You are not allowed to date a trainer.

Chapter 54: Professional Trainer

"Dangerous? This is the first time I've seen this word used to describe Gardevoir..." Gu Changfeng sighed. "But I don't have much room for rebuttal."

He patted his forehead and looked up at Qin Zhen with a sincere and friendly look. "Now that I have said what I want to say, Qin Zhen, do you have any questions?"

"No, and now I admire you, Master Gu, for your responsibility as a trainer and a man." Qin Zhen replied.

"Since you recognize me so much, shouldn't you come over and shake my hand? Why are you retreating further and further away, Qin Zhen?"

"Because I think what Teacher Chi said is right, you do have some serious issues with your personal conduct." Qin Zhen said, "I admire your courage and responsibility, but at the same time, it's also true that you attacked Ralts and Kirlia, acting like a weird uncle and playing a nurturing game. I didn't pull out my phone to call the police because of the mutual affection between you and Gardevoir."

Old Gu's eyes twitched. "Qin Zhen, is there a possibility that I'm the one being attacked and nurtured?"

"what?"

"Have you ever seen a Pokémon that just passed its infancy and quietly got up to make breakfast for its trainer?" asked the old consultant.

"This--" Qin Zhen was stunned.

"Have you ever seen an elf so possessive that it can't stand other elves showing kindness to its trainer?" Lao Gu asked again.

"I——" Qin Zhen was stunned.

"Have you ever seen a Pokémon that sticks to you all the time, declaring to everyone through its actions that 'My trainer and I are a couple'?" Lao Gu asked again.

Qin Zhen was stunned for three seconds... No! This time, Qin Zhen couldn't be stunned anymore. The Poké Ball on his waist suddenly opened up, and a green snake shadow rushed towards him.

"Chanai!"

………………

After a brief period of chaos, Qin Zhen and Gu Changfeng sat side by side on one side of the contestant's passage, waiting for the return of Gardevoir, who had picked up the challenger.

Qin Zhen held Teng Teng Snake in his arms, looking at the green field outside the passage with a calm expression.

"Master Gu, I remember you said before that every master of Qingcheng was a fire watcher on Mount Siguniang, and every year they had to go up the mountain to monitor the movements of the Ancient Sword Leopard."

"Yes." Gu Changfeng smiled and nodded. "But I should be able to relax a bit these past few years. With Master Xiong coming and going, that leopard should be much more obedient."

"Qin Zhen, you've had close contact with the Ancient Sword Leopard. What do you think of it?"

Qin Zhen was silent for a long time, then said: "It's pitiful."

Gu Changfeng was stunned. He never expected Qin Zhen to give such a strange answer.

"When I defeated the Ancient Sword Leopard with Master Wudao Bear, I experienced synaesthesia with it," Qin Zhen said softly. "I thought I defeated a monster, but I didn't expect it to be a lonely big cat."

"So you pity it?"

"Yes, I pity it, but I also know I absolutely cannot let the Ancient Sword Leopard leave." Qin Zhen raised his hand and touched the left side of his cheek. A stinging pain lingered where his fingers had touched. "It simply stood in front of someone, even if they did nothing, and the wind would become a sharp blade, slicing their throats and demanding their lives. If it were to enter the city out of curiosity, countless people would die. My homeroom teacher once told me about the 'Chongying Ginza Incident.' I cannot let that happen again on the land of the Donghuang Alliance."

"..." Gu Changfeng was stunned for a moment, then he let out a long sigh. "A natural born professional trainer."

"Master Gu, what exactly is a professional trainer?" Qin Zhen asked. "My teacher told me that a professional trainer is one who has obtained all eight badges. It's like if you defeat all eight gym leaders, you can sit back and relax, enjoy the alliance benefits with your Pokémon, and live a life of idleness and longevity."

"What? Don't you like that, Qin Zhen?" Gu Changfeng smiled.

"I also like to live a life of idleness and wait for death, but I also believe that you have to give as much as you gain." Qin Zhen said, "Master Gu, professional trainers shouldn't be a bunch of big stars who just show up for the audience, play in competitions, and then sit back and enjoy high allowances, right?"

"Of course not, professional trainer, this is a high-risk profession that emerged with the rise of modern Pokémon Duel..." Gu Changfeng barely began before falling silent. He turned and stared at the green field outside for a long moment before finally asking, "Qin Zhen, do you know why the Ming Dynasty fell?"

Qin Zhen raised his eyebrows in confusion, not understanding why the topic suddenly jumped from career planning to history. However, he had been flipping through history textbooks during the time after his rebirth, so answering this question was not difficult.

"Severe land annexation, heavy taxes and levies, political corruption, and peasant uprisings." "That's pretty good! As expected of a senior high school student!" Gu Changfeng gave a thumbs-up. "But unfortunately, these are just man-made disasters and have nothing to do with what we're going to talk about next."

"It's not related to man-made disasters? Then it's a natural disaster?"

Gu Changfeng nodded and asked, "Qin Zhen, do you know about the Little Ice Age?"

Qin Zhen shook his head. This sounded like a geography term, but compared to history, his geography grades were much worse.

"The Little Ice Age refers to a very special period in history. Based on the research and interpretation of various ancient documents by scholars around the world, they finally found that at a certain period, there was a sudden and large-scale extreme cold weather around the world, especially in winter, which was extremely cold."

"From 1550 to 1851 AD, this was the coldest three hundred years in Donghuang's history. This was especially true towards the end of the Ming Dynasty. The Yellow River dried up, the Yangtze River froze, and even the warmer Wuyang City experienced blizzards, with snow exceeding a foot in depth, almost knee-deep. The horrific low temperatures brought various secondary disasters. Food production plummeted throughout Donghuang, and countless people and elves died of starvation."

"This..." Qin Zhen couldn't help but open his mouth. A hypothesis suddenly popped up in his mind. "Could this be done by Gu Jianbao?"

Gu Changfeng shook his head. "If it could do that, then I wouldn't be the one guarding Siguniang Mountain. Donghuang would build a fortress on the mountain, and all the champions and kings of the past would gather there. Martial Arts Master Xiong and his wife would also join forces to drive that leopard back down into the snowy mountains."

"Master Xiong of Martial Arts... and his wife?" Qin Zhen's eyes twitched slightly.

"But Qin Zhen, you guessed right. The Little Ice Age wasn't caused by normal natural climate change, but by the activities of two ice-attributed elves. They are true gods. Compared to them, the Ancient Sword Leopard is just a weak child."

Qin Zhen didn't say anything, he just listened silently, but two names were already vaguely emerging in his mind.

At this time, Gu Changfeng took a deep breath and spoke in a serious tone, while Qin Zhen slowly recited in his heart. The man and the boy recited two exactly the same names in completely different ways.

"Regice, and... Kyurem!"

"Regice, the legendary 'Ice Pillar,' is a legendary spirit born in Antarctica. Ancient texts describe it as a seven-eyed Titan made of ice, capable of freezing erupting volcanoes with a single touch." Gu Changfeng said, "It's said that if you sail to Antarctica and the sea suddenly freezes over, with icebergs glittering in the distance beneath the aurora, then there's no doubt you've encountered the awakened Regice."

"As for Kyurem..." The Qingcheng Pavilion Master paused, a subtle yet profound fear flickering across his handsome face. "It's a dragon god, an ice-attributed dragon god. I don't know how to describe its appearance to you, but I can only tell you that it's the epitome of every human nightmare."

Qin Zhen's eyes moved slightly. He noticed the abnormality of the Qingcheng Pavilion Master. When describing the Ice Pillar, Gu Changfeng quoted legends and ancient books, Titans, icebergs, and auroras, and every word was extremely romantic. But when it came to Kyurem, he suddenly fell silent, leaving only a dry sentence "a nightmarish dragon god."

Is it possible...

"What exactly happened in Antarctica back then is impossible to verify. We can only reconstruct the events based on the accounts of bystanders: After a long slumber, Kyurem awoke from the abyss. It landed in Antarctica from the Pacific Ocean, intending to make it its own territory. This action naturally aroused the hostility of the indigenous Regice. So, the two gods summoned ice and snow, and a battle began on the Antarctic snowfield..."

"Wait a minute!" Qin Zhen suddenly interrupted, "Master Gu, you just said that the battle between Kyurem and Regiace took place in... Antarctica?"

"Yes."

"But isn't Antarctica the southernmost part of the Southern Hemisphere? How did they manage to reach the Donghuang Alliance in the Northern Hemisphere?"

"They have never been to Donghuang."

"The Little Ice Age that the Ming Dynasty experienced was..."

"It's the aftermath."

The Qingcheng Pavilion Master turned his head and curled the corners of his mouth, as if he wanted to give Qin Zhen a relaxed smile, but failed in the end.

"The aftermath of the war between the two Ice Gods surged beyond Antarctica. The raging ice element washed over the remaining six continents and four oceans like a tsunami. As a result, global temperatures plummeted, disasters became frequent, and humans and elves struggled with hunger and cold. This is the truth behind the Little Ice Age. Haha, unexpected, huh?"

Qin Zhen was horrified and sat up straight unconsciously. A picture emerged in his mind. On the endless snowy plain, dragons and giants charged at each other, the dragons roared, the giants raised their arms, and the wrath of the gods turned into a cold wave that swept across the world. The biting cold lasted for three hundred years, and even the dynasty 12,000 kilometers away was buried under the heavy snow.

"Will you allow something like that to happen again? Qin Zhen." The Qingcheng Pavilion Master suddenly asked.

Qin Zhen was stunned and responded reflexively: "Absolutely not allowed."

"Very good." Gu Changfeng clapped his hands gently. He looked at Qin Zhen and smiled gently. "So now you understand what a professional trainer does?"

　I'm a little out of shape. I've been stuck on the 3000-word manuscript since last night. Red Bean Paste Private Marseille!
　　
　
(End of this chapter)