Guidance

Ever since Turles had been reborn, he had been training on his own. Although he could reconstruct some training methods from his memories and use the Gravity Chamber to increase his battle power, he still wasn't satisfied.

If Turles had merely been transported into the body of an Earthling, he would have had to make do without the right conditions. But since he had become a Saiyan, with the potential to climb to the heights of power, he would never be content unless he became an immortal powerhouse.

In the Dragon Ball World, battle power wasn't the only measure. Only those who lived long enough and possessed a sufficiently high status would catch the notice of the top-tier gods.

Beerus didn't even take Son Goku's Super Saiyan 3 transformation seriously, and Old Kai had also said that Goku's transformation was the wrong path.

Although Mr. Popo's battle power wasn't as high as Turles's, he had served several generations of Kami as an attendant. His exceptionally long life and ability to train one Kami after another were proof enough that there was more to him than met the eye.

So Mr. Popo's guidance was bound to give Turles some insight, and that was one of the reasons Turles had come to Earth.

As someone who had crossed over into this world, his greatest advantage wasn't just his own potential. Above all, it was his knowledge of the plot and characters from his memories.

And Mr. Popo was one of the people who fit the bill.

Turles slowly reined in his ki and looked at Mr. Popo expectantly.

Mr. Popo's expression remained unchanged, but inside, he was already starting to panic.

He'd expected Turles to have tremendous battle power, but not to this extent. Even though he'd seen plenty of powerful Earthlings, Turles's strength still stunned him.

That was the unfortunate thing about Earth's location on the edge of the North Galaxy. Earth's martial arts were better than those of most species in the universe, but Earthlings had such low natural talent that they had never produced a powerful warrior capable of destroying a planet. They didn't even know about the universe's system for measuring battle power.

That was why Mr. Popo found Turles's battle power so astonishing—and even terrifying. But once the Dragon Ball story truly got underway, and he saw Son Goku and the others make huge leaps in strength, Turles's current battle power probably wouldn't impress him anymore.

Turles was still watching Mr. Popo, unaware that Mr. Popo was already sweating inside.

After a long silence, Mr. Popo finally spoke. "Suppress your ki and keep it at the same level as mine. We'll spar."

Turles was a little puzzled by the request, but he did as Mr. Popo asked. He skillfully controlled his ki, keeping his battle power around 1,000. He couldn't sense Mr. Popo's ki, but he remembered that in the original story, Mr. Popo's battle power was about that much.

Turles and Mr. Popo stood facing each other in the middle of Kami's Lookout Plaza, watching one another.

Turles had planned to use his usual fighting instincts to find an opening in Mr. Popo's stance, but no matter how closely he looked, he couldn't find one.

A bead of cold sweat appeared on Turles's forehead. Suddenly, he didn't know what to do.

Sure, with his battle power of over 200,000, he could easily defeat Mr. Popo just by releasing his ki. But when he had to fight at a battle power of 1,000, he had no idea how to attack.

Before, when Turles couldn't sense ki, he wouldn't have felt so helpless. As long as he could see his target, he could still attack.

But now he relied heavily on sensing his opponent's ki in battle. If he couldn't sense their ki, even if he could see them, he found it very difficult to fight.

Even with his Faux Ultra Instinct, he wasn't confident. His Faux Ultra Instinct only worked with a large amount of data to support it, and right now, he couldn't gather any information about Mr. Popo at all.

They remained in their starting positions, neither of them making the first move.

Ten minutes passed. Suddenly, Turles spoke, his voice dejected. "I lose!"

Everyone present was shocked. Even Dero, who couldn't yet sense ki with any precision, knew that Mr. Popo's battle power couldn't be very high. But he couldn't understand why Turles would surrender after just standing there for a while.

Looking at Mr. Popo's expressionless face, Turles couldn't help asking, "How did you do that?"

Mr. Popo replied with a question. "Can't you do it too?"

"What? When could I..." Turles began to protest instinctively, but before he could finish, he froze.

That was right. He could conceal his ki perfectly, too. On his way to Planet Vampa, he'd learned to control his ki perfectly from the vast spectacle of the cosmos. Ever since, he'd unconsciously kept his ki suppressed most of the time.

But why couldn't he attack Mr. Popo, who could control his ki just as perfectly?

Turles thought it over for a long while, but still couldn't figure out the reason. In the end, he simply told Mr. Popo what was troubling him.

After hearing Turles's explanation, Mr. Popo thought for a moment and said, "You rely too much on sensing ki. You need to learn to fight by relying on your body's instincts. Not everyone has ki that you can sense."

Seeing that Turles still seemed confused, Mr. Popo began demonstrating as he spoke. "Sensing ki is just one fighting technique. But there's more to fighting than ki. The air's temperature and humidity, changes in the environment—all of these change during a battle."

As he spoke, Mr. Popo gently waved his hand, stirring up a breeze.

"When these things change, your ability to blend into the environment and conceal your ki perfectly is no longer perfect. So you need to rely on your body's senses to pick up on those changes. Your sight, smell, hearing, touch, even taste—combine the information they give you, and you can still sense your opponent."

"As long as someone is alive and exists in this space, they can't completely erase all traces of their presence, even if all they do is breathe in a single breath of air."

"I see..."

As he listened to Mr. Popo's guidance, it was as if lightning tore through the darkness in Turles's mind, suddenly illuminating everything.

Turles hadn't expected Mr. Popo to teach him to fight using not only ki, but also his body's five senses to track his opponent. The theory was like a door opening onto an entirely new world.

Fighting by instinct sounded a lot like the Ultra Instinct technique Whis had talked about. But when Turles thought it through, this technique was actually very similar to his Faux Ultra Instinct.

His Faux Ultra Instinct gathered enough data to simulate his opponent in his mind. Whether his opponent attacked or defended, he simulated it in his mental world, giving him a slight sense of being able to strike first.

The problem was that he only simulated static environmental data and his opponent's ki. He hadn't incorporated the data his own body gave him in response.

According to Mr. Popo, he needed to simulate all the data gathered by his body's senses during a fight. No, not five senses—six. That way, even if his opponent could conceal his ki perfectly like Mr. Popo, he could keep adjusting the data, track his opponent's movements, and find an opening.

And if his body's instincts grew strong enough in the future, he might be able to skip the mental simulation entirely. At that point, how would it be any different from true Ultra Instinct?

A flash of excitement gleamed in Turles's eyes!

Turles hadn't expected a single piece of advice from Mr. Popo to help him so much. Of course, fully advancing his Faux Ultra Instinct would still require a lot of training, but at least Mr. Popo had pointed him in the right direction.

Turles was about to ask Mr. Popo a few more questions when an unwelcome guest interrupted him.