The soul penetrates Xiaozhi and destroys Gou Hao at the beginning

“Blazing flame!”

This concludes the video, and Dr. Kukui's speech also ends after the video ends.

Now all that's left is to wait for the opening day.

After reading the report, Shui Lian was not the only one who was incredibly excited about being able to fight against the royal masked men.

Of the friends, only Ash and Kiawe were particularly concerned about winning the Alola League Manalo Conference.

Most of the other participants were just there for fun, focusing on the experience rather than winning.

But now there's one more person vying for the championship: Shui Lian.

Meanwhile, Gladion and Umbreon were walking together in a dense forest.

He wanted to find his father Moen's partner, Zoroark, to tell it that Moen was not dead, and to have it help him find his father.

Gladion relied on Umbreon to distinguish whether the wild Pokémon he encountered were actually Zoroark transformed using the Illusion ability.

In the end, he successfully found Zoroark, who also used a hallucination to let Gladgio see the heartwarming scene of his father touching his head for the last time before he disappeared, and the family laughing happily.

Upon seeing this flashback scene, even the aloof Gladio couldn't help but shed tears.

Gladio tells Zoroark that his father, Moen, is not dead. Zoroark is clearly moved and greatly surprised upon hearing this news.

Immediately afterwards, Gladio asked Zoroark for help in finding his father.

Zoroark did not speak, but instead knelt on one knee before Gladius, bowed his head, and performed a kneeling bow, indicating that he was at Gladius's beck and call.

After all, to Zoroark, Gladion was the young master, and it was only right to serve the young master, regardless of whether the old master was alive or dead.

The next morning, Ash got up early and went to Professor Kukui's house to see him.

But to everyone's surprise, it took a long time before someone came to open the door.

Moreover, as soon as the door opened, Ash saw Professor Kukui, who was wrapped tightly in a coat.

It's worth noting that Dr. Kukui usually wears an overcoat with his chest open, and when he's the royal masked man, he's shirtless, wearing only trousers.

Today, he was wrapped up tightly in a coat and even wore a T-shirt underneath, which was really unusual.

"Professor Kukui, do you have a cold?" Ash asked, puzzled.

"I don't know what's wrong with me right now. I feel really down and cold."

"And what about Dr. Barnett?"

"I'm here."

Following the sound coming from Professor Barnet, Ash was surprised to find that Professor Barnet was lying on the floor in his pajamas.

"Dr. Barnett, are you alright?"

"It's nothing, I'm just a little sleepy."

"But weren't you supposed to be going to the beach tomorrow morning to dive and observe the Pokémon ecosystem?"

"Let's skip this for today. Observing these is enough," Dr. Barnett said lazily, yawning and pointing to the few heart-shaped fish in the fish tank in the room.

Anyone who didn't know better would think they were working so hard last night that they didn't get enough sleep.

Although he didn't know why, Ash couldn't stay any longer under these circumstances, so he said goodbye and headed to the Pokémon School.

Professor Kukui said he would pack up and go to school later, and asked Ash to cover his class for him.

As he went outside, he looked up at the sky, which had been covered by thick, dark clouds since this morning. A sense of unease emanated from it. "I can't help but feel a little uneasy," Xiao Zhi murmured.

"Could something have happened at the Ultimate Hole? I hope I'm just overthinking it."

But on his way to the Pokémon School, Ash noticed a series of unusual signs.

Officer Jenny, who usually patrols diligently to maintain peace and stability in the Alola region, and Nurse Joy, who has been healing Pokémon for decades at the Pokémon Center, are both lounging lazily on Officer Jenny's police motorcycle, showing no signs of motivation.

The streets, which should have been packed with busy office workers, were now deserted, with everyone standing there looking listless.

It was really strange, as if overnight, everyone in the Alola region had transformed into a Merdan and started to go wild.

Suppressing the growing unease in his heart, Ash arrived at the Pokémon School.

I wanted to talk to Principal Oak about Dr. Kukui, but I was surprised to find that Principal Oak was also lying on the sofa in his office and couldn't get up, just like Dr. Kukui.

Fortunately, when they returned to the classroom, they found that everyone was still normal and had not lost their energy. Otherwise, Ash would have really wondered if the Alola region was under some kind of curse.

Although everyone else was fine, their families were behaving very strangely.

Mao's father is always the most proactive in going to the market to buy ingredients for the customers who will be dining at the restaurant.

But today I just couldn't muster the energy to go, and I even put up a "Closed" sign on the door early this morning.

Then they went to the Pokémon Café in Oranguru's Forest to have tea, and there were quite a few other people gathered there as well.

Shui Lian's father usually gets up very early to prepare for fishing at sea, but today he was too lazy to go and stayed home lying down.

At Lillie's house, James, the butler, usually gets up earlier than the chickens and goes to bed later than the dogs. His top-notch professionalism allows him to prepare everything for Lillie in a meticulous manner, but today he actually dozed off.

Kaki's situation wasn't much better. Kaki's parents couldn't get up today, leaving Kaki to deliver goods to the ranch all by himself. Kaki's sister, Xing'er, was too busy taking care of the Pokémon on the ranch to help.

Mamane's parents overslept, causing Mamane to come to class without breakfast, and they didn't even make her a lunchbox for lunch.

Ash also informed everyone about the situation of Professor Kukui, Professor Barnet, Officer Jenny, and Nurse Joy.

Everyone was puzzled by this, wondering why almost everyone started doing this overnight.

After a while, Dr. Kukui finally arrived.

Just as Ash said, he was wrapped tightly in his coat, looking listless, and his greeting to everyone was not his usual energetic "Alola!", but a weak "Good morning."

Since everyone had already heard Ash say it, they weren't too surprised.

Dr. Kukui then stated that today's lesson was originally supposed to cover the Manaro Festival about the total solar eclipse, which would be held the day after tomorrow.

But because he was so tired, he asked everyone to discuss it on their own and changed the class into a self-study period. Then he went to the principal's office and lay down on the sofa with Principal Oki to sleep.