Zeno's Invitation

On the third day after Beerus left, the aftershocks of that god-level battle still lingered above the Lookout. Dende and Nail spent an entire morning repairing every plaza tile cracked by the shockwaves. Piccolo stood at the edge of the temple, his antennae trembling slightly as he repeatedly checked whether the spatial rift Beerus had casually torn open at the edge of the atmosphere had fully sealed. It had closed, but the residual godly ki lay over every stone tile of the temple like a faint dusting of gold, impossible to wipe away. Dende said it might be a good thing—after being steeped in godly ki, the Lookout would have a whole new level of resistance against dark magic. Piccolo fell silent for a moment, then said to leave it.

Ji Ming sat on the temple steps. The red aura of Super Saiyan God had long since faded, and his hair had returned to black, but a faint lingering crimson remained in his eyes. It was a temporary mark left by the god form. Beerus had said it would take about a week to fade completely. Ji Ming lowered his head and looked at his palms, where several fine cracks had appeared—not dry skin, but residual damage from enduring Beerus's destruction energy in god form, impacts that even a Super Saiyan God body had not been able to completely disperse in time. The cracks did not hurt, but each one reminded him of something: defeating Beerus did not mean defeating the entire divine hierarchy behind him.

"Beerus said Zeno might be interested in me," he murmured.

"What is Zeno?" Krillin sat beside him with a cup of tea. Having fought through every great battle from Frieza to Majin Buu, the bald Earthling warrior was one of the few people who could still remain at ease around Ji Ming.

"Beerus is a God of Destruction, and Whis is an angel. Gods of Destruction are responsible for destruction, while angels are responsible for guidance. And Zeno—he exists above all Gods of Destruction and angels. He isn't a god. He is the rule itself. He can make an entire universe disappear in an instant. No battle, no energy—just simply 'erase' it. In front of Zeno, Beerus wouldn't even dare flick his tail."

Krillin's hand paused slightly around his teacup. "Then what do you mean by 'interested'?"

"I don't know." Ji Ming raised his head and looked at the clouds above the Lookout, faintly gilded by godly ki. "Maybe he's curious. Maybe he wants to see what a Super Saiyan God looks like—or maybe he just wants someone to play with."

In the distance, Vegeta was walking out of the Gravity Chamber on New Vegeta, heat still rising from his muscles after training. The battle with Beerus had shaken him more than any battle before it—he had watched Ji Ming and Son Goku achieve god forms one after another, while he had not even touched the threshold. Over the past few days, he had doubled the intensity of his Gravity Chamber training while beginning to practice the most basic ki control under Whis's guidance. Before leaving Earth, Whis had given him a piece of advice: Vegeta's ki was like a mass of constantly exploding gunpowder. He had enough power, but could never strike the same point with precision. The first threshold of the god form was not absolute strength, but the ability to control every thread of ki down to the cellular level. After hearing that, Vegeta had engraved the words onto the Gravity Chamber control panel and recited them every day before turning it on.

Son Goku's Super Saiyan God form also stabilized after the battle with Beerus. His god form was slightly different from Ji Ming's—Ji Ming's red aura was more restrained, like a precisely controlled thin film; Son Goku's red aura was more uninhibited, constantly shedding fine golden particles from its edges. Whis said this was determined by individual traits. Son Goku's ki was inherently closer to "freedom," so his god form reflected that quality as well. Ji Ming sparred with Son Goku twice in the mountains behind the Lookout and discovered that while Son Goku's god form had slightly weaker defense than his own, it possessed greater attack speed and a faster rate of variation—father and son complemented each other perfectly.

That afternoon, Ji Ming was sparring with Vegeta in the Gravity Chamber. The gravity was set to one hundred and twenty times normal, and neither of them had transformed. They were simply breaking down offense and defense in their base forms. Vegeta's punches were more restrained than before, every strike carrying minute adjustments in angle. He was no longer relying on brute force to overwhelm his opponent, but repeatedly testing—testing whether he could pierce Ji Ming's defense through precision alone without transforming. Punch by punch, Vegeta chipped tiny cracks into Ji Ming's defensive line, but it never collapsed. Ultra Instinct's instinctive evasion, combined with his base-form defenses, had already formed an automatic response mechanism that required no conscious intervention.

The spar lasted seventy minutes and ended with Vegeta's fist breaking through Ji Ming's defense—a punch precise enough to breach his guard without hurting him. Ji Ming's chest went faintly numb from the force of the punch. Both of them stopped at the same time. Vegeta was breathing heavily, but a rare trace of satisfaction rose at the corner of his mouth. He said he called that punch "Zero Style"—no transformation, no charging, just pure precision. Rubbing his chest, Ji Ming said the name was good and that Bulma could register it as a trademark for him later. Vegeta snorted and walked out of the Gravity Chamber, his expression somewhere between "don't flatter me" and "keep talking."

Ji Ming was about to follow when he suddenly stopped. The air in the Gravity Chamber had changed. It was not becoming heavier, but rather a nearly imperceptible tremor coming from space itself—like someone tapping on glass far away, making the entire pane hum even though you could not see who had tapped it.

He pushed open the Gravity Chamber door and saw that a multicolored vortex had appeared above the temple plaza at some point. The vortex was not large, only about three meters across, but its colors were dazzling—red, gold, purple, and silver-white intertwined as they spun at high speed without making a sound. Whis stepped out of it, lightly tapping his staff against the temple tiles, his smile as gentle as ever. But this time, Ji Ming noticed something faintly solemn in Whis's smile, subtle enough to be almost imperceptible.

"Everyone, there is some news that would not be convenient to discuss over the communication channel." Whis looked around. Piccolo, Krillin, Vegeta, and Son Goku had all gathered in the plaza. "Lord Zeno has heard about Super Saiyan God and is very interested. He has invited you to Zeno's Planet."

The temple plaza fell silent for a full three seconds.

"The people Lord Zeno wishes to meet are the two of you—Son Gohan and Vegeta. As for how we will get there, the passage to Zeno's Planet is only open for a limited time. I will not fly you there. I will take you directly through." Whis's smile returned to its usual curve. "Of course, Lord Zeno is quite easygoing, as long as you do not get too nervous."

Vegeta's Adam's apple bobbed. A moment ago, he had still been polishing the precision of a single punch in the Gravity Chamber. Now he was about to be dragged straight before the highest being in the universe—no language could describe that kind of leap. Ji Ming, on the other hand, appeared relatively calm. He had known this day would come sooner or later—Zeno's curiosity toward anything new was the greatest in the entire multiverse. As the first new form to appear in this universe in tens of millions of years, Super Saiyan God could not possibly have escaped his notice. Ji Ming merely calculated in silence what wording he should use when they met, then realized that any wording would be meaningless before Zeno. So he stopped calculating and decided to adapt when the time came.

Whis turned and drew a circle in the air with his staff. The multicolored vortex suddenly expanded from three meters to more than ten. The chaos of colors within it faded, forming a clearly visible passage. Countless specks of starlight lined both sides of the passage, much like the microwave background radiation left behind by the Big Bang.

"Let's go."

Ji Ming and Vegeta entered the passage one after the other. There was no temperature inside, no sound, no sense of direction. It felt as though they were walking on an extremely thin sheet of ice, with every step sending out a faint ripple. At the end of the passage stood a pure white door.

The door opened.

Zeno's Planet was not large—smaller even than Earth's moon. The entire planet's surface had only one color: white. Not snowy white, not pale white, but an absolute white that reflected no shadows at all, like the very first instant after the birth of the universe. There was neither sun nor stars in the sky, yet soft, even light shone everywhere. There were no buildings, no plants, no rivers—only a huge circular crystal table floating in midair, surrounded by several crystal chairs of the same material.

Zeno sat in one of those chairs. His small body was wrapped in a blue-and-purple robe, and he wore a crown larger than his own head. His face was round and chubby, his skin white as porcelain, and his eyes were two pure black dots devoid of all emotion. He was playing with a miniature galaxy model floating in the air, flicking a tiny planet away with one finger. The planet tumbled through the air several times before automatically returning to its original position.

"Lord Zeno, the guests have arrived." Whis bowed, then stepped aside.

Zeno raised his head. His black dot-like eyes moved back and forth between Ji Ming and Vegeta twice before he broke into an innocent smile. "Ohhh—Super Saiyan God! The red one! And one who isn't red! Whis said you're the ones who fought the God of Destruction to a draw!"

Ji Ming and Vegeta looked at Whis at the same time. Smiling, Whis added, "Lord Zeno does not have much patience for the details of a battle, but he is very interested in the result."

"Right, right, right! Battles are boring. Results are interesting." Zeno jumped down from the crystal chair and pattered over to Ji Ming, looking up at him. Ji Ming was currently in his black-haired base form. Zeno tilted his head and examined him for a while, then reached out his tiny hand and poked Ji Ming's arm. "Change back."

Ji Ming said nothing. He closed his eyes, then opened them again—his hair changed from black to red, his pupils from dark brown to crimson, and the red aura of Super Saiyan God ignited around him once more. Zeno let out a drawn-out "Woooow," stepped back two paces, and looked him over from head to toe several times. Then he ran back to the chair and pressed a button. The projection at the center of the crystal table suddenly shifted to a massive holographic image—showing Son Goku's earlier battle against Beerus on Mount Paozu in his Super Saiyan God form.

"I watched this!" Zeno said excitedly, slapping the table. "It was super fun to watch! Way better than Saiyans fighting Frieza! That God of Destruction is usually so fierce, but you beat him up. So funny! So I've decided—from now on, you two can come to Zeno's Planet whenever you want! Same treatment as Gods of Destruction!" He turned to Whis. "What does same treatment as Gods of Destruction mean?"

"It means they may retain access privileges to Zeno's Planet, Lord Zeno."

"Right, right, right! That's what I mean!" Zeno rapidly wrote several characters in the air with his finger. Wherever his finger passed, glowing golden symbols condensed in the air. Once formed, the symbols turned into two streams of light and sank into the backs of Ji Ming's and Vegeta's hands, leaving behind faint golden marks before automatically fading away.

Ji Ming looked down at the golden mark gradually vanishing from the back of his hand. He understood that this access privilege was far more than permission to visit Zeno's Planet. Zeno's interest in Super Saiyan God was, at its core, interest in new possibilities for this universe—if this universe could give birth to Super Saiyan God, could other universes produce similar beings? If every universe could produce beings like this, perhaps Zeno would no longer be so bored. As Ji Ming thought this through, a chill ran down his back. This access privilege was both an honor and a weight that could crush an entire universe.

Zeno went over and poked Vegeta too, looking up at the expressionless Saiyan prince. Vegeta's body had gone rigid. Zeno looked up at him, but Vegeta had absolutely no idea how to respond—after all, nowhere in the Saiyan code of conduct was there a rule for "being poked in the arm by the highest being in the universe."

"You're a Saiyan too?"

"Yes."

"Why aren't you red?"

Vegeta did not speak for several seconds. "I haven't learned how yet."

Zeno tilted his head and looked at him for a while longer, then pattered back to Whis and tugged at the hem of his clothes. "He'll turn red someday too, right?" Whis bowed slightly and said that Mr. Vegeta also possessed the potential to become a Super Saiyan God, though he was still accumulating what he needed to cross the threshold. Zeno gave an "Oh," then turned back to Ji Ming.

"I have a question." Zeno clasped his hands behind his back and looked up at Ji Ming. For the first time, a trace of seriousness appeared in his black dot-like eyes. "Why do you want to be a Super Saiyan God? The God of Destruction said that when you fought, there was no killing intent in your heart. There was only defense and guidance. That's different from every Saiyan I know. Aren't Saiyans supposed to fight, fight, fight, kill, kill, kill, and then become Super Saiyans?"

Ji Ming was silent for a while before he said, "My mother can't fight, but she's braver than anyone. My father is a Saiyan, but he never became stronger to kill people. There are too many people around me willing to use their lives to protect others—not because they can win, but because they have things they want to protect. I became a Super Saiyan God only so those people would not have to die again."

Zeno said nothing. He simply tilted his head and looked at Ji Ming. His dot-like eyes blinked, and then he smiled. It was not the innocent, carefree smile from before, but a quieter one, like he had solved a difficult problem.

"I know who your mother is. The things she makes taste even better than what the God of Destruction likes, right?" Zeno looked extraordinarily serious when he said it, as though discussing a question on the scale of the universe.

Ji Ming froze for a moment, then nodded. "Yes. Even Lord Beerus likes her cooking."

"Then can I go eat there sometime? There's no good food on Zeno's Planet. The attendants only know how to make energy blocks, and energy blocks taste awful. Every time I chew an energy block, I think about blowing up a universe to pass the time. But if I could eat something tasty, maybe I wouldn't need to blow one up."

Ji Ming fell silent for two seconds. Not because he was speechless, but because he realized that Zeno had just revealed the core logic of the entire divine hierarchy—Zeno's destructive acts did not come from malice, but from boredom. When a being had lived for countless billions of years, possessed everything, and could do anything, the only variable left was whether something was "interesting." If a universe ceased to interest him, he only needed to move a finger to make it disappear. In that sense, the fate of the entire universe really was directly tied to whether Zeno was in a good mood today.

"You're welcome anytime," he said.

Vegeta stood beside him, his mind still racing to process the leap from one woman's cooking to the fate of the entire universe. Zeno ran back to the crystal chair and slapped its armrest. The crystal table's projection changed again—this time, not to battle footage, but to a huge holographic map that covered the entire table. It was no ordinary star chart, but a complete structural map of the multiverse. Twelve universes lay layered in holographic space like twelve folded sheets of paper, overlapping at different angles and curvatures.

"Look at this!" Zeno pointed at the full-domain star map. "Twelve universes! Every universe has a God of Destruction, an angel, and a Supreme Kai! But only your universe has a Super Saiyan God! So amazing! So I think—maybe the other universes have something similar too, they just haven't discovered it yet! If every universe has a Super Saiyan God, then I can call all the universes together for a meeting!"

Zeno paused, and an even wider smile appeared on his face. "Then I'll make you fight! Super warriors from all twelve universes fighting together! And the last one standing, I'll make him the super boss of all universes!"

Zeno's Planet fell silent for a long time. Whis still wore his smile, but Ji Ming noticed that the fingers holding his staff tightened slightly for an instant. He had never seen Whis make that gesture before. Zeno continued poking excitedly at the holographic star map, pointing from one universe projection to another as he muttered, "Who could this universe send?" and "That universe's God of Destruction said last time that they had a few strong fighters too."

Ji Ming and Vegeta exchanged a look. No words were needed; both read the same message in the other's eyes—the multiverse-level martial arts tournament, Zeno's "meeting," was essentially a gamble that would decide the fate of every universe. If they lost, the consequence might not be as simple as "go back to Earth and keep training." Universe 7 itself could be erased directly from the map of the multiverse. But refusing Zeno's invitation was impossible. No one had ever been able to refuse any request Zeno made.

"When will this tournament be held?" Ji Ming asked, his voice steady.

"Hmm—" Zeno tilted his head and thought. "Today? Tomorrow? Now?" His sense of time was clearly completely different from that of mortals. Whis finally spoke. "Lord Zeno, gathering representatives from all twelve universes will require some preparation time. The Gods of Destruction and Angels of each universe will need to select contestants, and the contestants themselves will need time to prepare. Taking mortal lifespans and physical cycles into consideration, I suggest setting it one Earth year from now."

"Then one Earth year from now!" Zeno clapped, and the light across all of Zeno's Planet flickered at once. "Go back and tell everyone! In one year, the strongest warriors from all twelve universes will come here—no, this place is too small. Whis, go build a special arena. Make it huge, big enough for everyone, and it needs spectator seats too! I want to watch it live!" Then he turned to Ji Ming, his black dot-like eyes curving into crescents. "What color do you like? I can paint the champion's trophy that color. How about red? It matches your Super Saiyan God really well!"

"Red is fine."

"Then red it is!" Zeno spun around happily. "I'm so excited! A year is so long—but that's okay. I can take a nap first. When I wake up in a year, it'll be time to watch the tournament!" He sat back down in his crystal chair and waved his hand. "Whis, send them back. I'm going to sleep." With that, he leaned against the back of the chair, closed his black dot-like eyes, and his small body sank softly into the seat. In less than three seconds, he was breathing evenly.

Under Whis's guidance, Ji Ming and Vegeta retreated into the colored passage. When the vortex closed behind them, Vegeta let out a long breath. "You said 'red is fine' just now. Are you out of your mind? He's really going to hold a multiverse martial arts tournament, with the strongest fighters from every universe all competing, and you were discussing the color of the trophy with him?"

"Didn't you see how excited he was?" Ji Ming rubbed the golden mark on the back of his hand, which had already faded from view. "He was completely fired up."

Vegeta fell silent. Starlight rippled faintly beneath their feet in the passage. The two walked side by side along this special path that stretched from the mortal realm to the domain of gods, and the weight on their shoulders was visibly different from when they had arrived.

Ji Ming looked up at the light glowing at the end of the passage. "One year. We have to bring all of Universe 7's top fighters up to a level where they can stand against the other eleven universes."

Vegeta gave a derisive snort, purple flames flickering involuntarily around his fist for an instant. "Isn't that perfect? You, me, and Goku are Saiyans. There's nothing we fear less than grinding through real combat."

"This time is different. It's no longer a matter of fighting until someone admits defeat. It's a matter of 'lose, and the universe is gone.'"

Vegeta's steps paused. Then he strode forward again. His voice dropped lower, but every word came out hard. "Then we'll stake every shred of Saiyan pride on it."

After returning from Zeno's Planet, Ji Ming gathered all of Universe 7's finest warriors at the temple. Son Goku, Vegeta, Piccolo, Son Gohan, Goten, Trunks, Android 17, Android 18, Krillin, Tien Shinhan, Chiaotzu, Nappa, Piccolo, Nail, Dende, and every Saiyan warrior of note assembled in the temple plaza. The holographic projection replayed the star map of Zeno's Planet, and in less than twenty minutes, Ji Ming laid out the tournament's basic rules—lose, and the universe would be destroyed; even victory might not guarantee safety. After a brief silence, the plaza filled with the sound of battle suits and armor scraping as everyone readjusted their equipment.

The mountain behind the temple was requisitioned as a training ground. The number of Gravity Chambers increased from two to five. Bulma pushed all three Capsule Corp production lines to their limits, while Dr. Brief personally supervised the power modules of every Gravity Chamber to ensure that an overload in any one of them would not affect the other four. Vegeta began researching advanced applications of Zero Style—how to maintain the same precision in Super Saiyan form as in his normal state. On his first attempt, he shook the Gravity Chamber's control panel hard enough to trigger a row of alarms. Son Goku, meanwhile, continued delving deeper into Ultra Instinct with Whis, dragging Ji Ming into extreme evasion training twice every day, morning and evening.

Piccolo and Nail jointly proposed using a variation of Planet Namek's ancient sealing techniques to briefly share defensive power across the entire team during the team battle stage. Dende took the formulas and began drawing formations densely across the temple's stone slabs. Bulma recalibrated Android 17 and Android 18's infinite-energy engines for combat output mode. Android 17's first test shot at the range blasted through three layers of protective walls, while Android 18 synchronized the calibration data to the wristbands of every Saiyan.

One month later, Whis had sukiyaki at Mount Paozu and, while he was at it, handed Ji Ming the standard parameters for combat power assessments. Universe 7's selection tournament was held on the great arena outside the temple. The final ten-man team was decided after Son Gohan secured the last slot by launching a close-range combo that suppressed Vegeta. Vegeta stood straight and gave his opponent a nod, while the audience's cheers shook the temple's stone pillars until they trembled.

After the finals ended, dinner at Mount Paozu continued. A large table was packed with people, and golden bread steamed in the warm air. A small, brightly colored figure ran back and forth between the table settings, grabbed a piece of bread and stuffed it into his mouth, puffing his cheeks into little round balls. Chi-Chi chased after him with a bowl of freshly served soup in her hands. Bulma leaned by the window and watched the sunset. Son Goku and Vegeta sat side by side on the roof, still discussing techniques and counters. Ji Ming sat in his usual old seat, looking at the people filling the house—Chi-Chi chased Zeno around trying to feed him soup, while Zeno dodged and crammed bread into his mouth; Piccolo silently took his third piece of pumpkin; Chiaotzu and Oolong played rock-paper-scissors in the corner.

Whis smiled faintly over his teacup. Son Gohan picked the biggest rib from between his chopsticks and placed it in Ji Ming's bowl. Ji Ming did not refuse, lowering his head and eating it clean. Outside the window, the night wind passed through the pine forest of Mount Paozu, carrying several fallen leaves with it. Zeno lay sprawled on the sofa, asleep after eating his fill, still clutching a half-eaten piece of bread in his hand. The starry sky remained unchanged, and the lights of Mount Paozu were on.