The World Is So Vast, I Want to See It

In this life, He Heng had been born into a Military Family. His father was a major figure on the Military Commission, several of his uncles were commanders and army chiefs, and quite a few of his brothers were Rising Stars in the military. Only he was the most useless one.

After arriving in this world, He Heng had filled his mind with martial arts training and never cared about family matters. To outsiders, he appeared to be an idle wastrel, radiating a Profligate Aura. Fortunately, he was the youngest member of the family, born when his father was already over forty. His brothers and uncles treated him well, and an Old Master who had retired supported his martial arts practice. Besides, the family was already powerful enough that one more person made little difference, so they simply let him do as he pleased.

From the age of six, He Heng had formally begun training martial arts with that Old Master. He had visited quite a few sects in succession, such as Wudang Sect, Mount Mao Sect, Longhu Mountain Heavenly Master Mansion, Zhongnan Mountain, and so on. The reason they had all been Daoist sects rather than Buddhist Sects such as Shaolin Temple was mainly because He Heng wanted to retain a foundation in Mystic Sect Martial Arts.

One had to know that in the Great Heaven World, the Mystic Sect was unprecedentedly powerful. The Three Religions, Six Schools, and Twelve Sects suppressed the Brahmin Sect, Demon Sect, and Confucian Sect until they could barely raise their heads. Even the Great Xia Dynasty, which ruled the world, had to bow before the Great Mystic Sects. Being born into a Daoist sect was still highly valued there.

As the saying went, it was good to have a great tree for shade. He Heng would naturally enter a Great Mystic Sect to cultivate in the future. If people discovered that he had a foundation in Brahmin Sect martial arts, that would be troublesome. The struggle over orthodox lineages was incomparably cruel.

With such concerns in mind, He Heng had not chosen to learn the Brahmin Sect Martial Arts that were renowned in this world. Instead, he had built his foundation with Daoist martial arts, cultivating Wudang Tai Chi Force and the Longhu Golden Elixir Method. With his status, obtaining the true teachings of those sects had been easy enough. After all, times had changed. The techniques that those sects had once guarded so tightly had now been loosened considerably. No matter how skilled you were, could you not still be taken down by a single bullet? That was the sorrow of martial artists in this world.

After attaining some success in martial arts, He Heng had chosen to become an assassin. The reason was simple: he wanted to temper his Combat Experience and cultivate a great momentum. There was still a Tough Battle waiting for him after he left.

Thus, he had joined the God Organization, the strongest Assassin Organization in the original Dragon-Snake Romance, one that possessed the strongest expert of the present era. He Heng actually understood that "God" fairly well. His Martial Arts Attainment was indeed extraordinary; his ideas simply did not align with the understanding of most people in this world.

This world had no spiritual energy. No matter how high one's martial arts reached, one was still merely a mortal, unable to escape birth, aging, illness, and death, unable to overcome Firearms. Clearly unable to stand above the mundane world as an individual, yet that God scorned everyone in the world and no longer regarded himself as mortal in his heart. Naturally, he was destined for tragedy.

He Heng found it somewhat regrettable for him. If he had been in the Great Heaven World, such ideas would have been nothing at all. There, great power was concentrated within oneself. True Peak Experts could annihilate stars with a flick of a finger, shatter continents, and even create a Small World of their own. No matter how numerous mortals were, how could they possibly compare with them? So what if they did not conform to the masses?

In truth, the real Top Experts of the Great Heaven World rarely appeared in the Mortal World, sometimes not emerging once in centuries or even millennia. To figures of their stature, everything in the mundane world had long become insignificant and unworthy of concern. With a casual period of seclusion, mortals would have already changed through several generations. The long years were enough to erase all human emotions, transforming them into transcendent divinity. That was precisely the realm He Heng yearned for and pursued.

But in this world, God's ideals had absolutely no chance of being realized. He Heng pitied him. He had been born in the wrong place!

Yet it was precisely because He Heng understood God's ideals that their relationship had remained quite good. Perhaps it could be called mutual appreciation. No one else in this world would understand them.

Of course, understanding God's ideals was one thing. It did not mean He Heng was willing to join him in pursuing that Earthly Divine Kingdom-like dream. It simply could not be realized, at least not in this world.

He Heng had joined God's Curse solely to temper himself. Over the following years, he completed several hundred Assassination Missions, leaving his footprints all over the world. His targets included Business Tycoons and Heads of State. He encountered countless opponents, including no shortage of experts at Hua Jin or above, causing his Combat Experience against enemies to grow to the extreme.

Naturally, this had also created a major impact. Though He Heng had acted discreetly and operated mostly abroad, one who walked by the river often could not avoid getting wet. As time passed, quite a few of his Actions were inevitably exposed. However, his family's influence was considerable, and He Heng had done nothing in the country, so he could still openly wander about rather than hide everywhere.

Because of this, his family had also put him under considerable pressure, leaving him unable to go out and kill people now. He could only seek out experts everywhere for sparring. Finding Tang Zichen this time had been one such occasion. She had been an opponent he had greatly anticipated. In truth, she had not disappointed He Heng. Though she had failed to force out his potential and make him break through on the spot, she had shown him the direction of his Future Path.

As for why he had later informed Yan Yuanyi and told her to trouble Tang Zichen? He simply wanted to watch a good show: a spectacle between the two women with the highest martial arts in this world. And while he was at it, Yan Yuanyi could properly temper Wang Chao, allowing the future Wang Wudi to mature sooner.

As for whether Wang Chao might die prematurely because of it, He Heng believed Yan Yuanyi could not defeat Tang Zichen. His family was one of the military's top families, and over the years He Heng had naturally become extremely familiar with the military's Top Experts, especially Yan Yuanyi. They had exchanged blows no fewer than dozens of times. After all, she was the strongest martial artist in the military. He Heng could not have known her any better.

Although He Heng had only met Tang Zichen once, that single meeting had allowed him to conclude that Yan Yuanyi's earlier defeat had not been unjust. She truly was inferior to Tang Zichen, and that was beyond dispute.

Yan Yuanyi's Fist Technique and martial skills were exquisite, but she still remained at the level of technique. Moreover, she could not let go of her various honors and desires, and her spirit was still stained. Tang Zichen, on the other hand, had reached the profound realm of Unity of Heaven and Man, seeing through all external appearances. Setting aside everything else, her Spiritual Realm alone surpassed Yan Yuanyi's by far, approaching an immortal state.

Even the God Organization's God could not compare in this regard. His fist was still within the realm of technique and had not touched the domain of law.

In the Great Heaven World, there were nine characters that summed up the realms of Martial Dao Cultivation: Mastering Techniques and Arts, Understanding Laws and Principles, Exhausting the Heavenly Dao!

That was to say, the Three Great Realms of technique, law, and Dao. Technique was divided into nine grades, law into three levels, while Dao had no hierarchy.

Technique referred to realms involving skill and variation, such as Fist Technique and swordsmanship. It was divided into nine levels, with the Ninth Grade lowest and the First Grade highest. Generally speaking, someone of decent talent who trained their martial skills day after day for decades could reach the Fourth Grade. The three grades above that, however, depended on talent and opportunity.

To attain the Third Grade, one had to reach the realm of minute control, able to wield every strand of force as finely as a hair. That was the Third Grade of Martial Dao.

The Second Grade referred to Artistic Conception. The majesty of mountains, the vastness of the sea, the immensity of the sun, moon, and stars—any of them could form an Artistic Conception. Comprehending one's own true meaning of Martial Dao was the Second Grade of Martial Dao.

To attain the First Grade, one needed a great momentum, an immense momentum as towering as a mountain. Momentum filled every person's life and existed within heaven and earth. For ordinary people, their momentum was unremarkable. But certain high-ranking officials, even without any Martial power themselves, could still possess boundless majesty. That was the so-called official aura. When an emperor raged, Heaven and Earth Lose Color. That too was a great momentum, overwhelming like mountains and seas.

In the original Dragon Snake, in terms of Fist Technique realm, Wang Chao might not necessarily have surpassed God. But why had he been able to defeat him in the end? Because he had remained invincible all the way and had long cultivated an immense momentum, while God had lurked in hiding for decades and had already lost some of his sharpness.

In fact, the final three realms of technique could all be improved without limit. For instance, minute control down to hairs was minute control; minute control down to molecules was still minute control; minute control down to atoms was likewise minute control. But could the effects they produced be the same? The same was true for Artistic Conception and great momentum.

Above technique was the realm of law. Law was divided into three levels: heaven, earth, and human. He Heng did not understand this field very well, because his level was not yet high enough. He had only heard a little of it. However, when he had fought Tang Zichen, he discovered that she carried traces of the so-called Human Law Realm.

That did not mean Tang Zichen's combat strength was exceptional. She still could not defeat God or the future Wang Chao, because the fundamental characteristic of the Human Law Realm lay in the spirit. But the Earth Law Realm was terrifying. Every movement could draw upon the might of heaven and earth. As for the Heaven Law Realm, even He Heng had never heard of it.

The Human Law Realm could not greatly increase one's combat strength, but that did not mean it was not terrifying enough. Tang Zichen had merely begun to touch this domain, yet she already possessed abilities resembling sudden spiritual insight and foreknowledge of imminent fortune and misfortune. If she truly stepped into that realm, the development of the mind would be truly terrifying.

However, all of that was still far too distant for He Heng. He himself was merely at the Second Grade of Technique, having comprehended minute control and Artistic Conception but not yet cultivated a great momentum. In truth, although Tang Zichen had touched the Human Law Realm, she had not cultivated any great momentum either, nor had she attained the First Grade of Technique. Martial Dao realms were unlike cultivation levels, which required climbing through each stage one by one. One could skip ahead, directly advancing from the Second Grade to the Human Law Realm.

Still, the experience of countless Top Experts in the Great Heaven World told people that it was best to progress through each realm one at a time. The foundation would be the most stable, and future development would be more promising.

Well, although he did not think Yan Yuanyi could handle Tang Zichen, it would still be interesting to watch the two of them tear into each other. Though He Heng estimated he would have no chance to see it, because he planned to go out, travel around, and see this world.