Chapter Sixteen: The Old Man in the Park

Although he was just teasing the girl, seeing Ralts at a loss, Tang Yi couldn’t help feeling sorry for her. He was about to get up when a voice came from the nearby park path.

“Looks like you’re having a bit of trouble. Do you need any help?” A middle-aged man in casual clothes, wearing sunglasses, strolled over. Beside him were three girls, each beautiful and adorable in her own unique way.

“My trainer is hurt. I need to take him to the hospital right away,” Ralts said anxiously.

“Injured?” The man suddenly grinned, “Don’t worry, you don’t need to go to the hospital. I can help you heal him. Ralts, could you please move aside?”

“Okay, are you a doctor? That’s wonderful, thank you so much!” The girl exclaimed in surprise and joy, giving way.

“Ninetails Princess, get ready to use Flamethrower!” The man pointed at Tang Yi lying on the ground and gave the order.

“Alright!”

A girl in her twenties, with fiery red hair and six orange tails trailing behind her, stepped forward with a cheerful smile. She drew a deep breath, and blazing energy began gathering swiftly in her mouth.

Tang Yi scrambled to his feet as quickly as possible, touched the spot where the stone had hit him, and said with delight, “It really feels much better now, it hardly hurts at all. Thank you!”

The six-tailed girl couldn’t stop laughing, then dispersed the fire energy from her mouth.

The man also laughed heartily. “No problem, you’re welcome.”

“Uh, I wasn’t thanking you—I was thanking my Ralts. It’s her care and tenderness that reached me and soothed my pain. Thank you!” Tang Yi blinked with sincere eyes.

Ralts, realizing what was happening, puffed out her cheeks. She wasn’t as easily fooled as she had been when she was little, but she didn’t expose the clumsy lie.

“Let’s go.” Tang Yi took Ralts’ small hand, preparing to leave.

He felt the stubbly-faced man was a bit shady. To be able to travel with three spirit princesses meant he at least had an intermediate trainer’s license.

In a small city like Qingjiang, there shouldn’t be many elite trainers.

The man's accent didn’t sound local either—something about him seemed out of place.

Most importantly, as a powerful Fire-type move, Flamethrower was never supposed to be used directly on people!

“Were you training psychic powers?” The man didn’t stop them, speaking in a casual, conversational tone.

“Well, something like that,” Tang Yi quickened his pace. It sounded like the man had been observing them for a while and saw Ralts use psychic powers to ‘defeat’ him, making the situation seem ever more suspicious.

“Butterfree Princess, when did you first use psychic powers?”

“Oh, that was so many years ago—I can hardly remember. Let me think... Probably when I evolved at sixteen.”

“These days, young trainers even have to pay for classes to learn the most basic skills like psychic force. Truly, the new generation isn’t what it used to be. Such a simple skill, really.”

“Indeed, psychic force only requires understanding how to adjust mental energy, and then it’s easy to master.”

Listening to the banter between the man and his Butterfree Princess, Tang Yi finally stopped and turned back with a blank expression. “What are you getting at?”

The man took off his sunglasses, smiling, “Nothing, really. I just couldn’t stand seeing you waste your Ralts’s abilities.”

“Your Ralts has mental energy far surpassing other psychic spirit princesses of her age. She simply doesn’t seem to know how to use it yet,” Butterfree said with a gentle smile.

This spirit princess wore a deep blue-violet gown, her back adorned with huge white wings veined in black, giving her a pure and regal look.

Tang Yi looked doubtful and glanced at the girl beside him. “Do you really have strong mental energy?”

Ralts was bewildered. The sudden appearance of so many strangers made her nervous and shy again, her green hair falling over her forehead. “I—I don’t know.”

Tang Yi felt the same way and shrugged at the spirit princesses, suggesting they might be mistaken.

After all, he and the girl spent every day together but had never attended any training courses. Surely this world didn’t have such things as innate talent, right?

“Hehe, someone actually doubts Butterfree Princess’s judgment. Do you know, Butterfree Princess was once…”

The youngest-looking Eevee Princess beside the man shook her fluffy brown tail and started to speak, but was promptly silenced by a few tails from the Ninetails girl, indicating she shouldn’t spill too much.

Butterfree Princess walked gracefully up to Ralts, fluttering her butterfly wings, spreading a fragrant dust. Her voice was gentle, like that of an elder sister.

“Ralts, your mental energy is remarkable. At your age, mine was nowhere near as strong as yours. Truly incredible—your trainer must be wonderful.”

Butterfree gave Tang Yi a gentle smile, answering his earlier doubt. Except for the inborn racial stats that can’t be changed, there was no other innate talent in this world.

Spirit princesses all start from the same starting line at birth.

Ralts’s strong mental energy must have been cultivated by Tang Yi.

Tang Yi’s expression grew a little strange.

Had he done anything special these past two months?

Watched dramas?

No, that certainly didn’t count.

Then it must have been telling Ralts stories, reading novels, and writing his own.

Suddenly, Tang Yi recalled the saying: “Within books there are beauties, within books there are mansions of gold.”

Every book is a new world, brimming with fresh information. For those who truly love it, immersing themselves in the world of fiction brings spiritual fulfillment.

Especially for Ralts, a newborn spirit princess, the world is as mysterious as a veiled bride—each day, peeling back layers of mystery brings immense satisfaction, greatly stimulating her mental needs.

Tang Yi began to understand—no wonder Ralts had begun to try writing her own stories lately.

Constant stimulation and spiritual satisfaction, gradually strengthening her mental energy?

Is that really how it works?

Well, it seemed the only explanation.

Tang Yi suddenly held deep respect for the spirit princesses brought by the middle-aged man and asked humbly, “I’ve only been raising Ralts for two months. I still don’t understand much about nurturing and training spirit princesses. How should I guide her to use her mental energy?”

The spirit princesses exchanged shocked glances.

Judging from Ralts’s appearance, her age probably wasn’t very high, but this was younger than they had expected—she hadn’t even reached her rapid growth phase.

Her future was impossible to predict!