High Martial: I Grind Professions

Soon, he found the contacts labeled "Professor Hu (Particle Physics)" and "Academician Ma (Institute of Mechanics)."

He immediately initiated a group voice call.

A few seconds later, the call connected.

"Hello? Old Chen? What are you up to in the middle of the night?" a slightly hoarse and sleepy voice asked. It was Old Hu.

"Yanqiu? What is it?" another, calmer voice inquired. It was Academician Ma.

"Stop sleeping! Get up! Get on the Firewood Library!!" Chen Yanqiu’s voice was slightly raised with excitement, sounding urgent.

"The Firewood Library? What, did you find some treasure? Or did your new paper get accepted?" Old Hu asked teasingly.

"Not mine! Someone else’s! A masterpiece! A true masterpiece!" Chen Yanqiu said, speaking rapidly.

"The title is *On the Essence of Speed and Will Breakthrough*, and the author is Li Wen! Listen! Don’t be fooled by the name. At first, I also thought it was that Changning King, but now I’m sure it’s not!

This Professor Li Wen’s mastery of the essence of speed and the physical effects of willpower is simply unfathomable!

His models and hypotheses could overturn some of our previous understandings of high-speed energy transfer and the life-will field! Go look! You’ll know I’m not exaggerating after previewing just a few paragraphs!"

He eagerly shared his discovery, his tone overflowing with reverence and excitement.

Under his strong recommendation and urging, his two old friends on the other end of the call had their curiosity intensely piqued.

"Oh? It’s rare to see you so excited, Old Chen. Alright, I’ll go take a look," Academician Ma responded calmly.

"Li Wen? Fine, fine, I can’t argue with you. I’ll go check it out too. If it’s not as good as you say, you’re buying me dinner tomorrow!" Old Hu’s interest was also stirred.

After ending the call, Chen Yanqiu managed to calm down a little.

But he still couldn’t hide his excitement and couldn’t help but reread some of the paper’s brilliant passages.

And not long after Chen Yanqiu’s call with his old friends.

Li Wen’s system panel quietly refreshed once more:

[Your published paper was purchased and downloaded by one person. Scholar EXP +1]

[Profession: Scholar Lv. 16 (87/3,276,800 → 88/3,276,800)]

Then, a few minutes later:

[Your published paper was purchased and downloaded by one person. Scholar EXP +1]

[Profession: Scholar Lv. 16 (88/3,276,800 → 89/3,276,800)]

Professor Chen’s unintentional sharing, like a stone tossed into a calm lake, began to silently spread ripples of knowledge.

The true circle of scholars was beginning to notice this masterpiece signed by Li Wen.

And on Li Wen’s panel, the experience points representing the long journey to Scholar Lv. 17 were ticking upward, point by point, in a slow but unmistakably clear fashion.

The chain reaction sparked by knowledge had its origin with this silver-haired old man in a courtyard in the west district of Jiangnan Province, and his inextinguishable thirst for knowledge.

Li Wen stood atop the watchtower, feeling the numbers tick up on his panel.

His eyes shimmered with the bright light of understanding and infinite expectation for the future.

...

「Time trickled by.」

Outside the window, the lights of Changning City gradually dwindled, eventually replaced by the faint glow of dawn.

Li Wen slowly emerged from a deep meditation.

A night of quiet cultivation had not only stabilized the surge of Primordial Spirit power from his Scholar level-up but had also given him new insights into the integration of the essence of speed and the Cosmic Domain.

However, he had just opened his eyes, not yet having a chance to feel the crispness of the morning air, when the system panel deep in his consciousness, which only he could perceive, began to fluctuate violently, like the surface of a lake after a stone had been thrown in.

99+!

A bright red notification icon was suspended in a corner of the panel, and the dense stream of experience gain records had nearly filled the entire notification area.

"Hm?" Li Wen was slightly taken aback, a flash of surprise in his eyes.

He immediately focused his mind and opened the system panel.

The experience gain records scrolled before his eyes like a waterfall:

[Someone has purchased and downloaded your paper. Scholar EXP +1]

[Someone has purchased and downloaded your paper. Scholar EXP +1]

[Someone has purchased and downloaded your paper. Scholar EXP +1]

...

The records were still refreshing continuously.

Li Wen quickly sank his consciousness into his personal terminal, which was connected to the Firewood Library’s backend.

When the backend data was clearly displayed before him, even with his current King-level state of mind, he couldn’t help but feel a rush of pleasant surprise.

*On the Essence of Speed and Will Breakthrough*—Downloads: 978!

In just one night, the paper he had only uploaded the previous evening had already been downloaded nearly a thousand times!

This speed completely exceeded his expectations.

He had originally planned to start using his influence as the Changning King to promote it today, but he hadn’t expected it to start spreading on its own.

The efficiency of this spontaneous word-of-mouth spread among scholars was astonishingly high.

Beyond the surprise, a more pressing question immediately rose in Li Wen’s mind.

’Of these nearly one thousand downloads, how many are "scholars" as defined by the system, able to provide him with precious experience points?’

He quickly turned his attention back to the system panel, his gaze locking onto the scholar experience bar.

[Profession: Scholar Lv. 16 (89 → 1049/3,276,800)]

The last time he checked his experience points yesterday, it was 89.

Now, the experience value was 1049, meaning he had gained 960 experience points overnight.

Compared to the 978 downloads, this was only a difference of a dozen or so points.

’Nearly a thousand downloads, and almost all of them were recognized by the system as valid experience!’ This discovery made Li Wen’s heart beat a little faster.

This meant his initial judgment about the buyers’ identities—that they were scholars with formal research backgrounds and depth—was very likely correct, and the vast majority of these nearly one thousand buyers met that standard!

To verify this, and to more precisely pinpoint the system’s criteria,

Li Wen unhesitatingly dialed the contact for Wang Kang, the head of the Firewood Library headquarters, once again.

BEEP... BEEP...

The call was picked up within two seconds, and Wang Kang’s voice, respectful and tinged with an almost imperceptible weariness, came through:

"Changning King! What are your orders?"

Li Wen’s voice was calm and direct.

"I need the detailed backend information for all users who purchased and downloaded my paper from last night to this morning, including their identity verification data. The more detailed, the better. Send it to me immediately."

"Yes, Changning King! I’ll compile it right away and send it to you via encrypted transmission immediately!" Wang Kang agreed at once without any hesitation.

The requests of this newly-titled King were always a bit strange, but he knew full well the man’s importance. Executing orders was his top priority.

Less than a few minutes after ending the call, Li Wen’s personal terminal received a data packet marked with the highest level of encryption.

Li Wen tapped his fingertip on the light screen. The complex spatial key was instantly decrypted, and a massive data list appeared before him.

On the screen, rows of information were neatly arranged.

Name, affiliated university or research institute, academic title, research field, purchase time, IP address... The list was dense, containing nearly a thousand entries.

Li Wen’s gaze swept over each row like a scanner.

What met his eyes were almost exclusively professor-level titles.

"XXX University, School of Physics, Professor, Theoretical Physics."

"XXX Research Institute, Institute of Space Science, Chief Researcher."

"XXX University of Science and Technology, School of Mechanical Engineering, Vice Dean, Professor, Dynamics."

"XXX Military Academy, Strategic Research Institute, Professor-level Senior Engineer."

"XXX University, School of Philosophy, Professor, Cognitive Science."

...

"XXX Normal University, Department of Physics, Associate Professor, Fundamental Physics."

...

Only a few scattered records were different.

"XXX Weapon Design Bureau, Senior Engineer (No clear academic title)"

"Freelance Writer (Science field, self-proclaimed PhD)"

"XXX Frontier Technology Company, R&D Director (No academic institution title)"

...

Li Wen quickly noticed that the number of records for those who were not professors, associate professors, or researchers perfectly corresponded to the number of missing experience points from the system notifications.

’So that’s how it is.’ A clear boundary was drawn in Li Wen’s mind.

’The core threshold for the system to recognize someone as a "scholar" is having a title of associate professor or higher, or an equivalent research position, recognized by a formal academic institution!

Lecturers, engineers, corporate R&D staff—no matter how capable they are, they won’t be recognized by the system without this officially certified title.’

This discovery was crucial. It precisely defined his target user group.

"Query the total number of people on Blue Star who hold the title of associate professor or higher, including professors, researchers, professor-level senior engineers, and other equivalent titles."

Li Wen issued the command to the intelligent AI assistant built into his personal terminal.

This AI was connected to the vast shared database of human civilization.

"Command received. Accessing global academic talent database... Filtering data..." the AI’s cold, electronic voice sounded.

In less than three seconds, the result was presented:

"Reporting, Master. According to the latest aggregated data, the total number of individuals on Blue Star who currently hold the academic titles and research positions of associate professor, professor, researcher, senior researcher, professor-level senior engineer, or equivalents is: 602,471."

’Six hundred two thousand, four hundred seventy-one?’

Li Wen stared at the clear number on the light screen, his pupils contracting slightly. He was genuinely surprised. ’There are that many!’

He had assumed that under the threat of the Demon Race, with strained resources and the priority given to maintaining combat strength, the number of high-level academic talents would have been sharply reduced.

He never expected that under the humanity-preservation plan centered around Firewood University, the emphasis on basic science and theoretical research would be so great.

They had actually maintained such a massive contingent of scholars.

These six hundred thousand people were the cornerstone of human civilization’s knowledge inheritance and future technological development.

The surprise was instantly overwhelmed by delight.

The gears in Li Wen’s head immediately started turning. Leveling up from Scholar Lv. 16 to Lv. 17 required 3.6 million experience points.

This meant that if he could get the six hundred thousand qualified scholars on Blue Star to each purchase and download an average of six of his papers, it would be enough for him to level up!

And that wasn’t even counting Red Flame Star, Ice Soul Star, and Cangwu Star—three other planets that also had large human populations and research institutions.

’Six hundred thousand seed users... three other planets with equally enormous potential...’

An irrepressible, hopeful smile spread across Li Wen’s lips, and his eyes grew incredibly bright.

’As long as the quality of the papers is high enough, and I use my influence well to promote them... Scholar Lv. 20 is by no means out of reach!’

It was as if he could already see a sea of experience points transforming into an endless staircase, pushing him to climb to greater heights. An unprecedented drive surged within his chest.