After discussing, they decided to hide Chi-Chi's name from Goku. Although Krillin was itching to know the relationship between Chi-Chi and Goku, he was more eager to see Goku make a fool of himself.
Just then, the preliminary draw began, so Krillin had to suppress his curiosity for now and focus on completing the preliminaries first.
With the help of Chaoz's supernatural abilities, everyone was assigned to different competition areas, and they didn't run into each other in the preliminaries.
The first contestant in John's preliminary match was an extremely ordinary fighter, who appeared quite burly but lacked strength.
Upon seeing that his opponent was last year's champion, who had also defeated King Piccolo, he couldn't help but feel nervous and kept swallowing hard.
As the referee shouted "Start," the fighter chose to attack first, ruSheng towards John.
The spectators widened their eyes in anticipation of seeing how last year's champion would perform now, but they completely missed how John made his move. They only saw the opponent leap towards John and then suddenly stop moving, collapsing with a "thud."
Instantly, the surrounding contestants were in an uproar; how could they fight when they didn't even see how the opponent attacked? Many contestants thought it best to forfeit rather than suffer.
Thus, several contestants smoothly defeated their preliminary opponents and advanced to the top eight finals, except for Chaoz.
While everyone chatted happily about making it into the top eight, they suddenly heard a shout of "Dōng Dōng Bō!" followed by Chaoz's scream. When they rushed over, they found Chaoz lying under the ring, eliminated by Tao Pai Pai, who was supposed to be dead but had been revived and transformed into a robot.
Tien Shenhan quickly shoved a Senzu Bean into Chaoz's mouth, and instantly, Chaoz regained consciousness and stood up again.
(Here there is a plot hole; at that time Goku and others had Senzu Beans but did not use them to save Chaoz, ultimately sending him to the hospital instead, unless they were unaware that Senzu Beans could heal injuries.)
However, it was evident that Tao Pai Pai instilled fear in him; his eyes were filled with terror as he looked at Tao Pai Pai.
Although Tao Pai Pai was surprised at how quickly Chaoz recovered, he said nothing since he too had been revived.
Tao Pai Pai looked at Tien Shenhan and Goku with a sinister smile and said, "Don't worry; none of you will escape."
Except for Tien Shenhan, no one paid attention to Tao Pai Pai's taunts. Tien Shenhan felt guilty about Chaoz's situation; if it weren't for him, Chaoz wouldn't have defected from the Crane School and faced such misfortune.
"Tien Shenhan, are you okay?" John asked.
Tien Shenhan shook his head and replied, "I'm fine. I'll take care of Tao Pai Pai; I won't bring you trouble."
At this moment, Goku chimed in from the side: "Tien Shenhan, what are you talking about? This isn't just your business; if I encounter Tao Pai Pai, I'll defeat him."
Unfortunately for Tien Shenhan's desire to settle scores with Tao Pai Pai, he never got the chance because Tao Pai Pai didn't even make it into the top eight.
In the last preliminary match, Tao Pai Pai was surprisingly defeated by a contestant named Shen without putting up much of a fight.
Especially when Tao Pai Pai drew a sword at the end, it only angered Shen further. In the end, he was kicked out with great force in a miserable fashion.
Aside from Chaoz's unexpected loss, everyone else's preliminaries went smoothly. Soon after finiSheng the preliminaries, eight contestants emerged victorious.
They were John, Goku, Tien Shenhan, Yamcha, Krillin, Shen, Chi-Chi, and Piccolo—a total of eight people. Chi-Chi was fortunate not to encounter any strong opponents and easily advanced to the top eight.
The eight contestants drew lots for their matches in the finals. The final results were:
- Match 1: John VS Tien Shenhan;
- Match 2: Shen VS Yamcha;
- Match 3: Goku VS Chi-Chi;
- Match 4: Krillin VS Piccolo.
The preliminaries went very smoothly and concluded in one morning. Therefore, the first two matches of the top eight began immediately in the afternoon.
The same host excitedly raised his microphone on stage and shouted loudly: "Dear friends in the audience! The World Martial Arts Tournament held once every three years is starting again! I am very happy to present this super visual feast once more."
"Without further ado, we will now hold the first match of the top eight between contestant John and contestant Tien Shenhan."
"Both of these are our previous top eight contestants; John is even last year's champion! I declare this match officially begins!"
As soon as the host finished speaking with a clang of a gong, the first match officially started.
Tien Shenhan immediately took his stance against John—the one whom he lost to last time—and felt quite anxious because he had no idea where John's strength limit lay; it seemed that John had never lost to anyone until now.
Seeing that John had no intention of attacking first, Tien Shenhan took the initiative to attack John instead.
With a flicker of movement, Tien Shenhan disappeared from John's sight and attacked from behind.
John didn't even turn his head but kept dodging Tien Shenhan's attacks effortlessly.
As Tien Shenhan's attack speed increased rapidly, aside from Goku and other strong contestants around them, spectators couldn't even see either fighter's shadow on stage.
Although everyone knew they were on stage fighting, they simply couldn't see their figures.
Just as spectators began expressing dissatisfaction towards the organizers due to their inability to see anything happening on stage, two figures reappeared on stage once again.
John stood relaxed with his hands behind his back on one side of the ring while Tien Shenhan lay collapsed on the other side.
It turned out that after Tien Shenhan pressed hard for some time during his aggressive attack and grew increasingly anxious—John kicked him in his abdomen—causing Tien Shenhan to fall onto the ring instantly.
With some fear in his eyes looking at John after their brief exchange made him realize he still wasn't John's opponent.
Three years of training hadn't narrowed their strength gap; if anything it seemed larger now.
John looked at Tien Shenhan and said: "Tien Shenhan! I know you must have developed some secret techniques over these three years; hurry up and use them! Otherwise you won't be able to win against me."
Tien Shenhan smiled bitterly and nodded: "Although I still have some secret techniques left unused; I feel that even if I use them all out against you... I might still not be your opponent."
"However... just letting me concede like this doesn't sit well with me. Let me show you my secret technique so I can lose thoroughly!" Finally Tien Shenhan shouted loudly.