"Hey, you rotten Ashu, the mission hasn't even started and you're already saying such depressing things!"
"If King Pilaf finds out, he'll hang you up and give you a good whipping!"
Xiao Wu couldn't help imagining King Pilaf whipping that stinking dog-head, and shuddered with revulsion.
Ashu's butt clenched, and he shivered instinctively.
"Stop talking!"
After abruptly ending their brief conversation, Ashu decisively pulled a time bomb out of his backpack.
"I'll set the timer first, then contact King Pilaf and report in! We'll send them on their way at eight o'clock tonight!"
A cruel smile tugged at his lips as he got to work.
When the moon rose above the treetops and all was quiet, the two-person team crept into action.
Xiao Wu kept watch for the ninja Ashu as he circled around the sleeping Ribut outside the house and cautiously made his way to the window.
Just as he was about to take out the bomb and stick it to the wall, he suddenly noticed a pair of eyes staring straight at him from the darkness inside the glass.
Startled, he nearly dropped the time bomb right onto the ground!
"Phew~"
Ashu came back to his senses and let out a long breath, wiping the cold sweat from his forehead. Then he froze in place.
He looked at his right hand in horror. The bomb he'd just reflexively caught was now firmly stuck to his hand. No matter how much he shook it, he couldn't get it off!
Ashu started to panic. He almost let out a loud "woof!"
Just then, Xiao Wu, who was keeping watch, began frantically signaling him to retreat.
With no other choice, he could only retreat with great care.
Once the two of them had reached a safe distance, two furtive figures in the distance crept toward Bulma's Capsule House again.
"Young Master Yamcha, are we really going in?"
Puar was scared stiff at the thought of how miserably Young Master Yamcha had been beaten that day.
Thankfully, the other guy had let him off because he was a cat-person. Otherwise, he didn't have anything like Young Master Yamcha's terrifying durability.
He felt that if that terrifying demon punched him, he'd be on his way to the underworld to strike up a friendship with King Yama.
Yamcha clenched his fists hard at Puar's words of retreat!
"Puar! Failure isn't scary. What's scary is losing the courage to face it again!"
"Besides, that's everything we own! If we don't find a way to get it back, we'll be living on air in less than half a month!"
As it happened, it was his own lack of restraint that had brought them to this point. The Evil Desert might have been remote, but it wasn't as if no caravans passed through.
But whenever he robbed them, he never held back. Other bandits only charged a toll, so as long as the merchants made a profit, they'd come back again.
But he was different. A young bandit just starting out, he thought all it took to be a bandit was strength. After making a name for himself, he drove off the bandits who had occupied the area and took up the business himself.
Unfortunately, he had no idea when to stop. He never killed anyone, but whenever travelers or caravans passed by, he stripped them of everything. So by the time his name as a desert bandit had spread, hardly anyone used that route anymore.
At first, his method of draining the pond to catch the fish and killing the goose that laid the golden eggs hadn't shown any drawbacks. After all, what he stole was usually enough to support his martial arts training.
There was even enough left over for Puar to indulge himself.
Unfortunately, all those goods and riches had now been stolen from them. The mountain of wealth they'd been living off was gone, and they had no way to keep surviving there.
"Hey, Puar, you turn into that boy with the staff and lure out the guy who beat us. I'll go inside and look for the capsules. How does that sound?"
Since he couldn't beat them head-on, Yamcha had to think of a clever way to get what he wanted. It was their only option.
They'd agreed on this before coming, but now that the moment had arrived, Puar hesitated. He was really scared.
But when he saw the eager look in his young master's eyes, he couldn't bring himself to say no.
With no other choice, he reluctantly cried, "Transform!"
With a "BOOM," a Big Head Goku wearing a dark-blue homespun outfit appeared out of nowhere.
Yamcha gave him a strange look. No matter how he looked at him, he seemed a little fake.
But it was pitch-black out now, and the moon was the only thing shedding light. Surely nothing would go wrong.
"Do your best. Our fortune is in your hands!"
Even as Puar was about to leave, Yamcha didn't forget to cheer him on.
"Honestly, why don't you do it yourself?"
Puar muttered, but in the end he still set off.
After quietly circling around Ribut and gently turning the doorknob to enter the house, he found that it was already brightly lit inside.
Son Gohan sat quietly in the living room with his legs crossed, evidently practicing meditation.
For nearly two years, he had replaced sleep with sitting meditation.
His mind wasn't nearly as clear as Son Goku's. He had to keep brushing away his distracting thoughts.
He had sensed Ashu the dog-headed man back when he was preparing to plant the bomb. He was the one behind the eyes in the dark window.
He had also been on guard since they first settled in. He was effectively keeping watch for everyone.
As a cultivator, his senses were far sharper than an ordinary person's. Twice, the people following them had crept around without making a sound, or so they thought. To his ears, their movements had been terribly noisy!
"Oh, Goku, why are you coming back from outside?"
A faint smile touched Son Gohan's lips as he slowly rose to his feet.
"Ahaha, I, I went outside to pee!"
"Ah, right. I went to pee!"
Puar, transformed into Son Goku, replied with a numb scalp. He was so terrified he nearly collapsed to the floor.
Luckily, he hadn't forgotten that he was in disguise.
"Oh, is that so?"
Son Gohan smiled as he took a few steps toward him.
"Come on, we should go to bed. We have to get up early and train tomorrow!"
As he spoke, he used his height advantage to tuck "Son Goku" under his arm and carry him toward a nearby bedroom...
A long while later, just as Yamcha was about to lose patience waiting outside, the door to the Capsule House finally opened a crack, and a petite figure slipped out.
"Young Master, all done! Let's run!"
Puar raised his little hand eagerly to show that he'd completed the mission, urging Yamcha to hurry up and get moving.
"I knew you could do it!"
Yamcha cried out in a low voice, then quickly led Puar away. Now that they'd succeeded, what if they got caught again because they didn't run?
Before long, the two of them had boarded the Flying Motorcycle and flown back to their hideout.
What Yamcha didn't notice was that Puar, clinging tightly to him, had somehow taken on a strange smile.
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