High Martial: I Grind Professions

That meant the Wish Power avatar protecting his parents on Blue Star could descend sooner.

But reason quickly suppressed this impulse.

’Don’t bite off more than you can chew. Besides, I can’t waste the other two cultivation treasure grounds,’ Li Wen muttered to himself, suppressing his lingering attachment to the Soul Origin Tower.

With a slight shift of his will, the heavy door to the cultivation chamber slid open silently.

He strode out, leaving the ocean of spiritual energy behind.

The next target was the Star Marrow Chamber, a place designed specifically for tempering the physical body.

Unlike the grand and solemn Soul Origin Tower, the architectural style of the Star Marrow Chamber was cruder and more imposing.

Its entire structure was forged from a deep gray metal that shimmered with a faint light, like crushed stardust.

Even from a distance, one could feel a heavy, mountain-like oppressive pressure.

The energy barrier at the entrance rippled, emitting alternating waves of scorching heat and biting cold.

The Star Marrow Chamber also had ten independent cultivation spaces.

Li Wen had already made a reservation through the Star Pivot.

As he arrived, one of the cultivation chambers just happened to finish its cycle and slowly opened.

Without hesitation, Li Wen walked straight in.

The heavy metal door slammed shut behind him with a ROAR, sealing him off from the outside world.

Before him was not a wide-open space, but a cylindrical chamber approximately ten meters in diameter and five meters high.

The walls, floor, and ceiling were all embedded with countless tiny pores.

At this moment, they were emitting a soft, milky-white glow that brightly illuminated the chamber.

A strange gravitational field permeated the air, something more than simple gravity.

It was more like a pull originating from the very source of matter, making every cell of anyone who stepped inside feel heavy and sluggish.

"Cultivator detected: Li Wen. Authorization confirmed. Star Marrow tempering will begin shortly. Please prepare yourself." A voice echoed within the sealed space.

Li Wen took a deep breath, removed his outer robe, and revealed a lean, powerful body that looked as if it were cast from steel.

He stood barefoot in the center of the chamber and said in a low voice, "Begin."

Before the words had even faded, the pores on the walls suddenly spewed forth countless streams of silvery light so condensed they seemed tangible.

These streams were not pure energy, but more like a mixture of liquid metal and high-purity stellar radiation, instantly enveloping Li Wen’s entire body.

An indescribable pain suddenly struck him.

This pain wasn’t on the surface of his skin. Instead, it felt as if billions of red-hot steel needles were ruthlessly piercing him through every pore and every cellular gap, driving deep into his very marrow.

At the same time, the strange gravitational field suddenly intensified severalfold, as if it would crush his bones, muscles, and organs, only to forcibly reassemble them.

Scorching heat, extreme cold, tearing, crushing, penetration... All kinds of pain, each sufficient to make an ordinary Venerable faint instantly, assaulted his nerves in wave after wave, like a relentless tide.

"HISS—!" Even for Li Wen, whose will was as solid as a rock and had been tempered through countless trials, he couldn’t help but suck in a sharp breath.

He clenched his jaw, veins popping on his forehead. Beads of sweat as large as beans were evaporated by the scorching Star Marrow the moment they appeared.

During a lull in the excruciating pain, Li Wen communicated with the Star Pivot, his thoughts serving as both an explanation and a reminder to himself. ’Compared to the nourishment of the Soul Origin Tower, this cultivation in the Star Marrow Chamber is sheer torture! The demands it places on a Cultivator’s willpower are extreme... What’s more, the effectiveness of the cultivation is directly related to one’s focus. The more focused you are, the more thoroughly your will can resist the pain, and the better the Star Marrow’s tempering effect on the body will be...’

The Star Pivot’s voice responded calmly, "That is correct, Master. There are many paths to body cultivation. Before the Saint Realm, some, like you, walk a path of extremes. But once you step through the threshold of the Saint Realm, all paths converge. All require the complete integration of one’s comprehended Law into the physical body. The Law becomes the body, and the body becomes the Law. The purpose of the Star Marrow Chamber is to temper your physical foundation to the absolute limit it can bear at your current realm, making it the most perfect ’vessel’ and ’carrier’ to lay an unshakable foundation for future Law integration. This is the foundation of foundations, and also the source of the pain."

It was precisely because this foundation was so incredibly important that even though the pain was hellish, the geniuses in the base still flocked to this place, treating the suffering as a delight.

Li Wen said no more, pouring his entire mind into resisting the pain and guiding the Star Marrow’s tempering process.

He tried his hardest to concentrate, attempting to maintain absolute focus in this boundless sea of suffering.

However, the extreme pain originating from the cellular level was like billions of insects gnawing at the walls of his will, making it difficult for him to maintain a state of focus for long.

His efficiency was, inevitably, affected.

’This isn’t working... My normal level of focus isn’t enough to completely control this tempering power,’ Li Wen realized.

He needed a greater level of control.

A thought crossed his mind—

"[Absolute Focus], activate!"

HUM!

A cool, perfectly rational torrent instantly washed over Li Wen’s consciousness.

All stray thoughts, and even the sense of time passing, were forcibly stripped away by this power.

An inhuman silver gleam flashed deep within his pupils, and the entire world instantly became incredibly clear in his eyes.

The pain still existed, and in fact, it was even clearer because his perception had been amplified.

But under the cold, willful control of "Absolute Focus," this pain was no longer a chaotic torment.

Under this dual torment, Li Wen’s muscles, fascia, bones, organs, and even his most minute cells began to absorb the essence of the Star Marrow with unprecedented efficiency, undergoing a slow but steady transformation.

Time passed quietly amidst absolute focus and extreme pain.

When the Star Pivot’s alert sounded again, announcing the end of the cultivation session, the silvery streams of Star Marrow enveloping Li Wen receded like a tide, retracting into the pores in the walls.

The heavy gravitational field vanished along with it.