Chapter 722: The Peak Twists and the Path Opens

"A fake corpse?"

Shanren and Furong both looked over.

"Mm, it doesn't match what I saw in the spirit dream."

Baimu nodded. The cursed doll that had caught up later in the dream didn't know, but he, for some reason viewing from a third-person perspective, had seen it clearly—

The explosion was simply too close. From that instant, Long He was torn apart, flesh and blood separated everywhere, no longer even resembling a human form, with only half a breath left.

That differed greatly from the relatively intact, undamaged remains lying in the coffin.

Of course.

If one insisted on arguing, one could say it wasn't impossible that the cursed doll later found a way to gather up Long He's body, but the results of the blood-relation report were enough to prove his judgment was correct, and everything he had seen was the true scene.

Too tragic.

Even now, recalling what he had seen and heard in the dream, Baimu still felt a lingering dread. He instinctively reached for the Poké Ball holding his own Pokémon, and his tension eased slightly.

He drew a deep breath and recounted what had happened in the dream to Shanren and Furong.

After replaying the memory once, though it was somewhat disrespectful to the deceased, he still couldn't help sighing that Grandfather Long He had been plagued by damnable misfortune.

From the very start of the arena, his luck had not been good.

After a narrow escape from death in the explosion, he had consecutively run into his Pokémon being scattered, being spotted by enemies, all his Dragon-type Pokémon losing combat ability, being detected by enemy reinforcements, falling into serious injury, and encountering those who had not yet escaped.

If any single one of those had been missing, Grandfather Long He would probably have long since escaped underground and embraced the light. Yet he happened to encounter every one of them, causing a generation's outstanding Dragon Tamer to perish with bitter regret in the depths beneath Iron Town.

Having finished speaking.

Furong, who was used to life and death, was silent. Shanren quietly sighed as well.

When death comes knocking, how many can be like Long He, seizing a slim chance of survival for others and going to meet it willingly?

Even if he had chosen to regroup with those ahead and given up holding the rear, no one would have said a word.

But Long He chose to turn back with the bomb and go after the pursuers.

Even though no one would ever know of his sacrifice, know how much blood and tears he had shed, how much regret and sorrow had lodged in his throat before death, or that he lay in eternal sleep in some unknown corner.

Going against the current is easy to say, but terribly hard to do.

Precisely because of that.

Heroes earn respect and longing.

"What Grandfather Long He did will not stay buried forever," Shanren said seriously.

Baimu understood he intended to spread Long He's name, at the very least letting the rescue organization know internally of Long He's selfless devotion.

Long He deserved greater honor, and should be remembered by more people.

"Good."

He nodded.

Some believe everything after death is empty fame, that once a person is dead, saying such things is meaningless; others believe life lasts no more than a hundred years, and only when one's deeds can be passed down does one not have lived in vain.

Long He's thoughts could no longer be verified, but they, as the younger generation, had to do what ought to be done.

To give meaning to those who sacrificed themselves along the way!

"……"

Furong couldn't find a way to join in. As a spirit medium, she had witnessed many partings of life and death between people and people, people and Pokémon, Pokémon and Pokémon.

But the stories that had unfolded on this land of Ohre were beyond anything she could have imagined before.

She, who could understand the words of the dead, knew those unknown sacrifices even more clearly than Baimu and Shanren. Those fragments she had previously been unable to understand were now, through Long He's deeds, gradually linking together in her mind into a grand history spanning several decades.

An epic carved by the people of Ohre and some outsiders, advancing toward freedom without fear.

The land stained with blood and fire held not only the Shadow Team and the vested interests, but also countless idealists and strivers who threw themselves forward one after another.

And now.

Countless sacrifices who had fallen before the dawn held high the torch of hope, letting Ohre be reborn!

Long He might be the beginning, or perhaps a part of the process.

Though she had never slackened on this work, she thought to herself that perhaps she ought to be a little more earnest, giving one more measure of comfort to those who should never have had to weep.

"Let me try. Maybe I can get the cursed doll to come out from the spirit realm's entrance."

When Furong first spoke, she still lacked a bit of confidence, but once the words left her mouth, she grew firm.

Baimu and Shanren's eyes lit up at her words.

"That would be for the best! Are there any requirements or limitations?"

"It needs to cooperate."

The cursed doll's greatest wish was to wait for Long He's return, and their greatest wish was to open the spirit realm's entrance and let the lost souls enter.

With the core conflict resolved, would the rest be hard to handle?

But the two of them also understood Furong probably wasn't very confident; otherwise she would have spoken up long ago, why wait until now to say it.

Having hope was better than having none.

Baimu went to wash his face. Looking at himself in the mirror, he thought, no wonder Master Lidi and the elders all said he looked like Long He—

This face is basically eighty percent similar!

Only once he smiled did the difference between the two become rather obvious.

Grandfather Long He's smile could immediately make one feel his warmth, whereas his own smile, if one didn't look at his eyes, would only make people think him cold.

So innate genes are certainly important, but the influence of one's later experiences on a person is no less significant.

But then again, Grandfather Long He died underground early on—where did he come from?

……Another mystery.

Baimu only knew that short stretch of the story of the lower arena's destruction. Grandfather Long He's life had been at least ten or twenty years; perhaps the man had already had a sweetheart on the surface of Iron Town, or somewhere else?

Leave it for later.

None of these were the point right now.

"Furong,"

he stepped out of the bathroom and said to the two of them.

Shan Ren held up his phone and said, "Want me to have someone separate the remains from the belongings?"

"Please." All Baimu nodded; he was worried they wouldn't find Long He and the true remains, so in that case the belongings would become the proof for the cenotaph.

The People of the Meteor, no matter where they went, would always return to the Meteor Village — fallen leaves return to their roots.

"Genga?"

The odd-colored Gengar, who had fallen asleep on its back with a snot bubble, snapped awake at the words and stretched out a paw to nudge Hu Pa, who was drooling in its sleep on top of its head.

Hu Pa rolled over and continued to sleep soundly.

Not until All Baimu stepped forward and called softly did the little demon god reluctantly wake and summon a ring of light.

Outside the lower-tier arena.

Burrito and a group of workers were scattered about resting, chatting and laughing; seeing them return, they excitedly came forward to greet them:

"Mayor! Boss! You're finally back!"

"Did anything happen?"

Shan Ren took in the situation inside the passage at a glance; finding nothing amiss, he relaxed slightly.

Burrito indeed shook his head at the words. "No, no, nothing happened — we just waited a bit long and were a little worried about you."

Before resting, Shan Ren had called to tell them they could retreat to the underground city or even the surface to rest, but Burrito had refused on the grounds that going back and forth was inconvenient.

He also said everyone felt the same way.

From this one could see that the people of Iron Town actually had quite a bit of nerve.

Meanwhile, Furong confirmed from the Dusclops that the Banette in the gap showed no unusual movement, and fell to pondering as if she had sensed something.

"What's wrong?" All Baimu asked.

She came back to herself and said, "Nothing — I just have a few questions that haven't been answered yet."

"We'll know soon enough…"

All Baimu knew that once most of the mysteries were uncovered, what remained would be the hardest part; if he couldn't convince the Banette, knowing more of the inside story would be useless.

Force it?

After seeing what happened in the dream, could he really steel himself to act?

He looked at Shan Ren; Shan Ren, as if knowing his thoughts, silently nodded and then shook his head.

That's right…

Sometimes there's no choice.

All Baimu adjusted his emotions, about to cruelly tear open the wound in the Banette's heart.

—

The lower-tier arena.

Furong stood in the center, shaking a bell; countless Duskulls spun around her, and the antenna atop the Dusknoir's head shone bright as an incandescent lamp.

Suddenly.

The lights dimmed, and when they lit up again, an arena slightly different from reality appeared before All Baimu and Shan Ren.

A grey-purple vortex spun overhead.

"This is the gap," Shan Ren murmured to himself.

At the same time, the Banette's big face poked out of the vortex; it looked at the newly arrived Shan Ren, then at All Baimu, and said in disappointment, "Neither of them is him…"

All Baimu took a deep breath and said plainly, "Banette, Grandfather Long He has passed away. I know you can't accept it, but life and death cannot be reversed — what's gone is gone."

"…You can leave now."

The Banette had no interest in talking at all and pulled its face back in.

He continued, "We have a way to get you out through the entrance to the spirit world. Wouldn't it be better to come out and wait than to be stuck here?"

No response.

"We're not lying to you!"

He held up the wooden tablet in his hand and called out, "Look — I've already obtained his belongings, I know your past! I'm his descendant; I would never do anything that would disgrace him!"

Still no response.

All Baimu raised his voice again: "He held off the enemy and perished with them so you could escape, protecting everything he wanted to protect! And now you're destroying the things he wanted to protect! When you see him in the future, how are you going to explain it to him!?"

Still no response.

Shan Ren opened his mouth, then sighed.

Some words only All Baimu, as Long He's descendant, had the standing to say; it wasn't his place to speak.

Furong tightened her grip on the prayer beads in her hand — persuading a stubborn Pokémon was a difficult thing, and persuading a deceased trainer's Pokémon was even harder still.

Humans could gradually accept it with the passage of time, but Pokémon could not.

She had seen too many Pokémon who refused to part, preferring to stay beside a gravestone, neither eating nor drinking, until they passed away together; at first she too couldn't accept it and tried her hardest to persuade those Pokémon.

But in the end it was all for nothing.

Her grandmother told her that the greatest kindness a channeler could give them was to allow them to stay forever beside the person they cherished.

Even if to onlookers it seemed cruel.

And after All Baimu's continued persuasion failed to bear fruit, he gritted his teeth.

"Grandfather Long He wanted to return to his hometown until the day he died! To bring you back to the Meteor Village! But what did you do! You let the one thing that could prove his identity — the Dragon Plate — be given to someone else! He could never go back, even in death! Decades without a word!"

Rumble!

A pair of blood-red eyes appeared in the vortex.

All Baimu roared: "He came back to the most dangerous place for you! But not only did you fail to let him return home — you made it so his companions back home will never see him again! He treasured you as a companion! He wanted to travel together with you!"

"……"

The Curse Doll poked its head out again, but contrary to expectations, there wasn't much anger on its face.

"Are you his descendant?" it asked once more.

"……Yes."

All Baimu didn't understand why the Curse Doll said that, and pressed the advantage: "Believe me, we can definitely rescue you from the entrance to the Spirit Realm! If he really came back to life, how would he ever find you in the gap between the Spirit Realm and reality?"

That sentence stirred something in the Curse Doll.

However.

Its gaze suddenly dimmed, the zipper-mouth opened, and three strange Poké Balls dropped down.

Furong below caught them with quick hands; All Baimu recognized these as the old-style Poké Balls Long He had carried.

He hurried forward, because Long He's three Dragon Pokémon had all been forced back into their Poké Balls due to severe injuries, and after so many years their condition was unknown.

Without a doubt.

Poké Balls are high-tech products improved upon through generations — from the Apricorns and jade artifacts of *Legends Arceus*, to today's Apricorns plus composite materials.

Modern Poké Balls possess a special power that keeps a Pokémon's condition constant, even allowing Pokémon living inside to go without food or drink without any issue — Musashi's Mawile is proof of that.

Whether old-style Poké Balls possess such power is unknown.

Furong understood this too, but she didn't know how to open them.

"Turn the nut on top three times."

All Baimu took one and demonstrated for her; the creak-creak sound was like something half rusted. Immediately after, Shanel opened another, and Furong did the same to open the third.

Bang bang bang!

Three beams of Bai Guang burst out as the old-style Poké Balls opened, transforming into the three Dragon Pokémon: Salamence, Altaria, and Flygon.

They lay motionless on the ground, alive or dead unknown.

All Baimu hurriedly sent out Blissey to have it help check the injuries of the three, then called over Hu Pa to ask if it could open a door here leading to a real-world Pokémon Center.

The drowsy Hu Pa sensed something was off and quickly snapped awake.

It glanced at the worried-looking All Baimu and said loudly: "Leave it to Hu Pa! As long as Little White wants it! Hu Pa can definitely do it!"

Jin Guang shone, the ring opened.

Gengar went in first to take a look, confirmed it was really a Pokémon Center, and came back to report.

Blissey also indicated the three Dragon Pokémon weren't dead, and were currently in a state of deep sleep.

Dusknoir quickly used Psychic to send them to the Pokémon Center; Shanel went over to explain the situation to Nurse Joy.

During this time the Curse Doll had been staring at Hu Pa's ring.

All Baimu saw the three Dragon Pokémon taken away by Nurse Joy for treatment, and, relieved, looked up and continued to the Curse Doll: "Next we still need —"

"That thing — what is it?"

The Curse Doll cut him off, its gaze locked on the ring.

He replied: "This is Hu Pa's ring. As long as it can understand, it can take you to any corner of the world, to find anything in the world. We went out earlier specifically to find Hu Pa."

"Hu Pa… I want you to find your grandfather."

The Curse Doll spoke very bluntly.

All Baimu was stunned for a moment, then said: "Grandfather, he already — no, you come out first and I'll have it help you look!"

He stopped himself in time, haggling with the Curse Doll.

"You have it look first!"

The Curse Doll was reluctant.

To be honest.

All Baimu was a bit tired. He could understand the Curse Doll's unwillingness to accept Long He's death, but persuading this fellow to accept reality was far, far too hard.

He looked at Furong — if it weren't so difficult to invite this Elite Four member, he would actually prefer to play the long game.

Come visit the Curse Doll more often, and surely one day he'd win it over.

How about…

Retreat for today?

"Baimu dear…" Furong saw through his plan and was just about to speak when a low voice came from above — the Curse Doll's.

"Your grandfather isn't dead! A Pokémon promised me it would save him!"

Hah!?

All Baimu and Furong looked up together, in disbelief.