Killing Two Birds with One Stone

Li Shu, who was chasing and playing with Son Goku, suddenly felt his nose twitch as he caught a faint scent of danger rapidly closing in on them.

Although this sliver of danger wouldn't cause him any serious harm, it would still be painful.

"Goku, fly higher!" Li Shu called out, ascending several hundred meters and breaking through the cloud layer.

Son Goku, lacking the Battle Nose, followed along in confusion. Just as he was about to ask why, he saw countless streaks of fire whistling past the spot they had occupied only moments before.

The shells slammed into a distant isolated mountain with a deafening roar, kicking up a storm of snow and ice. The mountain trembled violently, instantly triggering a massive avalanche.

"Someone's ambushing us!" Son Goku shouted in anger.

Li Shu frowned, looking toward the direction from which the shells had been fired.

First, he hadn't offended anyone here.

Second, this firepower was quite intense; without transforming into a Great Ape, it would likely hurt.

An ambush without any sense of honor—this made Li Shu quite angry.

"Why are they attacking me?" Li Shu pondered for a moment, then summoned the Holographic Dragon Radar again to zoom in on the Two-Star Ball.

Regrettably, the screen showed no one; the Two-Star Ball was simply resting inside an exquisite box.

After attempting to adjust the angle and distance, he discovered nothing more than the fact that it was a treasure room filled with gold and silver.

"Pity, the ward placement wasn't ideal." Li Shu closed the display with a sigh, though he already had a rough guess in mind.

Judging by the firepower, it was clearly a heavily armed military force.

"Perhaps I've entered their restricted airspace?"

Li Shu had long since forgotten the memories from over twenty years ago, so he couldn't recall what Muscle Tower was or which faction it belonged to.

However, based on their dishonorable tactics, they were clearly no good.

"Could it be the Red Ribbon Army?" A flash of inspiration struck Li Shu. In the world of Dragon Ball, was there any other private military force as powerful as the Red Ribbon Army?

Because his memories were so distant, Li Shu couldn't recall any other formidable armed factions.

The more he thought about it, the more likely it seemed. In the original story, the Red Ribbon Army was the most powerful opponent Son Goku faced while collecting the Dragon Balls.

They had clashed many times.

"It all makes sense now. Colonel Silver must have reported his information to headquarters. Once they learned of my destination, they notified the forces stationed at Muscle Tower in the north, which is why they launched such a decisive attack the moment they saw me!"

"That means the Two-Star Ball is in their hands? That makes things easy—I can just snatch it without any moral burden."

"I can even farm some progress toward 'punishing the wicked.' It's perfect."

Thinking of this, Li Shu grew excited. A task that killed two birds with one stone always filled him with motivation.

"That tower is so tall; there must be plenty of enemies. They wouldn't just count it as 1 point of progress, would they?"

Meanwhile, at the Muscle Tower command center.

General White stared at the surveillance monitor in disbelief.

They had actually dodged the attack?

What kind of intense danger sense and reaction speed did that require?

"Continue! I refuse to believe we can't hit them!"

Following General White's order, dense streaks of fire lit up the sky instantly.

However, for Li Shu, who possessed the Battle Nose, all of this posed no threat; he was always able to dodge these attacks before the danger arrived.

Dodging once could be called a coincidence, but to dodge such dense attacks time and time again meant there was only one possibility.

The opponent was likely just as the "useless" Colonel Silver had claimed: they were absurdly strong, and these conventional weapons had no effect on them.

Seeing it with his own eyes, he had to admit that there was a reason for Silver's incompetence.

"Activate all traps in Muscle Tower. Let them come to their deaths!"

General White ceased the futile bombardment and initiated a new ambush plan, intending to catch them like turtles in a jar.

With the formidable combat power at Muscle Tower's disposal, he was absolutely confident that he would ensure neither Li Shu nor Son Goku would leave alive!

The repeated attacks from Muscle Tower successfully enraged Li Shu and Son Goku, who immediately accelerated to full speed, rapidly closing the distance to the tower.

"Since they have no sense of honor, there's no need for us to be polite before resorting to force. Goku, let's transform and crush them later."

Li Shu's expression was cold, his facial features appearing even more defined under the lashing of the wind.

"Big Brother, I want to test my own limits. Fighting after transforming into a Great Ape is too boring."

However, Son Goku didn't enjoy one-sided battles and rejected Li Shu's suggestion.

Li Shu wasn't surprised in the slightest; after all, that was just Son Goku's personality.

Changing someone's nature was no less difficult than changing their character.

Come to think of it, if they just crushed everything in their path, it would indeed defeat the purpose of training, and their individual strength wouldn't improve.

If he remembered correctly, the man known as the world's greatest assassin, Tao Pai Pai, hadn't made his move yet, and there was also Demon King Piccolo waiting after the next World Martial Arts Tournament—both were formidable opponents.

But those were easy to handle. For him and Son Goku in their Great Ape forms, those people were nothing more than trash; they couldn't even be considered opponents, barely qualifying as sparring partners in their base states.

The primary enemies remained the three last Saiyans who would descend upon Earth in a few years: Raditz, Nappa, and Vegeta.

Because they also possessed the ability to transform into Great Apes.

However, for Li Shu, who could already transform into a Super Saiyan, they still didn't count as powerful enemies; they were merely high-level sparring partners.

Thinking of this, Li Shu agreed to Wukong's proposal, taking this opportunity to hone his combat instincts.

To be honest, though, Li Shu preferred crushing his opponents. Although he possessed the Saiyan Bloodline, he wasn't inherently warlike in his bones, always managing to suppress the battle-hungry genes within that bloodline.

His current state was quite good; he could drift through the world as he pleased, and no one could defeat him. A true opponent worthy of the name would likely only appear once Frieza arrived on the scene.

At his current rate of strength growth, by the time Frieza appeared, he would likely be nothing more than an even higher-level sparring partner.

This feeling of having a little pressure, but not too much, was quite comfortable.

With just a slight exertion, a bit of effort, he was already invincible.

Li Shu and Wukong had arrived above Muscle Tower, looking down at the tall structure. Through the glass, they could clearly see the figures inside.

A muscular man with a sturdy build was also looking at them through a window, his face twisted in a cold sneer.

The muscular man was none other than General White, and his voice boomed through the speakers installed outside the tower via a microphone:

"It seems Silver's failure has inflated your confidence a bit too much, to think you'd dare come here seeking death."

Ding! Achievement quest 'Destroy Muscle Tower' triggered. Quest reward: [Omnipotent Breath]!

The smile on Li Shu's face gradually widened; it seemed he would achieve three things at once.