Giovanni clapped his hands softly.
"Go, Persian, catch this mischievous little Gastly."
Persian glanced at Giovanni, then at the giant phantom, and ultimately chose to trust Giovanni, creeping forward.
Soon, its wary eyes suddenly lit up!
Then it pounced out, and accompanied by the mournful and miserable Growl of a Pokémon, Persian returned, only to have a pitiful Pokémon clamped in its mouth.
Giovanni glanced at the shadow behind Persian; it looked even larger and more terrifying than the shadow of the poor Pokémon just now.
It truly was a trick.
With a faint red glow, Giovanni also clearly saw what kind of Pokémon this was.
It was a pitiful Phantump, probably only a few levels.
As for why it appeared here, Giovanni was a bit puzzled, but after glancing at the cave and the lingering soul power within it, another thought formed in Giovanni's mind.
"A Phantump?" Giovanni stroked his chin, then casually tossed a Poké Ball at the fainted Phantump, directly capturing it.
It wasn't a high level, so it didn't even have a chance to struggle before Giovanni successfully caught it.
After putting Phantump away, Giovanni continued to walk forward, "Keep going."
The Pokémon followed closely behind.
After passing the spot where Phantump had been, Giovanni glanced at the surrounding walls; the originally pitch-black environment now had a faint purple glow.
Nidorino instinctively started to approach, but Giovanni immediately reprimanded him, "Stop!"
Nidorino was startled by Giovanni and looked at him with a somewhat wronged expression.
Giovanni, however, raised his hand and directly recalled him, without explaining anything.
Under the puzzled gazes of the Pokémon, Giovanni walked to the cave wall, gently touched it with his hand, and looking at the purple-glowing stones on it, slowly breathed a sigh of relief.
"Good thing, just barely!"
After sighing in relief, Giovanni felt even more excited!
He turned his head and looked around; the faint purple glow seemed to transform into stacks of pokemon dollars.
This place was actually full of Moon Stones!
Although the ones on the outside were of poor quality, Researchers had not yet discovered the use of ites.
As long as Giovanni published articles and reports about Moon Stones and presented the conclusive findings.
Then these Moon Stones would turn into a large amount of pokemon dollars.
Moreover, this was only the outermost part of the cave. Giovanni now strongly suspected that there were even higher quality Moon Stones deeper inside.
At that time, Nidorino's evolution into Nidoking would be hopeful.
Giovanni suppressed his excitement and continued walking deeper inside.
The faint purple glow of the Moon Stones served as a guide, leading Giovanni and the baffled Pokémon forward.
Until the deepest part, where the light was no longer just faint purple, but a convergence of faint purple light and silver moonlight.
The top of the deepest part of the cave was open, and moonlight constantly shone down from the opening, falling into the cave, onto the Moon Stones on the ground, and countless corpses.
Top-grade Moon Stones were emitting dazzling purple light, and above the corpses were slowly condensing souls, which only needed time to accumulate to transform into Ghost-type Pokémon.
This was a treasure trove, a place of extreme yin that gathered the essence of the moon, as it would be called in his previous life.
But he was getting ahead of himself.
Giovanni took two steps forward and kicked all the corpses off the Moon Stones.
Then he carefully observed them with Power of Viridian and patted the Poké Ball to soothe the excited Nidorino.
"Don't worry, I'm looking for you right now."
Then he turned to Persian and the others behind him and said:
"You all help me find them too; look for the ones with the most dazzling purple light."
The Pokémon also guessed that Giovanni might be looking for resources for Nidorino, so they all eagerly stepped forward to help Giovanni select the top-grade Moon Stones.
Gastly floated around for a bit, looking at Giovanni and Persian with some confusion. He was the youngest, so he didn't quite understand this yet.
But what was interesting was that, despite not understanding, after aimlessly floating around, he landed in a spot he found most comfortable.
And right beneath that spot, perfectly concealed under some corpses, were several incredibly dazzling Moon Stones.
He took out these Moon Stones with some confusion.
After a while, when Persian and Machoke and the others had all found what they considered the best quality Moon Stones, and had reunited with Giovanni, who had also found a few high-quality Moon Stones.
He slowly floated over.
Giovanni scanned the Moon Stones found by the Pokémon, finally fixing his gaze on Gastly's.
Giovanni murmured twice, "It really is Gastly, isn't it?"
If Gastly hadn't just brought Giovanni these top-grade Moon Stones, Giovanni would have thought that this little guy actually had other memories.
However, the Moon Stone for Nidorino's evolution was finally found.
Recently, he had indeed become the weakest, but after evolving, he would greatly improve his strength.
"You all did well."
Giovanni didn't show favoritism; after all, Machoke and Beedrill had also been busy for so long, so he praised them all.
The Pokémon were all very happy.
Furthermore, since this was for Nidorino, they were also happy to see Nidorino grow stronger. There was no jealousy among them; they only knew that if Nidorino became stronger, he could better protect Giovanni with them.
Giovanni scanned the Moon Stones, stroking his chin, "I remember Mt. Moon also produces Moon Stones. It seems I'll have to buy Mt. Moon."
There was no use staying here longer; Giovanni himself couldn't take so many Moon Stones. Even if he stuffed Gastly full, it would be useless right now.
So the best way was to use Team Rocket to collect them. Although Team Rocket had ample funds, a large quantity of Moon Stones also represented a large amount of wealth, not to mention that they could be continuously produced here.
Plus, some Ghost-type Pokémon would also be born.
Thinking of this, Giovanni narrowed his eyes, "Let's go. This place will be my treasure trove from now on."
As for the best location for a base, besides here and the barbarian tribes, there probably wasn't a better spot.
And considering the need to guard this treasure trove, that was even more reason.
However, Giovanni was a bit troubled about whether to tell Matt about the situation here.
Although Matt was very loyal to Madame Boss, under the impact of profit, Giovanni wasn't sure if Matt would lose his head.
After all, he wasn't Madame Boss, so this still needed a bit more consideration.
It would be best for Madame Boss to make the final decision. Fortunately, Absol was still around, which was also a source of confidence for Giovanni.