Tusta Planet

"Slug!"

Rage—fury nearly burned away the last remnants of his reason. The energy within his body surged continuously like a blazing aura, while the pupils in his eyes flickered in and out of view.

Li Ming's state had reached a critical threshold because of his extreme anger, yet he still felt as though he was just one step short, unable to cross that final barrier!

Consumed by rage, Li Ming did not know why this was happening to him, nor did he want to know. He only knew that he had to leave now.

Frieza's spacecraft and Slug, lurking in the shadows, had already caught up. If they caught him, the outcome would be impossible to predict.

"Stet, go put the ship away immediately. Hurry!"

Stet was completely panicked as well. It was his first time seeing Li Ming in such a state, and he hurriedly replied, "Yes, yes!"

The reason Li Ming had told him to put away the ship was to turn it into a Hoi-Poi Capsule. This core technology from Dr. Brief's family had naturally been incorporated into the spacecraft.

But this was outer space. Once exposed to the vacuum, a normal person would die within minutes. Though Stet was an alien, he would only last a few minutes longer.

Under the shadow of death, Stet made a mad decision.

The spacecraft rapidly fleeing the vicinity of the supernova suddenly began to slow down. Li Ming, whose condition was still unstable, sensed Frieza and the others' energy rapidly closing in and frowned.

He had originally intended to use this chance to try breaking through the limits of Super Saiyan, but things had not gone as he wished. After failing for so long, it could essentially be considered a failure.

Stet's little scheme had not escaped his notice. A trace of killing intent surfaced in his eyes.

He entered the storage room and took the Hoi-Poi Capsules containing the Senzu Beans and Fruit of the Tree of Might. Then he pressed two fingers to his forehead. The farther the destination, the more difficult Instant Transmission became.

He needed to sense a precise energy signature. Crossing an entire planet directly was far more difficult than it sounded, especially given his unstable state.

At the same time, Frieza, who was pursuing him, also noticed something strange. Li Ming's spacecraft had actually come to a complete stop!

An alien hurried over to report, "Lord Frieza, that Saiyan, he—"

A streak of purple blood flashed through the air. The alien collapsed soundlessly, his life force extinguished.

Bloodstains and scars still covered Frieza's back, while injuries of varying severity marked his body. Being hit by Li Ming's Kamehameha had been nothing, but the supernova's terrifying energy had truly wounded him!

If he had really been pushed into the supernova's range back then, even he would have been reduced to nothing!

Clank, clank...

Though his feet had only three toes, their surfaces were covered in armor-like protective layers. Thus, each of Frieza's steps produced a sound like machinery colliding and grinding together.

Without saying a word, he walked outside the spacecraft. An incomparably massive sphere of destructive energy gathered at his fingertips before he fired it directly at Li Ming's ship!

The energy sphere was so enormous that it swallowed the entire spacecraft whole. Only after vanishing into the distant universe did it finally explode.

"Tch! Damn Frieza, and that Saiyan too. Hmph!"

A spacecraft silently departed. Slug had been hiding in the shadows the entire time, waiting for an opportunity. His purpose had naturally been to take revenge on Li Ming.

But because Frieza was present, he had not revealed himself. Only when Li Ming suddenly ambushed Frieza and drove him into a desperate situation did he strike decisively. He had thought it was a killing blow, yet Li Ming had still healed himself with a Senzu Bean and even escaped.

Seeing Li Ming's spacecraft completely destroyed, Slug could only leave in anger.

He was no match for Frieza, and he had even less desire to confront Frieza head-on. As one of the universe's overlords, he understood the Frost Demon's temperament all too well.

Frieza would not bury the hatchet with him out of gratitude for saving his life. This region of the universe only needed one ruler.

"Did he escape? That Namekian... Hehehehe!"

"Lord Frieza, the scanner shows that the Saiyan has completely disappeared!" A short alien approached, holding a scouter.

Frieza frowned and stopped laughing. He was in a fairly good mood now. At the very least, after dealing with Li Ming, he had once again proven that Saiyans were nothing special. Even the violent energy he constantly had to suppress within his body had calmed considerably.

Seeing this, the alien quickly said, "Lord Frieza, the new headquarters has been completed. Its environment is exactly the same as the previous one. You may inspect it whenever you wish."

"Hehehehe! Not bad. You've done well. Let's return."

Frieza had been so enraged because his original headquarters had been destroyed. Now that Li Ming had been dealt with, he no longer cared about that planet.

He had plenty of planets under his control. If he was dissatisfied, he could simply invade a few more.

What truly pleased him was eliminating Li Ming, a suspected Super Saiyan. That was more important than anything else!

On the other side, the Galactic Patrol likewise believed it was impossible for Li Ming to have survived, so they did not send out reconnaissance robots to continue searching. Such things happened every day in the universe. As the Galactic Patrol, their role remained that of mediators, not truly maintaining so-called peace.

Before the vastness of the universe, so-called peace was utterly laughable. Even if peace were truly maintained, once the universe's resources were depleted to a certain point, that would mark the beginning of the real disaster.

That was why Beerus, the God of Destruction, existed. He was responsible for reducing the universe's burden, while the Supreme Kai was responsible for making up for what the universe lacked.

One positive and one negative maintained the balance of the universe together. Once someone disrupted that balance, destruction would naturally follow.

The Galactic Patrol understood this better than anyone, which was why they had been able to exist in the universe for so many years.

After all, as mediators, they appeared to offend no one, yet in truth they offended everyone, because their profits came from every alien race that traded with them.

Not far from the spacecraft Frieza had destroyed, a figure appeared in outer space shortly after he left.

Li Ming looked at the wreckage of the ship, his body covered in horrifying wounds.

At the final moment, he had abandoned the idea of using Instant Transmission. On one hand, he was uncertain of the Galactic Patrol's surveillance range, and this explosion would conveniently help him evade it.

On the other hand, although Instant Transmission was an incredibly overpowered ability, it was not impossible to counter once exposed.

Rather than continue taking risks, Li Ming chose to fake his death!

Just as he had silently evaded Frieza's pursuit before, this time he did so even more thoroughly.

Now, neither the Galactic Patrol nor Frieza would be able to find him anytime soon.

Whoosh!

His figure vanished directly into the void of space, and in the next instant, he appeared on a nearby inhabited planet—a standard trade planet. At the same time, he raised a hand and cut off the tail behind him!

Kami had once suggested helping him seal his tail, but the condition was that it had to be cut off first. Li Ming had refused, for a very simple reason.

He was afraid of pain...

That was right. As an ordinary person, he instinctively recoiled from cutting off a part of his own body. He knew that even if it hurt, the pain would only last an instant, but he simply could not bring himself to do it.

Now, Li Ming did not care about any of that and severed it without hesitation.

He then entered the planet. The life energies on this planet were unusually varied, and most of them were not weak. Clearly, this was no insignificant world. Having made that initial assessment, Li Ming relaxed considerably. Even the Galactic Patrol would not extend its reach to a planet like this.

A day later, Li Ming had gained a basic understanding of the planet.

Tusta Planet was roughly the same size as Namek—ten times the size of Earth—and was also a trade planet ruled by a Three-Eyed Clan member named Muli.

Of course, though he was said to rule it, Muli had managed the planet quite well. As a trade planet, it was positioned more or less between the major inhabited worlds, allowing it to efficiently supply spacecraft traveling through the universe and facilitate the trade of various resources.

Over time, it had grown to a certain scale. Even Frieza had no interest in a planet like this. After all, he wanted to become the Emperor of the Universe, not wipe out all life in the universe.

"Hahaha! Cut the crap. If you've got the guts, go challenge Quinn."

"Gurgle, gurgle gurgle!"

Upon entering a trading house, Li Ming discovered that the place was more like a combination of a mercenary guild and a supermarket. There were simply too many kinds of resources in the universe, so currency was basically no longer useful.

Even currency issued by the Galactic Patrol struggled to retain its value, making barter and equivalent exchanges of resources the best approach.

Aside from resources, the most important thing in the universe was naturally strength. For example, hiring a cosmic powerhouse with a battle power exceeding one thousand required either a type of ore produced on Meishan Planet or dark ore from the Demon Realm.

The value of these things did not lie in serving as currency, but in being used directly to build spacecraft!

The first thing Li Ming saw was a bald, entirely blue alien speaking with a cosmic race that looked like a cross between a fly and an alien creature. As for what they were saying, the language of the galaxy was commonly understood, but that cosmic race was clearly speaking in a "dialect."