Dodoria was cleaved in two by Vegeta's kick, dead beyond any doubt.
With him dead, the original owner of this body could finally rest in peace.
After all, the original owner's memories were full of scenes of him and Dodoria exploiting him. If he hadn't been too weak, if not for Frieza...
In any case, all of that was in the past now!
Feeling much better, Vegeta had a more accurate understanding of his strength after those two fights.
"Five hundred and thirty thousand, huh? Hmph! I almost want to tell you that my battle power has long since surpassed two million! If Frieza can't transform and get stronger, then this is going to be boring." Vegeta spoke to Dodoria.
As if Dodoria could still hear him, Vegeta wanted him to keep trembling in fear down in Hell.
Of course, Vegeta wasn't blindly arrogant. He said this because he had confidence in his strength and believed he could go further, become a Super Saiyan, and defeat Frieza.
Just as he was preparing to leave, the Grand Elder's voice came through again.
The Grand Elder's ability to locate him and speak with him whenever he wanted made Vegeta feel uneasy, as if someone could see into his private life at any moment.
Earlier, the Grand Elder had spoken to him telepathically. Vegeta could have put that down to proximity: he'd been standing in one place, so the Grand Elder could sense his presence and communicate with him.
But now Vegeta was this far away, and had been moving the whole time, yet the Grand Elder could still locate him. That wasn't right.
[You asked me to escort your people to you for refuge, and I can certainly do that. But shouldn't you first tell me how you're able to contact me?] Vegeta questioned him silently.
[I'm sorry. I didn't mean to, but as long as I've memorized someone's mental energy, I can communicate with them telepathically. While unlocking your potential, I recorded your mental energy. So as long as you're still on Planet Namek, I can contact you whenever I wish.] The Grand Elder's voice echoed in Vegeta's mind.
[Is that really all there is to it?] Vegeta frowned, not relaxing in the slightest.
That ability was a little too absurd.
In the original story, North Kai could do something like this, which made sense. He was the overseer of an entire galaxy, after all. He had the status to match.
But what was the Grand Elder?
Vegeta had already thought it incredible that the Namekians could communicate with one another. But if what the Grand Elder was saying was true, did that mean he could read people's minds whenever he wanted?
[Please don't worry. My ability is limited to basic communication with you. Besides, with the strength of your mental energy, I can't invade your consciousness. Actually, you can try sensing it for yourself. Explore with your mental energy, and you'll discover a different world.] The Grand Elder offered a word of guidance.
[A different world? The world of mental energy?] Vegeta was taken aback, and felt a flicker of interest.
He'd never really thought about deliberately training his mental energy.
Ever since arriving in this world, he'd focused either on physical training or on cultivating his ki.
In his subconscious, it seemed that cultivating ki also trained his mental energy.
Now he saw that it wasn't nearly that simple.
Vegeta knew how strong his mental energy was, but he'd never truly trained it or tried to understand it.
It had only improved to some extent when he cultivated his ki after physical training.
After speaking with the Grand Elder for a few more moments, Vegeta set off for the Namekian village where the Dragon Balls were kept.
Since he was an outsider, and the Namekian villages had no real-time communications, the villagers didn't yet know about the disaster that had struck Planet Namek.
They had only learned a few things thanks to the Grand Elder's warning, and had already gathered together.
There were a little over twenty of them. The elderly and children made up half the group, while the rest were Namekians with some combat ability.
It had to be said: if the Namekians had focused entirely on combat, they would have been more deserving of the title "warrior race" than the Saiyans.
Even the weakest had a battle power of over a thousand. The stronger ones were at two or three thousand, and the strongest had reached four or five thousand.
And these were all ordinary Namekians.
The journey was peaceful, and they encountered no danger.
After escorting them to the Grand Elder's home, Vegeta didn't stay long. He found another island with a better environment and more peace and quiet.
With the Grand Elder's guidance, Vegeta decided to try actively training his mental energy and see what the Grand Elder meant by the world of mental energy.
He closed his eyes and composed himself, doing his best to calm his mind.
After a long while, he extended his mental energy, expanding it alongside his ki.
Until then, his ki sensing had only allowed him to follow energy signatures and explore his surroundings.
But when he fully connected his consciousness to his mental energy, it was as if he'd entered a virtual world. The entire planet was within his range of perception.
Vegeta sensed countless points of light.
Some belonged to intelligent life, while others belonged to ordinary animals.
He saw the mental energy of the Grand Elder and the other Namekians. He also sensed that of Frieza Force soldiers and Frieza himself. Then he detected Krillin, Bulma, and Son Gohan, with a Namekian point of light beside them: Dende...
[Why does this feel like looking down from God's perspective? It's not a real image, but my mental energy can simulate the scenes within its range as I sense them.] Vegeta thought in shock.
At that moment, he could more or less picture what Frieza was doing inside his spaceship.
He could also picture what Bulma, Krillin, and the others were doing.
After contemplating it for a long time, Vegeta finally left that state when his mental energy began to run low.
He opened his eyes. Seeing the real world again, he found it utterly incredible.
[I finally understand how wondrous the world of mental energy is. Thank you for your guidance, Grand Elder.] Using the technique he'd just learned, Vegeta packaged the words and sent them to the Grand Elder, hundreds of miles away.
It wasn't long before the Grand Elder's mental energy came back to him: [I should be thanking you for helping our people. And even without my guidance, you would have mastered it soon enough.]
Hearing the Grand Elder's words, Vegeta was filled with emotion.
Without the Grand Elder's guidance, Vegeta wouldn't have explored the realm of mental energy, at least not during the early and middle parts of the original story.
The original story had already shown off Vegeta's abilities. Even by the Super era, he might have mastered these techniques through cultivating Godly Power, but it was only mentioned in passing.
After all, by then, no matter how powerful one's mental energy was, it should still fall far short of sensing things through divine power.