Ash didn't think as complicated as she did.
"A merchant's information always comes from all sorts of bizarre places."
"And surely this slab couldn't have been buried this deep underground initially. Perhaps someone saw it before, only for it to get buried for other reasons later."
After finishing, Ash nodded with satisfaction.
He felt his analysis was quite logical this time.
Cynthia looked at him, waiting for praise, and couldn't help but chuckle.
"Alright, there's progress."
"What's progress? I was already clever!"
"Yes, yes."
Cynthia didn't argue with him, directly handing over the Stone Plate.
"Give both the Flame Plate and this slab to the phone. There's no need to carry them around anymore."
"Gotcha!"
Ash took out the Flame Plate he had purposefully kept in his bag, then took out the Arceus Phone.
As the Flame Plate approached, the smartphone emitted a familiar glow, and the entire slab gradually turned into spots of light and was absorbed.
Following that, the freshly discovered Stone Plate reacted similarly, quickly disappearing into the light released by the phone.
After processing both slabs, Ash promptly stored the Arceus Phone, not lingering here any longer.
Because beside him, Ursaluna had once again reacted.
"Roar!"
He walked a few steps in another direction through the forest, clearly indicating the treasure hunter's ability hadn't ended yet.
Ash's eyes lit up instantly.
"Almost forgot! The time isn't over yet; can't waste it!"
Ash clambered skillfully onto Ursaluna's back, then reached out his hand to Cynthia.
"Sis, hurry up!"
Cynthia helplessly grabbed his hand and got on.
"Hope we dig up more valuable things this time."
"Heh, whatever Ursaluna digs is never disappointing!"
"Pika!"
Pikachu stood on Ash's shoulder, echoing loudly.
Free treasure hunting time—how can it be wasted!
"Roar!"
Ursaluna let out an excited low roar and soon raced off in another direction through the Dangerous Forest carrying two humans and one mouse.
Before long, the forest, just dug into a large pit, fell silent again.
The wind passed through the forest, causing the leaves above to rustle continuously.
A moment later, a figure silently emerged from the distant shadows of the trees.
The figure was completely cloaked in a black robe, face hidden in shadows, rendering the true identity indiscernible.
The dark figure stood quietly next to the large pit left by Ursaluna for a while.
Then, a deliberately hushed hoarse voice began to spread slowly through the Dangerous Forest.
"Arceus Phone... an outsider... this is interesting."
The shadow lifted its head, gazing in the direction where Ursaluna had just disappeared.
"Gather the slabs... once collected, make them the bride's attire for me!"
...
Half a month quietly passed—
During this half month, Ash and Cynthia did not immediately set out to subdue the fourth King.
Instead, they slowed down their pace, moving back and forth between several areas they had visited, investigating recent changes and continuing to train newly captured companions via real combat.
The place they stayed the most was still the Cobalt Coastlands.
The wild Pokémon here were quite numerous and much stronger than those around Jubilife Village, providing excellent real combat targets for Typhlosion, Samurott, Goomy, and Eevee.
Of course, Ash and Cynthia didn't just rush to fight every Pokémon they saw but tried to choose those with strong fighting spirits, willing to take on challenges.
After battles, they used healing potions to help the opponents recover, so truly speaking, it was more like friendly exchanges between both parties.
As for Pikachu and Garchomp, they barely took action seriously in the past half month.
If these two got involved in training, it wouldn't be friendly exchanges anymore.
It would be one-sided battering.
Besides the Cobalt Coastlands, they also took a few days to advance ahead into the Coronet Highlands to roughly study the environment there.
The Five-Star Authority already granted them permission to enter the Coronet Highlands, and the fourth King they needed to subdue was also in that area.
Instead of starting the task blindly when the time comes, it's better to familiarize themselves now.
Upon truly delving deep for the first time, the first thing they noticed was the massive Space-Time Rift suspended high above Mount Coronet.
This rift was very similar to the one that suddenly appeared above Firespit Island previously, but it had one most noticeable difference.
It had always been there.
Whether day or night, that colossal rift hovered endurably at the peak of Mount Coronet.
The inside neither had Pokémon falling out nor did it exhibit the sudden descending Golden Thunderbolt that appeared over Firespit Island, merely quietly existing high in space.
This quiet was all the more peculiar.
Ash and Cynthia originally intended to think of a way to get closer to see if they could find anything near the rift, but upon truly entering Mount Coronet's depths, they realized it wasn't as simple as imagined.
The higher they climbed, the steeper the mountains became; many places didn't even have a traversable road.
Wyrdeer wasn't suitable for maneuvering on those nearly vertical rock walls, and Ursaluna couldn't solve the terrain issue either.
Though Garchomp could fly, traversing with Garchomp would be conspicuous, not to mention the uneven mountain walls during flight would create massive obstacles.