Cymbal hesitated for a moment, then quickly made his decision.
"If I'm going to chase them, I'll chase the bigger group!"
He was not very intelligent, but he could still tell the difference between more and fewer.
The next moment, Cymbal beat his wings and swiftly pursued the direction in which Tien Shinhan and the other two had flown.
As for the pursuit from behind, Tien Shinhan and the others knew nothing of it yet.
Still, the three were already traveling at full speed, so knowing whether someone was chasing them would not have made much difference.
Poor Cymbal had clearly chosen to pursue Tien Shinhan's group, yet after flying for a while, he discovered that the distance between them was growing greater and greater.
"Are they flying too? And that speed... looks like I'll have to fly at full power!"
Cymbal had originally thought he would catch the three of them quickly, only to find himself falling farther and farther behind.
Even now, flying after them with all his strength, he was closing the distance extremely slowly.
Half an hour, an hour-in the blink of an eye, nearly three hours had passed.
"Korin Tower is just a little farther ahead. Goku, Chiaotzu, keep it up!"
Tien Shinhan encouraged Goku and Chiaotzu, and the three increased their flying speed a little more.
This infuriated Cymbal, who had been just about to catch up with them.
At their previous speed, he would have caught them in just a few more minutes, but the three had suddenly accelerated again.
For a time, the distance between the two sides neither grew nor shrank.
At last, the three arrived before Korin Tower.
Under the normal rules, anyone ascending Korin Tower was supposed to climb from the base.
But Tien Shinhan's goal in coming to Korin Tower this time was to obtain Senzu Beans from Master Korin as quickly as possible.
As one of the special treasures unique to Dragon Ball, Senzu Beans were practically a cheat.
No matter how thoroughly someone's stamina had been depleted or how severe their external injuries were, as long as they had not died on the spot, a single Senzu Bean could restore them completely!
Compared with the aging King Piccolo, the greatest advantage he and Goku currently had was their youth.
If they could obtain Senzu Beans ahead of time, they would have a decent chance of wearing King Piccolo down to death through attrition alone!
This was also why Tien Shinhan was in such a hurry to reach Korin Tower.
If they dawdled around the World Martial Arts Tournament grounds, then even if they were lucky enough to escape with their lives, they would inevitably suffer a defeat at King Piccolo's hands.
Losing once under these circumstances meant giving King Piccolo the opportunity to gather all the Dragon Balls!
So even a single defeat was unacceptable to Tien Shinhan.
He had to kill King Piccolo outright in their very first battle!
He had no protagonist halo and did not dare gamble on being rescued by Yajirobe after losing to King Piccolo, as Kid Goku had been in the original story.
Even if he died, Goku would probably make a wish to revive him afterward.
But the time spent waiting to be revived would be wasted.
The gap in strength left no room for wasting time.
In this battle, only victory was allowed, not defeat!
With the determination to win, Tien Shinhan and the other two flew straight up Korin Tower without following its climbing rules.
"Huh? Someone actually flew straight up here!"
Master Korin had been absorbed in playing with a small, fluffy ball inside Korin Tower's main hall.
The instant he sensed Tien Shinhan and the others arrive, he grabbed the fluffy ball and hid it behind his back, lest this lingering hobby from his days as an ordinary cat be exposed.
"Oh, it's you, Goku! And these two are..."
Normally, Master Korin would not have treated anyone who broke the tower-climbing rules kindly.
But Goku had performed outstandingly during his previous training here, and the two got along well.
So after seeing that the visitor was Goku, Master Korin softened the tone he had originally intended to use.
"Mm, so they're Tien Shinhan and Chiaotzu. No need to explain, Goku. I can read other people's memories."
Master Korin possessed the special ability to sense other people's memories, which allowed him to judge whether those who ascended Korin Tower were good or evil.
Before Goku could introduce Tien Shinhan and Chiaotzu, Master Korin had already learned their names, along with the fact that King Piccolo had broken free of his seal and returned.
"King Piccolo, who was sealed away more than three hundred years ago, has actually returned to the human world?
"This certainly looks like a major problem. Last time, the martial artists down below still had someone like Mutaito who could deal with him.
"But over these past few centuries, it seems no martial artist of that caliber has appeared down below again.
"Huh... your memories. How strange. There are actually memories even I can't see clearly..."
Master Korin gathered information about what had happened as he read their memories.
But as he continued reading Tien Shinhan's other memories, he encountered something unprecedented: portions that were blurred and indistinct.
This astonished Master Korin.
His Mind Reading was a special innate talent he had mastered over the eight hundred years since becoming an immortal, and it had never encountered an obstacle before.
Yet, unexpectedly, Tien Shinhan's memories had caused his Mind Reading to encounter a problem for the first time.
Still, since he could not see through them, Master Korin did not dwell on it.
What mattered more now was defeating King Piccolo, who was wreaking havoc down below!
"Never mind. You came here to find a way to defeat King Piccolo, didn't you?
"Unfortunately, my Ultra Divine Water is really just ordinary tap water. It can't directly increase your strength.
"Do you have any plans for dealing with King Piccolo?"
For the moment, Master Korin could not think of a suitable way to help Tien Shinhan and the others.
But he figured that since the three had made a special trip to Korin Tower to find him, they had probably already come up with a plan to deal with King Piccolo.
As it turned out, his guess was correct.
Goku and Chiaotzu might not have had any particular plan, but Tien Shinhan had come here precisely to follow the plan he had devised.
Now that Master Korin had asked of his own accord, Tien Shinhan directly explained why he had come.
"Master Korin, do you still have any Senzu Beans here?
"Against the aging King Piccolo, perhaps we can make the most of our advantage in stamina.
"Maximize our strengths and strike at the aging King Piccolo's weaknesses!"
"Senzu Beans?
"If Senzu Beans are all you need, I still have plenty!"
Master Korin was not stingy.
Though Senzu Beans were miraculous, he grew them himself.
Moreover, over the past few centuries, there had not been many battles on Earth that required Senzu Beans for recovery, so he had accumulated a large supply.
"Here, this jar is a little less than half full of Senzu Beans. If that's not enough, I have another two barrels in the storeroom."
As he spoke, Master Korin had already turned around and brought back a jar with a shallow layer of Senzu Beans, holding it out before Tien Shinhan.
"Here, take them all!"
"Haha, that's wonderful, Master Korin! Then I won't stand on ceremony. I'll save my thanks until after we've killed King Piccolo!"
Looking at the shallow layer of Senzu Beans in the jar, Tien Shinhan roughly estimated that there were over a hundred. His eyes lit up as he stored it in a Hoi-Poi Capsule.
With cheat-level treasures like these, this was certainly no time for polite refusals. If Master Korin was willing to give them, he was willing to take them!
"Hehehe, King Piccolo is an evil being who commits every imaginable atrocity. If you can defeat him, I should be thanking you for protecting Earth."
Master Korin waved a hand carelessly, seemingly not taking the small matter of giving away a jar of Senzu Beans to heart at all.
This was hardly strange. After all, in the Dragon Ball story, Master Korin had not stopped Yajirobe from squandering Senzu Beans by eating them as meals.
All the more so now, when Tien Shinhan needed the Senzu Beans for his plan to defeat King Piccolo.
"King Piccolo is powerful. With your current fighting strength, you may still be no match for him.
"Actually, besides the unremarkable Ultra Divine Water, I really do have another kind of Ultra Divine Water that is said to potentially increase a person's fighting strength.
"Of course, so far, that possibility has only existed in legend.
"The Ultra Divine Water is highly poisonous. It takes powerful life force to successfully bring out its effects.
"So far, no one has survived after drinking it.
"Whether you fight King Piccolo directly or test the effects of the Ultra Divine Water is up to you."
Master Korin sensed Tien Shinhan and Goku's determination to defeat King Piccolo. After some hesitation, he finally told them about the Ultra Divine Water.
Of course, although he had mentioned it, he did not actually recommend that the two try it. After all, no one had ever succeeded before.
"Haha, I've finally caught up with you! Hand over the Dragon Ball!"
Just then, an uninvited guest appeared outside Korin Tower's main hall.
At the railing along the edge of the hall, Cymbal landed on a stone pillar and laughed in relief.
I caught up!
I finally caught up!
Those three really could fly. They'd made him chase them for more than three whole hours!