Chapter 414: Fleeting Childhood
The little blacksmith ran very fast.

In the blink of an eye, they were almost at the flat field area in the east.

In this wilderness area, Dalubi, with a bone-like object on his back, was playing carefree.

The body is even more slender, with bony structures all over its body. It looks like a vicious dog from hell, Houndoom, who is paying close attention to the surrounding situation like a guardian.

The atmosphere seemed harmonious, but it changed completely the moment the little blacksmith and the night thief fire lizard broke in here.

Almost instantly, the playful Dalubi paused, and together with Houndoom, he looked at the little blacksmith and the night thief fire lizard with ferocious eyes, and low threatening roars came one after another.

The night thief fire lizard, whose desire for credit was overwhelming, also stopped chasing the young blacksmith. His passion quickly cooled and he regained his rationality.

It turned its neck stiffly and looked at the group of bully Pokémon that were like hellhounds in horror. It realized something was wrong and wanted to retreat.

But how could the little blacksmith who had taken so much effort to bring it here allow his work to fail?

A hazy metallic luster lit up on its little hands.

Using all his strength, the little blacksmith jumped in front of the Night Thief Salamander with extremely agile movements and hit it towards Houndoom and Dalubi with one claw.

The night-thief fire lizards were all confused.

When it drew a graceful parabola in the air and landed in the center of Dalubi and the others with a plop, the sweaty Night Thief Salamander subconsciously used its best attack moves to defend itself as it looked at the group of ferocious dogs surrounding it.

The ferocious Night Salamander was besieged by several Dalubis and sprayed venom on one of them, causing it to scream in pain.

This behavior undoubtedly intensified the anger of Dalupi and Houndoom.

The brilliance of the move instantly engulfed it completely.

After a while.

Relying on his agility, he pushed the Salamander out as the fuse of the conflict. While all the attention of Dalubi and Houndoom was on the Salamander, the little blacksmith hid in the bushes and quietly poked his head out.

Looking at the groups of Houndooms running towards the territory of the Flame Queen Lizard, holding the unconscious Night Thief Salamander in their mouths and looking like they were going to seek justice, the little blacksmith breathed a sigh of relief.

The plan to divert the trouble to others should have been successful.

The next step was to take advantage of the fight between the Flame Queen Lizard and Darkraige to sneak into the hill and look for the nest of the Steel Crows with many feathers.

The little blacksmith happily ran to the place where he had temporarily buried the feather before, held it in his arms as if it were a treasure, and carefully hid in the grass, looking for an opportunity.

December 798, year 8 of the alliance calendar.

There is less than a day left until the summer ice sculpture competition begins.

Luo Mu's progress has almost reached the end of his goal.

In the ice cellar.

The flaming sword of the Blue Blade Ghost flew very flexibly.

After learning the sword skills from the Iron Warriors, Cang Yan Rengui's sword skills have become more delicate and skillful. Let's not talk about the changes in battle for now, but when it comes to carving, this delicacy can take the quality of the work to a higher level.

If the Sandshrew and his wife needed to use their large claws to dig out the rough shape of the ice, then the job assigned to the Blue Flame Blade Demon was to shape the ice in more detail.

To put it in an analogy, it is like transforming a crooked rectangle into a winding dragon body.

Mimickyu's work was the same as itss, with Shadow Claws shaving off the ice with extreme precision, revealing a lifelike, winding dragon body.

After they finish their work, Luo Mu will appear with professional tools, and he will carry out the final process from scales to expressions and various details.

After a while.

The dragon-shaped ice sculpture, which is only about one meter long, has been completed.

Luo Mu looked at the Bud Crown King riding on the Snowstorm Horse.

The Bud Crown King nodded slightly, stepped forward and used that move.

After a while.

Looking at the mysterious dragon-shaped ice sculpture that was looming in the "clouds", with the head visible but not the tail, Luo Mu smiled with relief.

The only voice echoing in his heart told Luo Mu that this was the one.

In Luo Mu's expectation, this white mist combined with the aurora curtain should be able to present a very good effect.

The production of the smaller version has been successful, and he will be confident in making the larger version when he participates in the competition tomorrow.

The giant dragon-shaped ice sculpture, which is several dozen meters long, can only be completed in this world with the power of Pokémon unless people cooperate with each other.

He is looking forward to the official debut of the ice sculpture.

Thinking that the time was about right, Luo Mu asked the Cang Yan Blade Ghost and the others to rest first, and then came to the Lotus Crown King.

"How do you feel?" Luo Mu asked.

The Bud Crown King answered honestly, "There is nothing wrong with the details of the appearance. It doesn't look awkward and is beautiful. However, it is still far from being as lifelike as the wood carving made by Zhihuixing."

"I think so." Luo Mu shook his head helplessly, with a nostalgic expression on his face, "Especially the moment when Zhi Huixing carved the eyes into the wood, I even felt like I was facing that Rayquaza again."

"It's just the finishing touch, that's all."

Luo Mu was very clear about his limitations.

No matter how talented he is, it is impossible for him to go from a layman to a master of ice sculpture in just a week or so.

In fact, it was precisely because he handed over most of the previous processes to the Sandslash King couple, the Blue Blade Demon, and the Mimikyuu that he was able to concentrate on learning the details of the carving with Zhihuixing.

Even if he couldn't make his ice sculptures look stunning, he could, through various clever ideas and designs, make the level of his ice sculptures infinitely close to those of the masters' works.

After chatting with the Lotus Crown King for a while and listening to some of its suggestions, Luo Mu thought that it was almost time and waved at it, "I'll leave it to you tomorrow."

The selection of the treasure who will accompany me to the Summer Ice Sculpture Conference has been finalized.

The Sandsang and his wife, Blademaster Azure, Mimikyu, Vulpix, Regice, and the Bud Crown who can restrain Snowbringer.

Luo Mu felt that his lineup should be one of the best in the conference.

The Bud Crown Queen nodded slightly, "No problem, I am also curious about how lively the activities held by humans will be after so many years."

When Luo Mu was about to turn around and leave, the Blizzard Horse suddenly made a sound: "Ice—hiss!"

Luo Mu paused, and the Princess Royal showed a helpless expression and translated the meaning of the blizzard horse's cry for Luo Mu.

"Snowstorm Horse said that Vulpix should just do what it can do. Don't try too hard or it will ruin your body."

Luo Mu was startled, a smile appeared on his face, "I know, I thought so too."

He looked at the Snowstorm Horse in surprise.

I didn't expect that this grumpy old horse who gets angry easily actually has such a gentle and considerate side. It's true that appearance is not the best way to judge a treasure. Until Luo Mu walked away, he didn't notice the look of disbelief that Snowstorm Horse gave the Rape Crown King.

Noticing the look in Snowstorm Horse's eyes, the Rape Crown King patted its head, showing a helpless smile like a parent meeting an ignorant child, and said, "Dear Horse, I just said what was in your heart. It's not good to say one thing and mean another."

"Besides, you told Vulpix not to overestimate its own abilities. It might be sad to hear this."

Snowstorm Horse's expression suddenly became very stiff, and his confidence suddenly became insufficient.

Luo Mu took advantage of the situation and came to the open space.

It was almost dusk, but the training here was still in full swing.

During this period of time, with the help of Luo Mu's special training, the accuracy of Tropical Dragon's Flying Leaf Blade has finally improved a lot.

Aiming at the target ten meters away, basically every flying leaf can be guaranteed to hit within the five rings, and occasionally with good luck, it can even hit the center of the bull's eye.

Compared with the previous "outline shooting", the progress of Tropical Dragon is huge.

Now the tropical dragon is facing three balls of fluffy cotton, constantly using the Flying Leaf Knife to try to break through the cotton defense that looks soft but is actually extremely difficult to break.

According to Luo Mu's request, the white fluffy creatures who continued to deploy cotton defense forced themselves to throw harsh words to the tropical dragon from time to time.

For example, words like "Have you eaten?" and "Come on, you are really weak." Use verbal provocations moderately to stimulate the emotions of the tropical dragon.

Now that the accuracy has improved, the next step in training is naturally to increase the power of the moves.

Leaf Blade is not a high-powered move, but as a move used to practice accuracy, energy control skills, and strength when laying the foundation for Tropical Dragon, Leaf Blade is just right.

These days, tropical dragons, which are precious resources of both nutrition and seasoning, are changing in strength almost every day.

The tropical dragon also naturally mastered a few moves. When it got bored of using the Flying Leaf Blade, Luo Mu would let it use the newly learned moves for a while to satisfy its desire.

The simple-minded Dragonite has no idea how sophisticated the trainer's routines are, and he feels very happy just doing the extra training.

After paying attention to the training of the Tropical Dragon for a while, Luo Mu corrected some of its problems and interacted with Bai Pengpeng and the others for a while. Without forgetting the main business, he walked towards the other side where the Vulpix was training.

Even at dusk, the midsummer heat was only slightly relieved.

But the temperature here is much cooler than the other side.

The reason for this is the hailstorm floating in the sky brought by Vulpix.

Like Frog's "Rainfall", Vulpix's "Snowfall" can bring hail weather, so Vulpix's evolved form often appears as a member of the Weather Team.

The Aurora Curtain technique is an important defensive technique used by the Nine-Tailed Fox to protect itself from being threatened during battle.

During this period of time, Vulpix's "Aurora Curtain" training progress was not ideal.

As there is no reference for the Aurora Curtain move, not even Bud Crown, Snowdrop or Regice can use this move. Luo Mu can only use his imagination and try as many ways as possible to let Vulpix learn the Aurora Curtain move by analogy through the Aurora Beam.

Luo Mu's idea was to activate Vulpix's characteristics and then control the energy as much as possible when using the Aurora Beam, so that the energy that makes up the Aurora Beam can be dispersed and integrated into the hail weather. The hail and the Aurora Beam would echo each other and form a light curtain with protective power.

However, he found that after actual implementation, it was unexpectedly difficult to achieve the expected results.

The main problem is probably that Vulpix's skills in energy control are too unfamiliar.

Luo Mu naturally also used his connections and asked this question to two ice experts he knew, Kona and Gulusha.

Their answers were surprisingly consistent.

Luo Mu's ideas and thoughts were not wrong, but as an ice-attribute move, "Aurora Curtain" was outstanding in both effect and difficulty to learn. It was a bit too unrealistic to expect to see results in just a few days.

According to their experience, those Pokémon that can learn "Aurora Curtain" all have strong control over their own energy and already possess a certain level of strength.

Vulpix is ​​not among them.

The time it has been training for is still too short.

Luo Mu's gaze fell on the vague white figure in the center of the hail.

At this time, Vulpix was trying hard to open its mouth and release the aurora beam in a dispersed manner, trying to make it blend into the hail weather.

Unfortunately, the aurora beam escaped from Vulpix's control after it dispersed and dissipated into the air, and it was still a long time before it merged into the hail.

Another failure.

Vulpix stopped moving. It had long since given up on being frustrated. Its big eyes flickered with a determined look. It recalled how its mother had used the Aurora Curtain before, and raised its head again, ready to try again.

At this time, Luo Mu stepped forward and stopped Vulpix's actions.

Meeting Vulpix's puzzled look, Luo Mu stroked the fluffy hair on its head and said with a smile, "It's almost time to rest. We have to go to Frostmower Mountain early tomorrow morning. It will be a long battle for two days, so we have to conserve our energy."

"Mew." (But the Aurora Curtain is not there yet.)

Liuwei lowered his head, somewhat afraid to look Luo Mu in the eye.

I still failed to use the Aurora Curtain. I don’t know if Luo Mu will look at me with disappointment.

There was no need for translation. Luo Mu could also understand what Vulpix was thinking through its expression. After slowing down his voice a little, Luo Mu said softly, "If you can't learn it now, then you can't learn it."

"Mewow?"

Vulpix raised his head and looked at Luo Mu in confusion.

Picking up Vulpix, Luo Mu said cheerfully, "Have you forgotten? We participated in the ice sculpture competition to enrich our lives this summer."

"Victory or ranking are not important. We are here to relax and have fun. If you get tired, wouldn't that be putting the cart before the horse?"

"The future is still long. Maybe, after you evolve, you will naturally learn the Aurora Curtain?"

Luo Mu's words touched Vulpix's heart directly. It blinked and thought, so that's how it is.

Luo Mu could feel that Vulpix's originally slightly tense body suddenly relaxed.

That's right, whether it's training or participating in an ice sculpture competition, it's just part of making life more colorful.

Vulpix is ​​still very small. In the entire farm, it is the youngest Pokémon except for the offspring of the Sandslash couple that have not yet hatched.

The life you want to provide for it must be a happy one.

Childhood is fleeting.

As soon as I relaxed, the physical fatigue that had been ignored suddenly came up.

The feeling of sleepiness came over him like a tide, and soon, Vulpix could no longer resist the sleepiness. He closed his eyes and fell asleep peacefully in Luo Mu's arms.

Gently caressing Vulpix's body, Luo Mu raised the corners of his mouth slightly and murmured, "Have a good dream."

(End of this chapter)