Hold Back a Little, or Someone Will Die

"Don't use force at all." Sun Mo confirmed.

Son Goku quickly added, "Yeah, Krillin, Sun Mo's right. If you punch as hard as we do in training, you might kill them with one hit."

Krillin shuddered, his pupils contracting slightly. "K-kill them? How is that possible? Do I... do I really have that much strength?"

Sun Mo said, "Of course you do. What do you think Master Roshi's training was for?"

Krillin froze, thinking back to how off Wukong's match had seemed. Could it really be that Wukong had won through pure strength?

Sun Mo continued, "After all this training, our bodies, strength, and speed have long surpassed ordinary people. You saw that punch Wukong threw just now—he didn't use any force at all, and that big guy still went down... Lucky for him he was sturdy. If he'd been frailer, Wukong might have killed him."

Krillin recalled Wukong's punch just now, and it seemed to line up with Sun Mo's words.

After a moment, Krillin took a deep breath and nodded firmly. "I... I get it! No force. Just a touch."

Soon, it was Krillin's turn to fight his former senior brother. The two stood on the ring, and the Tall Thin Monk grinned wickedly at Krillin. "Well, well, Krillin. That senior brother of yours sure is cocky! But lucky me, fate arranged for me to fight you—it's destiny!"

Even though Sun Mo and Wukong had encouraged him, Krillin hadn't overcome his fear yet. He was still scared, just hanging his head in silence.

Just then, the referee shouted, "Begin!"

The Thin Monk clenched both fists, his knuckles cracking. "Then let big brother here give you a good taste of pain!"

"Haah!" The Thin Monk let out a strange yell and charged at Krillin.

Krillin stared hard at the Thin Monk's movements. He'd planned to grit his teeth and face his senior brother head-on. But unexpectedly, once the Thin Monk attacked, his movements looked as slow as a snail in Krillin's eyes. Krillin easily dodged his punch. Then he turned back to look at his senior brother, only to find the Thin Monk still frozen in his punching stance, not even reacting yet—his whole body full of openings.

In that instant, Krillin finally believed it: he was this strong now. He immediately thought of Sun Mo and Wukong's advice. "Can't use too much force, or I'll kill someone..."

The next moment, Krillin closed in quickly and lightly punched the Thin Monk in the stomach.

"Ugh..." The Thin Monk screamed in pain. His eyes bulged, bloodshot, his mouth wide open as drool spilled out uncontrollably...

"Thud!" The Thin Monk collapsed to the ground, his body still twitching involuntarily.

The Fat Monk rushed over. "Senior brother, are you... are you okay..."

The referee immediately shouted, "Contestant 93 wins!"

The other spectators watching this scene gasped in amazement. "That little guy's amazing!" "Yeah, he's wearing the same thing as those two tough guys..." "Must be from the same school..." "Definitely. Wonder which master's disciple he is..."

Krillin looked at his own fist, then at his pathetic former senior brother, and swallowed hard. "Good thing Sun Mo warned me. I only used one-tenth of my strength. So I'm this strong now too..."

The rest of the preliminaries went smoothly, almost too easily. The three of them cut through the competition and breezed into the finals.

The preliminary matches inside the venue were closed to the public—spectators only got to watch the most exciting final battles between the top eight.

By now, the preliminaries for the contestants were over, but they hadn't appeared out front yet.

The audience had already been waiting a long time, and Bulma had arrived.

Besides her, a classmate named Amy had also come all the way from West City.

The two didn't get along at school, but out here watching the tournament, they ended up sitting together.

"The contestants should be coming out soon, right?"

Bulma checked her watch and said, "I think it'll be any minute now!"

Amy's eyes sparkled with anticipation. "I hope this World Martial Arts Tournament has some strong and handsome guys!"

Bulma smirked smugly. "No matter what, the strongest one is definitely my boyfriend!"

Amy shot back, "Bulma, there's always a bigger fish in the sea!

Your boyfriend might be strong, but this is the World Martial Arts Tournament—experts gather here. Don't talk big and bite your tongue!"

Bulma thought it over and said, "That's true!

He always says there are plenty of strong people in the world, so he trains hard and never lets up easily..."

Just then, the contestants started filing out from the back.

Some were drinking water, some eating, some reporting to friends and family...

Amy lit up. "They're all out! Bulma, hurry up and help me spot any handsome guys..."

Bulma scanned the area, searching for Sun Mo but not finding him yet.

Instead, she caught an unsightly scene.

A lecherous old man was groping a pretty woman's butt—his back looked oddly familiar.

Bulma just wrinkled her nose in disgust, but Amy fumed. "Bulma, look over there! A pervert snuck into the audience. What a creep!"

Right then, three contestants in orange Martial Arts Gis ran over to the old man.

"Master Roshi, we made it through!"

The tall one in the lead—who else could it be but Sun Mo?

Bulma beamed. "Great, I finally found Sun Mo!"

She dashed over to him.

Sun Mo spotted Bulma and even cracked a rare smile.

"Bulma, how long have you been here?"

Bulma grinned. "Just got here a bit ago. So, you advanced?"

Sun Mo nodded. "Of course, it was a given. All three of us made it."

Amy was a bit stunned to see that Sun Mo was that pervy old man's disciple.

The whole class had seen how strong Sun Mo was.

But if that lecher was her boyfriend's master, he must be even stronger!

Truly, a master keeps his skills hidden!

Amy glanced at Krillin and Goku—their elementary-school height made her frown.

"But his other two disciples are just little runts..."

"What a shame!"

Still, since she'd come with Bulma, she walked over and greeted Sun Mo.

Sun Mo gave her a puzzled look. "Huh, you're... who was it again..."

Bulma was secretly pleased he couldn't remember her name.

But she still supplied it.

"Amy!"

Sun Mo nodded. "Right, Amy. What are you doing here?"

Amy crossed her arms. "What, I'm just a spectator. Can't I be here?"

Sun Mo nodded. "Fair enough, none of my business!"

With that, he turned away from her and looked at Bulma.

Bulma smirked triumphantly. "Hehe, she's just super jealous of me!

She wants a Martial Artist boyfriend too, so she came here to look..."

Sun Mo nodded. "I see."

Master Roshi's eyes lit up at that, and he leered at Amy.

"Little lady, you're looking for a Martial Artist boyfriend? How about me..."

Amy pointed at Sun Mo, then looked at Master Roshi, the corner of her mouth twitching.

This lecherous old man, at his age—shameless!

She steeled herself and asked, "You... are their master?"

Meaning to hint that he should stop this nonsense at his age.

But Master Roshi quickly corrected her: "No, actually, I'm their older brother..."

Amy thudded to the ground.