High Martial: I Grind Professions

"Junior Brother Li, it's time to go."

The Celestial Martial King's calm voice drifted over, carrying a reassuring steadiness.

Li Wen rose to his feet. The stray bolts of lightning arcing around him quietly subsided as he nodded. "Yes, Senior Brother."

The group gathered. Without another word, they resumed their journey home.

The Celestial Martial King's Domain enveloped everyone as he flew at full speed toward the border between the Star Domain and Blue Star's universe.

Though the journey home lacked the leisure of their initial trip to admire the Star Domain's wonders, it carried the weight of a fruitful expedition and an urgent longing for home.

After half a day of rapid flight, the border was in sight.

This time, the Celestial Martial King didn't immediately shatter the spatial barrier as he had on their arrival.

He stopped in the void, his eyes slightly closed. An intangible yet immense spiritual will spread out like tentacles, reaching toward the violent, chaotic border of the Star Domain. It probed carefully beyond, attempting to capture the unique coordinate fluctuations of Blue Star.

「At this moment, on Blue Star, on the mountain behind Enlightenment Peak of Kindling University.」

The white-haired Headmaster, Venerable Ye Qin, stood shoulder to shoulder with Venerable Xingxuan and Venerable Gu He, their expressions solemn.

They all looked up at the sky, where a world projection covering the entire firmament emanated a heart-palpitating pressure.

Venerable Ye Qin took a deep breath. A Venerable-Level aura, vast as the ocean and seemingly capable of shouldering the heavens and the earth, exploded from him without restraint.

A dazzling pillar of light shot up from the crown of his head, not as an attack, but like the most precise of beacon signals.

Imbued with the aura of Blue Star's origin, it shot straight through the atmosphere and the cloud layer.

Finally, it plunged with incomparable precision into a specific area of the massive Demon Realm projection.

It was a coordinate beacon, guiding the travelers home.

The instant the pillar of light vanished into the projection—

At the border of the Star Domain, the Celestial Martial King, who had been sensing with his eyes closed, snapped them open. A sharp light shot from his pupils, like a sword piercing the sky.

"Found it!"

The words had barely left his lips when he clenched his right fist and threw a simple, unadorned punch.

No earth-shattering explosions, no dazzling displays of light.

The space before his fist seemed to be made of fragile glass that had been lightly tapped.

A void fissure, dozens of feet long and about ten feet wide, instantly tore open. Its edges roiled with faint spatial turbulence.

Inside the fissure was not a dark void, but a clear image of the three Venerables on the mountain behind Enlightenment Peak, along with the familiar landscape of Blue Star.

"Fellow disciples, the way home is open. After you," the Celestial Martial King said, turning to the side. His voice was steady and powerful.

Everyone understood. To guard against any unforeseen trouble, the strongest among them, the Celestial Martial King, would bring up the rear.

The King of the Nine Netherworld, Yan Dan King, Myriad Phenomena King, and the other King-level experts went first, stepping into the fissure without hesitation. Their figures vanished into the vista of Blue Star.

Ling Feng, Sun Rui, and the other Marquises followed, with the Human Race teams from Red Flame Star, Ice Soul Star, and Cangwu Star coming last.

Li Wen nodded to the Celestial Martial King before stepping into the fissure himself. The familiar sensations of gravity and air instantly washed over him.

All the team members made it through the fissure.

The Celestial Martial King didn't immediately look toward the fissure. Instead, his gaze abruptly shifted to a patch of seemingly empty void dozens of miles away.

His eyes were as cold as a blade.

"Are all members of the Demon Race such skulking cowards?"

He threw another seemingly simple punch.

A giant fist of hazy white energy, condensed to its absolute limit, silently materialized before his own.

It seemed to ignore distance, appearing in the heart of that empty patch of space the very instant it formed.

"Hmph!"

A muffled grunt filled with shock and anger rang out.

That empty region distorted violently, space rippling like water as a figure was forcefully driven out.

It was none other than the old demon with a heavy turtle shell on his back.

The old man's expression changed drastically. He clearly hadn't expected the Celestial Martial King's perception to be so sharp, nor his strike so decisive and ruthless.

He reacted with extreme speed. A colossal, mountain-sized phantom of a turtle shell materialized around him. Covered in profound, natural patterns, it was thick and solid, radiating an aura of indestructible defense.

BOOM—!!!

The hazy white fist of energy smashed squarely into the phantom shell.

A deafening roar, powerful enough to shatter stars, echoed across the border of the Star Domain.

CRACK!

CRACKLE—!

A grating series of cracks rang out.

On the seemingly indestructible phantom shell, countless terrifying, spiderweb-like cracks spread wildly from the point of impact, instantly covering its entire surface.

Inside the phantom shell, the old man's previously serene face flushed blood-red, his eyes wide with incredulous horror.

A violent force pierced the shell's defense and slammed into his body, making his organs feel as if they had been struck by a massive hammer.

"Ugh!" The old man grunted in pain, forcing down the metallic tang of blood rising in his throat.

Having succeeded with one punch, the Celestial Martial King didn't even glance at the result, as if he had just swatted away an annoying fly.

He turned, hands clasped behind his back. Just as the void fissure behind him was about to seal completely, shrinking to a final sliver, he stepped through with unhurried grace.

With a flash of light, the fissure disappeared completely. The border of the Star Domain returned to its chaotic and violent state, as if no one had ever been there.

PTHOO—!

Only then could the old demon with the turtle shell no longer hold back, violently spitting out a mouthful of demon blood that shimmered with a dark golden light.

As he spat the blood, an extremely chaotic, impure, and almost uncontrollable fluctuation of power erupted from his body, causing the surrounding space to twist slightly.

WHOOSH! WHOOSH!

Two figures exuding powerful demonic auras instantly tore through space and appeared beside the old man.

Their auras were just as tyrannical; they were clearly two Demon Kings famous throughout the Demon Realm, their power at the peak of the Great Demon King level.

"Old devil?! What happened to you...?!"

One of the Great Demon Kings, who had a vertical golden pupil on his forehead, stared at the turtle-shelled old man's miserable state.

He was especially shocked by the cracked phantom shell that had yet to fully dissipate and the terrifying aura of Fist Intent that lingered in the air. His eyes were filled with shock.

"Your Profound Heaven Turtle Shell, the so-called 'Unbreakable Armor,' was actually shattered?!"

The other Great Demon King, whose form flickered like a phantom, gasped.

"That Celestial Martial King... is he really that powerful? He injured you this badly with a single punch from dozens of miles away?"

The old man, the Profound Turtle Old Demon King, took several gasping breaths, forcing down the roiling qi and blood and chaotic Demon Power within him.

His face held traces of lingering shock and fear, and his voice was raspy and grave as he spoke:

"Cough… cough… I was careless. I underestimated that junior of the Human Race. That Celestial Martial King… is no ordinary King!

The power in that punch... its destructive force... is likely on par with a veteran Demon Saint who broke through centuries ago! This man is a dire threat to the heart of the Demon Race!"

The golden-pupiled Great Demon King and the phantom-like Great Demon King exchanged glances, each seeing an unprecedented gravity and a hint of… terror in the other's eyes.

A Human Race King comparable to a veteran Demon Saint?!

...

On the mountain behind Enlightenment Peak, the spatial fissure slowly closed like a great healing wound.

The last ripples of spatial energy dissipated from around the Celestial Martial King.

He stepped out, and the halo of the Domain that had enveloped everyone retracted.

Li Wen, Ling Feng, Sun Rui, and a dozen or so others stood in neat formation on the cliffside platform.

After a year of honing themselves in the Star Domain, the strange, lingering energies and the sharp, not-yet-fully-retracted auras they exuded caused the plants on the mountain to stir as if in a breeze, their leaves rustling.

"You're all back." Starlight flowed in Venerable Xingxuan's eyes as his fingertip tapped lightly in the air.

After sensing for a moment and confirming there were no spatial ripples from any pursuing members of the Demon Race, his tense expression relaxed, and he let out a long sigh of relief.

Headmaster Ye Qin's long, grayish-white hair lifted gently in the aftershocks of the residual spatial energy, while Venerable Gu He stood silently, like bedrock that had weathered countless storms.

The gazes of the three great pillars of the Human Race slowly swept over every young or mature face, finally settling on the Celestial Martial King, whose aura was now even more profound and restrained.

"You've worked hard." Venerable Ye Qin's voice was calm, but it carried immense weight.

The Celestial Martial King nodded slightly, with no hint of pride on his face.

"My own gains from this journey were also significant, far exceeding my expectations," he said. His voice was not loud, yet it reached everyone's ears clearly.

"The insights from the Star Domain might help me deduce… a complete system of Saint-Realm-Level Martial Arts.

Then, there might be a sliver of a chance to revitalize my physical body and step into the Venerable Realm."

As soon as he spoke, the platform fell silent. Even the wind brushing past the plants seemed to freeze.

Everyone's gaze instantly focused on the Celestial Martial King's somewhat frail-looking body.

'Saint-Realm-Level Martial Arts…' many thought to themselves, their expressions a complex mix of shock and unconcealable yearning.

This was especially true for the King of the Nine Netherworld and the other two peak-level Kings; they knew better than anyone how difficult it was.

Even they had yet to construct a complete system of Venerable-Level Martial Arts.

Their year of arduous cultivation in the Star Domain had only yielded comprehension of another one or two killing blows.

'Saint-Realm-Level? That was an entirely different plane of existence.'

In contrast, the three Venerables' eyes shone with heartfelt joy.

As his comrades-in-arms and peers, they were old acquaintances who had watched him burn away his life force in his pursuit of power.

More than anyone, they wanted to see their old friend succeed.

Headmaster Ye Qin even nodded slightly, his voice carrying a hint of imperceptible anticipation:

"If you succeed, with your current accumulation, your combat power will instantly reach the peak the moment you step into the Venerable Realm."

The Celestial Martial King said no more, but the quiet determination in his eyes said it all.

Afterward, the group did not delay further, each transforming into a streak of light and dispersing.

The most urgent task was to quickly digest their gains from the Star Domain and convert them into tangible combat power.

Li Wen did not pause for a moment.

He was now on the cusp of the King realm, separated only by a final step: condensing his own unique Cosmic Domain.

His Primordial Spirit had long since reached the 3rd Layer required for the King realm, and his saber arts had broken through to the Domain Realm a year prior.

Now, his focus was as sharp as an arrow, his goal clear.

Deep within Kindling University lay the sacred training ground that contained the mysteries of space and the universe's origin—the Cosmic Grotto.

Moving like a bolt of lightning, he shot past one verdant, craggy peak after another.

Soon, a massive stone grotto appeared before him, far more ancient and solitary than the Starry Sky Grotto.

The entrance was engraved with profound spatial runes, emitting a vast, cold, and deep aura.