Where's My Golden Finger?

Mount Paozu

Time flies like a white horse passing a crack; a year and a half has passed in the blink of an eye!

Son Gohan has also celebrated his second birthday!

Ah, dadadadada!!!

On a vast plain, two afterimages flashed by from time to time!

The ground erupted with large craters every now and then!

"Kamehameha!!!"

"Sky-Prop Cannon!!"

One blue, one yellow!!

Two beams of light, equal in thickness, collided instantly and exploded with a deafening roar, emitting a blinding glare!

The powerful shockwaves of the battle left everything in the vicinity looking as if it had been scoured by a typhoon!

"Gohan, use your full power!!" Sun Wukong roared.

"Dad, if I use my full power, you'll be finished!!" Son Gohan said helplessly.

"You brat, looking down on me!! Yaha!!"

Sun Wukong erupted with energy; a white aura flared around his body, and his hair stood up slightly!

"I'm coming too!!" Son Gohan released one-thousandth of his ki.

But within the aura surrounding his body, a faint glimmer of gold flashed!

The great battle ended!!! Sun Wukong wore a dejected expression.

"Dad, what's wrong with you!!" Son Gohan stepped forward.

"Gohan! Dad is fine, I just didn't expect that in just a year and a half, you could surpass me by so much. Although I have also made great progress, I know that your combat power is far beyond the little bit you just revealed!! Even though you are my son, Dad is still frustrated!!" Sun Wukong lamented endlessly.

"Dad, there's no helping it. Who told me to have such great talent and the willingness to work hard!!" Son Gohan said, feeling quite pleased with himself!

That's right, in this year and a half, Son Gohan's strength had increased to an unimaginable degree.

In the first month of training, Son Gohan was already moving with ease; that massive, towering tree could no longer help him improve even a fraction!

Afterward, he increased his own weight for running, pushing to his limits and enjoying the endless surge of power that welled up from his body after reaching those limits!

He knew that it was the potential hidden deep within his body erupting.

Carrying giant boulders while doing frog jumps and push-ups!! Every simple training movement was pushed to the limit, until there was nothing left in Mount Paozu that could make him feel his combat power increasing!

Unless he were to carry the entire Mount Paozu on his back!

By the time he achieved that, only three months had passed!

Next, Sun Wukong took him to the ocean!

The training at Mount Paozu had only increased the pressure on the exterior of his body!

In the ocean, the deeper he dove, the greater the water pressure became; that pressure worked from the inside out!

After his internal organs endured the intense water pressure, they became exceptionally strong!

Those strengthened heart, liver, spleen, lungs, and kidneys provided him with sufficient power!

In truth, ever since he was born, Son Gohan had been searching for his cheat code!

When others transmigrated, they either had an old master by their side, a system installed, or at the very least, a powerful cultivation technique or some divine artifact!

But Son Gohan had none of that; he had nothing at all, only his day-after-day training!

To force his cheat code out, he even dove to depths he couldn't withstand, until he completely fainted and went into shock!

Fortunately, Sun Wukong was following him, otherwise, he would have truly been done for!

From then on, Son Gohan let it go!

If I don't have one, then I don't have one. Even without a cheat code, relying on my own hard work and this powerful body, I am already about to break through to Super Saiyan! Son Gohan thought to himself.

That's right, the glimmer of gold that flashed within the aura he released during his fight with Sun Wukong just now was the sign that he was about to transform into a Super Saiyan!

By the fifth month in the ocean, Sun Wukong could no longer keep up with the depths Son Gohan reached!

"Dad!! I have a feeling that I'm about to break through to a new level!!" Son Gohan clenched his fists.

"A new level?" Sun Wukong was surprised.

"That's right, if I break through that level, I feel like my combat power will undergo an earth-shattering change!" Of course, Son Gohan knew that this new level was Super Saiyan.

But he couldn't say it explicitly; after all, the Saiyans hadn't arrived on Earth yet!

"Then how far do you think I am from the level you're talking about???" Sun Wukong asked excitedly.

"Ah, this!!! It seems a bit far!!" Son Gohan said weakly.

"Tell me the truth!!"

"Just about... you'll need to increase your current strength by another three hundred times!" Son Gohan whispered.

"What?? Three hundred?? You mean... you're three hundred times stronger than me?" Son Wukong was shocked.

"That's about the size of it. If we use numbers as a metaphor, your current combat power is around fifteen thousand! I'm already nearing three million!! As long as I break through the three-million-point limit, I should be able to reach a new level! Besides, I've noticed that because of my mother, I should find it easier to break through than you, Father!!" Son Gohan explained vaguely.

"Three hundred times... I never imagined the gap between us would be this wide!! It's absurd! Haha!" Son Wukong gave a bitter laugh.

"Father, don't be too discouraged. Your explosive growth period should also arrive after you break through to a new level!" Son Gohan hurriedly comforted him.

"Don't worry, I won't lose my confidence. I'm happy that you're so strong, but I will definitely catch up to you!!" Son Wukong was only down for a moment before regaining his resolve.

"Heh, that's the spirit!!" Son Gohan smiled.

Perhaps Son Wukong's strength stemmed from his steadfast and pure martial heart.

"Let's go, time to head home for dinner!! Flying Nimbus!!" Son Wukong shouted toward the high sky.

An orange cloud descended, and Son Wukong hopped onto it.

Although he had long since mastered the Flight Technique, he still preferred the feeling of being enveloped by the Flying Nimbus.

As for Son Gohan... heh... his soul, tainted by ink as vast as the heavens, could no longer be acknowledged by the Flying Nimbus.

Son Gohan hovered vertically and flew straight toward Mount Paozu.

You ask why he didn't fly prone? Son Wukong had asked the same thing, noting that flying prone reduces air resistance.

But Son Gohan's answer was that flying vertically looked much cooler than flying prone.

A difference in aesthetics; he simply preferred this mythical posture of flight.

If he hadn't yet learned how to control a sword, he would have even considered forging a blade to fly on.

Any man who doesn't want to experience flying on a sword isn't a normal man.

However, seeing this immature body, not even four feet tall, standing upright in the air to fly was truly a bit comical.

Two figures tore through the air and vanished in an instant.

Deep within the Arctic Ice Desert, a green figure gritted his teeth.

"Why... why has Son Wukong's ki become so powerful and unfathomable!!" Piccolo roared in rage.

As for why he didn't mention Son Gohan... well, the gap was simply too vast to perceive; they weren't even on the same level, so there was no helping it.

At this moment, Piccolo's combat power was at most less than one thousand.

In the early stages, Son Wukong led the training, but later on, it was Son Gohan leading Son Wukong; after all, the brilliant idea to train in the deep sea had been Son Gohan's suggestion.

In truth, Son Gohan hadn't noticed anything different between himself and Son Wukong.

While he was burdened by high-pressure training, he had no spare focus to observe the ki within his own body.

Every time he tried to probe it, that ki would autonomously circulate through his meridians, wandering throughout his body.

The moment he stopped, that ki would instantly return to his dantian.

He could only sense his ki growing stronger, and after asking Son Wukong, he assumed this outrageous growth was due to a combination of training and his mixed-blood heritage.

After all, Son Gohan's talent had been mentioned long ago in the original story.

It was due to the fusion of Saiyan blood and human blood.

The peaceful cells of an Earthling could better trigger the unfathomable potential of a Saiyan, making it easier to break through to Super Saiyan.

Three million points of combat power was a threshold; pure-blooded Saiyans had to reach this point before they could possibly break through.

Mixed-bloods like Son Gohan, Son Goten, and Trunks did not need to.

If Son Gohan were to force a breakthrough now, he could also transform into a Super Saiyan.

But he didn't want to force it; he wanted it to overflow naturally. He believed there was a destiny in the dark, and perhaps transforming before reaching the limit of his base state wasn't a good thing.

Any combat power after transformation was based on one's base state.

Much like the future Son Goten, who transformed into a Super Saiyan at a very young age; although the original story didn't state his exact power, judging by his performance, it was only around ten million.

Son Goten was born after Son Wukong had already broken through to Super Saiyan, so naturally, it was even easier for him to reach that state than it was for Son Gohan.