"Brilliant… majestic… and powerful!"
Pei Jingguo's consciousness instinctively drifted toward it.
The consciousness of this Pokémon even gave him the same feeling he had experienced when he first encountered Groudon!
There was, however, one major difference.
This Pokémon's consciousness carried an incomparably sharp yet proud and valiant "sword intent"!
Compared to that enormous blaze, Pei Jingguo's consciousness was like a tiny flickering flame.
Yet the moment Pei Jingguo approached it, an image suddenly surfaced in his mind.
A blurry canine Pokémon turned its head and gave him a faint glance.
The next second, a sentence appeared in his mind.
"Though you are brave, you have not fought a hundred battles."
Communication between consciousnesses was incredibly mysterious.
Although the words had been translated into human language within Pei Jingguo's mind, they conveyed the Pokémon's thoughts with astonishing accuracy.
And along with those words, Pei Jingguo's consciousness was suddenly forced backward!
This Pokémon… looked down on Pei Jingguo!
An invisible "sword intent" surged out from the canine Pokémon's consciousness.
Even though he was merely a consciousness, Pei Jingguo instinctively retreated again and again.
By the time he had backed away far enough, that overwhelming sword intent had already vanished.
The enormous blaze had disappeared as well.
"Though you are brave, you have not fought a hundred battles…"
Pei Jingguo gazed blankly at the place where the flame had disappeared.
It seemed that, just like that skinny Pokémon before, this canine Pokémon had chosen not to accept him as its Trainer.
What was more, this canine Pokémon had even given him a specific reason!
"A hundred battles… Haven't I already experienced more than enough battles?"
Pei Jingguo felt a deep sense of helplessness.
Ever since the Death Beasts had attacked the city, he had gone through countless life-and-death battles.
Whether it was the Death Beast siege of Haicheng, the Death Beast tide outside Giant Rock City caused by Malin, or his battle against Articuno…
His combat experience had skyrocketed in an incredibly short period of time!
Yet in that Pokémon's eyes, all of that experience seemed to amount to little more than child's play…
At the very least, it hadn't been enough for the Pokémon to acknowledge him!
"As expected… I'm still too weak…"
Pei Jingguo helplessly shook his nonexistent head before turning his attention elsewhere.
And this time, he actually made a discovery!
Perhaps because the previous blaze had been so dazzling that it obscured the flames around it, Pei Jingguo hadn't noticed them at first.
Now that the canine Pokémon had disappeared, a strange flame caught his attention.
It was a blaze of deep blue tinged with red.
The flame itself wasn't particularly large, but it burned with astonishing intensity.
Just like Pei Jingguo's path of swordsmanship, it gave off a feeling of relentless determination, as though it had never known the meaning of slackening!
"What is this…?"
Pei Jingguo instinctively drifted closer.
The next moment, a tiny figure appeared in his mind.
From this flame, Pei Jingguo sensed a feeling of familiarity and closeness completely different from the flames he had encountered before!
Then, in the very next instant, dizziness washed over him.
He suddenly felt his body again!
…....
"Whoa! You scared me!"
Liu Yunlan's startled cry rang out inside the Pokémon Center.
She had been circling around Pei Jingguo when a flame suddenly ignited in the air beside him.
A tiny humanoid Pokémon stepped out from within the fire!
The sudden appearance startled her badly.
Pei Jingguo slowly opened his eyes, still somewhat dazed.
The first thing he saw was the Pokémon whose consciousness had truly resonated with his own.
Then Su Bai's astonished voice reached his ears.
"It's a Shiny!"
Su Bai was genuinely stunned by the Pokémon before him.
The little humanoid Pokémon looked as though it were wearing a handsome suit of armor. Behind the mask covering its head, a flame burned fiercely.
And it wasn't just its head.
The flames covering its body formed what looked like a stylish, burning outfit.
In terms of appearance alone, this Pokémon was undeniably cool.
But Su Bai had seen plenty of handsome Pokémon before.
What truly caught him off guard was the color of this Pokémon's eyes!
"Shi… Shiny? What kind of new term is that?"
Liu Yunlan curiously looked at the little Pokémon, which was busy looking around the Pokémon Center.
Su Bai always seemed to blurt out strange terms she couldn't understand every now and then…
"Shiny refers to a Pokémon that is unique even among its own species."
"Put another way, a Shiny Pokémon is simply an alternate-color Pokémon…"
"Although there's no absolute rule, Shiny Pokémon tend to have higher individual values."
Su Bai turned toward Pei Jingguo, who had crouched down and was silently staring at the little Pokémon.
"Pei Jingguo, your luck… isn't bad."
"Or rather… even I can't think of a Pokémon more suitable for you than this one."
"This is Charcadet!"
"And it's a Shiny Charcadet!"
"See the little guy's eyes? Ordinary Charcadet have eyes made of red flames, but this one has deep blue flames!"
Su Bai spared no praise.
After all, who wouldn't like this incredibly cool Pokémon that had only recently made its debut in Scarlet and Violet?
The little guy was immensely popular!
That said, there was still a trace of doubt in Su Bai's eyes.
Charcadet was certainly powerful, but it wasn't a pseudo-legendary.
Its base stat total of 525 was roughly on the same level as the starter trio.
Even if it was Shiny and had an exceptionally good compatibility with Pei Jingguo…
To be honest, it still didn't quite seem worthy of being the champion's prize…
As Su Bai explained, everyone finally noticed the deep blue flames burning within Charcadet's eye sockets.
They had no ordinary Charcadet to compare it with, but that deep, profound blue was undeniably eye-catching!
Especially to Su Bai himself.
Just looking at those deep blue eyes made him feel incredibly satisfied.
So Shiny Charcadet wasn't actually difficult to distinguish in the real world!
Of course.
Reality wasn't some blurry 720p mess.
Charcadet stood more than half a meter tall and looked like a small child. Its eyes were clearly visible—unlike in the game, where they were so tiny that you practically had to stare until your eyes went blind just to notice the difference!
Su Bai, the merciless Shiny-hunting machine, recalled that when he had originally tried to find a Shiny Charcadet, his eyesight had deteriorated by a full hundred degrees!
Trying to spot that tiny difference on that woefully inadequate little screen…
It had been unbelievably difficult.
"Shiny Pokémon… That's so cool!"
"But there's one problem. This little guy doesn't have a sword…"
Wang Tao curiously walked around Charcadet once.
Judging purely by appearance, he felt that Honedge was still the best Pokémon for Pei Jingguo.
After all, that thing was literally a sword!
Su Bai glanced at Pei Jingguo, who was currently staring intently into Charcadet's eyes.
Ever since Charcadet had appeared, Pei Jingguo had been like this.
After his brief daze, he had simply started staring at Charcadet as if they were having some kind of silent staring contest.
Who knew what the two of them were doing?
Su Bai shook his head and was just about to explain when, before he could even open his mouth, Pei Jingguo interrupted him with absolute certainty.
"No… There is a sword."
"It's just that you… can't see it!"