Too Weak

Son Goku was startled by his sudden appearance. After recovering, he asked in confusion:

"Didn't we part ways less than five days ago?"

"Haha, time flows differently inside the Hyperbolic Time Chamber. I stayed in there for nearly a year. Didn't Mr. Popo tell you?" An Xiu explained with a smile.

"Oh, oh..."

Son Goku suddenly understood, recalling that Mr. Popo had mentioned this before.

"Alright, Kakarot, enough talk. Let's start training."

An Xiu led Son Goku out into the open space.

He took out the Scouter Bulma had improved and said to Son Goku:

"Raise your ki to the limit. Let me see what your current battle power is."

"Okay."

Son Goku nodded.

"—Hah!"

The next second, white energy flared wildly from his body, and his ki quickly rose to its limit.

"Just over ten thousand battle power. It seems that although he wasn't seriously injured in his last fight with Vegeta, he still improved quite a bit. With his current strength, using the threefold Kaio-ken should let him defeat Vegeta quickly..."

An Xiu thought to himself.

He removed the Scouter and gestured at Son Goku. "Kakarot, attack me with everything you have!"

"Alright."

Son Goku's eyes sharpened. He rapidly closed the distance between himself and An Xiu, then lashed out with a powerful kick at An Xiu's neck.

Bang!

An Xiu did not budge. With his arms crossed over his chest, he did not retaliate, merely watching his opponent in silence.

"Kakarot, aren't you going to use your full strength?"

"I understand."

Hearing that, Son Goku stopped holding back and immediately activated the threefold Kaio-ken. Red energy surged around him in an instant.

"Ah-da-da-da!"

A storm of attacks rained down upon An Xiu, but he remained completely still. He even began to smile.

How was this possible...

Son Goku was utterly shocked. He had known there was a vast gap between their strengths, but he had never imagined it would be this enormous.

Even after growing stronger again and using all his strength, he could not even make An Xiu move.

Seeing that his punches and kicks were useless, Son Goku immediately retreated from An Xiu. He assumed his classic stance and gathered ki in his palms.

"Kamehameha Wave!"

A blue beam of light swallowed An Xiu whole.

When the light faded, An Xiu was completely unharmed. There was not even the slightest sign of damage to his clothes.

Son Goku, on the other hand, had already expended more than half his stamina after using the Kaio-ken and unleashing that entire combo. His body was so weakened that he could no longer maintain the threefold Kaio-ken.

"Too weak."

An Xiu shook his head.

The next second, he appeared before Son Goku, his clenched fist driving into the latter's chest.

Amid a series of cracking sounds, all of Son Goku's ribs shattered. His internal organs suffered severe injuries, and he was nearly dead in the next instant.

An Xiu withdrew his fist and unhurriedly fed him a Senzu Bean. In the next second, Son Goku was fully restored, and his battle power surged dramatically.

"Whew..." Son Goku touched his chest, still shaken. "That was close. I almost died!"

An Xiu stood to one side, expressionless. "Kakarot, you're far too weak right now. You can't train with me at all."

"There's nothing I can do about that. You're just way too strong..."

Son Goku's tone was helpless. For the first time, he had such a clear understanding of how weak he was.

Even An Xiu was this powerful—just how strong was that guy called Frieza?

Thinking of that, he could not help feeling somewhat dejected.

"You're already so powerful. Can you still not defeat that guy called Frieza?" Son Goku asked in confusion.

An Xiu did not answer. He handed Son Goku a small bag of Senzu Beans, then took a Hoi-Poi Capsule from the small box at his waist and tossed it onto the ground.

—Bang!

After a burst of smoke, An Xiu's Spacecraft appeared inside the Hyperbolic Time Chamber.

After Bulma's modifications, the gravity inside the spacecraft could reach up to one hundred and fifty times normal gravity, more than enough for Son Goku to train his battle power to a level of one million.

After explaining the use of the Gravity Chamber and the Saiyan trait of gaining a massive boost in battle power after recovering from near-death injuries, An Xiu had him enter the Gravity Chamber to train.

He himself did not go inside.

This kind of training method would not benefit his growth as much as his body's natural development.

His training had already reached a bottleneck. Other than fighting powerful enemies, the only way for him to improve significantly in the short term was to master Super Saiyan or another new form. Otherwise, his strength would hardly change much.

Three months later.

After his body had fully adapted to one hundred and fifty times gravity, Son Goku challenged An Xiu to a spar.

Looking at the confident, battle-hungry Kakarot, An Xiu found it rather amusing. "Do you really think that, with your current strength, you can defeat me?"

"How would I know if I don't try?" Son Goku assumed a stance, looking completely composed.

It was not that he had become overconfident. Compared to three months ago, his current strength had undergone an almost qualitative leap.

If he stacked Kaio-ken on top of it, he might truly be able to fight the other party. He even had the confidence to challenge Frieza, the Emperor of the Universe that An Xiu had mentioned.

"You're too naive."

Although the Scouter could no longer measure the other party's strength, An Xiu could roughly judge the limits of his normal power from his aura.

—Over four million.

No wonder he was so confident in challenging me...

The corners of An Xiu's lips curled up slightly as he raised a finger.

"Come on. I'll fight you with just one finger."

"Hmph."

Even Son Goku could not help getting angry at being looked down on like that.

With a roar, he charged forward.

His raised fist tore through the air as it smashed viciously toward An Xiu's chest. The force behind it was so immense that the ground within a hundred meters cracked apart inch by inch.

Yet even such a fierce attack was stopped by a single finger from An Xiu.

"Not bad. You've really improved."

As An Xiu praised him, he flicked his finger, sending Son Goku flying back like an arrow loosed from a bow.

Only after carving a gash hundreds of meters long across the ground did Son Goku barely manage to stop himself.

"You're really amazing..."

Blood seeped from the corner of Son Goku's mouth, and he was deeply astonished.

Just one blow had left his current self struggling to withstand it.

He truly could not imagine how powerful the other party really was!

He rose to his feet with difficulty, then tore off his tattered martial arts uniform, revealing his sturdy upper body.

Having clearly recognized the gap between them, Son Goku decided to hold nothing back. He took a deep breath and roared:

"Kaio-ken—twentyfold!"