The Pass of Spirit Hall Grew Long Legs

"Stop it! That badge cannot be lost!"

The market on East Street in Spirit City had just opened when a small black-and-white fellow scurried past the feet of the crowd.

It was not even as tall as an adult's waist, a bamboo leaf clamped in its mouth, and a gilt-bronze badge gripped in its right claw. Half a length of red string trailed behind the bronze badge, clinking and clattering as it ran, as if terrified someone might not hear it.

Chasing closely behind was an academy warehouse deacon.

That man usually valued rules above all else, his clothing buttoned down to the very last detail, yet today he ran with his hat crooked and a tally sheet wrinkled by the wind clutched in his hand.

"You in front, catch that soul beast!"

Several young soul masters by the street turned their heads at the sound; some reached out, while others summoned their martial souls. Seeing the encirclement, the little fellow did not slow its pace by even a fraction. It stepped onto a wooden crate filled with berries, leveraged itself to leap over a soul master's shoulder, and took a moment upon landing to adjust the leaf in its mouth.

That unhurried demeanor infuriated the person chasing it to no end.

Still daring to provoke?

"Don't use offensive soul skills!" The warehouse deacon was startled. "The badge is in its hands!"

That was the pass for the medicinal herb warehouse of Spirit Hall Academy. Today was precisely the day for opening the warehouse and taking inventory, and if the badge were truly ruined, let alone collecting medicine, they wouldn't even be able to open the warehouse doors.

The little fellow rushed to the intersection, where two people happened to be walking from the opposite direction.

Hu Liena had just returned from the Papal Hall, holding several rolls of training rosters in her arms. Yue Guan walked beside her, carrying a wooden box filled with rare medicinal herbs in one hand, while muttering complaints about the academy's people not understanding how to store flowers and leaves.

"Stop." Hu Liena stepped sideways to block the path.

The little fellow glanced up at her, then suddenly lowered its shoulders.

Hu Liena assumed it was going to force its way through and had already prepared her stance to intercept. Who could have known that it would rush within two paces, spin around abruptly, hug a streetlamp post for half a circle, and slide past her side using momentum.

Hu Liena's outstretched hand touched only a wisp of soft fur.

Yue Guan's eyebrows twitched. "Quite interesting."

"Elder Yue, help block it!" The warehouse deacon chased after them out of breath. "It took the warehouse's pass!"

"You can't even watch a juvenile soul beast—what doors does your warehouse manage these days?"

Though he said that, Yue Guan still handed the wooden box to Hu Liena and took a step forward.

He did not release his soul rings.

There were many people on the street, and the origins of the little fellow before them were unclear. If he truly used powerful soul skills, the first to suffer would only be the roadside vendors.

Yue Guan locked his gaze on the route, raising a hand to seal off the narrow alley on the right. Sure enough, the little fellow stopped this time, raised its head to look him over, and then turned its head toward the left.

The left side was supposed to be an open space surrounded by wooden fences.

At least it had been yesterday.

Now, a grayish-white two-story small building stood there, shallow stone steps paved before the door, and a silver bell hanging beneath the eaves. The characters on the sign were simple enough, yet not a single passing pedestrian could understand them.

Pokémon Shop.

The little fellow grinned, clutching the bronze badge as it rushed up the stone steps. The silver bell emitted a crisp chime, the shop door cracked open on its own, and it squeezed inside sideways, vanishing from sight in the blink of an eye.

Yue Guan's footsteps halted at the roadside.

Hu Liena also looked back. "Since when was there a shop here?"

"I pass down this street every day." The warehouse deacon finally caught up, supporting his knees as he took a few pants. "Last night it was still empty ground."

Nearby merchants heard this and gathered around one after another.

Some said they had heard a bell in the middle of the night, while others insisted they had heard nothing at all. The tailor next door even produced a stone used for drying cloth, claiming it had been pressed right in the center of the empty lot last night, yet now it sat neatly at the corner of the new shop's wall.

Yue Guan looked down, and that stone was indeed still pressing down the corner of the cloth.

The building seemed to have descended overnight, yet around it there was no fresh soil, no cart ruts, and not even the tailor's broken stone had been moved out of place.

"Go call the city patrol," Hu Liena said to the warehouse deacon.

"What about the pass?"

"I'll go in and get it."

Hu Liena handed the rosters and the herb wooden box over to him together. However, Yue Guan walked up the steps first, raising a hand to block her.

"You stay at the door."

"The teacher told me to learn observation from you, not to stand behind you forever."

Yue Guan looked back at her.

Hu Liena's expression was calm, her cuffs already tightened to avoid hindering her should a fight break out.

"Fine." Yue Guan pushed open the shop door. "Don't touch things randomly once we're inside. Especially that black-and-white dumpling; it's much slicker than any agility-attack system soul masters in your academy."

The warehouse deacon reminded them in a low voice from behind, "It still has the badge."

Yue Guan paused in his tracks, pretending not to hear.

There was no anticipated ambush inside the shop.

Facing them was a waiting area paved with soft carpets; the tables and chairs were made very low, and several water bowls of varying sizes were placed by the wall. The shelves on the right were filled with unopened combs, soft cushions, and food bowls, while a row of wooden plaques hung on the left, painted with ears, claw prints, feathers, and tails.

Hu Liena looked for a long time without finding a single common soul master commodity.

"It looks like a shop specially opened for soul beasts," she said softly.

"Soul beasts don't take money into the city to buy combs."

No sooner had Yue Guan finished speaking than a soft-bristled brush suddenly floated up from the shelf.

Pale purple light carried the brush past the two of them, dropping it into a basket behind the counter. Immediately following that, two small balls scattered near the edge of the soft carpet also flew up on their own, each returning to its original place.

A white-and-purple Pokémon walked out from behind the low door.

She was not tall, with two downward-curving horns atop her head and a tranquil expression on her face. First she gently nodded to Yue Guan and Hu Liena, then cast her gaze toward the little fellow hiding beside the counter.

The black-and-white little fellow was no longer running.

It squatted on the ground, placed the pass into a shallow dish, and pointed its claw at the mud stains on it. While being chased all the way, the bronze badge had fallen into a roadside gutter, and the gold patterns were filled with sewage.

The white-and-purple Pokémon fetched a soft cloth and lowered her head to wipe it clean.

Hu Liena was stunned. "It brought the badge back just to clean it?"

Yue Guan did not answer immediately.

From the moment he stepped inside, he had been sensing the auras of the two unfamiliar lives. There was a restrained power within the black-and-white little fellow, and the white-and-purple one had clearly utilized mental abilities just now, yet neither side emitted the age-based aura a soul beast ought to possess.

That was quite strange.

A moment later, the bronze plate was wiped impeccably clean. The white-and-purple Pokémon held the shallow dish up with both hands, walking before Hu Liena.

"Indeedee."

"For me?"

The other party nodded.

Hu Liena picked up the badge, discovering that the red string on the back had even been retied. As for the black-and-white little fellow, it sat nearby, a bamboo leaf clamped in its jaws, struggling to put on an expression that sought no praise for doing a good deed.

If one ignored the fact that it had just led half a street of people on three loops, this appearance actually looked rather reliable.

"Why did you keep running after you picked it up?" Hu Liena squatted down and asked.

The little fellow pointed toward the people who had chased them from behind, then raised two short hands, shaking them twice while mimicking their frantic, claw-waving appearance.

Hu Liena understood.

Everyone was shouting to catch it, so of course it ran.

Yue Guan stood to one side, the corners of his mouth twitching slightly. "Once that warehouse deacon goes back, he'll probably first have to learn how to beg people to return things."

The black-and-white little fellow nodded in deep agreement.

The misunderstanding was resolved, yet there were even more new questions.

Hu Liena looked up toward the counter. A guest ledger lay open on the table, the first page bearing the characters "Pancham," followed by the claw print of that black-and-white little fellow drawn below. The name of the white-and-purple Pokémon was written on another page.

Indeedee.

"Where is your master?" Yue Guan asked.

Indeedee frowned slightly, first shaking her head, then pointing at herself and the Pancham.

Hu Liena guessed, "She doesn't like the term 'master'?"

Yue Guan adapted smoothly. "Then what about the shopkeeper?"

Only then did Indeedee raise a hand, pointing toward a thin string hanging down beside the counter.

A wooden plaque hung beneath the string.

[If you want the boss, please pull once. For non-emergencies, pull at most once. (-_-)zzZ]

After reading it, Yue Guan pulled twice directly.

A thud came from upstairs.

Indeedee closed her eyes, as if struggling to endure. As for the Pancham, it hurriedly leaped onto the soft carpet and hugged its own head.

"Why do I feel like those two pulls weren't quite right?" Hu Liena asked.

"The plaque only said at most once, it didn't write what happens if you pull twice."

"So you tested it?"

"Someone always has to test it."

Footsteps quickly sounded on the second floor.

A young man descended the stairs, his black hair somewhat messy from sleep, and his outer robe only half-dressed. He still held the wooden board shaken loose by the string bell, and upon seeing Yue Guan, he first looked down at the wooden board, then up at the person.

"You pulled?"

"Yes."

"Pay for it."

Yue Guan fell silent for a moment.

He, a dignified Title Douluo, was meeting a stranger for the very first time without even asking names, yet he was being hit with a demand to compensate for a piece of wood.

Hu Liena hurriedly spoke up, "Sir, we are people from Spirit Hall. Just now, a warehouse pass was brought into the shop, so we came in to take a look."

The young man looked at the Pancham.

The Pancham stood up, first pointing at the already wiped bronze sign, then pointing outside, repeatedly gesturing several chasing motions.

"I picked it up," the young man said.

"We have already figured that out," Hu Liena asked. "May I ask what your name is?"

"Xia Che."

"Did this shop just open today?"

"Three days."

"Yet last night, this place was still an empty lot."

Xia Che lowered his head and yawned. "Then you saw wrong last night."

This perfunctory answer was enough for even the Pancham to turn its head away and pretend not to hear.

Yue Guan raised a hand and tapped the counter. "This is Spirit Hall jurisdiction. The origin of the shop, the goods you sell, and these two unfamiliar soul beasts—you need to explain clearly."

Xia Che put the wooden board on the table and first corrected her. "They are called Pokémon."

"What difference is there from soul beasts?" Hu Liena pressed.

"There are many differences."

"Can you talk about it in detail?"

"Tomorrow."

"Why wait until tomorrow?"

Xia Che pointed upstairs. "I just fell asleep."

Yue Guan stared at him, finally understanding why the Indeedee had chosen to endure earlier. The shopkeeper before him dared to conjure up a strange building in the core jurisdiction of Spirit Hall, and dared to make a Title Douluo stand before the counter and wait for him to wake up from his nap; his nerve certainly wasn't small.

Just as Yue Guan prepared to question further, a voice identical to Hu Liena's suddenly came from behind her.

"Elder Yue, I think what he's saying makes sense."

Hu Liena whipped her head around.

Another "Hu Liena" was standing by the door, holding the training roster she had handed over earlier in her arms, even the trace of a smile between her brows completely identical down to the fraction.

The warehouse deacon outside looked at the left, then looked at the right, completely dumbfounded on the spot.

Yue Guan's gaze sank, his soul power just about to rise, when Xia Che had already raised a hand to press his forehead.

"Zorua."

The "Hu Liena" by the door blinked, suddenly revealing the smile of a successful prank.