Breaking a Sweat... Tien Shinhan

The preliminary hall was stiflingly hot. Several hundred bare-chested men were packed together, and the air reeked of sweat and the pungent odor of liniment for bruises and sprains.

Chen He stood beside Goku in front of the drawing box. The martial artists from all walks of life, who had been noisily chatting moments ago, unconsciously lowered their voices as the two passed by.

It was not because they recognized them, but because martial artists' instincts were sounding an alarm—standing too close to those two boys made even breathing feel oppressive.

"Chen He, look at that." Goku pointed toward two people in a distant corner.

They were two young men in green robes. One was tall, with a third eye conspicuously growing from his forehead. He stood with his arms folded, his eyes closed as he rested. The other was short, wore a Qing-style braid, and had a face as pale as paper. He was sweeping the crowd with a sinister gaze.

Crane School—Tien Shinhan and Chiaotzu.

Chen He followed Goku's finger with a glance, then promptly looked away.

His mind remained a dead, gray silence. The system's final words before it went dormant—"I was almost discovered"—weighed on Chen He's heart like a heavy stone. Over the past year, with a power level of 40,000, he should have been able to look down on everyone on Earth at this stage. But the uncertainty of losing the system had pushed his rigorous and pragmatic nature to the extreme.

Without the daily data feedback from the system, he used his own body to remember. Every punch thrown under thirty times gravity, every drop of sweat he shed, had become his most tangible strength.

"What's wrong, Chen He? You seem especially serious today." Goku looked at him curiously.

Goku could sense that the "ki" around Chen He was not only countless times greater than it had been a year ago, but was also condensed like an unsharpened greatsword. Chen He had never been one to smile, but now, the indifference in his eyes—an indifference that regarded everything as insignificant—made even Goku, a genius guided by instinct, feel slightly stifled.

"Nothing. I'm thinking about something I need to confirm." Chen He answered flatly and reached into the drawing box for a slip of paper bearing a number.

At the same time, Tien Shinhan in the corner abruptly opened the third eye on his forehead.

He stared fixedly at Chen He's back, and his steady breathing instantly faltered. As the Crane School's most outstanding disciple, Tien Shinhan had always possessed absolute confidence in his own strength. He had never truly regarded even the world-famous Turtle School as a threat.

Yet in that brief instant, when Chen He's gaze swept over him, Tien Shinhan felt an icy chill shoot up his spine and straight to the top of his skull. It was not killing intent, but the emotionless disregard of a superior predator looking at an ordinary stone by the roadside.

"Tien Shinhan, what's wrong?" Chiaotzu tugged at the corner of his robe and asked in confusion.

"...Nothing." Tien Shinhan took a deep breath, forcibly suppressing the cold sweat seeping from his palms. Yet the shock in his eyes was impossible to hide. "That black-haired brat from before—stay away from him. If you meet him in the preliminaries, don't hold anything back. Use your full strength immediately."

"Is he strong?" Chiaotzu tilted his head.

"Strong... abnormally strong." Tien Shinhan gritted his teeth. His pride made the fact difficult to accept, but his martial artist's instincts told him that the man named Chen He was simply not an opponent on their level.

On the other side of the hall, Master Roshi, disguised as Jackie Chun, silently watched it all.

He had originally thought this tournament would be a fierce clash between the younger generations of the Turtle School and the Crane School. But now, looking at Chen He standing amid the crowd, unfathomable as an abyss, Master Roshi could only sigh helplessly to himself.

"This generation of brats really is going to trample us old bones completely underfoot..." Master Roshi gave a bitter smile and pushed up his sunglasses. He could tell that Goku's growth still fell within the normal bounds of martial arts, the fruit of sweat and talent. But Chen He's power had already completely transcended the realm of Earth's martial arts. It was an absolute despair so overwhelming that no one could even feel envy toward it.

"Number 12, report to Ring One and prepare."

The referee's voice rang through the hall.

Chen He looked at the slip in his hand, nodded at Goku, then unhurriedly undid the top two buttons of his black training uniform, revealing the gravity vest beneath, its surface faintly gleaming with a dark metallic sheen.

Sooner or later, he would uncover the truth behind the system's final warning. But for now, he would start by utterly crushing this martial arts tournament before him.