Taro brought Bam to a place near a small village. The area appeared to be a farm where people made a living through hunting and animal husbandry.
Even two hundred years into the future, with technology advanced enough to achieve the "space folding" capabilities of the Capsule Corp, some areas on Earth in the Dragon Ball world still lived in a way reminiscent of the previous century of our own Earth. Either the technological tree had grown incorrectly, or... the gap between the rich and the poor had grown extraordinarily wide.
This farm was one such place—looking poor and backward. But what was even stranger was...
"Why is there no one here?" Bam asked, puzzled, walking into the village. Row after row of thatched and mudbrick houses stood empty, as though they had been ransacked by bandits. Yet, though empty, nothing was disturbed; the items that hadn't been "taken" were all intact. Taro walked behind Bam, scanning the desolate village, with the small immortal bird languidly grooming its feathers on his shoulder.
At the end of the village, in a small courtyard, they found an elderly couple.
"Old sir, where is everyone in the village?" Bam asked as he hesitated, looking back at Taro. The courtyard had a half-height mud wall but no proper door. Bam stepped forward and asked.
He had remarkable talent; otherwise, he wouldn't have trained to near a 100 in martial arts using only family techniques. Now, after several months of Taro's personal guidance, his strength had greatly increased. More importantly, Taro had shown him many ways to use Ki and other techniques for training, making Bam almost unrecognizable from the person he was months ago.
In Taro's eyes, this kid's power was close to 180.
But his attitude towards others remained unchanged. The frail old man sitting in a worn wicker chair, basking in the dim sunset, was not disturbed by the arrival of guests. Taro approached and, in a softer tone, asked the question.
The elderly man had poor hearing, so Bam repeated his question several times before learning that... the people in the village had all moved away months ago.
Taro, thoughtful, glanced toward a deep mountain area behind the village, thinking that it made sense.
"Sigh!" An old woman, her hair completely white, emerged from a thatched house and murmured something in a voice that sounded like a mix of regret and sighs. Bam strained to catch the words "demon realm," "Shula," "great door," and "big mountain."
It hadn't been long since the demon disaster passed, and even Bam, who had made it his goal to wipe out all the demons, couldn't help but feel a chill at hearing such words from an elderly woman.
He now understood why the rest of the villagers had moved away.
He also finally realized why Taro had brought him here.
The old woman held a small, cracked bowl with a few gray lumps of unknown material inside and offered it to Bam.
He hesitated for a moment but eventually took the bowl. Taro casually picked up one of the gray lumps from the bowl, popped it in his mouth, chewed a few times, and swallowed. His expression softened as he sighed gently, "It must be tough for the two of you to live here alone."
The old man on the wicker chair slapped his thigh, making a hoarse sound that was difficult to understand, but it seemed to express the sentiment of never leaving home. Bam fell silent as he picked up one of the gray lumps from the bowl, tasted it... It was really unpleasant, slightly bitter. He chewed slowly and murmured, "Yeah, who would want to leave home..."
But his family had long since passed—before the demon invasion. He had thought his life would pass in loneliness, that even though he knew a bit of martial arts, there would be little use for it in a world of advanced technology, unless he chose to become one of those involved in underground fighting or underhanded dealings, people he despised.
He thought his life would end like that—insignificant, with no achievements. After his death, no one would remember him, and nothing would prove that he had ever existed.
But… this recent demon disaster made him suddenly realize that he still had a chance to be of some use. He had personally witnessed Taro's miraculous abilities, and the sight of the massive hand descending from the sky that day was an image he would never forget for the rest of his life.
He made up his mind that, even if it cost him his life, he would do something for the world and the people in it—his family, the people he knew and those he didn't, the generations who lived and would continue to live on this land.
Taro took the broken bowl from Bam, picked up the last gray lump, and handed the bowl back to the elderly woman. With a thoughtful expression, Bam and Taro bid farewell to the two elderly people, then made their way toward the deep mountain behind the village, the true destination of their journey.
The elderly couple looked at each other in confusion. Did these strangers plan to enter the mountains?
The old woman hurried out of the courtyard, but by the time she looked in the direction the two had gone, they were already out of sight. She stood still for a moment, sighing as her white hair swayed, then returned to the house.
---
On the mountain path.
The small bird on Taro's shoulder pecked at the gray lump Taro handed it and squawked, seeming agitated, flapping its tiny wings wildly as if it had gone mad. Taro chuckled and popped the chewed-up lump into his mouth.
Bam laughed too, snapping out of his deep thoughts. The taste of the lumps was awful. After a pause, he asked Taro, "Muten... is the gate to the demon realm in these mountains?"
Taro had always insisted that he not call him "master", so Bam started to always referred to him as "Muten".
"Sort of," Taro replied nonchalantly.
Bam didn't think much of it. After several months of interacting with Taro, he had started to understand his personality—or lack thereof. Taro was incredibly hard to read; it was difficult to know his true emotions, and even harder to guess what this deeply mysterious grandmaster was thinking beneath his serene face.
Bam had known Taro's identity for a while. He was the legendary disciple of the great martial artist who had defeated King Piccolo over a hundred years ago. By calculating, Taro should be at least 130 years old. But judging from his appearance, he looked to be no older than 30 to 40... truly a figure who had become a god-like being.
Following Taro, Bam walked over winding mountain paths, passing jagged rocks. Though he had learned to walk in the air, since Taro was walking, he obediently followed him, just like he had over the past few months.
The environment grew increasingly desolate, with fewer trees and plants.
Finally, the two of them, along with the bird, reached a cliffside. Bam held his breath, focusing on a large, closed door set into a mountain cave. He knew… this was the place he had been searching for. Bam stepped forward and pushed the large, somewhat Western-styled door with all his might. His face reddened, veins bulging in his arms, but no matter how hard he tried, the door remained tightly shut.
Panting, Bam stepped back and asked, "Muten, is this where the demons came from?" Trying to push the door felt like an ant trying to move a tree, and it made him feel helpless, more acutely aware of the vast gap between him and those damn demons.
Taro stepped forward, passing Bam, and approached the immovable door. He reached out a hand as though pushing open a light door to his own courtyard, and with a single touch of his finger, the enormous door, over five meters tall, opened effortlessly.
Taro walked right in.
Seeing the dark scene beyond the door, Bam rubbed his sore arms, chuckled nervously, and followed Taro into the darkness. As they entered, the heavy door behind them closed with a deep hum.
Thump, thump, thump
Lights on the walls of the cave corridor flickered to life silently. Bam jumped, looking around in surprise. The small bird on Taro's shoulder chattered, pointing at Bam with its wings as if mocking him for his shock.
Bam scratched his head awkwardly, then suddenly noticed three figures moving toward them through the dim light. As they drew closer, he could clearly see that on the left and right were a beautiful woman and a large, muscular man. In the center was a handsome, scholarly-looking man.
"Muten, are they… demons?" Bam asked in a low voice as he stood next to Taro, narrowing his eyes. He couldn't take his gaze off the scholarly man in the middle, who seemed to exert some pressure on him.
"Little human, don't be so hostile," Shula spoke up, his voice clear and loud. Though he was speaking to Bam, his gaze remained fixed on Taro.
.
"Shula, it's been a long time," Taro said slowly.
"You are...?" The Shula didn't immediately recognize Taro. When he had first come here, Taro had been a young man in his twenties, but now, the man before him appeared to be in his forties, and his aura had drastically changed.
A trace of crimson clouded Shula's spiritual world. He paused, feeling an invisible force wrapping around his mind, waiting to strike. He shook his head in realization, a bitter smile forming: "So it's you! It's really you!"
Taro closed his Mangekyō Sharingan.
The guards on either side of Shula, Gola and Melee, exchanged confused looks. They had completely forgotten about the "blind human" who had fled from the demon realm all those years ago.
"To think that after all these years... you not only survived, but your power has become so unfathomably deep," Shula said, staring intently at Taro. Just now, he had felt the same hypnotic power that Taro had used on him back then, and he instinctively knew it was something he couldn't resist.
"Muten methods... are not something you, a mere demon, can even begin to comprehend," Bam sneered, casting a disdainful look at Shula. He felt that this demon was weaker than any he had previously encountered, yet here he was, talking arrogantly in front of Muten.
Shula looked surprised. "Muten?" He glanced at Taro, then sighed, shaking his head. "There's no need to talk about that now. You didn't come here just to eliminate demons, did you?"
His expression seemed rather strange.
If it came to a fight, Shula honestly didn't believe he could defeat this human. Back when Taro left this place, they had sparred, and at that time, they were nearly on par—though Taro was almost blind. But Shula had helped him back then, and he didn't expect this man to be ungrateful.
"Though you're considered half a demon, after all these years..." Taro closed his eyes, speaking slowly. He referred to the years he had spent on Earth. "You think I haven't been paying attention to what's been going on here? It's because you've kept your subordinates in check and avoided causing trouble that I haven't dealt with you sooner. Otherwise, I would've killed you all eighty years ago. How would I have left you here until now?"
Gola and Melee, Shula's subordinates, nearly rolled up their sleeves to attack at the provocation, but Shula stopped them. He wasn't interested in causing trouble in the human world and calmly asked, "Then... what is the purpose of your visit?" His gaze shifted to Bam, who looked just as confused as he did.
"You're aware of the two who brought hundreds of demons into the human world, right?" Taro opened his eyes and gestured towards the depths of the cave.
"Of course. I've been wondering why their presence disappeared," Shula said, shaking his head. When he mentioned Taro having killed those demons, his tone was indifferent. Although he was a demon, he had no allegiance to the dark side of the demon world.
"They're dead, but that's not enough. The ones left inside... must die as well." Taro reached over and pulled Bam closer, patting his shoulder lightly. "This little one... his goal is to do just that. So, I ask you to open the 'gate' and let him enter."
Shula floated slightly and looked intently at Bam, who stared back at him with stubborn determination.
"Are you out of your mind? This kid, though he's not bad, doesn't have nearly enough power to enter the demon realm," Shula said, shaking his head in disbelief. "Back then, you weren't much stronger than he is now. You managed to survive coming out of the demon realm, which was impressive enough... You want to send him in? Isn't that just sending him to his death?"
"Death is nothing to fear," Bam replied, though there was doubt in his eyes. He wasn't foolish—he'd seen firsthand just how powerful the demons who ravaged the human world were. He understood that with his current strength... he was far from being capable of completing his goal.
Taro didn't say much more. He simply placed his hand on Bam's head. His lips moved, and a series of difficult-to-understand sounds emerged from his throat, flowing into an incomprehensible chant. Immediately, Bam felt an immense, unstoppable force pour down upon him.
The power was vast but invisible, like a gentle hand entering from the top of his head, reaching deep into his heart, touching something crucial inside him, brushing away dust, and opening a door that had been sealed for ages. Behind that door, Bam saw a brilliant light, a blinding brilliance that made it impossible for him to look away.
Endless power surged from the light behind the door, rushing towards him.
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