Chapter 590: Vanguard

In the darkness.

For a moment, Li Qi's confidence swelled to an unprecedented degree.

He could feel that the Formation granted him such immense power; as the center around which the world revolved, his every action was greatly magnified.

Yes, Li Qi used the word 'magnified'; his power, processed through the Formation, produced an illusory magnification.

However… he remained very clear-headed, not blinded by this powerful force.

Because he knew that he himself had not become stronger, nor could he completely Master this Formation; if he were to truly monopolize all this power, he would probably explode immediately.

The purpose of this Formation was not for a single person to fight; not all Formations are used as Spiritual Artifacts.

In fact, using a Formation to enhance one person's combat power was too wasteful; unless there was no other choice, basically no one would do that.

The true purpose of these Formations was to suppress the opponent.

Li Qi controlled the Formation, and then, pressed forward fiercely!

Countless worlds, a cluster of worlds spanning tens of thousands of light-years, suddenly surged forward, rushing towards the Human Dao's band of light.

Immediately, the Heavenly Dao of these worlds began to reverberate!

The Heavenly Dao of one world after another began to erupt with power; one world after another settled into its 'proper position', and then, it was visible that the speed at which the band of light spread significantly slowed down.

From a distance… although this distance was truly quite far, probably tens of thousands of light-years away, through mysterious super-distance effects, an extremely minute change could be seen there.

It was indeed extremely minute; if the band of light near Celestial Dwelling (Xinxiu) was several tens of kilometers long, then Li Qi had moved it at most one centimeter.

However… in reality, that band of light was hundreds of thousands of light-years long, so this 'one centimeter' appeared particularly terrifying.

But Li Qi was unmoved; he simply continued to push this Grand Formation forward.

Because, how much it moved was not important.

What was important was that the band of light moved.

Even a slight movement, no matter how tiny, would force the Human Dao to reconfigure the positions of their war fortresses, affecting their construction process.

This World Cluster Formation was aimed at the Human Dao's war fortress, that 'Gansong'.

Facing such pressure, the Human Dao could not stand idly by, otherwise they would be unable to properly construct their war fortress.

Thus, the band of light moved.

Li Qi could see countless Human Dao cultivators emerging from the war fortress.

Flying cultivators, a large number of world-class giant ships, and single-person flying boats emerged from it, like vast, rotating clouds, with flocks of birds interspersed among them; the bird flocks and clouds slowly advanced, obscuring and softening the starlight.

Because, spacetime was distorted; they were preventing Li Qi from continuing to observe behind them.

Li Qi unconsciously craned his neck, observing the sky.

The Great Power on the opposite side made a move.

In just an instant, the foremost edge of the Formation, those worlds that Li Qi had specifically moved, from which all life had already been evacuated, received the first wave of impact.

Li Qi didn't even clearly see who made the move; he could only see that within an area measured in thousands of light-years, everything turned red.

The red Void Realm was filled with falling stars, like an endless rain.

Occasionally, faint flashes could be seen as worlds ended.

All the falling stars headed towards the opponent; staring at the vanishing point, Li Qi began to feel another force.

At the same time, the 'Alliance' that the entire Universe could feel, at this moment, gave Li Qi another piece of intelligence.

A Fourth-Rank Shaman had already arrived at this battlefield to help Li Qi withstand this wave of attack; Li Qi could continue to interfere with the construction of the war fortress.

Thus, Li Qi no longer worried and continued to control the Formation forward.

The red light continued to flash, but immediately, another white light descended.

Both colors disappeared simultaneously; Li Qi didn't know where they went, but only knew that he was no longer interfered with, and his Grand Formation could continue forward.

Meanwhile—that band of light suddenly broke!

The band of light that originally divided the Universe into two halves seemed to have been forcibly broken by a Great Power, and the band of light had to fight individually, losing its coordinated support as a whole.

It seemed that, in addition to Li Qi's local battlefield, higher-level battles had already begun, and some results had even been achieved.

However, although the band of light collapsed, splitting into thousands of segments, with each position getting one segment, seemingly weakened, Li Qi did not choose to continue advancing.

Further advancement would cause too much damage to the world; now… it was time for a standoff.

The World Cluster Formation stopped advancing and instead began to directly face the fleets surging like mist.

Li Qi naturally couldn't face them directly, because among the opponent's fleets, centered around world-class warships and flanked by numerous single-person flying boats, there were not a few Fifth-Rank existences.

If he were to clash head-on, he would be shattered first; the Formation couldn't protect him, after all, most of the Formation's power was used to counteract and oppose the influence of the opponent's war fortress.

However… it's war; the Formation is only an aid, the ultimate battle still falls to the people.

With the Formation stabilized, the opponent's fleet would probably take half a month to arrive, and their own army would arrive around the same time.

These were all calculated in advance; this was the earliest time a large number of cultivators could arrive.

Li Qi maintained the Formation and began to confront the war fortress.

He had the geographical advantage.

That band of light was very powerful overall, after all, it was something that could cut off the entire Universe; however, it had now been broken, and what he had to face now was only this small section in front of him.

The remaining band of light could not contend with Li Qi's World Cluster Grand Formation.

When the direct confrontation began, Li Qi's army would have a great advantage.

Li Qi continued to deploy; his army consisted of the forces accumulated by these World Clusters over the years, armies contributed by various worlds.

These would serve as flanks for support.

As for the Shaman Dao's regular army, they would arrive after a period of time.

However… Li Qi had some doubts about this; did Shaman Dao truly have a so-called regular army? Shaman Dao seemed to have no army established at all…

But, the higher-ups must have made preparations; those things didn't require Li Qi to worry about; he only needed to wait for the orders from above and then execute them.

While waiting for the army to arrive, Li Qi controlled the Formation and contacted the leaders of various worlds.

The various worlds temporarily under Li Qi's command would directly face the Human Dao army; to be honest, none of these worlds were unafraid.

However, despite their fear, no one chose to retreat, because they all saw the fate of those worlds after the Human Dao descended nearby.

Mercilessly torn apart and turned into war material.

If they failed, this would be their fate too.

The Human Dao had no mercy for them; they only had a chance to survive by standing with Li Qi, moreover, Li Qi said that the Shaman also had a regular army coming, and they were only providing support, responsible for dealing with the Human Dao's irregular troops.

The mobilization of armies on a world scale involved many responsibilities; Li Qi exerted his Invoker ability, mediating and communicating among the various leaders, maintaining the overall combat power of the army.

Maintaining the Formation and the Grand Army, Li Qi began uninterrupted command work; fortunately, he was familiar with this.

Back at Chang'an Imperial Academy, his elective course was 'Art of War'.

"Fu Cao Yi Realm, proceed to the designated Jiachen location, northeast to southeast for three days and fifty-three ke."

"Understood."

"Messenger, our ships can't keep up and might not reach the designated location." At this moment, a world called Bailing Wanjie sent a message.

"The nearest supply team will arrive in seven hours." Li Qi responded, and at the same time, reallocated another fleet to change its course and fill the gap.

Report after report, at a speed of tens of thousands per second, surged towards Li Qi; these were reports from various places. Perhaps this number seemed large, but all these matters were indeed 'extremely important' and had to be handled by Li Qi himself.

Not all reports, but 'extremely important' reports.

Ordinary worlds would be handled by higher-ranked worlds; higher-ranked worlds would be handled by Fifth-Rank worlds; and those that Fifth-Rank worlds could not solve would be handed over to Li Qi.

Because the participants numbered in the trillions, and countless worlds were involved; even if each world only reported a 'once-in-a-lifetime difficulty', the kind of unsolvable, unlucky coincidence a normal person only experiences once in their life, the sheer number of these difficulties accumulating was terrifying.

What Li Qi had to deal with were these countless, unsolvable problems that others could not resolve.

However, even matters that Fifth-Rank worlds couldn't solve, Li Qi could resolve them, because he could allocate resources from other worlds; he had ample redundancy, and even if he couldn't resolve it in the end, he could simply halt that world and have other worlds take its place.

Of course, there would also be things Li Qi couldn't handle, such as when the opponent's Fourth-Rank made a move earlier; Li Qi couldn't resolve that. In such cases, he only needed to report it.

After reporting, the Fourth-Rank from the Shaman Dao side would take action.

Of course, if the higher-ups couldn't spare a hand… that would mean they were already at a disadvantage, and at that point, the entire war zone might be annihilated.

In any case, soldier against soldier, general against general, king against king; cultivators at each level had their own responsibilities.

Not seeking perfection, only seeking smooth progress.

Continuously receiving problems, then solving them, while also distributing rewards and punishments, giving corresponding feedback based on errors and successes, and with the power of the Formation, Li Qi, as the central hub, began to regulate all things.

This was the duty of a Invoker, the source of a Invoker's power.

Within the Formation, countless complex forces, trillions of armies, each condensed into a group, then formed a larger collective, and finally, the Shaman adjusted them from the center, maintaining 'balance'.

Heaven, Earth, Man, God, Ghost, all in their places, all performing their duties.

Li Qi had long learned to control such complex Qi; in his Ninth-Rank days, when he presided over the Grand Ritual in Guangyang, he managed an entire province smoothly.

Now, the complexity had merely increased by several hundred million times, but Li Qi was also immeasurably stronger than he was then.

With the help of True Knowledge Dao Resonance, he handled these matters methodically, guiding the Grand Army to its proper destination.

This burden continued for seven days.

After seven days, nearly half of the army had reached its destination and began to solidify their battle lines, resting and waiting for the Human Dao's attack.

Shen Shuibi was also among them; she would face the battle itself, unlike Li Qi who would command from the rear.

And at this time, Li Qi also received orders from his superior.

A part of his consciousness was suddenly summoned by the immense 'Alliance' to meet his direct superior.

As the highest commander of a grassroots war zone, a 'staff officer', Li Qi naturally had his own superior, and this superior was his Master, Zhu Fengdan.

Li Qi was responsible for a grassroots war zone, while Zhu Fengdan was responsible for… a large war zone; the difference between them was like the difference between Li Qi and the worlds he currently controlled.

Li Qi controlled the World Cluster; some of these worlds would confront the opponent's worlds, and at that time, it would be commanded by the World Master, and both sides would begin a World War.

For those World Masters, they also had to regulate the entire world's strategy and tactics in order to defeat the opponent; if they encountered something they couldn't solve, they would report it to a higher-ranked world; if it still couldn't be solved, they would continue upwards, all the way to Li Qi.

If Li Qi also couldn't solve it, it would go further up.

But sometimes, Li Qi would also issue orders to those below, requiring them to achieve a certain strategic objective.

And now, the higher-ups had issued an order to Li Qi.

"Master." A part of Li Qi's consciousness was drawn out, allowing him to communicate directly with Zhu Fengdan.

This was only a part of his consciousness; he was still processing those matters, unable to stop for a moment, merely diverting his attention to receive orders; he believed Zhu Fengdan was the same.

The information Zhu Fengdan had to process was far, far more than Li Qi's.

"There are no Master and disciple during wartime; address me by my position." Zhu Fengdan's consciousness said from the other side.

"Yes, Junior Lord of Warfare, what are your orders?" Li Qi said.

Junior Lord of Warfare was Zhu Fengdan's current position, a position responsible for military affairs.

Shaman Dao also had a hundred officials, but they were not used normally, because the hundred officials themselves were proposed when Shaman Dao first established 'positions'; however, although Shaman Dao had a hundred officials to differentiate responsibilities, it did not continue to develop into official ranks.

"Your side is the first to make contact in all war zones; you are the vanguard. Can you estimate who will be the first to engage the enemy on your side?" Zhu Fengdan asked.

"It's Shen Shuibi." Li Qi said.

This should just be a coincidence, because Li Qi believed that Zhu Fengdan's mental capacity would not be spent on 'Heavenly Dao' at this moment; she needed to calculate more things; who served as the vanguard was actually irrelevant.

"That's a coincidence then. The vanguard battle must be won, but neither side will commit too much combat power; it will only be decided by yourselves. This is 'the first opportunity', understand?" Zhu Fengdan said.

"Understood." Li Qi nodded.

He did understand, because… many things have symbolic meaning.

And in the conflict between Human and Shaman, symbolic meaning, sometimes, isn't that simple.