Destruction Had Come Racing In, Keeping Time with the Seconds Hand

Barros had always been cold and decisive when carrying out missions. He never blinked when killing powerful enemies.

But to obtain a single star core, could he really slaughter every living being on an entire planet with his own hands—millions upon millions of lives, still swaddled in their cradles, still laboring in the fields, still gazing up at the stars, all snuffed out by a single thought of his?

He couldn't do it.

He hadn't lost his conscience. He'd just buried it deep.

Fortunately, the universe was vast, and planets teeming with life were ultimately rare.

Most celestial bodies were nothing but lifeless rocks, parched deserts, and frozen shells. They had no cries, no history, and no tomorrow worth mourning.

The spherical spacecraft tore through the void at a speed far beyond that of a falling meteor, leaving a silvery streak in its wake.

As soon as Barros left Planet Vegeta's orbit, he abruptly changed course. The engine roared, and the ship shot straight into the depths of space.

The North Galaxy.

A forgotten stretch of space had finally awaited its executioner.

The spacecraft was like a red-hot iron spike, slamming into the surface of a dead planet. The air was so thin it was almost nonexistent, the ground cracked, the dust gray, and even the wind couldn't be bothered to blow.

The planet was pitifully small, barely one-fifth the size of Earth.

Barros stepped out of the cabin, his brow immediately furrowing. This godforsaken place made even breathing feel like chewing sandpaper.

He held his breath and switched to internal circulation. A blazing white aura suddenly surged beneath his feet, lifting him off the ground and suspending him beneath the leaden sky.

He thrust both arms forward. Golden light erupted from his palms as a highly compressed energy wave spun rapidly, humming and swelling. Dragon-scale patterns faintly appeared across its surface!

With his current cultivation, destroying an entire planet by brute force was still beyond him. He had only one option: unleash his strongest attack, the Frenzied Dragon Sky-Shattering Wave, and pierce straight through the planet's core!

"Ha—!!!"

His roar shook heaven and earth as he drove his power to its limit!

In an instant, a divine dragon with golden scales, blazing eyes, and savage fangs roared out of his palms. Wrapped in the force of thunder, it plunged into the ground!

Boom—!!!

The entire planet let out a dying groan. Its crust cracked inch by inch, mountains collapsed like brittle candy, and sandstorms mixed with lava surged into the sky!

Barros's gaze was sharp as lightning as he stared at the Dragon Ball-shaped detector in his hand. Its screen flashed frantically, its needle swung wildly, and the signal grew stronger and stronger!

Boom!!!

The planet suddenly released a shrill wail, like the final, choking sob of someone on the brink of death—

It couldn't hold on any longer.

Destruction had come racing in, keeping time with the seconds hand.

Barros's back tensed. His pupils contracted, and his nerves stretched to the breaking point.

Success or failure would be decided in the next hundred-odd seconds.

How could brilliant fireworks compare to the instant a star bid farewell?

That wasn't an explosion. It was the universe tearing open its own chest and scattering its hottest, most tragic, most irretrievable beauty across the heavens in a blaze of starlight.

For the first time, he truly understood why Frieza loved watching planets fall apart—

Because in that moment of destruction, they were so beautiful it took his breath away, so beautiful a person might willingly fall into depravity.

Huddled in the cramped cockpit, Barros opened his palm.

A fist-sized, diamond-shaped crystal lay quietly in his hand, its purple light shimmering over its sharp edges.

If he hadn't already studied the illustrations of star cores, he would never have believed it—

This peaceful, almost gentle purple crystal had been the beating heart of an entire planet for countless ages. It was the ultimate crystallization of all its weight, all its memories, and all its life.

Twenty-two

Dosajieluo, a renowned martial arts planet in the vast sea of stars.

This planet revered battle and valued strength. It boasted a density of powerful fighters rarely matched among advanced civilizations, and its overall strength had long ranked among the top in the galaxy.

A silver-gray spherical shuttle tore through the atmosphere, trailing a dazzling red-gold flame, then crashed onto a scorched basalt plain with a thunderous impact that made the whole ground tremble.

The hatch slid open with a hiss. Barros leaped out and retrieved from the ship a concealed combat power scouter, personally built by Planet Vegeta's top astrophysicists. It had never connected to any surveillance protocol, and hadn't left behind so much as a speck of data.

He raised a hand and fitted it securely over his left eye.

Beep! Beep! Beep!

The moment the scouter powered on, a shrill alarm burst beside his ear. The numbers on the screen hadn't even changed yet, but the warning had already ripped through the air.

This wasn't one of those outdated models on the market that stopped working at eight thousand.

It could accurately detect combat power peaks of up to a hundred thousand. It was the only combat-grade scouter in the universe capable of reliably locking onto fighters above the "ten-thousand level."

More importantly, it only sounded an alarm for opponents who posed a genuine threat.

Below ten thousand? It wouldn't even flash the cursor.

"Thirty-seven thousand kilometers away... Combat power: eleven thousand two hundred and thirty-seven!" Barros murmured, his voice sharp as a blade. His pupils contracted, and a chill pierced him to the bone!

That figure had already surpassed the upper limit of ordinary advanced planets by a wide margin.

Were the Saiyan warriors dispatched from Planet Vegeta to carry out extermination missions across the star systems all just for show?

Beep! Beep! Beep!

He suddenly twisted around, his gaze slashing toward the southeastern horizon. "Ten thousand seven hundred!"

The alarms immediately came in a dense barrage, one following hard on the heels of another.

Barros's expression sank deeper and deeper into an icy abyss.

Twelve thousand one hundred!

Ten thousand nine hundred and ninety-six!

Fourteen thousand three hundred and twenty!

The "ordinary advanced combat power planet" he'd taken on at random had produced seven fighters above ten thousand in one go!

"Frieza... or King Vegeta?" He tilted his head to study the eight rapidly approaching crimson lights on his scouter. His mouth tightened into a hard line, killing intent surging like a tide.

One fighter above ten thousand might have been a fluke; two could still be put down to luck.

But eight? Eight fighters above ten thousand gathered on a single planet, all racing toward him—it couldn't be a coincidence. It was an ambush, a hunt!

The universe was vast, the stars innumerable, and the Saiyans were only a few specks of dust in the galaxy.

Precisely because they were so few, intelligence was cross-checked three times before every expedition, all to avoid walking into a death trap.

But this time... something was so wrong it sent a chill down his spine.

The fighters above ten thousand could all fly through the air like the wind.

Tens of thousands of miles of mountains and rivers were no more than a breath's distance beneath their feet.

Barros stood with his arms crossed, as still as a boulder, letting one wind-wreathed figure after another descend from the sky and take up positions around him.

He didn't even raise an eyelid, much less show any intention of striking first.

A few minutes later, eight auras above ten thousand had completely surrounded the area, with dozens of elite fighters whose combat power exceeded eight thousand gathered behind them.

The burly man in the lead sized Barros up, then suddenly sneered. "Heh—so the one who came to attack Dosajieluo is just a wild monkey who hasn't even grown his fur?"

Before his words had faded, a native strode forward. He pulled out an old-fashioned scouter, rusty but covered in menacing patterns, and snapped it over his right eye with a click. Then he stared at Barros with a sneer. "Let's see how much this little beast weighs!"

Beep! Beep! Beep!

"Seven thousand!" The man blurted out in shock. The others all changed color, their faces full of disbelief.

But the shock lasted only half a second. In the next instant, every gaze turned cold, and killing intent spread like poisonous vines.

This planet had already been bloodied more than once.

Invaders never left alive.

Even the Saiyans had met their downfall here, leaving no bodies behind.

"Kill him!" The leader swept his arm forward, and over a hundred figures shot toward Barros like arrows loosed from a bow!

Barros didn't so much as flinch.

Only his hands flashed upward. The combat power within him surged like a breached dam, rising higher and higher!

Just as the hundred-odd figures were about to crash into him—

He suddenly thrust both palms forward!

Boom—!!

A surging, roaring golden energy wave erupted out of nowhere, sweeping across every direction like a tidal wave. Wherever it passed, flesh and blood vanished without a sound. Before a single scream could escape, the attackers had all turned into a crimson mist, which the violent energy then ground away without a trace!

Before the shock wave had faded, Barros slowly turned to look at the eight strongest fighters. Their faces had gone deathly pale, and sweat beaded on their temples. He lifted the corner of his mouth, forming a smile that could freeze someone's marrow.

All eight took half a step back. One of them swallowed hard, then couldn't help retching.

Barros glanced over them, suddenly grinned, and vanished.

Smack!

A sharp crack rang out, like a ripe berry bursting.

The remaining seven stiffened and whipped around—

The companion who had been standing in the center a moment earlier had become a spray of warm blood raining through the air. Not even a fragment of bone remained.

Blood droplets pattered to the ground. Barros calmly looked back at the seven, his eyes as peaceful as if he were gazing at seven corpses waiting to be burned.

That look was colder than a blade and quieter than an abyss, as if death itself were bending down to whisper.

The seven finally understood: the small figure before them wasn't prey. He was the hunter.

"Join forces! Kill him!"

Before the words had even faded, the burliest fighter—the one with the highest combat power—charged forward, his fists wreathed in crimson energy as he aimed straight for Barros's heart. He meant to pierce through in a single blow and shatter his organs!

The other six charged as well, their fists and feet cutting through the air amid repeated bursts.

But when the man's fists slammed into Barros's chest—

"Thud!"

The muffled impact sounded like a hammer striking ancient black steel.

The vicious grin on his face froze. His pupils contracted, and he turned to retreat as fast as he could!

Barros merely smiled. His right hand flipped casually, and his palm came down like a falling star, unstoppable in its force.

The giant had barely pulled his fists back when his whole body burst apart like paper. A cloud of blood shot into the air, and not even a trace of him remained.

The other six had yet to finish their attacks, but all froze in midair. They stared at the blood mist rising into the sky, their faces instantly as pale as paper.

They suddenly understood—

The seemingly young child in front of them wasn't some wild monkey.

He was an ancient ferocious beast that had just awakened, measuring the sea of stars with its claws and fangs.

Barros tilted his head. His neck cracked, and his gaze stabbed toward them like an ice pick.

Everyone he looked at felt a chill crawl down their backs. Their hearts sank, and they instinctively wanted to turn and flee—like prey caught in a snake's stare, unable even to remember how to breathe.

But...

Was there any point in running now? It was already too late.

Just moments ago, Barros had withstood several deadly attacks with his bare body, completely unharmed.

They hadn't even laid out a retreat route, yet already stood on the edge of a cliff.

Thud! Thud! Thud!

They didn't burst apart; they were crushed. The six bodies collapsed and disintegrated beneath Barros's hands, turning instantly into a crimson mist. Not even bone fragments remained.

Six top fighters with combat power above ten thousand—beings who could shake mountains with a single stomp on Planet Vegeta—were erased one by one like mosquitoes slapped out of the air in less than three seconds. They hadn't even made it a hundred meters. Not a single corpse remained.

Whoosh—!

A gale sprang up, sweeping the blood mist into the air before suddenly tearing it apart and scattering it into the distance.

Barros stood with his hands behind his back, his clothes unmoving, yet he seemed to hold the entire sky down.

He gazed over the mountains and rivers stretching for tens of thousands of miles, silent as a god descending into the world. His presence was so oppressive that knees weakened, and even the courage to look up at him was crushed away.

Time flew by.

A month passed in the blink of an eye.

To refine Dragon Elephant Prison Suppression and fully open the acupoints throughout his body, Barros swept through the planet. Every being with combat power above a thousand was put to death.

The silent massacres finally made the natives of Dosajieluo Star understand: a demon wearing a child's face had come to their planet. From then on, there would be no more dawn, only eternal night.

Forest of Despair!

This vast mountain range stretched across the continent and had always been open only to top fighters with combat power above three thousand.

Now, it had become the deepest forbidden zone on the entire planet—because the youth who had nearly dragged the whole world into purgatory had made his lair in the forest's darkest depths.

The bright moon hung high as starlight poured down.

Barros stood atop the Forest of Despair, the boundless starry sky above him and the solid earth beneath his feet.

The land should have been bathed in clear moonlight, but a beam of starlight suddenly plunged down from the depths of the universe, splitting the sky open. The moonlight dimmed, the stars lost their luster, and that single beam, like a divine sword piercing the heavens, pinned itself firmly to him.

All was silent. This beam of light was the only thing between heaven and earth.

High above, within the Dosajieluo star system, billions of stars trembled at once. Silver streams of light surged out from the celestial bodies and converged into the towering pillar of starlight, pouring ceaselessly into Barros. His skin glowed like molten gold, his veins surged like rivers of stars, and his blood burned like boiling lava!

The power of the stars surged like a tide. Using the secret art of Dragon Elephant Prison Suppression as a guide, Barros drew in the starlight to temper his body, using the star core as a furnace to refine himself.

But the power of the stars was so violent. Even with his body already at a terrifying level, he couldn't endure this kind of torrent for long.

The slightest mistake would sever his meridians and burn his organs to ash.

But he gritted his teeth and held on.

Starlight scraped at his muscles and bones like blades, again and again. The radiance of the stars burned his skin day and night like fire.

His already indestructible body was transforming at a visible rate beneath the shower of starlight. His muscles grew denser, his blood hotter, and his bones gleamed with the cold luster of jade.

Meanwhile, the fist-sized star core before him continued to shrink. Its outline gradually blurred, and its light grew more and more restrained.

Across the vast sea of stars, who could have imagined that anyone would draw on the stars as fuel and forge their own body into a weapon?

If not for the method recorded in Dragon Elephant Prison Suppression—"Let the star core draw in the stars, gather all radiance as one, and condense the acupoints into a cosmos"—Barros could have exhausted his entire lifespan without drawing even a wisp of starlight into his body.

Flesh training, skin refining, bone tempering, sinew changing, marrow washing, blood tempering, acupoint condensing—the seven layers of foundation were reinforced one by one beneath the starlight.

From then on, the blood and energy coursing through him no longer resembled a rushing river. They were like the rising tide of a sea of stars: unfathomable, continuous, and inexhaustible!

Once the star core had melted away completely and the Baihui acupoint had been perfected—

Severed arms could be restored, missing limbs could grow back, flesh could regenerate on its own, and his vitality would never perish.

Only then would the first miraculous ability of Dragon Elephant Prison Suppression truly fall into his grasp.

Deep in the mountains, one lost track of the years, unaware of the passing seasons.

In the blink of an eye, two years had passed.

The hardest threshold of the Dragon Elephant Prison Suppression—condensing the acupoints of the entire circuit—had finally been crossed by Barros.

The diamond-shaped star core quietly turned into specks of stardust and scattered on the wind.

Its final mission had been to help Barros illuminate Baihui at the crown of his head—the meeting point of all yang energy, the origin of all the meridians, the highest acupoint in the human body!

Once Baihui was open, even if he roamed the boundless universe in the years to come, the faintest glimmer of starlight brushing his skin would be instinctively absorbed by his body, silently tempering it.

This faint light might not bring a dramatic surge in combat power, but its strength lay in its steady, unending accumulation.

In a desperate battle for survival, when his strength was spent and his blood vitality waned, that inconspicuous wisp of starlight might be the only spark that could turn the tide.

Barros slowly rose and lifted his gaze to the profound starry sky. Galaxies seemed to flow through his eyes, their brilliance dazzling and captivating.

A moment later, he lowered his head and clenched his fist, his knuckles cracking. A faint smile, sharp as a blade, tugged at the corner of his mouth.

He had done it.

With this step, the foundation of the path to supreme power had been laid. As long as he did not die, even if he could not reach the absolute summit, he would surely become a hegemon in some star region, one whose edge none would dare challenge.

If one day the acupoints he had condensed could truly become a miniature universe of their own...

Then he would transcend the ten thousand Dao and stand above all.

The goal seemed out of reach, but Barros knew that he had already grasped the first key.