High Martial: I Grind Professions

The message was concise and powerful.

"It’s finally here." A sharp glint flashed in Li Wen’s eyes.

He had just completed his bone-age authentication during the day, and now the higher-ups were summoning him at night. They were clearly taking this genius tournament very seriously.

He didn’t delay. With a thought, he sent a portion of his consciousness into the Virtual Cosmos.

After the familiar sensation of weightlessness, he appeared in his personal virtual space.

The next second, based on the coordinates from the summons, a beam of teleportation light enveloped him.

When the light faded, Li Wen found himself in an incredibly magnificent, ring-shaped conference hall.

The dome was high and distant, as if simulating a deep, starry sky, with specks of starlight providing soft illumination.

The circular arrangement of seats was made of some unknown Energy Crystal, emitting a gentle luster. Many figures were already seated.

As his gaze swept across the room, Li Wen felt a slight chill in his heart.

Every figure here had a profound, restrained aura, yet they all faintly exuded an extraordinary presence.

Just as Ares Titan had said before, every internal member of the Source Net was a true elite.

They were of various races and myriad forms.

There were humanoid giants several meters tall with knotted muscles, and strange lifeforms just over a meter tall completely covered in a Crystal Stone shell.

There were also elf-like beings with translucent wings and stunningly beautiful faces... The vast territory and prosperous, diverse races of the Alka Empire were on full display here.

"Li Wen! Over here!"

A familiar voice called out.

Li Wen followed the voice and saw Ares Titan sitting in a conspicuous spot in the front row.

He was waving vigorously, and there was an empty seat next to him.

Naraku was also beside him and nodded at Li Wen.

Li Wen walked over quickly and sat down next to Ares.

As soon as he sat down, Ares lowered his voice, a hint of excitement and gravity in his tone.

"Perfect timing! Let me introduce you to some real heavy-hitters. The main contenders for this division’s tournament are pretty much all here."

As flashes of white light continued to appear in the empty seats, the number of attendees grew rapidly.

Ares took the opportunity to introduce them to Li Wen one by one, as if showing off his family treasures.

When a burly man over three meters tall with dark golden skin, looking as if he were cast from metal, appeared, Ares immediately gestured for Li Wen to pay attention.

"Look, that’s ’The Rock’ Karon! He’s consistently ranked in the top five of the Source Net’s Alka branch!

"He majors in the Earth Element Law, and his Defense Power is monstrous. I heard he reached the mid-stage of a Tier One Star Lord a long time ago. He’s even a cut above that guy Saphis!"

Li Wen focused his gaze and could feel the aura coming from Karon—heavy as a mountain and indestructible.

It was as if he were an ancient, unchanging fortress just by sitting there.

Immediately after, a graceful figure appeared amidst a ripple of hazy light and shadows.

It was a woman in an iridescent dress, her features indistinct as if veiled in a thin mist.

Her appearance seemed to make the surrounding space feel somewhat unreal.

"’Thousand Faces’ Aliya!" Ares’s voice held a trace of almost imperceptible wariness.

"She majors in the Illusion Law and is extremely bizarre and difficult to deal with. Her rank is also consistently in the top five, and she’s also at the mid-stage of a Tier One Star Lord.

"Her skill in creating illusions is simply divine. She’s a top contender for the top five in this division’s tournament. If you’re not careful when fighting her, you’ll lose without even realizing it."

Li Wen nodded silently, committing Aliya’s characteristics to memory.

At the same time, he couldn’t help but wonder, ’In the Virtual Cosmos, can my Martial Dao passive directly grant me immunity to Illusion Techniques?’

’If I’m not immune, an expert in Illusion Techniques would be incredibly troublesome.’

’I’ll just have to rely on my Primordial Spirit to resist it. Fortunately, as a Tier One Primordial Spirit Star Lord, I have a huge advantage in that regard.’

Just then, an icy, terrifying killing aura suddenly spread out, causing the bustling conference hall to fall silent almost instantly.

A figure silently materialized in a corner seat.

He was of average height, dressed in a simple black martial arts uniform, with a cold, stern face and eyes as sharp as a newly honed blade.

What was most striking was the killing intent surrounding him, so thick it was almost tangible, as if he had just stepped out of a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood.

When Ares saw this person, his pupils contracted slightly. Even the pride of the Titan Royal family on his face subsided a little. His voice dropped even lower, filled with deep wariness and a trace of awe.

"’Blood Butcher’ Barton! The publicly acknowledged number one expert within the Source Net’s Alka branch! He’s also the undisputed top seed for the Alka division in this peak genius tournament!"

He paused, as if to compose himself from the shock of seeing Barton, and continued speaking to Li Wen via voice transmission:

"See that killing aura on him? That’s not for show; it’s the real deal, earned through countless kills! He’s already obtained the ’Tier One Slaughter Centurion’ title!"

"Slaughter Centurion?" Li Wen’s gaze hardened.

"That’s right!" Ares confirmed. "The Centurion title from the Slaughter Tower means he has personally killed one hundred opponents of the same tier inside the tower!

"And you have to understand, no one who dares to enter the Slaughter Tower is weak. They are all Tier One Star Lords who are extremely confident, even fanatical, about their own strength!

"To be able to survive in a place like that, and even kill a hundred of them... his power..."

Ares didn’t finish, just shaking his head, the meaning obvious.

Li Wen’s heart grew heavy as he assessed his current strength.

A Primordial Spirit Star Lord certainly has an advantage among those of the same tier, but he had only just broken through to Tier One, and his cultivation base was still shallow.

Even if he used his "Berserk" skill to forcibly increase his combat power by 70%, he estimated he could, at best, barely contend with an ordinary Tier One Late Stage physical-body Star Lord.