Ethan had already decided to leave and knew how, but there were still some miscellaneous matters to attend to before departing.
He used this time to continue training diligently, pushing the divine power within him, and as his divine body constantly evolved, Ethan's speed of recovering his strength also increased.
He originally thought it would take more time to recover enough strength, but unexpectedly, as his divine body evolved, the recovery speed was like a snowball, getting faster and faster. Ethan could now clearly sense the various rules of this world and possessed the ability to leave at any time.
At this point, he was unwilling to stay any longer and waste time.
Before leaving, Ethan first did one thing. He used the power of the Dragon Balls to lock onto Babidi's location, then instantly teleported there, and before Babidi could even figure out what was happening, he instantly killed the guy.
As for the Demon King Dabura, he was not worth mentioning in front of the current Ethan, let alone the fact that this guy's strength was only on par with Cell's. Even in a head-on fight, he could not defeat the current Ethan.
Casually killing the Demon King, Ethan then spent some time cleaning up Babidi's subordinates. Finally, facing the giant, ugly spherical object, Ethan used the power of rules, which was gradually merging with himself, to completely destroy it.
Majin Buu, without even a chance to resurrect, was silently annihilated by Ethan just like that.
After doing all this, Ethan also destroyed Babidi's spaceship. Now he could leave with peace of mind.
If he did not do these things, who knew if Majin Buu would cause a huge crisis again in the future?
Although he could choose to return to this world at a specific point in time, accidents could happen in anything. If he made a mistake in operation, or if locking onto a specific time point was more difficult than expected, or if the error was hard to control, and he returned only to see Earth destroyed, it would unnecessarily create a lot of trouble.
Even if he could use the power of the Dragon Balls to restore everything, he was not sure if Yoruichi, whose situation was special, would have problems.
Therefore, nipping the trouble in the bud was the safest approach.
"Almost forgot this."
Having dealt with Buu, Ethan casually took out a Capsule and tossed it aside. The cultivation device containing Cell's embryo appeared before him.
When he had raided Dr. Gero's laboratory back then, Ethan had not directly destroyed Cell's embryo but had taken the entire device with him.
He did this mainly as a precaution, in case something went wrong with Cell.
It was not needed now. After confirming that he could leave this world, keeping this thing was useless, and it was time to destroy it.
After clearing away all potential dangers, he returned to West City. Ethan did not continue training in the following time, occasionally accompanying Yoruichi and Bulma for shopping and chats, and adjusting his mindset along the way.
After feeling that everything was almost ready, he went and said hello to Goku and the others one by one, telling them that he would be leaving for a while.
As for Ethan's true identity, currently only Yoruichi and Bulma knew, and he did not plan to tell more people. There was no point in telling them.
Even if he were to tell them, it would be better to wait until he had resolved his personal issues and then connected this world with his own.
After making the rounds, Ethan returned to his residence, where Yoruichi was already waiting.
"Ready to go?"
"Yeah!"
Staying any longer was just wasting time. If he wanted to waste time, there would be plenty of opportunities later. Why rush now?
"Goodbye!"
"..."
Watching Yoruichi wave her hand so decisively, Ethan was speechless.
"I'm leaving. Aren't you going to show some affection?"
"Ha, dream on!"
Casually giving Ethan a hard slap on the back, Yoruichi walked away without even turning her head, clearly not planning to stay and watch Ethan leave.
Watching Yoruichi's figure disappear, Ethan shrugged and did not pay it much mind. He focused his mind, gathered divine power in his hands, and felt the basic rules of this world.
He could now initially control these rule powers. With this level of strength, finding a world seam was not difficult.
Just as Ethan was using his divine power to tear the seam wider and wider, a flash of white light suddenly appeared before him. The invisible world seam suddenly turned into a portal condensed from white light.
"Is this acknowledging that I've passed the test?"
Ethan frowned. He did not step into the light gate immediately but tried to tear open another new seam nearby to see if there would be any other changes. Unfortunately, the result was the same as with the previous seam. When he tore the seam open to a certain extent, it would turn into this kind of light gate.
This meant he was still under the "control" of the Tower of Babel, a feeling that was quite unpleasant.
Shaking his head helplessly, Ethan stopped trying and stepped decisively into the light gate. In just an instant, he saw the familiar, seemingly endless staircase again.
Standing on the stairs, Ethan was not in a hurry to climb up but stood still, carefully looking down.
As his body evolved into a true divine body, vast divine power gradually began to merge into his new body, and his understanding of rules deepened. He finally saw the true exit of this staircase.
"It's actually down below."
When he first stepped onto the stairs, he could not see anything below.
Later, he could see that the stairs leading down were actually a spatial maze, and going down was just circling in place.
Now, he had finally seen through all the illusions and witnessed the true scene. Unlike the light gates he had seen several times when climbing up, beyond the spatial maze where people could wander in place, there was a very ordinary-looking wooden door. This wooden door was less than thirty meters away from Ethan.
He tried climbing up the stairs for a while and found that this wooden door always remained at the same distance. He confirmed that this wooden door should be the true exit of the Tower of Babel.
Turning downward, Ethan's body was enveloped in a layer of divine power containing spatial rules, and he easily passed through that spatial maze.
"The application of rule power has also become easier."
When he fought Abraham back then, Ethan's application of rule power was still quite basic. Now, he could very naturally integrate rules into his own power.
"Is this the power Eugene possesses? No, I should have just crossed that threshold now."
But what exactly was this guy's true purpose?
From beginning to end, Ethan did not trust Eugene. From the moment Eugene, relying on his powerful strength, forced Ethan into the Tower of Babel, Ethan had listed him as a potential major enemy.
Unfortunately, his own strength was not enough, so he could only act according to the other party's wishes for now.
"Can my current strength contend with that guy?"
Without needing to think much, Ethan knew it was not enough. His integration with rules was still very basic. To reach Eugene's level, he would need to continue working hard for a while longer at least.
Thinking of this, Ethan composed himself and hid some "dangerous thoughts" in the deepest part of his mind.
With the initial integration of himself and rules, Eugene should no longer be able to casually pry into his thoughts. Before his strength was sufficient, he did not want the other party to detect these things.
"However... I always feel like this guy doesn't not know, but simply doesn't care."
Was it absolute confidence in his own strength? Or some other reason?
Unable to figure it out for the moment, Ethan temporarily put these matters aside and focused his attention on the wooden door before him.
He had arrived before the wooden door and reached out, gently brushing his hand over it.
In just an instant, he retracted his right hand, showing an expression that said, "As expected, it's not that simple."
He did not try to push the door or smash this seemingly not-sturdy wooden door. From the contact just now, he already knew that this door was not something that could be destroyed, and to open it, specific requirements had to be met.
Besides reaching the corresponding realm himself, the most important thing was to obtain several keys.
Now that Ethan had entered this realm, he could see and even touch this door, which meant he had the basic requirement to open it.
But he still needed keys. These were essential critical items. Without the keys, no matter how strong he was, he could not open this door.
Where were the keys?
There was no need to ask this question. They were definitely in one of the worlds constructed or linked by the Tower of Babel.
"So, what I need to do next is find the keys."
This task did not sound difficult, but he vaguely felt that this strange Tower of Babel would cause trouble.
Standing there with his arms crossed and waiting for a moment, Ethan realized that worrying was useless. He could only deal with things as they came.
"Alright, I'd like to see what other tricks it has up its sleeve."
Ethan reached out and pointed at the doorknob. As Ethan released his divine power, the ordinary-looking doorknob began to emit dazzling light. A beam of blue-white light surged out from the doorknob, opening a blue portal behind Ethan.
"This... why does it look a bit familiar?"
After looking for a second, he realized this energy was not just a bit familiar. He was extremely familiar with the nature of this energy. Wasn't this the energy from the Cosmic Cube, or the Space Stone?
He suspected he might be mistaken, but he was very familiar with this power. It was absolutely impossible to be wrong.
"As expected, it's causing trouble!"
Shaking his head helplessly, Ethan, who recognized the nature of this energy, also knew his destination.
Sighing, he lifted his foot and stepped into the blue portal. The feeling of spatial displacement and dizziness was not strong and had no effect on the current Ethan.
When he saw the situation before him clearly again, he immediately knew where he was.
A confined space filled with lots of high-tech equipment, several fully armed soldiers lying on the ground, and a one-eyed man in a leather trench coat kneeling half-down before him, looking at him with a face full of surprise.
Not far away, a familiar figure holding a scepter emitting a soft glow was also looking at him with surprised and wary eyes.
"Ho, so many familiar faces."
(To be continued.)
◇◇◇
◇ One bonus chapter will be released for every 200 Power Stones.
◇ You can read the ahead chapter on Pat if you're interested: p-atreon.c-om/Blownleaves (Just remove the hyphen to access normally.)