"Why does he know Bukujutsu?"
Tien Shinhan and Chiaotzu could not figure it out. Bukujutsu was supposed to be the Crane School's secret technique.
"Let's ask him after this match ends."
"Okay!"
The match was still in progress, and Tien still wanted to win the championship, so he was not thinking about rushing onto the stage to cause trouble just yet.
"Still, those two are really strong."
"Yes!"
Ethan was strong, Tien had already realized that during the preliminaries. What he had not expected was that the guy named Yamcha was also this strong.
Judging from the match, Yamcha's speed and agility were even better than Ethan's. Ethan had only gained the upper hand at the start by catching him off guard.
On top of that, Yamcha knew Bukujutsu, which made it difficult to throw him out of the ring. Looking at it this way...
"It looks like this guy named Yamcha will be my opponent in the next round."
In the ring, Ethan and Yamcha had already started fighting again. Yamcha still had the advantage in speed, but a slight edge in speed alone was not all that useful. Ethan's defensive and offensive movements were always the optimal choice, using the least effort and the shortest movement to achieve the best result, making full use of every bit of his strength, and properly giving up some defense to create chances to counterattack. So after dozens of exchanges, both of them had suffered some injuries.
"..."
Tien, who had just concluded that Yamcha would be his opponent in the next round, was immediately proven wrong. Chiaotzu, standing beside him, was so shocked by the strength the two had displayed in the ring that he did not know how to react.
"Tien... they... are too strong."
Cold sweat covered Tien's forehead. The strength of those two had completely exceeded his expectations.
He had thought Ethan had already gone all out in the preliminaries, but now it seemed he had held back.
What Tien did not know was that both Ethan and Yoruichi had been wearing weights at the time. Ethan had not needed to use this style of fighting to deal with Yoruichi.
Now he had no choice. Yamcha was not wearing weights, but he was. He had to focus all of his energy, distribute his strength properly, and calculate every movement precisely.
The reason his fighting rhythm had sped up so much was entirely because Yamcha had forced it. However, fighting like this would drag him into Yamcha's preferred rhythm, which would put him at a major disadvantage. So after tangling with him for a while, Ethan began forcing Yamcha to lower his attack frequency and slow the pace of the fight.
"Hmm?"
Instead of continuing to exchange punches and kicks, Ethan began using grapples, holds, and joint locks whenever Yamcha attacked, disrupting his rhythm and forcing him into close combat.
Once the fight entered that state, Yamcha could no longer make full use of his flexibility and speed. If they were simply comparing strength, Ethan was not at a disadvantage at all. In fact, he held the advantage.
More importantly, Yamcha's fighting style leaned toward broad, sweeping attacks. You could tell that from how much he liked leaping around. This kind of close-quarters combat was what he disliked the most and was worst at, so he quickly fell into a disadvantage.
"Damn it..."
During their usual sparring, they only traded punches and kicks. Yamcha had never known Ethan was also skilled in this kind of fighting style, so when he suddenly faced it in a real match, he had no idea how to deal with it.
This was another major weakness of Yamcha's. When facing a situation beyond his expectations, he lacked the ability to adapt quickly.
On top of that, whenever the situation turned against him, Yamcha often grew too impatient and made bad decisions. In his anxiety, he threw a full-force heavy punch and ignored Ethan's explosive short-range power.
He wanted to knock Ethan flying with one punch, but Ethan instantly twisted his body to avoid it. Even though he was still grazed, he seized the chance to grab Yamcha's arm, flip over, and clamp Yamcha's arm with his legs.
Using the momentum, Ethan dragged Yamcha to the ground while locking his arm in place. With just a little more force, Yamcha felt intense pain.
"Ah!"
Even though this was only a match, Ethan had no intention of going easy on him at that moment. The strength in his hands did not lessen at all. Yamcha felt as if his arm was about to break.
"Give up. With your strength, you can't break free."
"Damn it!"
As he felt Ethan's grip getting tighter and tighter, and the legs pressing against his neck constantly applying force, Yamcha knew that if this continued, even if his arm was not broken, the pressure on his neck would leave him short of oxygen and make him pass out.
Although he was very unwilling, Yamcha still chose to surrender. A few methods to break free flashed through his mind, but unless this was a life-and-death struggle, there was no need to use such desperate measures.
Besides, Ethan had forced him into such a miserable state without even removing his weights. If Ethan had fought seriously, he truly would not have had any chance of winning, so there was no point in feeling resentful.
"I surrender!"
With Yamcha's surrender, the match was declared over. Ethan released him, stood up, and reached out a hand to pull Yamcha, who was lying on the ground gasping for air, back to his feet.
"It seems my strength is still not enough."
Ethan really wanted to tell him, "You didn't lose because of your strength!" But he had already said many such things during training, so there was no need to bring them up again now.
If Yamcha could have changed, he would have changed long ago. He would not have waited until now. Ethan now understood why Yamcha could never keep going to the end. His talent was not enough to let him keep up with Goku's pace, or rather, he had never kept up with Goku from the very beginning.
Because of Ethan's involvement, Yamcha had been able to stay one step ahead for a while, but as long as his mindset and those flaws were not corrected, he would sooner or later hit a bottleneck and be unable to improve any further.
In that case, he would still inevitably be pushed to the sidelines.
"It depends on his own choice."
Ethan was not going to interfere too much. If Yamcha himself did not want to keep striving upward, why should he force him forward?
After stepping down from the ring, he saw Tien standing in front of Yamcha. With his arms crossed and a grim look on his face, Tien stared at him as if facing a mortal enemy.
"Why do you know Bukujutsu?"
"Huh?"
"Bukujutsu is our Crane School's unique secret technique. Where did you learn it?"
Only then did Yamcha understand what Tien meant. But he had clearly learned it from Korin, so it had nothing to do with the Crane School.
Just as he was about to explain, Ethan suddenly spoke from the side.
"Don't be so absolute. Bukujutsu is just an application of energy. Any martial artist who can grasp energy might be able to master this ability. As for calling it the Crane School's unique secret technique, that is even more ridiculous. Back when the Crane Hermit was still just a young man who could only watch his master and enemy fight a life-and-death battle from the sidelines without being able to help, this technique already existed on Earth."
Tien was so thrown off by Ethan's words that he did not know how to respond. Although he felt that what Ethan said sounded somewhat arrogant and absurd, Ethan's confident attitude left him unsure how to refute him.
In the end, he could only let out an angry snort and turn away. He planned to ask his master whether Ethan's words were true.
After finding the Crane Hermit and repeating what Ethan had said, Tien saw his master's expression turn very ugly. At that moment, he suddenly realized that Ethan might not have been talking nonsense after all.
While Tien and the Crane Hermit were discussing Ethan and Yamcha's Bukujutsu, Krillin had already finished his match against Chiaotzu.
Compared to the previous two straightforward and fierce battles, this match had more comedic elements.
Chiaotzu, who possessed considerable strength and psychic powers, was actually defeated by Krillin because of his poor math skills. This made the audience laugh, and for the first time, the Crane Hermit realized how terrible it was to be uneducated.
"If I had known this would happen, I would have taught him more general knowledge."
Krillin successfully advanced. As for the fourth match of the first round, Goku's match had even less suspense.
His opponent was just an ordinary martial arts champion, completely unlike the other non-human participants. Ethan really wondered how this guy could still be so confident after watching the previous matches. It was not just that he lacked judgment, he was practically blind.
So he could not even withstand a single move from Goku before being defeated on the spot. Goku advanced to the semifinals without spending any effort.
"First match of the semifinals, contestant Tien Shinhan versus contestant Ethan. Please come forward!"
Tien, who had returned to the waiting area, stepped onto the ring with a grim expression.
After the first round, he already knew that his biggest rival for the championship was standing right in front of him. Only by defeating this opponent could he win the title.
Even if he beat this Ethan, whose origins were unknown, Goku from the Turtle School would still be a formidable opponent.
"Unexpectedly, there are more strong people in this world than I imagined."
"Travel more and see more. If you ever get the chance to step into the vast and boundless sea of stars, you'll realize that to true powerhouses, strength at this level is nothing more than a joke."
Tien did not respond. He thought Ethan meant that there were many hidden experts in this world.
In truth, Ethan meant it literally. If Tien could step into space and see the strong fighters throughout the universe, he would understand how insignificant his current power level was. With a battle power just above 100, he was not even comparable to Frieza's lowest-ranking soldiers.
Unfortunately, at this point, no one could understand the real meaning of his words. Even Master Roshi, who was watching from the contestant area, interpreted them the same way Tien did.
As for Goku, he simply found Ethan's words hard to understand. He planned to ask Ethan later, when he had the chance, where this so-called sea of stars was.
"Alright, let's begin!"
Ethan stood there casually with his arms crossed. The strongest opponents in this World Martial Arts Tournament had already been eliminated by him. The remaining matches really were just for fun.
The current Tien and Goku were no match for him at all, and the gap was not small. He only needed to be careful not to get hit by the incredibly powerful Tri-Beam.
"Standing like that... do you think you're certain to win?"
"Yes!"
(To be continued.)