Departure

Red energy surged around Son Goku as he looked at An Xiu with sharp eyes. "Sorry to keep you waiting. This is all the power I have now!"

An Xiu merely smiled without saying a word.

Seeing this, Son Goku stopped wasting words.

In an instant, he vanished, leaving only a deep crater where he had stood. Yet An Xiu's gaze remained locked onto him.

"He jumped into the air. Could it be...?"

"Solar Flare!"

Son Goku shouted, and a burst of white light exploded from his forehead, flooding the entire area with blinding brilliance.

For an instant, An Xiu could see nothing. The moment he instinctively raised a hand to shield his eyes, Son Goku attacked. Fortunately, An Xiu caught his energy signature.

He raised his hand to strike, but hit nothing.

An Xiu's hand passed right through that Son Goku's body.

"The Afterimage Technique? Interesting..."

An Xiu immediately understood what was happening.

Just as he considered a countermeasure, another Son Goku attacked him. He raised his hand and fired an energy blast, but it passed straight through the other's body. As expected, it was another afterimage.

"Ka-me-ha-me-ha... Wave!"

At the same time, behind An Xiu, Son Goku held both hands out as he gradually gathered energy for an attack.

Sensing that energy, An Xiu instantly flashed to his side and threw a kick. However, this too was an afterimage.

At that moment, the light created by the Solar Flare finally faded. To An Xiu's surprise, Goku appeared behind him, holding an enormous Destructo Disc that had finished forming.

—Whoosh!

Son Goku hurled the Destructo Disc in his hand, immediately following it with a Kamehameha Wave.

At such close range, he did not believe An Xiu could evade it. However, given his opponent's strength, he presumably would not die from this, so Son Goku was not worried.

In truth, An Xiu had not dodged. It was not that he could not; he simply could not be bothered to.

After taking both attacks head-on, An Xiu remained completely unharmed. Compared to before, the only difference was that the Destructo Disc had actually broken through the barrier of his energy defense and sliced open his battle suit.

Seeing that his all-out attack had only damaged his opponent's clothing, Son Goku was genuinely shocked. But at that moment, he more or less understood something.

An Xiu had to be far stronger than that so-called Emperor of the Universe, Frieza. Otherwise, there was no way he could block such a powerful attack with nothing but his energy.

"Not bad. You actually came close to hurting me. You really are impressive, Kakarot."

An Xiu looked at Son Goku, his eyes full of admiration.

With that little combo, even Frieza in his final form would have suffered badly. If he was careless, Son Goku might even have killed him.

"You're stronger than that guy called Frieza you mentioned, aren't you? I guessed right, didn't I?"

Son Goku withdrew from his Kaio-ken state. Though he had his suspicions, he did not dare be completely certain.

"That's right."

An Xiu nodded without denying it.

Son Goku revealed an expression as if he had known it, but the questions in his heart only grew.

"If that's the case, why are you helping me train? With your strength, wouldn't defeating Frieza be effortless?"

"Well, there isn't any special reason. If I had to name one, when I escaped Planet Vegeta as a child, your father Bardock's appearance made it easier for me to get away. Without him, I might already be dead."

An Xiu certainly would not mention the system mission. As for Bardock, that part was true.

Although he did not know Bardock, on the day Planet Vegeta was destroyed, Bardock's decision to confront the Frieza Force had indeed bought him quite a bit of time.

At the mention of his father Bardock's name, Son Goku visibly froze.

He suddenly recalled his so-called older brother, Raditz, who had also mentioned their father's name to him.

...After a moment of silence, Son Goku did not press further. Instead, he said, "Alright, I understand. An Xiu, let's continue our fight."

An Xiu did not refuse. He lowered his energy to the same level as Son Goku's, and the two finally began an evenly matched battle.

Half an hour later, Son Goku finally lost to An Xiu due to exhaustion and the excessive strain of using Kaio-ken.

After swallowing a Senzu Bean, Son Goku's energy surged once more, reaching a power level of five million.

Seeing this, An Xiu felt that it was about time, so he told Son Goku how to transform into a Super Saiyan.

To his surprise, Son Goku did not transform into a Super Saiyan right away.

Instead, it was only after half a year had passed, following a long period of exploration, that he finally grasped the trick to transforming into a Super Saiyan.

Another three months passed.

A year after Son Goku entered the Hyperbolic Time Chamber, An Xiu and Son Goku finally left.

During this time, Son Goku had not only successfully transformed into a Super Saiyan, but had also basically mastered the power of the initial stage of Super Saiyan 1. Against the current Frieza, he could essentially crush him.

As for An Xiu, it was not as if he had gained nothing. Aside from becoming proficient in the martial arts techniques from Earth that Son Goku had taught him, he had also learned the Kaio-ken.

After using the power of Great Ape Transformation in his normal state, An Xiu could stack Kaio-ken on top of it once more, bringing his overall strength close to a qualitative leap.

After leaving the Hyperbolic Time Chamber, the two of them did not rush to Namek.

Son Goku first needed to say goodbye to Chi-Chi and the others. As for An Xiu, he stayed at Kami's Lookout during this time.

By the time Son Goku had finished preparing everything, another three days had passed.

At Kami's Lookout.

An Xiu, Son Goku, Son Gohan, Bulma, Krillin, and the others, fully equipped and ready to go, boarded the spaceship bound for Namek.

Because of Son Gohan's insistent pleas, Son Goku had no choice but to bring him along. Though Chi-Chi was unwilling, Son Gohan still insisted on coming for Piccolo's sake.

Bulma and Krillin, meanwhile, had volunteered to come.

An Xiu had no objections either. His spaceship was enormous; he had seized it from one of Frieza's subordinates, and it had more than enough room for them all.

At this spaceship's speed, reaching Namek would take at least over a month.

During that time, Son Goku put Krillin and Son Gohan through special training. With the aid of the gravity chamber, their power levels rose from just over one thousand to ten thousand and thirty thousand, respectively.

An Xiu also used this time to explain his origins to everyone, as well as the story of Planet Vegeta and intelligence on Frieza and the army under his command.

Meanwhile.

Frieza Force base.

After recovering from his severe injuries, Vegeta learned from the "filthy fireworks" that Frieza had gone to Namek, intending to use the Dragon Balls to obtain immortality.

He immediately boarded a spaceship and hurried after him.

Inside the spaceship, Vegeta wore a savage expression.

"Just wait, An Xiu... and Kakarot..."