On the back of the giant dragon, in order to make the flight easier for the dragon, the immense figure of the Supreme Elderly Lord rapidly shrank, becoming the size of a normal human. Though this deity was female, her height was nearly the same as Yamiru's, over 1.8 meters tall. Dressed in battle armor, it was as if she had just returned from an ancient battlefield, her presence exuding a heroic and commanding air.
Sitting on the dragon's back, Yamiru looked out into the distance. At the end of the mist, he could vaguely see a palace nestled at the foot of the deep mountains. Pavilions, towers, gardens, and small pools—everything seemed abundant and imbued with ancient charm.
With his keen eyesight, Yamiru observed the thick Hellish Ki flowing like a mighty river from the abyss, converging toward that palace. The closer they got, the more intense the magical aura became. The boundary between Yin and Yang was blurred here. The distinction between life and death faded away. The hellish aura, scattered among the mortal realm, caused the souls of those eroded by this aura to not return to the underworld after death. In a way, this Earth's Mount Five Elements seemed like a "miniature underworld", set within the mortal realm.
Yamiru wondered to himself if the deity, Supreme Elderly Lord, had once sealed off the Hellish Ki flowing from the Yellow Springs here in ancient times.
"What are you pondering?" Supreme Elderly Lord suddenly asked.
"I was thinking… is it impossible to completely eliminate these forces?" Yamiru replied, referring to the Hellish Ki that was invisible to the naked eye.
"Completely eliminate? How is that possible?" Supreme Elderly Lord shook her head, "As a young man from a modern city, you should know better than me, an ancient relic from tens of thousands of years ago: Material and energy in this world neither appear out of nowhere nor vanish into nothing. Since this Hellish Ki exists objectively, how could it be completely eradicated?"
Yamiru was momentarily stunned, not expecting Supreme Elderly Lord to say this.
Before long, the saber-toothed dragon landed near the palace at the foot of the Mount Five Elements. Supreme Elderly Lord leapt off the dragon's back, and Yamiru followed.
After some contemplation, Yamiru spoke, "Even if we can't make this Hellish Ki disappear completely, wouldn't it be possible to convert it into something else, like ordinary vital energy from the natural world or celestial energy? It's still a hazard for the people in the mortal realm."
Supreme Elderly Lord raised an eyebrow, "You, a mere mortal with no great skill, are quite bold with your words. Are you blaming me for inaction? For all these years, I've allowed the Hellish Ki to harm the mortal realm? Do you know that just with your disrespectful words, I could directly strike you down, even condemn your soul to hell to never be reborn?"
Her imposing aura pressed down on Yamiru's psyche.
Yamiru shook his head, unaffected by her aura. "I was just expressing my thoughts. If I unintentionally offended the goddess, I apologize."
His words were sincere, saying nothing more than what he meant.
Supreme Elderly Lord observed him for a while, then smiled. "That Son Gohan, he has a good disciple."
Yamiru feigned surprise. "You know my master?"
Supreme Elderly Lord replied, "He's been working as my guard. Do you think I don't know him?"
Yamiru asked, "Can I meet him?"
Supreme Elderly Lord rolled her eyes and replied dismissively, "Don't ask me that! I hired him as my guard, not as my slave. Whether you meet him or not depends on whether Son Gohan is willing to see you."
Yamiru nodded. "Alright."
"Follow me," Supreme Elderly Lord led the way deeper into the Mount Five Elements palace. "As for your suggestion to convert the Hellish Ki, theoretically, it could work. However, I'm sorry, even though I am a deity, I don't have the power to casually modify the celestial energies from the Heavens."
Yamiru noted that Supreme Elderly Lord seemed more inclined to refer to it as "celestial" rather than Otherworld or Yellow Spring. He paid attention to her speech habits as he followed her.
"Besides, there are too many arrogant, foolish idiots in this world. If they fall to demonic ways due to their evil thoughts, it's their own doing. It's none of my business," Supreme Elderly Lord continued with a smile. "If they become demons and their souls wander the mortal realm after death, isn't that actually a good thing?"
Yamiru squinted, understanding her meaning. "So, you're saying that the souls of demons wandering the mortal realm prevent those who fall into corruption from reincarnating, thus saving the mortal realm from their harm?"
Supreme Elderly Lord snapped her fingers. "Bingo, that's exactly it."
Yamiru shook his head slightly. He had initially thought that the legendary Supreme Elderly Lord, who saved the world, would be a compassionate deity, but now it seemed that there were no inherently saintly heroes. Heroes, he realized, were mostly products of the times. When Goku and the others fought villains like Freeza and the Androids, it wasn't driven by a desire to save the world or act as heroes. They simply ran into these villains, and when they did, they fought, and naturally, they had to win. It was as simple as that.
Thousands of years ago, Supreme Elderly Lord may have saved the world and sealed the Hellish Ki at the Mount Five Elements, but was it out of compassion for the mortal realm? Perhaps, but maybe not. The Supreme Elderly Lord before him now didn't seem to care much about the Hellish Ki spreading through the mortal realm, potentially turning mortals into demons. Had she changed after tens of thousands of years? Or was she always like this? Yamiru couldn't know.
Goku's grudge with King Piccolo wasn't about Piccolo trying to dominate the world or spread fear. It was simply about avenging his good friend Krillin. And later, it became a blood feud with Master Roshi and others. Supreme Elderly Lord may have "saved the world" by sealing the Mount Five Elements, but Yamiru wondered if it could have been triggered by some small devil from hell killing her dog, which made her furious and led to the mountain's overturning...
Because she was a deity, Yamiru had naturally assumed she was obligated to protect the mortal realm and rid it of the Hellish Ki. He thought about it carefully and realized that this mindset was quite strange. The gods in the Dragon Ball world were just regular beings doing their jobs, and never had any inherent responsibility to protect the world...
"We've arrived."
Supreme Elderly Lord's voice snapped Yamiru out of his thoughts. He realized that, unknowingly, he had followed her into a vast hall.
The walls were made from the mountain's stone, and in the center of the room stood an enormous cauldron. The cauldron's lid was on, with steam rising and drifting toward the sky.
Beneath it, a raging fire burned.
"Go add some firewood." Supreme Elderly Lord said to Yamiru behind him. It turned out that the giant saber-toothed dragon had followed them inside. Upon hearing the order, the dragon wagged its tail and went off to fetch a pile of thick logs, one by one feeding them into the blazing fire beneath the massive cauldron.
Yamiru thought to himself, this damn dragon was so arrogant when it fought me, but now it's acting all obedient.
Yamiru stared at the rising steam above the Furnace of Eight Divisions for a while. The legend had it that this steam was the connection between the realms of Yin and Yang, though he couldn't tell if that was true. After a moment, his Fire Eyes focused on the raging fire below the Furnace of Eight Divisions. He saw countless dark golden hellish currents converging there. It seemed that this was the source of it all.
This must be the reason for the claim that Supreme Elderly Lord guards the boundary between Yin and Yang.
"This is the Furnace of Eight Divisions," Supreme Elderly Lord noticed his gaze and said with interest. "Thousands of years ago, a rift formed between Earth and the Celestial realm, allowing the essence of Hell to leak into the human world. It was the presence of this Furnace of Eight Divisions that sealed that gap."
"I see," Yamiru nodded.
"As for what you just mentioned, purging the hellish energy... I indeed cannot change its nature, but sending it back to the celestial realm is possible," Supreme Elderly Lord said with a smile. "However, to do so, the Furnace of Eight Divisions would need to be moved temporarily. Once the furnace is removed, the gap between Earth and the heavens will reopen, and this time, the demonic energy that floods into the human world may be even more terrifying. On the other hand, I might be able to send all the current scattered demonic energy back before that happens. What do you think? Would you like me to do it?"
Yamiru stared at the furnace's flames for a moment, silently shaking his head.
''This goddess seems a little petty...'' he thought. ''It's like she wants to take verbal revenge for something. She's not as magnanimous as my Tights, after all!''
At that moment, Supreme Elderly Lord's body grew larger once more, becoming like a giant. The already massive Furnace of Eight Divisions, in comparison to her new size, looked no larger than a regular family's water jar.
She lifted the lid of the furnace, and a denser wave of heat immediately rose.
"It smells so good," Supreme Elderly Lord said joyfully, and the saber-toothed dragon, who had been adding firewood, also looked up, inching toward the edge of the furnace. Supreme Elderly Lord slapped it away. "Behave and keep adding firewood."
The saber-toothed dragon, disheartened, continued adding the thick logs into the furnace.
"Oh my, are we having hotpot again?"
At that moment, a voice Yamiru knew all too well sounded out. He suddenly turned his head and saw a gray-robed elder with a painted face mask, a golden halo hovering above his head, walking toward them.
"Master!" Yamiru couldn't help but shout, running over to grab the elder's hand.
As soon as he held it, Yamiru immediately realized that Gohan's body was no different from before.
The temperature, heartbeat, and even his physical strength were unchanged.
The only difference from before was the golden halo floating above his head.
The gray-robed elder removed his face mask, revealing the face of Gohan, complete with a white beard. He looked at Yamiru in confusion and after a long pause, spoke in surprise, "Is it you, Yamiru? What happened to you? Why do you look like this?"
Yamiru was stunned. He looked down and suddenly realized that he was still in his demonized dragon form.
Because his mental state was no different from usual, he hadn't even noticed the transformation. Yamiru had a thought, trying to reverse the strange dragon transformation, but for the moment, he couldn't find a way to do so. He helplessly said, "Master, I didn't want this to happen. I should return to normal soon, right?"
The last part, he asked Supreme Elderly Lord, who was tasting soup with a large spoon.
"Probably," Supreme Elderly Lord casually replied. "Isn't it a little too salty?"
Gohan walked closer and touched the strange scales on Yamiru's body, shaking his head. "You look a bit ugly now."
"Master..." Yamiru said helplessly.
Gohan chuckled. "But you have a wife now, you can't go around looking this ugly."
Yamiru mumbled, "I'll look handsome again when I change back." I should be able to change back, right?
"However, this form of yours has definitely boosted your power a lot," Gohan said thoughtfully. "I'm not sure how strong Goku is now, but you should be no weaker than him."
Yamiru shook his head. "Even if I catch up to Goku's progress, it's only temporary. Master, you've seen how quickly Uncle Bardock's combat strength increased after his resurrection, right? Once Goku matures and his body fully develops, he'll be able to quickly replicate Uncle Bardock's progress. At that point, I'm afraid no one in the universe will be able to keep up with Goku..."
Son Gohan found it hard to argue with this. After all, it was the truth! With Yamiru's current realm, his judgment was at least as good as, if not better than, Son Gohan's. Moreover, with Bardock's progress and Goku's potential, anyone with eyes could see it, especially someone like Son Gohan, who was extremely familiar with them both.
"Besides, I don't think this is a normal way of improving strength," Yamiru said, looking at his dragon claws and complaining. "This doesn't feel human, more like a ghost—definitely not the right path."
"Have you finished catching up? Time to eat," Supreme Elderly Lord's voice suddenly came from above them. She was holding a pair of giant chopsticks in one hand and a huge empty bowl in the other, knocking them together in a hurry.
"Since you're here, you should eat with us," Son Gohan said with a wink. "The hotpot from Lord Anning's Furnace of Eight Divisions is really delicious."
With that, he leaped gracefully and landed on the edge of the Furnace of Eight Divisions, where the giant Supreme Elderly Lord handed him a small bowl. The bowl was tiny compared to her size, but still quite large when compared to Son Gohan's. Below, Yamiru used flight to rise into the air and land next to Son Gohan, stepping onto the edge of the furnace. The Furnace of Eight Divisions was so large that the "edge" was wide enough to resemble a corridor, even big enough for both Yamiru and Son Gohan to sit comfortably.
Supreme Elderly Lord used her giant chopsticks to serve some food from the Furnace of Eight Divisions into their bowls.
Son Gohan grabbed his chopsticks and began to eat happily, clearly familiar with the process.
Yamiru tried a little and found it indeed very delicious.
The saber-tooth dragon, who was busy adding firewood, lifted its head, gazing longingly.
"Alright, stop pretending to be pitiful," Supreme Elderly Lord said, tossing the dragon a large basin of food. She even managed to get a giant chilled beer bottle from somewhere. "I know you love drinking, so here's a bottle for you as a reward."
The saber-tooth dragon was overjoyed, and without bothering with the hotpot, it grabbed the giant beer bottle and began gulping it down.
Yamiru couldn't help but marvel at the strange things in the Dragon Ball world. Even this bizarre saber-tooth dragon liked to drink.
"Now Goku would be able to eat his fill here," he remarked after a while, noticing that the food in his large bowl hadn't diminished much. "When he comes here, he'll be so happy to see you, Master."
Son Gohan smiled warmly, his face still gentle and kind as always.
"By the way, kid, you didn't come to my Mount Five Elements just to see Son Gohan, did you?" Supreme Elderly Lord suddenly put down her chopsticks and said. "But you seemed unaware that Son Gohan is working here."
Yamiru put down his chopsticks, becoming serious. "Someone once did a divination for me and said that to become stronger, I would need to come here, to Mount Five Elements."
Son Gohan recalled it and remembered that Yamiru had mentioned the divination lady in the past when he was alive.
"Now I understand," Son Gohan said. "You came here to get stronger."
Behind the heat rising from the Furnace of Eight Divisions, Supreme Elderly Lord's face was obscured, but the smile in her voice was clear. "The one who did the divination was that divination lady, right? How strong did she say you would become?"
Yamiru gazed at the steam rising from the furnace and muttered softly, "Probably strong enough to destroy the Earth with a single punch..."
"Haha!" Supreme Elderly Lord laughed heartily. "That's not just ordinary strength!"
"Yeah..." Son Gohan chimed in, somewhat unsure, honestly feeling that it sounded a little unrealistic.
"In that case, I'll give you a hand," Supreme Elderly Lord said. With that, her giant hand reached through the steam of the Furnace of Eight Divisions and grabbed Yamiru, throwing him into the boiling furnace.
Yamiru was instantly engulfed in darkness, losing consciousness.