"Leave the rest to me, but don't get your hopes too high."
"Any information or strongholds he knew about have likely been destroyed or relocated. He probably won't be able to provide much valuable intelligence."
"Still, capturing a Moon-level Deacon with Elite Rank strength is a massive achievement. I honestly can't believe how you pulled it off."
After tying Gul up, Chika spoke to Gu Yuan with a look of surprise.
"It was nothing. He was just a bit too careless. Plus, my Pokémon are excellent, which is why the capture was successful."
Gu Yuan shook his head, showing no signs of arrogance. It was exactly as he said; if Gul hadn't initially believed his Electivire could crush Gu Yuan and allowed it to be pinned down by the Mega Evolved Charizard, Gu Yuan wouldn't have won so easily, even if victory was possible.
At the same time, this battle proved that after his recent hard work, Gu Yuan's strength was far greater than it had been during the Regional Battle Tournament.
After a brief conversation, Chika headed back with Gul, but not before providing Gu Yuan with the latest intelligence. Following Gu Yuan's current route, he was bound to encounter several poaching groups or Pokémon hunters. With this new information, dealing with them would be much simpler.
"Let's go. It's time to continue our trial."
Watching Chika leave, Gu Yuan headed straight for the heart of the forest. It must be said that Gul was quite good at picking spots; this forest happened to be one of Gu Yuan's trial grounds, inhabited by many Leader Rank Pokémon.
While Gu Yuan continued his trial journey, a meeting was being held within the Hunter's Guild to discuss him. This was standard practice for the guild. Whenever a stronghold was compromised or a deacon was captured, they would quickly investigate the incident to find loopholes in their operations, ensuring they wouldn't trip over the same stone twice.
"That is the gist of what happened. I suggest we tighten our supervision of researchers, especially those we forcibly recruited. Otherwise, it will be hard to prevent a repeat of this situation."
After introducing the events, a woman with a moon symbol on her clothes immediately offered her suggestion. According to the Hunter's Guild power structure, this woman was a Moon-level Deacon with Elite Rank strength.
"Easier said than done!"
"You know exactly what kind of temper those researchers have. If we do as you say and they go on strike, what then? What if the research progress is delayed!?"
As soon as the woman finished speaking, a man immediately countered her. Like her, he was also a Moon-level Deacon.
"In my opinion, rather than preventing researchers from escaping, we should strengthen our defensive forces. We can even use 'protection' as an excuse."
"I don't know how some people handle things, failing to even keep an eye on a bunch of defenseless researchers."
"I just wonder if failing like this warrants a punishment."
The male Moon-level Deacon continued, seemingly mocking the female deacon, but his eyes were fixed on the only Sun-level Deacon in the meeting.
"Rest assured, I will handle this matter fairly. There will be no shortage of appropriate punishment."
"However, you must also appease them. I don't want to see those researchers harboring any ideas they shouldn't have!"
Noticing the man's gaze, the Sun-level Deacon finally broke his silence. His tone was heavy and serious.
"Understood!"
The man nodded and said no more. A little testing was fine, but pushing further would be offensive. If he enraged a Champion Rank opponent, he would be the one to suffer, especially since his own backer wasn't present.
"Now, we should discuss Gu Yuan."
"I assume everyone here is familiar with him. The sensation of the Indigo League, the monster of the Regional Battle Tournament."
"The only reason our stronghold was discovered this time was because of this man."
"Previously, our stance on Gu Yuan was to wait and see. After all, he is someone the League values, and his targets have always been the internal families of the League."
"But looking at his performance this time, Gu Yuan clearly won't let us go if he gets the chance. Therefore, we must take him seriously."
"The higher-ups have instructed us to cooperate with those families to eliminate Gu Yuan. If any of you have good suggestions, feel free to speak up."
The Sun-level Deacon scanned the room and waited patiently.
"I have some insight into this. Those families have temporarily given up on attacking Gu Yuan due to their recent string of failures."
"But this is just a facade. Three families, including Cotton's, are waiting for Gu Yuan to grow to a certain level and cause more damage to other families before they unite everyone."
"That way, they can ensure those families put in their full effort while minimizing the impact and shock to themselves."
"From this perspective, it will be difficult to collaborate with those families in the short term—unless we make them feel a direct threat from Gu Yuan right now."
Shortly after the Sun-level Deacon finished, the female Moon-level Deacon spoke up. Seeing this, the male Moon-level Deacon looked at the Sun-level Deacon with a dismissive smile. If they wanted her to show off, they could at least be less obvious about it.
"Oh? Then what do you think we should do next?"
Looking at the Sun-level Deacon who had taken the bait, the man slowly closed his eyes, preparing to listen to their rehearsed act.
As the man expected, the female Moon-level Deacon began to speak fluently in response to the Sun-level Deacon's inquiry. Her plan involved first observing Gu Yuan's strength, then using the Hunter's Guild's intelligence channels to feed him evidence of the families' crimes, guiding him to strike them.
Afterward, the Hunter's Guild would pull some strings to force those families to retaliate against Gu Yuan while the Guild assisted from the shadows. In the end, they could dump all the blame back onto those families.
Without any resistance, the deacon's proposal was approved, and the entire stronghold began to mobilize. To ensure absolute secrecy, the stronghold activated both its public and private intelligence channels.
Publicly, they released information to Pokémon hunters and poaching groups. Secretly, the guild's dedicated intelligence department would meticulously record every detail concerning Gu Yuan.
Their movements did not go unnoticed by the League's intelligence organizations, and even the families could not be kept in the dark. It could be said that because of Gu Yuan's existence, three major forces had already begun to clash in the shadows.
As for who would emerge as the final victor, that remained to be seen. As the person at the center of it all, Gu Yuan continued his trial, steadily increasing his strength.