The West Kai showed great disdain for Bardock's participation: "He's just a Saiyan. Let me check his history... Heh, and here I thought he was some big shot, but he turns out to be just a low-class warrior. North Kai, your judgment is as lousy as ever!"
He obviously didn't know the terrifying power of Konoha Genin and Saiyan low-class warriors. Using his authority as a Kai, he briefly glanced at Bardock's past experiences in the Living World and immediately started mocking him.
The North Kai, knowing full well that Bardock could transform into a Super Saiyan, was full of confidence and retorted sarcastically. The two fatties were soon cursing at each other in a heap again. The South Kai and East Kai stood by, watching the drama.
"You two, stop it, stop it!" Ino pulled apart the two Kais who engaged in their daily shouting match, then proceeded to distribute tasks—orders that had come down from the Grand Kai.
As the saying goes, warmth and satiation lead to... well, you know. The food in the Martial Arts Village was simply too good. According to a certain someone, some intelligent species were just too well-fed. They didn't have the guts to cause trouble right under the Grand Kai's nose, but their minds wandered off course by just a billion little bits.
As the tournament entered the Top 32 stage, the heat was much higher than before. Many aliens were emotionally agitated, and some previously unforeseen events began to occur.
The Martial Arts Village had gathered over ten million intelligent life forms from more than 3,500 planets. Among these life forms, due to various reasons, cross-species, cross-gender, and cross-age romances were playing out every day in the village.
The Grand Kai was initially happy to see this success, but later he discovered that this was happening a bit too frequently...
"I, an old man, also need to save face. You were ten million intelligent lives when you came to Grand Kai's Planet, but you turned into thirty million when you left? Is this appropriate?"
Some species were truly bizarre. For instance, you-know-who might be male before, then turn female after, or perhaps two males would fight, with the winner becoming male and the loser becoming female. There was only the unimaginable, nothing that couldn't be done.
Many of these changes left even Ino, who had watched countless videos, with a forehead full of question marks, let alone the relatively conservative Grand Kai.
In short, it was a foul atmosphere!
The Grand Kai told Ino to manage it. How could she manage it? She could only drag along the four Kais to issue a joint order.
"During the World Martial Arts Tournament, contestants are prohibited from falling in love."
Half a day later, this loosely worded order was changed to: "During the World Martial Arts Tournament, males and females are prohibited from falling in love."
After that, it changed once a day.
"During the World Martial Arts Tournament, the living and the dead are prohibited from falling in love."
"During the World Martial Arts Tournament, intelligent life forms are prohibited from falling in love."
"During the World Martial Arts Tournament, falling in love is prohibited!"
Even with the committee's repeated orders, there were still those who committed crimes against the wind. There was nothing else to say; just one word: arrest.
Although the sparks of romance were suppressed by Ino and the four Kais, it was like pushing down a gourd only to have a ladle float up. Catalyzed by alcohol, numerous intelligent life forms began to let themselves go, and even more messy situations appeared.
She was forced to issue many regulations that sounded simply inconceivable.
For example: "No shaving your neighbor's pet in the middle of the night."
Or: "You cannot smear secretions from your tail onto shop doorbells as a gesture of friendship."
And further: "No random jumping when entering shops, and absolutely no discharging electricity (physical discharge allowed neither)."
"No sticking tentacles into meat grinders."
The myriad of regulations made even Ino feel irritable.
Fortunately, after persisting for another half month, the Martial Arts Tournament finally reached its conclusion.
The Fourth Raikage encountered Pikkon in the preliminaries and was eliminated. Fu met an expert from the South Galaxy during the promotion rounds and was also defeated. The others—Killer B, Kitsuchi, and Zabuza—all made it into the Top 32. However, the limit for these ninja villagers was right there; in the Top 16 stage, they were all eliminated.
Eliminated during the same period was Chiaotzu.
Krillin entered the Top 8 but was defeated by a powerhouse from the East Galaxy.
Then came the Top 4. Pikkon and Bardock didn't expend much effort to defeat their respective opponents, advancing to the finals.
On the day of the finals, there wasn't an empty seat in the spectator stands. The Supreme Kai and Kibito, who had only come for one day during the opening ceremony, descended upon Grand Kai's Planet once again.
Ino wanted to gain more say in the preparations for the Tournament of Power, so she immediately volunteered to go down and serve as the referee.
The original referee had rich experience in hosting matches, but his own strength was a bit lacking. Just standing in front of Bardock and Pikkon made him tremble, unable to speak. The Grand Kai had already prepared to switch referees, so when Ino bravely took on the task, he immediately nodded in agreement.
Ino held the microphone, showing no stage fright whatsoever; one might even say this stage seemed designed for her.
"Ladies and gentlemen, distinguished guests, good evening. Thank you to the Supreme Kai, thank you to the Grand Kai, thank you to the four Kais for your support. Thank you to the Stardust Group for the friendship sponsorship provided for the competition, thank you... Tonight we meet here to welcome the Grand Finals of the First Other World Martial Arts Tournament! Next, please welcome our contestants!"
Pikkon, with his green skin, had long been standing on the ring.
He heard a certain someone over there going "blah blah blah" with "thank yous" for over five minutes. Hearing "please welcome our contestants" at this moment, and seeing Bardock slowly walking onto the stage from the other end, he froze there for a moment, his expression a bit awkward. Did I come too early? Should I go down now and come up again later?
"Protest! Black whistle! This is a rigged game! She is deliberately affecting Pikkon's mood; I strongly demand a change of referee!" The West Kai was greatly dissatisfied.
The Grand Kai once again unleashed his ultimate skill of "playing dumb," closing his eyes and pretending to doze off. The West Kai could only go find the North Kai to tear into him.
Seeing Bardock's fighting spirit soaring, Ino no longer stalled for time. She introduced them to the audience: "This slender one is Contestant Pikkon from the West Galaxy, and this rather robust one is Contestant Bardock from the North Galaxy. Are you two ready? The last and only rule of the ring match: when one side loses the ability to move or voluntarily admits defeat, the other side must stop. Is that understood? Good, let the match begin!"
Ino quickly retreated, floating in mid-air to leave the ring to the two warriors.
Of the two, one was a genius martial artist whose martial arts realm was second to none in the entire West Galaxy, and the other was a Super Warrior—a Super Saiyan who only appeared once every thousand years—with extremely rich combat experience. Until the final moment, no one knew the result.
The two sides confronted each other for several seconds. Bardock's expression suddenly turned cold, and his majestic body lunged out like a lion.
He attempted to finish Pikkon with lightning speed.
The West Galaxy genius martial artist reacted extremely fast, raising his hand to parry. Discovering that the opponent's strength was above his own, he remained calm. His wrist exerted force in a special manner, directly knocking Bardock's palm away.
"Good skill!" Bardock did not retreat but advanced, relying on his burly physique. Changing his claw to a fist, he punched toward Pikkon's chest.
Pikkon crossed his hands in defense, fighting while retreating.
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