Vegeta's Crushing Defeat

Turles was already regretting bringing Raditz back. It had originally been a whim, fueled by a dark sense of humor, and because Raditz had mistaken him for his father, Bardock, and called him "Dad," he had decided to give the man a chance.

However, he hadn't expected that once Raditz realized Turles wasn't his father, he would actually decide that Turles was his younger brother, Kakarot, who had been sent to Earth. Raditz even tried to claim Turles as his brother, leaving the man completely speechless.

Watching Paragus continue to laugh incessantly, Turles simply tossed Raditz over to him. Since Paragus had known Bardock back in the day, he could let this old veteran discipline his "dear nephew."

Paragus had no complaints about Turles asking him to train Raditz; in fact, he accepted the task with pleasure.

Actually, Raditz's talent wasn't bad at all. At the very least, he had been rated as having the potential of a high-class warrior at birth—far superior to his father. Otherwise, he never would have been selected for Vegeta's team.

But perhaps because of Bardock, Raditz believed in the Saiyan bloodline theory even more fervently than his father ever did. Having been labeled a high-class warrior from birth, Raditz blindly relied on his combat power rating and lacked the fighting spirit Bardock possessed. Whether in combat or training, Raditz put in far less effort than Bardock had at the same age, which resulted in him failing to live up to his initial potential.

Furthermore, as one of the few Saiyans who bullied the weak and feared the strong, Raditz rarely faced death. Among the trio with Vegeta, Raditz mostly handled the grunt work and assisted the others due to his low combat power, leaving him with even fewer opportunities to hone his skills. Meanwhile, Vegeta and the others were always at the forefront of the slaughter, causing their combat power to rise rapidly. In such a vicious cycle, it was no wonder Raditz's combat power was currently only 1,300.

However, Raditz's easy days were effectively over. With the grand vision Turles had painted for him, Paragus was now obsessed with the goal of reviving the Saiyan race. Having caught a clansman with decent talent, he was bound to train him to death. Besides, with Broly around, Paragus didn't fear any resistance from a Saiyan.

After settling the matter with Raditz, Turles began preparing for interstellar travel. Judging by the star charts obtained from Karl, going directly from here to the center of the galaxy was unrealistic; multiple transfers would be necessary. He needed to map out a route that not only avoided planets under Frieza's control but also minimized travel time.

However, after looking at the planets displayed on the star chart, Turles began to formulate a plan.

Just as Turles was plotting his course, he suddenly sensed Vegeta's energy approaching at high speed. He immediately put away his data and walked out of the room.

It seemed Vegeta couldn't swallow his pride and had tracked him down this quickly.

Reaching the doorway, Turles suddenly remembered something. He ran back inside and dragged a confused Paragus out with him.

"Turles, what are you doing? I was just bonding with Raditz!" Paragus complained, looking clearly reluctant as he was hauled out.

Glancing at the bruise on the corner of Raditz's mouth, Turles didn't call out the old bastard's version of "bonding." Instead, he flashed a wicked grin and tempted him: "Paragus, do you still want to take revenge on King Vegeta?"

Hearing this, Paragus immediately perked up, instantly guessing Turles's intent: "What, do you know where Vegeta is?"

Turles nodded, looking at Paragus with a smile.

He knew this old bastard hadn't given up on his grudge against King Vegeta!

Looking at the smiling Turles, Paragus cursed him silently in his heart, but still swallowed his pride and said, "As long as you tell me where Vegeta is, I'll grant you one request. Whatever you want me to do, I'll do it!"

Turles was taken aback by the terms Paragus offered; he hadn't expected the old man to go this far. But Turles didn't care. He extended his right hand and said, "Deal."

Paragus extended his right hand as well, slapping it against Turles's.

After the high-five, Turles stopped speaking and instead looked up at the sky.

Paragus, who had been about to say something, immediately followed Turles's gaze. Sure enough, he saw a face that looked remarkably similar to King Vegeta's.

After glaring at Turles for clearly setting him up, Paragus shot into the sky, flying to a spot not far from Vegeta.

Vegeta was feeling somewhat suspicious at this moment. He realized that something seemed off. Originally, he had assumed that "Kakarot" possessed a battle power of over twenty thousand. Although he knew he couldn't beat him, the pride of the Saiyan Prince had compelled him to come anyway. He would not allow himself to lack the courage to face a challenge after being provoked by a low-class warrior. Thus, even though the opponent had a battle power ten thousand higher than his own, Vegeta had come without hesitation.

However, looking at the white-bearded, elderly Saiyan in front of him with an unkind expression, and then glancing at "Kakarot" watching the show from the ground, Vegeta's thoughts were in a bit of a scramble.

Just moments ago, while fighting Turles, Vegeta hadn't had the chance to activate his Scouter before being knocked down. So, when he detected a battle power reading of twenty thousand, he had subconsciously assumed it was Turles and rushed over immediately. Yet, now it was this elderly Saiyan who showed a battle power of twenty thousand, while "Kakarot" had no energy signature at all.

"Kakarot! What the hell are you playing at!" Vegeta finally couldn't help but shout at Turles.

"You're the Kakarot! Your whole family is Kakarot! My name is Turles!" Turles hadn't expected that while trying to watch the show, he would be mistaken for Kakarot by Vegeta, and he became instantly annoyed.

After saying this, he glared at Raditz. It went without saying that it must have been Raditz who told Vegeta about Kakarot, leading to this misunderstanding. What a great brother Kakarot had!

Vegeta was left baffled by the retort, but he no longer had the luxury of worrying about Turles, as Paragus could no longer restrain himself from teaching Vegeta a lesson and began his assault.

Vegeta's reaction was incredibly swift. Seeing that it was too late to dodge, he immediately raised his arms to protect his head, preparing to block Paragus's attack.

Upon making contact, Vegeta immediately spotted the issue. Although Paragus's strength was heavy, it lacked the concentrated, explosive feeling he had experienced while fighting "Kakarot." Instead, the force felt very dispersed—a style of attacking that he was actually quite familiar with.

As he parried Paragus's strikes, Vegeta pondered the uniqueness of "Kakarot's" techniques. With his exceptional combat talent, Vegeta quickly identified the difference. Combined with the fact that he hadn't detected "Kakarot's" ki earlier, Vegeta felt he had discovered the secret!

"Hahaha! Is that all the strength you've got? Are you trying to tickle me?" Vegeta let out a hearty laugh, exerted a sudden burst of force, and directly pushed Paragus back.

After forcing Paragus back, Vegeta seized the opportunity to press the attack, lunging forward and launching a fierce counter-offensive that caught Paragus off guard. However, the experienced Paragus quickly began to retaliate.

Just like that, the two began a fierce battle in the air, trading blows and appearing evenly matched for the time being.

Turles hadn't expected that Vegeta, who couldn't even last one move against him, would be able to fight Paragus to a standstill. He gained a new perspective on this Saiyan Prince; it seemed it wasn't that Vegeta was weak, but that he himself was "cheating" by having mastered ki.

Thinking back to the original story, Vegeta, with a battle power of 18,000, couldn't take down Son Goku, who had just returned from King Kai's Planet. At the time, Son Goku's battle power was only 8,000. By all accounts, it should have been a stomp, yet the result was a mutual defeat. Although Son Goku had the protagonist's plot armor and the Kaioken technique to boost his battle power, one could not deny the massive boost to strength that mastering ki provided!

Turles's current battle power was roughly 18,000, and with his mastery of ki making his movements faster and more precise, it was no wonder he had knocked Vegeta unconscious in one strike.

However, what Turles didn't expect was that Vegeta had already discovered the discrepancy. His fight with Paragus was essentially an experiment to test his theories. With Vegeta's talent, mastering ki was only a matter of time.

But mastering ki wasn't that easy—at least, not something that could be done in such a short time. And by daring to be distracted while fighting an opponent far stronger than himself, Vegeta was soon caught by Paragus in a moment of vulnerability. He was struck directly from the air to the ground, creating a massive crater upon impact.

As the dust settled, Vegeta was covered in wounds, and his battle armor was heavily damaged. He looked truly miserable!

Paragus landed on the edge of the crater, his face filled with the satisfaction of having avenged his grudge. He laughed and began to mock Vegeta: "Saiyan Prince, is this it?"

"King Vegeta really raised a fine son. After all these years, you can't even beat an old man. I heard you were defeated by Turles earlier?"

"Tsk, tsk, tsk. And Turles is just a low-class warrior!"

"..." Turles, who had just flown over, hadn't expected Paragus to drag him into his venomous mockery of Vegeta—and he had even learned many of those phrases from him.

Vegeta had never suffered such humiliation. His eyes turned blood-red; if the conditions hadn't been so unfavorable, he might have already transformed into a Super Saiyan.

"Alright, Paragus, settle down. Don't forget our objective!" Seeing Paragus continuing to ramble on incessantly, Turles couldn't help but interrupt his mockery.

Ignoring Paragus's dissatisfaction at being interrupted, Turles looked at the heavily injured Vegeta and asked, "Vegeta, do you know Beerus?"

"Beerus?" Vegeta, his face full of rage, had expected Turles to mock him as well. He was stunned, not expecting such a question, and froze on the spot.

"What? You haven't heard of him?" Seeing that Vegeta didn't answer for a long time, Turles couldn't help but frown.

That shouldn't be right. Wasn't the reason Beerus had Frieza destroy Planet Vegeta because King Vegeta had slighted him? Vegeta should have seen Beerus back then. Could it be that this universe didn't have a God of Destruction, and this was just a parallel universe?

"I think I've heard of him. Let me think!" Vegeta snapped back to reality and began to search his memory.

"Hmm?" Hearing that Vegeta had an impression of Beerus, Turles immediately breathed a sigh of relief. However, he was somewhat surprised that Vegeta was being so cooperative!

In truth, this was just Vegeta's tsundere personality. Although Turles had defeated him, he hadn't mocked him the way Paragus had. With Paragus as a point of comparison, Turles's attitude seemed quite friendly. Furthermore, since Turles was much stronger than him, it wasn't strange for Vegeta to act this way. Of course, that didn't mean Vegeta wouldn't show any mercy when the time came to kill Turles!