A water-type trainer who specializes in dragon-type water.

At the same moment, deep within the spirit world.

The rules of time and space are ambiguous. As far as the eye can see, there is only boundless desolation and deathly silence.

Under the leaden sky, a faint, cold light outlined the contours of the world.

The black ground cracked, and twisted, withered trees stretched towards the sky like frozen screams. Even more bizarre were the floating "residents."

Several floating balls drifted by slowly, their blue bodies draped with thin threads, and occasionally, the outlines of pained human faces would appear and disappear in the hanging gray mist.

High above, a gigantic, wind-driven sphere floated like a ghostly hot air balloon, its smiling face resembling a silent grave, its abdominal sutures seemingly writhing. It occasionally exhaled ashes-like breaths and faint echoes of souls.

In the distance, on the scorched earth, eerie blue flames burned silently—those were the Night Watchers. They wore white bone helmets, their single eye burning with a cold flame, standing as still as statues.

Nearby, the hunched figure of the wandering night spirit appeared and disappeared, its body draped in a tattered yellow shroud, and its giant eye on its abdomen gleamed with a greedy red light.

Their tattered arms stretched out into the void, as if trying to retrieve something, stuffing it into their eyes and making a soft chewing sound.

The air was thick with the smell of ashes and decay, mingled with a chilling mist and spirit dust. The low, mournful whispers of souls, like desperate murmurs, never ceased.

This is the spirit world, a reflection of the real world, a forbidden land for the living, and the final resting place for Ghost-type Pokémon and lost souls.

In an even more bizarre area of ​​the spirit world, the scene was terrifying: there was no earth, only countless gray-white strange rocks floating in the void.

Upon closer inspection, the stones turned out to be various curled-up and twisted human figures, frozen running figures in terror, Pokémon about to take flight, and even deformed sculptures of humans and animals haphazardly pieced together.

Their surfaces are covered with cracks and incomplete, like abandoned mass graves and deformed specimen museums, exuding an extreme sense of unease.

At the heart of this floating stone forest, three figures defied the deathly stillness of the place, hovering in mid-air and engaging in a silent yet turbulent exchange.

Even the ubiquitous low-level Ghost-type Pokémon kept their distance, as if something even more terrifying lurked in their presence.

One of them was exceptionally tall and muscular; even through his clothes, one could feel the explosive power emanating from him.

He wore a specially tailored, easy-to-move black leather jacket and dark combat uniform, with lightweight protective armor plates at the joints.

However, what is most striking is the helmet he wears—a streamlined metal shell that covers his entire head, exuding a cold and practical cyberpunk style.

The helmeted man was an old "acquaintance" of Zhang Heng.

Beside him floated a gigantic Pokémon, seemingly the ruler of the spirit world in this area, emanating a terrifying aura.

It resembles a giant, gray ghost wearing a golden crown, with a head like an inverted wizard's hat and yellow tentacles at the top.

Its body is thick and heavy, with a huge, black hole-like mouth pattern on its abdomen, surrounded by three yellow diamond-shaped "buttons".

Its arms are thick and strong, ending in huge white ghost claws. A single eye in the center of its head gleams with an eerie purple light, silently watching the opposite side, radiating a chilling, overwhelming aura of power and death that only a Master-level Ghost-type Pokémon possesses.

This is precisely what the helmeted man relies on for this operation—the Night Demon.

Opposite the helmeted man, two figures wearing large white hooded cloaks floated in the air.

Cloaks completely concealed their figures, and their faces were covered with bizarrely shaped masks that looked like molten metal or distorted light and shadow, making it impossible to see their true faces.

This is the standard attire for the "Creation Hall".

The only difference between the two masked men was the color of their masks: one was a deep purple, while the other was a bright, slightly glaring yellow.

The helmeted man's gaze, behind his dark red goggles, swept over the two masked men. His voice, emanating from the helmet's built-in voice changer, had a metallic quality and made no attempt to conceal his skepticism:

"The Seventh and Eighth Divine Punishments? Hmph, they only sent two this time?"

He paused slightly, his distrust almost overflowing: "The result of our last collaboration was quite a loss for us. Our BOSS has even begun to doubt whether continuing to cooperate with your Creation Palace is a wise choice."

Clearly, this was not the first time the two sides had been in contact, but previous collaborations seemed to have left a rift.

The cloaked figure wearing a bright yellow chaotic mask—the Eighth Divine Strike, Lightning Fiend—seemed to be enraged by the helmeted man's tone.

He responded in a strange, slightly broken Chinese accent, his voice coming through the mask with a buzzing echo:

"Losses? What right do you have to talk about losses? You're nothing but a bunch of parasites who only dare to crawl in the shadows of your own land, sowing discord and seeking personal gain!"

"A rookie trainer who's just starting out, and a Rainbow Hero with a legendary Pokémon?! How could you not know such important information? You're all complete trash!"

His words were sharp, hitting the other party's sore spot. Although the Temple of Creation had played a dishonorable role in the multiple crises that had previously plagued China, and had even indirectly provoked war.

However, they also paid a heavy price – the fourth god, Mad Rage, and his partner, Salud, perished, and the second god, Zygarde of All Things, also fell in battle.

This made them particularly dissatisfied with their partner's "all talk and no action" attitude.

The helmeted man turned pale under his helmet, choked by the other's blatant contempt. The other's strength was unfathomable, far beyond his individual capabilities.

But when he thought of the terrifying figure behind him, and the master-level Night Demon beside him who was personally dispatched by that figure and temporarily under his command, a sense of confidence rose in his heart.

He snorted coldly and retorted sarcastically, "You're good at finding excuses to shirk responsibility when you're not strong enough and the mission fails. Damn it, if you hadn't failed to kill Zhang Leiyuan as planned..."

"The top management in East China is now thoroughly investigating our internal affairs like a sieve; so many of our supply lines have been cut! How are you going to compensate us for these losses?!"

"enough."

Just then, the cloaked figure wearing a purple chaos mask—the Seventh Divine Punishment—spoke for the first time.

Although his Chinese also had a foreign accent, it was much more fluent and clear than Dian Sha's, and his tone was more composed, even carrying a cold, formulaic rationality.

"In the first collaboration, information discrepancies and unexpected factors are inevitable. Dwelling on the past is pointless."

The Seventh Divine Punishment's gaze, penetrating the mask, calmly fell upon the helmeted man.

"The First Divine Annihilation sent the two of us here with only one core purpose: to assist you in resolving the information leakage risk caused by Liao Chunfeng's exposure, to stabilize your position, and to safeguard the common interests of both of us."

His words eased the atmosphere slightly, but then the purple mask turned slightly towards the helmeted man, and an invisible, bone-chilling sense of oppression quietly spread.

"We're here to solve problems, not to listen to complaints. If you continue to speak rudely and wantonly humiliate the dignity of the Temple of Creation..."

“I wouldn’t mind leaving you, along with this decent Night Demon, in this spirit realm ruin forever.”

The calm tone belied the most blatant threat of death.

The helmeted man's breath hitched. He could feel the Night Demon beside him tense up slightly and emit a low, warning hum.

The other party is absolutely capable of doing it!

"...Hmph!" The helmeted man finally suppressed his fear and let out a voice altered by a voice changer from inside the helmet.

"I hope your abilities match this confidence!"

The Seventh Divine Strike seemed satisfied with the helmeted man's "yielding" and said, "Enough with the nonsense, was the intelligence accurate this time?!"

The helmeted man slightly raised his hand and pointed in a certain direction, where there seemed to be extremely faint ripples between the spirit world and the real world.

"According to the intelligence we intercepted, the East China Public Security Bureau will secretly transfer Liao Chunfeng's son, Liao Tianhao, tonight. This is your chance to prove your remaining value."

The helmeted man's voice, like a flowing icy spring, outlined a ruthless plan:

"I will have the Night Demon use a special passage in the spirit world to launch a surprise attack at a pre-set weak point along the transfer route. Objective: Kill Liao Tianhao and ensure there is no risk of any leaked confession."

The Seventh Divine Punishment nodded and said, "Alright... What you need to do is provide real-time information on route changes and use the power you have left on the real side to create enough chaos to restrain any potential guard forces."

"Is there a problem?"

The helmeted man pondered for a moment, then nodded emphatically: "I'll keep a close eye on the route intelligence. Chaos... Shanghai won't be peaceful tonight." A ruthless glint flashed in his eyes.

The helmeted man represented one side, while the two divine beings represented the Temple of Creation. In this desolate floating stone forest, they quickly finalized the assassination plan targeting the "bait".

Against a backdrop of bleak grayness, the suspended petrified bodies silently bear witness to the bloodshed that is about to unfold in the real world.

night, deeper.

The lights of Shanghai remain dazzling, but beneath this brilliance, a cover-up is quietly underway inside the detention center, and the murderous intent deep within the spirit world is baring its fangs like a venomous snake.

An invisible net is tightening, and the "fish" and "fishermen" in the center of the net are all ready.

We're just waiting for that moment to arrive.