Chapter 399: Fly

While the master-disciple pair over there enjoyed their heartwarming moment, Mutaito couldn't help but feel a pang of disappointment upon realizing that the so-called sage atop Korin Tower was just a cat. 

This was nothing like the awe-inspiring deity they'd glimpsed in the crystal ball! 

Had they been scammed? 

"Hey, kid named Mutaito, what rude thoughts are you harboring?" Korin lazily tapped Mutaito's head with his wooden staff. 

Mutaito clutched his head in shock. "How did you know what I was thinking?" 

Korin chuckled, echoing words once spoken to him by the divine. "I'm a sage, after all. What did you expect?" 

That... made sense. Mutaito conceded, but then eyed the cat skeptically. "We came here to train, but you—" 

His tone and expression screamed, 'Are you even capable?' 

Unfazed, Korin used his staff to hook a water jug and dangle it in the air. 

"Snatch this jug from me," Korin said, licking his paw nonchalantly, "and you'll grow stronger—probably." 

"Snatch a jug? Probably?" Mutaito's disbelief was written all over his face. Yet he suddenly lunged for the jug hanging from Korin's staff. "Got it—Huh?!" 

The jug slipped past his fingers. Korin grinned. "Daydreaming, are we? Did you really think a cheap ambush would work on this sage?" 

Internally, Korin sighed. 'This must be how Kami, Annin, and Mr. Popo saw me back then—clumsy and full of openings.' 

Every movement flawed. 

Every intention transparent. 

His energy as messy as spilled ink. 

"Damn it!" Mutaito, humiliated and furious, charged again—only for Korin to sidestep effortlessly. "How is this possible?!" He couldn't believe how utterly useless he was! 

This shattered everything he thought he knew about himself! 

"You're welcome to join too," Korin even had the leisure to call out to Piccolo, who stood silently observing. "Whatever your goal, improving yourself never hurts, right?" 

Piccolo's eyes flickered with resolve, but he replied, "I'll wait until he collapses from exhaustion." 

He refused to gang up on the cat, even if teaming up with Mutaito might barely make a difference. To him, two against one would cheapen the trial. 

"I'll get it first!" Mutaito roared defiantly, his voice soaring beyond the tower, carried by the Power Pole straight into the ears of the Divine above the clouds. 

"Quite spirited," murmured the masked figure, a faint smile tugging at his lips. 

"Let me formally introduce my disciple, Fortune-Teller," Annin said, floating up with the purple-haired girl in tow. She landed beside Yamiru and added, "And this is Earth's first Kami, Lord Yamiru." 

Though precocious, Fortune-Teller felt a flutter of nerves facing two deities at once. "L-Lord Kami," she stammered. 

The masked Divine turned, golden eyes glinting from the shadows of his mask. Suddenly, he asked, "Fortune-Teller… what was your original name?" 

With Mutaito or Piccolo, she could've brushed off the question, but how could she dare hide anything from the Divine himself? Swallowing her shame, she confessed. 

"…" Yamiru paused, then chuckled under his breath. "Interesting…" 

'What's interesting about that?' Annin nearly sprouted a question mark over her head—and thinking of question marks inevitably reminded her of the girl who literally manifested them. "Where's Joey?" she asked, rummaging through Yamiru's hair as if to pluck out the tiny alien. 

Fortune-Teller watched in awe. 'My master and Kami… seem really close?' 

By extension, didn't that make her Kami's student too? 

"She went downstairs. Seems curious about the newcomers…" Yamiru tapped the edge of the temple, indicating the distant Korin Tower below. 

There, Joey perched on the railing, peering at the tall green-skinned man struggling against Korin's evasive maneuvers. Her big eyes blinked. 'This person… really does resemble the old man!' 

Time flowed differently in the heavens. Before they knew it, over two years had passed since Mutaito and Piccolo began their training at Korin Tower. 

"I GOT IT!!" Mutaito finally tackled Korin, seizing the staff and the jug hanging from it. "THIS is the Ultra Divine Water, right?!" 

Without waiting for confirmation, he upended the jug into his mouth. 

"Hey—!" Korin's warning came too late. Mutaito gulped eagerly—then his expression shifted from triumph to confusion, then to deeper confusion. He pulled the jug away, scrutinizing the "Kami" character engraved on it like a skeptical subway rider, then took another swig. 

"This is just plain water!!!!" he bellowed, whipping his head toward Piccolo, who'd mastered ki within a year and completed the trial long ago. The Namekian had drunk from the same jug back then without a word. 

"You knew all along, didn't you, Piccolo?!" Mutaito fumed. 

Korin coughed. Of course, this wasn't the *real* Ultra Divine Water he'd once mistakenly consumed… 

The true Ultra Divine Water, though granting longevity, was lethally toxic—and a precious resource entrusted by the Divine for cultivating Senzu Beans. He couldn't just waste it! 

The "Ultra Sacred Water" Mutaito and Piccolo had fought for? Just regular water from the tower's pool. 

"This was training in ki," Piccolo replied flatly to his senior brother. "Whether the jug held ordinary water or some miraculous elixir was irrelevant. It was just a tool. What mattered was the process of chasing it—the true goal wasn't drinking from it, but mastering ki." 

"......" Mutaito opened his mouth, then shut it. He couldn't refute the logic, but it still rankled. 

Korin cleared his throat. "Now that you've completed your training, it's time to leave Korin Tower." 

"Yeah..." Mutaito sighed, flexing his fists. The sheer power coursing through him now dwarfed his past self. More importantly, he could *feel* his energy with crystalline clarity—its shape, its flow. "I was such a frog in a well before!" 

Piccolo's voice remained cold. "No. We were the frogs. Didn't you realize? The Martial Arts Hall's creed—'Be Yourself'—was essentially an unconscious form of ki training..." 

Mutaito blinked, then murmured, "Adjusting the state of body and mind... You're right! Guess our master was actually amazing! How rude of him to just kick us out like that..." He faux-grumbled. 

Piccolo added, "He might not have understood the creed's true meaning either. It could've been a belief passed down through generations—a remnant of ancient training methods..." 

"True! Ancient times, huh..." Mutaito rubbed his head cheerfully. "Shame Korin said I'm not worthy to visit Kami at the temple." 

He wasn't particularly upset, though. 

Piccolo looked upward, lost in thought. 

With their training complete, Mutaito prepared to leave—but Piccolo showed no intention of joining him. 

Perched on the railing, Mutaito turned back in surprise. "Piccolo, you're not coming?" 

"It's time we parted ways. We have different paths." Piccolo's tone was as icy as ever. He wouldn't admit that, over these two years, no matter how hard he resisted, the bloody, malevolent thoughts festering in his heart had only grown darker. So dark that he could barely bring himself to look at Mutaito anymore. 

Every second, he feared he might lose control—and tear his brother apart. 

"Alright then!" Though reluctant, Mutaito saw the sense in Piccolo's words. At thirty-one, it was time to start anew. Maybe he'd take over their master's dojo, or found his own school. "See you, Piccolo." 

With a thumbs-up, he flipped backward off the railing. 

Freefalling, he thrust his palms downward—a burst of ki propelling him sideways to skid along Korin Tower's surface... 

Sensing Mutaito's energy rapidly nearing the ground, Piccolo turned to Korin without a word. 

Korin met his gaze. "Don't look at me like that. I don't think you're worthy of the temple either." 

Harsh, but as the gatekeeper, he had a duty. Someone as spiritually tainted as Piccolo—whose heart festered with darkness—couldn't be permitted passage. 

Piccolo's fists trembled. 

He looked up yet again, seeing only the tower's ceiling. 

Even with his newfound ability to sense ki, he couldn't detect Kami's presence high above. 

It struck him then: he had no idea what the god who'd saved him as a child even felt like. 

'Kami... can you save me again?' 

Piccolo lowered his head. He'd never voice such weakness. 

Without a word, he leaped from the tower, slicing through wind and mist—then a massive golden cloud. 

'The Flying Nimbus...' Korin had said only the pure of heart could ride it. 

Piccolo's expression darkened further. 

"He should've let me finish..." Korin licked his paw inside the tower. "While I don't think he's worthy of the temple, if he grows strong enough, he could always fly there himself. Right?" He glanced at the nearby pool. 

Atop the pool's edge, the tiny Joey peeked out from under the Ultra Divine Water jug. "Huh?" 

She dipped a finger in, tasted it, and recoiled at the bitterness. 

"Bleh!" Sticking out her tongue, she asked innocently, "What're you talking about? He's already flying toward the temple." 

---

Nearing the ground in freefall, Piccolo suddenly roared. 

'No!' 

He halted midair, stunned by this unconscious ability—'flight'? 

Whirling, he stared skyward, then shot upward with resolve. Whoosh— past Korin Tower, past Korin's bewildered (well, unreadable) face—straight up the Power Pole toward Kami's abode. 

---

Mutaito: 140

Piccolo: 200