With his mental power greatly enhanced, Tien Shinhan immediately felt his mind become much clearer.
If he were to follow Nobi Gohan's example and become a scholar now, a new scientific genius would probably emerge very soon.
But Tien Shinhan focused on martial arts, so the most immediate effect of his increased mental power was a tremendous improvement in his comprehension of martial arts.
Ideas for improving and refining the Tri-Beam, which originally required a considerable charging time and consumed a great deal of stamina, instantly appeared in Tien Shinhan's mind.
In the blink of an eye, the prototype for the Neo Tri-Beam and the basic approach to perfecting it had fully taken shape in his mind.
It was not just the Neo Tri-Beam. He also found directions for further refining and improving all the martial arts he already knew.
The Multi-Form Technique, Four Witches Technique, Solar Flare, Dodon Ray, Kamehameha...
He had already mastered these moves, which included techniques Master Shen had taught him.
Now, after taking the Five Elements Pill and improving his comprehension of martial arts, Tien Shinhan had developed modifications better suited to himself for every one of these ultimate techniques he had learned.
Increasing power, shortening charging time, reducing stamina consumption-for every ultimate technique, Tien Shinhan could improve and refine one of these aspects.
"Is this the effect of the Five Elements Pill? It's practically tailor-made for a martial artist like me!"
Tien Shinhan was incredibly excited.
He was absolutely certain that coming here had been the right decision.
He and Goku were both pure martial artists obsessed with martial arts.
But Goku's strength followed a different path from his own.
Goku's strength lay in constantly increasing his battle power, while he did not pay particular attention to techniques.
Moves like the Kamehameha and Spirit Bomb were used early on, and he still used them later, even after becoming a powerhouse on a universal scale.
But he was different.
Compared to simply increasing battle power, he had always been more talented than Goku at mastering and creating various ultimate techniques.
At present, this talent for creating martial arts still amounted to little beside the sheer gap in battle power.
After all, brute strength overcame finesse, and a pure stat monster was terrifying too.
But after taking the Five Elements Pill, Tien Shinhan felt this existing advantage of his become even more pronounced.
Compared to a pure stat monster, wouldn't a martial artist who possessed tremendous battle power and could also create all kinds of techniques to further amplify it be even stronger?
In battle power, he improved with a fearlessness toward death that could be called taking things to the extreme; in martial arts, he now possessed immeasurable comprehension.
This was his ultimate martial arts!
Tien Shinhan considered his own situation. Only now, after a series of risks and plans, was the puzzle of his ultimate martial arts path to catching up with Super Saiyans finally complete.
Without a system cheat, he would rely on his memories to claim the fortuitous encounters and cheats from the story, one by one!
From this moment onward, Tien Shinhan truly had the confidence that he would not lose to a Super Saiyan.
The pinnacle of martial arts in the entire universe was still far away, but for the first time, Tien Shinhan truly saw a direction toward it.
The Five Elements Pill was made from soul ashes accumulated in the Eight Trigrams Furnace over tens of thousands of years, and its medicinal power was immense and surging.
Tien Shinhan realized that the few short minutes since he had swallowed the Five Elements Pill had been nowhere near enough to absorb its effects.
There was no time like the present. Since he was already amid the flames of the Eight Trigrams Furnace, he could use their searing heat to accelerate the absorption of its medicinal power.
It had accelerated the absorption of the Ultra Divine Water's medicinal power before, so wouldn't using it to promote the absorption of the Five Elements Pill's medicinal power do the same?
Thus, Tien Shinhan chose not to leave the bottom of the Eight Trigrams Furnace immediately.
Five minutes!
Ten minutes!
Fifteen minutes!
By the time Grand Supreme Kai finished her noodles and returned from the house to the Eight Trigrams Furnace, Tien Shinhan was still nowhere to be seen.
"What's going on? Where's Tien Shinhan? Did that kid leave without saying goodbye?
"He shouldn't know how to return directly to the living world, should he? Rude brat. I was going to give him a lift, but now he can take his time climbing down the mountain himself."
Grand Supreme Kai thought Tien Shinhan had already come out of the Eight Trigrams Furnace and left, and complained about his lack of manners.
But Son Gohan, who had not gone inside earlier, explained what had happened.
"Lady Annin, Tien Shinhan... he hasn't come out yet."
In fact, when Tien Shinhan had been inside the Eight Trigrams Furnace for nearly ten minutes, Son Gohan had already shouted from outside, reminding him to hurry out.
Unfortunately, perhaps because the Eight Trigrams Furnace was too large and the flames within roared with scorching heat, his voice could not reach inside at all, so he received no response from Tien Shinhan.
Son Gohan had immediately become frantic. Tien Shinhan was Son Goku's companion, and he could not simply watch him die inside.
So he hurriedly shouted outside the house again, hoping to get Grand Supreme Kai to come out quickly.
Unfortunately, this time Grand Supreme Kai had actually sealed the door to concentrate on eating her noodles, and she did not hear his calls either.
By the time Grand Supreme Kai finished her noodles and came back out, fifteen minutes had already passed since Tien Shinhan entered the Eight Trigrams Furnace.
"What? He still hasn't come out!"
Grand Supreme Kai's eyes went wide at the news.
"What a shame. He was clearly a martial artist with a bright future. I was even thinking of sparring with him after he came out.
"Now it seems I won't have that chance."
Grand Supreme Kai sighed.
If Tien Shinhan had remained inside for fifteen straight minutes, the intensity of the flames burning him should already have risen to twice its original level.
At the original intensity, Grand Supreme Kai thought Tien Shinhan could still endure it.
But at twice the intensity, and with five minutes already having passed, she thought Tien Shinhan had most likely been reduced to furnace ashes by now.
"Ah, I should have warned him that he could only stay inside for ten minutes at most.
"That kid really had a death wish. Once ten minutes passed, he should have immediately felt unable to bear it, yet he didn't even know to jump out himself.
"Did he really disregard his own life for the sake of improving his martial arts?
"There's truly only a fine line between a genius and a madman. But there's no point saying anything now. All that's left is ashes. Ah..."
Grand Supreme Kai kept sighing.
She had finally met a young man she rather liked, not just a martial artist but a living person who had come here, and had even climbed straight up Mount Five Elements, only for him to burn away just like that.
What a shame, what a shame!
But neither Grand Supreme Kai nor Son Gohan had expected that Tien Shinhan had not been burned to furnace ashes at all.
After the ten-minute mark, the flames' suddenly doubled intensity had indeed left Tien Shinhan somewhat worse for wear.
His martial arts uniform, which he had been protecting from damage by wrapping it in ki, had burned away completely.
But his body and soul were rapidly adapting and growing stronger amid this suddenly doubled burning intensity.
Growing stronger against stronger opposition-Limit Breakthrough!
In the five minutes since the flames intensified, not only had Tien Shinhan not been reduced to ashes, but his battle power had instead broken through and soared once again.
3,600!
3,800!
4,000!
By now, while Grand Supreme Kai and Son Gohan were outside lamenting his fate, Tien Shinhan's battle power had already undergone a Limit Breakthrough past the 4,000 mark in this harsh, high-intensity environment.
And this was only the beginning!