After hesitating for a moment, Korin also gave Yajirobe a Senzu Bean.
With a "crack" sound, Yajirobe struggled to swallow the bean. He had just seen Goku eat this kind of bean and was confused about it. But after eating it himself, he was instantly shocked... With a grunt, he jumped up from the ground—it turned out he was a surprisingly agile little chubby guy.
"Hmm... I can understand why you, little chubby, have come to me, but why are Goku and the others here?" Korin stroked his beard and asked.
Yajirobe had traveled a long way to The tower for training.
But Goku, Krillin, Tien, and Chiaotzu each had famous masters guiding them, especially Goku and Krillin, who were direct disciples of the greatest martial artists in the world... If these four still needed to train at Korin Tower, then all the martial arts training that Taro and the Crane Master had done over the years would have been in vain.
Snatching the Super Holy Water was a piece of cake for Goku and Krillin—they had trained on Muten Island at levels far beyond this.
Taro emphasized his disciples' foundation training in "ki" and "ki sensing." With his lofty guidance, Goku and Krillin had among the best foundations in their generation of martial artists... The reason for "generation" included Gohan, who was also personally guided by Taro.
So that's why Korin asked this question.
"We're following Master Taro's orders to travel the world for three years and gather the Seven Dragon Balls on the side..." Tien explained, "The Dragon Radar shows one Dragon Ball right here at The tower."
Korin frowned: "Dragon Balls? I don't have any here!"
"Really? No Dragon Balls?" Goku, Krillin, Tien, and Chiaotzu were all surprised. They had followed the signal on the Dragon Radar all the way, and the source had always overlapped with The tower, never moving.
"Is the Dragon Ball not here?" Goku scratched his head. "This is really confusing! What's going on?"
Krillin exchanged looks with Tien and Chiaotzu, while Yajirobe nearby was puzzled, wondering what this Dragon Ball thing was about. The pearl he had picked up and given to Chi-Chi... was that special somehow?
Korin slowly said, "Hehe... I think I roughly know where the Dragon Ball you're looking for is."
He grabbed his wooden staff and pointed upward. "Above The tower, higher up in the sky, there is a shrine of the Earth's Kami... I think the Dragon Ball you seek is probably there. Maybe your master placed it there and wanted you to stop by the shrine to meet the Celestial God."
"A shrine?" Goku, Krillin, Tien, and Chiaotzu suddenly understood. No wonder the radar's signal source coincided with The tower but wasn't actually on The tower itself... because the shrine isn't marked on the map.
Krillin thought for a moment: "I remember Master saying our Earth's Kami now... has a deep connection with that guy Piccolo, right?"
Goku nodded: "Seems so."
Krillin looked at Tien: "So, do we want to go up there?"
Tien smiled with anticipation: "Of course!" Hearing that the Kami was connected to Piccolo made him even more interested. Who was Piccolo? His power in the battle against Goku was already world-renowned—so strong, definitely stronger than Tien.
Yajirobe was even more baffled, his head full of question marks. He said, "What Dragon Balls, what shrine? What are you even talking about? It's all a mess!" He patted his clothes and told Korin, "You're the sage of The tower, right? I'm Yajirobe, here to learn martial arts!"
"Huh, you've never learned martial arts?" Krillin was a bit surprised, since Yajirobe didn't look like someone without any skills. And climbing up The tower from the ground—even with Goku's help—was impressive. Yet, he supposedly had no martial arts training?
"What? Is that a problem?" Yajirobe said irritably, holding the handles of two swords at his waist.
Tien stared at the wooden swords strapped to Yajirobe's waist, where the belt pressed down—the words Muten were inscribed.
Korin squinted and said slowly, "Teaching you... isn't impossible. But there's a condition: if you can snatch this from me, then I will teach you martial arts." He took down a water gourd from the center of the tower—that was the Super Holy Water.
Yajirobe didn't hesitate, sniffed, and grabbed the handle of his Muten sword... Korin hurriedly said, "What are you doing? Put your hands down! Don't use the Muten sword! Do you want to chop off this old man's hand?" He coughed once. "Though, you definitely couldn't cut it anyway... Try to snatch this water gourd from my hands, by any means, barehanded."
"Muten sword?" Goku, Krillin, Tien, and Chiaotzu were surprised. They hadn't expected that the strange little chubby's sword was actually related to the Mutens, since otherwise Korin wouldn't have called it that.
"Oh, alright then." Yajirobe thought it made sense. Using the sword so close would be dangerous. So he put down the two swords, returned to his spot, exhaled, and locked eyes with Korin's squinting gaze. Then he made a flexible leap but strangely ended up hitting nothing.
Krillin silently smiled, clearly this guy had no martial arts training at all... let alone ki sensing. He could tell Korin's test to snatch the water gourd was actually part of martial arts guidance, an introduction to ki.
But he and Goku had already done lots of ki training on Muten Island, so they weren't worried and planned to go out to see how to reach the shrine above...
"If you want to go to the shrine, you can use Goku's Power Pole on his back... That pole was originally at the top of The tower, connecting to the shrine. It was taken by Master Taro from me and thrown to Mount Paozu," Korin explained calmly while dodging Yajirobe's various leaps from different directions and angles.
"Oh, thanks!" Krillin and the others nodded and were about to leave, but seeing Goku still standing there watching Yajirobe struggle for the Super Holy Water, they asked curiously, "What's up, Goku? Are you coming?"
"This guy is strong..." Goku watched Yajirobe intently without moving his feet. "I want to wait here a bit."
Tien also came back calmly and said, "Indeed, his ki is unusual. For someone without martial arts training, to perform this well is not easy... Also, he carries a sword named by Master Taro, so it must have something special. I want to see what he becomes once he starts down the martial path."
"So mysterious..." Krillin frowned, stroked his chin, watched Yajirobe's tussle for the water, then covered his face. "So pitiful..." Indeed, in front of a martial arts grandmaster like Korin, once Yajirobe lost his sword technique, those few moves were really not enough—he was like a child being toyed with.
"I want to fight him..." Goku's eyes showed expectation and eagerness. But Yajirobe couldn't hear their conversation.
Suddenly, Goku said, "Hey, Yajirobe, do you want to come with us to the shrine?"
"Huh?" Yajirobe looked up awkwardly, not expecting Goku to say that.