Pioneer

Unfortunately, after all these years, Wang Pan still had no clue how to comprehend conviction.

Wang Pan naturally understood that one person's plans were limited, while many people's plans were greater.

Wang Pan was now the Prime Minister, beneath one person and above tens of thousands.

He held immense power.

Whatever Wang Pan wanted to do, he only needed to give the order, and countless people would naturally serve him.

Thus, Wang Pan had long since ordered the collection of martial arts cultivation methods, Martial Skills, and the like from across the land. He then gathered large numbers of martial artists and established the Martial Arts Research Institute.

He wanted to find a way to reach the Heavenly Gang Realm without needing to comprehend conviction.

Yet after all these years, there had been scant progress.

However, with so many martial artists gathered together to conduct research, the martial arts system had become increasingly refined.

At the same six martial arts realms, martial artists cultivating the new methods were clearly stronger than before—at the same realm, they were at least thirty percent stronger than in the past!

Quite a few court officials were dissatisfied with Wang Pan holding such great power. They had repeatedly advised Qi to strip Wang Pan of some of his authority.

They claimed that Wang Pan's power was too great, and that if things continued this way, he might harbor disloyal ambitions.

Yet Qi merely smiled each time and ignored them.

Qi found Wang Pan very useful. No matter what task he entrusted to Wang Pan, Wang Pan handled it well.

Moreover, Wang Pan occasionally offered suggestions that made Feng Kingdom increasingly prosperous and powerful.

With such a capable minister, he had to squeeze him dry while Wang Pan was still robust and healthy. Once Wang Pan died, finding another person like him would be difficult.

Qi did not truly trust Wang Pan without reservation, nor did he regard Wang Pan as a kindred spirit.

The reason he dared to delegate power to Wang Pan was that Wang Pan would not outlive him!

Qi was in the Heavenly Gang Realm and was only sixty years old this year.

Qi's talent was truly something rarely seen in a century. He had entered the Heavenly Gang Realm at the age of twenty-three!

Those in the Heavenly Gang Realm had a lifespan of three jiazi—one hundred and eighty years!

Wang Pan, on the other hand, had not reached the Heavenly Gang Realm. At most, he could live to one hundred and twenty.

If Wang Pan entered the Heavenly Gang Realm, Qi would likely have trouble sleeping.

Given the prestige Wang Pan had accumulated among the people of Feng Kingdom over the years, combined with the authority he controlled in court, if Wang Pan ever harbored disloyal ambitions and raised his arm in a call to action, Feng Kingdom might face the danger of a change in dynasty!

The current arrangement was quite good.

A wise ruler and worthy ministers, working together to develop Feng Kingdom.

A hundred years from now, it would also make for a fine tale.

In the sixty-third year of Feng Kingdom, Wang Pan was ninety-one years old.

After several decades of recuperation and development, Feng Kingdom had become immensely powerful.

That year, Feng Kingdom began expanding into the surrounding regions!

In just ten short years, it destroyed three empires, and Feng Kingdom's territory expanded more than fivefold!

Afterward, despite everyone's opposition, Qi resolutely ordered an attack on the Tianyang Empire before Feng Kingdom had even digested the gains from destroying those three empires!

Some ministers sought out Wang Pan, hoping he would step forward and advise Qi otherwise.

But by then, Wang Pan had already retired from his position as Prime Minister and no longer involved himself in court affairs. He served only as the dean of the Martial Arts Research Institute.

Wang Pan refused, and the many ministers returned dejectedly.

This war continued for a full twenty years without ending. Both sides suffered devastating losses, and Feng Kingdom's savings accumulated over many years were completely exhausted, shaking the foundations of the state.

Yet by then, both sides had become carried away and had no intention of making peace.

This war could only end when one side was annexed.

"Still no way to bypass conviction and enter the Heavenly Gang Realm?"

Wang Pan had become incomparably aged, his head full of white hair.

At that moment, Wang Pan exuded an imposing authority without anger as he questioned the many scholars specifically responsible for researching martial arts.

"This subordinate has failed in his duties. Please punish us, Dean."

The group broke into cold sweats at his words and knelt across the floor, their expressions filled with fear and unease.

"Ah, forget it. This is fate."

"Rise. This is not your fault. If a solution were so easy to find, the ancients would have found it long ago."

Wang Pan could feel his life rapidly slipping away. His skin had loosened, his body was decaying, his meridians were withering, his blood and qi were drying up, his Bone Structure was becoming porous, and even his bone marrow had begun to die.

The current Wang Pan was no different from an ordinary person. All his strength had completely dissipated.

Three days later, Wang Pan's body had reached the end of its oil and wick.

At the moment of his death, Wang Pan had not expected that the elusive conviction he had pursued his entire life would actually appear on its own.

Honestly, if everyone had not insisted that conviction was the key to entering the Heavenly Gang Realm, Wang Pan would have thought he had been fooled. Perhaps there was no such thing as conviction at all!

After all, he had contemplated conviction for his entire life and had not comprehended a damn thing.

"So this is conviction!"

Wang Pan passed away at the age of one hundred and twelve.

When Wang Pan died, an irrepressible smile rested on his face.

Wang Pan's death did not cause much of a stir. Feng Kingdom was then locked in a fierce war with the Tianyang Empire—who had the time to pay attention to an old man who had retired from the position of Prime Minister decades ago?

Only Wang Pan's former students came to his residence to mourn him, while the emperor issued an edict posthumously conferring upon Wang Pan the title of Duke. That was the end of it.

As for the common people?

They had long forgotten who Wang Pan was. Feng Kingdom's prolonged war with the Tianyang Empire had plunged them into misery over the years. How could they have the leisure to concern themselves with anyone else?

In the eighty-fourth year of Feng Kingdom, one year had passed since Wang Pan's death.

Over that year, Feng Kingdom suffered defeat after defeat and sustained severe casualties.

Even the territories of the three empires it had originally conquered were seized by the Tianyang Empire.

The Tianyang Empire dispatched nearly a hundred Heavenly Gang Realm martial artists, along with an army of several million accomplished martial artists, to press against the border. They intended to completely destroy Feng Kingdom, which was in imminent danger.

It was also that year that, at the Martial Arts Research Institute, a scholar happened upon Wang Pan's detailed explanation of the six martial arts realms, written according to his own circumstances.

After studying it carefully, this scholar actually came up with a method to enter the Heavenly Gang Realm without relying on conviction!

The scholar proposed that after a martial artist completed cultivation in the first six martial arts realms, they should return to the second realm, the Body Strengthening Stage.

Using the power of blood and qi from the fourth realm, the Blood Exchange Realm, they would open Cave Heavens within the body of the second realm, the Body Strengthening Stage. The bones of the fifth realm, the Bone Forging Realm, would support the Cave Heavens, while the third realm, the Muscle and Tendon Changing Stage, would connect them together.

Once the Cave Heavens formed, they would draw the bone marrow of the sixth realm, the Marrow Cleansing Stage, into them and transform it into Divine Radiance.

Finally, the Cave Heavens would spew forth Divine Radiance to temper the skin of the first realm, the Skin Refining Stage, allowing the skin in turn to seal all power within the body and prevent it from leaking out.

The scholar named this realm the Cave Heaven Realm!

Half a year later, the first Cave Heaven Realm martial artist was born!

Though it was still unknown how long those in the Cave Heaven Realm could live, in terms of combat strength, the Cave Heaven Realm was far stronger than the Heavenly Gang Realm!

Upon appearing, he beat a veteran Heavenly Gang Realm martial artist of the Tianyang Empire to death!

Thereafter, Cave Heaven Realm martial artists sprang up throughout Feng Kingdom like bamboo shoots after rain.

These Cave Heaven Realm martial artists possessed incomparably powerful bodies, their blood and qi like furnaces. Every movement they made carried immense might.

As more and more Cave Heaven Realm martial artists joined the battlefield, Feng Kingdom began to reverse its disadvantage and launched a counteroffensive.

Three years later, the Tianyang Empire fell and was annexed by Feng Kingdom.

Thereafter, Feng Kingdom began waging war year after year, destroying countless nations.

A hundred years later, people honored the scholar who had developed the Cave Heaven Realm as the Martial Ancestor!

And because Wang Pan had inspired the Martial Ancestor, he too was revered as a pioneer.