'Dragon Ball Super' episodes 71, 72 spoilers: Goku revives for an intense counterattack; Hit's mysterious client to be revealed?

In the previous episode of "Dragon Ball Super," legendary assassin, Hit, went after Goku and succeeded. Or did he?

Episode 71 saw the unfortunate death of Goku by a surprise strike he did not see coming. This came at a time when Beerus begun fretting about Goku not training hard enough for the martial arts tournament that the whimsical King of the 12 Universes, Zen-Oh, previously proposed, and which could commence at any moment. This has led some fans to speculate that Beerus' loyal mentor and attendant, Whis, may be the mysterious client who ordered the hit on Universe 7's purported Lead Fighter, not to kill him but to train him in a no holds barred match.

A source cited an interesting summary of the next episode published in the Japanese magazine "V-Jump." Titled, "Will There Be a Counterattack?! The Invisible Killing Strike!!" the episode will reportedly feature Goku being shocked back to life by the ki blast he fired into the sky before he died. It also revealed that Vados, mentor and attendant to Universe 6's God of Destruction, Champa, was the one who sent Hit to kill Goku, but that she was only acting on the true mastermind's order.

Could it have really been Whis, who seemed to have a secret he refused to tell Vegeta during their training? Or perhaps it's Beerus' plan all along, since the episode preview shows a snippet of him smirking like he's harboring some secrets of his own.

The "V-Jump" summary also shared that Goku will finally see through Hit's technique in the next episode, and will thus be able to come up with a strategy to bring the legendary assassin down before Hit sneaks in another shock wave to the chest and kill him again.

"Dragon Ball Super" episode 72 will air on Sunday, Dec. 25, at 9 a.m. JST on Fuji TV.

Meanwhile, another source reported that a new arc currently dubbed the Universe Survival arc, is coming next year along with a new opening theme song titled "Limit-Break x Survivor," which will be performed by Kiyoshi Hikawa. The upcoming arc is scheduled to premiere next year on Feb. 5. More details will be revealed as the date approaches.