On the evening Cynthia left, Li Wei used all three Pokémon item lottery tickets in his backpack.
"Ding, congratulations to the host for drawing Sand Scale Fruit * 3."
"Ding, congratulations to the host for drawing Dusk Stone * 1."
"Ding, congratulations to the host for drawing Mist Lotus Fruit * 3."
Dusk Stone: Can allow specific Pokémon (Murkrow, Misdreavus, Lampent, Doublade, etc.) to evolve, or can be consumed and absorbed by Ghost-type Pokémon, both of which can enhance the Pokémon's Ghost-type energy.
Without a doubt, the most suitable Pokémon in Li Wei's team was Drakloak, with its Ghost and Dragon typing.
Sand Scale Fruit: When made into Energy Cubes, Poffins, or Poké Curry, it can slightly increase a Pokémon's speed.
Mist Lotus Fruit: When made into Energy Cubes, Poffins, or Poké Curry, it can slightly increase a Pokémon's stamina.
Both Sand Scale Fruit and Mist Lotus Fruit are extremely rare berries, so Li Wei decided to keep one of each for planting.
For planting, they had Luo Ye, a professional berry planter, who specialized in this field.
If there were any problems, he could also ask the old man.
"Little Drakloak, eat it!"
Li Wei tossed the Dusk Stone to Drakloak.
Feeling the Ghost-type energy contained within this cold, dark purple stone, Drakloak's eyes lit up.
"Just eat it."
Drakloak's scarlet tongue swirled, and the Dusk Stone, worth over a million on the market, was swallowed.
"Durululu~" (ૢ ˃ ꌂ ˂ ⁎)
Li Wei didn't forget Lucario, Arcanine, and Metagross either.
He held a Sand Scale Fruit in one hand and a Mist Lotus Fruit in the other.
"I'll make you Energy Cubes after I get back from the assessment tomorrow."
"Lucario!"
"Kohkin!"
"Woof woof~" (≖ ᴗ ≖) ✧
...
Lying on the bed, Li Wei scrolled through the chat group messages, where the discussion was heated.
Kohkin: "The opening is Cynthia VS Lance, and the second match is Steven VS Diantha, exciting!"
Lt. Surge: "It's not you fighting, what's exciting about it?"
Red: "It's indeed very interesting, I'll be watching on screen."
Qinglv: "I'm also watching on screen."
Red: "Together."
Qinglv: "Okay."
Like Red, Qinglv chose not to participate in this year's competition.
His reason wasn't entirely the same as Red's; he felt that flying around was too tiring.
Kohkin: "This is a battle among group members! It's a shame it's not Cynthia VS Diantha, I love watching women fight!"
Steven and Diantha were indeed in the group, but they rarely spoke up.
One was mining, the other was filming movies.
Xiao Qian: "?"
Kelisitaer: "?"
Steven: "?"
Steven, who hadn't spoken in a long time, popped up.
Steven: "I also need to prepare for battle."
Qinglv: "I didn't expect you to participate."
Steven: "I can travel all over the world to learn about different ores, which is not bad."
If it were the previous competition format, Steven would have been unenthusiastic.
He could participate, but only a little.
The new format, however, made Steven quite interested.
Kohkin: "This is the real reason you're participating, isn't it!"
Lt. Surge also chose to participate; why not go if there's money to be made?
Qinglv: "@Li Wei, has Cynthia left?"
Li Wei: "She just went back, she needs to prepare for the opening match."
Lance: "So serious? I can't slack off either."
Kona: "Don't get beaten badly in the opening match."
Kohkin: "There's something going on (smirk)"
Kohkin has been muted by Qinglv for 5 minutes.
Qinglv's mastery of the great mute spell was ridiculously high.
Lt. Surge looked at the words "There's something going on" in the input box and breathed a sigh of relief.
Typing a little slower still had its advantages.
Qinglv: "How is Feebas doing?"
Li Wei: "Much better than before, its activity range has expanded, and Cynthia's Milotic is still here, so it's only a matter of time."
Qinglv: "It's good that it's effective."
The discussion about the Master League continued, but Li Wei didn't participate.
He needed to go to bed early; he had to attend the Senior Breeder examination first thing in the morning.
...
The next day.
At 7:30 AM, Li Wei finished washing up and made breakfast.
"I'm going for the assessment; you all stay at home."
The Breeding Center was quite busy these two days, so leaving Lucario and the others at home could also help.
They could also cover a lot of move training.
"Durululu!"
"Woof woof!"
Lucario nodded solemnly: (You can rest assured!)
Metagross saw Li Wei off at the train station.
"You don't need to pick me up in the afternoon; I can walk back myself."
Anyway, the station was only a little over a kilometer from the Breeding Center.
"Kohkin!"
Metagross returned to the Breeding Center only after watching Li Wei board the train.
...
The Senior Breeder assessment was still at the Pokémon Center.
It was still the same Joy, and she recognized Li Wei at a glance.
Not only because Li Wei's previous assessment left a very deep impression on her, but also because...
"Can I ask you for an autograph? I'm your fan, and Joy Xue Lan is my cousin."
Joy showed her following list.
Joy Xue Lan was the Joy at the Pokémon Center next door to Li Wei's home.
To get an autograph, she even revealed their relationship.
Li Wei was stunned for a moment, then nodded: "Of course, thank you for handling the registration for the Senior Breeder assessment."
This wasn't the first time Li Wei had signed autographs for fans; quite a few people had asked him for autographs these past two days.
Taking Li Wei's ID card, Joy began to enter Li Wei's information.
While operating, Joy patiently explained to Li Wei:
"It's a bit different from the Intermediate Breeder assessment. The first round, the written test, remains unchanged; you need 80 points to pass. The second round is a random Pokémon battle against an examiner."
"Okay, I understand."
Li Wei had already learned about the Senior Breeder assessment process.
The second round tested the Breeder's understanding of Pokémon, such as their types, abilities, and moves.
The second round also had an element of luck,
because it was hard to say what Pokémon you would draw, and some Pokémon were disobedient.
It would be very difficult to defeat the examiner without understanding the Pokémon's situation.
But Li Wei still had some confidence.
Breeders are not specialized in combat, and the purpose of the assessment is to test their understanding of Pokémon.
Under normal circumstances, the battle wouldn't be particularly difficult.
Even if he didn't pass, it didn't matter; he could just take it again, he was still young after all.
The number of candidates for the Senior Breeder assessment was much smaller compared to the Intermediate assessment.
Including Li Wei, there were only four people, and two of them were Li Wei's fans.
It almost turned into a fan assessment.
"You're only taking the Senior Breeder certification now?"
"My family runs our own, so it doesn't matter whether I get certified or not."
If it weren't for the rewards from the assessment, Li Wei would truly have been uninterested in getting certified.
"That makes a lot of sense."
This time, Li Wei didn't encounter anyone as eloquent as Da You.
The staff member was still the pretty young lady from last time; she knocked on the door.
"Time is almost up, please go to the computer room to prepare for the exam."