Goten hadn't noticed his hair—his entire attention was fixed on the inside of the mountain.
The newly fused power poured into the crack—the fissure widened at a visible pace, growing from the width of a needle's point to the width of a little finger.
Golden light surged out of the mountain again. This time, it didn't dim. It grew brighter and brighter, until even the runes carved into the stone walls began to warp and distort.
A tremendous clap of thunder rang out in the sky.
It wasn't natural thunder—it was an echo produced when the Seal was stirred.
Above Five Finger Mountain, dark clouds began to gather. They weren't storm clouds, but golden clouds, as if something above them had opened its eyes.
A bolt of lightning struck the ground in front of Goten. It wasn't trying to stop him—it left a line of text on the ground before him.
The words hung in the air for three breaths, each one glowing.
The line read: "You finally came."
Goten stopped channeling Origin Energy.
He said nothing, only stared at the words. The remnant power deep inside the mountain stirred again, more intensely than before.
It was like someone plucking a string that had been taut for five hundred years. The tremors spread in wave after wave.
The words within the golden light faded, replaced by a low rumble that came from inside the mountain.
It wasn't laughter. It was the Golden Cudgel vibrating, its body resonating with the mountain. The frequency of the vibrations sounded like laughter.
The little-finger-wide crack in the mountainside silently widened a little more.
The Golden Cudgel's aura surged out from deep within the mountain, washing over Goten like a tide, warm and heavy.
Goten felt his hand grow hot. It wasn't Origin Energy burning—it was something reaching out from deep inside the mountain, passing through the crack to touch his fingertip.
It touched him, then withdrew.
Like a giant beast sleeping beneath the water, turning over in its dream and unwittingly brushing the surface.
It wasn't a conscious touch, but an instinct lingering in its body, sensing whether the power outside was worth answering.
Goten stood there, looking down at his fingertip. A faint golden glow still lingered there.
He wanted to speak, but his throat had gone tight.
That night, Five Finger Mountain was unusually quiet.
Goten sat by the campfire. He hadn't tried to wear down the Seal since yesterday—not because he'd given up, but because Sun Wukong's touch had helped him understand something.
He didn't need to yank the Golden Cudgel out by force. What it needed was for him to be ready.
It was a trust deeper than strength.
Zhi Zun Bao sat across from him, poking at the fire with a twig. "What did he feel like?" Goten looked up at him.
Zhi Zun Bao didn't look at him and kept poking the fire. "The one you touched today—Sun Wukong. What did he feel like?"
Goten thought for a moment. "Tired."
"Tired?"
"Like he'd been waiting for a very, very long time—so long he was nearly asleep, and then suddenly heard someone call his name."
Zhi Zun Bao said nothing.
He tossed the twig into the fire, stood up, and brushed the ash off his backside. "Then don't keep him waiting too long."
Goten looked down at his hand. The faint golden glow on his fingertip had disappeared, but the aura deep within the mountain was still there, waiting with each slow breath.
He closed his eyes—not to wear down the Seal, but to answer the one who was waiting.
He circulated the newly fused power within him with all his might, not channeling it into the mountain but into his own hands. Then his hair turned gold.
It wasn't Super Saiyan Flash—this was a form he'd already possessed.
The suppression of the world's rules hadn't been fully lifted, so he could maintain it for only three breaths. But the moment his golden hair appeared, his aura surged to three times its strength. He felt that some switch within him, suppressed for who knew how long, had been turned back on.
Zixia saw it.
Zhi Zun Bao didn't, but Zixia did. She said nothing, though the corners of her mouth lifted slightly.
Deep inside the distant mountain, the remnant power stirred again, more gently than before.
It wasn't Sun Wukong speaking. The power in his body was telling the Golden Cudgel: Almost.
The Super Saiyan power had awakened again, if only for a brief three breaths.
But deep within the Golden Cudgel, the fragment of Sun Wukong's Spiritual Sense sealed inside its shaft felt the resonance of his body and opened its eyes in the darkness.
Goten sat by the campfire, unable to sleep.
He replayed that feeling from the day over and over—the clarity of the two forces within him finally merging completely.
The familiar feeling when his Super Saiyan power awakened again was like seeing an old friend.
And there was the touch of Sun Wukong's fingertip through the stone wall, cool yet warm.
Like someone who'd spent five hundred years in an ice cellar finally feeling the first ray of sunlight.
He raised that hand before his eyes and looked at it. His fingertip no longer glowed.
But he knew that power had returned. It was simply suppressed, and when the suppression was finally lifted, he would show the entire Three Realms.
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