Start from the God of Death and break through the world.

Chapter 973 Ultimate Instinct

"Are you sure?"

Lu Li's respect for Weiss grew stronger, mainly because the days of sparring made him deeply realize that Weiss was truly a master of combat.

"Of course, I just want you to know that in a real fight, you shouldn't set any limits for yourself."

Weiss explained, "Furthermore, I want you to understand that your ability is not invincible."

Upon hearing this, Lu Li's competitive spirit was also aroused. His soul intent surged, and the next time he threw a punch, he directly used the technique of causal soul intent.

In fact, his original chaotic bloodline already possessed a similar ability to always hit, but the fact that Weiss could still dodge it already made him feel very strange.

This time, he fully activated his causal soul intent, determined to guide his fist to a guaranteed hit, because he refused to believe in evil.

brush--

Weiss dodged Lu Li's punch as if he had anticipated it, and then Lu Li modified the path of his punch with his causal soul intent, giving off a cheating feeling of taking back a move and starting over.

But the next moment, something unexpected happened to Lu Li. According to his newly planned route, and with Weiss having already determined the direction of his dodge, his punch should have been a sure hit.

Just as his fist was about to touch Weiss, Lu Li's vision seemed to blur, and time seemed to rewind slightly. Lu Li's punch continued forward, but missed again.

"What was that just now?"

Lu Li's punch missed its mark, and he did not pursue. Weiss also did not attack Lu Li, but simply stood there with a smile on his face.

"Confined to this, I turned back time a little bit."

Weiss explained, "This won't cause any changes to the world line, so it's a permitted little trick."

Lu Li seemed to understand something upon hearing this. It turned out that Weiss used the power of the law of time to counter his causal reversal. Therefore, the alteration of causal power is not an invincible force.

Upon closer examination, it's likely that he already possessed a certain level of accuracy, and Weiss probably countered and neutralized it using some of the power of laws.

"I see……"

Lu Li seemed to have realized something.

"do you understand?"

Weiss said with a smile.

Lu Li nodded. "You mean that various wondrous powers can indeed aid in battle, but these powers can also neutralize each other. Ultimately, the only thing that determines strength is one's own purest combat skills."

After listening to Lu Li's words, Weiss nodded with satisfaction, "That's right. You can use the power of cause and effect, and I can use the power of time. When you reach the realm of the strong, you may encounter all kinds of enemies in the future, but only your own pure martial arts skills are the most reliable."

As he spoke, he flashed forward, his scepter pointing directly at Lu Li's throat. He smiled and said, "Your thoughts are still affecting your actions."

Upon hearing this, Lu Li felt a little troubled for the first time in his cultivation. "Going from 1 to 0.1 is very simple, and going from 0.1 to 0.01 is not difficult either, but how can I return to zero?"

As Weiss initially stated, his combat instincts were excellent; in fact, he was capable of making some excellent combat decisions based on his instincts.

Even so, he wasn't completely thoughtless in battle; rather, his body's commands were still decisions made after his brain had thought about them first.

However, during this thinking process, he often relies on instinct, which reduces the thinking time.

For example, if a battle is like making a multiple-choice question, a good person will carefully examine the question, think it over, and then make a judgment.

Lu Li, on the other hand, possesses a wealth of practical experience and outstanding instincts. He can roughly tell what type of question it is just by glancing at it, and he can figure out the question setter's intentions, detect the traps set by the question setter, and instinctively judge which option should be the correct one.

In this process, it's not about zero thinking; he's just making judgments more accurate and faster than in the previous situation.

But the Ultra Instinct technique that Weiss was going to teach him was different. It was like not using your brain at all, just randomly writing A, B, C, D on a test paper, and still being able to choose the correct answer.

Lu Li had previously wanted to train Vegeta and Goku to learn some techniques of Ultra Instinct on Earth, because in the original work, it seemed that Goku didn't have much difficulty learning Ultra Instinct, and Vegeta later learned Ultra Instinct from Beerus.

Lu Li was quite confident in his learning talent, so he didn't expect to encounter a small bottleneck in his learning. He thought it was a skill he could master within a week, but after studying for more than half a month, he still couldn't fully grasp the knack.

"Your goal is too obvious. If you continue like this, even if you learn the Ultimate Instinct, it will be difficult for you to reach the perfect state."

Weiss began to instruct, “As far as I know, apart from the High Priest, who is my father, no one or god can reach the theoretically ultimate and perfect state of freedom and ultimate understanding, which is what you call zero. What you need to do now is to approach zero infinitely.”

Lu Li seemed thoughtful upon hearing this, "With a purpose...?"

Whis's Angel Staff slid through the void, bringing up a scene from Earth. Vegeta and Goku on Earth had just finished their training in the illusionary world and were currently fighting. Their progress was obvious; their movements had become much faster and smoother.

This shows that the special training methods devised by Lu Li were also effective for Goku and Vegeta.

Moreover, during their battle, Goku's head was once illuminated by a blue glow, and Vegeta also flashed once.

This happened because Lu Li gave Wukong and the others the door to the unlimited mental time chamber. They had entered it many times. Previously, the Scroll Kings would spend 23 hours and 40 minutes cultivating in the illusionary world during the day, and then spend the remaining ten minutes at night in the mental time chamber to rest and practice sparring.

These past few days, Goku probably felt that using the Hyperbolic Time Chamber was a bit of a waste, mainly because they didn't have anything urgent to do. Saiyans don't live long, so there was no need to rush into the Hyperbolic Time Chamber, and they put their sparring in the real world.

Even so, in just half a month, they entered the mental time chamber for 300 minutes, which is equivalent to 82 days of additional cultivation. It is normal for the two of them to make significant progress.

Even Lu Li had to admit that Vegeta and Goku had exceptional talent and extraordinary comprehension, which was why they were able to break through adversity and enter a whole new realm.

"Your two Saiyan friends are quite interesting. Perhaps the Super Saiyan God that Lord Beerus saw was them."

Weiss said, "Lu Li, I checked the information on these two people and found something interesting. Do you know what it is?"

Does this refer to the Saiyans' growth potential?

Lu Li asked curiously, unsure of what Whis wanted to say, since he felt there were too many interesting things about Saiyans.

Whis shook his head. "No, that's not it. Although the Saiyans' potential and growth have exceeded my expectations, with you as an example, they don't seem so special anymore."

"Please advise."

"Lu Li said modestly. Whis smiled and pointed to Vegeta on the screen, "Lu Li, you've had quite a few interactions with them. What do you think of Vegeta's talent in training? And his talent in combat?"

Upon hearing this, Lu Li pondered for a moment, "Vegeta's talent is naturally exceptional. His speed in unleashing his potential during training and his combat talent are both rare."

"Well, what do you think of Goku? Who has more talent, him or Vegeta?"

Weiss continued to ask.

"Of course it's enlightenment..."

Lu Li spoke without thinking, but suddenly froze halfway through his sentence.

Because of his preconceived notions—having read the Dragon Ball manga since childhood and extensively researched Dragon Ball information in his spatial dimension—he had long held the fixed mindset that Goku was number one and Vegeta was always number two.

But when he spoke, he suddenly realized something. Whether from the details in the original work or from his own personal experience, he discovered that Vegeta's talent... was actually above Goku's!
So the question is, why is Vegeta always subtly outmatched by Goku?
"It seems you understand as well that Goku's talent is not as good as Vegeta's."

Whis smiled and said, "But I've looked at their data. In all the major battles, Goku always reaches a new level first, seemingly always one step ahead of Vegeta. Why do you think that is?"

Yeah, why?

Lu Li was stumped by Weiss's question, because, to be honest, he had relied heavily on his own talent along the way.

To put it bluntly, he even believes that it is really difficult for people without talent to succeed. Perseverance can make a person stronger, but ultimately it is talent that determines a person's ceiling.

"To give another example, I know you are still coaching Goku's son, Gohan. Who do you think has stronger talent, Gohan or his father?"

Seeing that Lu Li remained silent, Weiss continued to ask.

Lu Li fell silent again, because he was certain that Gohan's talent for training and growth, as well as his talent for fighting, was actually superior to Goku's and Vegeta's.

The reality is that although Gohan was once the strongest character, he is now far inferior to Goku and Vegeta.

"Gohan is indeed very talented, but because his ambition lies elsewhere, he neglected his martial arts skills, so it's normal that he's not as strong as Goku and Vegeta."

Lu Li thought for a moment and said that Gohan is still undergoing the training that Lu Li taught him and has already made some progress.

However, Vegeta and Goku, the two scroll kings, are also improving. Judging from the current progress, Lu Li feels that it is still a bit uncertain whether he can complete this hidden mission.

"Hmm, that's a very simple principle, and it seems you understand it too. But what about Vegeta? Why can't he surpass Goku? Did he also not train hard enough and slack off in his martial arts?"

Weiss continued to ask in return.

Lu Li frowned in thought, as if he were caught in some strange cycle.

Yes, Vegeta didn't slack off. On the contrary, he trained whenever he had free time. Moreover, he had no financial pressure, and his wife didn't force him to do chores. He probably trained even more in his spare time than Goku.

No matter how hard Vegeta tried, and despite his greater talent than Goku, he could never surpass Goku.

Lu Li really wanted to say that Wukong had a protagonist's halo, but this was a real world, and it wasn't like some of the derivative worlds that Lu Li had visited before, where you could see the protagonist's halo attribute in the protagonist's panel.

He had seen Wukong himself, and because he was far stronger than Wukong, he could see everything about Wukong clearly. Because of this, he knew that in this world, Wukong did not have the protagonist's halo.

It's easy to understand if you think about it. Goku has died before in this world. According to the main storyline, Goku was actually going to die from heart disease most of the time. It was only because Bulma from the future made a time machine and gave Goku a special medicine that he survived.

It is precisely because of this that a new parallel world was born.

Besides getting sick and dying, Goku has also died in battles in the main story, which is really not the treatment one would expect from a protagonist with a halo.

Goku doesn't have the protagonist's halo, his talent isn't as good as Vegeta's, and he doesn't put in as much effort as Vegeta, but he's just a little bit stronger than Vegeta and is always ahead of the curve.

Please forgive my ignorance.

Lu Li thought for a long time but couldn't come up with a reasonable explanation, so he looked at Weiss.

"Because Sun Wukong is not human."

Weiss gave an answer that left Lu Li completely puzzled.

Within the Dragon Ball universe, from a god's perspective, all intelligent beings are called humans; humans on Earth are simply referred to as Earthlings.

So when Whis said that Goku wasn't human, Lu Li was quite puzzled.

"Because he's a Saiyan?"

Lu Li asked, puzzled.

Whis shook his head. "You know that's not what I meant. What I meant was that Goku is a near-godlike being. By 'god,' I don't mean Lord Beerus or the Supreme Kai, but rather a representation of a transcendent realm."

Lu Li was completely confused, feeling as if he had grasped something, yet also as if he understood nothing at all.

Whis continued, "Lu Li, think about it again, what are the essential differences between Vegeta and Goku?"

Lu Li fell into deep thought. Based on Whis's earlier suggestion, he seemed to have discovered that Vegeta and Goku were really different, completely different.

This is different; it doesn't refer to their personality or fighting ability.

Rather, it refers to their pursuit of powerful motivations.

Lu Li first focused his gaze on Wukong, and he suddenly realized that Wukong had no motivation to become stronger.

Or rather, Wukong's motivation for becoming stronger is simply to become stronger; he is merely pursuing power itself, and it has nothing to do with any other messy purposes.

There is a pure beauty about Wukong, which is so pure that even Lu Li has to admit defeat.

Goku is not interested in anything other than becoming stronger. He is happy when he becomes stronger, and he is even happy when his enemies become stronger.

The scope of this enemy could even include Frieza, who once aroused his anger. Even if such an evil Frieza had become stronger and threatened Earth again, Goku's first thought was probably not to worry about the safety of the Earthlings, but rather that Frieza had become stronger again, and he could have another good fight.

(End of this chapter)