"Get some rest first. I'm sure your injuries will be completely healed before long," Ibana said with a smile.
Bardock said nothing.
After saying that, Ibana left with Berry.
Not long after Ibana and Berry had left, Luo Tian appeared at the entrance to the cave.
"Luo Tian? Is that you?" Bardock stared at him in a daze, then hurriedly asked, "What on earth is going on? Where are we? He said this was Planet Plant. Wasn't Planet Plant the old name for Planet Vegeta?"
Bardock fired off several questions in a row.
"Oops. I must've traveled too far back in time. This seems to be a thousand years ago," Luo Tian mused.
Bardock's eyes widened, shock written all over his face.
What?
This was a thousand years ago?
You've got to be kidding.
"Stay alive, Bardock. Maybe if you make it to the era we're in, you'll get to see me again." Luo Tian stepped forward and patted him on the shoulder.
Bardock: "..."
What did he mean?
"Come on, you can do it!" Luo Tian said with a smile.
"W-who are you, exactly?" Bardock asked, trembling.
"You can think of me as a god." Luo Tian smiled faintly.
Bardock fell silent.
A god?
That was quite a claim...
It wasn't that Bardock didn't believe him. He just couldn't accept it.
Imagine if a friend you'd known for years suddenly told you he was a god who could do anything...
Could you accept that?
Wouldn't you be scared?
"See? I tell you the truth, and you still don't believe me," Luo Tian said with a smile. "All right, take care. Try to become a Super Saiyan as soon as you can."
"You mean... I can become a Super Saiyan?" Bardock's heart stirred, and he hurriedly asked.
"I was just saying something nice as we part. Couldn't you tell?" Luo Tian sighed.
Bardock fell silent again.
There was no talking to him.
He always knew how to kill a conversation.
"Then... what about Gine?" Bardock asked again.
"She won't be born until a thousand years from now," Luo Tian replied. "Do your best to live for a thousand years."
Bardock felt crushed.
Who could live for a thousand years?
Saiyans could live for a little over a hundred years at most. If they were lucky, they might make it to two hundred.
Two hundred years was already an exceptionally long life.
After all, Saiyans' lifespans weren't much different from Earthlings'.
The difference was that Saiyans entered their fighting years while still young, and their bodies stayed youthful for a long time.
That made it easier for them to keep fighting.
They could maintain their youthful appearance until around sixty or seventy, after which they gradually began to age.
Most Saiyans who didn't die in battle lived to around eighty or ninety.
"I have to go back. Maybe we'll meet again someday." Luo Tian waved.
"Pop!"
A Scepter appeared in Luo Tian's hand once more.
The Crystal Ball atop it emitted a blue flame.
A vortex appeared before them.
"W-wait... Take me back too!" Bardock cried.
Luo Tian ignored him and stepped into the vortex, vanishing in an instant.
Bardock's body shook violently.
A thousand years...
How could he live for a thousand years?
It was impossible!
He had to go back too!
He absolutely couldn't stay in this era!
He had to go home!
"Thud!"
Bardock slammed headfirst into the vortex.
But he didn't travel back. Instead, it felt as if his head had hit a hard rock, leaving him dizzy.
"Whoosh!"
The blue vortex vanished in the next instant.
"Hey, wait! Don't disappear!" Bardock shouted.
And that was the end of it.
At that moment, the whole world seemed to fall silent.
The cave was still the same cave.
But now it felt lonelier and more helpless.
"Hmm? What disappeared? Were you having a nightmare?"
Just then, Berry approached with some food, staring at Bardock in confusion.
Bardock silently looked at Berry.
"Are you all right?" Berry asked with concern.
"Get lost! I don't want to talk to you!" Bardock snorted.
"Whoosh!"
Luo Tian returned to his own era through the space-time tunnel.
But by then, Planet Vegeta had already been destroyed.
Even Frieza had left the area aboard a spaceship.
Luo Tian floated there in the vacuum of space.
What?
Save Planet Vegeta?
That was impossible.
As an angel, he was supposed to remain neutral.
Of course, that principle wasn't unbreakable.
The main reason was that Luo Tian didn't think Planet Vegeta needed saving.
The planet's destruction was only a matter of time.
→
A race rising to its peak and then falling into decline... was perfectly ordinary in the vast universe.
As for the claim that an angel would disappear if they fought at full strength:
Luo Tian had asked the Grand Priest about it.
The Grand Priest had told him that as long as he was powerful enough, he wouldn't need to fight at full strength.
Take Frieza, for example. Luo Tian could kill him with a single slap.
Just a light slap, and Frieza would be done for.
Would Luo Tian disappear then?
Of course not.
He wouldn't be fighting at full strength.
But if his opponent were Beerus, Luo Tian really would disappear if he fought at full strength with his current power.
Still, if Luo Tian had time to train and gain insight, he believed that one day he'd be able to beat Beerus with ease.
"Next, I think I'll go have some fun on Earth," Luo Tian mused. "At any rate, life on Planet Vegeta fulfilled one of my childhood dreams."
"Whoosh!"
After saying that to himself, Luo Tian turned into a dazzling streak of light and sped off toward Earth.
In the starry sky.
A massive spaceship was cruising along.
"Ahahaha..."
Frieza's raucous laughter rang out from inside the ship now and then.
What a wonderful day!
Planet Vegeta had been destroyed just like that.
"How many Saiyans survived?" Frieza suddenly asked one of his subordinates.
"W-well, Lord Frieza, according to our count, fewer than ten Saiyans remain," the subordinate replied at once. "That includes some Saiyans who left the planet long ago and have lost contact with us."
"Among the remaining Saiyans, Prince Vegeta is the only one who stands out. He's exceptionally talented, and despite his young age, his battle power has already reached 15,000. If he continues to develop..." Dodoria said gravely.
"The little brat Vegeta and a few Saiyan children didn't come back. I think they pretended not to hear Lord Frieza's summons," Zarbon said with a smile.
"By the way, only three of them survived the battle on that planet. The rest are dead." Dodoria glanced at the remote data again. "That boy Vegeta performed exceptionally well in the fight."
"Lord Frieza, to be safe, why not bring that little brat Vegeta over and let him develop under your watch?" Dodoria suggested. "Just thinking about it gets me excited. It'd be like having a high-level character grind in the beginner's village... Hehe. Even if we gave him another twenty or thirty years, his battle power probably wouldn't increase by much."
"Go ahead and take care of it," Frieza said with a smile.
"Whoosh!"
As they were talking, a dazzling streak of light flashed across the distant starry sky and disappeared in an instant.
It was Luo Tian, passing nearby.
"What? What was that?" Zarbon's eyes widened as he stared at the distant streak of light, brilliant as a diamond.
"Zarbon, there's no need to make such a fuss," Dodoria said with a smile. "You see all sorts of things like that in space."
"I could've sworn I saw someone fly past..." Zarbon rubbed his eyes. "That person... looked like a Saiyan from Planet Vegeta. I think I've seen him somewhere before."
Frieza glanced at Zarbon.
"Lord Frieza, I may have been seeing things. I'm terribly sorry," Zarbon said quickly. "There's no way a Saiyan like that could exist. Planet Vegeta has already been destroyed, after all."
"Besides, Zarbon, no Saiyan could fly that fast," Dodoria said with a faint smile.
"That's true..." Zarbon nodded.
After saying that, Zarbon fell silent again.
That person really did look like a Saiyan I'd seen before.
Especially that head of silver-white hair. I could never forget it.
Right, Luo Tian!
That Saiyan called Luo Tian.
But how could that be?
Hadn't Luo Tian died along with Planet Vegeta?
I must've been seeing things.
That's right!
I'd better not make trouble.
"Zarbon, what is it? Still thinking about what happened just now?" Frieza asked, squinting his triangular eyes at him.
"No... No..." Zarbon waved his hands frantically.
"Good," Frieza said with a faint smile.
Zarbon fell silent again.
Frieza frowned as well.
Just a moment ago, for an instant, a sense of unease had suddenly crept into his heart.
What could it be?
That unease seemed to have something to do with the dazzling streak of light.
Had that really been a Saiyan flying by?
Frieza wanted to chase after it, but the streak of light had been too fast, faster than the spaceship.
What was the point of chasing it?
With the Frieza Force's current technology, he could forget about catching up.
They couldn't even scan the other person's image.
On an unnamed planet.
"Vegeta... We just received word. Planet Vegeta was destroyed by the impact of a giant meteor," Raditz said in shock, his expression changing again and again.
"What?" Nappa broke out in a cold sweat too.
"So... are we the only three Saiyans left?" Raditz said gravely.
"Now there's no way I can become king of the Saiyans." A trace of helplessness appeared on Vegeta's youthful face.
Raditz: "..."
Nappa: "..."
Of all the times to be thinking about becoming king of the Saiyans...
It seemed only the three of us Saiyans were left.
Before you continue