Potential Unleashed

Guru's palm lifted from Ji Ming's head. A fleeting, unreadable glimmer passed through his nearly closed eyes. He remained silent for so long that Vegeta impatiently shifted his stance beside him, and Nail, standing outside the door, slightly turned and glanced inside.

"Your potential is unfathomable," Guru finally said, his voice seeming to rise from an ancient well. "I have lived for many years and unlocked the potential of countless clansmen, but I have never seen anyone like you—someone with the aura of two souls dwelling within one body, yet fused so completely they are nearly impossible to distinguish. Is that power within you, the one that does not belong to this world, also helping you pry open the limits of a Saiyan?"

Ji Ming did not answer directly, only giving a slight nod. He could feel a new surge of ki moving within him. It was not the violent eruption of a Super Saiyan transformation, but something more fundamental, more deeply rooted—the ceiling of his base battle power had been forcibly raised. He lowered his head to look at his hand, clenched it, released it, then clenched it again. His base battle power had at least doubled, perhaps even more.

"You mentioned two matters earlier." Guru slowly turned toward Vegeta. "Was the second one a request for him?"

Vegeta's body visibly stiffened. Then he frowned, his tone unpleasant. "I didn't ask for anyone."

"You do not need to ask." Guru's voice remained calm. "Your ki has been trembling since you entered. Not from fear, but anticipation."

The corner of Vegeta's mouth twitched. He wanted to retort, but in the end, he merely snorted through his nose. Watching from the side, Ji Ming silently added, The Saiyan Prince's mouth is tougher than Frieza's armor.

Guru extended his palm toward Vegeta. That hand was enormous; the palm alone was wider than Vegeta's head. Its fingers were as thick as tree trunks, and its skin was covered in deep wrinkles and age spots. Vegeta looked up at it, his Adam's apple bobbing. Ji Ming noticed that his toes had lifted slightly and his body instinctively leaned back a fraction—an innate resistance. Letting down all his guard and allowing someone to place a hand on his head was more unbearable to Vegeta than having three ribs broken.

"Boy." Guru's voice was low and weighty. "The hatred in your heart is greater than Frieza's spaceship. You hate him for killing your people. You hate him for using you as a tool for twenty years. You hate yourself for not being strong enough. You hate Kakarot for being stronger than you. You even hate this child for making you question what you have lived for all these years."

Vegeta's pupils contracted. His lips moved without making a sound, but Ji Ming saw his fists clench so tightly that his nails dug into his palms, a trace of blood seeping between his fingers.

"But within your hatred, there is something else." Guru's palm slowly descended, stopping an inch above Vegeta's head. "You have begun to hate what you did in the past. This is the heaviest hatred I have ever seen—not hatred for an enemy, but hatred for oneself. It can lead in two directions: either it crushes you, or it makes you stronger than anyone."

Vegeta turned his face aside, clenching his teeth so hard that one side of his jaw bulged. He stopped avoiding it. His neck remained rigid, like a savage beast backed into a corner but too stubborn to run.

"Enough talk. Do it."

Guru placed his palm over his head.

In that instant, Vegeta's entire body jolted. His eyes flew wide, something churning violently within his pupils. A force pouring in through the top of his head pierced through his entire body, and every bone in him gave off a low resonance. His aura burst uncontrollably from his body, purple radiance illuminating the entire room. The ancient murals carved with Namekian script on the walls trembled under the shockwaves, while fine dust rained down from the dome, looking like snow flying upward in the purple light.

Ji Ming raised a hand to shield his eyes and saw Vegeta's expression through his fingers—not anger, not pain, but something he had never seen on Vegeta's face before. It was as though something that had been suppressed his entire life had suddenly come loose.

The purple glow lasted for a minute. After that minute, Guru withdrew his palm, a fine layer of sweat beading on his forehead. Nail hurried in from the doorway and supported Guru's arm, murmuring something in Namekian. Guru waved him off to show that he was fine, then looked down at Vegeta.

Vegeta stood where he was, head lowered, arms hanging at his sides. His aura had already receded, and he appeared unchanged, but when he raised his head, Ji Ming saw that his eyes had changed. There was still hatred in them, still stubbornness, even killing intent. But there was also something indescribable now, like a lit fuse or a blade freshly sharpened.

Vegeta said nothing. He turned and headed for the door. As he passed Ji Ming, he paused. Without looking at him, he said in a voice so low it was nearly inaudible, "I owe you."

Then he walked out.

Ji Ming stood there for two seconds before turning to Guru and recounting everything about the Dragon Balls, along with the two wishes he needed them to grant.

After listening, Guru said nothing for a long time, his narrowed eyes studying the child from top to bottom.

"You wish to revive the Saiyans and oppose Frieza—those two goals alone require immense power. Yet you have even thought through the precise order in which to revive the Saiyans. How certain are you that you can finish before Frieza arrives?"

"Not very, but enough." Ji Ming lowered his voice, making sure those outside could not hear him. "First, use one wish to revive every Saiyan Frieza killed on Planet Vegeta. The second wish will revive the villagers slaughtered on Planet Namek." He paused. "The third wish will be kept in reserve, just in case."

Guru fell silent for so long that Ji Ming began to worry he would refuse. Then Guru raised a hand, signaling Nail to come closer.

"Take this child to the Dragon Ball Altar," Guru said. "Gather all the warrior-type clansmen. Tell them—Frieza is not a god. Even gods can be cast down one day."

Nail bowed and accepted the order, but before leaving, he could not help looking at Ji Ming once more. In the gaze of one of Planet Namek's strongest warriors was a trace of scrutiny, but even more respect. He could see that Guru's trust in this child was extraordinary—it was not merely trust in an ally, but a deeper kind of recognition.

Ji Ming followed Nail out of Guru's room. Sunlight streamed through the gaps in the dome, and the murals that had trembled under the purple glow had returned to silence. He saw Vegeta standing by a pond, his back turned to everyone as he stared blankly into the water.

Ji Ming walked to his side without speaking.

After a long while, Vegeta spoke. "My battle power is probably around ninety thousand." His voice was unusually calm, so calm it did not sound like him. "All my life, I've been thinking about how to become stronger. Now that I've suddenly become stronger, I feel uneasy instead."

Ji Ming turned his head to look at him. The reflection from the pond made the angles of Vegeta's profile appear even sharper, while the light in his eyes flickered like candlelight in the wind.

"Because you have something more important than becoming stronger now," Ji Ming said.

Vegeta did not respond. He merely lifted his gaze from the pond and looked toward the distant sky. At the end of the pale green heavens, Frieza's ship hovered like a tiny black dot, quiet as a bomb waiting to explode.

An hour later, Nail led them through a hidden passage in the valley and across a long stretch of forest filled with spherical vegetation before arriving at the Dragon Ball Altar.

It was a circular clearing at the end of the valley, its ground covered in white stones. Every stone had been carefully selected, all uniform in size, glowing with a milky white sheen beneath the light of the star. Seven stone pillars stood in the center of the clearing, each taller than the last. The tallest was nearly level with the surrounding cliff walls. Ancient Namekian runes covered their surfaces, every stroke giving off a faint glow.

Most eye-catching of all was a Dragon Ball resting atop one of the pillars—far larger than Earth's Dragon Balls, nearly a meter in diameter. Its entire surface was golden, while deep red patterns of light churned within it like a slowly beating heart.

Standing in the clearing, Ji Ming looked up at the seven pillars. He had seen the Namekian Dragon Balls appear countless times in manga during his previous life, but standing before one in person was completely different. This was not a drawing, not a page of paper, but a real ancient creation possessing the power to summon Shenron.

"This is one we have already found." Nail gestured toward the Namekians scattered around them. "Frieza's forces are searching for the other six. They captured people from several villages and forced them to reveal the Dragon Balls' locations. Our warriors have already clashed with the enemy, but they are no match for Frieza himself—his battle power in his first form is already too high for our scouters to measure."

Ji Ming turned to Nail. "Frieza's battle power can never be measured accurately, but all you need to know is that even his weakest, first form is no lower than five hundred thousand. They have multiple search teams. We'll split up. Vegeta will lead people to search for the Dragon Balls. I'll take you to find Frieza's search parties—we'll fight and collect them along the way."

After checking the time on his scouter, Nail exchanged brief looks with the surrounding warrior-type clansmen and began assigning teams. He specifically had one warrior remain near Bulma's spaceship in case anything went wrong. Looking at the solid muscles beneath Nail's white robe and the scorch marks on his cape, Ji Ming knew that Planet Namek's strongest warrior had personally dealt with enemy soldiers in the short time they had been here.

The moment he finished speaking, the sky suddenly darkened for an instant. It was not the kind of darkness caused by clouds—it was a deeper shadow, laden with pressure, sweeping across them from above. Everyone looked up at once.

A medium-sized warship descended from the clouds. Its hatch opened, and five figures leaped out in succession, landing on the stone platform directly before the Dragon Ball Altar. Not a single pebble stirred beneath their feet. That sense of balance and suspension made Ji Ming's pupils narrow slightly.

At their head stood a tall warrior with purple skin and two curved horns on his head. A state-of-the-art scouter covered his left eye, and a black battle cape hung from his back. His ki formed a visible ring of heat around his body, faintly yellowing the white stones beneath his feet. Four distinct subordinates stood behind him, the most conspicuous being a lanky blue-skinned man with red hair, faint arcs of electricity flickering between his fingers.

The Ginyu Force.

They had arrived at least three days earlier than in the original story. The butterfly effect caused by Raditz had finally reached this place—Frieza had probably received word and dispatched his elite forces to Planet Namek ahead of schedule.

Ji Ming stood still as his mind completed every calculation in a fraction of a second. Ginyu's battle power was one hundred twenty thousand. Recoome, Burter, and Jeice were all between forty and sixty thousand. Guldo's time-stop ability, while his battle power was low, was extremely troublesome. On their side, Vegeta had ninety thousand in base form. Ji Ming had around eight thousand after his base power doubled, and an estimated four hundred thousand or so in Super Saiyan form—but his transformation limit was ten minutes. Son Goku was not here. Their spaceship would take at least another day to arrive.

"Vegeta." Ji Ming's voice was low, but his tone had changed.

Vegeta glanced at him from the side. Just from that tone, he knew what was about to happen. One hand was already resting on the clasp of his battle armor at his waist. His body leaned forward slightly, and his eyes narrowed like a wolf's.

"Which one do you want?"

Vegeta grinned. It was the first smile he had shown since arriving on this planet, but Ji Ming knew that this kind of smile only appeared on Vegeta's face when he was about to face a real battle.

"Who's the strongest one? The purple one? Obviously, Ginyu." He lifted his chin and drew a line across his throat with one finger. "Leave him to me."

Nail stepped up beside Ji Ming, slowly bringing his fists together before his chest. The corner of the Namekian warrior's white robe was lifted by the airflow, revealing the lean, powerful contours of muscle beneath.

"I'll hold off two of the other four."

Ji Ming looked up at the five figures on the stone platform as golden energy began to spill from his body. His black hair faded to pale gold from the roots, and his emerald eyes gleamed in the dusk like two lit gemstones.

"I'll take the remaining two."

Standing atop the stone platform, Ginyu looked down at the group below and smiled as his patience ran out. "Vegeta, it's been a long time. Your power level is a little higher than last time—ninety thousand? Not bad. But compared to our Special Forces, you're still nothing."

Ji Ming stepped forward. Golden energy flared from his heels to the top of his head. The instant he turned, the tips of his hair became completely gold. The ground sank in a ring around him, and white pebbles were shoved outward by the blast of air, clattering against the stone pillars.

Ginyu's smile froze. The scouter let out an unprecedentedly shrill alarm, then exploded outright.

"This thing's upper limit is too low." Ji Ming watched the fragments of Ginyu's shattered scouter fall past the edge of his eyepiece. His voice was quiet, but every word was crystal clear. "Captain Ginyu, I suggest you get a new one—if you make it back alive."