Chapter 599: Courage

Shen Shuibi silently halted the frontline operation.

She achieved tremendous results on the front line, because with her Peak fifth-grade frontal combat power, even Tang Nation rarely had an opponent. In front of the berserk rabbit, very few opponents of the same rank could win.

Originally, the rabbit was not good at fighting, but unfortunately, the war gave the rabbit almost four hundred years, allowing her to slowly learn and refine her combat skills.

Even if she didn't like it, even if she detested fighting and killing, the rabbit knew what she needed to do. At this moment, it was no longer Mount Luofu, where she could do whatever she wanted without restraint.

Having become a mother, she had to bear many things.

Especially… to share the burden with Li Qi.

Four hundred years ago, she witnessed the world Li Qi faced through True Knowledge Dao Resonance. Looking at her lovely daughter, a surge of courage rose in her heart.

Even if the hands that were once only used for pounding medicine, Alchemy, and copying books were now stained with blood, it didn't matter.

All matters arose from Mount Luofu and Human Dao.

Her ability was limited; she couldn't end Human Dao, so she would contribute as much as possible. This was for everything she cherished. When the war ended, she would wash her hands and could still pick up her favorite books and tinker with her beloved herbs.

Moreover, she was somewhat relieved at this moment, because Li Qi always wanted to assign her some tasks with obviously low danger and pit her against opponents clearly weaker than her.

But, just now Li Qi told her that there was a dangerous and important task to entrust to her.

This task should indeed be very important and very dangerous, so among the candidates Li Qi controlled, only Shen Shuibi was qualified to perform such a task.

This might involve a grand chess game, and she might be the most important piece.

This made the rabbit very happy, because Li Qi had crossed a hurdle. She believed… Li Qi could finally understand the meaning of 'courage', right?

On the Dao path, advance bravely, where the heart points, there courage acts.

Thinking of this, she became happy.

As expected of her man, his progress was rapid.

Just as the rabbit was happily running towards Li Qi, Li Qi was feeling a bit troubled at the moment.

Just as Shen Shuibi guessed, Li Qi had indeed formulated a grand plan. If the plan succeeded, the vanguard battle might break the current stalemate.

The key lay with those People of No Return.

People of No Return were a group of death-seeking individuals, and death-seeking individuals not valued by Human Dao. They were very likely to do something big.

To be honest, the situation on the battlefield Li Qi was currently commanding was not very good…

Human Dao was too strong. Although their soldiers were few in number, they were too elite, with ample Spiritual Artifact supply and logistical reserves. Moreover, the Military School of Thought's methods were mysterious and unpredictable, and they worked together with one heart. Even though their numbers were far fewer than Shaman Dao, they won more battles than they lost.

Li Qi could only use numerical superiority for local encirclement to achieve some results, but it also inevitably led to more sacrifices.

Li Qi urgently needed to break the deadlock and truly leverage his numerical superiority.

Up to now, his numerical superiority, besides bringing immense logistical pressure, had not played any special role. On the frontal battlefield, most were world-level confrontations. A single world could only hold so many people and so much capacity, completely within Human Dao's handling range.

However, numerical superiority could lead to qualitative change. Formations, as their scale increased, would also rapidly increase in effectiveness.

He must leverage his numerical superiority, which meant a clustered advance.

But a clustered advance required uniformity. If various armies and world groups wanted to merge, they would inevitably be intercepted by Human Dao, preventing their convergence and forcing them to passively take hits.

Unlike The Axis of All Realms's terminal, Shaman Dao's 'Alliance' couldn't connect everyone. Only commanders like Li Qi could receive real-time intelligence reports. Of course, Li Qi was at a high level, capable of commanding multiple fifth-grade entities in war, making him a typical mid-level military officer.

But even at a lower level, at least a seventh-grade world master had to join. It was precisely because of this that in terms of large-scale troop deployment and coordination of so many people—these aspects of 'mobility'—Shaman Dao was inferior to Human Dao.

Human Dao had a huge advantage in troop quality and mobility, suppressing Li Qi's numerical superiority, leaving him with a large number of soldiers but unable to concentrate superior forces. Sometimes, it even allowed Human Dao to locally concentrate superior forces to fight with more against less.

Liu Junyi was very formidable and skilled at leveraging his strengths. In the Early Stage of the war, Li Qi was almost unable to gain an advantage.

To escape this predicament of being suppressed by Human Dao's troop quality and mobility, he had to force Human Dao to retreat and defend.

As long as Human Dao retreated to defend, he would have the opportunity to gather a large number of fresh troops, directly abandon defending many worlds, and forcibly advance, compelling Human Dao to engage him in a large-scale decisive battle, minimizing the opponent's mobility advantage.

Li Qi now urgently needed some people to break the deadlock for him and suppress Human Dao's advantage, and this required learning Human Dao's special operations.

Therefore, Li Qi must find an opportunity to attack Tang Nation's lifeline.

So, what was Tang Nation's lifeline that would force them to retreat and defend?

The answer was the city of Gansong itself.

Other war fortresses were irrelevant, being temporary structures built on-site by temporarily dismantling worlds and forging them into stars.

However, the true core base, the production facility, was Gansong itself. With Gansong, as long as there were enough raw materials, these world-class giant ships and war fortresses could be built in waves.

And the reason Gansong City could manufacture these was also 'The Axis of All Realms'. Through the power of The Axis of All Realms, Tang Nation could easily share the designs of many Spiritual Artifacts, manufacturing corresponding Spiritual Artifacts on demand at any time, and then assembling them to create the desired war fortresses or extraterrestrial flying ships.

All Tang Nation cities were connected to The Axis of All Realms. So many Spiritual Artifact production lines, plus so many armies, worlds, war fortresses, and even the communication of every soldier, were all coordinated by The Axis of All Realms.

On such a vast battlefield, with hundreds of millions of worlds participating, and countless soldiers and battlefields, Li Qi couldn't even handle so much information, let alone Liu Junyi. He had to rely on The Axis of All Realms to complete this level of information processing.

Attacking Gansong, destroying The Axis of All Realms's base station, would temporarily cut off Liu Junyi's control over his troops and the progress of war fortress construction in the vanguard battle.

If successful, saying they won half the battle should be no problem. It would take at least a month to build a new base station, and while a month might not seem long, Li Qi felt it would be enough for him to push into the enemy's territory.

After all, the numerical advantage was undeniable.

If it failed, it didn't matter. Even if it failed, Human Dao's army would inevitably dispatch a large number of experts to defend and stop the attacks of the People of No Return, and Li Qi could seize the opportunity to advance.

Regardless of success or failure, it would open up the situation for Li Qi.

There was only one situation where Li Qi might suffer a loss.

That was if the People of No Return were truly useless and couldn't cause even a little trouble.

To be honest, this was very likely.

So Li Qi had to find a reliable, dependable, and usable person to ensure that the People of No Return could successfully cause trouble for Human Dao.

After much thought, among the many fifth-grade individuals, the only one he could truly trust and who had enough ability to complete this task was Shen Shuibi.

It's just… Li Qi didn't want to do this.

To be honest, even facing the daily defeats on the front line, Li Qi had never entertained this thought. He even considered that even if the entire line collapsed, all his subordinate worlds perished, and Shaman Dao lost the 'vanguard battle', as long as Shen Shuibi was alive, it would be acceptable.

Until he noticed a world that reported a rare victory.

It was truly rare. They defeated Human Dao's cavalry with roughly equal forces, defending their own world.

Honestly, Li Qi had already prepared to abandon that world at the time. He was completely numb to it, without any emotional fluctuations. In the past few months, he had already abandoned thousands of worlds.

However, this time was different.

In that world, something unexpected happened to Li Qi. Facing Human Dao's aggression, this world erupted with astonishing power. They united as one, and despite being completely outmatched, they defeated Human Dao with a willpower that Li Qi couldn't comprehend.

Honestly, Li Qi truly couldn't understand. In his perception, this world absolutely could not defeat Human Dao.

As for willpower, did Human Dao not have it? Human Dao's willpower was also famous; they were the type who would die nine times without regret. They knew deeply what they needed to do, without hesitation or doubt.

To be honest, most worlds could absolutely not have the same level of awareness as Human Dao, such a resolute will and grand goal implemented by the entire populace.

Human Dao, if not absolutely, at least the vast majority of people were willing to strive and fight for the common goal of the entire civilization.

Under such fighting will, most of the worlds under Shaman Dao's jurisdiction would be intimidated by Human Dao's resolute will. They couldn't even imagine why these Human Dao soldiers had such strong execution. They could fully exert their subjective initiative and were not afraid of sacrifice, daring and skilled in battle.

Many worlds under Shaman Dao's jurisdiction suspected that Human Dao used Puppets or hypnosis to make these soldiers fight, but through observation of Tang Nation's soldiers, these doubts were dispelled.

They discovered that Tang Nation's soldiers were also people. They would complain, they would curse, they would cry out in pain, and they would weep when their comrades-in-arms died. They were also living beings with their own emotions.

They had desires, they would vie for merit, they would compete in battle achievements, they would show off, or find time to slack off.

They would cry, but after crying, they would continue to fight.

They would get angry, but after getting angry, they would sit together and discuss tactics.

They would also laugh. During breaks in combat, many Shaman Dao worlds observed that Human Dao soldier liked to gather and play games through The Axis of All Realms. It was said that those games were very fun.

However, despite having these emotions and desires, they remained resolute.

The people of Human Dao knew what this war was for and why they were fighting.

Human Dao's selection of 'people' was quite strict, not in terms of race, but in terms of spirit. Every one of them, taken outside the domain, would be enough to be called a hero or a model.

All because they deeply knew that everything they fought for was real, and they firmly believed that the 'Dao' they strived for could reach its ultimate conclusion.

Therefore, Human Dao's soldier, even in desperate situations, would fight stronger and stronger. No matter what adversity they encountered, they would never yield and would rise to the challenge, always maintaining full fighting spirit.

True to the Dao, thus knowing death without fear.

Such a terrifying army, even Li Qi didn't know how to deal with it, and could only try to use large-scale troop strength to suppress it.

Under equal forces, no matter how he commanded, he couldn't defeat such a Human Dao army.

This iron army, an iron army that Li Qi couldn't find a way to counter, was somehow defeated by a seventh-grade world that Li Qi had always overlooked, under equal forces.

Indeed, because it was only a seventh-grade world, it naturally faced a seventh-grade Human Dao army, so the pressure they bore was not as great as Li Qi's. Although seventh-grade Human Dao soldier were indeed very resolute, their wisdom and power were vastly inferior to higher-level existences, and there were still flaws to be found. After all, no matter how strong the will, the world is objective, and people will always make mistakes and errors.

However, that seventh-grade world's ability was also not as strong as Li Qi's. No matter how you looked at it, they actually did better and more excellently than Li Qi.

This made Li Qi very curious about how they did it, so he specifically diverted his attention, descended his will, wanting to ask them how they did it, humbly learning the combat methods of this seventh-grade world.

After descending his will, Li Qi looked at the devastation within the world and suddenly understood.

It turned out there was a slight oversight in the work below.

Originally, these frontline worlds were specifically used as battlefields. The civilians and species samples within them would be evacuated in advance, leaving only a world as a battlefield and supply point, because in Li Qi's view, civilians and ordinary wild beasts would only hinder the war.

However, Li Qi wouldn't personally handle every single matter. He would only make decisions; the execution was still done by those below him. With hundreds of millions of worlds being relocated, he couldn't move them all by himself. With so many battlefields, he couldn't possibly pay attention to every battle, only picking out important things to do.

When done by those below, mistakes are bound to happen.

And this time, the mistake was a bit outrageous.

The civilians of this world were not all evacuated—

This world had two civilizations, one surface life and one underground life.

The surface dwellers were evacuated, but the underground dwellers remained outside. The evacuating personnel didn't notice there was another civilization underground.

Thus, Li Qi learned their method of victory.

It was very simple.

At first, like all Shaman Dao soldiers, the garrison of this world was completely overwhelmed by Human Dao's iron army, to the point that Li Qi directly chose to abandon this world.

But—

When the garrison of this world lacked supplies, they ate bloody food that civilians brought across the blockade.

The wounded could not be treated. It was the civilians of this world who housed them in their homes, although this led to Human Dao selectively destroying a large number of leylines to destroy the soldiers' recuperation areas.

After heavy casualties, these soldiers also found something they were willing to fight for.

They were willing to shed blood for this goal.

Therefore, they became as resolute as Human Dao soldier, even more so.

Witnessing all this, Li Qi suddenly thought of 'courage'.