Radiating immense killing intent, Piccolo slowly walked up to Raditz, ready to finish him off.
After sensing Piccolo's overwhelming killing intent, Raditz immediately begged for mercy.
"Spare me! I'll leave Earth right away and never come back. Please, spare me! Spare me!"
Terrified, Raditz saw Piccolo press two fingers together against his forehead. On the Scouter, Piccolo's power level was rising rapidly.
Raditz understood that Piccolo was charging up, preparing a move like a Ki Wave that could temporarily boost his power.
As the reading climbed past 1,000, Raditz knew all too well that an attack like that was more than enough to kill him!
When begging Piccolo proved useless, Raditz quickly switched targets. He turned to the exhausted Son Goku and pleaded, "Kakarot, I was wrong! I'm your only family left in this world! Give me one more chance. I'll leave Earth immediately. Spare me, and I'll do anything you want!"
He begged again and again, but Son Goku had already been betrayed once. Fighting back his reluctance, he turned away and refused to look.
"Even Goku's given up on you. Get ready to die! Special Beam Cannon!"
Piccolo's signature move, the Special Beam Cannon, finished charging. Its power level had reached a staggering 1,300!
That was more than enough to kill Raditz, who was gravely injured and couldn't even get up.
Whoosh!
As Raditz stared in despair, Piccolo's Special Beam Cannon shot straight toward his head!
"Bang!"
Raditz had thought he would be joining his father and mother in the afterlife, but he realized he was still alive. With difficulty, he lifted his head—and saw that someone had suddenly appeared and blocked the otherwise fatal attack for him.
"It's you! Right, you're a Saiyan too. Are you going to save him?"
Piccolo's face turned green with fright at the sight of the newcomer—though it had already been green to begin with.
The person who had blocked the attack was none other than He Lingxuan.
He had his reasons for stepping in. There weren't many Saiyans left in the universe. Even counting those from the movies and fan works, there were definitely fewer than a few dozen.
In the main continuity, only a handful of Saiyans remained in Universe 7. He Lingxuan didn't want their race to meet such an end. More importantly, he needed to find some free bodyguards who could protect Earth while he was away!
He had saved Raditz because he saw hope that Raditz could be changed—that he could be redeemed.
After all, neither in the original story nor now had Raditz killed any Earthlings, apart from the farmer who had shot at him.
But the real reason was that He Lingxuan wanted to create a powerful opponent for himself in the future. Perhaps no one from the original story could catch up to him with his system giving him an unfair advantage, but what if they used other methods? Fusion, for example.
When Son Goku and Vegeta fused, whether through the Fusion Dance to become Gogeta or with the earrings to become Vegito, their combined power increased by countless times compared with either of them alone.
If He Lingxuan trained them under those circumstances, perhaps their fused warrior really could surprise him.
"Exactly. There are only a handful of Saiyans left in the universe. Unless someone is truly wicked and does something unforgivable on Earth, I'm willing to give them a second chance."
He Lingxuan nodded to Piccolo, as if to say, I'm saving him. What are you going to do about it?
"But judging by the way he is, he still needs a lesson."
As Piccolo looked on in confusion, He Lingxuan pulled two Senzu Beans from his pocket. He popped one straight into Son Goku's mouth, then crouched down and fed the other to Raditz.
Raditz hesitated to swallow it, so He Lingxuan released a little of his energy. Raditz was horrified to see the power level on his Scouter shoot up to ten thousand, then max out!
That meant the man who had saved him had a power level of at least 18,000!
After intimidating Raditz, He Lingxuan calmly explained, "These are called Senzu Beans. They'll heal your injuries. Chew one and swallow it. They work fast."
"And don't think I'm trying to harm you. You're so weak that I wouldn't need something like this to hurt you."
Raditz thought that made sense. He chewed the bean a couple of times, then swallowed it.
Meanwhile, Son Goku felt something in his mouth and stuck out his tongue, licking the Senzu Bean inside before swallowing it.
In just a few seconds, Son Goku's injuries healed and his energy returned to full strength. His power had even increased considerably, reaching around 3,000!
His power had more than tripled. That was the Saiyans' broken ability: recovering from serious injuries could make their power surge!
But they could only exploit it every now and then. Recovering from injuries also used up some of the potential they would otherwise gain through regular training.
Back at full strength, Son Goku sprang to his feet and looked over at He Lingxuan, who was "having a friendly chat" with Raditz.
After swallowing the Senzu Bean, Raditz felt his injuries and energy recovering at an astonishing rate. In a few breaths, he was fully healed, and the energy within him had even grown considerably.
If his Scouter hadn't broken, Raditz thought his power level might now be somewhere between 2,000 and nearly 3,000.
That showed how much less potential Raditz had built up through training and battle than Son Goku. Otherwise, after recovering from the same kind of injuries, his power wouldn't have fallen so far behind—or, rather, the gap would have widened in the opposite direction.
"I feel so much stronger!"
Feeling far more powerful than before, Raditz started acting cocky again. But when he saw He Lingxuan staring at him with a displeased look, he immediately sensed something was wrong.
"Come on, let's have a nice talk about how you're going to live on Earth from now on—what you can and can't do. All right? We'll talk it out!"
Then He Lingxuan draped an arm over Raditz's shoulder, led him aside, and walked into the forest with him.
Piccolo and Son Goku exchanged glances, then gave helpless smiles. Still, they now knew that He Lingxuan didn't have much ill will toward Earth or them.
Otherwise, he wouldn't have used a Senzu Bean to heal Son Goku, though they had no idea where he had gotten it.
All they could hear from the forest was Raditz's screams as he was beaten. The hills shook, and birds and beasts fled.
It was easy to imagine just how much commotion the one-sided beating caused.
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