Yamiru soared into the sky, chasing the disappearing light spots of Son Gohan, steadily ascending.
He flew higher and higher, past dozens of meters, then over a hundred meters...
Yamiru saw the light spots heading toward the horizon.
The Mount Five Elements?
Yamiru suddenly understood.
Son Gohan had once mentioned that in his youth, he traveled the world and had visited the Mount Five Elements, where he met the Supreme Elderly Lord guarding the Yin-Yang Passage and the Furnace of Eight Divisions.
It was likely the Supreme Elderly Lord who took Son Gohan's body away.
Just like when Raditz perished, the Earth's immortals had taken Son Goku's body.
High in the sky, Yamiru listened to the wind, slowly closing his eyes.
The journey so far, the little things...
He released his flight technique, allowing himself to plummet straight down due to gravity.
Free fall, accelerating.
Yamiru kept his eyes shut, the wind howling past his ears.
Would he hit the ground and be smashed into pulp in the next second?
Was it the next second?
Yamiru kept his eyes closed, the wind roaring in his ears, blurring his hearing.
Was it this second?
Was it the next second?
On the ground, Tights looked up at the rapidly descending black dot in the sky. Before she could react, the black dot grew larger and became a clearly visible figure—it was Yamiru.
Yamiru suddenly dropped in front of her.
But there was no sound.
In front of Tights, Yamiru, eyes closed and his head down, had a calm expression.
The tips of his hair were less than a few millimeters from the ground, and the dust on the ground scattered slightly from his sudden arrival.
If he had delayed his flight technique by even a moment, his head would have exploded.
If the force of the flight had been any stronger, he would have flown backward.
Just before his brain would have splattered, he used the flight technique perfectly, with just the right timing.
"You scared me," Tights said, crouching down and poking his nose.
Only then did Yamiru open his eyes and smile slightly.
He reversed his position in mid-air and landed back on the ground. Just as he was about to embrace Tights, he suddenly pulled her toward him and, with one hand, struck at the figure charging from behind, meeting the assailant head-on.
"Shen, you're here?" Yamiru protected Tights, his cold gaze fixed on the approaching figure.
The assailant, who had been sneaking up unnoticed until the last moment when his presence was revealed, was none other than Shen.
What surprised Yamiru even more was that Shen appeared to be dressed as a farmer, completely at odds with his previous image.
Shen looked at Yamiru with unfriendly eyes, retracting his attack and slowly speaking, "Yamiru, you killed Tao Bai Bai."
Yamiru gestured for Tights to move further away, then looked at Shen and said coldly, "I never expected someone like you to have any brotherly affection with someone like Tao Bai Bai."
"You have no idea about many things," Shen said expressionlessly, slowly taking a stance.
Hmm? Yamiru's expression changed.
He saw Shen's entire body shift as his skeleton elongated, his limbs stretching, and his movements became light and airy, as if there was no trace left behind.
"Shen?" Yamiru remembered something that Master Roshi had once said in the Spiritual Realm.
In order to surpass their limits, both Master Roshi and Shen had tried different methods. Master Roshi had demonstrated his giant muscular transformation, and it seemed Shen's so-called Shen form was precisely this long-limbed, light, and elegant stance, resembling a humanoid crane.
Shen, now appearing like a humanoid crane, sneered, "Kid, let's see what makes you capable of killing Tao Bai Bai."
"Fine! I'll show you," Yamiru inhaled deeply, his eyes glowing with golden light. "No matter how many times it takes, I will kill this beast."
He clenched his fists and let out a powerful roar!
Boom! His body suddenly expanded, rising slightly in height, and his muscles grew so massive that they ripped through his clothes.
Tights, not far behind, was stunned. She remembered when Master Roshi had demonstrated this move in the Spiritual Realm. But when did Yamiru learn it?
"Old pervert's move?" Shen recognized it immediately. "I didn't expect he actually taught you."
Yamiru didn't want to waste words with him. He swung his massive arm, as thick as a tree trunk, and threw a punch.
Indeed, after transforming into a devilish muscleman like Master Roshi, movement speed was nearly zero, effectively turning him into a stationary cannon.
But because of that, Yamiru's punch was significantly stronger. As he swung it, the force was so great that it created a visible blast of air in the space before him.
"Is brute strength enough?" Shen sneered, not the least bit concerned. He floated lightly in the air, riding the punch's wind without a scratch.
His graceful movements, akin to a crane, were clearly reflected in Yamiru's golden eyes.
Moreover, Shen's changes in breath during his movements were vividly mirrored in Yamiru's mind, as if the world's light had been extinguished and in the darkness, a glowing crane-shaped figure stood.
"Seems like this move puts a huge strain on your body!"
Yamiru remarked knowingly. "But, you really do deserve to be compared with Master Roshi, huh? You're no slouch after all..."
"Stop talking nonsense!"
Shen quickly launched a Dodon Ray at Yamiru.
In his current state, Yamiru had no time to dodge. Before he could move, the wave hit him square in the face.
"How is this possible?" Shen exclaimed in surprise, holding his slender, chopstick-like fingers up.
On the opposite side, Yamiru wiped his face as smoke dissipated, then raised his hand and wiped it. "All that effort, and it only drew a single drop of blood."
"Dammit!" Shen was both shocked and enraged. He pretended to take a stance again and shouted, "Take this!"
The moment he spoke, he quickly circled around half the distance, charging straight toward Tights behind Yamiru.
"Trying to catch up to me after transforming into that Roshi-like form? Ha ha!" Shen laughed, moving as fast as a bird diving for fish. His speed was almost unbelievable. "You... what?!"
In that instant, time seemed to slow down, entering slow motion.
Shen reached for a panicking Tights, but sensing danger, he immediately withdrew his hand with all his might.
A fierce gust of wind rushed by, like a steel blade cutting through the air.
On the other side, after Yamiru unleashed an air-chopping palm strike, his body suddenly reverted to his normal form.
The gust of wind from his strike sliced between Shen and Tights, grazing Shen's hand, cutting his fingers with remarkable precision.
Now back to his original shape, Yamiru seemed a bit tired. He took a deep breath, inhaling and slowly exhaling. As he did, his entire body started to change again.
Shen's fingers were still being severed, his face contorting with pain as he slowly turned his head back to look.
Yamiru's limbs elongated, his posture became graceful, and he mirrored Shen's form exactly.
"W-what...?" Shen's face twisted in disbelief, as his severed fingers slowly fell to the ground.
Yamiru's golden eyes met Shen's gaze. Now resembling Shen, he twisted his neck and shook his limbs.
Crack, crack—his joints popped loudly, but Yamiru disappeared in the blink of an eye.
The severed fingers fell from the air, and Shen's face twisted with shock and anger. He quickly reached for the fallen fingers, blood splattering as they were retrieved.
The only thing remaining in Shen's vision was the afterimage of Yamiru's golden eyes.
Pfft!
More blood splattered out as Yamiru, who had mysteriously appeared in front of Shen, punched through his heart.
The severed fingers hit the ground.
Blood splashed across the earth of the Spiritual Realm.
Shen, pierced through the chest by Yamiru's long arm, twitched in agony. He stared vacantly at his surroundings, gasping but unable to speak.
Yamiru said, holding the slowing, beating heart in his bloodied hand: "If you hadn't touch Tights, I wouldn't have bothered to kill you."
Shen kept gasping and spitting blood, but he quickly stopped struggling.
Yamiru closed his eyes for a moment, then pressed down on the unconscious body, pulling his arm out.
On the outside, Tights hadn't seen what happened. It seemed like the old guy with limbs like bamboo poles suddenly lunged at her, then a gust of wind blew by, and the old guy vanished in front of her. All that remained were a few severed fingers quietly falling to the ground. She took a few steps back in disgust and, after a short while, Yamiru appeared out of nowhere.
"Did you bring him to the Spiritual Realm?" she asked.
"Yeah." Yamiru straightened himself up and joked, "The scene was too bloody; it's not something for a lady to watch."
"..." Tights said nothing but then asked, "Can you bring people from the outside directly in? I don't remember that being... oh, once he's dead, the Spiritual Realm's rules don't consider him alive anymore, right? Since you can bring clothes and such... then..."
Yamiru hugged her. She patted her husband's back and muttered, "Alright, that makes sense."
After a while, Tights asked from his embrace, "So, what about Mount Paozu?"
"Yeah, Mount Paozu."