Chapter 420: Entrance to the Spirit Realm

One sentence made Baimu's hair stand on end.

A soul?

What soul?

Could this guy possibly—

While his thoughts churned he tried to say something, only to find Furong already leaning in, muttering "excuse me, let me take a closer look," then rising on her tiptoes until their faces were nearly pressed together — close enough to feel each other's breath — to examine his eyes at point-blank range.

The time was extremely short, perhaps only two seconds.

When Baimu frowned and stepped back two paces to put some distance between them, Furong lowered her heels as well, her brows brimming with rich amusement and curiosity.

"Mmm~ as expected, I wasn't wrong. Your soul — it shines with a silver-white light like a snow mountain, and gathers a halo of cyan like a sun-ring, truly so special and so pretty~ What's your name?"

At that moment.

Standing behind her, Queen Boni was the first to offer a greeting.

"Baimu!"

"……Queen Boni."

Baimu's brow eased slightly; he quickly nodded to her in acknowledgment, and his heart relaxed as well.

Although the two of him had long since merged into one, no longer distinguishable from each other — and might even be something wondrous like the awakening of a past-life wisdom — hearing that line out of nowhere had still scared him half to death.

Fortunately, he was overthinking it.

And Furong, upon hearing his name, the curiosity on her face swiftly transformed into delight, and she said: "So you're Baimu! Champion Dawu is always talking about you~"

Dawu-san! Just how many people have you told about me!

You're way too chatty!

Baimu's heart churned ceaselessly; he had never imagined that the mature-sister-type Furong from the special episode would look so "girlish" against the anime backdrop.

Then his gaze fell on the manager standing at the very back.

Although what Furong and Queen Boni were doing was most likely related to the Pokémon he would obtain later, rather than going up and asking questions blindly, it was better to follow the existing leads first.

"Excuse me, there's something I'd like to consult you about."

He went straight past Queen Boni and came to the manager's side.

"Uh, me?"

The pot-bellied manager froze, glanced at the two Champions, then pointed at himself.

"That's right — do you happen to have any impression of Room 1608?" Baimu nodded as he spoke, watching the manager's expression.

Who would have thought that upon hearing that room number the man's face would change drastically, and he would say without the slightest hesitation: "1608? What 1608! New Zi Jin Mountain Hotel has no such room!"

Hmm……

What's with this "I know but I just won't tell you" tone?

Are you acting in a TV drama?

Baimu stared at the manager — whose face had darkened but who couldn't leave with Furong and Queen Boni present — and was thoroughly at a loss; the old saying "there's no silver buried here" fit perfectly.

Furong beside him looked at the manager and suddenly said: "Huh? Your soul seems to be trembling — could there be something off about Room 1608? It's not some room you're deliberately hiding, is it?"

Queen Boni said nothing, but also cast a cold, indifferent glance his way.

"Wh-what problem? Absolutely no problem!"

The middle-aged man waved his hands in a panic, then suddenly gritted his teeth and hardened his tone: "Besides! Even if the two of you are Champions, you don't have the right to just stick your noses into the hotel's business, do you?

"We've already cooperated with your operation as much as we could — if you can't find anything, what can we do? If this keeps up it'll be obstructing business; I'm going to file a complaint with the League!"

Although he seemed to have vented a whole string of complaints like a tantrum, the three people present could all read the bluster-without-substance look on his face.

So easy to read.

But since the man was acting like this, ordinary methods clearly wouldn't pry it out of him.

Baimu looked at Queen Boni and Furong, hoping the two of them could think of a way to pry Room 1608 out of his mouth.

He never expected that upon hearing the manager's threat to complain to the League, they would actually show signs of backing down.

"Uncle, you really aren't easy to talk to."

Furong scratched her cheek guiltily, looking quite troubled.

Queen Boni frowned, politely lifted both sides of her dress, and with a nod and a bow said: "Then let's leave it here for today. Thank you for the assistance you've provided."

That's it?

Scared off by a single sentence?

Baimu hadn't expected the word "complaint" to carry such weight; when his gaze shifted to the manager he found the man looking equally surprised — most likely also not having expected that an offhand remark blurted in the heat of the moment could shake off two Champions.

As expected, counting on others isn't very realistic.

Now he could only try searching for information online……

As he was pondering, Furong's voice sounded beside his ear.

"Baimu-kun! It's getting late — let's go eat together! I have so many things I want to ask you~"

"Mm."

He looked at this brown-skinned girl who was probably his age or even younger; he had meant to refuse, but caught Queen Boni giving him a subtle nod, and the words in his mouth changed accordingly: "……Sure."

The three of them left the hotel under the manager's watchful eye.

——

New Zi Jin Food Plaza.

Baimu set Mawile down in the seat beside him, and said to Furong across the table with some awkwardness:

"Is there something off about my face?"

"Not at all, I was just thinking that Baimu being constantly on Champion Dawu's lips really does make sense~"

Furong crossed her hands under her chin, her smiling, sparkling manner drawing the gaze of passers-by again and again.

"Dear...?"

"Are you Taobao customer service?!"

All Baimu forced a smile and said, "Just call me by name. By the way, Elite Four Boni, you are…"

"As you can see, I'm ordering."

Boni held the menu with a perfectly serious expression, ultimately ordered a bowl of ramen with lots of toppings, then handed the menu over. "Your turn."

"…We're really here just to eat?"

He reluctantly ordered an extra-large and a regular portion of ramen, picked out some toppings that Munchlax liked for it, then passed the menu to Furong across the table.

"Which one should I pick~"

Furong's eyes swept quickly over the menu.

Boni said calmly, "That situation just now is no longer suitable to press further. The other party went from cooperating at the start to not cooperating—there must be some price he'd rather offend us than pay. Forcing it further is pointless.

"Besides, approaching him this time was our private action. If it really gets reported to the League, that wouldn't be good. At the very least, Furong would be in a lot of trouble; she wouldn't pass the year-end performance review."

The moment she heard "performance review," Furong picked up a chopstick and propped it against her pouting upper lip, complaining, "I clearly didn't do anything?"

"You just caused people trouble, that's all. You really didn't do anything."

Boni tilted her head, looking at her with the gaze of someone eyeing a bratty little sister in need of a spanking. "That's why I keep saying, instead of focusing all your energy on raising your Pokémon's strength, you should engage more with modern society and learn what common sense is."

Furong: "Hmph~~~"

All Baimu across the table was shocked. "The Elite Four have year-end performance reviews too?!"

"Champions have reviews too—set up to prevent abuse after gaining extremely high status and power." Boni said lightly, a very faint smile suddenly appearing on her face. "You'll find out in the future."

"…"

The corner of his mouth twitched slightly, and he changed the subject: "Speaking of which, I heard people say you two seem to be looking for something?"

"It's this child's little brother."

Furong raised her hand, and a small Dreepy suddenly materialized in the air.

"Hiya~"

Dreepy circled around her wrist, then looked at All Baimu sitting across from her. Sensing that his gaze was quite friendly and that he gave off an aura that put it at ease, it mustered its courage and leaned over.

"Hello!"

All Baimu smiled and waved at it.

Dreepy happily raised its little claw, then flew straight onto the latter's head and lay down.

"Hiya~"

Furong was somewhat surprised. "Amazing! You know, this child is very, very timid. When I first met it, it was still hiding and didn't dare come out. Yet the first time meeting you, it's already this close?"

"Mm, maybe it's the power of bloodline."

All Baimu tilted his head slightly to look at Dreepy, with half its head peeking out over his forehead, then turned to show it to Munchlax, who was sipping oolong tea in small mouthfuls. After receiving a contemptuous look, he turned his head back in mild annoyance and asked again: "Its little brother was captured by poachers or something?"

"Nope. It came to New Zi Jin City from the Distortion World on its own, riding a Ghost ship."

"…The Distortion World? A Ghost ship?"

"Yes."

"That's a lot of information to take in."

He took a deep breath. "Why would something like this happen?"

"Not sure. All we know now is that there's an entrance to the Distortion World in some room at the Shenshan Hotel, but no matter how I look I can't find it—so frustrating! It's most likely that Room 1608!"

Furong let out an "Ah" and slumped onto the dining table. "If only I could ask the Ghosts, but if there were Ghosts here, there wouldn't be a Distortion World entrance…"

The Distortion World.

A special world that first appeared in the Sinnoh chapter, considered the habitat of human ghosts and Ghost-type Pokémon, and also considered the afterlife.

Pokémon and ghosts often try to lure living people in; Ash and friends once nearly got led inside by a little ghost girl.

But it's not the same place as the Reverse World where Giratina lives in the anime.

In Furong's mouth it sounds like her own backyard—no wonder, as a powerful trainer and medium who grew up in a place like Shenshan, she really isn't afraid.

"Ask the wild Ghost-type Pokémon nearby?" All Baimu suggested.

Furong, sprawled on the table, said vexedly, "Can't get anything out of them. There are too many Rotom in New Zi Jin, and they instinctively don't want to get close. Ah! Electronic ghosts don't go to the Distortion World!"

She raised her index finger like patching things up and added that line.

Suddenly.

A tall Dusknoir emerged from the shadow at her feet, drawing the attention of more other customers.

"Oh oh! You're back!"

Seeing Dusknoir, Furong immediately pulled herself out of her nearly-melting posture. "Did you get anything out of that uncle's mouth? Or find any other ghosts?"

So she'd sent a Pokémon out again?

All Baimu and Boni both looked at this big guy who'd suddenly appeared.

Unfortunately, Dusknoir shook its head.

Looks like after they left, that supervisor didn't happen to go to Room 1608, or mention the room's location to anyone.

What to do?

All Baimu even began considering whether to have Milotic hypnotize him and ask—

Of course, that would be a crime.

He certainly showed no mercy when catching or taking down those bad guys, but he hadn't sunk to their level of using any means necessary against ordinary people to achieve his goals.

At this moment.

The server came over carrying several bowls of ramen.

Boni silently took off her gloves, picked up her chopsticks, and prepared to eat. Seeing this, All Baimu had no choice but to put it out of his mind for now—wait until his stomach was full.

"Here, this is yours."

He carried the super-sized bowl of noodles over to the Munchlax, arranged all the toppings for it, and presented a fork — chopsticks would be too cruel for a Pokémon with only three fingers — then started eating from a normal bowl himself.

Across the way, Queen Boni faced an equally oversized bowl, slurping noodles at a pace that looked elegant but was in fact like a raging storm.

Furong toyed with her chopsticks while waiting for her seafood paella.

Not long after.

The meal was finished.

Queen Boni elegantly dabbed her mouth, looked at All Baimu who was wiping the Munchlax's mouth, and said: "What about you? What were you looking for Room 1608 for?"

The latter, long prepared to be asked, pushed it straight onto Unit-00, saying this baffling fellow had told him there was something he wanted in the Spirit World.

A half-true, half-false statement that Furong and Queen Boni couldn't see through either.

"Something you want… what thing?"

"There's everything in the Spirit World, it's just not easy to bring out."

The two went back and forth.

All Baimu continued: "What do we do next? Find the other people from the New Zi Jin Mountain Hotel and ask them?"

"That's not a bad idea either, but right now the best plan is still to get Young Lady Officer Jenny to help, go through official channels," Queen Boni said evenly, while Furong beside her let out a long "Ehh—" with a face full of gloom.

What's wrong with going through official channels?

He was a little puzzled.

Queen Boni read his confusion and said: "Going through official channels means we have to write up a written report ourselves and hand it to the League for review, it's a hassle. But with the New Zi Jin Mountain Hotel matter, if we don't go through official channels, Young Lady Officer Jenny probably won't be much help. Oh, and you write the report."

That last line was for Furong.

Furong then became even more gloomy.

All Baimu watched it all and felt that the Elite Four's restraint on drawing on official power was a bit much, limiting authority to this extent.

Then he tilted his head slightly and found that Dragalge Meshia had fallen asleep on his head at some point, and had even started snoring—

I'm not a Dreepy or Dragapult!

He reached up to pluck it off, but thought about it and decided to leave it.

——

Two hours later.

All Baimu and the others arrived at the New Zi Jin Mountain Hotel once more.

Except compared to when they went, this time they brought one more — Young Lady Officer Jenny.

Earlier Queen Boni had said it was a hassle, and All Baimu had assumed it would take a day or two to approve, but the report was reviewed and passed in just ten minutes after submission.

Unexpectedly swift.

It was just that Furong's written report took a fair bit longer to write.

Honestly, it was the first time he'd seen someone living in a mainstream region whose written language was worse than his, and whose handwriting was too.

Strangely reassuring.

It seemed being strong as a Trainer and Pokémon wasn't equal to being cultured.

And upon seeing Young Lady Officer Jenny, that manager also went ash-gray, muttering "I knew it, I knew it," and obediently told the inside story of Room 1608—

The matter had to start from the predecessor of Inner New Zi Jin.

Long before it was built, the New Zi Jin Mountain Hotel had been one of the owners of this plot of land. At the time, the New Zi Jin Mountain Hotel and Greater New Zi Jin Holdings had a subsidiary-parent company relationship, and the latter's decline and bankruptcy also dragged down the New Zi Jin Mountain Hotel.

Fortunately, thanks to a few traits like being an established name and being popular, the hotel barely managed to hold on.

But a rope always snaps at its thinnest part, and fate always finds the wretched.

Before the hotel could rally, a bizarre thing happened — on the first floor, a Room 1608 that wasn't locked inexplicably appeared.

Curious guests who pushed the door open fainted on the spot, and upon waking found themselves collapsed in the hallway, with all memory of Room 1608 gone, leaving only a vague shadow.

They had only barely pieced together the situation with the help of the surveillance cameras at the time, confirming that a Room 1608 had indeed appeared on a wall that should have been empty.

And this room appeared several more times afterward, each time knocking out the guests staying inside, yet the hotel's own staff never encountered it.

The hotel brought in spirit mediums, but they couldn't figure out the problem with Room 1608 either.

In the end, they could only let it drop, and the New Zi Jin Mountain Hotel's business plummeted along with it, never to recover.

Fortunately, with the completion of Inner New Zi Jin's construction, the rebuilt New Zi Jin Mountain Hotel never saw this Room 1608 again, and business recovered.

This room also became a taboo among the hotel's internal staff — anyone who dared leak it would be fired on the spot.

The front desk staff had come after Inner New Zi Jin was built, so they didn't know about Room 1608's existence.

The manager, on the other hand, figured that if the Elite Four brought Young Lady Officer Jenny to ask, it definitely wouldn't be his responsibility, so he spilled it, and felt much better after getting it off his chest.

"As I thought… it's a Spirit World entrance."

Furong nodded with absolute certainty.