"I'm fine..."
Yamiru waved his hand.
He truly was fine.
Not only was he unharmed, but even his clothes were intact.
"Strange?"
Goku looked down at his body, still emitting white smoke, and the half-burnt clothes... then glanced at Yamiru, who looked completely unscathed.
Who exactly was struck by the lightning? He was confused.
Yamiru chuckled, walked over, and ruffled Goku's hair. After a moment of reflection, he said, "Goku, you can't let me down!"
If this kid doesn't go all out and become the strongest in the entire universe, then rejecting the Dragon God earlier would've been a huge loss for him...
Goku, with his messy black hair, didn't quite understand Yamiru's words.
He gave a thumbs-up towards the towering Korin Tower and Yamiru smiled slightly. Through telepathic communication, he said, "I'll take my leave now, Master Korin."
"Go ahead." Master Korin waved his hand from above.
"Goku, keep pushing forward. Don't slack off," Yamiru said to Goku as a final piece of advice.
Goku didn't quite understand, but still confidently and firmly smiled, "Alright!"
Yamiru then spoke to the giant Flying Nimbus beneath him, "Flying Nimbus—"
This divine creation itself was imbued with spirit, and that spirit didn't distinguish between individual pieces or the whole. In the comics, after Goku's Flying Nimbus was destroyed, it appeared again. Was it really the same one? And even if it was a new Flying Nimbus created from the original, was it not the same? In truth, no matter how many pieces of Flying Nimbus were created, they were still part of the same cloud.
As Yamiru spoke and lowered his body's center of gravity, the Flying Nimbus beneath his feet instinctively split into a smaller piece. It looked as though Yamiru had "stepped down" through the golden cloud, with this small Flying Nimbus now supporting him as it descended, leaving the cloud layer.
"You need to keep up too," Goku called out from above, shaking his fist at Yamiru.
"Of course, you think who I am?"
Yamiru smiled confidently, pressing down on the cloud and heading towards the Korin Tower. He hadn't flown far when he saw Tien Shinhan, exhausted, crawling up the tower.
Tien Shinhan was surprised to see Yamiru arriving on the Flying Nimbus, but he didn't have the strength to speak.
"Don't lose to Goku,"
Yamiru offered a mock encouragement. Losing to Goku? That was basically impossible...
Then, with a whoosh, the Flying Nimbus obeyed his command and sped westward.
Many ancient legends mention a place similar to the Five Elements Mountain.
Some say it's located in the farthest east.
Others say it lies at the end of the west.
Some even say it exists in the gap between life and death, at the boundary between the Underworld and the mortal realm...
However, with the Flying Nimbus, Yamiru wasn't worried about getting lost.
According to Master Korin, this cloud had been created by the first-generation Earth Kami tens of thousands of years ago. This cloud had been floating around Earth for thousands of years—how could it not know where the Five Elements Mountain was? Maybe, throughout these thousands of years, there had been countless pure-hearted people who could ride the Flying Nimbus and had traveled to the Five Elements Mountain!
Not to mention, Yamiru's former master, Son Gohan, might have even ridden the Flying Nimbus to the mountain...
Sure enough, once Yamiru stated his destination, the Flying Nimbus seemed to read his thoughts, understanding that "the Flying Nimbus should know where the Five Elements Mountain is," and without further ado, it flew off in that direction.
Whoosh—
The Flying Nimbus sped straight towards the end of the sky.
Yamiru sat upright on the cloud, the strong wind pulling his black hair back, but his posture remained perfectly straight, not affected by the gusts.
---
West City, Brief's House
After dinner, having chatted with his family for a while, Tights and Bulma shared a bath, laughing and gossiping as sisters do. After bidding each other goodnight, Bulma headed toward the lab, while Tights, with her wet golden hair wrapped in a towel, returned to her room.
She wrote some notes for her novel, and then thought about making a cup of milk tea. But recalling that someone had warned her against drinking too much milk tea, she smiled and decided to make a small pot of coffee instead.
The steam rose as Tights leaned back in her chair, savoring the coffee. She didn't add sugar or milk; it was bitter.
"I wonder if Yamiru and I are at that stage where we can become parents..."
She idly wondered to herself.
After spending the night writing, Tights didn't remember when she had fallen asleep. When she awoke, she found herself on Earth Island in the Spiritual Realm.
She was covered with a thin blanket, sleeping on the couch in the Spiritual Realm Capsule House.
Yamiru sat beside her, watching her sleep.
"How did I get into the Spiritual Realm?" Tights asked drowsily, smiling as she scooted over on the couch, resting her head on Yamiru's lap.
"Sleepwalking?" Yamiru replied uncertainly. He chuckled and teased, "Lady, you don't understand, do you? Sleepwalking like this is very dangerous. The Spiritual Realm isn't empty. If you fall asleep and wander into the Spiritual Realm, someone else might pick you up. What would I do then?" He kissed the back of her hand. "I'd go crazy."
Tights nuzzled his hand and said with a silly grin, "It's not sleepwalking. I must have sensed you entering the Spiritual Realm and followed you in my half-asleep state..."
Yamiru pretended to be surprised. "Oh? When did Miss Tights develop such a sensing ability?"
Tights waved her hand, showing off the wedding ring that Yamiru had placed on her finger, and grinned. "Well, it was right at that moment."
Yamiru smiled and embraced his wife.
"We are already one," he said softly.
Tights seemed to grow drowsy again, her speech a gentle murmur.
"Mm."
There was no day or night in the Spiritual Realm. Yamiru held Tights in his arms, not moving a muscle, fully aware that he was acting as a human pillow until she woke up.
"Let's go back."
Yamiru gently massaged Tights' neck and shoulders as she woke up.
Tights quietly slipped away.
Yamiru walked to the window of the Capsule House. He could feel the presence of two or three Earth warriors entering Earth Island, practicing, exchanging, and cultivating with each other.
"They're all working hard," he said with a smile.
His figure then vanished from the Spiritual Realm Capsule House, reappearing on the Flying Nimbus in the Earth Realm, sitting back down in the same position as before.
The Flying Nimbus swirled beneath him, with strange, engine-like sounds accompanying the rolling clouds.
Yamiru stared ahead.
A vast, dark-toned expanse came into view—an imposing city with towering walls, some several hundred meters high. In the center of the walls stood a massive gateway, its plaque inscribed with three imposing characters: Five Elements Gate!
In comparison to the massive walls and the towering gate, the Flying Nimbus and Yamiru, seated upon it, looked like nothing more than a speck of dust, insignificant and small.
The atmosphere here...
Yamiru felt a slight pressure on his chest, prompting him to open his fire-eyed gaze, sweeping the sky around him. To his surprise, he saw a dark golden hellish energy even more intense than the fiery mountains he had encountered before—several dozens or even hundreds of times more intense!
"In this environment, even the slightest malicious thought can't emerge..."
Even with Yamiru's strong heart, he felt his temples moisten. In the animation, the two people who came here—Goku and Chi-Chi—were pure-hearted beyond measure. The hellish energy here, even if it were hundreds of times more concentrated, would have no effect on them.
But Yamiru was different...
Especially when he remembered the remnants of the hellish energy the Celestial God had once drawn from him, he couldn't help but wonder if this time, he was really just walking into a death trap.
The fortune teller, that old woman, surely had some scheme against me...