After finally arriving at King Kai's Planet, Bam's first words were, "Muten! How come you're dead too?!"
At this moment, he was struggling to stand due to the intense ten times Earth's gravity, his face full of surprise as he looked at Taro, who was sitting outside with North Kai at a stone table. His mind was a bit tangled.
The North Kai picked up his cup, took a sip of tea, and a beam of light reflected off his round sunglasses. He glanced sideways at Bam, his two chin whiskers twitching, and then clicked his tongue toward Taro, who was seated across from him. "This guy... his power's decent, but he seems a bit dumb."
In the Underworld, when deceased martial artists with achievements had their bodies restored, they were reformed into their most physically powerful state. So, Bam now appeared to be in his thirties. However, as soon as he spoke those words, he realized something was off.
Firstly, Taro's appearance had hardly changed since he entered the Demon Realm ninety years ago—although it had been a long time, and there might have been changes that Bam couldn't detect, he was certain that even if there were changes, they must be extremely minor.
Moreover, the most important thing was the Phoenix that was currently standing between Taro and North Kai on the stone table... it was still in its "miniature form"! This was something Bam clearly remembered—when he left Earth for the Demon Realm, the Phoenix was in this exact tiny form.
The Phoenix stood on the stone table like a little sparrow, its red feathers covered with a thick white, flame-like aura. It pecked at the small cup of tea, occasionally looking at Bam and chirping a few times. To it, Bam was just someone who had been "gone" for a long time, but it still recognized him.
In fact, this was also because Bam had just recently died and was immediately sent through the Snake Way to the Underworld. He hadn't yet encountered many deceased souls, especially not many who had physical bodies in the Underworld. Otherwise, just the absence of a halo above Taro's head would have been enough for him to immediately identify Taro as still being alive.
This was the reason why North Kai called him foolish.
Taro had already been waiting on King Kai's Planet for nearly half a day, which was about the time it took Bam to travel from Yama's Hall through the Snake Way. This speed was quite fast—back in the day, even Sun Wukong, after mastering the Kaio-ken, couldn't have been much quicker when he rushed back to Earth.
When Bam asked such a question upon arrival, Taro wasn't bothered. He looked at Bam, who was now vastly different from the young version he had seen half a day earlier. His appearance and demeanor had become more mature and composed. Taro couldn't help but sigh inwardly.
"I'm an old guy, but death is still far away," Taro said with a slight self-deprecating smile, spreading his hand. "This is North Kai, the ruler of the entire North Galaxy, and also a highly knowledgeable martial artist..."
"Living people... can enter the Underworld?" Bam thought at first, puzzled, but then he suddenly remembered something he had heard from an underworld official. Many years ago, Taro had come through the Snake Way to King Kai's Planet. It made sense—although it seemed that only the dead could enter the Underworld, for someone like Taro, it wouldn't be surprising if he could enter while still alive.
Hearing Taro introduce North Kai, Bam quickly steadied himself. He was, after all, much more powerful now than when Taro and Sun Wukong had first arrived. His strength had grown considerably, and he soon began to adjust to the ten times Earth's gravity. With a few steps forward, Bam respectfully greeted, "Greetings, King Kai. I am Long Bam from Earth."
Before coming here... Bam had asked Yama about King Kai. Yama had only briefly mentioned him, without elaborating much, and instead directly arranged for a ghost officer to guide him to the Snake Way. As someone who had just died, Bam, having no prior knowledge, simply did whatever Yama instructed. The ghost officer had also shared a little information about King Kai, Yama, and previous travelers on the Snake Way, but Bam didn't think much of it. He figured it wasn't anything bad, so he simply flew over.
"I heard you died while eliminating the demons from Earth's Demon Realm?" North Kai adjusted his sunglasses, standing up with his hands behind his back, walking in front of Bam and looking up at him—after all, he wasn't very tall.
"Yes..." Bam responded somewhat awkwardly, as North Kai's position sounded quite intimidating, and despite his unremarkable appearance, he carried an air of mysterious authority.
At that moment, Taro also stood up from the stone table. In his eyes, Bam's aura had become incredibly refined and calm. Despite his battles in the Demon Realm, he had not been tainted by excessive bloodlust, which pleased Taro. After all, Bam could be considered somewhat of a disciple to him.
"You don't need to be so nervous. King Kai is a good person," Taro said with a smile.
North Kai adjusted his little round sunglasses and cleared his throat lightly, raising a fist.
Bam glanced at North Kai, then at Taro, and finally realized, "I was sent here to meet King Kai... was that your doing, Muten?"
"What do you think?" North Kai responded. "Although you've made some achievements, the fact is, your body was barely strong enough to be remade for training in the Underworld. If it weren't for this old guy, Taro, asking me to talk to Yama, your soul would probably have been sent to Heaven to 'enjoy' yourself by now."
Bam, of course, felt deeply moved and was about to say something.
"There's no need for that," Taro waved his hand dismissively, sighing. "I'm just doing what I can." After a pause, he continued, "If you don't wish to reincarnate, you can stay here and cultivate under King Kai. If you want to visit Heaven to learn from other masters, you can also ask King Kai for help."
"Hey, hey, hey, are you trying to make me this kid's nanny now?" North Kai grumbled. Just then, the Phoenix flew over from behind and landed on North Kai's head, stepping on the two long "antennas" on his hat. His chin whiskers twitched, and he grumbled, "Even you, little guy, don't respect me, huh?" He reached up to grab it, but the Phoenix chirped and dodged.
"Well..." Bam hesitated and glanced at North Kai.
Taro smiled and said, "I told you, King Kai is a good person."
"Mm." Bam nodded, thinking to himself: It seems that Master Mu and King Kai have a good relationship...
---
Recently, North Kai had found a new pet, a grasshopper named Gregory, and had summoned it along with Bubbles to stir up trouble for Bam. Of course, with Bam's current abilities, these two tasks would probably not trouble him for long...
"So, King Kai, do you have plans to pass on the Kaioken to him?" Taro noticed North Kai staring at Bam, who was training on the grass, and could tell he was thinking about something. He smiled and asked.
North Kai gave a chuckle but didn't deny it. Instead, he asked, "What about you? Why don't you teach him the Muken?"
Taro shook his head. "I haven't taken him as my disciple."
North Kai sneered, "Tch, still hiding things from him, huh?"
Taro responded with a smile, "Has King Kai never hidden anything from me?"
North Kai chuckled and stroked his chin. Did he hide things from Taro? Of course! The Spirit Bomb, for example. But... the Spirit Bomb was only suitable for the purest-hearted individuals. Although Taro was good, he was too scheming, and North Kai didn't think he was suitable for this ultimate technique.
Taro didn't say anything further; he wasn't particularly interested in the Spirit Bomb. Instead, he continued to observe Bam's training with North Kai, though in his heart, North Kai's words had sparked thoughts about the Muken...
It was almost certain that in the future, he would pass on the Muken to Goku and others, and Taro was curious about what would happen once it was in their hands. However, as for the method of transmission... at the moment, it seemed that the only way was for Taro to project his understanding of the Muken directly into someone's mind through his Mangekyo Sharingan.
This would be quite a hassle, and although it had characteristics similar to meditation or the idea of "secrets not to be passed on", it was very much in the realm of the "not for others" type of technique. But the real problem was that Taro had never thought about "not passing it on".
In fact, if possible, he would actually prefer to spread the Muken across the entire Earth. Although he had yet to reach the limits of this technique, based on his current Mangekyo Sharingan, the "forty times" stage had not yet touched the unknown limit.
So... if he were to spread the Muken across the Earth, with the population base of Earth, how many "hundreds of thousands," "millions," or even "tens of millions" of super warriors could be trained?
"By the way."
North Kai suddenly remembered something, turned to Taro, and said, "Just a heads-up... Fifty years from now, the Grand Kai's Planet will host the next Other World Tournament." He pushed up his sunglasses and said, "The Grand Kai specifically mentioned that this time... even living people can participate."
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