The Fourth Trial

After the third trial ended, the space inside the trial ground fell silent once more. On the dark-gold arena disk, several faint rings of light still lingered where Krillin had last stood—marks left behind when the trial energy acknowledged a challenger. They slowly seeped into the ancient Saiyan star-track engravings on the ground, like water being swallowed by a dried-up riverbed. Ji Ming crouched and touched one of the light rings with a finger. A faint warmth reached his fingertip, almost identical to the resonance frequency of the Crimson-Gold Light Core within him.

Bulma's analysis report reached everyone's wristbands five minutes later. She cross-referenced the energy fluctuation data from the first three trials and discovered that although each trial released slightly different energy frequencies upon completion, all of them ultimately pointed toward the same location—somewhere directly beneath the arena. Ground-penetrating radar could not scan through it. After descending roughly two hundred meters underground, the scanning waves would be reflected by an extremely dense energy field and could not penetrate any farther.

"Either it's empty down there, or there's something down there that doesn't want to be seen," Bulma's voice came through the wristbands. "Either way, it proves one thing: this trial ground isn't just testing you. It's guiding you downward. Every trial you pass is like unlocking a lock. You've opened three locks already. How many are left is still unknown."

Krillin sat on the edge of the spectator area, his legs dangling above the abyss, still clutching the towel he had used to wipe away sweat. He had expended far more strength than he appeared to have—the third trial had involved no physical confrontation, but the experience of having the challenger inspect every corner of his heart from beginning to end had been more exhausting than having three ribs broken. He insisted he was fine, though he rubbed his shoulders a little more often than usual. Android 18's communication icon had remained in the upper-right corner of his wristband screen, its green online indicator never going out since the trial began. She had watched the entire process in real time through Bulma's surveillance system. She had heard every word Krillin said to the challenger in the trial space, remained silent for a while, then sent him a private message meant for him alone: "Come back and I'll stew you some beef." When Krillin saw those words, he pressed the towel over his face to hide his expression.

Ji Ming rose to his feet and looked toward the dark-red barrier that had reappeared at the end of the passage. It activated exactly like the previous three trials—the golden patterns across the barrier's surface began appearing layer by layer, the stone platform before the stele rose, and the inscription slowly emerged beneath the glow of blue flames. But this time, the wording made both of Piccolo's antennae tense at once.

After the words "Fourth Trial," there were only four more characters.

Krillin craned his neck from the edge of the spectator area to take a look, then immediately clamped his mouth shut. Vegeta's fingers curled slightly at his side, and deep-blue aura instinctively flashed before he forced it back down. Ji Ming stared at the line for a while, his fingers unconsciously reaching for the cloth pouch tucked against his chest—one Chi-Chi had stuffed into his hands last time, its opening already worn frayed.

The golden patterns on the barrier began to flicker. That invisible sensing force emerged from deep within the barrier again, slowly passing over the body of every person present as it had several times before. This time, it drifted back and forth among them for a long while, passing over Vegeta, sweeping across Ji Ming, touching Krillin before bouncing away. In the end, it settled on one person.

Son Goku sat cross-legged on a piece of rubble at the very back of the group. When the sensing force stopped on him, he was wiping the Power Pole with the corner of his clothes, looking thoroughly pleased. Seeing everyone staring at him, he set the Power Pole aside and raised his head, one brow lifting. "Me? Interesting. The name of this trial sounds so gentle. It's different from the earlier ones."

The inscription of the trial ground seemed to sense those words with perfect accuracy. The signal locking onto him flashed briefly through the air, as though someone had pressed a confirmation button.

"Target locked. Primary challenger of the fourth trial: Son Goku." The ancient declaration echoed through the air. "Ultimate emotion—test whether you can face your feelings without being consumed by them. All members may observe. The trial will take place in the arena."

Son Goku hopped down from the rubble, rolled his shoulders, and walked to the center of the arena. Bare feet stepped upon the dark-gold ground, each step sending out a thin ring of silver light. Entering Ultra Instinct no longer required any preparatory movement for him—as soon as his foot touched the arena disk, the aura of Ultra Instinct naturally emerged around his body, gentle silver-white light with calm, even ripples.

Trial energy began gathering at the center of the arena disk. Unlike the solidified challengers from the previous trials, what rose this time was not a complete humanoid figure, but a mass of light constantly changing shape. Several colors churned within it—gold, red, silver, black—reassembling in shifting proportions. It attempted to condense into a fixed form. After only a brief moment, it finally settled on a silhouette that was utterly familiar: the same build as Son Goku, the same stance, the same silver aura.

But the expression on that face was something Son Goku himself had almost never displayed—coldness. Absolute coldness, without anger, without hatred, without anything that could be called "emotion." Its eyes were pure black, without pupils. Ultra Instinct's silver aura became even fiercer beneath that extreme coldness, arcs of silver-white light continuously spilling from the challenger's body.

In the spectator area, Vegeta stood from the stone platform. Krillin heard the soft crack of his knuckles tightening, but said nothing.

Ji Ming said nothing either. He knew what that thing had become. The ultimate form of Ultra Instinct theoretically possessed a cold-blooded variation that had been repeatedly theorized and rejected—one that stripped away all emotion, leaving only absolute focus on battle. In that state, a warrior's precision and reaction speed could approach the level of natural laws without limit, but they would also lose the foundation of every force driving them forward. Whenever Whis discussed the final stage of Ultra Instinct with Son Goku, he always emphasized the same barrier: your strength comes from your emotions. Stripping them away is not the end of Ultra Instinct. It is a fork in the road.

And the trial ground could actually materialize something like that.

Son Goku's eyes brightened. "This is Ultra Instinct after throwing away all emotion? Awesome. Whis said this path had already been sealed off by the Grand Priest. I didn't think I'd get to see it with my own eyes. You're strong, aren't you?" He leaned forward, and the silver flames rising around him leapt into excited arcs alongside their master.

The challenger did not answer. It attacked the moment Son Goku's final word fell. The same silver flames, the same level of Ultra Instinct, completely identical patterns of evasion and counterattack. The pressure from their fists tore the air above the arena into fragmented vacuum pockets, and every collision blasted vast bursts of silver light across the disk. They fought from the center of the arena to its edge, then crashed back into the center again. Even their strides and breathing rhythms were nearly identical. Their high-speed exchange continued for a long while, the frequency of both their attacks rising in sync.

Everyone in the spectator area retreated to the edge of the barrier. Krillin gripped the railing tightly. He had no idea what level someone needed to reach before they could interfere in a clash between Ultra Instinct users; he only knew that if he were the one in the arena now, he would probably have been blasted off the edge long ago. After rapidly comparing all of their exchanges, Ji Ming frowned. The challenger's silver aura was growing increasingly fierce, while Son Goku's silver flames began to show faint fluctuations after remaining stable for some time—not because his energy was running low, but for some other reason. Every time the challenger unleashed an utterly unrestrained strike, Son Goku would pause for a few hundredths of a second between evading and counterattacking. That pause always landed precisely at the intersection where the attack wave shifted in density. Every one of those pauses was caught by the challenger and answered with an even more vicious counterattack.

"Goku's energy is getting stronger, but his rhythm is falling apart." Li Ke looked at Ji Ming, his voice tense. "This is nothing like him."

Piccolo's gaze never left the bone-chilling silver flames in the arena. "The challenger carries no emotional burden when it attacks. But every time Goku throws a punch, he subconsciously holds back because he's afraid of seriously injuring his opponent—even if that opponent is only a trial construct. That's the difference between him and other Saiyans. Whenever he attacks, he instinctively leaves half a step of room."

Vegeta did not join the discussion. He merely watched as Son Goku once again stopped his counterpunch after evading, only to be struck in the shoulder by the cold flames and driven back several steps. His teeth clenched for an instant, then slowly loosened—he understood better than anyone what it felt like to "hold back," because he too had once lacked that awareness, until several hopelessly stubborn Saiyans and an Earth woman had forcibly taught it to him.

Son Goku knelt on one knee at the edge of the arena, the burn along his shoulder slowly healing. He raised his head to look at the cold face identical to his own across from him, then suddenly smiled. "Whis was right. You really are strong. But haven't you got something wrong? You don't want to protect anyone, and you don't want to defeat anyone. You just keep throwing punches over and over, no different from the machines in the Gravity Chamber."

The challenger answered with an even faster, heavier attack. Silver flames pierced through where Son Goku had just been standing, blasting him off the ground. He steadied himself again in midair, but the curve of his mouth vanished—not because he had been hit, but because he was thinking. Until now, he had been using the same Ultra Instinct and the same techniques to break down the challenger's attack rhythm, but he now realized he could not keep dragging things out with it using identical moves. It was not his mirror image. It was another extreme possibility of Ultra Instinct. Under the same rules, its attacks were always half a step faster because it did not consider consequences when attacking, while he did. He had to allow his emotions to exist without allowing them to interfere with his body's instinctive reactions—not abandon emotion, but maintain balance with it.

He landed on the ground. The silver flames still burned, but his entire being suddenly became extraordinarily calm. The challenger rushed toward him again, silver-white fist pressure crashing toward his face. His consciousness issued no command; his body automatically shifted aside, letting the fist pass. Then came the second punch, the third—his consecutive evasions did not use a trace of unnecessary movement, every dodge perfectly synchronized with the motion of his joints. When the challenger punched again, his body made a completely different choice: his right arm extended, fingers spread wide. He did not block. Instead, his hand stopped ten centimeters before the challenger's fist. Silver flames burst into a gentle ripple in his palm, completely dispersing the force of that punch. He caught the other fighter.

"I've been thinking about how to beat you. But actually, I don't need to fight you. You're the things I threw away, right? Those thoughts that believed throwing away emotion would make my strength grow again. Every battle, I'm afraid of hurting someone I shouldn't, and being controlled by that feeling. I used to avoid it. Now I won't."

His fingers shifted from dispersing force to tightening their grip. He seized the challenger's fist and gently pulled it down and to the side, drawing the challenger's center of gravity out of balance. Then he continued—not to the challenger, but to himself. "I'm afraid of loss, so I hesitate. I yearn for battle, so I'm curious. I can risk my life for others, but because of that, I've made all my friends worry about me over and over. They're all contradictions. But they're all me." As he finished, he released his hand, stepped back, and assumed his opening stance once more. This time, his Ultra Instinct was completely different. No longer did chaotic, fragmented particles spill from the edges of his silver flames. They flowed steadily, retaining both a warm core and the ethereal evasiveness of Ultra Instinct.

The challenger charged at him, and he did not hesitate again. Evade, block, counterattack—so fluidly that every instant seemed synchronized with his breath. He no longer considered whether to hold back or how much force to use. He allowed his body to decide the measure of every movement itself. That was enough.

The final punch was not heavy. It landed squarely in the center of the challenger's chest. Silver flames erupted from his fist and passed through its body, exploding into a warm burst of silver light behind it. Countless fine cracks of light spread from the challenger's chest, cold flames leaking out through those fissures and becoming scorching silver-white particles that slowly drifted away. Before fading, that remaining cold face seemed to twitch faintly at the corner of its mouth.

"Trial passed. The inheritors may continue forward."

Son Goku stood amid the dispersing light particles, lowering his head as he slowly unclenched his fist. Sweat slid down his cheeks and dripped to the ground, but his body felt lighter than ever before. He turned toward the spectator area and gave them a thumbs-up, flashing his usual ear-to-ear grin. "This trial ground is really interesting. How many are left? I want to bring Master Roshi here to try it too."

The tension in Son Gohan's face finally eased. He folded up the page of analysis data he had prepared long ago and put it away. Krillin slapped his thigh and shouted, "Do you know how badly you scared us just now?" only to get smacked from behind by Vegeta, who told him to shut up. Piccolo's antennae slowly relaxed from their highest alert position as he dispersed the half-charged Special Beam Cannon into nothingness.

Ji Ming stood at the edge of the spectator area as a new line appeared in the latest data Bulma had sent to his wristband. After the fourth trial was cleared, ground-penetrating radar had detected that one of the energy barriers deep underground had just shifted slightly. Every lock was being opened in sequence. The Crimson-Gold Light Core resonated quietly within him, steady and continuous. He raised his head toward the end of the passage. The dark-red barrier was appearing once more, and beneath its golden patterns, the outline of the next trial had already begun to emerge.