"Up ahead is the entrance to the Mount Five Elements Space. Once you pass through, you'll be at the foot of Mount Five Elements.
As for whether you can climb Mount Five Elements alive, this old woman can't make you any promises."
Before long, Tien Shinhan used the special passage Fortuneteller Baba had opened to reach the entrance to the Mount Five Elements Space without trouble.
"Sorry for the trouble, Baba. Bringing me this far is more than enough."
Tien Shinhan thanked Fortuneteller Baba again.
Although she had charged the enormous sum of one billion for the divination, she had indeed been a tremendous help.
Money might be important to ordinary people, but it meant little to a martial artist of his level.
Even with his current strength, making money on the Earth of Dragon Ball would be far too easy.
He wouldn't need to do anything evil like rob a bank. He could simply find a criminal organization like the Red Ribbon Army and take it down, easily getting his hands on a billion or so.
The only reason Chi-Chi had sent Goku out to farm for money in the story was that Goku had never given any thought to making money.
Otherwise, even if he didn't become the richest man in the world, becoming a tycoon would have been effortless.
"Heh, I only did the job because you paid me. There's no need for thanks.
After all, if you insist on risking your life, I can't very well turn down money and force you to stop.
But if a brat like you does get a lucky break and somehow succeeds, you won't need to worry about getting back alive, either.
You can simply retrace your steps. After coming down Mount Five Elements, any exit will take you back to Earth, though there's no telling where on Earth you'll end up.
If Grand Supreme Kai takes a liking to you, she'll probably find a way to help you get back, too."
Before Tien Shinhan could ask, Fortuneteller Baba added an explanation of how to return to Earth from the Mount Five Elements Space.
Although she acted as though it was none of her concern, this still showed that she hoped Tien Shinhan's adventure would succeed.
"All right, I understand, Baba!"
Tien Shinhan nodded in reply, then resolutely turned and stepped through the entrance to the Mount Five Elements Space.
Only after watching Tien Shinhan's back disappear into the entrance did Fortuneteller Baba murmur under her breath.
"Interesting kid. Be careful. I hope you make it back alive."
Tien Shinhan knew nothing of Fortuneteller Baba's reaction outside the entrance.
For at that moment, a vast, deep-blue mountain whose summit was out of sight stood before him.
"So this is Mount Five Elements? The legendary special barrier separating the worlds of the living and the dead in Dragon Ball."
The living in Dragon Ball could come from different planets, different universes, and even different timelines.
But when anyone in the Dragon Ball world died, they all shared the same destination: the world of the dead.
The fact that Mount Five Elements could separate the worlds of the living and the dead showed just how special this place was.
As for the ghosts and monsters he would have to face to climb this great mountain, he needed no reminder from anyone. He could already see them for himself.
At the foot of the mountain, those soul forms so solid they were almost opaque were all ghosts and monsters.
The arrival of a living person like Tien Shinhan was like a drop of cold water accidentally splashed into a pan of hot oil.
In an instant, the many ghosts and monsters around the foot of the mountain surged toward Tien Shinhan as though boiling over.
Many of these ghosts and monsters had formed from the accumulated, condensed souls of ordinary people.
Although those formed from ordinary people had higher power levels than when they were alive, most had no more than 10.
No matter how many of these creatures came, they could have no effect whatsoever on Tien Shinhan as he was now.
A small portion of the ghosts and monsters, however, had formed from the souls of martial artists.
The strength of these souls varied considerably.
Some of the stronger ones had power levels that could reach around 100.
The weaker ones, meanwhile, had power levels of only a little over 10 or 20.
Facing the tide of ghosts and monsters surging like ocean waves, Tien Shinhan charged toward the summit of Mount Five Elements without being affected in the slightest.
Dozens of meters!
Hundreds of meters!
Thousands of meters!
Soon, Tien Shinhan had broken through layer after layer of encircling ghosts and monsters, reaching halfway up Mount Five Elements in a single push.
The higher he went on Mount Five Elements, the fewer ghosts and monsters there were around him.
In exchange, the ghosts and monsters able to move about at higher elevations generally had higher power levels than those at the foot of the mountain.
But however strong these ghosts and monsters were, none had reached 200. In any case, they were all far weaker than Tien Shinhan.
Against Tien Shinhan's power level, which had already reached 3,000, these ghosts and monsters supposedly capable of blocking all living people at the foot of the mountain were nothing but paper tigers.
In the end, Tien Shinhan successfully climbed to the summit of Mount Five Elements, nearly ten thousand meters high, in less than a day.
What would have been a near-suicidal adventure for other martial artists was merely a mountain climb without any danger for Tien Shinhan.
Not only had Tien Shinhan avoided injury throughout the process, but even his power level had risen considerably again as he climbed the mountain and killed monsters.
As he approached the summit of Mount Five Elements, Tien Shinhan immediately felt a scorching heat unlike anything before.
In a clearing in the distance, a huge furnace burned. It was clearly the Eight Trigrams Furnace that had appeared in the story he remembered.
In the story, the Eight Trigrams Furnace had sprung a leak, even causing a sea of flames to engulf the castle of Goku's father-in-law, Ox-King.
But it was still early now. Perhaps nothing had gone wrong with the Eight Trigrams Furnace yet.
"Oh? Were you the one who just climbed all the way up from the foot of the mountain?"
While Tien Shinhan was still examining the Eight Trigrams Furnace, this place's administrator, Grand Supreme Kai, emerged from a large house to one side.
Following behind him was Son Gohan, whom Tien Shinhan had defeated once before at Fortuneteller Baba's place-Kid Goku's grandfather.
Unlike the traditional Grand Supreme Kai, Dragon Ball's Grand Supreme Kai was a tall, fair-skinned, beautiful female general wearing an ornate cape and brocade robe, with a tapered crown on her head. Her every word and action displayed a heroine's bearing.
"Yes, my name is Tien Shinhan. May I ask if you're Grand Supreme Kai?"
To avoid having to explain, Tien Shinhan asked a question he already knew the answer to.
At the same time, he also greeted Son Gohan beside her.
After all, this wasn't their first meeting, not to mention their connection through Son Goku.
"Very good. In all these years, I've never seen a living person climb straight up Mount Five Elements. You're the first!
That's right, I'm Grand Supreme Kai. You were willing to climb Mount Five Elements just to see me.
In light of that perseverance, tell me what you've come for."
Grand Supreme Kai planted one hand on her hip and gave a brisk wave with the other, openly expressing her appreciation for the perseverance Tien Shinhan had shown.
Tien Shinhan's expression turned somewhat odd at her words.
Although he certainly had great perseverance when it came to martial arts, the climb just now had been easy for him and had hardly required any perseverance at all.
Of course, Tien Shinhan wasn't foolish enough to reject her appreciation. Instead, he took the opportunity to explain his purpose.
"So that's how it is. You even challenged a legendary poison like the Ultra Divine Water?
It seems your determination to pursue martial arts exceeds even my expectations.
I may indeed have a solution to your problem. Aside from burning souls and separating the worlds of the living and the dead, the flames inside the Eight Trigrams Furnace can also temper the body.
Of course, that requires your body to withstand the flames inside. Although there's no precedent, if you want to speed up your absorption of the Ultra Divine Water's effects, I think the Eight Trigrams Furnace's flames should help."
After learning Tien Shinhan's purpose, Grand Supreme Kai frowned in thought for a moment, then gave him an answer.
"Tempering my body with furnace flames?"
Tien Shinhan was somewhat surprised, but he also felt that it seemed to make some sense.