There seems to be something wrong with these Pokémon

"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry."

The only light in the dim house was from a few brightly burning candles.

This is because all flashlights were forcibly turned off due to the protests of a certain stubborn Ghost-type Pokémon.

A young girl put her hands together and half bowed her head to apologize sincerely, "We really didn't know you were rehearsing the show here. It was really not our intention to mistake a dream demon for a ghost."

Opposite her, a Pokémon that was floating in the air like a little rag doll changed direction angrily and refused to look at Sakura who was apologizing sincerely.

Next to the dream demon, a young man was sitting on a stool holding a camera, frowning and silent, repeatedly pressing the "rewind" and "fast forward" buttons to review the newly arranged plot.

His style was completely different from the one he had before in the Golden City Square. The various metal ornaments on his wide, ink-black robe made jingling sounds from time to time. There was a silver ornament on the pale skin of his chest, which seemed to be an ornament of some religious style.

The velvet rope tied tightly around his neck outlines the boy's fragile Adam's apple, rosy-red lips, charming figure, gorgeous elegance, and cold and rich makeup, which undoubtedly makes him look like a medieval vampire, so beautiful that it is breathtaking.

The video on the camera was blurry and shaky. It was obvious that Aoguyan, who was in charge of filming, had not yet mastered the key to maintaining balance while carrying something, making the whole picture very shaky and making people dizzy.

But during the repetitive period of time, the boy ignored the girl's repeated screams, and his eyes suddenly dimmed.

He extended his bony index finger through the reflective silverware in the camera and pointed at a small, protruding patch of color on the wall.

"There's something here."

The dream demon lowered his eyes, glanced at the girl who still had her head down, snorted coldly, then floated into the trainer's arms and looked at where his finger was.

Xiaoye, who was looking for the last mural with Shen Qiliang, also heard the boy's voice and turned around.

"It's light purple, like fire." The boy rubbed his chin with his index finger and thumb, frowned and analyzed, "It's unlikely to be caused by the dream demon's skills. This is more like a state that only appears when a luminous object shines on the wall."

"So, in addition to the knife, fork, and plate we saw, there were also clusters of will-o'-the-wisp fire that were not caused by the dream demon?"

Xiaoye leaned over and squinted his eyes to look carefully for a long time before he found the light purple color in the corner that the boy pointed to, which almost blended into the surrounding environment. "Sure enough, there is something mysterious in this Pokémon Tower."

"Could it be the skill of other Pokémon?" Shen Qiliang raised his hand weakly and asked the three trainers present. "After all, there may be one or two naughty Pokémon in the Pokémon Tower now. Who knows, they might want to scare us for fun."

"It's unlikely." Xiao Ye retorted, "I've never heard of any Pokémon's skill that can create lavender will-o'-the-wisp, at least not in my impression."

Xiao Ye was stunned as soon as he finished speaking, and a blurry picture flashed before his eyes.

No, I can't say that for sure.

The last time he saw this kind of fire was when he and Sakura had just entered Golden City, not long after, and it was created by Haunter, who loved to grab girls and scare them.

But Xiaoye's momentary pause did not attract the attention of others. Xiaoying, the only one who had seen the will-o'-the-wisp, subconsciously blurred her memory of it out of extreme fear at the time.

Soon the boy holding the camera nodded and agreed, "Not only the Pokémon in the Kanto region, but also the Pokémon in the Hoenn region don't have Pokémon that have mastered this skill."

"That's really strange." Shen Qiliang touched his head, "Could it be that there really is some ghost causing this supernatural event?"

"Then why does it do this?"

"I, I don't know." Shen Qiliang saw that everyone's attention was focused on him and hurriedly shook his head and said, "I just made a random guess."

"Maybe it wants to stop you from exploring this tower." The boy turned off the camera and added, "I've encountered some strange things when I came here, such as stairs disappearing, holes suddenly appearing in the ground, and portraits coming to life. But I thought they were pranks by ghost Pokémon and didn't pay much attention to them. But according to what you said, maybe this tower really hides some secrets."

"The painting, the painting comes to life?!" Sakura first gave a short exclamation, then looked at the boy with admiration, whose expression had not changed at all.

This guy is really brave. He talks about such a horrifying and weird thing as if it were an everyday topic like what to eat tonight, without any ups and downs at all.

"A portrait of a person suddenly appeared in front of me, and the eyes just moved." The boy waved and called a goose to lie on his thigh. He tied the camera to its body again and patted its head and said, "Dream monsters have played more games than this before. There is no creative art at all."

Boom rumbling——

There was a sudden loud noise from the wall behind Sakura. She jumped to the side and looked back in shock.

Suddenly, a pool of blood-red appeared on the wooden wall, spreading and winding outward as if it was soaked in it. The falling blood drops bloomed into blood-red flowers on the ground, which were gorgeous and terrifying.

“You didn’t make it angry, did you?” Shen Qiliang was also startled by this sudden scene and shouted at the top of his voice, “Hurry up and apologize!”

"Apologize?" The young man looked up at Shen Qiliang, whose legs were weak, in confusion. "This is the truth. Why should I apologize? It's really unoriginal and boring."

As the boy was speaking, a pool of blood gradually seeped out from the ceiling and fell on the corner of the boy's clothes, staining the pure black clothes red.

"But the appearance of these blood beads blooming on the ground does have a kind of grotesque beauty. Perhaps we can consider adding it to the performance."

Show, performance?

Weird beauty?

Xiaoye and Xiaoying's eyes widened for a moment at the same time.

At this time, this person actually had this kind of thing in his mind? Is he really not afraid at all? !

The air was eerily silent for a long time, as if even the unidentified creatures that caused these supernatural events were stunned by the boy's audacity.

The next moment, just as the young man signaled Aoguyan to shoot the ground beneath his feet, an even more absurd scene appeared.

All the blood drops that fell on the ground were suspended in an anti-gravity manner, quickly hiding in the nearest wall and disappearing without a trace.

The same thing happened to the bloodstains from before, which disappeared almost at the same time as the blood beads.

a moment later

"It's a Pokémon!"

Two overlapping voices sounded at the same time. Xiao Ye and the boy looked at each other, and they both saw the pleasure of seeing through the truth in each other's eyes.

"The red stuff isn't blood. It smells more like some kind of sticky jam."

Ditto, hiding in the trainer's pocket, sucked his fingers, savoring the taste he had just secretly tasted, and voted in favor.

"The anti-gravity effect of the blood beads is due to telekinesis."

Just as the two were about to breathe a sigh of relief for solving the puzzle, a weak female voice appeared again.

"But... that will-o'-the-wisp still can't be explained."

Sakura scratched her face awkwardly when she saw the two people suddenly turned around and looked at her with the same eyes.

"Wilson's Fire... can't it be that a fire-type Pokémon mutates and burns a different color of flame?"

Upon hearing this, the two of them nodded in silence again, each with their own thoughts.

"I have to say, you have really aroused my curiosity."

About five minutes later, the boy threw a Poké Ball and said, "Qixi Bluebird, bring the beautiful flower and my backpack over here. Today's rehearsal will come to an end."

Opposite the boy, a Pokémon with an aqua blue body and soft fur nodded, then floated down the stairs and disappeared.

"I don't know if you've noticed that the interior area of ​​this tower is much larger than the area we're standing in now."

Xiaoye and Xiaoying nodded. This was the result of their discussion not long ago.

The Pokémon Tower is made entirely of wood, and the most traditional mortise and tenon structure is used to fix the tower body.

This ancient monument has survived several natural disasters and man-made destructions and is still able to stand here, standing for a hundred years.

Such an ingenious design must have left something unseen.

"In addition to the mural issue you mentioned earlier, I think that if we find those hidden places, we can find the truth about the will-o'-the-wisp and even the entire tower."

"What about your performance?" Shen Qiliang asked. "It will be officially performed next week. Is it okay to delay now?"

"It's a huge problem."

No one expected that the boy would just agree to the question raised by Shen Qiliang.

Shen Qiliang's expression visibly twisted for a moment, but fortunately the boy continued speaking.

“I have been looking for the meaning of the traditional festivals in Lavender Town, so as to express its content in the form of gorgeous performances.”

Shen Qiliang lowered his hands and clasped them in front of his hips. "Yes, we must find a new way out after the Pokémon Tower is demolished, and this gentleman is a timely help. He is willing to promote the culture of Lavender Town for us and attract more tourists."

"But." The young man took a deep breath and then sighed, "The history of Ziyuan Town is too weird. It seems that the purpose of the existence of this town is to accompany ghosts and gods. Every festival is infiltrated with terrifying ghosts. I am puzzled. Even if I want to help you promote Ziyuan Town, I have no way to start. No matter which angle I cut in, I can only perform a complete horror movie."

So that's why the dream demon imitated the most classic scene in the horror story, but just happened to scare them when they came up to look for the last mural?

Sakura finally figured out the whole story.

No matter how rebellious the performance is, it should not be presented to the audience as clips of horror stories. How can it attract foreign tourists to visit in such an atmosphere?

“That’s something I’ve never been able to figure out.”

Xiao Ye took over the conversation and continued, "When I first stepped into this town, I felt that there were always some inexplicable eyes watching us, which coincides with the history and culture of Ziyuan Town."

"But for a town with hundreds of years of history, is this really the only cultural heritage it has? Festivals that make people feel scared?"

"That's right. After all, it's impossible that the citizens of ancient Shion Town didn't want to celebrate something every day. How come all the festivals left over are these weird ones?" Sakura also understood, and her brain, which had been rusty due to fear, began to work again.

"Then there's only one possibility."

The three of them looked at each other, and they all realized that the other understood what they were thinking.

Only Shen Qiliang, who was obviously a local, was still confused, feeling that he had been taught a good lesson by these three outsiders.

Shen Qiliang: Excuse me, who are the citizens of Shion Town?

"Many festivals that should have been celebrated have been forgotten or distorted over the course of a long history. Over time, all festivals in Ziyuan Town are now related to the most traditional sacrifices."

Xiaoye took out two Poké Balls, his eyes full of excitement about the unknown.

“But history always leaves traces. Perhaps the culture that the whole town truly represents is hidden in the other side of this tower that is not discovered by people.”

"That is, the place where ghost-type Pokémon live."