Chapter 713: Keystone Seal

Dawn broke.

All Baimu crawled out of his tent, yawning with a strange look on his face.

Setting aside the wondrous sensation of the soul state, the Ghost-type fanatic's out-of-body experience memory was nothing more than an ordinary nighttime amusement park memory.

Its value was honestly not high.

If in the future he suddenly had another out-of-body experience, this memory might help him grasp the post-exit state more quickly, but if he couldn't experience it today, the chances of experiencing it later would be very slim.

"Everyone's up! Hu Pa! You should be up too!"

He turned his head and shouted at Hu Pa, who was showing only one hand from beneath the shiny Gengar's rear.

Hu Pa had arrived in the wee hours.

Back then it was evening in Kalos; the little demon god, who had no concept of time zones in his dictionary, had just finished his beloved donuts, and in the next breath opened a ring and dove into the tent like a lunging hound.

The first to be startled awake was Hydreigon, which nearly blasted out a Dragon Breath and made a fuss for quite a while, until it was finally quieted down by a head-knock from the likewise-awakened Mawile.

But the commotion also disturbed the wild Pokémon in the vicinity, and for a time various hisses and barks only gradually died down after more than half an hour.

The instigator giggled shamelessly, while the suffering All Baimu and the other Pokémon were utterly helpless.

"Good morning, Xiao Bai…"

Mumbling in his sleep, Hu Pa rubbed his eyes and wriggled out from under Gengar. "What's for breakfast? Donuts? Definitely donuts!"

"All wrong."

All Baimu had no desire to eat something so greasy first thing in the morning.

Hu Pa's cheeks puffed up in anger, his arms drooped weakly, and he threatened in a feeble tone: "No donuts means Hu Pa has no energy, can't help Xiao Bai anymore."

All Baimu was crouching by the well washing his face; hearing this he turned his head and smiled: "It's fine, I believe Hu Pa will definitely have energy when the time comes, because Hu Pa is kind and cute."

"Really? Hu Pa is kind and cute, hee hee hee—" Hu Pa covered his cheeks and laughed happily, then suddenly stiffened. "Xiao Bai, Xiao Bai is so mean! You think saying that will stop Hu Pa from eating donuts?!"

It pounced over and swung tiny fists at All Baimu's back.

The punches naturally had no real force; this little demon god with a voice like a nail palace was simply acting spoiled—after all, even Mei Mei Yali, who had grown up with him since childhood, would never call him cute so directly.

Hu Pa was a little shy.

"Just stating facts."

All Baimu cheerfully splashed water at its face; the soaking-wet Hu Pa refused to let it go, manipulating a ring to fire water bullets, but All Baimu nimbly dodged them all.

The sounds of their play soon attracted Hydreigon and the Dragapult siblings, Mehr and Xia; the more lively-tempered ones refused to be outdone and joined in, sparking a large-scale water fight.

Even the wild Pokémon joined in.

"Milo~"

The shiny Milotic in the makeshift canal spat water everywhere, laughing very happily.

Due to the time difference, although he had arranged things with Furong yesterday, he could only pick her up in the afternoon, so the relatively free morning let All Baimu decide to dig two more wells before heading to the battle frontier.

So many wild Pokémon sharing one well was inconvenient whether for daily drinking or watering plants.

Hu Pa offered to help transport fresh water—saying that if he carried out a small lake, everyone would surely never lack water again.

All Baimu temporarily declined this very tempting offer.

Setting aside the fact that the lake's location needed discussion, where to transport it from and how to do so without affecting the ecology of the source also required a detailed and thorough plan.

There was plenty of time ahead; no need to rush.

"I'm counting on you all."

He patted Aggron's arm and Steelix's hard horizontal steel bones. The well currently in use had been dug by Aggron, but the credit actually went to Champion Dawu.

Without that man's rich mineral knowledge, he and Aggron would have been groping in the dark for who knows how long.

Now Champion Dawu was not here.

He could only entrust the task to Porygon2 and Steelix. The former was an artificial Pokémon conceived for developing alien planets, and with Steelix as a heavy-duty excavator, finding a water source shouldn't take much effort.

And indeed that was exactly the case.

Last night, after All Baimu mentioned the idea, Porygon2 quickly took Steelix underground to look for water, and before long had confirmed several water points.

And the wild Pokémon, hearing he was going to dig new wells, all followed along.

They too found using water inconvenient, but whenever they tried to find new water sources elsewhere on the mountain, they were stopped by Lorelei.

Lorelei knew full well that it was already hard enough for wild Pokémon to live here, and any further careless disturbance of the mountain range would displease All Baimu.

Having something to use was better than having nothing.

Among the rubble.

"This is the spot, right?"

All Baimu directed Aggron to push aside several boulders larger than himself; the mountain wind kicked up a thin layer of dust, truly quite choking.

'Affirmative.'

Porygon2 confirmed through the phone.

The impatient Steelix's three horizontal steel bones whirred as they spun; it first used its tail to dig a basic pit in the ground, then plunged its massive head downward.

Rumble rumble—!!

The ground shook and mountains trembled as countless sand and dust shot skyward.

All Baimu put on goggles and a scarf, moved away from the dust-filled rubble, and looked around for a suitable spot to plant berry trees.

The gold- and silver-quality Tamato and Pinap berries in Gengar's belly would eventually need a proper handling method; once the fruits were eaten, the seeds couldn't be wasted.

Although given the current soil fertility, even if they sprouted they would struggle to survive, and even if they grew they likely wouldn't bear fruit of the same quality, ordinary-quality berries were still better than none.

"Grroar!"

Aggron's roar drew his attention.

All Baimu quickly turned his head and was astonished to see Steelix, which had only just gone down, hurriedly backing out of the massive pit, its body still smeared with damp yellow mud.

He asked in surprise: "That fast?"

His words fell.

A great surge of murky water gushed from the pit, and the many wild Pokémon immediately crowded around with delight, looking as if they wanted to cheer and jump for joy.

In the dry, hot Orre region, water was as precious as food.

"Water's out! Little White! Water's out!" Hu Pa's cheers were especially loud.

"Awoo…"

The Lycanroc that had followed along looked at All Baimu with reverence rising in their eyes.

From rejection to closeness to worship — wild Pokémon accepted humans far faster than anyone could have imagined; of course, that didn't mean the scars in their hearts had healed.

All Baimu marvelingly raised his phone and said to the Porygon2 inside: "Amazing, hit it on the first try. I thought we'd have to try several spots before water came out."

"Gu-ki~"

The Aggron that had only hauled stones and hadn't gone down the pit was equally amazed.

Beyond amazement was joy — over the past two days it had been planting shrubs on the mountain together with the wild Pokémon, and had come to fully appreciate just how hard it was for plants to survive here.

And so it longed even more for its territory, desperately hoping this place could improve.

'You can always count on Porygon!'

Porygon2 was immensely proud, even feeling it was something of a waste of its talents.

A mere well — one day it would build an artificial lake for its Trainer!

The water kept flowing tirelessly; some of the wild Pokémon chose to stay put, while All Baimu led Steelix and the other Pokémon toward the second planned site.

At the same moment.

Shenshan had run into a bit of a problem on his end.

Although he had strictly forbidden the workers from spreading word of yesterday's events, the haunting of the old underground city had still leaked out within a small circle.

Their ability to keep secrets was truly worrying…

Shenshan had a splitting headache.

Fortunately, mere ghosts couldn't stir up unrest among the people of Iron Town — most of them were more curious than afraid, and the Ghost-type Pokémon guarding the site had even caught a few bored kids trying to sneak down.

Clearly, compared with vague rumors of ghosts, news of Team Magma's resurgence was far more likely to frighten people.

"We can't let the rumors spread. Just tell the townsfolk straight out that it's a special Ghost-type Pokémon causing trouble!" He knew the people of Iron Town weren't scared, but outsiders in the commercial district definitely would be.

Better to issue a notice directly than wait for those people to come asking.

Of course.

The Spirit World entrance had to be dealt with as soon as possible — they couldn't wait until they went to develop the underground city and ran into trouble again before fixing it.

Shenshan thought of All Baimu, who had given his word and called Phoebe to help, and decided to pin his hopes on him.

—

Afternoon.

Under Shenshan's expectant gaze, Hoenn Elite Four member Phoebe arrived successfully via her Teleport.

"Lady Phoebe, thank you for making a special trip to Iron Town. Please trouble yourself with this matter." He stepped forward with a smile and extended his hand.

Phoebe, dressed in southern-island style, shook his hand, her gaze sweeping the surroundings as she said: "I'm only doing All Baimu's a favor — no need to be so polite. Hmm… there really are a lot of lost children."

All Baimu's what?

Shenshan glanced at All Baimu beside him, curious what sort of nickname that was.

The latter shrugged, offering no explanation.

But the moment Phoebe's gaze dropped to the ground at her feet, she suddenly let out an amazed gasp: "Wow! It's packed full! This many—"

"Is it troublesome?"

Shenshan hurriedly asked, nervous, afraid Phoebe would say there was nothing to be done.

Fortunately, as a spirit medium, Furong was a professional. She suggested, "Let's go down and take a look first. There really is a spirit realm entrance down there in a very strange state. If there's nothing we can do, I'll call my grandmother over."

She said to a somewhat puzzled Shenshan: "My grandma is the medium who guards Shenshan — way more spirits have appeared there than here. You can rest easy!"

And so.

The group arrived at the sealed-off construction site.

The old underground city hadn't been fully dug through yet. Phoebe prepared to go down first to deal with the Pang Yan Guai problem so the workers could keep digging deeper.

Everyone put on their oxygen-recycling protective suits.

The underground city's ventilation had long been shut off; after half a year, no one knew how much waste gas and toxic fumes had built up. Even people in the Pokémon world could easily fail to make it back up if they went down without any equipment.

All Baimu handed the clay jar placed beside the lift to Phoebe and said: "The Pang Yan Guai's soul is inside this…"

"Yono~"

The tall figure of Dusknoir suddenly appeared. It took the jar, stuffed it into its belly, and pulled out an irregularly shaped Dusk Stone.

Phoebe said: "My grandma made this overnight. Once we capture all of Pang Yan Guai's soul fragments and seal them inside, we can use a Poké Ball to catch it."

"Catch it — uh, I'm not really interested in Pang Yan Guai."

All Baimu wasn't very interested in this Pokémon that might have once been a human — or rather, he found it a bit unsettling.

Phoebe glanced at him in surprise, seemingly not expecting any Trainer in the world to be uninterested in a powerful Pokémon, and said casually: "You could hand it off to someone else to raise. In any case, leaving a Pang Yan Guai in the wild isn't good — either catch it or seal it."

"Fine."

He didn't dwell on it and asked: "But… would this Pang Yan Guai have appeared locally in Iron Town? Or did it escape from the Spirit World entrance?"

Phoebe shook her head: "We'll only know once we catch it and ask."

Beside them.

Shenshan was assigning tasks to the workers.

Having witnessed yesterday's eerie scene, many workers were terrified out of their wits. Had they not heard that All Baimu was also going down — and had even called in a supposedly very professional young lady — they would probably have gone on strike long ago.

"A-All Baimu, aren't you nervous?"

A young man named Britto, clad in a protective suit, trembled slightly as he asked All Baimu in a soft voice.

All Baimu looked at him in surprise: "What are you nervous about? Afraid you won't make it up? You're overthinking it, Hu Pa! Show him your Light Wheel!"

"Here it comes!"

Hu Pa flew forward, cheerfully manipulating two Light Wheels so that All Baimu could walk back and forth between them.

The workers stared at the scene in astonishment.

"Everyone rest assured, once you're down there all you have to do is work, you won't run into any danger. With me, Hu Pa, and Champion Dawu here, let alone one Pang Yan Guai, even a hundred Pang Yan Guai wouldn't be a problem!"

All Baimu declared loudly.

Everyone was clearly quite convinced by this Rainbow Team boss, and coupled with the fact that Hu Pa's Light Wheels were truly miraculous, the slight fear and nervousness in their hearts faded away.

Shan Ren, seeing the situation, quickly stepped forward and announced that after this incident the company would arrange bonuses for everyone.

Both safety and compensation were doubly guaranteed.

For a moment.

Every single worker grew excited.

Furong, meanwhile, looked at Hu Pa with some envy. "This Light Wheel is really amazing, you can go anywhere with it. If only I had a Hu Pa too."

"Ee-hee-hee-hee, Hu Pa is one of a kind under heaven!"

Hu Pa said, hands on hips, preening.

The group split into shifts and stepped onto the elevator. All Baimu and Furong were in the first batch; beside them, apart from the Pokémon, were several workers and a few engineering robots.

It was Furong's first time in such a peculiar environment, and her dewy eyes swept the surroundings.

Following her gaze, All Baimu actually kept catching glimpses of faint white shadows in the cramped corners of the elevator, and each time the white shadows took a different shape.

Suddenly.

Furong spoke up: "Champion Dawu once told me about the situation in Iron Town. Before coming I did some homework too, but I didn't expect... All Baimu, you, who walked out of this place, are really amazing."

She looked at All Baimu with shining eyes.

All Baimu was briefly stunned, then realized something. "Did you... hear something?"

"They talk every moment of every day; you couldn't help but hear them even if you wanted to."

Furong shrugged and, under the horrified expressions of the others, laughed: "Relax, they just can't communicate with people, so their urge to vent is a bit stronger, they don't mean any harm."

Just as Dragonite had once hidden in the bathroom after hearing the muttering of lost souls, Furong too pieced together from the lost souls' accounts an Iron Town no ordinary person could imagine.