This novel is finished and I have posted all the advanced chapters on my Patreon https://www.patreon.com/darkshadow6395
A wave of shock rippled through the assembled group. No one had ever imagined that, in the vast tapestry of original Universes, one could exist that was primarily ruled by Saiyans.
In their current Universe Seven, while the Saiyans were called a "Combat race," their actual circumstances were far from favorable. To put it nicely, they served the Universal Emperor, Frieza. To be blunt, they were nothing more than Frieza's thugs and foot soldiers.
The idea of ruling an entire Universe was an impossible fantasy. They couldn't even manage the sustainable development of their own race; otherwise, the entire Saiyan population wouldn't have been annihilated by Frieza.
And yet, here before them was the stunning realization of a Universe governed completely by Saiyans. The sheer contrast was deeply stirring.
Even Jiang Chen felt a jolt of genuine surprise.
The Dragon Ball World was unimaginably vast. Even as a traveler who had conquered worlds, Jiang Chen found it incredibly difficult to grasp its full scope.
As he often thought, Dragon Ball differed from many other fictional worlds. Although it had a relatively complete initial worldview, it was built on an open framework. Over the years, Akira Toriyama, Toei, and countless fans had continuously created and expanded upon it.
By now, the Dragon Ball universe might not be the most powerful in existence, but the potential worlds it could generate made it one of the largest and most expansive fictional universes ever conceived.
Some of its deeper settings and possibilities were things that even Jiang Chen couldn't fully comprehend.
"It seems our Saiyan legend stretches far longer than we imagined," Jiang Chen murmured, shifting his focus downward.
In that moment, the two figures below had escalated into a state of white-hot combat.
A pitch-black aura swept out from one side, while the other figure radiated a blinding golden brilliance.
The terrifying power they unleashed caused even the surrounding fabric of the Universe to shudder. The impact of their colliding energies was a shockwave that extended from the surface of Planet Sadala all the way out into the starry sky.
This spectacle caused Jiang Chen's pupils to constrict again.
The two combatants had just charged directly into space.
By all previous logic, Saiyan physiology could not survive in the vacuum of space. Jiang Chen himself only managed it thanks to a wish made on the Dragon Balls.
And he was the only one.
No one else, not Goku, not Vegeta, not Raditz, nor the members of the Bardock Squad, could accomplish such a feat.
Yet, what was once impossible was now reality.
"Their Dimensions are shifting."
"This is no longer merely Saiyan Power."
As if reading Jiang Chen's thoughts, the Angel Whis spoke softly.
His words made Jiang Chen's pupils shrink even further.
"Dimension shifting?"
Jiang Chen instinctively glanced into the distance, then back at Angel Whis. He hadn't forgotten the things Whis had told him previously. Hearing the mention of "Dimensions" again left him profoundly astonished.
"Yes, indeed, their Dimensions are shifting," Whis confirmed. "They are likely approaching the Kami-level now."
"Such a remarkable power."
Even the Angel Whis, speaking with a hint of awe, showed a slight fluctuation in his expression.
Hearing Whis's assessment, Jiang Chen felt a strong stir in his heart. The next moment, an invisible ripple spread forward, attempting to envelop the Time and Space ahead of them.
"Hmmph!"
However, as soon as the Time and Space began to extend, Jiang Chen let out a muffled grunt, his face instantly going pale.
"This…?"
His eyes widened in shock. His Time Stream could no longer reach forward.
"The legend is continuing its course now; your Time cannot spread further," Angel Whis said with a faint smile.
"I see!"
Jiang Chen nodded, understanding the barrier. He no longer attempted to extend his Time Stream, instead keeping his gaze fixed on the unfolding combat in the distance.
At this moment, the battle had escalated to an even higher level.
Planets in their path were annihilated in an instant.
Whether barren and lifeless or teeming with civilization, none were spared.
Even Bardock, enveloped in his golden aura, couldn't stop the destruction.
"Roar!"
A tremendous roar erupted. The golden-aura Bardock seemed to explode further in response to the destruction of each planet, the terrifying brilliance of his aura surging upward again.
It was as if the starry sky itself was illuminated by his power.
Yet, even as he erupted, the other figure, shrouded in pitch-black aura, refused to yield. A powerful wave of darkness spread outward in response, meeting the light head-on.
"Boom!" "Rumble!"
In the vacuum of space, where absolute silence should have reigned, continuous roars now violently reverberated across the void, defying all natural law.
The overwhelming auras ripped through the stars, their sheer force threatening to tear apart entire galaxies.
"So strong…" someone murmured in hushed awe.
No one answered. Most eyes were locked rigidly on the colossal battle, afraid to miss a single, critical instant.
Amidst this ferocious collision...
Suddenly:
"Boom!"
The overpowering energy surged once more. The pitch-black force seemed to grow exponentially in that instant, instantly threatening to swallow the golden brilliance.
This scene made everyone's brows twitch in shock.
Goku and Raditz instinctively tried to move forward, their bodies tensing.
However…
"Hum!"
A sharp ripple spread out, and in the next moment, the terrifying power of Time and Space instantly froze their movements, locking them down.
"Bardock!" Goku called out, his expression anxious, using the familiar name for his father.
Raditz wasn't faring much better.
"Don't worry, Uncle Bardock is fine!" Jiang Chen spoke softly, gesturing toward the two intertwined auras in the distance.
"Fine?"
The two of them paused, quickly noticing the subtle shift.
The pitch-black aura and the golden aura were no longer locked in a simple struggle for dominance.
Instead, they were entangling with each other. It wasn't that the black had completely devoured the gold, nor that the gold had suppressed the black, they were melding.
"This…?"
Goku and Raditz widened their eyes, disbelief etched across their faces.
Jiang Chen, meanwhile, looked thoughtfully at the swirling gold and black energies, a sudden realization dawning on him.
And as if to confirm his thoughts, a brilliant streak of red suddenly tore through the fusion of gold and black. An aura detectable only by a Spiritual God spread across the starry sea.
Bardock's silhouette emerged from the swirling chaos.
In this moment, his body had undergone a complete transformation.
His once-bulky warrior frame had become leaner and more defined.
His pitch-black hair had now turned a blazing, magnificent crimson.
Across the starry sea, golden lotuses seemed to bloom in the void, their radiant light covering the entire cosmos. Even from billions of miles away, the spectacle could be clearly seen.
"Super Saiyan God!"
"No, wait, this isn't just divine ki!" Jiang Chen muttered, quickly sensing the fundamental difference.
Bardock's current state was entirely different from the Super Saiyan God transformations they had achieved.
Their transformation was merely a mortal body infused with a sliver of godly aura.
Bardock, however, seemed to have truly undergone a metamorphosis, reaching a critical, permanent threshold. His soul, his very life essence, had fundamentally changed.
"Boom!"
The aura surged; golden clouds expanded further, attempting to envelop the entire universe.
"The legend of the Super Saiyan God!" Jiang Chen whispered to himself, a sudden, blinding clarity appearing in his mind.
At this moment, he finally understood the true origin of the Super Saiyan God legend.
If the basic Super Saiyan was a level any Saiyan could theoretically reach with enough power and S-Cells, the Super Saiyan God was a completely different concept.
The difference was clear just by comparing their prerequisites: A Super Saiyan needed a threshold of power and enough rage. A Super Saiyan God, however, required six righteous Saiyans to channel their essence into one. The initial transformation was a temporary ritual.
This ritual wasn't about the individual reaching a certain power level; it was about reflecting Time and Space, interweaving a specific set of universal laws.
Jiang Chen hadn't fully grasped it before, but now he had a rough understanding. Because of Bardock's existence, or rather, the existence of the original legend, Yamoshi, a mark had been etched into the fabric of Time and Space, allowing the ritual to succeed in the future.
"It looks like you've finally understood!"
"But, Jiang Chen," the Angel Whis said with a gentle smile, "in that case, it will probably be very difficult for you to leap across dimensions using just the Super Saiyan God form."
"I understand!"
Jiang Chen gave a bitter smile and nodded. No wonder he always felt that no matter how much he trained as a Super Saiyan God, it was merely a temporary layer of godly ki attached to him. He hadn't truly crossed a new dimension or reached a higher level of being.
It turned out that the Super Saiyan God belonged to someone else's history.
No matter how hard he tried or how deeply he meditated, he couldn't permanently layer another person's ultimate historical power onto his own essence.
Naturally, a true, permanent breakthrough was impossible for Jiang Chen. The path of the Super Saiyan God was already claimed by history.
"Let's go!"
"Mr. Bardock will probably still need some time to settle into his new form," the Angel Whis continued with a smile. "And we should return as well. Lord Beerus should have almost finished his nap by now."
"Understood!" Jiang Chen nodded in agreement.
"And… what about Dad?" Raditz asked, unable to hide his lingering worry.
"Don't worry. Mr. Bardock will be fine," Angel Whis assured him. "We just need to wait. Trust me, he'll return to you all very soon."
Hearing the Angel's promise, everyone finally nodded, reassured.
"Dong!"
With everyone's assent, Angel Whis lightly tapped the Time River with his staff.
In the next instant, the surrounding flow of time began to rapidly and violently reverse. Time itself moved backward at an incredible speed.
In the blink of an eye, the long span of time they had just witnessed had passed.
When everyone's senses stabilized, they found themselves back on the God of Destruction's Planet.
But just as they arrived and were about to catch their breath…
The staff in Whis's hand suddenly glowed bright.
"Oh? A message from Bulma!"
"Goku, it seems she's looking for you!" Angel Whis said with a smile, glancing at Goku while connecting the communication with a simple gesture.
"Whis! Whis!"
"It's finally connected! This is bad, Whis, quickly notify Goku!" Bulma's frantic, anxious voice blared from the staff.
"What happened?"
"Bulma?" Goku asked in confusion as his silhouette flashed forward toward the sound.
"Great, Goku, you're here too."
"Jaco just sent a message, Frieza is heading straight for Earth! He'll arrive in about three minutes!" Bulma quickly relayed the critical situation.
"Frieza?"
Hearing the hated name, everyone present froze for a moment.
"That guy… didn't I already kill him?" Vegeta frowned, his tone laced with venom.
At his words, all eyes instinctively turned to Vegeta, then shifted toward Jiang Chen.
"Hmph. That fool was supposedly brought back through some ritual just a while ago, only to be obliterated by me again," Vegeta snorted coldly, speaking with a hint of irritation at the memory.
"Brought back through a Dragon Ball Resurrection?"
Jiang Chen furrowed his brow; he hadn't considered that possibility for the timeline of these events.
"Yes, just a few months ago," Vegeta confirmed with a nod.
"Vegeta, did you see him die with your own eyes?" Jiang Chen asked, a strange expression on his face as he looked at the Saiyan Prince.
"No. But he was blasted clean across the Universe by his own Planet Destroying Ball. There's no way he could have survived that! He must have been resurrected again by those damn lackeys of his," Vegeta shook his head, his voice grave.
Hearing Vegeta, Jiang Chen couldn't help but slap his forehead.
Of course.
That reckless Vegeta, if nothing weird happened because of his actions, it would be a miracle.
The others definitely wouldn't have survived that kind of blast.
But Frieza? Not necessarily.
As a member of the Frost Demon race, Frieza naturally possesses the ability to survive in the vacuum of space. Theoretically, as long as his body wasn't completely pulverized, resurrection was always possible, even from deep space.
"Let's go!"
"We'll return to Earth first!"
"This might get a little troublesome."
Jiang Chen spoke, signaling everyone to follow him.
This wasn't just the relatively simple GT world; this was the entire Dragon Ball Universe. Frieza's level of difficulty was among the absolute top in Dragon Ball history, unmatched by anyone save the true deities.
If the God of Destruction Beerus was the unsolvable problem, a generation-spanning, invincible force, then Frieza was the ultimate, cosmic undead cockroach.
Thanks to his popularity and repeated appearances, Frieza had been showcased time and again. It was manageable before Dragon Ball Super, but after that series, Frieza's power level was essentially on overdrive.
In the span of just a few months, he had managed to surpass the level of Super Saiyan God, travel across dimensions, and effortlessly defeat both Ultra Instinct Goku and Perfected Ultra Ego Vegeta.
Honestly, Jiang Chen was a little worried. If Frieza showed up in just his Golden Form, it would be easily manageable; at Jiang Chen's current strength, that form wasn't much of a threat. But if Frieza suddenly unveiled the Black-Gold Form… then even Jiang Chen would be in serious trouble.
(The Black-Gold Frieza, shown in Dragon Ball Super manga Chapter 87, is a new transformation Frieza achieved after ten years of training in another dimension. His power surpasses both Ultra Instinct Goku and Perfected Ultra Ego Vegeta, defeating both with a single blow and forcing them back to their base forms.)
(End of Chapter)