant onix running away in the front.

"No, we must find a way to stop the unicorn, otherwise we will be doomed if we rush into the city." The man riding on the Onix suddenly turned around.

"Rock Blockade!"

Onix raised its head and roared, summoning many large rocks to smash on the ground.

Boom—the first few one-horned rhinos had no time to brake and crashed into the rocks, and the one-horned rhinos behind also collided with each other one after another due to inertia.

When the smoke and dust cleared, many unconscious rhinos were seen lying all over the ground.

However, some of them stopped in time and did not get hurt, and continued to charge at the man.

Although Onix kept attacking, Rhino did not receive much damage due to the same attributes. Instead, Onix's movements gradually slowed down due to the round-robin battle.

"Be careful!" the man shouted hurriedly.

The largest one-horned rhinoceros slammed into the rock snake.

Zhang Yu and Liliai looked at the battle below and exchanged glances.

"Go down and help!"

"Who are you?" The man looked at the two people who suddenly appeared with some surprise.

Zhang Yu did not answer, but released the Queen Flower and the Black Seahorse, while Lilia sent out two Beautiful Flowers.

"Grass Knot!"/"Seed Bomb!"

Meimei and Huahua opened their hands, and several vines instantly appeared under the feet of the rushing unicorn.

"Huha!" It was tripped by the straw rope and somersaulted heavily.

"Dafu!" The Queen of Flowers pointed her hand downwards, and a bunch of seeds fell to the ground and exploded.

After a series of combos, all the unicorn rhinos that could still move were driven away, and the largest one was knocked unconscious to the ground.

Zhang Yu liked the big rhinoceros very much, and he took out the Poké Ball and easily captured the biggest one. However, Lilia only liked cute Pokémon and was not interested in the one-horned rhinoceros.

"Thank you for saving me! My name is Xiaogang, what are your names?" The man took back Onix and walked over with gratitude on his face.

"Ayu/Lili Ai"

"By the way, Xiaogang, why are you being chased by so many armored rhinos?"

Looking at the squinty-eyed man in front of him, Zhang Yu asked curiously.

"Um... well, it's quite embarrassing to talk about it. It's my brother's birthday, and I wanted to catch a one-horned rhino as a birthday present for him. Unexpectedly, their leader - the one you just captured - discovered it, so..."

Xiaogang scratched his head in embarrassment.

After understanding the reason, Zhang Yu also introduced to Xiaogang the purpose of his coming to Deep Gray City.

"In that case, if you two don't mind, you can come to my humble abode and rest for a while." Xiao Gang was just worrying about how to thank Zhang Yu, and now he had the opportunity.

"But there are so many one-horned rhinos here..." Zhang Yu looked at the big guys on the ground. Should he just ignore them?

Xiaogang directly took out a handful of Poké Balls.

"This is easy to handle."

Conquer all the remaining one-horned rhinos.

"Actually, I am still the master of the Dark Gray Gym. I will release these unicorns after they recover their strength."

-

After solving the problem of the unicorn, Zhang Yu and his team followed Xiaogang to the Deep Gray Gym.

As soon as I walked in, I heard a little kid's voice shouting, "Brother! Jiulang wet his pants again!"

"Ah? Didn't you just change your pants this afternoon?"

Xiaogang heard the sound and ran in quickly.

"Jiro, go and entertain the guests! I'm going to go check on my brothers and sisters."

A squinty-eyed boy named Jiro walked out of the house and greeted the two on behalf of Xiaogang.

"It's okay, it's okay, we can just sit here." Zhang Yu and Liliai sat in the living room waiting for Xiaogang.

"Oh! I'm so sorry to have kept you two waiting for so long. We have a lot of children in our family..." Xiaogang, who had changed into an apron, came out without anyone noticing.

"Brother, where are the guests coming from?" A little girl suddenly threw herself into Xiaogang's arms.

"Hey~ Sizi, go play for a while, your brother is still busy."

After hurriedly comforting his sister, Xiaogang sat opposite Zhang Yu.

"Thank you so much for today. Please stay for dinner tonight. I have prepared a lot of dishes!"

After some understanding, Zhang Yu was surprised that Xiaogang had the energy to take care of nine younger brothers and sisters and be the owner of the museum at the same time.

"It's amazing..." Liliai also sighed. As a girl from a wealthy family, she could not imagine how hard it was to take care of nine children.

Xiao Gang chuckled: "At first I was too busy, but when Jiro and the others grew up, it became much more convenient... By the way, let's go eat first and talk while we eat."

After accepting Xiaogang's invitation, Zhang Yu and Liliai followed Xiaogang to another room where there was an extra-long dining table.

"Jiro, Sanlang, Fourth Son, Fifth Son, Sixth Son, Seventh Son, Yatsuki, Kuro—come to eat!"

Seeing Xiaogang calling his younger brothers and sisters to eat as if he was reading out the names of dishes, Zhang Yu and Liliai looked at him with admiration.

After a while, a group of squinty-eyed children ran in and sat in a row in front of the table.

After the dishes were served, everyone said

"I'm starting!"

“——Wow, Xiaogang’s cooking is also delicious!” Zhang Yu picked up a meatball and put it in his mouth.

“Yeah!” Liliai also agreed and felt that her cooking skills were similar to Ayu’s.

"Hahaha, practice makes perfect. By the way, A-Yu, are you guys going to participate in the gorgeous competition tomorrow?" Xiao-gang also wanted to go, but couldn't since he was tied up, which made him feel a little regretful.

Liliai took over and said, "Yes, it's about to start. We have to get there as soon as possible."

"However, A-Yu didn't participate. He just accompanied me."

Xiao Gang nodded thoughtfully: "Is that so? You two really have a good relationship."

Although Xiaogang just sighed, the two of them still blushed and buried their heads in eating.

-

"Then we'll go first, Xiaogang. I'll come to the Dark Gray Gym to challenge you next time~" The next morning, the two said goodbye to Xiaogang. Zhang Yu also talked about his plan to participate in the next Quartz League Tournament last night, and made a challenge agreement with Xiaogang.

Riding on Pidgeot, we quickly headed towards the Quartz Plateau. The rest of the journey was not far away and we would probably arrive by noon.