Chapter 555: The Problem of Self-Existence

Crossing through the scorching lava tunnel, Hua Changxi stepped into a brand-new canyon.

Unlike the violent, life-or-death battle in the first canyon, this place was deathly silent, the air permeated with a suffocating solemnity.

Hua Changxi pondered to herself: if the first trial of the training ground tested individual combat, then the second trial was likely... group combat?

Hua Changxi surveyed the canyon while tentatively stepping deeper inside.

The moment she stepped a hundred meters into the depths of the canyon, a sudden gale erupted, and the earth began to rumble and tremble violently.

Immediately following, ten formation platforms rose from the ground, their formation flags fluttering and snapping loudly in the wind.

And Hua Changxi, having just happened to stand beside one of the platforms, was enclosed within the formation.

At the same time, the surrounding Qi surged and twisted frantically, instantly condensing into ninety-nine burly figures clad in crimson battle armor—the Zhu Que Army!

Hua Changxi's eyes brightened, and she looked earnestly at the stern array before her.

A hundred-man military formation!

Through the positioning of the Zhu Que Army, she recognized this as the Zhu Que Army's basic formation—the Crimson Flame Arrowhead Formation.

Hua Changxi's eyes flickered; she seemed to have guessed what the upcoming trial was—to practice the Crimson Flame Arrowhead Formation with these ninety-nine Zhu Que soldiers.

Sure enough, the next moment, the Zhu Que soldier standing at the center of the formation shouted, "Form up!"

The ninety-nine Zhu Que soldiers moved instantly, quickly taking their designated positions.

As this was her first time coordinating, Hua Changxi's consciousness kept up, but her body was half a beat slow.

The instant her feet landed, a massive repulsive force struck her; before she could even react, she was violently shaken out of the formation and landed on the ground in a sorry state.

"Rhythm mismatch, out of formation!"

"Again!"

Hua Changxi gritted her teeth and climbed up, looking at the ninety-nine expressionless Zhu Que soldiers who had returned to their positions, took a deep breath, and stepped into the formation once more.

"Form up!"

The second time, she was half a beat too fast and was shaken out of the formation again.

The third time, her positioning was off by a hair, and she was thrown out of the formation.

Time and time again, Hua Changxi was ruthlessly kicked out of the formation due to minor lapses in detail.

The strictness of a hundred-man formation far exceeded her imagination; it did not allow any individual's brilliance to override the collective, nor could it tolerate the slightest hesitation or error.

Here, one hundred people had to completely forget the "self" and become a community of destiny with one breath and one heartbeat.

"So military formation drills are actually this... difficult."

Accustomed to fighting alone, Hua Changxi rarely paid attention to the Zhu Que Army's drills and had always assumed it wasn't difficult. After experiencing it herself, she felt that the Hall Masters and managers of the Lingguang Hall's Martial Arts Hall truly had it hard.

"Bang, bang, bang~"

Having been thrown out countless times, Hua Changxi was now numb from the falls, and the light in her eyes had dimmed.

Every time she wanted to give up, a feeling of unwillingness surged in her heart.

"I refuse to believe I can't even master a hundred-man formation!"

After falling so many times, she had finally accumulated some experience.

At first, Hua Changxi's attention was entirely on herself, and all her actions and thoughts were focused on trying to align herself with the other ninety-nine Zhu Que soldiers.

Once she became numb to the falls, she stopped thinking about herself and focused only on the other Zhu Que soldiers, sensing the flow of their Qi and listening closely to their uniform battle cries and footsteps; at the same time, she carefully perceived the circulation of spiritual power within the formation.

When her focus shifted from herself to the Zhu Que soldiers, the number of times she was thrown out of the formation decreased instantly.

She was no longer an intruder, but like a drop of water returning to the sea, naturally merging into this crimson ocean.

"Form up!"

As the command rang out again, Hua Changxi moved.

This time, her footsteps completely overlapped with the other ninety-nine Zhu Que soldiers, and her breathing resonated in sync with the group.

When the formation needed to erupt, her spiritual power flowed in precisely like a river into the sea; when the formation needed to retract, her aura instantly returned to silence.

Boom!

A hundred people moved in unison, and the earth roared.

To an outside observer, the hundred individuals who were originally independent seemed to have lost their boundaries, transforming into a towering giant of flame.

That "Crimson Flame Arrowhead," condensed from the spiritual power of a hundred people, no longer had any resistance, sweeping out with a destructive momentum that tore a pitch-black crack in the void ahead.

Orders were obeyed, and movements were uniform.

When the formation retracted, all hundred people froze simultaneously, even the swaying of their clothes seeming to stop at the same instant.

Hua Changxi stood in the formation, feeling that massive power connected to the souls and fused with the flesh and blood of ninety-nine others, a completely strange and unusual feeling surging in her heart.

"Boom~"

The Crimson Flame Arrowhead did not last long in the air before it shattered with a roar, turning into a sky full of flowing fire that dissipated into the void.

Immediately after, the figures of the ninety-nine Zhu Que soldiers faded, turning like a receding tide into pure spiritual energy that returned to the heavens and earth.

The ten formation platforms that had stood there and the fluttering formation flags also vanished into the ground at this moment, as if they had never appeared.

Hua Changxi regained her senses, looking at the vanished hundred-man formation, knowing she had passed this trial. She remained silent for a long while, waiting for that strange emotion in her heart to disappear before taking another step.

"Boom~"

Continuing deeper for a distance, the earth shook again, this time more violently than before.

The same platforms and flags, the same Zhu Que soldiers, only in greater numbers.

Looking at the nine hundred and ninety Zhu Que soldiers in the formation, Hua Changxi's eyelids couldn't help but twitch—a thousand-man formation, the Heaven-Burning Flame Formation!

Coordinating with a hundred Zhu Que soldiers had been difficult enough; now facing a thousand-man formation, Hua Changxi already anticipated that she would be frequently thrown out again.

"Bang, bang, bang~"

As expected, in the thousand-man formation, Hua Changxi found it even harder to practice, and a desire to retreat grew faintly in her heart.

She wasn't afraid of falling, and she was willing to continue training, but she couldn't get past the hurdle in her heart.

Military formation drills emphasized absolute obedience and could not tolerate the display of individuality.

Within the formation, individual power was infinitely suppressed; only through absolute obedience and perfect coordination could the formation's maximum power be unleashed.

However, she was a very self-centered person; asking her to abandon her personality was too difficult.

As soon as she thought about abandoning herself, she was gripped by anxiety and panic.

If she were to shed her characteristics and merge completely with the crowd, would the remaining shell still be considered her, Hua Changxi?

If Hua Changxi were an octopus, then in the hundred-man formation, she only needed to sever one or two tentacles, which she could accept.

But in the thousand-man formation, to merge her mind and synchronize with the other Zhu Que soldiers, she would have to sever at least half of her tentacles.

This was a grievous injury!

Hua Changxi found this unacceptable.

Give up?

She didn't want to.

Don't give up?

But she couldn't "abandon" herself.

Regarding the military formation trial, Hua Changxi fell into a dilemma.

At the same time, she fell into confusion regarding the problem of her own existence.

People must have a self; without a self, who is living?

Yet she also discovered that in many things, people cannot have only a self.

In conduct and action, if one blindly follows only one's own temperament, it is like the Zhu Que formation before her; clinging stubbornly to the self makes it difficult to merge into the ranks, and the formation struggles to gather power.

Setting aside right and wrong, she couldn't help but secretly wonder: is there truly a problem with being this obsessed with the self? ===== CHAPTER 556 =====