Chapter 714: Spirit Medium Furong

In this instant.

Fu Rong suddenly understood the light in Champion Dawu's eyes when he returned from Ourei and spoke of Baimu.

That man who loved stones had found a gem unlike any other in the world—there would never be a second one like it.

Just as Huang Tie Town could never produce another Baimu.

"Let's take this one seriously for once."

She murmured softly, and the elevator arrived at the first level of the underground city.

Ziiii—

Boom!

The iron plates beneath their feet trembled slightly, and the automatic curtain door creaked open.

Before them stretched a vast space dimly lit by countless incandescent bulbs, dotted with shacks made of sheet metal and plastic, their surfaces stained with years of grime and decay, while the dome overhead, over thirty meters high, fascinated Fu Rong and Hu Pa.

To Baimu, it was an environment he knew too well.

When he first joined the Sandflow Team, he came down here daily to fight Da Zang in preparation for the Charity Festival; even after becoming squad leader, he never stopped descending.

Only after Sandflow declared war on the Mad Dogs did he start coming less often.

"The underground city! So cool!"

Hu Pa shot forward ahead of everyone, completely ignoring the warnings about danger given before descending.

Fu Rong, too, gazed around like a tourist, saying, "This really is the underground city—I bet Old Tie Xuan would be thrilled to see it."

Tie Xuan's original design for New Zi Jin was an underground metropolis beneath Zi Jin City, similar to this underground city—but the required funding was simply too high, forcing its abandonment.

"He probably wouldn't even care."

Baimu knew well that compared to Tie Xuan's envisioned New Zi Jin, the current underground city was crude—its only advantage being its sheer size.

The power had been left on since activation, leaving the empty underground city eerily silent, suffused with an unsettling, spine-chilling atmosphere.

More importantly, the white shadow he'd glimpsed earlier through Fu Rong's eyes, he could now see for himself.

"Bai—Baimu!"

Brito's voice trembled as he whispered, "Did you see those white shadows?"

Baimu placed a hand on his shoulder and told the others, "What's the panic? As long as they don't come over and bite you, pretend you don't see them—weren't the scum who used to ambush you for money far more terrifying?"

The group's expressions turned complicated; Brito grumbled inwardly: "That's not the same thing at all."

Fu Rong blinked and added, "Baimu's right—don't worry. The real danger isn't them—"

"Yonng!"

The Night Demon Spirit behind her suddenly moved, rubbing its broad palms together to form a dark purple energy sphere.

From the shadows beyond the light, a purple flame suddenly shot out.

The Night Demon Spirit's crimson single eye locked onto it instantly, and its thick, top-tier fastballer's arm spun as it hurled the shadow ball!

The ghostly flame desperately dodged, but the shadow ball chased it like it was locked on—until there was nowhere left to flee—

Boom!

Murky smoke exploded outward.

The Night Demon Spirit lunged forward, its belly splitting open into a gaping maw that sucked the smoke—and the ghostly flame—inside.

"The unease you've vaguely sensed comes mostly from the scattered soul fragments of Pang Yan Guai—they can't harm you except by possessing you."

As she spoke, Fu Rong tossed out dozens of Spirit Balls.

Pop! Pop! Pop!

A flurry of white light flashed.

Dozens of Wandering Spirits landed, their crimson single eyes sweeping across the empty underground city.

"Go and bring me those naughty little things!" Fu Rong's voice echoed through the underground city as the Wandering Spirits drifted away like mummies.

She then pulled out numerous amulets shaped like lucky pouches from the Night Demon Spirit's belly and handed them to Brito and the next batches of workers. "Wear these, and you won't see the white shadows anymore."

Baimu reached out too—but Fu Rong didn't give him one.

"You don't need it, do you?"

"Just curious. Just curious," he said, reluctantly pulling his hand back.

Once the workers put on the amulets and could no longer see the white shadows, though it was like covering their ears while stealing a bell, they gradually relaxed.

The team arrived at the collapse site, where numerous large excavation machines lay abandoned.

The underground city wasn't the deepest part of Huang Tie Town—beneath it lay pitch-black mineshafts, where past factions dumped people they didn't want to kill but couldn't afford to keep alive, forcing them to mine.

Rumor had it that long ago, there was a basement arena down there, shut down due to unknown influences.

The machines roared to life.

Unlike Da Gang She's excavation, which churned the earth like a cataclysm, the workers' machinery moved with steady, swift precision—clearing debris, piling sand and stone to the sides.

Baimu watched with rapt attention.

In his past life, he'd loved watching massive machines operate, sensing faintly the beauty embedded in their mechanics.

Unfortunately, Hu Pa had different tastes—he grew bored standing still and wandered off with Gen Gu to find amusement elsewhere.

Fu Rong directed the scattered Wandering Spirits across the underground city through the Night Demon Spirit, occasionally glancing back to chat with Baimu, mostly asking about his past.

Notably, the faint white shadows around her were growing more numerous.

Baimu couldn't help asking, "They—"

"It's fine. They've simply gone too long without anyone to speak to. Now that they've found a being who can hear them, they've gathered close."

Fu Rong smiled back.

Someone raised in Shenshan is simply different.

Baimu wasn't afraid, but surrounded by so many lost souls, he still felt a prickle of unease—"Can we gather information from them?"

"Probably not. One defining trait of lost souls is their inability to communicate… Don't confuse them with ghosts from TV dramas! They're completely different!" Fu Rong crossed her hands over her chest.

But Xiao Zhi once encountered a girl ghost who could communicate…

He remembered the girl ghost from the Original Series waiting for her family to return, and there was also a Gastly that had lived for two thousand years, capable of transforming into countless human forms and even creating Pokémon illusions.

About half an hour later.

"Hmm, seems like we've collected them all. Exactly one hundred and eight souls, and only one Pang Yan Guai."

She watched a Wobbuffet deliver a Will-O-Wisp into the belly of a Darkrai, then turned to Baimu. The surrounding lost souls, as if receiving a signal, scattered en masse.

To prevent multiple Pang Yan Guai from causing chaos, Fu Rong had borrowed numerous Wobbuffet from her grandmother specifically to target the scattered souls of Pang Yan Guai.

The two moved away from the construction site to an open area.

Fu Rong pulled out a string of prayer beads, a white paper crown, and a long chain of bells from somewhere, saying, "This is my first time sealing a Pang Yan Guai—I can't guarantee success on the first try. You've got to watch the souls and make sure none escape."

"Got it."

Baimu glanced around at the numerous Wobbuffet and thought he probably wouldn't need to help at all.

A wedge-shaped stone the size of a human head was placed at the center by the Darkrai.

Fu Rong put on the crown, held the prayer beads and bell chain, and began dancing a mysterious dance around the wedge-shaped stone, chanting an incomprehensible chant.

Medium…

Baimu watched curiously as Fu Rong performed her ritual. At first glance, it seemed no different from the shamanistic dances of his past life, but soon he sensed an inexplicable power descending.

Hu Pa and Haunter were both drawn over, staring in awe at Fu Rong—likely, in their eyes, she radiated an entirely different aura.

He turned his head elsewhere and was suddenly startled.

Unnoticed, countless pale, human-shaped figures—varying in height, build, and thickness—had appeared behind the Wobbuffet. They no longer appeared blurred; each lost soul's face was now sharply clear.

Like curious onlookers, they silently observed Fu Rong's dance.

Ding ling~

Ding ling~!

One after another, Will-O-Wisps flew out from the Darkrai's belly, transforming into various shapes in midair, emitting silent, eerie wails, yet forced to plunge into the wedge-shaped stone.

Each time a Will-O-Wisp entered, the patterns on the stone's surface glowed briefly.

Until the one hundred and eighth soul flew in, Fu Rong's dance came to a halt.

She suddenly turned to Baimu and shouted, "Sealing complete! Get ready to capture it!"

"Dragapult!"

Baimu stepped forward, and Dragapult's silhouette materialized beside him; the two Little Dragons had already been poised inside the launch ports.

The central wedge-shaped stone shook violently. A strange purple ghostly face burst forth, then spun like a vortex.

"Mi—Kaa—"

A cry filled with rage echoed throughout the entire underground city.

"Roto!"

Dragapult paid no heed; its tail whipped out, becoming a deep blue streak of light, appearing behind Pang Yan Guai faster than it could react.

Baimu took the Ultra Ball handed to him by Haunter and shouted, "Dragon Arrow!"

Boom! Boom!

Two sharp shrieks rang out as the Little Dragon siblings shot toward Pang Yan Guai, wreathed in deep blue light, like high-speed missiles.

But the thing seemed to have eyes on the back of its head—it suddenly surged upward, its ghastly face stretching like a stalked sunflower.

The Little Dragons missed.

Pang Yan Guai turned its ghostly face toward Dragapult and let out an evil, smug laugh.

Baimu smirked. "Idiot."

The moment he spoke—

The Little Dragons dipped low, spun around, and executed a sudden forward roll to adjust their flight path, launching a surprise counterattack straight at Pang Yan Guai's occiput!

Boom! Boom!

Two bursts of thick smoke erupted, mixed with Pang Yan Guai's shriek of pain.

It clearly hadn't realized the Little Dragons weren't mere energy beams—they were self-aware, course-adjusting, guided missiles!

"Shadow Ball!"

Baimu spoke again. Dragapult gathered dark purple energy before its mouth, forming a human-head-sized energy wave that slammed into the swirling dust.

Inside the dust, Pang Yan Guai struggled to move, as if trying to flee—but Dragapult moved too fast. It barely tugged at the wedge-shaped stone when the Shadow Ball smashed into its face.

Thud!

"Mi-kaa!"

Pang Yan Guai's shriek was especially piercing.

Fu Rong, about to warn him, saw Baimu already hurling the Ultra Ball—perfectly accurate, striking the wedge-shaped stone.

Pang Yan Guai was sucked inside. The Ultra Ball landed, wobbled twice, then ceased all struggle.

"Capture successful! Yay!"

Fu Rong smiled and stepped forward, raising her hand.

"Yay…" Baimu slapped her hand; the Little Dragon siblings flanked the Ultra Ball, carrying it to their Trainer.

With Pang Yan Guai in hand, as he had said before, he had little interest in nurturing a Pokémon seemingly born from human souls.

Fu Rong said, "Release it. Maybe we can learn something about the entrance to the Spirit Realm."

"Huh? It's from the Spirit Realm?"

Baimu hadn't expected such a definitive conclusion so quickly.

"Of course. The underground city has been sealed for the past six months, right? The mines below were still in use half a year ago, right? How could a Pang Yan Guai possibly have formed in just six months? If it had existed earlier, you wouldn't have only just found out yesterday."

Furong's answer left him speechless.

When it came down to it, why had he assumed Pang Yan Guai was native to this place?

Was it because the Pokédex had once said Pang Yan Guai was composed of one hundred and eight sinful souls? There were indeed plenty of sinful souls in Iron Town…

All Baimu opened the Poké Ball.

Pang Yan Guai dropped to the ground, crawling out of its keystone, looking rather listless.

The earlier battle with Salamence and the Bagon had been too brutal, leaving it unable to recover for a long while.

Seeing this, All Baimu pulled a PokéBlock from his pocket and held it out in front of Pang Yan Guai. "This is for you. Think you can eat it?"

"Mikya…"

Pang Yan Guai bent down and ate it, its condition improving slightly.

Furong beside them couldn't help but tease, "All Baimu-dear is so gentle, even though just now you were talking like you couldn't stand Pang Yan Guai."

"I'm not rejecting it…"

All Baimu didn't know how to explain his own preferences.

Pang Yan Guai immediately perked up, and Furong began communicating with it. As a born Spirit Medium, she possessed the ability to communicate directly with Ghost-type Pokémon, without needing spoken language.

A moment later.

Furong put on a thoughtful expression. "To think something like that could happen."

"What is it?" All Baimu asked eagerly.

She said: "Pang Yan Guai says the entrance to the Spirit World was blocked by a 'Gatekeeper.' It has no idea why— it just got close, and the 'Gatekeeper' cracked its keystone and sent it tumbling back out of the Spirit World. The half-year of dungeon collapse completely destroyed its keystone, causing its soul to scatter."

A Gatekeeper?

A pristine white bathtub flashed through All Baimu's mind—

No, wait— a bathtub that had been a Cofagrigus.

"Ah, a 'Gatekeeper' is a kind of Pokémon with a special mission, like the Cofagrigus you ran into last time. It's responsible for blocking the entrance to the Spirit World and guiding lost souls inside, preventing the ghosts and Ghost-type Pokémon within from getting out…"

Furong hurriedly explained, then patted the Dusknoir beside her and smiled. "My Dusknoir is also one of the Gatekeepers of Shenshan!"

Right after that, her brow furrowed again. "Logically speaking, a Gatekeeper shouldn't be blocking the door, let alone tossing Pang Yan Guai out and ignoring it. It looks like something unusual has happened."

The Pokémon animated world really is something else.

That was the thought that flashed through All Baimu's mind after hearing Furong's account.

Setting aside all the prehistoric black technology, they even have Spirit World gatekeepers like something out of a fantasy novel. Speaking of which, does this thing have any connection to Giratina's Distortion World?

After all, that big shot is also a Ghost-type legendary, symbolizing antimatter.