Pokémon: Master System.

A large amount of fire energy gushed from the Charizard's mouth, shooting out in a large, V-shaped arc of flame that flew towards the Ancient Sword Leopard.

A scorching wave of flames swept in, melting some of the ice spikes flying towards Roger and blocking most of the attack, but a small number of ice spikes still managed to scatter.

"what!"

Other poachers don't have Pokémon protection. Once the ice spike hits their bodies, it instantly creates a huge hole, and screams of agony fill the air. Faced with the indiscriminate attacks of the Ancient Leopard, more than half of them are killed or injured in just a moment.

Roger was not affected by the poachers' deaths. The poachers deserved to die anyway; it didn't matter who killed them, as long as they were dead.

"Run! Charizard, prepare for takeoff!"

At this moment, Roger also felt the threat of death. He couldn't care less about the poachers behind him and immediately chose to save his life, wanting to ride away on his Charizard.

But the Ancient Sword Leopard didn't give him a chance to leave. It let out another huge roar and unleashed an ice-type skill.

"Icicle crash!"

Ice energy began to condense in the sky, and huge ice pillars took shape almost instantly. These ice pillars, like a dense array of spears, all turned to aim at Roger.

"Roar!"

Accompanied by the roar of the Ancient Sword Leopard, the ice pillars shot towards Roger at high speed like arrows released from a bow.

Faced with the Ancient Sword Leopard's attack, the One-Eyed Fire-Breathing Dragon reacted immediately. It let out a huge roar at the Ancient Sword Leopard, then stood in front of Roger, intending to block the fatal blow for him.

"Hold on!"

Charizard immediately used Protect, and Normal-type energy surged out, instantly forming a light shield in front of it.

"Boom boom boom!"

The icicles struck the pillar of light, producing a crisp sound. Each icicle that struck the light shield caused it to tremble and flash with light.

Roger's heart sank. Judging from the situation, Charizard's Protect might not be able to withstand Elder Glaive's Ice Spike.

"boom!"

As Roger pondered, the light shield, relentlessly bombarded by the ice pillars, gradually dimmed, clearly nearing its limit and on the verge of shattering. Just then, with a crisp sound, the light shield that had been protecting him shattered like glass.

Faced with the attack of the legendary Ancient Sword Leopard, even the divine skill of Guardian couldn't stop it. Without the light shield to block it, the remaining ice pillars continued to fly towards the Fire Dragon.

The one-eyed Charizard's claws materialized, frantically blocking the flying ice pillars. However, some still managed to slip through, piercing through the defenses like spears and instantly inflicting severe damage on the Charizard.

Meanwhile, facing the Ancient Leopard's wide-range attack skills, Ye Jing and the others, whose Pokémon had been captured, were in dire straits. They had absolutely no means of defense, like lambs to the slaughter, and could only let the Ancient Leopard kill them. Just now, a round of ice pillars had instantly killed or injured several more of them.

In the blink of an eye, only six or seven of the more than twenty poachers remained alive.

"Give us back our Poké Balls and let us go!" Ye Jing said urgently.

"Run!" Roger didn't care about anything else. Besides, Roger wanted these villains from the Dawn Society to die as soon as possible, so how could he let them go?

Roger abandoned the captured poachers and immediately rode away on his heavily wounded Charizard.

Watching the humans flee in front of it, the Ancient Sword Leopard did not give chase. It turned its head to look at Ye Jing, its eyes filled with murderous intent.

Chapter 248 Divine Coffin-10

Tiandu Plateau wilderness area.

Amidst the swirling snow and the dark, snow-covered forest, blood splattered everywhere, staining the pure white snow a deep crimson.

Roger escaped on Charizard, but this was a tragedy for the poachers who lost their Pokémon. With their Pokémon confiscated, they had no means of escape and all became victims of the Ancient Sword Leopard Broken Sword in fear, with none escaping.

Scattered all around were severed limbs and organs, as well as ice sculptures frozen in ice. The person inside the ice sculpture had eyes filled with terror, clearly having suffered immense fear before being frozen.

After killing all the intruders, the Ancient Sword Leopard disappeared into the swirling snow and returned to Tianlin Mountain.

…………

About ten minutes later, a figure appeared in the snow forest. He was short and stocky, about 1.65 meters tall. He was covered by a thick black cloak, and in the dim light, he almost blended into the surrounding environment, making him difficult to spot.

At the same time, the mask on the man's face was more eye-catching than his physique.

He wore his signature crying mask, but it was slightly different from the mask worn by the Coffin-12 of the Dream Realm. His crying mask was light silver in color and had the number 10 engraved on it.

This also represents his identity: Divine Coffin Reserve No. 10.

The masks on the coffin are divided into two categories: one is a golden crying mask, and the other is a silver crying mask.

The official members wear gold crying masks, while the reserve members wear silver crying masks.

A full member of the Coffin can recruit a reserve member, just like the reserve Coffin-10 in front of us, who was recruited by a full member of the Coffin-10.

Therefore, the entire Divine Coffin Organization now has a total of twenty-four people: twelve official members and twelve reserve members.

The man in front of me is Kong Yixuan. He is the vice president of the Dawn Society and the only son of the president of the Dawn Society. He is thirty-five years old and in his prime.

Although Kong Yixuan is only a reserve member, his strength is still quite impressive. Even at only thirty-five years old, with the accumulation of abundant resources, he has already achieved a level of strength comparable to the Four Heavenly Kings.

It's important to know that the members of the Divine Coffin organization are very complex. The distinction between formal and reserve members is not based on strength, but rather on whether or not they possess a divine beast.

This has led to some reserve members being stronger than regular members.

Of course, Kong Yixuan's strength isn't particularly high right now; he's at the bottom of the Divine Coffin reserve team. He was only able to join the organization because his father was a full member of Divine Coffin-10, codenamed "Phoenix." Otherwise, he wouldn't have been able to join. (Guess which divine beast his father possesses; it's actually quite easy to guess.)

Kong Yixuan frowned as he looked at the corpses and ice sculptures scattered on the ground. He suppressed his nausea and began to examine the corpses one by one. He immediately noticed Ye Jing, who was frozen in ice, but after only a glance, he continued his search.

Kong Yixuan wanted to find Roger's body here. He needed to confirm whether Roger was dead or not. Only if Roger was dead could the secret of the Ancient Sword Leopard be kept secret for the time being.

However, after looking around, the result was naturally very disappointing to him. Among the scattered corpses, apart from the bodies of the Dawn Society poachers, Roger's body was not found. It was obvious that Roger had survived and escaped.

Waste! Ye Jing is a piece of trash!

Kong Yixuan couldn't help but curse inwardly. Ye Jing was utterly useless; he couldn't even handle Roger. After serving as the vice president of the Dawn Society for so many years, Ye Jing's strength hadn't improved at all.

Kong Yixuan sighed softly. If Roger returned alive with news of Guglielmore, the Pokémon Association would intervene, and he would never have another chance to capture it. Therefore, he had to catch up with Roger and kill him.

"Come out, Fat Sweetie."

Slimie is a Fairy-type Pokémon, but it's not particularly strong in battles. Being a Fairy-type Pokémon, its abilities are quite mediocre. It doesn't have any obvious weaknesses, but it also doesn't have any outstanding strengths, which is why it's rarely raised by trainers as their main Pokémon.

However, Fat Sweetie has a unique ability: her sense of smell is extremely developed.

Fat Sweetie's sense of smell is more than 1 million times more sensitive than that of humans. She can understand the surrounding situation through the subtle scents floating in the air.

Therefore, Fat Sweetie is usually a good helper for pastry chefs, and it can also smell people's physical and mental state from their body odor, which has attracted much attention in the field of medicine.

Besides, Slippery is also one of the most suitable Pokémon for tracking. Just like in the current situation, it can easily track the blood scent that has been diluted countless times in the air.

"Fat Sweetie, help me smell the blood and see if anyone is injured or has left. Please. Or smell if there's any fire-breathing dragon nearby, Fat Sweetie," Kong Yixuan said, patting Fat Sweetie.

“Ni~” Fat Sweetie nodded, then started twitching her nostrils, sniffing the mixed smell of blood in the air.

Fat Sweetie sniffed the blood as she moved, chasing after Roger in the direction he had left.

The wounded Charizard left a trail of blood, which served as a guiding light for Fatty Sweetie.

"found it?"

“Ni~” Fat Sweetie nodded.

"Come out, Salamence." Kong Yixuan smiled, then released Salamence, climbed onto its back, and followed the trail left by Charizard to track Roger.

…………

However, just five minutes after Kong Yixuan left, a figure reappeared in the jungle.

Houndoom followed beside the figure, lowering its head to sniff the scent in the air.

"He really came." Xu Xiu's face was slightly flushed. The high-speed journey had exhausted him. Looking at the corpses scattered on the ground, a glint flashed in Xu Xiu's eyes. Everything was proceeding according to his plan.

The only surprise was Roger. He didn't expect Roger to lead the patrol today and get involved in this accident. Thinking of Roger, Xu Xiu recalled his patrol team years ago.

Roger was undoubtedly a selfless captain. With his abilities, he could have easily applied for a transfer away from this harsh place, but he didn't, and stayed here for more than ten years.

For decades, he silently guarded the Wilderness. Roger never married or had children; he dedicated everything to the Wilderness and to Green Hill Town.

He, like Roger, once took it upon himself to protect the wilderness, until that incident occurred.

Xu Xiu shook his head. He seemed a little nostalgic today, as if he was thinking about things from the past.

Seeing the direction Kong Yixuan had left in, Xu Xiu climbed onto Bald Eagle Na's back and chased after him.

Hopefully I can make it in time.

…………

Because it's important, I've put it at the end.

Xu Xiu has always been a very important character in this book, and one of the core characters. He is both a villain and not a villain.

When I was planning to write a Pokémon book, I envisioned two beginnings and two main characters.

One of the protagonists is a member of a large family like Xia Yu. The sixth brother is a cunning and slightly lecherous protagonist, but he is also kind and responsible.

Another type is dark fiction, featuring protagonists with no background or power, somewhat similar to Xu Xiu now, ruthless and unscrupulous.

Ultimately, after considering all factors, I decided to write something lighthearted and positive, choosing Xia Yu as the protagonist. The other protagonist was then set up as Xu Xiu.

The following chapters will detail Xu Xiu's background and experiences, and some of the foreshadowing regarding Xu Xiu in the previous chapters will also be revealed.

Meanwhile, another key character who was teased in the previous chapters will also make an appearance soon.

The names suggested by readers are not satisfactory, so I'll give you a spoiler: the names will be chosen based on the characters' information.

First of all, he is a core positive character, a standard righteous person, and he is powerful, somewhere between the Four Heavenly Kings and the Champion.