Evening.
Heavenly King Ke Na warmly entertained Fang Yuan, Xiaozhi, and the others, personally cooking instant noodles for them.
Xiaozhi and the others were moved to tears.
Damn, they should have never expected Heavenly King Ke Na to cook anything decent with his own hands.
That was way out of line.
If they had known this would be the case, they would have been better off having Brock use the kitchen to help make something...
But this was somewhat difficult since Ke Na's villa seemed to lack any food ingredients.
The only thing Xiaozhi and the others could be thankful for was that the instant noodles in Ke Na's house were probably the most expensive ones...
"Brother Fang Yuan... is this really okay?"
In the backyard corridor, Xiaozhi was holding a cup of noodles in one hand while looking towards the clearing.
At that moment, on the clearing, Dragonite was hand-in-hand teaching a battered and bruised Charizard how to dance.
Under Dragonite's strong wind control, Charizard was utterly compelled in its movements: one moment the Butterfly Step, the next the Courtesan Step, standing on tiptoe. Although standing on the ground, the interwoven airflow made it look like a butterfly taking flight, agile and graceful.
Xiaozhi was mesmerized.
After every hand-in-hand instruction from Dragonite, it had Charizard repeat the move; if it didn't learn, it would beat Charizard up...
That made Xiaozhi's heart ache incredibly.
Despite Charizard's pride, because of the huge gap in power, it got beaten up to the point of losing its temper.
Although Charizard's strength wasn't weak later on, at this stage, Elder Spray was pitifully weak.
Apart from being less powerful than Dragonite, what Fang Yuan said to it was another reason for Charizard's perseverance.
"Milotic may despise violence addicts, but it does not despise strong beings, especially those with an elegant taste." Thus, after a session of smooth-talking by Fang Yuan, Charizard began its journey of learning dance moves from Dragonite.
However, it was obvious.
Faced with a love rival, how could Dragonite possibly make it easy for Charizard? It took every opportunity to sneakily give Charizard a beating, hoping to make Charizard realize that Milotic deserves to be with only a strong Dragon.
"It's fine, Dragonite is teaching it Dragon Dance," Fang Yuan said.
"Really??" Xiaozhi looked confused; it seemed he had heard of this move before.
"Dragon Dance my foot." Misty and Brock silently said nothing, too afraid to speak, and Ke Na also had a facepalming moment, never having seen such a version of Dragon Dance.
That being said, Ke Na did realize that Fang Yuan was indeed helping Xiaozhi and Charizard. Xiaozhi's Charizard had evolved all the way without establishing a solid foundation, clearly malnourished and uncoordinated in its movements.
Although it seemed like Dragonite was abusing Charizard, in the process, Charizard was also coordinating and adapting to its body, compensating for its innate deficiencies in foundation. Throughout the process, Charizard's movements became more and more agile, with a clear improvement.
"Xiaozhi," Fang Yuan didn't directly answer Xiaozhi but asked, "Do you know why Charizard doesn't listen to your commands?"
"Ah... is it because my Trainer level is too low..." Xiaozhi hung his head.
"That's part of the reason. Pokémon like Charizard have a competitive spirit; they like to battle and are keen on getting stronger. So when it realizes that you don't have the ability to guide it to become stronger, it naturally looks down on you."
"But that's not the most important. What's crucial is that even after that, Charizard still hasn't seen that you are striving to improve yourself for its sake."
"Sometimes, mere one-sided emotional attachment towards Pokémon is not enough."
"You need to understand their needs, desires, their ambition. They work hard to win badges for you; similarly, you need to work hard to fulfill their ambitions. Not every Pokémon will be like you, unconditionally giving their all, working together towards a common dream to become stronger. Only by doing so can you forge a mutual emotional resonance, creating a bond."
Fang Yuan shook his head. If he remembered correctly, even in the end, Xiaozhi only achieved obedience from Charizard through the emotions accumulated during its Charmander days and genuine emotional dedication, not through improving his own abilities. Even when Charizard became very strong later, it was the result of it being left by Xiaozhi to train on its own, with little effort from Xiaozhi himself.
This was where Fang Yuan found Xiaozhi of this period to be exasperating. When it came to loving Pokémon, he was undoubtedly number one, but that was all it was.
Compared to He Xiaomai and Nastina, Fang Yuan felt that Xiaozhi, who would later master Aura and Bond Evolution, would be more suited for the Power of the Heart. Out of a sense of heart-driven passion, he couldn't help but remind Xiaozhi that a bond wasn't something that could be built on one-sided emotional efforts.
If Xiaozhi could understand, Fang Yuan wouldn't mind passing on the Power of the Heart to Xiaozhi later on. This guy would surely catch more than a few Legendary Pokémon for the Heart Source Style. Then, he, the Sect Leader, could mooch off their successes, blissfully.
"Have I never considered things from Charizard's perspective..."
After listening to Fang Yuan, Xiaozhi fell silent. But how could he help Charizard become stronger? He surely could also undergo special training with Charizard. Uh... perhaps his method of special training wasn't satisfying for Charizard? Isn't running together a good thing?
Misty and Brock both looked at Xiaozhi; they felt that Fang Yuan was right. Xiaozhi, to some extent, was indeed an extreme emotional idiot...
"I understand!"