After everyone had left, only Piccolo, Son Gohan, Ling An, and Mr. Popo remained in the Heavenly Palace. Of course, there were also the Son Gohan and Son Goku of this world, but they were still training in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber.
"Gohan, do you want to spar with me? Although I know your strength isn't inferior to Cell's, I still want to fight you myself."
Watching everyone leave, Piccolo approached Son Gohan. Looking at his tall body, which was no different from his own, Piccolo suddenly spoke.
"Uncle Piccolo." Son Gohan was slightly stunned upon hearing this. Looking at Piccolo's serious expression, he nodded, his face also becoming serious. "Speaking of which, I haven't sparred with you for a long time, Uncle Piccolo. I also want to experience your current strength."
"In that case, let's begin!"
With those words, the two of them shot into the sky. In the next moment, two powerful forces collided under the watchful eyes of Ling An and Mr. Popo.
"Mr. Popo, I wonder if there's a place to rest in the Heavenly Palace. I'd like to find a place to take a break." Ling An wasn't exactly uninterested in the fight, but she wasn't very interested either. In a certain sense, she was a homebody. She could fight and kill, but she would only do so out of necessity, just like when she dealt with the Androids. It wasn't like the Saiyans, who treated fighting as a way of life.
Sometimes, she was curious too. In those Dragon Ball fanfics she'd read in her past life, the protagonists would always get transported and then just constantly fight, seemingly without getting bored. Ling An couldn't quite understand it. She could understand the thrill of battle and had even yearned to fight strong opponents, but that didn't mean she enjoyed fighting over and over again.
If she needed to fight repeatedly to get stronger, perhaps Ling An would reluctantly embrace the path of combat. But right now, she didn't need to do that to get stronger. So, why fight and train?
If you could have a bunch of money rolling in without doing anything, why would you bother working hard to earn it? Experiencing life occasionally was one thing, but toiling away from nine to five was just being a fool.
So, Ling An would occasionally want to spar and stretch her limbs, but mostly she preferred to live with the mindset of not getting up if she could lie down.
Mr. Popo heard her and led Ling An to the rest room, then left to continue watching Son Gohan and Piccolo's fight.
Watching Mr. Popo's departing back, Ling An stroked her chin and couldn't help but wonder. This Mr. Popo was quite a mysterious figure. Although his power was average, that was mainly due to the power inflation of every character in Dragon Ball now.
In fact, before Raditz came to Earth, Mr. Popo was the strongest being on the planet, even stronger than Kami. In a sense, he was like an angel to a God of Destruction.
And according to some works, this Mr. Popo seemed to know techniques similar to Ultra Instinct. Of course, Mr. Popo certainly didn't master Ultra Instinct since even the Gods of Destruction couldn't fully master it.
Ling An felt that Mr. Popo's martial arts, which were similar to Ultra Instinct, were more like skills mastered after reaching a certain level of martial arts cultivation. It was similar to Master Roshi, both of them being skills that could be mastered after reaching a certain level of martial arts. Although not as good as Ultra Instinct, their control over their bodies and power had also reached an unprecedented level.
Therefore, Earth's martial arts were indeed very magical. Although Earthlings were limited by their bloodlines, it was also for this reason that Earthlings' research on martial arts cultivation was also among the best in the universe, such as Master Roshi and Mr. Popo's mastery of skills similar to Ultra Instinct, or even the Evil Containment Wave that could seal even gods.
Son Goku and Vegeta, because of their own talents, after officially stepping onto the stage of cosmic powerhouses, kept going down the path of increasing their power. This wasn't to say it was impossible, but it did indeed ignore the cultivation of martial arts. This was considered a case of having your cake and eating it too in the Dragon Ball world.
The battle between Son Gohan and Piccolo was very intense. Facing Piccolo's attacks again and again, although Son Gohan suppressed his own strength to a similar level, his intensity was still there, and he could easily take Piccolo's attacks.
Faced with this situation, Piccolo was no longer polite, and he unleashed his strength like crazy. Gradually, Son Gohan could no longer easily take Piccolo's attacks.
Seeing Son Gohan like this, Piccolo stopped and said in a deep voice, "Gohan, the arm you lost has already affected the balance of your body. This makes you unable to compete with enemies of the same level. Didn't Krillin say before that he gave you a Senzu Bean? Why don't you eat the Senzu Bean?"
Son Gohan smiled lightly when he heard this and said, "Uncle Piccolo, I also know that recovering my arm will make my strength go up a level, but I also want to push myself with this state!"
"What do you mean?" Piccolo frowned, a bit puzzled.
"Ling An once said that there's a Super Saiyan beyond Super Saiyan. I'm not referring to the state Vegeta or Trunks are in. I mean a Super Saiyan that's a level above the current Super Saiyan. If we call the state Trunks and I are in Super Saiyan One, then the Super Saiyan beyond Super Saiyan is Super Saiyan Two!"
"Super Saiyan beyond Super Saiyan!"
A look of shock appeared on Piccolo's face. He couldn't imagine that there was an even higher level of Super Saiyan beyond Super Saiyan. What kind of realm was that? After all, the current Super Saiyan was already an unimaginable existence. The power increase of dozens of times was fixed. As long as the base battle power kept increasing, the transformation into Super Saiyan would also gain a corresponding multiple increase.
And what a terrifying realm would be called Super Saiyan beyond Super Saiyan? Piccolo could hardly imagine it.
He took a deep breath and said, "So you're thinking of overcoming your bottleneck with your current state to reach a higher level of Super Saiyan? Don't you know that your physical defects will make your path even more difficult, possibly even preventing you from reaching the end!"
"Of course, I know." Son Gohan, although not a powerful martial artist, had fought the Androids for so many years and had his own understanding of martial arts power. He also knew how difficult the path he was on was. After all, it was very difficult for a healthy person to walk this path, let alone someone with defects like him?
"But how would I know if I don't try?" Son Gohan smiled slightly, his face nonchalant: "And even if I can't go down this path, I can eat a Senzu Bean to restore my body and start down another path again. So, it seems like I have two paths to take, right?"
"You, kid," Piccolo suddenly chuckled, his eyes fixed on Son Gohan. He said in a low voice, "This is the path you've chosen. I don't know much about you Saiyans, so you'll have to figure things out yourself. All I can do is wish you success."
"Thank you, Uncle Piccolo."
"By the way, you mentioned Ling An. I'm very curious about her. I can't seem to find any trace of her in this world. In other words, there's no such person as Ling An in our world."
Suddenly, Piccolo changed the subject and brought up Ling An to Son Gohan. Hearing this, Son Gohan frowned slightly. "Uncle Piccolo, are you saying that Ling An only exists in my world?"
"Perhaps." After merging with Kami, Piccolo received all of Kami's memories and knowledge. As the Earth's guardian, Kami knew almost everything about the people on Earth, and could certainly see information about them.
But in Kami's memories, there was no sign of Ling An at all, which was quite strange. After all, the future world and the present world were connected in some ways. Whatever happened in the past, as long as it wasn't changed by people from the future, the future would be the same.
This was true for both Trunks' world and Son Gohan's world. So, the fact that Ling An didn't exist in the past timeline but did exist in the future world was very abrupt and strange.
"And according to Trunks, there were no other warriors in his world. When he used the time machine to travel back to this world, humanity was almost wiped out by the Androids... From this, we can also see that Ling An didn't exist in his world either." Piccolo crossed his arms and looked at the Heavenly Palace below, saying in a low voice, "So, this Ling An is very likely to only exist in your world."
"Gohan, do you really understand her?"
"..."
Piccolo's words plunged Son Gohan into thought.
Son Gohan had never paid much attention to Ling An's existence, or rather, he hadn't thought about it in a strange way. But after Piccolo's reminder, he also discovered something peculiar about Ling An. Or perhaps, without Ling An, his world might have been like Trunks' world: he would have been killed by the Androids, and Trunks would have been left to fight them alone.
"Uncle Piccolo, are you saying Ling An isn't an ordinary person?" Son Gohan looked up at Piccolo, his eyes now crystal clear. "But, Uncle Piccolo, no matter who or what Ling An is, I won't care. Or rather, I trust her! After all, I would be dead without her."
"Gohan, I'm not asking you to doubt her," Piccolo said with a light smile. "But it's always good to be cautious, isn't it?"
"No, Uncle Piccolo, I absolutely trust Ling An." At this moment, Son Gohan had his own convictions.
Hearing this, Piccolo was slightly taken aback. In a daze, he was transported back to the World Martial Arts Tournament, when he first fought Son Goku. After a long silence, he suddenly laughed heartily and said, "You, you're just like your father!"
....
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