Chapter 814: You and I Are Both Ants

As the giant's low roar pierced through the world, ten thousand golden rays surged like a raging sea, turning the heavens and earth upside down.

Everyone's gaze was drawn to that golden avatar of the Dharma body, spanning across the heavens and the earth.

At the center of the giant's brow, Li Zhiyi, dressed in red, stood holding a blade; bloodstains burst open all over his body, and blood splattered out.

Three hundred and sixty-six array vein messages from the 【Domain-Suppressing Saintly Image Array】 rushed into his mind.

The power from sixteen thousand military guards surged into his physical body from all directions.

His brain throbbed with intense pain, and his flesh was being torn apart.

The difficulty of the 【Domain-Suppressing Saintly Image Array】 far exceeded that of the 【Great Xia Dragon-Grinding Array】; the pressure Li Zhiyi was enduring at this moment was more than a hundred times greater than before.

His physical body was on the verge of collapse, yet an endless stream of immortal will overflowed from the bloodstains on his flesh, repairing his body.

"Li Zhiyi, you're not going to hold on!" Jidao Wu, located at the giant's right eye, roared out:

"You can't hold on!"

"Zhiyi, disperse the great array; let us all go to our deaths together!"

At the abdomen of the golden avatar, Zhang Yu shouted loudly.

Inside the entire golden avatar, the sixteen thousand Great Xia military guards all looked toward Li Zhiyi in unison.

Anyone could see that Li Zhiyi was about to reach his limit.

At the giant's mouth, Chen Min fell silent.

He, who had always been dissatisfied with Li Zhiyi, was now unable to speak; he simply gritted his teeth, as if an unimaginable rage were building up inside him.

Merely breaking through the golden net just now had already pushed Li Zhiyi to his limit.

Chen Youqing watched from afar, looking at the blood-colored long blade held in the golden avatar's hand, and narrowed her eyes.

"Clever, to actually think of letting the Blood Brand also become a part of the array."

Chen Youqing sighed repeatedly, then looked toward Li Zhiyi:

"It's a pity that you won't be able to hold on."

She seemed to have already seen the golden avatar disintegrating and Li Zhiyi's inevitable, total failure.

Yet at this moment, no matter how calm she appeared, her red lips still trembled slightly, and an undisguisable astonishment rippled in the depths of her eyes.

"Brilliant!"

Chen Youqing exclaimed.

Brilliant!

When a mortal sees a pig in a pigsty using all its strength to escape, they might feel angry, they might feel moved, but they will also find it brilliant.

When an elephant sees a handful of ants being burned by fire, forming a ball just to protect a few ants so they might live, it also finds it brilliant.

That is the struggle of a lowly life, toyed with and destined to die.

Those are roars of unwillingness, and pairs of angry eyes.

And Li Zhiyi, this pig destined for the slaughter, not only escaped the pigsty but almost escaped the master's courtyard.

This is...

What a stubborn and tenacious life.

Looking at Li Zhiyi, whose body was now almost on the verge of shattering, a touch of admiration finally appeared in Chen Youqing's eyes.

Perhaps Li Zhiyi's power of will came too suddenly, perhaps Li Zhiyi's strength was too inexplicable and filled with the shadows of calculation.

But this heart that refused to accept defeat was worthy of respect.

At the golden avatar's left eye, Mu Zigui looked at Li Zhiyi above in astonishment.

This 【Domain-Suppressing Saintly Image Array】 was something Li Zhiyi had suddenly formed by his own power just now.

Li Zhiyi had no experience as an array master; those array veins must be clashing and rampaging within his body.

It was unimaginable what kind of suffering Li Zhiyi, who was not an array master, was enduring at this moment.

"Call it off."

Mu Zigui lowered her head and said:

"Now that the golden net is broken, we can charge into battle; there is no need to continue maintaining it."

A look of resentment appeared in her eyes:

"After all, you are not an array master..."

As Mu Zigui's voice fell, one voice after another fell within the golden avatar.

All the voices surged into the depths of Li Zhiyi's mind.

Yet at this moment, he lifted his head, his shattered eyes looking toward the vast sky.

Waves of familiar yet strange words rushed into the depths of his mind.

"In this world, is there really such a world?"

It was a voice filled with hidden sorrow and confusion.

"In this world, is there really such a world?"

What kind of world?

Li Zhiyi did not know, but he was clear that these were words he had once spoken himself.

"..., save me."

Another voice rushed into the depths of his mind.

A look of confusion appeared in the depths of Li Zhiyi's eyes.

Someone had once said this to him.

Who was it?

Who was it?

I don't remember clearly.

This is his past memory.

This is the memory he has already forgotten.

"Traveling ten thousand miles into the human world, let's see if I can run east to the great sea and cover the sky with blood."

"This heart is bright; malice fears me when it sees me, and ugliness feels ashamed when it meets me."

"In the countless years of human history, martyrs may not be as dazzling as pioneers.

But a martyr is a martyr; he never gave up. The end of his life is failure, yet it is also a beginning."

That day, he understood everything and said to someone with a radiant smile:

"His tombstone is also a monument!"

That day, in front of many people, he said righteously:

"There is no dead end in the heart, and there is no dead end in the world."

Li Zhiyi's eyes were dazed; at this moment, he seemed isolated from the world, and all calls to him were ignored by him.

In the dark, he saw himself walking alone on an ice river, and saw a massive giant rising from the bottom of the sea.

In a trance, he saw himself walking through endless chaos and evil, never looking back.

Inexplicably, he saw himself become a monster covered in tentacles, chiseling deep pits with his fists upon a sky-reaching ice wall.

Those were all his memories.

He had lived through endless years, and he had suffered all the hardships of the world.

All of this was his memory; it was what he had experienced, or had not experienced, but it was all true memory.

His life was too short, yet his life was too broad.

He was never a genius, just a weary monk who had traveled through dust and never stopped.

"I remember now..."

Li Zhiyi looked at the Vault of Heaven blankly, blood and tears flowing from his shattered eye corners:

"I remember now."

He laughed out loud:

"Why do you treat me this way, why do you treat yourself this way?"

"You never owed the world anything, and I have never owed anything!"

He talked to himself as if he were insane.

"Has he gone mad?"

Chen Youqing frowned, looking at Li Zhiyi, who was talking to himself as his physical body moved closer and closer to destruction.

If Li Zhiyi died just like this, then only Chen Min could be made into the Blood Gu.

Jidao Wu looked at Li Zhiyi in a daze, his mouth wide open.

The overwhelming pressure caused Li Zhiyi to fall into madness.

Chen Min looked over fiercely, his eyes turning red, and roared:

"You remove the grand formation for me, you stay alive for me!"

His expression became ferocious; did he hate Li Zhiyi?

No.

What he hated had always been this self that was not strong enough.

Mu Zigui looked at Li Zhiyi, sorrow appearing in her eyes:

"He is not going to hold on..."

But at this moment, Li Zhiyi was tilting his head back, his physical body covered in fragmented golden-red light, walking toward extinction.

He seemed to see a lonely back, walking continuously through the wind and frost, disappearing into the gray-white snow.

He heard the other person's words.

Very blurry.

What that person was saying.

Until the next moment.

Li Zhiyi opened his mouth and mimicked the person, whispering:

"I dare not die..."

His voice fell.

Jidao Wu's eyes instantly turned blood-red, his whole body trembling.

Inside the Golden Human Dharma Form, sixteen thousand Great Xia military guards looked upward, sorrow and despair appearing in each of their eyes.

Chen Youqing shook her head slightly.

If Li Zhiyi died heroically like this, she would remember him.

But if he begged the unjust Heavenly Dao with such unwillingness and sadness before his death, it would only disappoint her.

To lose, one should have the bearing of a loser.

Like Chen Yan, calm in defeat, calm in death.

Instead of this, an incompetent sigh.

In the direction of Xiaoyang, Xia Hanzhou stood up, something flickering within his weathered eyes.

Chen Min's body was stiff, motionless.

Until the next moment.

Li Zhiyi's voice rang out in his ears once again.

"That is why I am living with all my might."

Boom!

It was as if ten thousand thunderclaps exploded deep within Chen Min's mind; he looked up at the sky abruptly, eyes wide, shocked to the extreme.

Boom!

Above the battle line, Xia Hanzhou's murky old eyes suddenly widened, his lips trembling for a long time, yet he could not make a sound.

Chen Yan!

It really is Chen Yan!

Xia Hanzhou clenched his fists tight, his knuckles turning white.

This is the Lord of Will who pioneered the Path of Will that he saw with his own eyes!

Deceiving the heavens and crossing the sea, fooling the human world, Chen Yan has finally returned!

Xia Hanzhou's body began to tremble; blood and Qi were accumulating within him, as if a bomb were about to detonate in the next instant.

Chen Qi's expression changed drastically; looking at Xia Hanzhou, who had lost his composure like this, there was finally panic in the depths of his eyes.

Boom!

High in the distant firmament, a red and blue star suddenly flickered.

The Pool Master has appeared!

"Living with all my might..."

Chen Youqing whispered, ruminating on this sentence spoken by Li Zhiyi.

The next moment, her eyes were filled with disbelief.

Yet she saw that the Golden Body Dharma, which was about to shatter, suddenly raised the long blade in its hand.

Swish!

The blood-branded blade light, like a crimson ribbon, traversed the long sky and instantly slashed toward the vines that were blotting out the sun!

"Not good!"

Below, the golden-armored man leading the Jizhou Army saw this scene and instantly shouted out loud, frantically spurring the military formation.

Crack, crack, crack!!!

The moment the long blade in the giant's hand fell, layers of vine barriers condensed in front of the Jizhou Army.

However.

Crack!

Where the blade light passed, the vine barriers crumbled like rotten wood, countless cyan-brown fragments exploded and scattered, and sharp blade remnants fell with a rustle.

"Ah!"

"Run!"

"Ahhh!!!"

Screams rang out one after another; the blade light, sharp to the extreme, slashed down, instantly shattering a large swath of the Jizhou Army.

Pfft, pfft, pfft!!!

The earth was slashed into a ten-mile-long abyss of blade marks, and countless physical bodies were sliced in two.

This scene happened suddenly.

Even the Great Xia military guards within the Golden Body Dharma had not expected this.

They looked over one after another, only to see that Li Zhiyi's physical body was already on the verge of shattering.

The immortal will overflowing from within the physical body, however, was pulling at the broken body with all its might like strands of lotus silk.

It was just like a living creature clutching at withered grass on the edge of a cliff, unwilling to fall, increasingly on the verge of perishing.

Chen Min was speechless for a moment, looking at this scene in disbelief.

Mu Zigui watched this scene; this blade strike made her whole body stiffen, her eye sockets instantly turned red, and tears burst from her eyes without warning.

The heaviness of life can only be glimpsed through will.

At this moment, she intuitively felt an indescribably heavy sensation crash down, making it impossible for her to breathe.

The sixteen thousand Great Xia military guards were all pale at this moment, unable to breathe.

They could feel that someone was using their final vitality to sustain their lives.

"Form up! Quickly form up!"

The golden-armored man roared, and the Jizhou Army frantically activated the battle armor formation patterns to rebuild the vine defense line.

The remaining Jizhou soldiers all had tense expressions, radiating blood and Qi.

"He can't hold on!"

"He is going to die!"

"We only need to withstand one strike from him!"

The thirty thousand-plus Jizhou soldiers roared one after another; looking at the giant golden figure, their originally tense expressions calmed down.

The golden-armored man snorted coldly, staring fixedly at Li Zhiyi as if looking at a dying insect.

The next moment.

Thud!!!

The earth cracked, and the golden figure's left fist fell like a meteorite, smashing fiercely into the ground!

Boom!!!

A violent shockwave swept out; the not-yet-formed vines were instantly shattered, and thousands of Jizhou military guards vomited blood and flew backward.

"Form up, what are you all standing there for!"

The golden-armored man roared:

"He is going to die, but why are you all waiting for death?!"

All the Jizhou Army soldiers faced the enemy as if facing a great threat, and at this moment, they erupted with the full force of their blood and Qi.

Swish, swish, swish!

Countless vines surged up from the depths of the earth, blood-red roses bloomed one after another, and their poisonous thorns were sharp to the extreme.

The next moment.

The enormous golden light Dharma form raised its long blade once again.

Everyone watched with mouths agape; the man at the eye of the formation was clearly on his last breath, so why could he still lift this blade?

"Block it!!!"

The golden-armored man roared.

Swish!

One strike!

The blade light was like a blood moon across the sky; wherever it passed, the poisonous rose buds burst one after another, and the dark blue venom was evaporated completely before it could even be sprayed!

Boom!

The earth was cleaved open, and in an instant, the bodies of over a thousand soldiers were shattered.

Blood light surged up from the earth, flowing toward the blood blade in the hands of the golden giant Dharma form.

To be precise, it was converging toward the Blood Brand held in Li Zhiyi's hand.

This scene was shocking to the extreme.

Chen Youqing's eyes slowly widened, watching in extreme shock.

At the same time.

A hundred miles away from Chen Youqing, ten people stood.

The leader was an old man wearing a white shirt.

The white-shirted old man looked at Li Zhiyi and clicked his tongue in wonder:

"The path of Will is truly special; it can actually keep a person who should be dead hanging on by a single breath like this."

Once he thought of this, he sent a message to Chen Youqing:

"My Lord, I, Pang Hai, am willing to capture Li Zhiyi; I will head to the front line as soon as possible to contribute to our Five Clans."

Pang Hai and the other nine were the backup plan prepared by Chen Youqing.

If the Jizhou Army could not stop Li Zhiyi, the ten Creation Realm experts would deploy a formation to capture him.

Originally, the ten of them only needed to wait for Chen Youqing's order.

But now that the Great Xia had started the war, and Pang Hai was a Creation Realm expert who had defected from the Great Xia to the Five Clans.

At a time like this, he naturally wanted to perform meritorious service.

To recruit defectors like them, the Five Clans had provided extremely abundant resources, and killing enemies would also yield more resources.

Now, seeing that the ten of them were being dragged along and wasting time by Li Zhiyi alone, Pang Hai grew impatient.

"You wait; without my order, you are not allowed to act on your own."

Chen Youqing's voice came from the other side of the communication array disk.

Pang Hai felt speechless.

Beside him, a woman spoke:

"No need to be impatient; that man clearly cannot hold on much longer."

The woman sneered; she was a Creation Realm expert from Chizhou, Chi Fang.

Pang Hai nodded, then smiled:

"I just don't understand why we must let that Li Zhiyi struggle until now; clearly, capturing this person is something we could do with a casual effort.

He is very important for the Blood Gu; if the ten of us act, we won't lose our composure and accidentally kill him."

As Pang Hai's voice fell, Chi Fang and the others stopped speaking, looking at each other, harboring the same question in their hearts.

At this moment.

Chen Youqing was sensing the Blood Brand hilt within her own universe.

The hilt was connected to the blade, and Chen Youqing could feel that after Li Zhiyi's two strikes just now.

The killing intent within the Blood Brand had already accumulated to eighty-five percent.

Chen Youqing watched the dying Li Zhiyi from afar, her eyes gradually turning from shock to calm:

"Pitiful."

Pitiful!

She saw a person struggling desperately to live.

Yet no matter what, this person was on a dead-end path.

Even the fact that the opponent was now sacrificing everything to slaughter the Jizhou Army was only to accumulate killing intent for the Blood Brand's emergence.

This was an ant that could never escape the trap no matter what.

She lowered her eyelashes, her fingertips unconsciously rubbing the corner of her clothes:

"You and I are both ants; fundamentally, there is no difference.

We each bear our own mission; whether we can escape destiny depends on our own fate-arts.

Whether I can escape is not yet known, but you cannot escape."

She murmured, and at this moment, Li Zhiyi gained her respect.

But she knew that Li Zhiyi would undoubtedly die, and perhaps die ridiculously.

If Li Zhiyi was like this, was she not the same, and was Chenzhou not the same?

Chen Yan is like this.

This human world is all like this!