Their several-hundred mph flight south brought them over forests and plains. Once they reached the main road they followed it southeast along Sinnoh's coastline, passing over a number of coastal towns. The grand tree of Grandtree Arena remained visible over the horizon the entire time.
'It seems Sinnoh's declared a national emergency and ordered everyone to seek shelter.' Longwei though to himself, looking down at the major traffic jams outside yet another settlement.
This trend continued even once the road brought them through a massive canyon several miles wide and several hundred miles long that cut straight through Mount Coronet itself. An adobe-styled city was the only stopping point in this canyon, and it was dealing with an obscenely large congestion of traffic as a result.
Of course, the many people riding pokémon wisely chose to go off-road rather than pointlessly wait in line with the sea of vehicles. This held true for the cities before, and was even something Longwei had when he was stuck in traffic with Mr. Farview.
After reaching the other side of the canyon they stopped following the road and instead flew towards the coast. Carolina gave a pair of hand signals once they were over the ocean, and almost immediately they broke the sound barrier. Their speed climbed past the 1000mph mark as they traveled northeast just beyond the coastline, flying high enough to not disturb the pokémon below and occasionally adjusting course to avoid thick clouds and flocks of flying pokémon.
Soon the large infrastructure of Pastoria became visible on the horizon. Slowing down to a subsonic speed, they turned towards the seemingly endless wetlands outside Pastoria in search of somewhere decent to land.
Longwei could see miles of traffic flooding into Pastoria itself, which would have been strange considering how many hours it took Longwei's group to get this far, but since practically everything along the west road to Pastoria was a wetland it made sense. People simply had nowhere else to go, just like with that desert town. The outgoing lanes had even been cleared for incoming traffic — and as any expert could tell you: more lanes are the solution to any traffic problem.
Longwei also saw a number of other trainers arriving via flight, and they too were all touching down somewhere outside the city rather than simply entering. The reason why was told to him once they touched down on a relatively dry patch of land surrounded by swamp and trees.
Without dismounting, Carolina turned to speak to the two people who didn't have flight radios or earpieces and thus were in the dark about why they landed in the Crimson Mirelands.
"Lockdown's been declared. Suspicious individuals are being checked before entry into major cities. Fliers are suspicious by default, and this scaly old boy here," she roughly patted her garchomp's neck, "happens to raise a lot of red flags right now."
A nearby hippopotas tilted its head in confusion, then looked to the hippowdon by its side for clarification. The hippowdown shook its large head and nudged the hippopotas back, leading them away from the bothersome humans.
Carolina pointed towards where Pastoria was, although no one could see it with the trees in the way. "They'll need to come over and verify we are who our transponders say we are. It'll take a while because of all the traffic they're sifting through, so just sit tight." She looked away with a barely-concealed smirk, knowing damn well that she's cutting in line by being a VIP.
In the time it takes to tumble down a naga staircase with nine hundred ninety-nine steps, the forms of a couple dozen pokémon flying towards them appeared in the distance. With Longwei's superior eyesight, he could see 4 humans total among them. While the sun had begun to dip over the horizon, there was still light enough to see them.
Garchomp's breathing got heavier and he poised himself to take flight, but Carolina was quick to calm him. "Easy old boy, easy. They won't try anything, they know what would happen if they do."
The dragon eased itself, but Longwei could sense it gathering power. For what it was worth, the two honchkrow were subtly preparing as well in silent camaraderie.
The honchkrow then sensed something, each of their heads flicking towards the swampy forest in the same direction that the fliers were coming from. Longwei heard it shortly after: the splashing of muddy water and the shuffling of plant life, the splashing indicating that at least two beasts were headed their way.
Both of those parties came to a stop just at the treeline, the party on the ground releasing a few pokémon to bolster their number.
In the air were many types of flying pokémon ranging from an emolga holding onto a kilowattrel all the way to a gyrados floating beside an aerodactyl. Among them were 2 rangers and 2 officers, each wearing flight gear.
On the ground were much less pokémon. An ursaluna in a full assault vest flanked by two ursarang with their own vests, a pair of vested arcanine, a steel-variant goodra leaned back against its metallic shell that was protection enough, a pair of hippowdon that sank into the mud with only the tops of their heads remaining visible, and a lone furret wearing a police hat. Two officers were mixed in with them, each remaining on the arcanine they rode in with and staying just behind the front.
A megaphone crackled from the treeline. "Alright, hold still while our investigator checks you."
The mud-covered furret with the police hat approached, splashing its way over in a series of hop-like movements. Stopping to raise itself on its hind legs, it carefully appraised Carolina, Cynthia, and Garchomp with its Keen Eyes and Frisky nose, then repeated the process with the rest of them. Longwei sensed these abilities probing each of their persons, capable of seeing through any illusion or trickery. Just as quick as it came, it Ran Away back to the treeline.
After a moment, the megaphone crackled once more. "Looks like you're good to go. Sorry for the inconvenience, Professor."
Carolina waved their apology away with a cocky smile. "No worries," she said rather loudly, "I'd be filing a complaint if I was simply let through."
And like that, their group returned to the skies and made their way into Pastoria. Carolina made a beeline for a pokécenter, Mr. Mime was brought somewhere else, and the gym trainer with Longwei went towards a human hospital.
Which was how about half an hour later Longwei found himself with a doctor wrapping his feet in casts all while a shrine maiden and her mienshao each waved a gohei—which was basically a wand with two paper streamers on one end—through the air in a sort of ritualistic dance.
Longwei was rather impressed. They were ritualistically dancing around the room without even using any spiritual techniques and, while it wasn't enough to fully cleanse the scarring, it was working. Their ritual dance was empowering the tag, which was in turn working to purify the curse placed upon him. Sure, mortal monks of Yongyu could exorcise weaker ghosts and cleanse the simplest of curses through group mantra and strict adherence to the Dao, but it was never as simple as this.
Longwei touched a hand to the cleanse tag on his forehead as he watched the two leap past each other in a way that looked more like a ballet act than anything else. There was power in the tag itself, sure, but it was acting more as a conduit than anything else.
He waited until they finished their dance before asking. "Excuse me, young priestess. How were these talismans created?"
"Hmm?" She and her mienshao looked at Longwei with innocent smiles, but Longwei could see trace amounts of greed underneath. "Want some to go? They're only 500 per, and guaranteed to help ward away anything with evil intentions!"
Longwei smiled just as innocently and withdrew 2000 in cash from his bag. He was paying her less for the cleanse tags and more for the knowledge she had unknowingly provided. The price suggested they were cheap to produce much like standard potions, and her willingness to part with multiple implied they could easily be made in large quantities and that this wasn't a charity one-per-customer price.
"Thank you!" she cheered, stuffing the cash somewhere in her sleeve. "As for how they're made, well, they're all made at our tower temples! The paper, the ink, all made from scratch on our sacred grounds. Then we draw the symbols and leave them to dry on one of our altars on the upper floors."
She began to leave, but stopped just at the door. Turning around, she declared proudly, "And only The Tower's Faith can make them! Those Church of Sinnoh fanatics can call Arceus the one true god all they want, it won't help them make working tags or purify the cursed!"
*cough*
The shrine maiden froze when she saw the glare the doctor was giving her. Her mienshao had to shake her by the shoulder to break her out of it. "R-right, well, we're done here!"
She made a quick escape, leaving Longwei with the rather embarrassed doctor. "Sorry, the Taoist priests are usually more professional than that."
'Taoist? Short for The Tower's Faith?' "It is no matter."
The doctor grunted, then stepped back. "Well, the casts done. Make sure to avoid getting them dirty and to keep them out of harm's way. We'll schedule you for a visit in a couple days to make sure things are going alright, but other than that you're looking at at least a month of wearing them."
Longwei had no intention of returning in a couple days or wearing the cast for that long, but nodded anyways.
"All we're waiting on now is your wheelchair—"
Just then a regular nurse pushing an empty wheelchair pushed through the door.
"Perfect timing."
Wheelchair acquired, Longwei rolled out of the hospital and released Poochyena.
"Try to keep up, disciple."
That was the only warning Longwei gave before he sped off and took a turn into a nearby city park, the fastest path available to reach the hotel franchise that Longwei saw on their flight over. The sudden speed surprised Poochyena, but they were quick to catch up, keeping pace just off the side and occasionally running through patches of muddy grass. There were few people in the park with the hour being so late and the sun gone from the sky, so Longwei feared not a collision on these lit paths—
An unaware wooper suddenly splashed onto the pathway ahead from a nearby puddle, rolling on the floor with not a care in the world!
Longwei gripped the wheels with superhuman strength and skid to a stop, causing sparks to fly from the impressive amounts of speed he gained after rolling down a gentle incline. Poochyena, lost in zoomie mania after suddenly going on such a fast run, tried catching the sparks in his mouth like a dog would water from a hose.
He came to a stop mere inches from the wooper, who only just then noticed his presence. It looked up at him from the floor and… started making popping noises with its mouth. *pop pop pop pop pop*
Longwei carefully maneuvered around the silly creature, then rolled away at a more relaxed pace. Wooper watched him go with a smile.
Soon, they reached the hotel. Since Poochyena still had mud on him Longwei opted to plot the pup onto his lap—it didn't feel right to return them to their ball just yet, and his robes were easy enough to clean anyways. The receptionist wasn't bothered by the sight either, since even luxury hotels that were no strangers to mud so long as they accommodated pokémon. If anything she was glad this guest had the decency to not deliberately track in mud.
Reaching the door to room 209—which of course was a lucky and heavenly number that he specifically requested—he entered and closed the door behind him.
Longwei stroked his beard as he surveyed the room. It was spacious. Furnished fancily, but not impractically so. There were covered windows that overlooked the gardens behind the hotel. On the right was an attached bathroom with a large bathtub that could comfortably fit anything smaller than an arcanine. To the left there was a kitchen, the most important part of it all.
He released Luxio from her ball, knowing she was clean enough. Without a word the she tiredly took two steps and plopped to her side in the middle of the room, too lethargic to even make her way to the bed. It was one of the consequences of using Roar: there would always be a crash that could take a while to recover from, especially if the pokémon wasn't trained in Roar's usage.
With Luxio giving up, Poochyena eyed the unclaimed larger-than-king-sized bed like a toad lusting after swan meat.
Longwei snorted. "Should have thought about that before running through the mud!"
Confusion, then alarm danced across Poochyena's face as Longwei began bringing them towards the bathtub!
He whimpered as the water began to run, but Longwei showed no mercy and lowered him into the pleasantly warm water. Once the water was halfway up his legs, Longwei scooped some into a large cup and began pouring it over him, drenching his entire form. A barrage of shampoos were then unleashed upon him, his armor of matted fur and dirt standing no chance. He thought to retreat to the other end of the tub where the wheelchair-bound Longwei couldn't reach him, but Longwei caught wind of this scheme and froze him in place with a stern glare. There was no escape!
The torment lasted for a figurative eternity.
The towel drying was pleasant, at least, and during it Longwei told him an important story. "Listen well, Poochyena. I know you were dozing off while I spoke with Cynthia and Mr. Mime, but it is important you know the story in the unlikely event you are asked what happened. It is the story of a human and his meowstic, and how his fear created suffering…"
Poochyena listened attentively, but once he was fully dried and allowed to go he immediately bolted off to the bed, feeling a sense of freedom and victory on the soft sheets. As he was circling in place to get comfortable, however, a thought struck him and he paused.
Why had he been afraid of the bath? The water and shampoo hadn't hurt him other than the time it got in his eyes, but that was entirely unintentional and only happened because he was squirming.
Poochyena sunk his head onto his paws as Longwei's words from before echoed in his mind. 'Fear created suffering…'
Oblivious to Poochyena's budding comprehension of a profound insight, Longwei rolled to the front door. The food cart was almost here.
*knock kn—*
Longwei opened the door, catching the man in the butler outfit mid-knock. "You have arrived at the requested time. This is good." Longwei said, rolling out of the way and gesturing the man inside. "As you will."
The man nodded and professionally ignored the oddity that would have caused a lesser person to flounder. "At once, sir."
The cart was rolled inside and its plates of food gently set on the low-height coffee table in consideration of the guest's disabilities. Subtle glances were made to see if the guest wished for some plates to go on the floor since it was obvious the servings were also meant for their pokémon, but no sign of such desire was displayed. Once finished, he gave a professional bow and left with the cart.
The smell of freshly made food roused Luxio and Poochyena from their different zen-like states, and they each plodded over now that the man had left.
As they ate, Longwei noticed something concerning.
'My meridians have ceased growing autonomously.'
He had hoped this wouldn't happen even though they were growing outside of his will. The fact his meridians had been forming strange things like a sort of collar around his neck and three extensions near the top of his head lead him to believe there there was some natural design happening, which even if subpar would still provide valuable insight.
Instead, however, he was now left with the skeleton of a cultivation base plus some odd branches that lead to nothing.
'At least I got a few nodes out of it.' he coped to himself. He then began redirecting most of the power to his physical body. 'I will have to plan out where to go from here. Until then, my physical form could use the reinforcement that I've been neglecting it.'
After finishing their succulent johtoese meals, Longwei used a napkin to clean the lingering food off his disciples' muzzles. Poochyena then returned to the bed, while Luxio simply collapsed where she was.
Longwei took the plates and left them on a table just outside their room's door, then returned inside. But rather than prepare for sleep, Longwei went to the kitchen.
There he took a few things out of his bag. First was a small cooking pot, within which he placed an oran berry and a leek. Filling the pot partway with water from the sink, he set it on the stove and got to work brewing a quick potion.
With his latest breakthrough and his better understanding of the ingredients, he wouldn't need Luxio's aid so long as the potion was kept simple and the batch kept small. Which was rather fortunate given that Luxio was currently unable to assist and was on the floor in a food coma.
He finished in the time it takes to enjoy a cup of tea, but before doing anything with it he drove a knife through his casts and tore them off, dropping their husks in a trash bin and ignoring the minor pain in his feet. Next he poured the potion into his flask, then downed half, leaving only a third of his flask still filled. For a dozen breaths sickening crunches sounded from the bones in his feet, and for a dozen breaths more the flesh mended itself around them. Longwei then stood from the wheelchair, good as new.
Normally such a small amount of mortal-grade potion wouldn't be enough to mend such a significant injury to a cultivator, but it was more than enough since Longwei had neglected refining his physical body with qi and wasn't suffering from significant spiritual injury.
With the hour past midnight and no techniques being used to keep himself awake, Longwei picked Luxio up from the floor and retired to bed beside Poochyena, pondering what else could be done to expedite his climb to the heavens.
'Violence sounds like the answer.'
"Are you certain this is the answer?" asked the smaller of the two pokémon in the unnaturally large and fairly damp cavern. Hers was a genuine question, an oddity given who she was. While she couldn't peer through time like him, her practically-unmatched knowledge meant she had a very good read on others even without resorting to psychically probing their minds.
Having seen this as her most likely response, his prepared answer came immediately. "I have never been more certain in any other cycle." He breathed deeply, then looked down at the much, much smaller pokémon with steeled determination. "There is not much time before Arceus discovers I am here. Do it."
"Very well."
She opened her eyes and looked up at the gigantic blue and silver pokémon. Puddles of water rippled and rocky walls rumbled as a primordial power began to unleash.
He lowered his mental defenses and gazed into the abyss. Portions of his mind began to break, blur, and seal away.