Battle!

In the pure white space.

Two figures, one large and one small, floated in midair.

Mo Yuan's face was set with determination.

This was his first fight.

Although he possessed countless battle memories, those he hadn't experienced himself could only serve as reference.

Seeing Mo Yuan strike a fighting stance,

Lazuli's lips curled into a faint smile.

She folded her arms and stood casually in the air.

The gap between them was so vast it was like the difference between heaven and earth. There was no way she could take him seriously.

"Big Sis, watch out."

As soon as he finished speaking, Mo Yuan instantly focused all his ki.

Unlike Son Goku and the others, Mo Yuan didn't like testing his opponents.

They all loved to fool around—if they couldn't be revived with Dragon Balls, the whole anime would've ended in fewer than twelve episodes.

Mo Yuan didn't dare let his guard down for even a moment when fighting Lazuli.

His figure blurred as he used High-Speed Movement, vanishing from where he stood.

Like a phantom, he appeared behind Lazuli.

His small fist, packed with force enough to topple mountains, shot toward the back of her head.

It was no exaggeration to say that the power behind this punch could turn a mountain into a deep ravine.

Facing Mo Yuan's attack, Lazuli calmly turned around.

She tilted her head slightly to the side and dodged the punch with ease without even moving her feet.

The force of Mo Yuan's punch stirred Lazuli's golden hair.

When his attack missed, Mo Yuan felt no surprise.

It would've been stranger if it had actually hit.

Without pausing, Mo Yuan threw a punch with his other hand and kicked out at the same time.

Even with Mo Yuan attacking from both sides, Lazuli kept her arms folded. She swayed her body twice and dodged again.

Mo Yuan swung his fists and feet so quickly that they blurred, launching a flurry of attacks at Lazuli.

Every punch and kick carried immense force.

They seemed to tear through space, cracking through the air with sharp snaps.

The air around them churned into a massive tornado.

Yet Lazuli strolled leisurely through Mo Yuan's attacks at its center,

as if she were taking a walk in the park.

Five minutes later, Mo Yuan stopped.

He'd attacked for five whole minutes without so much as touching the hem of Lazuli's clothes.

There was no point to a fight like this. He couldn't learn anything from it.

So he looked at Lazuli earnestly and said, "Big Sis, attack me. Hit me!"

The saying "You have to get hit before you can learn martial arts" wasn't a joke.

Only by taking enough hits could he understand all kinds of moves and build up experience.

"Oh?" Lazuli's eyes narrowed.

"Are you sure? It'll hurt a lot, so don't you dare cry!"

Mo Yuan nodded firmly. "Go ahead. I'm not scared!"

His eyes were full of resolve.

Lazuli hadn't wanted to hit him. If she made her little cutie cry, it would break her heart.

But seeing how determined Mo Yuan was, she knew she had to get serious.

"Then be careful..."

Lazuli swept the hair from the left side of her face behind her ear and fixed her gaze on Mo Yuan.

White ki burst from her body, forming a transparent white aura around her.

Her terrifying presence instantly lowered the pressure throughout the space, as if the air itself had solidified.

This was the ki Lazuli had cultivated today.

Her powerful body had let her develop twenty times Mo Yuan's strength in just a few hours.

She still needed to learn how to control this power.

After all, unlike the Androids' energy, which was infinite and could be used however she pleased,

this ki was something she had cultivated herself, and it would be depleted in battle. She needed to learn how to control it through fighting.

At the very least, she needed to break her habit of wasting energy recklessly.

She had to use every bit of her strength wisely.

Under the pressure of her ki, Mo Yuan found it hard to breathe.

Using ki, huh?

Mo Yuan roughly understood what Lazuli was thinking.

Her ki was probably twenty times his own.

Honestly, he was a little envious. They'd trained for the same amount of time, yet Lazuli had cultivated dozens of times more strength than he had.

But that was only natural. Lazuli's body was like a dried-up lake; even twenty times Mo Yuan's power probably wouldn't fill it to the bottom.

He, on the other hand, was like a little puddle already full of water. If he wanted to hold more, he'd have to make the puddle bigger.

If she was only twenty times stronger than him,

then he could try that move...

"Twentyfold Kaioken!" Mo Yuan muttered inwardly.

A massive, violent energy surged up from deep within Mo Yuan and formed a red aura around his body.

The red aura burned like flames, warping the air around him.

His ki immediately pushed Lazuli's back.

The two auras met as equals.

"What incredible power."

Mo Yuan rolled his shoulders and flexed his limbs. The twentyfold increase in power was truly extraordinary.

He felt like he could kill his previous self with a casual punch—and that there'd be no dodging it.

But along with the boost in power, Mo Yuan also felt his stamina draining rapidly and his body starting to wear down.

As expected, borrowed power came at a steep price.

Mind's Eye, activate!

Mo Yuan discovered that after activating the twentyfold Kaioken, the range of his Mind's Eye had also expanded twentyfold.

"Is this Super Saiyan? It looks a little different from Vegeta's."

Lazuli studied Mo Yuan, whose whole body blazed with a red aura, her curiosity piqued.

"No." Mo Yuan shook his head. "This is Kaioken, a powerful martial art Son Goku learned from King Kai in the Northern Galaxy."

"Kaioken? Interesting!"

Lazuli's lips curled into a smile, and she seemed more interested now.

"Let's begin!"

As if they'd planned it together, they both vanished at the same time.

With their strength now equal, Lazuli could no longer toy with Mo Yuan like she had before.

Under Mo Yuan's Mind's Eye, Lazuli's every move was laid bare.

Mo Yuan had activated his Mind's Eye before, too, but the gap in their strength had been too great. Even if the Mind's Eye let him see Lazuli's movements clearly, he was still too slow to hit her.

Now it was different. With their strength and speed matched, Mo Yuan could easily block her attacks—and hit her just as easily.

Lazuli was driven back by Mo Yuan's attacks.

Mo Yuan appeared behind her like a phantom and swung a powerful kick.

Lazuli hurriedly raised her arm to block, but the blow caught her off guard and sent her flying.

Watching Lazuli hurtle away, Mo Yuan didn't chase after her. Instead, he cupped his hands together like a flower bud and held them at his waist.

"Kamehameha!!!"

Mo Yuan held nothing back. He gathered all his ki, and a purple sphere of light formed between his palms.

The pure white space was instantly awash in purple.

Mo Yuan thrust out both hands, sending a massive beam of light shooting toward Lazuli. In the blink of an eye, it caught up with her.

Lazuli's pupils suddenly contracted.

She could sense death.

With the power she had now, if she took it head-on... she'd die!

Lazuli stopped holding back. She drew on the Androids' energy, halted herself in midair, and faced the Kamehameha.

Then she raised her arm and swung it forcefully at the Kamehameha.

The purple beam bent in midair and flew off in another direction.

A while later, a deafening explosion rang out in the direction the Kamehameha had gone, echoing throughout the space.

Mo Yuan released Kaioken and stared toward the explosion.

Suddenly, a chill ran down his back.

He cautiously turned around.

Lazuli was glaring at him.

"You little brat, were you trying to kill me?"

"B-Big Sis, do you believe me if I say I didn't mean to?" Mo Yuan's voice grew weaker as he spoke.

"Of course! If my little cutie says it, Big Sis believes it!"

Mo Yuan: If you weren't gritting your teeth, I might believe you too.

I'm doomed!

"No! Big Sis, I'm sorry!!!"

"Little cutie, Big Sis didn't mean to do it either. You believe me, right?"

Lazuli pressed her fists against the temples on either side of Mo Yuan's head and twisted hard!

"Ah!!!"

Mask of Pain (Equipped)