Latias' arrival did not bring any dramatic changes to the breeding house.
The sun rose and set as always, and the weather grew warmer day by day. Occasionally, a light drizzle would fall, but the roads in Wutong Town had long since been paved, extending all the way to each household. Even the old stone paths had been widened. The muddy scenes of the past were gone for good.
March 1st. End of the month.
Time slipped by quietly. Another two weeks had passed.
During this time, even without any deliberate promotion from Lin Feng, news of the nursery's reopening gradually spread.
Compared to previous years, far more people came to buy Pokéblocks or participate in the Sky Challenge.
The town was slowly coming back to life.
For Pidgeot, however, this was not great news.
What used to be a relaxed job had suddenly become rather busy.
Lunch had just ended.
Now it was time for rest and an afternoon nap.
With spring arriving, Milotic and Primarina no longer needed to stay in the tanks. At their request, Lin Feng had moved them back to the reservoir.
Gardevoir hovered in the air with Latias, guiding her through exercises to control her psychic instability.
Blaziken pulled over a small stool and sat by the reservoir, chatting casually with Steenee.
Primarina quietly peeked her head above the water.
Meowscarada was in the berry fields.
The Indeedee siblings were tending flowers in the garden, while Serperior rested nearby, thoughtfully releasing Grassy Terrain energy.
At this time of year, whether Lin Feng liked it or not, the bees would insist on going out to gather nectar.
And something unusual had happened.
After an entire winter, one of the five Combee had developed a small red marking on its honeycomb face.
At first, Lin Feng thought Mew had come back and was playing tricks on him by transforming into a Combee.
But after counting carefully, the number had not changed.
Curious, he checked with his inspection ability.
That was when he realized the truth.
It was not Mew.
Over the winter, one of the male Combee had transformed into a female.
A gender shift.
He had read about this phenomenon before. In the wild, if a hive lacked a female Combee, one of the males could change and take on that role.
Still, he had not expected it to happen in a managed environment.
After becoming female and receiving nectar from the others, that Combee evolved directly into a Vespiquen.
And within just two days, the honeycomb she produced had already begun nurturing new life.
She had even flown over to show him.
Lin Feng was stunned. He did not fully understand how the reproduction worked, but after estimating how many new Combee would soon be born, he quickly began planning.
That was why the garden now looked the way it did.
He continued expanding the flower beds, even planning to plant flowers along both sides of the blue stone paths outside.
Steenee's mother, Tsareena, had come to help as well.
She had even learned Grassy Terrain.
Though her strength was far below Serperior's.
Perhaps because she had not been part of the plantation for long, Tsareena often appeared a bit clumsy. She liked to sit quietly and observe everyone.
Fortunately, after her mother returned, Steenee became much more lively. She would constantly pull her mother along, either chatting or making juice together.
As for Alolan Ninetales, Eevee, and the others…
Since spring began and flowers bloomed everywhere, they rarely stayed in the plantation anymore.
They had gone out to search for training grounds.
All for one goal.
To challenge Rayquaza.
They declared they would train hard and one day defeat that sky dragon.
To prepare, they even recruited two Dragon-type partners.
Salamence as their opponent.
Goodra as their teammate.
At first, Salamence did not take them seriously. In its eyes, these little ones simply did not understand how vast the world was.
Challenge it?
In this plantation, aside from Mewtwo and Gardevoir, who could possibly fight it?
But everything changed after one battle.
A Blizzard attack hit.
Salamence immediately frowned in pain.
When it countered with Dragon Pulse against Alolan Ninetales, the damage was minimal.
It froze.
Its eyes widened in disbelief.
It had not participated in the Horizon League, so it had no idea how strong Alolan Ninetales had become.
In its memory, that fox used to be small, wandering around with a group of Eevee. It never seemed particularly strong.
Even though it had evolved, that had not been long ago.
So how could its power have increased so dramatically?
Salamence felt the imbalance of the world.
It had spent decades becoming this strong.
From its Bagon days, it had trained relentlessly every single day.
And this fox?
It ate, played, and only recently started putting in effort.
At first, Salamence dismissed it as coincidence.
But as it happened again and again, its confusion slowly turned into bewilderment.
It could not understand.
Then, suddenly, it realized the truth.
The key was Lin Feng's cooking.
Within the plantation, everyone knew this.
The food Lin Feng made could grant various enhancements. Temporary boosts, even permanent improvements.
That was the only explanation.
Just like Pidgeot, which had grown larger than Salamence itself.
And yet…
Even knowing this, Salamence did not know how to bring it up.
It wanted to grow stronger.
Its current habit of sleeping all day was not laziness. It was simply that ordinary training no longer benefited it.
Its skills had been honed through decades of real battles. Its instincts and techniques had reached near perfection.
So eating and resting had become its routine.
…
Lin Feng watched all of this quietly, his movements slowing.
He understood exactly what Salamence was thinking.
But he chose to wait.
He wanted Salamence to speak first.
After all, the desire to grow stronger, whether for revenge or something else, carried a different meaning depending on who voiced it.
More importantly, Salamence's pride needed tempering.
Lin Feng nodded to himself.
The silver feather of Lugia was still with him.
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