Unifying the Rivers and Mountains

Wang Pan was indeed very powerful in battle.

But that depended on who he was compared with.

There were quite a few Heavenly Gang Realm experts in the two great empires!

With just one martial artist at the peak of the Marrow Cleansing Stage, he wanted to contend for the realm?

What a joke!

Even the weakest Heavenly Gang Realm martial artist could easily crush Wang Pan to death!

That was why, despite the Great Martial Empire being rotten from top to bottom, no force within the empire dared to rise in rebellion.

A starving camel was still bigger than a horse.

As long as the Great Martial Empire's Heavenly Gang Realm martial artists did not diminish in number, no one would dare step forward.

Whoever stepped forward would die!

A Heavenly Gang Realm expert was enough to break an army of ten thousand alone. Even a fully organized elite cavalry force of ten thousand could not stop the weakest Heavenly Gang Realm expert.

The Great Martial Empire could still deploy more than a dozen Heavenly Gang Realm experts. That force alone was enough to suppress any dissent!

The Yanhua Sect had three Heavenly Gang Realm experts and controlled an entire province, yet it did not dare openly raise the banner of rebellion.

But now, the Yanhua Sect's opportunity had arrived. The Great Martial Empire's Heavenly Gang Realm experts would naturally be restrained by those of the Great Kang Empire.

You changed your own fate.

You obtained 3000 Simulation Points.

All Life Simulation Events in this simulation have been completed.

Would you like to return?

Wang Pan was twenty-seven years old and had survived the Killing Tribulation.

"I won't return."

Wang Pan did not choose to return and instead remained.

Wang Pan felt that if he returned now, this simulation would at most receive an S rating.

He believed that completing all the Life Simulation Events was merely the baseline reward. To greatly improve his rating, he still needed to work hard to increase his strength and raise his status in this Life Simulation.

If he could influence the course of the world and affect countless people, the rating he received would be even higher!

Wang Pan went straight to the Yanhua Sect's Sect Master and told him his thoughts.

After a long while, Wang Pan walked out of the Sect Master's Hall, his face revealing neither joy nor anger.

"What a pity. This child surpasses his peers in both courage and vision."

"It is only a pity that he has not comprehended conviction."

"Otherwise, with this child's foundation, once he entered the Heavenly Gang Realm, he would likely become one of its strongest experts at once."

After Wang Pan left, the Yanhua Sect's Sect Master let out a faint sigh.

Time slowly passed. The Great Kang Empire and the Great Martial Empire used Lanzhou as their battlefield, fighting fiercely as countless soldiers died on the battlefield every day.

A Heavenly Gang Realm expert from the Great Martial Empire was even killed after growing careless. The killing intent of hundreds of thousands of soldiers had linked together to form an Army Formation, surrounding and slaughtering him!

Heavenly Gang Realm experts were very powerful, but before an Army Formation formed by hundreds of thousands of soldiers, they were like a praying mantis blocking a chariot—overestimating themselves!

Of course, if a Heavenly Gang Realm expert could not win, he could still flee. It was not easy for an army to surround a Heavenly Gang Realm expert in the first place.

But this Heavenly Gang Realm expert had been pitifully foolish. Relying on his Heavenly Gang Realm cultivation, he had not regarded an army primarily composed of first- and second-realm martial artists as a threat.

He charged into the formation alone, intending to rout the army. With the strength of the Heavenly Gang Realm, he inflicted tens of thousands of casualties upon it.

But because he had charged deep into the army, by the time he sensed that something was wrong and tried to escape, it was already too late.

This was also the first Heavenly Gang Realm expert to die since the two empires had gone to war!

The death of this Heavenly Gang Realm martial artist enraged the entire Great Martial Empire court!

The war escalated at that moment!

More and more troops from both sides poured into Lanzhou, fighting until the skies darkened and the earth dimmed.

At last, the two sides entered their decisive battle.

Several million soldiers clashed, and human lives were worth less than grass.

Though the Great Martial Empire was rotten to its core, it still held the advantage against the Great Kang Empire.

Had the Great Kang Empire not captured You Province and obtained vast quantities of warhorses, grain, and other resources, it would likely have long since been defeated by the Great Martial Empire.

Even so, the Great Kang Empire was not faring well.

Many tribes had begun to consider retreating. Their clan members had suffered too many casualties.

But under Qi's prestige, although these tribes had many complaints, they still remained.

At the critical moment of the decisive battle, the Yanhua Sect rebelled!

More than a thousand years of operation had turned all of Lanzhou into the Yanhua Sect's backyard.

After receiving orders from their Main General, hundreds of thousands of Lanzhou troops directly turned their blades on the soldiers of the Great Martial Empire from other provinces!

No one had expected Lanzhou to suddenly turn on them. Caught completely off guard, the armies from the other provinces suffered grievous casualties.

The Great Kang Empire did not let this opportunity pass either. Heavenly Gang Realm experts led the charge, with the army following close behind, punching through the Great Martial Empire's formation!

Once the army was defeated, it collapsed like a mountain.

The Great Kang Empire joined forces with the Lanzhou army to pursue them for over a hundred miles, killing countless enemies!

Seeing that the situation had turned unfavorable, Wu Wudi once again fled with his son.

However, he was ambushed by the Yanhua Sect's three Heavenly Gang Realm experts and died on the spot.

After Qi personally met with the Yanhua Sect and offered terms so generous that it could not refuse, the Yanhua Sect directly announced that it would merge into the Great Kang Empire.

From then on, the Great Kang Empire's strength soared with the Yanhua Sect joining it!

The Great Martial Empire, on the other hand, was in dire straits. It had drawn troops from several provinces to resist the Great Kang Empire, only for its army of several million to be routed.

More importantly, six Heavenly Gang Realm experts of the Great Martial Empire had died in that battle!

This caused unrest among the people of the Great Martial Empire.

Once news of Lanzhou spread, many ambitious figures within the Great Martial Empire began to harbor other thoughts.

Two months later, after the Governor of Qin Province rebelled under the banner that the emperor was foolish and the Great Martial Empire was doomed, the entire Great Martial Empire descended into chaos!

Many powerful clans and aristocratic families within the Great Martial Empire began responding in turn.

For a time, beacon fires rose everywhere within the Great Martial Empire. Rebel armies of all sizes were too numerous to count, and the Great Martial Empire teetered on the brink of collapse.

A vast empire, beset by internal troubles and external threats, lasted only eight years before it was destroyed.

Another six years passed, and the Great Kang Empire wiped out the various rebel kings, completely unifying the rivers and mountains.

Qi ascended the throne and changed the nation's name to Feng!

He named the Yanhua Sect the State Religion of the Feng Kingdom!

Because Wang Pan had repeatedly distinguished himself in battle over the years, he was granted the title of General who Guards the West and promoted to Second Rank!

However, Wang Pan refused.

He requested a position as a Civil Official.

After Qi ascended the throne, he began vigorously reforming officialdom and implementing new policies.

In only three years, more than forty-eight thousand officials of every rank had their homes confiscated and their clans exterminated.

Wang Pan also offered many suggestions, all of which Qi gladly adopted.

At the same time, under Wang Pan's direction, various tools capable of increasing crop yields were manufactured and promoted throughout the realm.

He also proposed constructing the Feng Kingdom Canal, diverting water from the Wei River to irrigate Desolate Prefecture and turning Desolate Prefecture into the Feng Kingdom's granary!

However, the moment this proposal was raised, it was opposed by the entire court.

Many ministers believed that the Feng Kingdom had only just been founded and needed stability. Wang Pan's proposal was too burdensome on the people and too costly.

Only because Qi overruled all objections did the ministers finally let the matter drop. Still, after that, those ministers no longer viewed Wang Pan favorably.

The project took a full eighteen years to complete.

Five years after the Feng Kingdom Canal was completed, Desolate Prefecture, once barren and desolate, became the empire's greatest granary!

The grain produced by a single province was enough to support the people of more than a dozen provinces!

Under its various policies, the newly established Feng Kingdom flourished and grew increasingly prosperous and powerful.

That year, Wang Pan was fifty-one years old.

"If I ever find out who invented martial arts, I'll smash his head in!"

Wang Pan reclined in a chair, enjoying the leisurely afternoon, but his brows were furrowed deeply.

After all these years, Wang Pan had not abandoned martial arts. Instead, he had come to value it even more.

Wang Pan had cultivated the first six realms of martial arts to a level unprecedented in history.

Yet the bodily transformation he had anticipated showed no sign of occurring.

Instead, his body had reached a limit. No matter how hard Wang Pan tried, he could not strengthen it by even the slightest bit.

Wang Pan could now be called the foremost person beneath the Heavenly Gang Realm!

Even a martial artist at the peak of the Marrow Cleansing Stage whose conviction, Martial Skill, and vital energy had fused to ninety percent was utterly vulnerable before the current Wang Pan!

Yet a Heavenly Gang Realm expert could still easily kill Wang Pan!

The gap between the Marrow Cleansing Stage and the Heavenly Gang Realm was simply too vast!

The Heavenly Gang Realm was the sublimation of a martial artist's martial path and the transformation of life itself.

Heavenly Gang Realm martial artists and those beneath the Heavenly Gang Realm were practically two different species. The gulf between them was so immense that it inspired despair.