Inside a crab-shaped spaceship.
"Lord Frieza, I finally understand why you like the real estate business."
"Having tens of thousands of subordinates and watching your own imperial territory constantly expand is indeed quite interesting."
Frieza sat in his seat holding a glass of red wine, behaving with utter elegance, without the slightest trace of a villain about him.
"Ho ho ho!"
"May I take that as a compliment, Mr. Xie Yi?"
"If you are willing to stay here permanently, I can grant you a status second only to me, and the Frieza Force can also take your orders."
"I'll have to think about that. Still, I've been here for seven months now; aside from the four months of training, the rest of the time I've helped you conquer several planets."
Hearing this, Frieza replied: "Mainly because the Frieza Force doesn't have many powerhouses right now, so I'm all the more eager to keep you around."
"Oh? But I recall that Your Majesty loathes Saiyans."
Frieza didn't mind Xie Yi testing his bottom line, and said with great magnanimity: "I, Frieza, have always been strict with rewards and punishments—especially since you resurrected me."
"As for Saiyans, apart from Son Goku, whom I hate to the bone, I can tolerate the others. Yes, tolerate them."
Xie Yi didn't care about Frieza's manner of speaking either; after all, in the Dragon Ball World, might makes right. Through four months of training and sparring, although Frieza hadn't transformed into his Golden Form, his combat power was far from weak.
At the very least, relying solely on Super Saiyan Full Power, Xie Yi himself would find it hard to cope.
"Alright, Your Majesty, I'm going out for a bit. Lend me a spaceship."
Frieza paused for a moment, finished the red wine in his glass, and said, "Of course. Are you setting off now?"
"That's right. I can't stay cooped up here forever like you."
"You Saiyans are all the same—never able to sit still, completely lacking in patience."
After bidding farewell to Frieza, Xie Yi boarded a small spaceship and departed. As he left, he reminded Frieza to train more and not to rush off to Earth just because he had gained some strength, lest he likely end up dead again.
As for why Frieza was so willing to listen to advice, it wasn't because the Emperor of the Universe had suddenly turned kind—if he were kind, would there be any other villains left in the universe?
Naturally, strength dictated who had the right to speak.
Frieza had been maintaining his Final Form all this time, and even used this form during training.
His combat power had already reached 1 billion.
The Silver Form was the harvest of these past four months—a hundredfold amplification of his Final Form's combat power.
Which meant: 10 × 100 = 100 billion combat power.
Xie Yi's Base Form: 300 million.
Super Saiyan Full Power: 15 billion.
This combat power was certainly no match for Frieza's Silver Form, but the constitution of his ancient bloodline allowed him to use the Kaio-ken up to ten times while in the Super Saiyan state.
Another piece of information was that the amplification of the Kaio-ken used under Super Saiyan did not decrease in multiplier like Super Saiyan Blue did.
Therefore,
Ten-fold Kaio-ken Super Saiyan combat power: 150 billion.
Because Frieza hadn't actually defeated Xie Yi yet, he temporarily had no thoughts of seeking swift revenge on Son Goku.
Half a month later, the spaceship carrying Xie Yi arrived at Planet Yardrat.
Indeed, Xie Yi chose to go out precisely to visit this planet, which possessed a myriad of special techniques, with the primary reason being to learn Instant Transmission as a life-saving skill—along with Forced Spiritihilation.
The spaceship pierced through the atmosphere and crashed into the ground with a tremendous roar, instantly drawing the attention of the Yardrats.
Yade sensed Xie Yi's ki and discovered it wasn't evil, but rather more righteous than Vegeta's—for when Vegeta had come, he carried a mixture of good and evil, whereas this new arrival possessed a truly righteous heart.
"This must be another friend from afar."
Yade told his people not to panic and to carry on as usual, while he himself used Instant Transmission to appear outside the spaceship.
The moment Xie Yi stepped out of the spaceship and opened his eyes, a pink face pressed right up against his.
Yade was sizing Xie Yi up, and noticed the tail coiled around his waist.
"You're a Saiyan?"
"What the hell! Why are you getting in my face?!"
As Yade voiced his question, Xie Yi, acting on pure bodily instinct, swung a palm straight at Yade's face.
*Whoosh.*
Seeing the backhand slap hurtling toward him, Yade hurriedly used Instant Transmission to dodge.
"Whoa there! You Saiyans clearly have righteous hearts, but you start swinging without a word—where's your manners?!"
Yade shouted indignantly from behind Xie Yi.
Once he clearly saw what Yade looked like, Xie Yi immediately recognized him as a Yardrat.
Nevertheless, he said unceremoniously, "Who told you to flash in like that out of nowhere? You look like a ghost!"
Just imagine waking up from sleep, opening your eyes, and seeing an abnormal face right in your line of sight—would you faint, or would you deliver a backhand slap?
Yardrats were, after all, kind and good-tempered people, so Yade didn't dwell too much on the issue.
After clarifying the purpose of the visitor's trip, Yade agreed to teach Xie Yi both Instant Transmission and Forced Spiritihilation.
Yade also mentioned to Xie Yi that, including himself, two other Saiyans had come before him.
Son Goku had been the first to arrive, though he came in the most wretched state, landing on the planet in a physically exhausted and unconscious condition.
The second was Vegeta, who had arrived eight months ago and was still here without having left.
Xie Yi found it hard to understand why Vegeta had come here to train and learn techniques. How could the proud prince bring himself to study someone else's skills? At least, during this period of time, it was impossible for Vegeta—absolutely impossible.
Yet the reality was that Vegeta was indeed here.
And now he, Xie Yi, was the third.
"Vegeta, you're here too? It seems my timed mission is finally within reach."
There were still over four months left for the timed mission—to be precise, 130 days.
The deep sky was dotted with stars, leaving only darkness and a sliver of starlight, as if this were an entire universe in itself.
Vegeta had been in this Secret Realm for several months.
He had already defeated over a thousand astral manifestations, every single one of which possessed a combat power of 500 million.
The astral manifestation commander possessed a combat power of 5 billion, and among them, one special commander held a combat power of 10 billion.
During his battle against that special commander, Vegeta's dissatisfaction with his own strength and his fury at Kakarot surpassing him finally pushed him past his limits, successfully transforming him into a Super Saiyan 2.
Later, as Vegeta explored deeper into this spatial universe, he encountered a Star Guardian that had almost killed him.
The Star Guardian possessed an Astral Body, and its combat power was utterly terrifying. When it first appeared, the Secret Realm had even given Vegeta the option to leave, as the realm itself hadn't expected such a being to exist here at this moment.
Yet Vegeta refused to leave, declaring: "I am Super Vegeta! A mere being made of stars—how could the pride of a Saiyan allow me to run away?!"
With that, the Secret Realm had no choice but to encourage Vegeta.
"Defeat the Star Guardian, and you will obtain its Astral Body."
"Damn it!"
In the Super Saiyan 2 state, Vegeta's battle suit was already battered to rags, and his ki had dimmed significantly.
Yet the Star Guardian gave him no breathing room. With a flash, it closed the distance and slammed a fist directly into Vegeta's stomach, paying no heed to Vegeta's expression or movements.
An uppercut blasted toward Vegeta's face; the gap in power left Vegeta utterly unable to resist, let alone see or keep up with the opponent's speed, forcing him to blindly take the blows.
"Damn it! RAAH!"
Vegeta let out a furious roar, bursting with ki as he threw a punch, using the momentum of the force to drive himself and the Star Guardian apart.
"You bastard!"
"Haah! RAAH AAH!"
Golden auras surged upward, and electrical arcs crackled around his body. Vegeta spread his arms wide, gathering terrifying ki within them.
He struck the signature charging pose for the Final Flash.
"Hey, you bastard! Aren't you supposed to be so tough? I dare you to stand there and take my ultimate—attack!"
The Star Guardian seemed to understand Vegeta's words, and stood right where it was, waiting for Vegeta's strongest blow.
The electric arcs and aura enveloping Vegeta continued to intensify and flash, illuminating the entire area with the brilliant golden light clenched in his hands!
"Fi—nal—Flash!"
"BOOM!"
A massive wave of golden light tore through the expanse, crashing straight into the Star Guardian.