The moonlight was clear and cold, and the night breeze gently drifted through.
Unlike Shadownight Town, the bright moonlight illuminated the entire Village of Dragons, making it easy to see pedestrians on the road even in the middle of the night.
Of course, there weren't really any people out this late.
Only a single Gengar appeared now and then by the roadside, underground, or even inside the walls, blinking its golden eyes.
Naturally, this Gengar had been sent out by Sato as the best scout to secretly investigate the Village of Dragons.
If counted carefully, he had already stayed in the Village for ten days. Other than battling Wilma every day, he had spent all his time speculating on what kind of secrets the Village of Dragons might be hiding.
Suddenly, Gengar abruptly shut its golden eyes, then quickly vanished from where it had been.
In the next moment, an invisible Psychic wave swept past the spot Gengar had just occupied. After detecting nothing unusual, it continued scanning into the distance.
After a while, Gengar reopened its golden eyes, silently glancing in the direction where the Psychic had gone, and at the same time, removed the Spatial Barrier around itself.
If it had only been hiding in the shadows, Gengar would've been discovered without a doubt. Tʜe source of this ᴄontent ɪs 𝕟𝕠𝕧𝕖𝕝⚫𝕗𝕚𝕣𝕖⚫𝕟𝕖𝕥
But fortunately, it had also had Palkia's Spatial energy, allowing it to temporarily place itself in another space, thus evading the Elite Four level Exeggutor's patrol of the Village of Dragons.
Starting from the third night, Sato had been sending Gengar out late at night to investigate the area. After seven days of patrolling, Gengar had finally found the most suspicious place.
Right beneath the plaza directly in front of Wilma's residence, the ground's structural layers were slightly different from other areas. Whether in humidity or acidity, there were subtle discrepancies.
The Village of Dragons wasn't large. Gengar had roughly explored it several times without noticing anything off. After all, no matter the ground composition, it didn't affect how it phased through.
It was only because Sato had told it to focus on detailed investigation, combined with Gengar's naturally calm and meticulous personality, that it eventually uncovered this tiny trace of a clue.
Seeing that the Psychic probe had moved far away and that there was still time before Exeggutor's next psychic patrol, Gengar didn't hesitate to move low along the ground, and in the blink of an eye, arrived at the plaza, then continued to descend.
The deeper it went, the more energy it needed to dive underground, but soon it encountered a solid stone wall.
Gengar slowed down again and carefully activated the Spatial energy within its body. After shifting itself into another dimension, it slowly passed through the wall.
A ghostly blue light was the first thing to enter Gengar's vision as an enormous underground structure resembling an ancient palace gradually appeared.
It had finally found it!
Gengar was thrilled, but it still carefully wrapped itself in Spatial energy, using only its eyes to carefully scan the underground palace.
The palace was tall, with eight white pillars firmly supporting the underground chamber.
The surrounding walls were polished smooth and flat, and the dome above was covered in intricate carvings. However, Gengar was currently pressed up against the dome, so it couldn't fully see what the carvings depicted.
Looking further down, about two meters above the ground, a row of lanterns hung neatly in place. The ghostly blue light was coming from these lanterns, illuminating the entire underground palace.
Suddenly, Gengar's pupils narrowed slightly, and it quickly moved around a white pillar that had been blocking part of its vision.
More than a dozen perfectly intact skeletal remains were neatly displayed at the center of the palace.
Gengar was no fool… just by examining the bones, it could already tell what they used to be.
Hydreigon, Bisharp, Mandibuzz, Krookodile, Scrafty, Zoroark…
Among them, Hydreigon's skeletal remains accounted for more than half. Though their sizes varied, there was no doubt.
They were all Hydreigon!
Seeing this, Gengar instinctively pressed its hands together with a sigh…
After the sigh, Gengar didn't forget its mission. It continued carefully observing the underground palace from the dome, and soon made a new discovery.
Among the many skeletal remains, there was one massive Hydreigon skeleton subtly encircled at the very center of the grand hall.
And inside this Hydreigon's ribcage, a faint black light was slowly emanating. It would be impossible to notice without looking very closely.
The black glow was partially obscured by the bones, so Gengar couldn't see what it was exactly. But to get any closer, it would have to leave the safety of the dome.
After just a moment of hesitation, Gengar decided to continue its investigation. It slowly floated from the dome to the nearby stone wall, then began carefully descending along the surface.
But before it had dropped far, an overwhelming energy that filled Gengar with terror suddenly surged toward it.
The attack came so abruptly that Gengar didn't even have time to react before it was hit!
Yet, almost immediately, Gengar realized it hadn't been harmed. The energy terrified it immensely, but it seemed unable to cross dimensions and actually strike Gengar.
Not daring to linger, Gengar immediately retreated.
As soon as it ascended past the level of the dome murals, the overwhelming fear induced by the unknown energy vanished without a trace.
Gengar glanced back at the dome, a thoughtful expression on its face. But the fear had been so intense, it decided not to stay any longer and raced back to the surface.
By the time Gengar returned to Mass's house where Sato was temporarily staying, Sato was lying on the bed but clearly not asleep.
Sensing Gengar's return, he silently sat up and immediately sent out a drowsy Ralts.
"Did you find anything?"
Gengar nodded seriously at Sato, then began recounting everything in detail.
Ralts, still sleepy, lay on Sato's lap, reluctantly playing the role of interpreter.
"You're disturbing my sleep again… Toto, don't you know that if a girl doesn't sleep well, she'll get wrinkles?"
Ralts muttered grumpily, but Sato completely ignored her, pretending he hadn't heard a thing.
Although Sato could somewhat understand Gengar's meaning, when it came to complex intel reports, it was far more reliable to use Ralts's Telepathy.
As Gengar went on, Ralts gradually perked up, switching from lying down to kneeling, her blood-red eyes full of curiosity and excitement.
"Toto, let's go check it out too! That has to be where the Domain is hidden! That scary feeling Gengi had must be the power of a Domain!"
Ralts tugged nonstop at Sato's pajama sleeve, completely forgetting that she had just been complaining…
"No rush. We still need to plan carefully. The plaza is too close to Wilma's house, if we go there, we might get discovered."
"Teleport! I know Teleport!" Ralts volunteered eagerly.
"Psychic powers barely work underground. You can't sense the exact position. The risk of Teleporting is too high. Gengar, I need you to go again. If humans built that palace, then there must be an entrance somewhere."