Chapter Ninety-Two: Full Moon and New Moon

Miss Axing, eavesdropping on other people’s conversations is hardly a commendable habit.

Thunk—

Ssszzzt—

Listening to the sound that had just come through, Amu’s expression turned strangely odd.

They were almost there when Amu suddenly hesitated. Beside him, Pippi immediately sneered, “Scared, are you? Pippippi... With this great lord here, you can hide behind me as much as you like!”

“What did you hear?” Xiaoxia asked at once.

“Axing seems to have been found...” Amu said with a peculiar look.

“Found?” Xiaoxia blinked.

“From the sound just now, Axing should have been ambushed... and the listening device was destroyed, too!” Amu suspected that the attack on Axing had been the kind that could envelop the whole body, such as a mind shock attack.

Otherwise, there would have been no need to specifically destroy the eavesdropping device.

“An ambush? Ah! I know—Axing must have come secretly to check on things too! I said so... No wonder the voice we heard earlier was so faint!” Xiaoxia’s spirits lifted, and the gloom from before vanished in an instant.

She had never been able to believe that Axing, or even Gym Leader Akane, had anything to do with Team Rocket.

Now it seemed Axing must also have been tailing them. The earlier sound had been faint precisely because Axing could not get too close... It was only just now that she had been discovered.

“Then we have to hurry. They might do something to Axing!” Xiaoxia sighed in relief, but immediately grew worried for Axing’s safety again.

Just then, the path ahead once more appeared to be a dead end.

Yet Amu and Xiaoxia were not surprised at all. Pippi barked orders, directing Sandslash and the Dugtrio to dig. After breaking through a thin layer, they soon reached another passage.

“You really do know this terrain in impressive detail,” Amu could not help saying.

“Hmph. If it weren’t for those idiotic Pippi and idiotic Haunter yammering away, I’d have dug this place out long ago!” Pippi said matter-of-factly.

In other words, if there weren’t any adults at home, it would have long since gone wild and torn the roof off.

At first, the other Pokemon had refused. Clearly, they were already very near the Moon Altar, and in the hearts of the wild Pokemon of Mt. Moon, the Moon Altar was a sacred place that could not be dug up recklessly.

But Pippi paid no mind. It had already dug on its own and knew where it could dig and where it could not—small arms and short legs aside, Pippi was still a Pokemon that could learn Dig!

...

“Dig diagonally upward from here... Once we break through, we’ll reach that damn altar, so keep your spirits up!” Pippi warned everyone in a bold tone, though it was also a little tense.

Amu checked the time on the Pokedex.

11:18 PM. The full moon was nearly at its highest point!

A group of wild Pokemon capable of digging finally broke through the last barrier, entering another tunnel through the side wall.

“This road leads straight to the Moon Altar. The other direction is a dead end. Those fools would never imagine I’d appear from here! Pippippi...” Pippi laughed in triumph.

Because its ability was essentially telepathy, it could control the range of its “voice.”

The enemy was already very close. One could even faintly hear voices; clearly, the Moon Altar had already been occupied.

Amu quietly came to the opening at the end of the tunnel, only to discover that this too was an exit suspended high in midair on a sheer cliff face.

Xiaoxia accidentally knocked loose a small piece of rubble. Seeing someone look over, Amu hurriedly pulled her down.

Below them lay the Moon Altar. A huge spherical rock stood at the center of this underground plaza.

The vaulted ceiling here was extraordinarily high, making Amu suspect that the entire main peak of Mt. Moon was hollow.

And in the plaza at this moment there was only a group of fearsome Team Rocket members... along with Pokemon restrained and subdued by all manner of means.

One of the leaders glanced at the time, then opened the iron cage holding the Pippi, and with a flick of his whip shouted, “Hurry! It’s time. Dance for me, all of you!”

“Pippi!”

“Pii—”

“Pippippi...”

Though he could not understand them, it was not hard to imagine that the Pippi released from the cages were probably cursing people—indeed, not every Pippi could be as slick at telepathy as the one before Amu...

Even when cursing, it was still kind of cute.

“Filthy humans. Is this what you think Pippi are supposed to be? Tch.” Pippi dug at its nose and said.

Seeing this, the Team Rocket leader gave a cold smile and raised a hand.

At once, his subordinates understood and sent an electric current through the iron cages holding the Pichu nearby!

It was not fatal, but the Pichu inside immediately cried out in misery.

Amu also noticed that the cages holding Gastly and Haunter were each sealed with a talisman—he recognized it at once as a Purification Charm.

He also saw Axing, tied up.

The Pippi wanted to resist, but their earlier injuries had not healed, and none of them were in good shape. They were quickly subdued by the guarding Pokemon around them.

With the Pichu held hostage on the side, the Pippi had no choice but to yield.

“Tch... a bunch of idiots... Fight them already! You’re embarrassing me!” Pippi muttered beside Amu.

Yet Amu noticed that its fists had long since tightened, and it was only barely holding back.

The Pippi then gathered around the huge Moon Stone and began their finger-wagging dance.

As their awkward performance continued, the high rock ceiling above gradually became translucent, and the hanging full moon shone its light straight down from overhead.

No, it was not merely becoming translucent. The moonlight here was brighter than it looked from outside, and, like a spotlight, concentrated upon the immense Moon Stone.

This giant Moon Stone was also called the Moon Eye.

The Moon Eye gradually burst forth with dazzling white light, and that same white radiance, centered on the Moon Eye, began spreading across the surrounding cliff walls...

Some sort of image started to form on the stone walls—unfortunately, Amu was on the wall face and could not see it, and because the Team Rocket members were also looking up, Amu immediately shrank back and did not dare show his head.

“...The boss was right. Mt. Moon really is connected to the god of the crescent moon!” muttered a junior leader named Aryo.

From Team Rocket’s perspective, they could clearly see that the wall image formed a Pokemon with a crescent-like horn on its head and crescent-shaped ringlike wings and tail fins—the very image of the god of the crescent moon, Cresselia!

The positions of the totem’s eyes also corresponded to two openings. Clearly, it could not be a coincidence...

A moment later, three or four of the dancing Pippi began to glow with white light.

“That’s enough. Stop them,” ordered the Team Rocket leader.

But just then, from Cresselia’s left eye shot out a black shadow. Before Team Rocket could react, it slammed fiercely into the middle of them...

“Brother Shen!”

“Mm!”

Shen Changqing walked along the road. Whenever he met someone he knew, they would greet each other, or nod.

But no matter who it was, everyone wore no extra expression, as if they were indifferent to everything.

To this, Shen Changqing was already used to it.

For this was the Demon Suppression Division, an institution tasked with maintaining the stability of Great Qin, whose primary duty was to slay demons, monsters, and sinister apparitions, though it also had some other sidelines.

It could be said that everyone in the Demon Suppression Division had stained their hands with much blood.

When a person had seen too much life and death, many things would come to seem indifferent.

When he first arrived in this world, Shen Changqing had been somewhat unaccustomed to it, but over time he had grown used to it as well.

The Demon Suppression Division was vast.

Those who could remain within it were either experts of formidable strength or people with the potential to become such experts.

Shen Changqing belonged to the latter.

Within the Demon Suppression Division there were two professions: the Guardian Envoy and the Demon-Slaying Envoy.

Anyone who entered the Demon Suppression Division started at the lowest level as a Demon-Slaying Envoy, then advanced step by step, with eventual hope of becoming a Guardian Envoy.

Shen Changqing’s former self had been an apprentice Demon-Slaying Envoy in the Demon Suppression Division, the lowest rank among the Demon-Slaying Envoys.

With the memories of his former self, he was also extremely familiar with the environment of the Demon Suppression Division.

It did not take long before Shen Changqing stopped in front of a pavilion.

Unlike the other grim and murderous places in the Demon Suppression Division, this pavilion stood like a crane among chickens, presenting a different kind of tranquility amid the blood-soaked division.

At the moment, the main doors of the pavilion were open, and people occasionally came and went.

Shen Changqing hesitated only briefly before stepping inside.

Upon entering the pavilion, the environment changed abruptly.

A wave of ink fragrance mixed with a faint smell of blood rushed at him, causing his brows to knit instinctively, though they soon relaxed.

The blood scent on everyone in the Demon Suppression Division was almost impossible to wash away.