The Fifth Trial

After the fourth trial ended, as Son Goku walked back from the arena to the spectator area, everyone noticed that the aura of his Ultra Instinct had changed. Its former silver flames had flowed over his body like a layer of liquid mercury, constantly shedding fine particles of light from their edges; now, that leakage had almost completely vanished. The entire aura clung tightly to his skin and flowed steadily, only faintly brightening and dimming with the rhythm of his breathing. The change was subtle—so subtle that no one would notice without looking closely—but Ji Ming noticed it, and so did Vegeta.

"You weren't hit by him on the field just now. You stopped on your own." Vegeta watched Son Goku approach, his tone like he was stating a fact that had been confirmed countless times. "Every time he threw a heavy punch, you paused before counterattacking—you weren't calculating the distance. You were instinctively holding back." Son Goku thought for a moment, then nodded. "Yeah. I was afraid that body was real."

"A fake made from trial energy." There was no mockery in Vegeta's voice; he was simply stating something he had experienced himself. "Ultra Instinct never needed the brain to give orders. Your body knows how to fight. It's your consciousness that's stopping it." Son Goku nodded again without explaining, nor did he need to. They had both gone through the Tournament of Power. Both had been forced, at the moment they came closest to their limits, to face the deepest fears in their hearts. He knew Vegeta wasn't blaming him. He was reminding him.

Ji Ming leaned against the edge of the energy barrier around the spectator area, projecting the data analysis Bulma had just sent onto his wristband screen. After each of the first three trials was cleared, the ground-penetrating radar detected a shift in one layer of the energy barrier deep underground. After the fourth trial, the displacement had grown significantly. The core of Son Goku's trial hadn't been combat, but stripping away. The trial ground had pushed him toward an extreme possibility—if emotion were completely stripped away, Ultra Instinct would become a pure killing machine. But Son Goku hadn't taken that path. Instead, he had allowed his body to choose another one: maintaining a balance with emotion, neither letting emotion interfere with his actions nor abandoning it in exchange for power.

"This trial ground isn't just testing each of you individually," Bulma's voice came through the wristband, speaking rapidly. "It's collecting every one of your combat data. After each trial is cleared, the seal on that energy barrier underground loosens by another layer. If I'm right, once all the trials are over, whatever is at the very bottom will open by itself." Ji Ming didn't answer. The Crimson-Gold Light Core floated quietly deep within his sea of qi, emitting an incredibly faint resonance with every heartbeat. It was waiting. He knew that.

This time, the dark-red barrier emerged more quickly. The activation process was exactly the same as in the previous trials—the golden patterns across its surface lit up layer by layer, new inscriptions rose from the stone platform, and the blue flames before the stele were compressed inward by an invisible pressure. But the wording of the fifth trial's inscription made everyone fall silent for a moment.

"'Trial Domain, final layer—Severing the Path. The inheritor must enter alone. The bonds of companions shall bear witness here, and the origin of the Saiyans shall awaken at the end.'"

"Enter alone." Piccolo repeated those four words. His tone remained calm, but he spoke far more slowly than usual. "But the first four trials were all shared by the team."

"The final stage may be a solo trial." Ji Ming synchronized the inscription translation data to Bulma. "The earlier tests required every member to break through in their own field, but near the core, the trial ground demands that the inheritor face it alone."

"That makes no sense." Vegeta's voice turned cold. "We've made it more than halfway, smashed through every trial, and now only one person can enter the final door? What if there's something even more absurd in there than that cold-blooded Ultra Instinct from before? How is he supposed to handle it alone?"

"He can handle it." Son Goku spoke from outside the crowd. Everyone turned toward him. He was squatting on a piece of rubble, empty-handed, without his Power Pole. The silver aura of Ultra Instinct had faded from his body, making him look like the ordinary man who would sit around spacing out on Mount Paozu. "I can just feel it. What's behind this door isn't about comparing power with him. It's something else he needs to face by himself. I can't explain exactly what it is, but he can handle it."

Ji Ming looked at Son Goku. In the years since Fat Majin Buu had been eliminated, his understanding of his father had long surpassed anything from the manga of his previous life. What Son Goku had said just now wasn't a father believing in his son. It was one warrior judging another. That kind of judgment needed no explanation, because the battlefield never gave warriors time for explanations.

"Krillin, contact Bulma and have her activate the detectors. Watch for underground changes with full attention. Piccolo, Nail, keep the sealing formation running without interruption. The moment a crack appears in the barrier, trace the residual energy source back immediately. Vegeta—until I come out, don't let anyone approach the barrier." He placed the cloth bag he carried on the stone platform in the spectator area. "If we need to replenish ourselves when the fighting reaches its limit, don't spare the Senzu Beans."

Vegeta glanced at the bag of Senzu Beans, snatched it up, and clenched it in his hand without arguing further. Piccolo and Nail nodded at the same time, setting the final layer of the sealing formation outside the barrier. Son Gohan quickly stepped in front of him, removed his energy earpiece, and stuffed it into Ji Ming's hand. "Barrier-free direct connection. The built-in translation module automatically recognizes ancient Saiyan." Ji Ming took the earpiece, put it on, and patted his shoulder.

The golden patterns on the barrier began flashing at a faster rate. Ji Ming pressed his palm against the handprint on the stone platform. The Crimson-Gold Light Core gave a faint tremor within him, and the barrier began melting from its center. Interwoven dark-red and gold light swallowed him whole.

The feeling of solid ground beneath his feet came sooner than he expected. There was no dizziness, no falling—only darkness before his eyes. When he opened them again, he had entered a scene he had never seen before, yet found strangely familiar. The surroundings were vast and dim, with no sky. In the distance, a thin golden horizon quietly floated in the void, like a sight he had never witnessed but had always found natural. The ground was paved with a translucent dark-gold material, its surface engraved with dense patterns of star paths. Every line glowed faintly, as though an entire starry sky had been compressed beneath his feet.

The very heart of the entire trial ground—Sadala. Not the ruin on the planet, weathered by time until only broken walls and rubble remained, but its most prosperous form from billions of years ago. The walls of the first temple towered into the heavens, engraved with ancient Saiyan script more complete than that on the stone pillars of Planet Sadala. The full version of the True Origin Scroll floated on the distant steps of the main hall like a book someone had opened and then set aside. Every inch of stone beneath his feet emitted an exceedingly faint pulsing glow, perfectly synchronized with the Crimson-Gold Light Core within him.

At the altar in the center of the temple, a humanoid figure formed from pure golden flame slowly turned around. Its gold differed from that of Super Saiyan God—it was purer, nearly transparent, with a silver-white, aurora-like afterglow at the edges of its flames. It had no face, yet its voice matched his exactly. It did not reverberate through consciousness; it opened its mouth and spoke aloud.

"Welcome back, my future self."

Ji Ming stood before the altar, calmly looking at the golden figure. "You weren't created by the trial ground. You were something separated from the Light Core of Planet Sadala, and you've been inside my body all along. My appearance, my soul—you used them to assemble your current form. But why did you bring me here alone?"

"Because you need to know why I left. You need to know the true reason the Origin Core shattered." The golden figure raised a hand and pressed it against its chest. "When I was still alive, my name was Yamoshi. You could search through every archive on the home planet, and you would never find that name."

"The legend of the Saiyan God began with me. The origin of everything. Before the systems of Gods of Destruction and Supreme Kais were established, another kind of god existed in this universe—we called them the Primordial Divine Clan. They were the source of all power forms, and the direct creators of the ancient Saiyans. We possessed a form of power older than Super Saiyan God—the Divine Bloodline. Back then, we needed no transformation. In our normal state, we could stand alongside the Gods of Destruction of today."

His golden flames dimmed for an instant, like the tip of a surging candle flame pressed down from above.

"Then Zeno's order descended. The old gods were erased, and the Primordial Divine Clan became taboo. We were ordered to eliminate every race that coexisted with the old gods. The first ordered for eradication were the ancestors of us Saiyans. But I refused. I led the Saiyans with the Divine Bloodline in rebellion against the ranks of the new divine clan. The rebellion lasted for centuries. We scattered Saiyan seeds across the universe, only to finally be surrounded above Sadala by Zeno and the Gods of Destruction. With my last strength, I stripped away Sadala's planetary core and created the Light Core. I sealed all of the Divine Bloodline within it, hoping that a future inheritor could accomplish what I could not—allow the Saiyans to regain divine power and no longer be enslaved by any divine clan."

"You succeeded." Ji Ming's voice was soft, but every word was steady. "On the day New Vegeta City was completed, the Saiyans celebrated their new home under the sunlight. But you haven't finished explaining why the Light Core shattered. You sealed the Divine Bloodline within it, yet you weren't a complete god—you haven't explained why I could only receive its call after the Tournament of Power ended."

"Because the Light Core wasn't sealed by me. In exchange for my own soul, it was the sole exemption I obtained from the previous Grand Priest—the same man who had erased several ancient divine clans that had rebelled against Zeno. Every Saiyan planet was destroyed. Only the branch whose Light Core vanished without a trace was allowed to preserve its bloodline. The price was that my name and my people's history would be completely erased from every record throughout the universe. The reason your Light Core never fully awakened was that its condition for awakening was this: someone had to regain Zeno's recognition through the Saiyans' own strength. Victory in the Tournament of Power meant that the Saiyans of Universe 7 were legitimate orthodox warriors in Zeno's eyes."

His tone slowed.

"Your journey of battle is one final step short. The power of my bloodline—the last divine essence of the primordial Saiyans—now formally passes to you."

The golden figure dropped to one knee and raised both hands. All the golden flames peeled away from its body and poured into Ji Ming. The Crimson-Gold Light Core shook violently deep within his sea of qi, but it was not shattering. It was merging. Sadala Temple, Zeno's Planet, the resonance in Whis's prophecy—from beginning to end, they had all been part of the same process. An indescribable agony surged from within his marrow, as though an entire star had been compressed into every blood vessel before some force stretched it thin beyond measure. He made no sound. Countless scenes flashed before his eyes: Son Gohan standing up for the first time on Mount Paozu; Piccolo blocking Cell for him at Kami's Lookout; Vegeta finding his Instinctive Destruction amid rage and helplessness; Krillin still standing straight before a crowd of gods countless levels above him; Son Goku's profile as he left the last piece of fried shrimp in the bottom of the bowl for him; Chi-Chi clutching his hand as she stood on the ridge between fields. Every image was like an additional force, entering the core of the Light Core one after another.

The golden light dispersed. Ji Ming lowered his head and looked at his intact palms. The Crimson-Gold Light Core had fused with every cell in his body. His hair remained crimson, but that red was no longer the fervor of power. It had become a deeper, more inward sheen of peace. His pupils had shifted from emerald green into a paler, pure silver-gray blue, like a state Whis had once mentioned but that had rarely manifested in anyone—now quietly radiating outward from within him. He felt the new power in his body. It was not merely an increase in strength, but a complete experience of the entire history of the Saiyan bloodline.

"Your name will no longer be erased." Ji Ming raised a hand to his heart and solemnly returned the gesture to the kneeling golden figure. The golden figure transformed into one final thread of light and reflected into his palm. The abyss shattered, the temple fell, and all memories rushed into the depths of the Light Core along with the ancient records.

Outside the trial ground, everyone saw the golden patterns on the barrier light up all at once. An ancient, scorching fluctuation surged from deep beneath their feet into the void of the World of Void. Several hours later, the barrier finally opened again. When Ji Ming stepped out, his hair was crimson as before and his eyes were calm. Every step he took felt as though the Crimson-Gold Light Core was steadily burning inside him.

All his companions came forward to meet him. Piccolo's antennae suddenly tightened as he sensed the entirely new divine ki. Krillin stared blankly into his eyes. Son Goku merely smiled, then stepped aside to clear a path for him toward Whis's projection.

"The Grand Priest's reply is waiting for you. He has agreed to Universe 4's restoration request, but all races in that universe will be rebuilt jointly by the reborn Saiyan divine clan and the other five universes. As for your identity, Lord Beerus said he isn't responsible for dealing with it—he's having someone deliver charcoal-grilled steaks to the food street. Oh, Chi-Chi left a message through Kami's Lookout's communication system just now: 'Don't come back too late. There's still braised pork in the pot.'"

"Got it." Ji Ming reached out and pressed his hand against a stone pillar of Kami's Lookout. The lingering warmth of the Crimson-Gold Light Core slowly flowed into the pillar through his palm, like opening the door Chi-Chi had been waiting behind on countless evenings at Mount Paozu.