Chapter 627: Footprints of the winner

Inside the War Fortress, the army personally controlled by Li Qi was victorious in every battle.

They advanced all the way.

With Li Qi's support from behind, coupled with Zhang Lu Small Team's deliberate resource allocation, while other areas were still in a stalemate, this army charged forward, continuously defeating three Human Dao armies and making rapid progress.

Three Human Dao armies meant three hundred thousand people and fifteen Fifth Ranks.

That was three hundred thousand people of the Human Dao, plus fifteen Fifth Ranks. This loss, even in an all-out war, made the Human Dao side realize something was amiss.

This isn't right!

There's definitely something fishy here!

So, the Human Dao also reacted accordingly. Soon, the Human Dao's already few remaining Great Generals appeared, and there were two of them.

These Great Generals were all Dual Fifth Ranks, and both were orthodox Military School of Thought Cultivators.

As Military School of Thought Cultivators, they also had their own exclusive armies.

Yes, exclusive to them, which could be called their personal troops.

This army was their foundation, the root of all their Military School of Thought Dao Orthodoxy. Their combat power would be significantly stronger than ordinary armies, because many Human Dao armies were actually not professional soldiers, but conscripts.

But this doesn't mean that Military School of Thought Cultivators would have a bunch of slaves. In fact, there were no slaves within the Human Dao; they truly achieved equality for everyone, only with different responsibilities.

These soldiers would serve, retire, and personnel would constantly change like flowing water. They could also apply for transfers and so on.

However, like an iron camp with flowing soldiers, as long as the unit number and the commander were here, the army's spirit and characteristics would always remain.

Li Qi himself had once faced such an army—the elite vanguard of the Human Dao. That 'Difficult to Know as Shadow' army, which had played Li Qi and Shui Bi in circles, was precisely this type.

And now, there were two such armies, composed purely of Military School of Thought Cultivators.

Two hundred thousand, descending simultaneously, plus twelve Fifth Ranks.

That's right, twelve Fifth Ranks.

One Fifth Rank commander for every twenty thousand people, five lieutenants for every hundred thousand, plus the Great General as the core soul.

This time, two command flags unfurled upon their descent.

The command flags displayed—

The first command flag: Invade like fire!

The second command flag: Immovable as a mountain!

The two great armies, under the cover of the War Fortress, blocked the army commanded by Li Qi and gained the upper hand within the first minute of entering the war!

They were too powerful.

Invade like fire, truly like erupting flames, charging ferociously. One hundred thousand people cooperated seamlessly, rushing into the Shaman Dao army and exploding from the center!

Meanwhile, the other army, Immovable as a mountain, acted steadily, specializing in interception, cutting off Shaman Dao reinforcements, and creating the most suitable battlefield environment for their allies to perform.

This must have been the Human Dao's assessment: the cooperation of these two armies was enough to drive out, or even completely annihilate, this Shaman Dao branch!

Coupled with the suppression from the War Fortress, the Shaman Dao army controlled by Li Qi immediately fell into a bitter struggle. The Fifth Rank Realm Masters quickly sent messages, requesting Li Qi's instructions.

You led us in, boss, what should we do? Give us some advice!

These Fifth Rank Realm Masters urged him repeatedly.

What to do?

Li Qi, of course, knew what to do.

This was already within his expectations. After all... if Shaman Dao broke into the War Fortress's hinterland, the Human Dao would certainly deploy stronger forces to intercept them. This was only natural.

Invoker wasn't only capable of curses.

While maintaining the curse, on the other side, a world appeared out of thin air on the battlefield—

It governs heaven and earth, rectifies the six directions, illuminates the sun and moon, and guides all living beings.

The vast world emitted immense pressure. Within the world, twelve deities suddenly came into being and descended onto the battlefield.

Li Qi's inner body spirits.

Now, these inner body spirits were true 'deities', genuine Heavenly Gods, no longer mere phantoms.

This was also where Shaman Dao differed from the Divine Dao.

Logically speaking, with the Inner World turning from虚 (illusory) to 实 (real), a Shaman should have become an existence like a Star Official. A Star Official is the Heavenly Dao of a world itself, or even composed of many Heavenly Daos.

But the difference was that while the Divine Dao Star Officials were the worlds themselves, Li Qi himself was not a world.

He transcended this world; this brand-new Fifth Rank world belonged entirely to him, but the world was merely a part of him.

The world belonged to Li Qi, but Li Qi did not belong to the world.

A Shaman is not one of the heaven, earth, human, god, or ghost categories. A Shaman is a neutral entity independent of all things, without any bias.

And now, the Human Dao had overstepped its bounds.

Replacing heaven with humanity, it inflicted too much devastation on things outside of 'humanity'.

Although Shamanes were considered human in the Human Dao's classification, Shaman Dao itself didn't see it that way.

With this layer of relationship, the inner body spirits seemed to have gained a subtle boost.

These inner body spirits did not descend directly, but began to combine, and then... that Fifth Rank world began to extend.

A 'Star Official' descended here.

It was slightly weaker than a true Fifth Rank Star Official, because a Fifth Rank Star Official's body is incredibly strong, their magic power is immensely deep and almost inexhaustible, and they are composed of many worlds, possessing profound foundations, making them almost impossible to target or find weaknesses.

This world, after all, was only one, so it was much weaker in all aspects, and its body was also much smaller.

A normal Fifth Rank Star Official's body is often measured in light-years, but the 'Star Official' formed by Li Qi's world was only a mere tens of thousands of miles, pitifully small.

However, for the current battlefield, it was still a colossal entity.

The descent of a Star Official onto the battlefield almost instantly overwhelmed the situation!

The Star Official moved, stretching its long arms to embrace the universe. Its massive eyes opened, covering the sky, pressing down for thousands of miles!

The two Human Dao Great Generals tried to resist, their respective Dharma Forms rising with a roar!

However, at this moment, they suddenly felt as if their bodies were bound by something, unable to move!

Immediately after, they spun around sharply—

Only to suddenly see a ghost clinging to their backs.

As Fifth Ranks, ghosts were certainly common to them, but to be unconsciously climbed onto their backs by a ghost, even to the point of affecting their movements, sent chills down their spines!

Their military Qi instantly erupted, and their Dharma Forms trembled, attempting to shatter the ghost...

But with that momentary Divided Soul, the Star Official in the sky had already slammed down its massive hand.

The Shaman Dao army not far away also began to gather military Qi at this moment, clashing with their command flags, weakening the military Qi and Formation's blessings.

This made the two Great Generals instantly realize—

Something was wrong. This Shaman was far, far stronger than they had imagined. Why was he so strong? Such a powerful existence shouldn't appear on the vanguard battlefield!

This unknown Shaman, who hadn't even shown his face, had completely shattered the balance between the two sides of the battlefield...

This section of the front line was about to collapse.

They made no other reactions. The two Human Dao Great Generals did not hold on for long, being annihilated again in just a few moments.

Li Qi swept through like a hot knife through butter.

Dozens of Fifth Ranks and several million troops served as Li Qi's vanguard, coupled with the resource allocation from Zhang Lu Small Team and Li Qi's power in manipulating the world group Formation.

In the battlefield area Li Qi was responsible for, the progress of the battle was incredibly fast.

The deaths of the two Great Generals directly led to no one else being able to stop Li Qi in this battlefield sector.

Perhaps the Human Dao commander had already realized...

Unless a powerful Fifth Rank comparable to Li Qi was deployed, it would be absolutely impossible to stop Li Qi.

Perhaps they could rely on numbers or armies to forcibly resist. With the Human Dao's Military School of Thought methods, numbers could be directly converted into combat power. If there were enough people, Li Qi would have no way.

But... the Human Dao couldn't field that many people.

Other places also had wars.

It should be known that while Li Qi's path here was smooth, this was actually due to resources being diverted from other parts of the overall battlefield.

In other places, countless people were dying.

That's right, they were dying for nothing.

They didn't have Li Qi, nor the resource allocation from Zhang Lu Small Team, nor the active protection of the world group Formation.

For them, it was about attacking cities with enormous casualties, yet only causing minimal damage to the Human Dao. All of this was merely to tie down the Human Dao's effective forces and create opportunities for Li Qi.

The entire battlefield, everyone, countless worlds shattered, all to create an opportunity for Li Qi to penetrate deep and truly damage the War Fortress.

Like a hot knife through butter, with no corresponding opponents, Li Qi's army advanced at an extremely rapid pace.

Breaking through the outer perimeter, reaching the interior, and then continuing to advance.

The Human Dao didn't send people to their deaths. Li Qi knew very well that The Axis of All Realms had already spread his message, and everyone understood that a large army, receiving preferential resource treatment, was advancing.

The target was also beyond doubt: 'Gansong' itself.

Because... all of the Human Dao's War Fortresses drew their energy from 'Dragon Veins'.

They were the Human Dao's energy network spanning all heavens, and the sole power provider for The Axis of All Realms.

Dragon Veins only existed in true Human Dao cities, which were the native lands of the Tang Nation. When these cities were teleported to Outer Void and dismantled the surrounding worlds, it was actually The Axis of All Realms providing computing power and planning, and the Dragon Veins providing energy.

In this war zone, all War Fortresses were essentially supported by 'Gansong'. Everything was based on Gansong City as the foundation.

Penetrating the outer perimeter to reach the inner Gansong City would truly damage the Human Dao base. A few more times, or even just this one time, could cripple many of the Human Dao's combat capabilities!

He continued to travel, unimpeded.

For a full hour, Li Qi encountered nothing; no one came to stop him.

This made Li Qi frown.

There was no turning back now, but the pressure from outside was growing. The Fifth Rank Realm Masters who were tying down the Human Dao's effective forces had all sent messages, stating that they were about to collapse, that casualties were too great, and the results too small.

Li Qi immediately understood.

Liu Junyi was truly cunning. He completely let Li Qi go, allowing him to advance towards Gansong, precisely to use physical distance to buy time for the war!

The deeper Li Qi advanced, the less he could turn back, and the more he had to keep going.

And during the time Li Qi was on his way, Liu Junyi would gather all his forces to resist the Shaman Dao army on the periphery!

This was a race against time, to see whether Liu Junyi would first repel the Shaman Dao army and then dispatch forces to encircle and annihilate Li Qi, who had deeply penetrated enemy lines, or if Li Qi would be fast enough to reach the main body of Gansong City before him.

Since that was the case, let the race begin.

"Abandon the supplies! Abandon the military Qi, only keep the Fifth and Sixth Ranks. Everyone else withdraw, Zhang Lu Small Team withdraw and go support other areas!" Li Qi ordered: "Then, advance at the fastest possible speed!"

The army immediately realized what Li Qi intended to do.

He was preparing to use himself as bait, advancing while luring Liu Junyi.

Look, I've abandoned the soldiers, abandoned the supplies, I'm not even taking large Spiritual Artifacts, I have nothing. A small elite team of Fifth and Sixth Ranks is going deep alone.

This would greatly increase their speed, but also significantly reduce their combat power.

Are you still going to focus on dealing with the external army? Are you really not going to touch me?

Once the Human Dao chose to reassemble a large army to stop or even encircle Li Qi, Li Qi was confident he could bite off another large chunk of their forces, alleviating pressure on the outside.

But if Liu Junyi could remain calm and continue with the strategy of trading space for time, then this choice would also rapidly reduce Liu Junyi's operational space.

Abandoning all supplies and the main army, taking only Fifth and Sixth Ranks, would increase speed by more than two or three times!

If it weren't for the necessity of carrying Sixth Ranks, otherwise the military Qi couldn't form and his Divine Abilities would be suppressed by the opponent's military Qi, Li Qi wouldn't even want to bring the Sixth Ranks.

The decision was made, the next step was execution.

Li Qi simply stopped hiding. He put away his world, and then, under the escort of his subordinates, advanced at full speed!

Their speed increased, leaving streaks of light in the Void Realm, heading at full speed towards the center of the War Fortress, that 'Gansong City'!

Time flew by.

On the external battlefield, every minute and every second, countless people were killed or wounded.

The casualty ratio between Shaman Dao and Human Dao, in some more disadvantaged battlefields, even reached one to ten thousand.

Ten thousand deaths just to kill one Human Dao.

This was the Human Dao's confidence, this was their proud 'humanity'.

Absolute elites, absolutely powerful, undeterred, unyielding, still full of fighting spirit in desperate situations, steadfastly moving towards the goal of humanity.

This was almost a small-scale replica of Buddhism's 'Tathagata Enlightening the World'.

Unfortunately, from the Buddha's perspective, this was too narrow.

Vairocana Buddha pursued the enlightenment of all living beings.

But in the Human Dao's eyes, there were no 'living beings' at all. They could only see 'humans', and only needed to see 'humans'. All living beings were merely 'humanity's' nourishment.

'Humans' were like this: raising cattle and chickens for meat, keeping dogs for guarding, developing mines, felling forests, damming rivers for water conservation—everything was for 'humans'.

In front of such 'humans', all living beings seemed too weak.

But fortunately, Shaman Dao could truly offer those ten thousand to die.

'Humans' were, after all, a minority; 'living beings' were the majority.

Blood flowed across the entire battlefield.

No one cared.

Everyone said history was written by the victors, but did the victors truly write anything? It was merely footprints made by stepping on the rotting flesh and blood of the defeated.

Now, those footprints were spreading step by step.