Chapter 423: Ghost Hotel

Peng Peng Peng.

Peng Peng Peng.

A knocking sound came from outside the bathroom.

Silence for a moment.

Click.

Creak—

Accompanied by a piercing, strange noise, the bathroom door opened from outside.

A gust of cold wind howled in, and the blurry bathroom walls rapidly became coated in frost.

The faint crackling of freezing sounded like countless ants crawling.

All Baimu, curled up in the bathtub, lowered his breathing even further to avoid exhaling any visible white mist.

He looked at his bleeding palm, which the Sun Coral had promptly covered with its smoky tentacles, and at the now-docile Dragapult, feeling slightly uneasy yet thinking he had faithfully followed the hint given by the clue.

At least it had been very quiet before the other party came looking for him; not only had he not made a sound, he had even minimized the range of every movement.

As for the smell of blood…

Although the Sun Coral's smoky tentacles seemed capable of masking the scent, quite a bit must have already spread out before that.

Honestly, this sort of thing couldn't be avoided.

Even without the blood smell, his body still carried the scent from long-term perfume-making; even if he tried his hardest to remove the smell from his clothes and body, it was impossible to have none at all.

But the clue only told him to stay silent, and didn't mention body odor or any movements… Could the other party be some kind of being with extremely sharp hearing, or one that only has hearing?

All Baimu's body tensed slightly, ready for the other party to pounce.

Strike when the time comes.

As long as the other party attacked, he would certainly have to fight back; he wasn't really just lying in the bathtub waiting to die. The purpose of coming here was to meet the conditions for encountering his destined Pokémon, not because he truly feared that unknown entity.

Speaking of which.

With this freezing situation, could that thing possibly be a Froslass?

He tried to use the bathtub's reflection to get a clear look at whatever was outside the door, but unfortunately there was no light source anywhere, so without illumination he naturally couldn't see that thing on the bathtub's surface.

Perhaps he could use the Detect Scope to see what it looked like, but he couldn't guarantee that a movement as large as leaning out wouldn't be heard by the other party, who might be less than ten steps away.

He had to find a way to figure out the other party's existence, so that he could counterattack smoothly.

All Baimu was thinking it over when he suddenly realized that at least two minutes had passed since the door opened; the white frost had long since spread to the vicinity of the bathtub, yet the other party was still outside and hadn't come in.

Why?

Was it waiting for the frost to spread into the bathtub?

At this thought.

The temperature inside the bathroom seemed to have already dropped below zero, which was extremely unfriendly to the thinly-clad All Baimu; no matter how slow his breathing, wisps of mist still drifted out.

Darkness, cold, tension in the face of an unknown entity.

The last time he had been under this much pressure seemed to be during the final decisive battle with Team Shadow.

The difference was that back then he could vent through fighting, whereas now he could only lie in the bathtub and wait for an indefinitely hazy future, waiting for the opponent to attack.

Suddenly, a sense of urgency welled up along with a touch of irritation.

Deep in his heart, a vague voice was tempting him to get up and take the initiative to attack the unknown entity outside the door, seizing the first-strike advantage.

It was saying:

He couldn't let the frost cover the bathtub; something bad would definitely happen!

Get up now!

Stop waiting! Waiting won't get you anywhere!

In that instant.

Every muscle in All Baimu's body tensed, and he almost instinctively began to twist his body to stand up, but when his gaze swept over the utterly quiet Dragapult in his arms, the sense of crisis compelling him to attack instantly cooled.

Like a basin of ice-cold water being poured down, an intuition from somewhere deeper in his mind instantly overrode the impulse born of the sense of crisis.

That can't be right.

It's not supposed to be like this.

The contents of the clue flashed through his mind once more—

Hide in the bathtub and stay silent, no matter what sounds occur around you.

The sound of the door opening, knocking sounds, the tick-tock of a swaying pendulum, and also…

These freezing sounds as faint as insects crawling!

They too were sounds the clue told him he needed to "ignore"!

Just a little more, and he would have betrayed the trust he had so painstakingly won from Dragapult.

All Baimu, in the midst of self-reflection, felt a clarity in his heart, and suddenly felt that his brain probably hadn't frozen yet, and he wouldn't forget the content he had been holding fast to every moment.

Besides, the environment was so cold—why had he become more impulsive?

Suddenly.

He noticed another extremely important thing: the crackling of the freezing frost had suddenly stopped, and hadn't spread all the way into the bathtub; the surface was still dry and smooth.

The answer was obvious—

It was that thing outside playing tricks.

So besides the cold air that could freeze the walls, floor tiles, and ceiling, it also possessed the ability to influence the mind without anyone noticing.

That thing seemed to be waiting for him to make the first move!

How strange.

Even though its eyes were right there and it had clearly spotted him, it hadn't rushed in but instead used this strange method, and the frost only reached the vicinity of the bathtub, as if it was wary of something.

That said.

If one absolutely had to hide, a cabinet or under the bed would obviously be more suitable. Even though they are standard horror-movie locations for things to happen, they'd still be better than a half-open bathtub.

Why would the simulator put him in a bathtub in the bathroom…

Could there be something special about the bathtub?

While All Baimu was pondering, a more violent gust of wind suddenly came from beyond the door, and the temperature in the bathroom dropped again. The other party seemed even more impatient than he had imagined and was already escalating to force him to make a sound.

Too bad.

If this was all the shallow tricks they had, they were far from enough to do anything to him.

All Baimu closed his eyes. The palm wrapped in smoke-like tendrils radiated a reassuring warmth — clearly the Sun Coral was channeling the pure life energy it had accumulated back into his body, maintaining all his vital signs.

This special technique shared the same brilliance as the healing waves of Happiness Egg, but the price it demanded was far higher than a single move from the latter.

Unless the situation were truly urgent, Sun Coral would never do something so foolish.

The being outside the door also seemed to notice what Sun Coral was doing and grew even more annoyed. The direct experience was the cold wind shifting from a whoosh to the slicing sound of blades.

Snow had piled up in various sizes all over the bathroom, yet the bathtub remained as dry as it had been at the start.

This bizarre situation once again confirmed All Baimu's hypothesis.

Suddenly.

The wind stopped.

The bathroom fell into a deathly silence.

But before All Baimu could even wonder whether that fellow had already left, the initial tapping sound that had accompanied movement rang out at the doorway.

It was coming in!

He widened his eyes. He felt the slightly tensed body of the Dragon Meshia in his arms, and when he tilted his head he found Sun Coral had also opened its candle-red eyes.

However.

The tacit understanding he had built with Sun Coral over the past half year told All Baimu that what it was focused on was not the fellow entering the bathroom, but the bathtub beneath them!

Huh?

All Baimu froze for a beat, and then his whole body flew up.

Yes — with a peng and a shrill scream, he shot straight from the bathtub toward the ceiling.

"Ah—!

As if a spring compressed to its limit had been installed on his back, a tremendous force pushed him into intimate contact with the ceiling. Fortunately, his quick hands — the one not wrapped in smoke-like tendrils — and the tips of his toes braced against the ceiling, sparing him from being knocked senseless.

In the instant he fell by inertia, he looked forward and saw the bathtub, mid-transformation, lunging at the intruder who had entered the bathroom—

'Dusclops' and 'Froslass'!?

Wait! That doesn't seem right!

How could a Froslass look so thin and elongated? Like some kind of ghost from a paranormal film.

And those icicles dangling at its waist.

Could the tapping-tap-tapping sound have come from them knocking against each other?

All Baimu tried to get a closer look, but found that the bathtub — now transformed into Dusclops — had already swallowed the attacking "Froslass," while he himself had stepped onto something soft and squishy.

He looked down and saw that he was standing on the broad palm of a Dusknoir, half of whose body was poking out of a pitch-black rift—

It was Furong's Dusknoir!

All Baimu recognized the fellow at a glance, and the latter seemed to recognize him too, gently setting him aside.

Then.

A human head wearing two red flowers poked out beside it.

"I knew it — this really is the entrance!"

Furong cheerfully surveyed her surroundings. The first thing she saw was the Dusclops at the doorway binding something, and then All Baimu beside it.

"All Baimu, dear! You're really here!"

She had absolutely no awareness of being in a special environment, moving as comfortably as if she were at home, and climbed out of the pitch-black rift together with the Dusknoir.

Right behind her came Queen Boni, whose expression was rather cold and indifferent, and the massive Glalie.

But upon seeing All Baimu standing nearby, her brow quickly furrowed. She strode up aggressively as if about to launch an interrogation, yet when she spoke her words were full of concern: "Are you alright? Where are you hurt?"

"…I'm fine."

All Baimu shook his head. The wound on his Hukou had long since been stimulated to self-heal under the infusion of Sun Coral's life energy.

He looked at the Dusclops by the doorway, never having imagined that the bathtub he had been lying in was actually this fellow in disguise. The key point was that he had been lying in the bathtub so long without being turned into a mummy.

Was it because he hadn't made a sound the whole time?

Furong came to the doorway, saw that the Dusclops had completely sealed the intruder inside its body, and after a careful look said: "So it was you blocking the entrance this whole time! No wonder we couldn't get in!"

This girl really had nerve — she spoke without the slightest caution and reached out to touch the golden mask on the Dusclops's forehead.

Unexpectedly, after she touched the golden mask, a voice came from the mask's mouth.

"Young medium, you are very fortunate."

"Lucky? Lucky how?"

The out-of-nowhere remark left Furong stunned too.

The golden mask on the Dusclops's forehead replied: "Every fool who first disturbs my slumber in the middle of the night must suffer the punishment of imprisonment. You are not the first — this time I will spare you."

"Whoa! That's some nerve!"

Furong was taken aback. She, the unrivaled boss of Shenshan who had defeated countless ghosts and spirits without equal, was being provoked like this by a Ghost-type Pokémon for the first time!

But after looking left and right, she suddenly raised an eyebrow and said: "Wait, you're a 'gatekeeper' Pokémon?"

"Indeed."

The voice from the Dusclops brimmed with pride.

Furong turned her head and considerately explained to the two bewildered people behind her: "Every entrance between the real world and the Spirit World has a guardian Pokémon. They basically take up this position on their own.

"They guide all kinds of ghosts into the Spirit World and also prevent them from wandering out, balancing the two worlds. Such Pokémon are generally very strong, unlike ordinary ghost Pokémon. You see, they can even do things like speak."

All Baimu nodded in sudden realization.

No wonder that Snow Woman–like fellow didn't dare come in casually, but in the end still couldn't hold back.

At this moment, Dusclops spoke again.

"If there's nothing else, take your companions and get out! Spirit Medium! Although I don't know how you opened the rift, this is not a world the living can wander back and forth in!"

"Since we're already here, we definitely have business!"

Furong replied matter-of-factly, and cast her gaze toward the Dreepy hiding in All Baimu's arms. "Eh? Since when have you two gotten so close?"

Right when you tossed it to me to look after.

All Baimu silently grumbled to himself, used his hands to lift Dreepy out, and told it that the crucial moment to search for its sibling had arrived.

Dreepy, who already trusted the former completely, immediately flew over.

"Hiya!"

"Mm."

Furong glanced back and forth between it and All Baimu, but said nothing. She only said to Dusclops: "This child's little brother seems to have come here through some means. Could you help look for it?"

Hearing this, Dusclops leaned over slightly, like a small mountain, toward Dreepy, giving the latter quite a fright.

"…How can you be sure its little brother is here?"

"Of course through divination! Since you know about Spirit Mediums, you can't possibly be unaware of our Spirit Mediums' signature skill, right?"

Furong proudly put her hands on her hips.

Divination?

The kind used by Korrina, the Shalour City Gym Leader of the Kalos region?

No, wait—she seemed to use starlight to glimpse into Ash's Froakie's past and future, then spoiled that it would save the Kalos region and obtain a new evolution—Bond Evolution.

All Baimu looked at Dusclops, wanting to know how it would respond.

Unexpectedly, upon hearing this, the other party fell silent abruptly, and after several seconds replied: "In that case, find it yourselves! In this Ghost Hotel!"

Ghost Hotel!

It yielded the position leading outside, and said: "However, if you happen to collapse somewhere, don't blame me for not warning you beforehand. The tenants here are all very irritable. Ones as formidable as that Snow Woman, or even more so, are not unheard of!"

While Dusclops said this, All Baimu felt that it seemed to be looking in his direction.

"Wait, may I ask—was the one that just tried to attack me a Snow Woman?"

He hurriedly raised his hand and asked: "But that shape doesn't really match the Snow Woman in my memory, and those ice beads…"

"…"

Dusclops apparently had no intention of answering his question. It flew back above the pitch-black rift and gradually transformed back into the shape of a bathtub, seemingly intending to continue blocking this Spirit World entrance.

But just as All Baimu felt regret, its voice came through.

"That was a human female disguise it constructed out of ice and snow, meant to bewitch foolish, young humans like you! As for the ice beads… hehehe, what if I told you those are the souls of human males? Would you believe it?"

The laughter was exceedingly shrill.

A human female disguise?

Making it sound so convoluted—so it's basically an icy-and-snowy version of "Painted Skin"! Except this painted skin is just too… for someone to be bewitched by that appearance, how heavy must their tastes be!

While silently grumbling, All Baimu thought of those ice beads and couldn't help but shudder.