Inside the Pokémon Center.
Zhu Jianyuan held a cup of tea in his hands, repeatedly blowing on the hot surface.
"You guys really made quite a commotion…"
"Even though I was all the way in Haicheng, I could still faintly hear the noise."
Rock glanced at Zhu Jianyuan, then at the silent Lü Liangpeng, before looking back at Su Bai. He hesitated.
"Uh… is City Lord Zhu really supposed to be here?"
Judging by their positions, neither Zhu Jianyuan nor Lü Liangpeng technically had the clearance to hear what was about to be discussed.
After all, information concerning the Twelve Zodiacs and the Apostles could be considered humanity's most closely guarded secret.
Su Bai was allowed to hear it because of a combination of factors, including his strength and the existence of Pokémon.
But Zhu Jianyuan and Lü Liangpeng…
They were another matter entirely.
"Just tell me. Once you've told me, I'm going to tell them anyway."
Su Bai casually took a sip of tea and spoke decisively.
"Besides, I don't think these two will be frightened by a few so-called secrets."
Hearing this, Zhu Jianyuan immediately nodded with a broad smile.
"As expected of a student taught by the old principal. You really are something else!"
As the dignified City Lord, he was already damn tired of being told that he couldn't know this or couldn't know that.
Pokémon had developed around Haicheng, and it was largely thanks to his own efforts that the Pokémon Center had been able to flourish here.
With that kind of contribution under his belt, what secret could he possibly be unqualified to hear?
Lü Liangpeng also nodded repeatedly with a smug smile.
See? Su Bai was impressive, right?
He was the one who taught him!
Rock opened his mouth, clearly wanting to argue, but in the end, he could only helplessly surrender.
"Fine, fine, fine. You did save me, after all, and you also took down an Apostle…"
"Besides, this is the first time in all these years that an Apostle has actually been confirmed dead…"
"Although you didn't kill him personally… I suppose it still counts if a Pokémon did it."
The moment he thought of that enormous Zapdos, Rock couldn't help sighing.
Apostles were simply too difficult to kill.
Since the Apostles first appeared, Amino could be said to be the only Apostle whose death had ever been definitively confirmed.
"The first one to be truly killed?"
Su Bai looked genuinely surprised.
"All these years… and you haven't managed to kill even one?"
His surprise wasn't feigned.
He had always assumed that the Twelve Zodiacs and the Apostles were roughly equivalent in strength. So if Rock couldn't defeat Amino, Su Bai had simply thought that Rock wasn't strong enough.
Seeing Su Bai's confusion, Rock's face darkened.
"The chances of an Apostle appearing are extremely low. And whenever an Apostle has appeared in a location recorded in our archives…"
"That entire area was practically wiped off the map."
"The Twelve Zodiacs are indeed humanity's strongest combat force."
"But against the Apostles… our intelligence is still severely lacking."
"For all these years, we've never actually managed to kill an Apostle. Meanwhile, the strength of the Twelve Zodiacs has constantly fluctuated because of succession and replacement."
"And quite a few members of the Twelve Zodiacs have died at the hands of Apostles."
"My grandfather was one of them…"
At the mention of this, Rock's expression became noticeably unwilling.
"According to what Amino revealed… the one who killed my grandfather should have been someone called Scorpion."
"If my grandfather had brought the Wall-Breaking Blade with him back then…"
Su Bai rubbed his chin.
"That dagger… isn't that Rock's ritual dagger? You call it the Wall-Breaking Blade?"
"And what about that strange shadow of yours? What's the story behind it?"
"Are all the Twelve Zodiacs like that?"
Rock nodded, then shook his head.
"The Wall-Breaking Blade is the ritual dagger created by the very first Rock."
"According to the legends surrounding the Rock family, Rock's spiritual power allows him to command ten S-rank Death Beasts."
"But in reality, those Death Beasts aren't the only source of his combat strength."
"There is also… the Shadow."
"This Shadow is a treasure that has been passed down through the Rock family for generations."
"Even among the Twelve Zodiacs, something like this is unique to the Rock family."
As he spoke, Rock snapped his fingers.
The shadow behind him suddenly began to writhe.
Then, it slowly rose from the ground.
A weak yet unmistakably irritable voice emerged from within it.
"Fuck you, Rock. I'm not a fucking thing…"
Before the Shadow could finish speaking, Rock—wearing an utterly speechless expression—immediately sealed it back into his shadow.
"What the hell is that?!"
"The voice we heard back then came from that thing?"
Zhu Jianyuan even stopped drinking his tea, staring at the scene in horror.
Lü Liangpeng also frowned deeply as he stared at Rock.
Su Bai silently pinched the bridge of his nose.
Did this thing really have to throw a swear word into every sentence?
Rock looked helpless and apologetic.
"Sorry. That's just how Shadow's personality is."
"As for where Shadow came from…"
"You could say that it was literally carved out of the spiritual power of the first Rock."
Su Bai looked surprised.
"Carved out?"
"That thing is a mass of mental power?"
Rock hesitated.
"Not entirely."
"You already know that after Contract Masters form contracts with Death Beasts, they're affected by the death energy and gradually become more irritable."
"The influence of a single S-rank Death Beast is enough to turn a Contract Master into a greedy, profit-obsessed merchant."
"And that's nothing compared to the first Rock."
"He didn't contract just ten S-rank Death Beasts."
"There are even records within the Rock family claiming that he contracted…"
"…a Lord of a Forbidden Zone."
"A-A Lord of a Forbidden Zone?!"
Zhu Jianyuan's eyes nearly popped out of his head.
He stared wide-eyed at Rock.
"Even a Lord of a Forbidden Zone can become a contracted beast?!"
"How powerful was the first Rock?!"
Everyone knew that the terror of a Lord of a Forbidden Zone was on an entirely different level from an ordinary S-rank Death Beast.
Why were they called Lords of Forbidden Zones?
Because those places were genuine forbidden territories for humanity.
Anyone who ventured into a Forbidden Zone had never returned alive.
Even S-rank experts wouldn't dare approach one recklessly.
Rock nodded.
"These are all records contained within the Rock family's private archives. They have never been leaked to the outside world."
"Anyway, that's how things came to be."
"Considering the enormous amount of death energy influencing him, there was a reason the first Rock never went mad, even up until the day he died of old age."
Rock took out the dagger and placed it on the table.
Compared with the lavish ritual daggers used by other Contract Masters, decorated with gold and precious stones, the so-called Wall-Breaking Blade looked almost embarrassingly crude.
But in reality…
It was priceless.
"This dagger can cut mental power."
Rock pointed at it.
"Shadow was cut away from Rock himself."
"It consists of the portions of his mental power that had been corrupted by death energy."
"That is why Shadow behaves so… uncouthly."
"After all, you could say that Shadow represents the dark side of Rock."
"And because of the spiritual imprint left behind, this Shadow feeds on the spiritual power of the Rock family."
"The Snake among the Twelve Zodiacs…"
"In other words, Rock…"
"is the only position among the Twelve Zodiacs that has been passed down from generation to generation."