After being beaten by Setsuna, Cooler's soul was left with nothing but weakness and fear. His translucent spirit body trembled in the air, barely able to maintain its form.
"Surrender, I truly surrender!" Cooler cried out in pain.
"Is that so? Take my last punch first," Setsuna raised his fist.
"Genro Mao Ken!"
A strange light pierced through Cooler's brow. Cooler's whole body shook violently, his weakened soul powerless to resist. Moments later, the struggle and resistance in his eyes were replaced by obedience.
"Alright, go back to your body," Setsuna snapped his fingers.
Cooler's soul floated back into his body. The moment soul and flesh reunited, his body shuddered violently, and his empty eyes regained their luster.
"Dispose of that energy sphere," Setsuna commanded.
"Yes." Cooler nodded, aiming the energy sphere capable of destroying Earth toward the starry sky.
Hum!
The sphere transformed into a thick dark purple beam, piercing through the atmosphere, rushing into deep space, and finally exploding in the void several astronomical units away from the solar system.
Even from such a distance, the energy fluctuations, akin to a supernova explosion, still reached Earth. The sun, as if disturbed by some gravitational force, erupted with violent coronal mass ejections. The aftermath of the solar storm even allowed brilliant auroras to be seen beyond the polar regions.
"Truly terrifying!" Yamcha swallowed hard, unable to imagine the apocalyptic scene if that energy sphere had detonated on Earth.
Krillin asked in confusion: "Setsuna, what's going on?"
Setsuna smiled slightly: "Nothing much. I beat him into submission. He's decided to turn over a new leaf and start anew. He's my subordinate now."
"Turn over a new leaf?" Piccolo crossed his arms, seemingly recalling something, and glanced at Vegeta, whose expression was somewhat unnatural.
"Hmph!" Vegeta snorted coldly but didn't argue. After all, he was a classic example of 'turning over a new leaf', though he would never admit it.
Tien looked strangely at Piccolo, and Krillin looked strangely at Tien. Clearly, they were also classic cases of 'turning over a new leaf'. They suddenly realized that nearly half of their group had been 'reformed' and brought into the fold.
Thinking about it that way, Cooler surrendering after defeat didn't seem so hard to understand.
As for Cooler pretending to surrender? That thought never crossed their minds. After witnessing Setsuna's ability to directly pull out an enemy's soul and beat it, who would dare play the 'enduring hardships to achieve revenge' game? Weren't they afraid of having their soul pulled out and beaten again?
Setsuna continued: "I plan to take over Cooler's forces and try being Emperor of the Universe for a while."
"Huh?" The group was dumbfounded, completely unable to keep up with this leap in thinking.
Vegeta looked askance: "You want to sell planets too?"
Setsuna shook his head slightly: "I'm not interested in cosmic real estate. What I want to do is establish a Universal Gourmet Alliance."
In truth, the reason for this idea wasn't for Gourmet Cells. His Gourmet Cells had already evolved multiple times.
To evolve further, delicacies from other universes probably wouldn't suffice. He would have to wait until returning to the Toriko World.
His true aim was to use the Gourmet Alliance to draw out Beerus. The divine techniques of the Dragon Ball universe weren't limited to just [Ultra Instinct]. The [Hakai] wielded by the Gods of Destruction was also a divine technique.
If he could master that purest form of destructive power, he might be able to fully suppress Omega Shenron.
Yamcha looked puzzled: "Gourmet Alliance? Can souls even eat?"
Setsuna smiled: "That's why I want to research delicacies that can be enjoyed in soul form."
Yamcha nodded vaguely, thinking perhaps Setsuna, having been 'dead' for so long, missed the pleasures of the living world, which was why he had such strange ideas.
Vegeta, meanwhile, sneered inwardly: "Indulging in gluttony? You've really fallen. Watch me catch up while you're busy indulging!"
But as soon as the thought arose, he recalled Setsuna's ability to pull out souls and beat them, and felt a wave of helplessness.
'My base power level is currently 4 million... I'd need to raise it to 700 million to match that guy's current soul state after having my soul extracted... No, that's assuming soul combat power is also multiplied by the same transformation multiplier...'
Just then, Krillin suddenly remembered something important and asked urgently: "Wait, Setsuna! The Androids are coming in a year. Aren't you staying on Earth? What if..."
Setsuna smiled: "You should ask Vegeta to share some of his confidence with you. You already know the news in advance, and your strength has improved significantly. Even without me, you should be able to defeat the Androids."
Setsuna paused, then added: "If you really encounter a danger you can't handle, have King Kai contact me remotely. I'll jump back to the afterlife via the Yomotsu Hirasaka, then return directly to Earth from there."
This reassured the group somewhat. They had witnessed Setsuna's ability to jump back to Earth from Namek.
"Alright, I'm off to be Emperor of the Universe. Don't miss me." Setsuna waved his hand and boarded the spaceship with the obedient Cooler.
The hatch closed, the engines emitted a low hum, and the ship slowly ascended, eventually turning into a streak of light disappearing into the sky.
Inside the ship, the control cabin was spacious and cold, filled with a sense of cold metal and technology. Cooler stood behind Setsuna like the most loyal butler, his hands at his sides.
"Do you know the location of Planet Yardrat?" Setsuna sat in the main control seat, gazing at Earth shrinking through the porthole.
"Planet Yardrat..." Cooler thought for a moment, then nodded affirmatively. "Yes, it's a remote small civilization planet, known for its unique 'secret techniques'. I once considered conquering it but abandoned the idea due to the low value of its resources. Its coordinates are at the edge of the galaxy, in sector G-877."
"Set a course. We're going there," Setsuna ordered.
He recalled some vague settings from his past life. Goku's viral heart disease might have been contracted on Planet Yardrat. But Setsuna wasn't worried. He didn't even have a physical body, so he had no fear of viral infection.
"Yes." Cooler skillfully operated the control panel. The ship entered a hyperspace channel, and the porthole outside turned into a tunnel of flowing colors.
After a brief silence, Setsuna suddenly asked: "How many planets do you control?"
"1,716, Master," Cooler answered without hesitation.
"How many of them have developed civilizations?" Setsuna pressed.
Cooler paused, seeming not to fully understand the question: "Master, all 1,716 of these planets... have civilizations. Otherwise, barren planets without intelligent life are countless. What would be the point of conquering worthless rocks and ice?"
Setsuna was slightly taken aback. He recalled that in the original work, the Supreme Kai had mentioned that [Universe 7 only has 28 planets with human life].
He had thought that number was absurdly low. Just one galaxy alone contained hundreds of billions of stars. Even if only one in a hundred million gave birth to civilizations, there should be thousands. Now he understood. The 'humans' the Supreme Kai referred to likely meant 'humans' in the literal sense. Civilizations of non-human species far exceeded that number.