Considering this possibility, Fang Yuan decided not to let Mewtwo and the others return yet. It would be better for them to stay by his side until they successfully obtained the Tablet.
Azure Mountain!
For Dragonite, flying from the Orange Archipelago to Kanto at full power with Extreme Speed was a matter of minutes.
Guided by Rotom on his phone, it didn't take long for Fang Yuan and his companions to reach this place.
However.
Fang Yuan had miscalculated.
A man and an Eevee searched throughout Azure Mountain.
Fang Yuan even called Mewtwo over to use a large-scale Confusion to cover the entire Azure Mountain, but damn it, they still couldn't find the Rainbow Rock from the movie version.
"Could something have gone wrong?"
Standing on the mountain peak, Fang Yuan said blankly as the cold wind blew from the opposite side.
Indeed, the anime and the movie are two parallel worlds, and the experiences of the two Xiaozhis are completely different.
But why... even the setting of the Rainbow Feather had to change, that just made things difficult for Fang Yuan.
"Moltres mentioned that Ho-Oh resides at Azure Mountain, right?" Fang Yuan mused, then asked.
"Bwoo!" Eevee and Victini nodded their heads as they looked at the scenery from atop the rocks.
Could it be that the other party was deceiving them? Maybe they should go back and beat it up.
"Be patient. How could a Legendary Pokémon possibly stay in one place all the time?" came Mewtwo's calm voice out of thin air.
"That's true..." Fang Yuan.
"Right!"
Fang Yuan looked toward Mewtwo and the two Celebis, with an 'I'm definitely a genius' expression, and said:
"Aren't you capable of time reversal and time travel? Mewtwo, you check when Ho-Oh left here, and then Celebi, take me back in time to find Ho-Oh, ask it where it plans to go, when it will return, how about that?"
Mewtwo: (`へ´≠)
Celebis: ヽ(#`Д´)ﾉ
Don't ask the impossible of Pokémon!
"This... won't work?" Seeing the three Pokémon looking incapable, Fang Yuan scratched his cheek and said, "Forget it, let's go check out the other mountain peaks."
Azure Mountain is just the highest peak of the Yunying Mountain Range. Maybe in this world, Ho-Oh casually put the Rainbow Rock on some other peak.
Fang Yuan planned to search the nearby peaks as well.
...
That search lasted a day and a night.
They combed through the entire Yunying Mountain Range.
They even dug out a clear picture of several Digletts and Onix in the ground.
But unfortunately, they still couldn't find the Rainbow Rock, nor any Rainbow Flowers. Shouting for Ho-Oh out of thin air didn't elicit any response either.
This gave Fang Yuan the impression that Ho-Oh might actually be at the Orange Archipelago, maybe even taking photos for Xiaozhi, after all the Ho-Oh's job is a photographer...
As Fang Yuan sighed in resignation, suddenly, his eyebrows twitched.
"Eevee!"
Man and Pokémon looked at each other, nodded, and set off in a certain direction.
"Help me!"
On a mountain road some distance from Fang Yuan and his group, an old gentleman with a bushy gray beard, carrying a brown backpack and wearing a red and white cap similar to Fang Yuan's, ran swiftly while continuously shouting for help.
Behind him was a dense flock of Spearows, easily dozens of them.
However, even as the old gentleman shouted for help, his expression remained composed and his actions steady, showing no signs of his age.
Fang Yuan watched from a rocky outcrop with a sense of inadequacy, doubting if he could be so energetic in his older years. The man was virtually a senior version of a super rookie trainer.
"Looks familiar." Fang Yuan muttered to himself.
Soon, Fang Yuan leapt down from a rock and began running alongside the old gentleman.
While running, Fang Yuan said, "Old man, you're in good shape."
"Of course, without a good physique, one cannot survive in the wild. Young man, you've got a good build too," the old gentleman replied, quite surprised that Fang Yuan could keep pace with him.
Soon what shocked him even more was the scent coming from Fang Yuan.
The old gentleman suddenly stopped, grabbed Fang Yuan firmly, and despite Fang Yuan's disgusted expression, began to sniff closer.
As the old man identified the familiar scent, his expression grew more and more astonished. "Although it's faint, that's the scent of Ho-Oh."
"Uh..."
Fang Yuan and the Eevee on his shoulder really wanted to ask, old man, are you part dog?
Your nose seems even better than a dog's.
In the pocket of Fang Yuan's coat, indeed, was a Rainbow Feather, but normal humans could smell Ho-Oh's scent?
"Chirp!!!!"
"Chirp!!!!"
Before the old man could ask more, with the stop of their "escape", the flock of Spearows had already spread above them, preparing to attack!
Every Spearow glared with a fierce look, as if ready to tear them apart alive.
"Go back."
However, in the face of the Spearow flock that gave many wilderness adventurers a headache, Fang Yuan simply looked up and spoke. The next second, the Spearows halted their attack and scattered.
An invisible Wave Guide, like an aura, surrounded Fang Yuan.
It radiated the unique, soothing waves of the World Tree Guardian, capable of calming everything.
"Uhm..."
This magical scene once again surprised the old man as he looked at Fang Yuan.
After a moment of contemplation, he spoke in astonishment:
"Is this... Wave Guide?!!"
"Let's not talk about that for now, old man. Did you ever write a book about Ho-Oh?" Fang Yuan asked, looking at the familiar old man.
"You mean 'Phoenix King is my Life'? Haha, have you read my work too?!!!"