High Martial: I Grind Professions

Two hours passed quickly.

After bidding farewell to Ye Qin and Xingxuan, Li Wen appeared at the edge of Blue Star's atmosphere.

He took one last, deep look at the vibrant planet below.

His spiritual sense instantly locked onto the Wish Power clone keeping his parents company in the Li Manor in Changning City.

For a moment, their gazes seemed to meet across the vast distance, a silent exchange of promises and a shared resolve to protect.

The next moment, Li Wen lingered no longer. His form flickered as he shot through the atmosphere, transforming into a streak of light that rocketed toward the Starship.

A dozen or so seconds later, he reappeared inside the Starship's command cabin.

"Apologies for the wait, Deacon Leo," Li Wen said, thanking him sincerely once more.

"It's nothing." Leo waved his hand dismissively, as if he'd only been waiting long enough to drink a cup of tea. "Let's go. Destination—Alka Star."

The Starship's engines let out a low roar as it accelerated instantly, once again breaking the light-speed barrier.

The familiar sight of the River of Time once again enveloped the Starship.

Under the protection of a layer of soft light, the Starship was like a great whale entering the sea, breaking through the membrane of time.

It plunged headfirst into the rushing River of Time, speeding through the waves toward Alka Star.

However, after traveling for only a short while, the Starship shuddered violently without any warning.

It suddenly jumped out of the River of Time, returning to the cold void of the Material Cosmos.

The sudden jolt startled Li Wen from his meditation.

"Hm?" Li Wen's brow furrowed slightly. His powerful spiritual sense unconsciously radiated outward like a tide.

Instantly, his senses detected an anomaly in the void ahead.

A dark red meteor, about a kilometer in size and shaped like a giant teardrop, was rushing toward... Blue Star at a terrifying speed far exceeding that of a normal meteor.

The meteor's surface was covered in twisting, squirming dark patterns, emitting a sinister aura full of chaos and a desire to devour.

Its intensity had shockingly reached the Tier Four Star Lord Level!

That chaotic will was also constantly emitting vague, greedy mental fluctuations: "Soul… pure… eat…"

"Deacon Leo, what is that?" A sense of alarm shot through Li Wen. He immediately looked at Leo, his tone grave and questioning.

"Oh, that." Leo had a nonchalant expression, as if discussing a pebble on the side of the road.

"I was waiting for you earlier and had nothing better to do, so I used the Starship to scan the area a few dozen light-years around your home planet."

"And I ended up finding this little thing, heading straight for your old home with ill intentions. Looks like it's treating your home planet as an all-you-can-eat buffet."

"Heading for Blue Star?! A Tier Four Star Lord Level?!" A chill shot up Li Wen's spine, making his scalp tingle!

He knew all too well what this meant!

His Wish Power clone, which was only at the Tier One Star Lord Level, probably couldn't even stall a monster of this caliber for a moment.

Blue Star, his parents, his family and friends, Ye Qin, Xingxuan… all of it would be utterly devoured by this monster!

An unprecedented sense of crisis made him lose his composure. He whipped his head toward Leo, his tone filled with an urgency and desperation he had never felt before.

"Deacon Leo! You have to help! Blue Star has no way of stopping this thing!"

Seeing the genuine panic and pleading on Li Wen's face, Leo broke into a knowing smile.

"Heh heh, calm down. It's nothing, I've got this. It's just a mindless little Tier Four Star Lord Level bug. I can squash it with a flick of my wrist. Nothing to worry about."

Before the words had even left his mouth, not giving Li Wen a chance to speak again, Leo's figure had already vanished from inside the Starship.

Li Wen didn't dare to delay. He immediately followed, appearing outside the Starship to float shoulder-to-shoulder with Leo in the cold, dead void of space.

The two of them quietly watched the teardrop meteor, which emanated a terrifying aura, draw closer and closer with a presence that threatened to destroy everything.

"Soul… tasty… eat…" The chaotic mental fluctuations grew clearer, as if they had locked onto the two of them.

"Just as I thought, a stupid creature that acts only on instinct." Leo scoffed, his tone laced with disdain.

Faced with the undisguised, powerful aura of a Tier Five Star Lord Level Slaughter Centurion like him, any Tier Four creature with a shred of intelligence would have fled on sight.

But this thing just kept charging, proving how muddled and primitive it was.

In the blink of an eye, the teardrop meteor was right before them.

The immense pressure of a Tier Four Star Lord crashed down like a tangible mountain.

Even though it wasn't intentionally targeting Li Wen, the mere aftershock radiating from it was enough to make him, a newly ascended Tier One Primordial Spirit Star Lord, feel his breath catch in his throat.

The abundant Primordial Spirit power within his body seemed to freeze for an instant.

The squirming dark patterns on the meteor's surface suddenly lit up, and a dark energy that seemed capable of devouring light itself gathered at its tip.

It emitted a destructive wave that could make one's very soul tremble, clearly preparing to launch a fatal blow.

Just at that critical moment, Leo moved.

There was no earth-shattering power-up, no flashy, complicated moves.

He simply and very casually raised his right fist and threw an ordinary-looking punch at the massive, hideous teardrop meteor.

BOOM—!!!

An overwhelming, baleful aura, as if condensed from the slaughter of billions of living beings, suddenly erupted from Leo's seemingly ordinary fist!

This baleful aura instantly filled the entire void, dyeing the starlight a heart-stopping shade of crimson.

The aura of the Law of Slaughter—cold, cruel, and filled with an absolute will for destruction—filled the cosmos.

Although this utterly terrifying aura was completely locked onto the meteor monster ahead…

…the insignificant wisp of its aftershock that reached Li Wen made him feel as if he had been plunged into the Nine Hells' sea of blood.

His whole body went cold and stiff, his Primordial Spirit trembled, and even his thoughts nearly froze.

This was absolute domination, a matter of pure cultivation level and mastery of the Law of Slaughter.

In front of Leo's fist, space silently cracked inch by inch, turning into primordial chaos.

A dark red fist mark, condensed to the absolute limit.

Appearing to cross space instantaneously, it struck with impossible speed.

It slammed violently into the tip of the teardrop meteor, right where the destructive energy was gathering.

There was no deafening explosion.

Only a heart-stopping annihilation!

Under Li Wen's shocked gaze, the teardrop meteor that radiated the terrifying might of a Tier Four Star Lord…

…the instant it came into contact with the dark red fist mark, was completely erased at a fundamental, cosmic level, as if wiped away by an invisible giant hand.

Silent, traceless, and yet unbelievably fast.

One moment, it was a world-ending behemoth exuding a monstrous might; the next, there was nothing but absolute emptiness in its place.

Even the cosmic dust was swept clean by the annihilating Fist Intent.

It was as if the Tier Four Star Lord Level meteor monster, which could have easily destroyed Blue Star, had never existed in this Star Domain at all.

"Let's go. Problem solved." Leo spoke as if he had just swatted a fly.

Without a second glance at the empty patch of void, he turned and flew toward the Starship's entrance, his tone flat and emotionless.

Only when Leo's words reached his ears did Li Wen finally snap out of the profound shock brought on by that destructive Fist Intent.

He stared at the stretch of space, now returned to its silent, empty state, and his mind reeled with turmoil.

'Is this the terrifying power of a Tier Five Slaughter Centurion?'

…

「Ten days passed in the blink of an eye.」

"We're here." Leo's tightly closed eyes snapped open, his voice deep and strong.

The Starship shuddered slightly as its speed dropped abruptly.

It smoothly disengaged from the ceaselessly flowing River of Time and returned to normal space.

Hearing Leo's voice, Li Wen stirred from his meditation. He had been sitting cross-legged, faint streams of silver-gray energy swirling around him as he comprehended the Time Law. Now, he slowly withdrew that aura and opened his deep eyes.

He subconsciously gazed out the viewport.

Instantly, an indescribable shock assaulted his senses.

As far as the eye could see, an unimaginably massive planet filled the entire viewport.

Even from an immense distance across the void, the incomparably vast celestial body completely filled his vision, exerting a pressure that seemed to stem from his very soul.

The core of the Alka High Empire, the Imperial Star—Alka Planet!