The Second Elder's sharp rebuke instantly shifted the atmosphere in the hall.
"Guo Yi only said a few simple lines, and our Jin family bows its head and admits fault?"
"Then all the prestige our Jin family has built up over the years becomes a joke."
The Fourth Elder, who'd been scolded, didn't change his expression at all. He gave a cold laugh and said, "Second Brother, I looked into how this started."
"It was your grandson overestimating himself and provoking them. And now you want the family to wipe his ass with our interests?"
At that, the Fourth Elder said disdainfully, "If he doesn't have the strength, then make the younger generation behave."
"I also heard that because of this, Nangong Qiu had an arm cut off—clean off—by Guo Yi."
"What?!"
The moment they heard that, everyone present erupted!
They knew Nangong Qiu well. His strength was absolutely not weaker than an average Elite Four.
Add on the fact that he was a psychic, and—what strength did Guo Yi have to cut off his arm?
"Fourth, is that true?" the Third Elder asked grimly.
The Fourth Elder nodded. "Third Brother, it's true."
"I heard Guo Yi's teacher, for his disciple's safety, deliberately left that Beedrill and that Zapdos behind."
"With how terrifying those two Pokémon are—I don't think I need to explain."
Hearing that, the others nodded in agreement.
If those two Pokémon were involved, then an arm being severed suddenly sounded perfectly normal.
After all, even if Nangong Qiu was strong, at most he was only a bit stronger than Lie Ke.
And yet, Lie Ke had been utterly crushed when he faced those two Pokémon.
So if it were Nangong Qiu, the outcome would be the same.
At the same time, they could all see just how highly Guo Yi ranked in his teacher's eyes.
If something went wrong—if they angered Guo Yi's teacher, even the Jin family would end up in a very passive position.
As the saying went—the barefoot have nothing to lose.
The Jin family had too much to protect. They couldn't afford a fight to the death with someone like that.
Then the Third Elder spoke. "Second Brother, I think it'd be best to have Jin Yu go and apologize in person."
"After all, this was Jin Yu's fault from the start."
A powerhouse like that was someone their Jin family really did need to show respect to.
Unfortunately, the Second Elder snapped back unhappily, "What?"
"A single person scares you all into this?"
"Fine—why don't we all go kowtow to Guo Yi and admit our mistake? I bet that would work even better."
With the Second Elder pushing so aggressively, everyone's faces darkened.
"Second Brother, you can't sacrifice the family's interests just for your grandson!"
"How is my grandson sacrificing the family's interests? He's carrying out the assessment the family required. Is that wrong?"
"And you don't understand what kind of harm that Dragon-Slaying Art could bring to the Jin family?"
"Hahahaha—'Dragon-Slaying Art'? He just said it offhandendly and you believed it? Where's the evidence?"
"..."
As the argument grew louder and fiercer, the family head seated at the top finally spoke.
"Enough."
In the Jin family, the position of family head wasn't decided by seniority or age, but by strength.
So once the family head spoke, none of the elders dared keep throwing their weight around.
"Dragon-Slaying Hero is still only a theory."
"If our Jin family makes peace just like that, then yes—other families will laugh at us."
"However, that 'Bug Master' truly isn't someone we should provoke lightly. We can't invite a major enemy onto the Jin family for nothing."
"Second Elder, speak to Jin Yu. Don't provoke Guo Yi casually."
"Remember: he's currently in an assessment. If something really happens, our Jin family will not step out to shield him."
As family head, he couldn't openly favor only one side.
So he made a compromise that let everyone save face.
"Understood, Family Head."
The Second Elder was displeased in his heart, but this was already the ruling most favorable to his grandson.
"Also, everyone keep an eye on what Guo Yi teaches next in this Dragon-Slaying Art."
"Let's see whether it's real or fake."
It involved the family's foundations—so they couldn't be careless.
"Understood, Family Head," everyone replied.
...
Monday.
Guo Yi's class arrived as scheduled.
And just like before, before he explained weather tactics, Guo Yi once again started teaching the Dragon-Slaying Art.
"Continuing from last time: today's Dragon-Slaying Art is called the Dragon-Slaying Blade—Weavile."
"Weavile is a Dark- and Ice-type Pokémon."
"Its extremely high Attack and Speed base stats give it the potential to become a Dragon-Slaying Blade."
This time, hearing "Dragon-Slaying Blade Weavile," the crowd wasn't nearly as shocked as they'd been with "Dragon-Slaying Hero Azumarill."
After all, Weavile was widely acknowledged as one of the better choices for dealing with Dragon-types.
But still.
What Guo Yi said next sparked discussion anyway.
"As for building Weavile's moveset, most people's first choice would be Ice Punch. But my pick is Icicle Crash."
"Because Icicle Crash also has a 30% chance to make the opponent flinch. Once it flinches, that Dragon-type Pokémon won't have any chance to fight back at all."
"Teacher, I don't think Weavile can learn Icicle Crash!"
As someone from an Ice-type family, Leng Yue had a lot of authority to speak on this.
Then, she remembered the "Dragon-Slaying Hero" from last time and answered herself. "Don't tell me it's an Egg Move again?"
Guo Yi nodded in confirmation.
"As long as Weavile's parent is from lines like Beartic or Swinub, it can inherit the move as an Egg Move."
And this time, the tide of opinion in the livestream chat flipped completely to one side.
[Egg Moves again? Teacher Guo's really addicted to saying that, huh.]
[Yeah! Azumarill still hasn't been confirmed, and now he's doing it again?]
[Heh. Does he really think he's some expert in this?]
If, before, around sixty to seventy percent of people were willing to believe the training plan for Dragon-Slaying Hero Azumarill, then this time, the Dragon-Slaying Blade Weavile plan had maybe thirty to forty percent at most.
After all, if you kept painting big promises without any real conclusions or returns, anyone would start to doubt.
Guo Yi clearly anticipated that. He smiled and explained, "The report on Azumarill will be released today by Professor Du and his team."
"If you're interested, keep an eye on announcements from the Capital City Pokémon Research Institute."
The moment he said that, whether it was the students in the classroom or the viewers in the livestream, everyone froze.
[Professor Du? Du Ruiguang?]
[Is that real? The institute is actually going to publish something about this?]
[No way—how could Teacher Guo possibly know what's happening inside the institute?]
[Breaking: someone saw Professor Du at Shanghai airport last weekend.]
[Is it real? Or could it be some other Professor Du, and Teacher Guo's just muddying the waters?]
[Maybe? Virgin, hurry up and ask!]
[Yeah! Don't let everyone down!]
With the viewers urging him on, Chu Nan spoke up. "Teacher Guo, the Professor Du you mean… is Du Ruiguang?"
Guo Yi smiled and waved a hand, tossing back a question. "Does Dragon Country have any other Professor Du?"
With his confirmation, everyone's anticipation for the official announcement shot through the roof.
"Alright. That's all for today's Dragon-Slaying Blade."
"Tomorrow, I'll be teaching the training plan for Dragon-Slaying Cloyster."
"Quick heads-up: Dragon-Slaying Cloyster is even harder to build than Dragon-Slaying Blade or Dragon-Slaying Hero."
"But once you succeed, even pseudo-legendary Dragon-types will take one look at it and go the long way around."
To be fair.
The threat Dragon-Slaying Cloyster posed to Dragon-types was absolutely far beyond the first two.
In the games, Skill Link + Icicle Spear + Shell Smash combination—aside from Steel/Dragon types, no same-level Dragon-type Pokémon could withstand that chain of hits.
Even legendaries would struggle.
In reality, though, legendary Pokémon were out of the question.
Any legendary with the Dragon type was terrifyingly powerful.
But against pseudo-legendary Pokémon, it was absolutely a dragon-killing weapon.
In the original story, wasn't it because Ice-type Elite Four member Lorelei blocked him that the "Flying-type Master," Lance, couldn't climb to the top as Kanto Champion for so long?
And in that, Cloyster had played a huge role.
After leaving everyone with that hook, Guo Yi continued with his Hail tactics lecture.
He just didn't expect that Qin Yixue was following his livestream closely the entire time.
The moment class ended, the official announcement dropped.
[Regarding the training plan for Dragon-Slaying Hero Azumarill discussed online by Teacher Guo: it is completely true and effective.]
[In addition, Teacher Guo has been specially appointed as a researcher at the Capital City Pokémon Research Institute, participating in research on Pokémon Egg Moves and breeding.]
[All hypotheses and training plans proposed by Teacher Guo will be verified by the Capital City Pokémon Research Institute, and related reports will be published.]
[For details and the letter of appointment, please see the attached images below.]
As soon as the announcement went out, everyone completely exploded.
[My god! Specially appointed as a researcher? That's actually a thing?!]
[I can't believe Teacher Guo's training plan was real! No—I'm going to buy a few Azumarill and Poliwag right now and start breeding. I'm raising my future kid a Dragon-Slaying Hero!]
[Guy above, hurry up—breeding houses are about to be packed!]
[Holy crap! The breeding house near my place doesn't even have Azumarill for sale anymore!]
[Same! The one near me is sold out too!]
[Duh—there's money to be made. No way the breeding house owners are letting that go. They're definitely keeping Pokémon to breed for themselves!]
[I can already imagine Azumarill and Weavile prices shooting straight through the roof next.]
And as the internet boiled over completely, the Jin family finally couldn't stay calm either.