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Lü Yi.
A trainee from Yongcheng's Youth Camp and the sister of Lü Ling, whom Li Xiang had battled before.
In the vague intel they'd gathered, she was marked as a high-priority "threat"—highlighted in red by Yang Tianwang.
That alone spoke volumes about how seriously he took her. And yet, Li Xiang had run into her that very morning.
She'd even taken fifty of his points.
"So, which of her Pokémon took you down?"
Li Xiang thanked Song Jie for handing him some food and ate while asking.
Exams didn't care whether it was lunchtime or not. If you exceeded the 30-minute limit, you'd be kicked out without hesitation.
Even rest had to be snatched in fragments.
"A Fluffy Bewear. That thing was ridiculously fast—almost on par with my Sceptile."
The moment Yang Tianwang brought it up, his face twisted with frustration and disbelief. "It used Bulk Up and Ice Punch to chase Sceptile down and knock it out. Does that even make sense?"
He kept ranting about his ordeal, rapping his knuckles against the table.
In all his years, aside from facing Li Xiang and Song Jie, this was the first time he'd encountered such a situation.
But what was done was done.
Even Li Xiang was stunned after hearing it.
Forget Bulk Up and Ice Punch, Bewear's physical attack was more than enough to crush a fragile Pokémon like Sceptile. Bulk Up might've even been overkill.
But… 60 Speed matching 120 Speed?
What the hell?
A max-Speed, Jolly-natured, "Scarfed" Bewear? Or had the anime's "Bear God" crossed dimensions?
Either way, it meant this Bewear likely had some unique trait—just like Gong Xu's Umbreon, and that trait was exactly what made it dangerous.
But since it had the Fluffy Ability, there was nothing to fear.
That one downside alone meant Bewear wouldn't last long against Incineroar's Burning Jealousy.
"Did you see any of her other Pokémon?"
Li Xiang kept asking. Might as well, since they had nothing better to do.
"Yeah, of course. I've been dreaming of getting my revenge, so I stuck around to watch." Yang Tianwang nodded vigorously, dead serious.
Li Xiang made a disgusted face. "Ew, you stalked her? What a creep."
"Hey! It's called intel gathering!"
Yang Tianwang scowled at the accusation, as if he'd done something wrong, and grabbed Li Xiang by the collar. "You wanna hear or not?"
Li Xiang laughed and raised his hands in surrender. "Alright, alright. What'd you see?"
"She specializes in Normal-types. Aside from Bewear, she also used Lopunny and Blissey. Those were the only two I saw."
Yang Tianwang added, "Both were strong, each with their own quirks."
Ah, the fourth-gen "Bunny Girl" and the infamous "Egg".
Li Xiang fell into thought.
Among the "Bunny Girl" Pokémon, he personally believed the sixth-gen Diggersby was far more practical than Lopunny.
After all, Diggersby had the Huge Power Ability, while Lopunny was stuck with Limber or Cute Charm, nowhere near as broken.
But alas, there was a saying in this world: "Cuteness is justice."
For most girls, Diggersby's… questionable design made it hard to accept as a "Bunny Girl".
As for Blissey?
Now that was an interesting Pokémon.
It had absurdly high HP but laughably low Defense and Attack. It couldn't handle physical attackers at all, but against special attackers? It could teach them a brutal lesson.
Though a max-Defense Blissey could still tank some physical hits thanks to its sheer bulk and typing…
Anyone who used Blissey as a physical wall either had no other options or had lost their damn mind.
Its most basic playstyle revolved around Soft-Boiled, Minimize, Toxic, and SeismicToss— a nightmare to deal with.
But for Li Xiang, even that wasn't a threat.
Darkest Lariat ignored evasion and stat changes—Blissey's tricks wouldn't work.
The real concern was whether this Blissey had any special quirks, but without facing her directly, there was no way to know.
"Where'd you run into her earlier?"
Li Xiang asked slowly, already deciding to make Lü Yi his next target.
If he took down every major threat one by one, he'd get a rough idea of the other camps' top-tier strength.
Across the hundred-plus camps in Zhu Xia, outliers like Gong Xu and Song Jie were probably rare.
But those few would undoubtedly become his future rivals.
"South side, I think? That was over an hour ago. Who knows where she is now."
By now, the morning had passed. With three wooden tags per person and over 300 participants, many had already been eliminated.
Li Xiang alone held enough tags to match ten people. Song Jie had seven or eight himself.
A rough estimate suggested at least 70 to 80 people had been knocked out. In these kinds of competitions, the start was always the most chaotic.
Before long, Yang Tianwang's break ended, and he was unceremoniously kicked out of the rest area.
"I'll wait for you guys outside."
He said this because wandering the massive exam grounds alone was far worse than sticking with teammates.
Li Xiang waved in acknowledgment. After a solid ten-minute rest, he and Song Jie stepped out, refreshed.
Even just half an hour made a world of difference.
"Ah, central heating truly is life."
Li Xiang tightened his coat. Winter was merciless in any world—to both humans and Pokémon.
The anime production team back in his old world had loved using winter and snow for dramatic effect too.
In the movie "I Choose You!", a Luxray had even frozen to death—one of the rare instances where Pokémon death was explicitly shown.
Song Jie silently zipped up his jacket. Despite his snow-white hair, he had no resistance to the cold. The two reached Yang Tianwang about a hundred meters away, just in time to see him in the middle of a heated battle.
Trees had been blown over, and the ground was pockmarked with craters—wild battles were downright destructive. But with Grass-types and Diglett helping, the forest would recover quickly.
The fight lasted about three minutes.
It ended with Yang Tianwang's Gengar firing a Shadow Ball, cackling maniacally as it rolled around the battlefield.
Another fifty points secured.
"You really know how to make use of your time."
Li Xiang watched as the defeated trainer fled in a panic—clearly out of usable Pokémon and low on tags.
"Gotta take every opportunity."
Yang Tianwang counted his tags, satisfied. No one ever complained about having too many points.
The trio set off, heading south.
Unfortunately.
Things didn't go smoothly.
The exam grounds were massive—no doubt about that. Even after walking all day, looping around the entire area, they hadn't run into Qu Sheng or Lin Feng.
As for Lü Yi? No sign of her at all.
Left with no choice, Li Xiang settled for hunting down a few other "red-marked" targets from Yongcheng's camp.
His two companions joined in, snagging some points of their own, but after a whole afternoon of effort…
His "small goal" remained unfulfilled.
Stuck at the awkward number of 43. Mainly because Incineroar and the others were running on fumes.
Twelve straight hours—even with breaks, even with mostly one-sided battles—without Oran Berry supplies or a proper Pokémon Center (which only healed injuries, not exhaustion) had taken its toll.
Unlike the Points Competition, they weren't allowed to bring recovery items. Getting 15-16 battles out of each Pokémon was pushing it.
Stamina wasn't the issue—energy reserves were completely drained.
"We're just too low-leveled."
Li Xiang sighed. Candies boosted stats but didn't restore energy—their one flaw.
Increasing energy capacity relied solely on leveling up.
Low 40s just wasn't enough. It was frustrating.
But Song Jie's team had fared even worse, collapsing around 3 or 4 PM after fighting everyone they encountered. If not for the fact that most other students' Pokémon were in similar shape, they might've even lost a tag or two.
After wandering aimlessly, the trio decided to head for the eastern rest area and wait out the exam's end.
As the sun dipped below the horizon, casting the world into darkness…
They trudged through the forest, dry leaves and snapping twigs underfoot.
"I've never hated walking so much. Even the camp's training grounds weren't this huge."
Yang Tianwang's legs were numb.
"Suffering for glory—isn't that your whole thing?"
Li Xiang turned and grinned. The exam grounds were at least twice as large as the competition arena. Walking around all day was exhausting for anyone.
Especially once their Pokémon were spent, the urge to leave grew unbearable. He personally suggested Yang Tianwang bail early—he'd already earned plenty.
But the guy insisted on staying till the end, claiming "I finish what I start."
So Li Xiang let him be.
As for himself? He'd been memorizing the map.
Pens weren't allowed, so he'd resorted to sketching sections in the dirt with sticks, piecing the layout together in his mind.
Luckily, the Three-Blind Perception Method had sharpened his memory. Working with Song Jie, they'd managed to reconstruct a rough mental map.
Even a crude one was better than wandering blindly.
They'd gotten lost multiple times already, circling the same areas until one of their Pokémon flew up to reorient them.
They'd probably passed the same spots over and over without realizing.
In short? They'd been running around like headless chickens.
5:30 PM.
The trio finally reached the eastern rest area.
Only a handful of students remained inside—or even in the exam grounds at all. Most had left once their Pokémon were exhausted or after finishing their third battle.
Speaking of which…
The exit conditions were brutal.
You either had to complete battles in multiples of three or lose all your tags to leave.
Not student-friendly at all.
After resting and recovering for half an hour, a siren-like bell blared across the grounds, echoing like an air-raid alarm.
One by one, Abra appeared beside them.
Day One of the Three-Camp Exam… Was over.