Chapter 772: Awakening

At this moment, he spoke for himself to hear.

A powerful killing intent struck head-on; beside Li Zhiyi, all the soldiers, including Zhang Yu, knelt down.

"Don't kneel!!!" Zhang Yu roared in a low voice:

"Get down on the ground!"

As his voice rang out, all the soldiers dropped flat onto the ground, unable to breathe, as if pressed down by massive mountains; some even rolled their eyes back and fainted.

Yet Li Zhiyi's posture grew straighter and straighter, his gaze fixed on Qiong Tian, his eyes erupting with a sharp glint.

His breathing was rapid; something was surging in the depths of his heart.

He was no bloodthirsty maniac, but he had experienced war, experienced the separation of life and death, and experienced the desperate cries of one after another.

Now, someone was telling him they intended to personally slaughter the Great Xia.

Then was he, Li Zhiyi, not a member of the Great Xia?

He was, in fact, merely an inconspicuous denominator in that number.

His weakness meant he could only be this way.

Battle intent and killing intent surged in the depths of his heart.

He wanted true strength.

"Hahahaha!"

A sound of wild laughter rang out beside his ears.

Zhang Yu, who was lying on the ground unable to move a muscle, turned his head to spit out the dirt that had entered his mouth, watching Li Zhiyi's back:

"Good!"

"Good!"

His voice trembled, his vision blurred, but looking at that waist that refused to bend, tears welled up in his eyes.

Perhaps his vision was too blurred, for he even thought he saw another figure.

"Li Zhiyi, you must live on!" Zhang Yu suppressed his voice, roaring in a low, desperate tone:

"Live for them to see, live to become stronger and stronger, and tell them your name is Li Zhiyi!"

Until a certain moment.

That grand sea of blood slowly dissipated, the sky clearing as if nothing had happened at all.

Many soldiers of the Punitive Battalion suddenly stopped feeling that overwhelming pressure and even fainted outright.

Li Zhiyi's posture did not change; he continued to gaze at the sky.

Until a certain moment, he took out the long saber configured for him by the Military Martial Guard and began to hack away in the forest.

One strike, two strikes, three strikes!

His strength was extremely weak, and there was not a shred of Qi and blood within his body, causing his saber strikes to look extremely weak as well.

Li Zhiyi's expression was cold; why could the power of will not directly kill the enemy, and why could the power of will only assist?

If that were the case, then he, Li Zhiyi, would never be able to become strong.

In his heart, a voice seemed to ring out, as if it had been sealed in a certain corner deep within his soul.

"Who says the power of will cannot kill the enemy?"

Li Zhiyi whispered, his eyes filled with even greater rage.

Meanwhile, Zhang Yu and the others gradually recovered; no one disturbed Li Zhiyi.

"He is Li Zhiyi; I know him. He can only cultivate the path of will and cannot cultivate physical tempering or Qi and blood at all. He's a freak." Li Xin looked toward the other party and whispered.

"He is not a freak," Zhang Yu said:

"He is Li Zhiyi!"

Time passed slowly.

The troops assembled.

Li Zhiyi and three hundred others followed the Deputy Battalion Commander, while Zhang Yu led over a hundred people down another path.

Li Zhiyi frowned:

"Brother Zhang, you..."

He sensed something unusual; since they were escaping, why did they have to split into two groups?

Moreover, the majority of Zhang Yu's side consisted of injured veterans, and last night, they had secretly gathered these veterans together to discuss something.

At this moment, there was no excitement in the eyes of these veterans; instead, there was a hint of despair.

"Our pace is slow, so we must take another path. You all will return early, and you will be able to find us in less than a day," Zhang Yu said to Li Zhiyi.

Li Zhiyi's expression froze, and he nodded.

"See you at headquarters," Li Zhiyi said.

"See you at headquarters," Zhang Yu waved his hand and smiled:

"I've had the Deputy Battalion Commander record all your military merits; there are one thousand five hundred and thirty-five points in total. You must remember that!"

The Deputy Battalion Commander said speechlessly:

"Don't you know what kind of person I am? Are you worried I'll embezzle..." Just as the Deputy Battalion Commander spoke, his voice trailed off, and the look on his face as he watched Zhang Yu finally revealed a touch of sorrow.

"Let's go!" Zhang Yu waved his hand and led the people behind him down the opposite path.

Li Zhiyi and the others followed the Deputy Battalion Commander down the other path.

Along the way, Li Zhiyi was exceptionally calm.

He looked up at the sky and clenched his hands.

Behind him, however, someone was sobbing uncontrollably:

"That acting was too fake..."

That person's voice trembled:

"Battalion Commander Zhang, you are going to draw fire for us, right?"

As his voice fell, the expressions of the three hundred people all changed, and they looked at the Deputy Battalion Commander in unison.

"Obey orders!" the Deputy Battalion Commander growled:

"Don't let your imagination run wild; the Battalion Commander is not lying to you."

Immediately after, he looked at Li Zhiyi and said:

"You shouldn't overthink things either!"

He knew that although Li Zhiyi had only been in the Punishment Battalion for half a month, Zhang Yu had been very good to Li Zhiyi, and the two had fought side by side, a bond of life and death.

"Mm." Li Zhiyi nodded.

His calm expression made even the Deputy Battalion Commander extremely surprised.

"You..." the Deputy Battalion Commander opened his mouth.

"I have no power to change anything." Li Zhiyi shook his head and said, "I know we have already entered a dead end, and now we can only use this to break the situation.

All I can do is remember today, only..."

Li Zhiyi said, but he could not say it out loud.

He raised the blade in his hand again and again, slashing down again and again, but all he could unleash was the weak strength of his physical body.

He had known what Zhang Yu's plan was last night, but he was powerless.

What Zhang Yu hoped for was that he could take revenge, not that he would die together with the Punishment Battalion.

And it was at this moment.

Abruptly, a voice sounded.

"Why do you think I would fall for such a simple scheme of yours?"

This voice was extremely indifferent, instantly making everyone's body feel cold.

Li Zhiyi and the others looked forward.

They saw a youth in blood-colored robes standing before them, holding a blood-colored blade.

In an instant, a terrifying killing intent struck.

That crimson, glass-like long blade was extremely eerie; just looking at it, one felt as if waves of molten-gold blood were surging over, ready to corrode everything.

"He he he... he he he!!!!"

A series of difficult roars resounded.

Everyone's face turned deathly pale, and they could no longer stand steadily.

The terrifying killing intent shook instantly, and even the Deputy Battalion Commander knelt directly on the ground.

It was impossible to resist.

The youth named Ji Tianhe had blood-red eyes, looking straight at Li Zhiyi and the others as if they were a group of insects.

He had arrived here, and the people opposite him did not even have a shred of fighting spirit left.

They just knelt on the ground like that, waiting for him to harvest their lives.

"A group of animals, things worse than pigs and dogs; you live in this world, and the air you exhale would disgust me day and night, even across the ocean."

He spoke indifferently, his violent killing intent surging, and the wild, murderous intent in his heart could no longer be suppressed.

Clang!

A sound of a blade being drawn rang out.

Suddenly, a blade light struck; it was a youth wearing the uniform of the Great Xia Military Guard, and at this moment, he saw Ji Tianhe and actually drew his blade to attack directly.

Li Zhiyi's eyes widened, but at this moment, the speed of his feet did not slow down by even a fraction.

Relief.

At this moment, relief actually surfaced in the bottom of his heart.

He was relieved that this Ji Tianhe, who was like a nightmare, had found him.

It told him a fact: even in a desperate situation, weakness is still a shameful thing.

When he learned that Zhang Yu was going to sacrifice himself to save him, he felt powerless, humiliated, and even resentful.

But the moment Ji Tianhe arrived, he was actually relieved.

He wanted to surpass Chen Yan; how could he be someone who retreats?

He had asked himself all night whether his retreat was cowardice or wisdom.

He did not know, but when he thought of this question, he already found it hard to explain anything.

At this instant.

Even Ji Tianhe was stunned.

Until the next instant.

Hum!

A grand power of will struck instantly, shaking Ji Tianhe's will.

In just a split second, Ji Tianhe's eyes flickered, and the long blade in his hand stiffened.

The next moment.

Crack!

Li Zhiyi's long blade struck Ji Tianhe's forehead, without advancing an inch.

The next moment, Ji Tianhe reacted, extremely astonished.

Li Zhiyi's blade had gone down, but it hadn't even broken his skin.

"So it was..."

Ji Tianhe opened his mouth, then slashed down with his blade.

A brilliant scarlet blade-light poured down instantly; Li Zhiyi's pupils constricted, and he flickered away in an instant.

Pfft, pfft, pfft!!!

Behind him, however, came the sound of bodies being torn apart, one after another.

Li Zhiyi looked back, only to see that a single strike of blade-light had shredded the bodies of dozens of his comrades.

Ji Tianhe was stunned, and he looked at Li Zhiyi:

"What are you laughing at?"

Indeed, at this moment Li Zhiyi was smiling, though the smile was very faint; if one did not look closely, one could not tell he was smiling at all.

But it was chilling to the extreme!

Chilling, enough to make one shudder.

At this moment, a feeling that was both familiar and strange seemed to wash over him.

Perhaps it was a feeling from a dream, or perhaps a sensation from a past life suddenly reawakening.

Just a moment ago.

Hum!

A blazing radiance ignited upon Li Zhiyi's body, incomparably brilliant.

The Light of Immortality burned like fire.

The deepest battle intent and killing intent roared forth completely at this moment.

It was as if some wild beast had completely awakened at this instant.