A Clever Trick? This is the Art of Controlling Objects

The salty sea breeze blew across the small clearing in front of Kame House.

Master Roshi looked at the exuberant Bulma and the calm Lin Fan, his small eyes darting behind his sunglasses.

"Don't get too happy just yet, little girl."

He spoke slowly, his voice retaining that raspy, old-man tone. "What just happened was merely a warm-up. The real test starts now."

"Huh? There's more?"

Bulma's face fell instantly.

Just then, two orange figures zoomed over—it was Son Goku, who had finished delivering the milk, and Krillin, who had wrapped up his training.

"Old man! We're back!"

Son Goku shouted with boundless energy, spotting Bulma and Lin Fan immediately. "Oh? You guys are still here?"

"Goku, Krillin, you've come at the perfect time."

Master Roshi beckoned them over. "Come, come, count yourselves in too. This test is very simple."

As he spoke, he rummaged through the pocket of his floral shirt and finally pulled out something round and shiny.

It was a wrapped Milk Candy that looked delicious.

"Watch closely."

He placed the Milk Candy on his open palm. "The rules are the same. Before I count to ten, whoever can take this candy from my hand passes the test. How about it? Simple, right?"

"Oh! Candy snatching! I'm good at this!"

Son Goku's spirits soared the moment he heard that, and he immediately assumed an offensive stance.

Krillin swallowed nervously, his eyes locked onto Master Roshi's hand.

Bulma stomped her foot in frustration. "Unfair! Isn't it obvious you're favoring these two brats? They're the ones training with you!"

Master Roshi chuckled, offering no explanation, and began to count: "One!"

The moment the sound left his lips, Son Goku lunged like a cannonball, his speed whipping up a gust of wind!

His hand reached straight for the candy in Master Roshi's palm.

However, Master Roshi's wrinkled hand, which appeared sluggish, gave a slight twitch and a subtle twist of the wrist. Son Goku's grab missed, his fingertips merely brushing against the candy wrapper.

"Two!"

Master Roshi didn't even move his feet. He casually poked forward with the cane in his other hand, landing it exactly on Son Goku's path and forcing him to twist away in a hurry.

Krillin saw his chance and cut in from the side, moving as nimbly as a small fish, reaching out to snatch it.

"Three!"

Master Roshi's hand holding the candy suddenly lifted, easily dodging Krillin's grasp. Then, his elbow descended as if by accident, pressing down on Krillin's bald head and forcing a cry of "Ouch!" as he nearly collapsed to the ground.

"Too fast! I can't even touch it!"

Krillin complained, rubbing his head.

"Four! Five!"

Master Roshi counted while moving with effortless grace. Each step was minimal, yet he always managed to perfectly evade the increasingly rapid joint attacks from Son Goku and Krillin.

His palm seemed greased; the candy sat as steady as a mountain, and no matter how his two disciples lunged, they couldn't even graze it.

Bulma fretted on the sidelines: "Idiots! Grab it from below!"

"Left side, left side! Ouch!"

Lin Fan remained where he stood, not rushing in to fight like Son Goku and Krillin.

He could see that while Master Roshi appeared casual, his control over his body and his judgment of distance had reached the pinnacle of mastery. A brute-force grab would never work.

Furthermore, although the vast, ocean-like qi within the old man was perfectly contained, that extraordinary aura of a grandmaster could not be faked.

However, the rule was to "take it," not to "defeat him."

"Six! Seven!"

Master Roshi dodged with ease, finding the spare moment to glance at Lin Fan from the corner of his eye. Seeing him still motionless, he wondered: Has this kid given up? Or is he scared stiff?

Lin Fan took a deep breath, and the faint thread of internal energy within him began to circulate faster.

With his first-level Qi Refining energy, projecting it to harm an enemy was a pipe dream, and telekinesis was even further out of reach.

But... what if the goal wasn't to "pull it over," but to apply a tiny, perfectly timed "interference"?

He focused all his spirit, his senses locking onto the Milk Candy in Master Roshi's palm.

The internal energy struggled to seep from his fingertips, not as a shockwave, but as a subtle, almost imperceptible force of... "leverage."

This wasn't a powerful spell, but a basic application of power derived from the understanding of "material properties" within the Great Dao Source Scripture.

"Eight!"

Just as Master Roshi was about to dodge another lunge from Son Goku, he suddenly felt the Milk Candy in his palm... twitch... ever so slightly.

It was as if he had been flicked by an imperceptible static charge, or perhaps struck by a tiny, minuscule insect.

The movement was so infinitesimal that even Bulma, Son Goku, and Krillin standing nearby didn't notice anything unusual.

But Master Roshi felt it!

His control over his own body was precise to the finest detail; no subtle sensation on his palm could escape his perception!

This candy... did it move on its own? No, that's not right!

And in that gap of less than a hundredth of a second!

"Nine!"

Lin Fan's voice suddenly rang out, signaling the countdown.

Although Son Goku didn't understand what was happening, his beast-like intuition captured that momentary "opening"!

He lunged forward again, his speed astonishingly fast!

Master Roshi reacted, intending to move his hand away just as he had before, but he was shocked to discover that because of that imperceptible twitch, the candy in his palm had shifted just a hair's breadth, causing a tiny deviation in its perfect center of gravity and grip!

That tiny deviation caused his fluid movement to slow for a fraction of a second that was almost non-existent!

Snap!

Son Goku's fingers finally succeeded in touching the candy wrapper. Although Master Roshi's hand immediately retracted like a slippery fish, the candy was still flicked out of his palm by Son Goku's fingertips and sent flying into the air!

"Ah! He got it!"

Krillin shouted.

Son Goku was quick-eyed and nimble; he jumped up, snatched the Milk Candy out of the air, landed on the ground, and raised his hand excitedly: "I got it! Old man! I got it!"

Master Roshi: "..."

He stood frozen in place, looking at his empty palm and then at the candy in Son Goku's hand, his sunglasses nearly sliding off his face. What... what just happened?

Did the candy jump on its own?

Or was it this kid...?

His gaze snapped toward Lin Fan, who had been standing quietly the whole time.

That moment just now was definitely related to this seemingly frail boy!

But what on earth did he do?

He hadn't sensed any impact of "ki" at all!

It was as if... the candy itself had malfunctioned?

Bulma didn't care about any of that and cheered: "Yay! We got it! Good job, Goku! Now we can all go, right?"

Master Roshi opened his mouth, unable to speak for a long moment.

He stared at Lin Fan, his eyes filled with uncertainty and intense curiosity. This kid... he was strange! Too strange!

He coughed twice to cover his loss of composure: "Ahem... well... I suppose... I suppose you pass."

He took the candy back from Son Goku, peeled off the wrapper, popped it into his mouth, and mumbled indistinctly: "Young people these days... always resorting to crooked tricks..."

But the way he looked at Lin Fan had changed completely.