Chapter 107: Leaving the Mountain

It turns out that the Ox-King might have been the worst student ever taught by Master Roshi.

His senior, Son Gohan, not only inherited the Power Pole, which Master Roshi had brought down from Korin Tower in the early days, but was also skilled in the signature technique of the Turtle School, the Kamehameha. Aside from dying at the hands of some weak alien warrior, his career had no flaws. Even his retirement was similar to Master Roshi's—choosing a secluded place to live in peace.

The Ox-King, however... He couldn't do the Kamehameha, nor had he inherited any of Master Roshi's treasures or symbols of being a Turtle School disciple. His lifestyle was completely at odds with the Turtle Hermit's. The Ox-King was infamous for his violent actions as a bandit, and his reputation for terror spread far and wide, even reaching the four great capitals of the East, West, North, and South. Master Roshi, who had even heard of Son Gohan's temperamental grandson found in the deep mountains, didn't know that the Ox-King's house had almost burned down in a fire.

The Turtle Hermit's knowledge of the Ox-King's brutal reputation probably came from some magazine he was reading about fire safety and fire prevention near Fire Mountain... glancing at it with mild disappointment before returning to his magazine's fashion photos. Of course, this was all Yamiru's imagination. But it wasn't baseless. Every time he asked the Ox-King about the secrets of the Turtle School, the Ox-King could never give a coherent answer, just repeating a few lines like, "Work hard, study well and eat and rest plenty."

Yamiru knew this was what Master Roshi said to Goku and Krillin in the anime, but he didn't think this was all there was to the Turtle School. The "five goods" could be the core philosophy of the Turtle School, but if martial arts success was based solely on such a philosophy, how could Yamiru, having heard the Ox-King repeat it countless times, still be unable to figure out where to begin? Countless readers had read those words, yet he hadn't seen anyone actually master the Kamehameha.

"Tch! There had to be some hidden secret of the Turtle School!"

Yamiru held firmly to this belief, only to be knocked away by the Ox-King's fist, his nose spurting blood as he flew through the air and crashed to the ground with a thud.

He had been here for sixteen days now, and he hadn't won a single fight under the Ox-King's hands.

From the very beginning, he had begged the Ox-King not to go easy on him, and the result had been that every day he was covered in bruises, lying in bed and unable to move, then spending the following day recovering, only to be battered again the next day, and repeating this cycle.

For half a month at Fry-pan Mountain, the training field had seen two figures—one large and one small—fighting every day.

One-sided fighting; to be precisely.

Because the Ox-King had promised not to hold back, every round was essentially the same: Yamiru would rush in, land some beautiful combos, land more combos, continue his combos, and then the Ox-King would strike, and Yamiru would fall. It seemed that with Yamiru's current strength, he couldn't even force the Ox-King to take a single step back. The combat skills Yamiru had learned from Jiora were completely useless in the face of the vast difference in physical strength.

Yamiru hadn't originally planned to stay at Coolview Mountain for too long.

"I'll leave once I win just one time!" — That had been the original plan.

"I'll leave once I knock the Ox-King down once!" — That was the compromise he had made.

"I'll leave once I last for one minute…" — This was the concession he made as he lay in bed at night, every inch of his body aching, gritting his teeth through the pain.

"I'll leave before sunset if I can still stand!" — This was his final resolution, his absolute bottom line!

And so, now, as he lay on the ground, staring up at the sky, Yamiru thought, "Is this all I am capable of?"

However, the continuous defeats only ignited Yamiru's yearning for the Turtle School, for true martial arts, and for Son Gohan. The golden glow of the setting sun bathed his bloodied face, as if granting him some strength. Taking a deep breath, Yamiru gritted his teeth and slowly climbed to his feet.

"Are you alright? Don't push yourself too hard," the Ox-King said, walking over and reaching out to help Yamiru up. But Yamiru pushed his hand away.

"I…" Yamiru grinned, the sunset tinting his short black hair as if it were gold. "I'm up."

The Ox-King didn't know the "final bottom line" that Yamiru had set for himself, so he didn't understand his meaning. He simply nodded and said, "Yeah, you're up. I saw that."

Yamiru exhaled, "So, I'm leaving. I've been a bother here for too long."

"Leaving?" The Ox-King looked surprised, not noticing when his wife had come to the training ground. Behind her were two servants holding drinks. "Tomorrow? Come, have a drink first."

"No, right now," Yamiru said.

The Ox-King cheerfully went to fetch an enormous drink and started sipping. Yamiru looked at it and felt thirsty as well. But when he tried to step forward, pain shot through him like a lightning strike, and his hair stood on end. The Ox-King's wife laughed softly from the side and gently said, "Don't force yourself. If you want to leave, you should rest for a day first."

"Yeah, have a big meal tonight," the Ox-King added.

Yamiru was too pained to speak, only nodding in response.

After dinner, Yamiru soaked in a medicinal bath, which helped heal much of his injuries.

Knock, knock.

There was a knock on the door.

"Come in," Yamiru called from his bed.

The door opened, and the Ox-King stepped in, bowing his head.

"Uncle Ox?" Yamiru climbed up and sat on the edge of the bed, but the Ox-King gently pressed him back down.

The Ox-King also sat at the edge of the bed. The moonlight streaming through the window illuminated half of his massive body and the entire figure of Yamiru. Yamiru wasn't sure why the Ox-King had come to see him, and after the Ox-King sat down, he didn't speak. Yamiru waited for him to say something.

However, under the moonlight, Yamiru finally noticed that the Ox-King's usual helmet was missing. What was revealed was an ordinary, mustachioed face with two horns protruding from his forehead.

"Noticed?" The Ox-King reached up to touch his horns.

"Noticed what?" Yamiru asked instinctively.

"My horns," the Ox-King replied.

Yamiru rolled his eyes. "Isn't it normal for the 'Ox-King' to have bull horns? Do you need me to 'notice' that?"

The Ox-King chuckled but didn't respond. After a while, he suddenly said, "Actually… I was kicked out by Master Mu."

"Huh?" Yamiru was caught off guard.

The Ox-King fell silent again, making Yamiru feel a little awkward. Was it his lack of conversational skills, or was it the Ox-King's problem? He waited for him to speak, but it took a while. Finally, after holding it in, the Ox-King spoke again: "I'm different from Gohan. I was kind of taken in by Master Mu out of goodwill..." He trailed off mid-sentence.

Yamiru, who had been eavesdropping on what seemed like an "extra story", felt quite uncomfortable from the lack of an explanation.

"So, you're different from Gohan, huh? Does that mean Gohan is a proper disciple, but you're not? Taken in… Why were you taken in? Ox-King, what happened when you were young? Old Turtle took you in but then kicked you out… This explains why you can't talk about the 'secrets' of the Turtle School."

Yamiru continued to speculate, but just as he was about to dig deeper, the Ox-King suddenly said, "Yamiru, you have to find Gohan!"

"Huh?" Yamiru snapped back to attention, looking up.

"The Turtle School... is amazing!" The Ox-King lowered his head, and his giant hand landed on Yamiru's head. "Brother Gohan and I are different. He truly learned Master Mu's techniques." Without the helmet and glasses, the Ox-King's eyes gleamed with an unfamiliar yet familiar light.

In the reflection of the light, Yamiru saw his own face looking up, and suddenly he smiled. "What are you talking about, Uncle Ox? Do you think I'm just here for sightseeing? Of course, I'm going to find Gohan! I'll definitely find him... and learn the ways of the Turtle School!"

The Ox-King released his grip and grinned. "I believe you."

Yamiru grinned. "Maybe I'll come back and teach you one day."

The Ox-King just kept laughing.

The next morning, as dawn broke, a lone figure carrying a simple bundle descended the mountain.