Chapter 718: Hard to Tell Real from Fake

"Hold steady!"

Furong shouted, tilting her head back.

The prayer beads and shaker in her hands lit up with a thin blue glow, while the Dark Night Spirit behind her raised both hands high to block the falling giant fan, like a giant propping up the heavens.

A crystalline blue flowing light also coiled around its body.

Then.

The earthquake stopped, the falling boulders retreated back to the dome, everything miraculous as if time were flowing in reverse.

In less than a moment.

The bottom-level arena returned to its original state—except the giant fan had been replaced by a grey-purple vortex and the lights at the top had gone out—it was no different from when they first arrived.

Lit only by the lamps along the four edges, the arena was dim and eerily silent, like a scene from a horror game—

If not for Furong's presence.

At this moment she looked exactly like a priest from a Japanese RPG, relying on all sorts of magical gear to face off against a great demon king, instantly pulling the atmosphere from a horror game into a fantasy adventure game.

Isn't a spirit medium supposed to be one who deals with channeling spirits?

How does she have this kind of ability too!

Baimu, who had dodged the falling rocks, watched Furong in amazement, but his attention quickly returned to the vortex in the sky. Those blood-red eyes brewed a terrifying fury, as if about to turn into flames and burn them all to ash.

"Get out! You are not welcome here! Get out!!"

The thunderous roar echoed in his mind.

Outrageous.

Sound waves shake the eardrums—this telepathy shakes the brain!

For a moment Baimu didn't know what to cover, his whole head buzzing; pushed to the limit he could only shout at the top of his lungs:

"I am the descendant of the person you've been waiting for! Stop! Curse Doll! Do you still remember Master Lidi? We were sent by his companions!"

To get this guy to cause less trouble, he frantically played up the connection, trying to make the Curse Doll calm down a bit.

Believe it or not.

After Baimu mentioned two people it knew in succession, the Curse Doll really did stop roaring. A huge pitch-black face poked out from the vortex, its golden zipper-mouth quite eye-catching, its fierce triangular eyes staring at him.

"You… are his grandson?"

"If I weren't his grandson, how could you mistake me for him?" Baimu was actually a little curious too—how could souls, like bloodline inheritance, have such similarities.

Half of his soul came from another world, after all!

But this wasn't the moment to dwell on it. He stared up at the Curse Doll, and out of the corner of his eye caught Furong giving him a thumbs-up.

Come on and think of something, big sis!

Why are you giving me a thumbs-up?

Baimu was speechless, well aware that barring any surprises the Curse Doll was about to start chasing people away again.

Sure enough.

"If you aren't him, then leave this place!" the Curse Doll issued its order to leave again. Fortunately the telepathy wasn't as intense as before—not enough to make one dizzy and see stars.

Showing mercy to a friend's descendant?

He immediately cast a pleading look at Furong, and she didn't disappoint him, opening her mouth to draw the Curse Doll's attention.

"Curse Doll! We have come for the lost souls who have no path home! Do you still remember the duty of a Gatekeeper?"

How bold!

Baimu was simply stunned—talking in this tone, is that really okay?

The Curse Doll's patience also seemed to have reached its limit. A cold glint appeared on its huge face as it said viciously, "Since you refuse to leave, then stay here!"

The zipper opened from left to right, and a great mass of black mist surged out, falling toward Furong and the Dark Night Spirit on the ground.

"Yo-n!"

The Dark Night Spirit's blood-red pupil flashed; its broad palm gathered Furong's waist and swiftly withdrew to the side.

And when the black mist hit the ground, quite magically it gradually took shape into two blurry figures, one large and one small.

One resembled a human form, the other a beast form.

The two unknown entities let out sneaky, eerie sounds, raising goosebumps all over one's body.

This is…

"Evil spirits!"

The words Furong blurted out drew Baimu's curious gaze. She said seriously, "Evil spirits are a special kind of soul. There are many reasons for their birth, but without exception they are all extremely dangerous! Be careful not to let them possess you!

"And the Spirit Realm is their home turf—nearly impossible to defeat! Fortunately we are only a hair's breadth away from the Spirit Realm right now, so suppressing them will be enough to complete the seal."

Why is it sealing again.

Does this world really not have any once-and-for-all methods?

Without a doubt.

The place they were currently in was not the Spirit Realm, but a node where the real world and the Spirit Realm's entrance had fused—much like Room 1608 he had visited last time.

Beyond the vortex where the Curse Doll's huge face was, that was the true Spirit Realm.

"Wait, it? Those two down there are one evil spirit?"

Baimu pointed at the two black shadows that were nearly taking solid form.

Furong nodded and confirmed, "That's right, one body split into the shape of a Pokémon and a person. If I'm not mistaken, these evil spirits should be trainers who once fought here. Mm, only trainers."

Only Pokémon…

Most likely deliberately created by the Curse Doll.

Baimu knew well the Curse Doll's disgust for most people in the arena within the dream. If it were made the Gatekeeper Pokémon in charge of the Spirit Realm's entrance, it would surely think of every way to torment their souls.

However.

He quickly pulled out a Poké Ball and opened it.

Pop!

"Gu-gow!"

Aggron landed on the ground. Seeing the scene before it, it first froze, then warily raised a hand to shield the Trainer behind it.

Though it didn't really understand what Shuppet and the two blobs of black mist monsters were about, one look told it those things were nothing good!

At the same time.

The two figures below had fully condensed into a thin humanoid evil spirit and a Camerupt-shaped evil spirit, and they charged over.

"Leave it to me!"

Who would've thought—Furong took it upon herself outright. She winked her left eye at All Baimu, the earlier solemnity completely gone: "We agreed before coming that I'd help you handle this—there's no way I'm letting you lift a finger!"

Dusknoir leapt forward, first closing the distance with the Camerupt evil spirit, then raised a hand and slapped it down. Black-purple energy waves exploded from its palm, pinning the Camerupt hard to the ground.

What a fine Shadow Ball!

"Eurgh—"

The humanoid evil spirit vaulted over Dusknoir's head, shrieking as it lunged at Furong—only to be kicked flying midair.

That's right.

Furong had clearly trained in martial arts; her high kick was both fast and textbook-perfect.

"How was that?" She even had the mind to turn and ask All Baimu for his review, and throughout the asking that wheat-colored long leg of hers never came down.

However.

All Baimu said nothing, just pointed at the top of his head.

Furong looked up accordingly, and suddenly saw Shuppet spit out another great blob of black mist.

"A second—no, plural evil spirits!" She was finally unsettled. Evil spirits were rare wherever you went—how did they become mass-produced when it came to Shuppet?

At the same moment, the humanoid evil spirit attacked again. This time Dusknoir didn't let it off easy—its other free large hand clenched into a fist and swung out!

A black energy fist slammed down on its head; the instant the smoke burst open, it grabbed hold of the spirit.

Both evil spirits were now in Dusknoir's grasp.

"Yongh!"

Not a trace of ease on its face, it held down hard on the struggling humanoid and Pokémon-shaped evil spirits, gazing at the great clumps of black mist in the distance with an especially solemn expression,

All Baimu silently pulled out the Mega Stone. "Mega Evolve!"

"Gu-gow!"

Aggron raised its head and let out a low roar, its whole body bathed in the blue light of evolution.

Though Furong could certainly handle it, letting her fight alone while he stood by watching definitely wasn't great.

Besides, fighting evil spirits…

…seemed kind of fun?

Many eerie species, once you peel back their mysterious veil, are left with only a pathetic amount of combat ability—plenty of horror games let you take them out with a handgun.

All Baimu didn't have a gun.

But he had handcrafted bombs he'd made before and never used!

"Go!"

Several palm-sized black spheres were pulled out from his shiny Gengar's belly and flung toward the rapidly forming evil spirits.

They looked up, as if curious what these things were.

The next second.

BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM—!!

Blazing fire shot skyward. The violent explosion shook the arena, shockwaves rolling across the entire space, and even froze the expression of the furious Shuppet inside the dome vortex.

Wha—what was that?

"A little invention I found online. Useful against evil spirits?"

All Baimu's hands were full of fragmentation grenades he'd learned to make from a female student's memories. He met Furong's dumbfounded gaze—her jaw was about to drop.

She said tensely: "Useful, definitely useful… where did you get so many dangerous explosives? And you stuffed them inside Gengar's belly!"

"Made them before. These things have safety valves—won't blow no matter how you smash them before you pull the pin. Want one?" Seeing the smoke in the distance about to clear, All Baimu tossed another whole string of them that way.

BOOM BOOM—

The arena was completely lit up by the erupting flames. Mega Aggron watched the scene and fell into thought.

Is there still a place for me to act?

Just be a good shield.

Mega Aggron knew well—when it wasn't needed to attack, it was the Trainer's strongest shield.

"No need!"

Furong kept her distance from these dangerous items she'd never encountered before. She raised her prayer beads, then took out a Poké Ball as a makeshift sealing tool, and sealed the evil spirits Dusknoir was holding down.

All Baimu looked at the petrified Poké Ball on the ground, and what came to mind was the stone hammer that had sealed Jirachi.

The two were practically identical.

Then.

Furong and Dusknoir charged into the rolling smoke, methodically sealing off the evil spirits that had been blasted senseless and hadn't yet recovered.

When the dust cleared, the metal platform held only Furong and Dusknoir.

This made Shuppet all the more furious.

"Get out! Get out!"

It didn't spit out any more evil spirits, returning to the chanting mode from the start. A great wave of telepathic ripples was transmitted, hoping to drive Furong and All Baimu back by this method.

Unfortunately, Furong already had a way to deal with it.

She ran back to All Baimu's side, gently shook the bell, and the translucent ripples spread out slowly, immediately shielding the telepathic link.

"It's out of moves."

Furong said with certainty: "Although I don't know what this guy wants to do, it's obvious he doesn't want to leave the spirit realm entrance. As long as his true body doesn't come down, he can't do anything to us."

All Baimu nodded and began thinking about another matter in his heart.

The curse doll indicated it was waiting for his grandfather Long He, but Yamining had said Master Lidi indicated Grandfather Long He had sacrificed himself underground.

Could it be that Grandfather didn't die and ran off somewhere else?

It's possible.

Because All Baimu still hadn't been able to figure out the situation of his own parents — he had no related memories, having grown up on Qingyi Street since he could remember.

Why was he left behind in Huang Tie Town? Where exactly did his father and mother go?

All unsolved mysteries.

Perhaps Grandfather Long He luckily escaped death from underground, but unfortunately lost his memory, drifting along until he married and had children in Huang Tie Town…

All Baimu felt he was in a wild brainstorming frenzy.

Above.

The curse doll threw a hysterical tantrum for a while, found it couldn't do anything to the two below, and was probably a bit helpless too, glaring at them.

Furong lifted the bell's protection at the right moment.

"What… exactly do you want to do?"

The curse doll in the telepathic link sounded a bit gritted-teeth angry.

Furong said bluntly: "We want you to open the entrance so the lost souls can enter the spirit realm—"

"That's impossible!"

The curse doll refused flatly.

"Why? Since you're the gatekeeper, you must know these souls have to go to the spirit realm! That's a natural law!" Furong's delicate brows knit.

The curse doll shouted: "That person hasn't come yet! I want to wait for him to come!"

"Waiting for someone and not letting souls into the spirit realm… wait, I get it! You actually haven't become the gatekeeper!?" She stared at the curse doll in surprise.

All Baimu listened, completely baffled.

Fortunately Furong didn't forget to explain the situation to him. "The spirit realm is a world existing in another dimension. Its entrance usually appears randomly, existing to ferry souls. Only a spirit realm entrance with a gatekeeper can be summoned through a medium…

"Room 1608 is exactly like that. It was clearly unrelated to the New Zi Jin Grand Hotel at first, but appeared because of the antique mural — that thing is essentially one of the mediums. The curse doll's current problem is that it has formed some kind of special bond with the spirit realm entrance and can't break free, but it's not the gatekeeper, so once it stops blocking the entrance, both it and the lost souls will go to the spirit realm and be unable to return."

Furong used her finger to trace a circle that shrank smaller and smaller.

Ah, this.

The situation was just too vexing.

All Baimu covered his forehead. "I get it, so the only solution now is to find my grandfather Long He?"

"Looks like it." Furong nodded.

"…Okay."

He pulled out his phone — no signal; this place was clearly offline.

So All Baimu looked at the curse doll and said: "Wait a moment, we'll find the person you're waiting for right away."

Furong heard his words, her eyes lit up, and she said: "Right! With Hu Pa here, we can definitely find your grandfather! Where is it?"

"It went back to Carlos, let's go out and contact it."

"Okay."

The two conversed in low voices, then their figures flickered and vanished.

"…"

The curse doll silently watched their disappearing figures, its long-unused brain falling into bewilderment once more, and quietly shrank back into the vortex, lost in thought.

Reality.

Yamining had just ended the call with Lidi and was pressing her brow to rest when she suddenly saw All Baimu, Furong, plus the giant Bouffalant and Dusknoir appear, and froze for a moment.

He hurriedly asked: "How did it go?"

"My grandfather… he might not have sacrificed himself underground. The curse doll wants to find him and mistook me for him."

All Baimu said briefly.

Unexpectedly, Yamining was shocked upon hearing this and hurriedly said: "Impossible! Mr. Lidi just told me on the phone that Mr. Long He did sacrifice himself! Mr. Lidi even got his remains from the curse doll!"

"Huh!?"

All Baimu and Furong both widened their eyes.