With a thought from Bai Ye, hundreds of black brocade pouches materialized inside the Divine Kingdom.
Each black pouch bore a person's name and a time precise to the second.
In the conference room, awash with the joy of victory, everyone gazed fervently at the Pioneer seated at the head of the table.
His black-and-gold trench coat looked utterly out of place among the pristine white generals' uniforms, yet made him stand head and shoulders above them.
He had single-handedly turned the entire war around with almost miraculous skill.
Through tactical arrangements none of them could comprehend, he had saved the Federation from disaster.
He was the great Pioneer!
A figure who existed only in myth and legend.
Everyone here had grown up hearing legends of the Pioneer. As children, they had marveled at his greatness and wondrous feats.
As they grew older, weathered the hardships of reality, and gradually rose to positions of power, they had begun to question whether the Pioneer was real and whether history had exaggerated his deeds.
Yet now, having seen the Pioneer with their own eyes, they finally understood. Far from exaggerating, history had portrayed his greatness with far too much restraint, far too little fanfare.
Du Jingzhe took in everyone's expressions and felt a distinct sense of reflected glory.
Not long ago, he had knelt in public to acknowledge their bond, paying his respects to his teacher with an almost abject humility.
Honestly, it had been an immense humiliation for him. After all, he was no longer the ignorant hothead who had declared that "one qi practitioner was worth ten Transcendents," but the Federation's speaker, standing at the pinnacle of power.
But now, all he wanted to tell those who mocked and belittled him behind his back was, *You wouldn't get the chance