Explosive Flame Meteor

Earlier, while Jiang Yun was thinking about how to develop a technique suited for actual combat, he had sought greater power and developed Explosive Flame Force by studying the Attribute Energy of Thunder Shock Surprise.

Jiang Yun still wasn't satisfied with it. Drawing on his past experience developing martial techniques, he compressed his ki to varying degrees, made it vibrate, and even caused it to collide within a confined area.

During another experiment, a deafening boom rang out. Dust billowed everywhere as a powerful gust swept through the area. The damage was no less than that of a mushroom bomb. When the dust settled, a bloodied figure lay in a crater.

Jiang Yun slowly struggled to his feet.

"Damn it, I almost died. I should've known better than to experiment recklessly."

"Cough, cough, cough!"

Jiang Yun covered his mouth with his hand and coughed up blood.

"Good thing I covered myself with ki at the last moment. Otherwise, I'd have gone way too far. I'd be seriously injured, if not dead!"

Jiang Yun could only lament his bad luck.

Luckily, he hadn't brought a Senzu Bean with him. That would've been a real problem!

The energy he had just unleashed was more than six times his own, reaching around 2,500 in battle power.

That's right. Jiang Yun's battle power had skyrocketed during this time, rising from 230 to 410. And that wasn't even counting his various trump cards. With those, he could already match someone with a battle power of three or four thousand.

Even while using Jiang Divine Body, he could still use all kinds of finishing moves, though they took a tremendous toll on his stamina and energy.

Coming back to his senses, Jiang Yun slowly made his way toward the small wooden hut where he was staying for the time being. He had left the Senzu Beans there earlier.

The hut was tiny, and it looked like it had only recently been built. Though small, it was clean and tidy.

Inside, he could see a small wooden bed, a stool beside it, a little table, and a few other odds and ends.

Jiang Yun walked over to the bed and took out the Senzu Beans he had tucked beneath the pillow.

Crunch! Crunch!

Jiang Yun's injuries healed in an instant. He clenched his fist, feeling a surge of strength filling his body. In reality, he simply felt so good because he had just recovered.

"Every time I eat a Senzu Bean, I'm still amazed by it. As long as you're not dead, it can bring you back. It's like a get-out-of-death-free card!"

Jiang Yun murmured, marveling at the beans' incredible effects.

"With these, I don't have to worry about getting hurt. Time to keep training."

Thinking of the powerful enemies he would face in the future, Jiang Yun felt his motivation surge again. He couldn't afford to lose heart—not with such powerful foes waiting for him.

At the same time, his heart swelled with anticipation at the thought of fighting them. That was the reason he had started down the path of martial arts.

In some ways, Jiang Yun was a lot like Goku. Both looked forward to meeting strong opponents and exchanging blows with them. When two opponents met on a narrow path, the braver one prevailed. A martial artist had to be bold and determined to keep advancing.

Life rose to towering heights, and I would rise from the bottom. Every pine and cypress had endured the cold, and everyone had to go through growing pains.

Jiang Yun had never considered running from a fight. You couldn't become strong by staying a sheltered flower in a greenhouse. Strength was forged in battle. Not every strong person was born through battle, but anyone who had endured countless battles was strong!

Unlike Son Goku, Jiang Yun had a broader perspective. Goku simply wanted to fight strong opponents, while Jiang Yun hoped to use those battles to reach greater heights and show the world the potential of martial arts. He didn't want it to be dismissed as a mere parlor trick, with people mocking those who gave their lives in battle.

Jiang Yun's goal was to restore martial arts to its former place at the pinnacle of Earth. In the end, Earth would have to face the cruelty of the universe on its own.

Thinking of his goal, Jiang Yun's Martial Heart grew even more resolute.

Recalling the explosion from earlier, Jiang Yun's eyes flickered. He felt he had stumbled upon something remarkable. As he thought back over what had happened, he remembered the ki raging in his hands, vibrating and compressing over and over. Even now, he thought he'd been reckless to try it.

Not being blown to pieces had been a miracle. But Jiang Yun had also glimpsed the key to developing a devastating technique.

If he could bind that compressed, chaotic ki—the ki that kept colliding with itself—then it would be like a tremendously powerful bomb, only many times stronger.

He could even imbue it with an attribute. Jiang Yun had been studying ki's attributes for a long time. He believed they were a worthwhile field of study, even if they weren't especially prominent in the Dragon Ball World, where the mainstream focus was on battle power.

Still, a few people developed martial techniques. For example, when Goku arrived on Yardrat Planet in the original story, he learned a special form of martial training there and studied techniques. Perhaps the Yardratians had taken a different path because of their powerful mental abilities.

Goku had even learned Instant Transmission there, a technique that had saved Earth from disaster many times. Yardrat also had many other wondrous secret techniques.

Then there was a planet called Metamor, another truly fascinating place.

The planet might be unfamiliar to some, but everyone had heard of the dance Goku and Vegeta performed to fuse—the so-called Metamor Fusion.

In Jiang Yun's eyes, this technique was incredibly powerful.

For example, if Krillin and the others had learned it when Vegeta invaded Earth, then even without Son Goku, they might have been able to defeat Vegeta—as long as he didn't transform into a Great Ape. That showed just how powerful the technique was.

Another classic example of Metamor Fusion was Trunks and Son Goten. After fusing, they could immediately reach Super Saiyan Third Grade, gaining almost a hundred times their power. How astonishing was that?

People in the Dragon Ball World were too focused on increasing their battle power. Perhaps learning martial techniques was far harder than raising battle power!

The people of the Dragon Ball World were undeniably shortsighted. But they couldn't be blamed for it: there was fighting within, and outside, Lord Frieza, the universe's real estate mogul, was forcing people into deals at gunpoint.

Jiang Yun's thoughts returned to martial techniques. How could he make this new technique useful in actual combat? It needed to be fast, or his opponent could dodge it. At the same time, it had to retain its power. Even if it couldn't match the force of the explosion, it still had to surpass his own battle power. Otherwise, it would be useless against someone with equal battle power, which went against everything Jiang Yun believed in.

Thinking of the explosive force from before, Jiang Yun wondered whether he could develop something like the effect of Thunder Shock Surprise. It would surely be powerful. But back then, the Turtle Hermit's ki had been too weak.

The potential of Thunder Shock Surprise had never been fully realized. It could not only lock onto a target but also restrain and paralyze them. However, the ki was too weak, so the electric current wasn't strong enough.

The technique also required exceptional control of ki to master, since it involved converting ki into an electric current.

Jiang Yun had an idea of his own. His control over ki was no worse than the Turtle Hermit's, so he should be able to turn it into Explosive Flame Force, a ki imbued with explosive power.

After several days of analysis and experiments, Jiang Yun finally developed a technique he named Explosive Flame Meteor.

Jiang Yun brought his hands together. In an instant, he formed a meteor-shaped mass of energy and sent it hurtling forward. It struck the sea, and the shockwave even killed seabirds in the sky, sending them plummeting down.

It was only today that he had finally made some progress with the technique!