High Martial: I Grind Professions

Li Changjie walked over, wine glass in hand, and asked in a low voice, "Brother, can I help with anything?"

His eyes were steady and strong. He was a far cry from the impulsive, short-tempered boy he had once been.

Li Wen smiled and shook his head. "Just a bit of insight from my cultivation. I need to find a quiet place to sort through it. Don't worry, I'm fine."

He glanced around the hall at his beloved family, his voice clear and gentle:

"Elders, brothers and sisters, I must take my leave. I wish you all peace and health in the new year, and may everything go your way!"

There were no unnecessary pleasantries or attempts to make him stay. Everyone understood Li Wen's current realm and responsibilities. His time was no longer his own, tied as it was to the very safety of the Human Race.

Amid the crowd's looks of understanding and blessing, Li Wen gave a slight nod.

His figure blurred, as if melting into the air, and in the next instant, he had vanished from the brilliantly lit hall.

Only a faint spatial ripple lingering in the air showed that he had been there.

Atop the tallest steel watchtower in Changning City's fortress district, a spire that pierced the night sky.

The biting cold wind whipped at Li Wen's robes.

He sat cross-legged as he always did, the cold alloy of the tower's peak beneath him, the resplendent nightscape of Changning City's countless lights stretching out before him.

This was his sanctuary. He often came here to cultivate and meditate, so it had long been designated a restricted area, accessible to him and him alone.

'Upgrade,' Li Wen thought. A translucent panel, visible only to him, materialized in his vision:

[Name: Li Wen]

[Age: 36]

[Realm: King-level]

[Profession: Scholar Lv. 16 (3,288,628 / 3,276,800) MAX!]

[Skill: Saber Art · Domain Realm (34%)]

[Cultivation Technique: Shocking God Stab · 7th Layer (100%)]

The experience points for his Scholar profession were more than ten thousand points over the required amount to level up.

And that was after the influx had stabilized from a several-day burst.

Right after his four top-tier research papers were published, the daily influx of experience points had surged like a tsunami.

It would often be in the hundreds of thousands, and the shockwaves it sent through the academic world had yet to subside.

The dissemination and recognition of this knowledge was steadily converting into the foundation for his advancement.

[Profession is upgrading...]

[Profession: Scholar Lv. 17 (11,828 / 6,553,600)]

The moment he confirmed his intent, a torrent of spiritual power—vastly more immense and pure than the one he'd received going from Lv. 15 to Lv. 16—gushed forth from what seemed like the source of the endless void, crashing into Li Wen's sea of consciousness!

BOOM—!

A cataclysmic, world-creating explosion seemed to detonate in the depths of his sea of consciousness!

His sea of consciousness, already as vast as a boundless nebula, was forcibly expanded, its boundaries pushed outward by the impact of this irresistible spiritual power.

Countless nebulous vortices spun, condensed, and collapsed at an unprecedented speed.

Then, in the next instant, they erupted with an even more dazzling light, illuminating the "sky" of his sea of consciousness until it shone with brilliant clarity.

Each expansion of his sea of consciousness was accompanied by a violent "spiritual tide" that battered his will.

If not for his solid Primordial Spirit foundation and a will forged through countless trials, he would have been instantly overwhelmed by this force.

At the center of the spiritual torrent, his Primordial Spirit sat cross-legged.

Like a bottomless vortex, it frantically absorbed the surging spiritual power.

The Primordial Spirit solidified, swelled, and grew taller at a rate visible to the naked eye.

The violet-gold light flowing over its surface grew deeper and more contained.

It appeared to be made of pure liquid energy, flowing with a mysterious and powerful Dao charm.

The eyelids of the Primordial Spirit's tightly closed eyes trembled slightly, as if enduring some extreme pressure of transformation.

Vast amounts of spiritual power were refined and purified, transforming into an even more condensed and sentient form of Primordial Spirit power.

Like molten violet-gold, it flowed into the Primordial Spirit's core, steadily increasing its density.

Its height, however, paradoxically compressed inward in a profound way, remaining stable at roughly nine feet tall.

Its entire body was translucent and sparkling, as if carved from the finest violet-gold crystal.

It radiated a heart-stopping pressure—the 6th Layer of the Primordial Spirit was achieved!

The entire process lasted nearly an hour.

When the last wisp of spiritual power was fully absorbed and converted, Li Wen felt his perception undergo a world-altering change.

The world grew clearer in his eyes, as if an invisible veil had been lifted.

The paths of flowing energy in the air, the faint fluctuations of auras in the distant city, even the subtle ripples and folds in space itself—all of it was clearer than ever before.

With a mere thought, his Primordial Spirit's power circulated effortlessly. It was vast and boundless, many times stronger than before!

The range of his spiritual sense exploded outward, easily blanketing all of Changning City and its surrounding wilderness, rendering every minute detail with perfect clarity.

He let out a long breath, which formed a solid plume of white vapor.

It lingered in the frigid air, and a violet-gold glint flashed in his eyes before vanishing.

With a few flickers, Li Wen's form was far from the clamorous lights of Changning City.

He appeared high above a desolate, uninhabited mountain range.

The night was deep and the starlight was dim. This was the perfect place to test his new strength.

With a single thought, he unleashed the profound power of the perfected 7th Layer of the Shocking God Stab, driven by the strength of his 6th Layer Primordial Spirit.

HUM!

A violet-gold spiritual spike—condensed to the point of being almost corporeal—shot out silently from between his brows!

There were no world-shaking energy fluctuations, no air-rending shrieks—only a cold, sharp edge that pierced deep into the soul.

Its speed was absolute; the attack arrived the very instant the thought was formed.

As the violet-gold spike streaked through the void, it left faint, nearly transparent ripples in space.

At their edges, fine black cracks flickered into existence before vanishing instantly.

It was as if the spike was about to pierce through the thin membrane of space, but it lacked that final bit of power to break through completely.

Its target: a mountain peak hundreds of meters high and several kilometers away!

That's right. The Shocking God Stab could now turn from illusion to reality and strike physical objects.

Not a sound! The violet-gold spike sank into the mountainside in an instant, as if it had never been there.

A breath later.

RUMBLE—!!

The majestic mountain peak suddenly erupted from within, bursting with a blinding violet-gold light.

Then, the entire mountain seemed to be crushed by an invisible giant hand.

With the point of impact as the epicenter, rock and soil disintegrated and were annihilated, exploding outward like fine dust.

The sound of the violent explosion arrived a moment later, a rolling thunderclap. A pillar of dust, mixed with the violet-gold aftershocks of spiritual power, shot toward the heavens.

It left a massive, bottomless crater in its place, the edges as smooth as a mirror and radiating a destructive spiritual pressure.

The destructive power of this single attack had firmly stepped into the territory of an entry-level Venerable.

Its speed, stealth, and terrifying penetrative power were enough to strike fear into the heart of any King-level expert.

Having tested the Shocking God Stab, Li Wen flicked his wrist. The long saber *Jinghong*, his companion through countless battles, appeared in his hand.

"Power of the Primordial Spirit, fuse!"

With a low cry, the immense violet-gold power of the Primordial Spirit surged within his sea of consciousness.

A precise and steady stream, like a small creek, flowed into the True Aura coating the long saber in his hand.

HUMMM—!

First, it fused with the True Aura.

The saber's aura, originally as scorching as the sun, was instantly dyed a deep, violet-gold.

The blade trembled violently, letting out a clear hum like a dragon's cry as an unseen force repelled the surrounding air, creating a momentary vacuum.

Li Wen used no special moves. He simply faced the empty air and unleashed a plain, simple, diagonal slash.

RRRIP!

An incredibly condensed beam of violet-gold saber light tore through the air.

The beam of light was only a few meters long at first, but it expanded explosively upon leaving the blade, instantly becoming a colossal ribbon of energy stretching for hundreds of meters.

Where the beam passed, it carved a deep, twisted black scar into the fabric of space.

The formless, sharp aura below it tore open the earth, creating a massive, bottomless canyon that stretched on for miles!

The mere aftershocks from the beam's passing were enough to flatten and shatter the mountains on either side of the canyon!

The raw power of this one slash was more than three times greater than before his breakthrough!

Next, he fused it with his entire body.

An indescribable, terrifying power instantly flooded every cell in Li Wen's body.

A dense, violet-gold aura erupted from his pores, enveloping his entire body and making him resemble a burning, violet-gold god.

His bones let out a series of dense cracks. Washed by the terrifying power, his muscle fibers grew tougher and more resilient, and his blood surged like a mighty river.

He felt his speed of thought, his reaction time, and his control over energy all reach an unbelievable peak.

His five senses were magnified to their absolute limit, and the entire world seemed to slow down around him.

He casually made a fist, and the air in his palm imploded with a dull sonic boom.

He took a step!

BOOM!

The mountain beneath his feet instantly shattered! The ground for hundreds of meters around collapsed as if struck by a meteorite!

His figure vanished. The next instant, he appeared dozens of kilometers away, high above another mountain peak.

Pure speed!

He hadn't even used his secret Body Technique, Body Transformation into Nine Heavens. This was purely the explosive power of his physical body fully fused with and empowered by his Primordial Spirit.

His speed had surpassed the sound barrier by an unknown multiple, leaving a distinct, human-shaped afterimage in his wake.

It only began to slowly dissipate after several long seconds.

A white vapor ring, formed by the extreme compression of air, spread out like a shockwave, flattening the forest below.

"Hoo..." Li Wen came to a stop, the violet flames around him slowly receding.

Feeling the immense power within him—enough to move mountains and fill seas—and the still-abundant power of his Primordial Spirit in his sea of consciousness, he knew his maximum combat power had seen a stunning fivefold increase.

Already standing at the peak of the King Tier, he could now look down upon the vast majority of his peers.

Aside from veteran peak Kings like the Celestial Martial King and the Heaven-Dominating King, who had long since touched the threshold of the Venerable realm, he was now truly at the apex of the King Realm.

What made him even happier was that the duration of his full-body fusion burst had increased from three minutes to nearly eight.

In a battle between King Level or even Venerable Level experts, that was a gap that could absolutely decide life and death.

Feeling the surging power within him, Li Wen couldn't help but feel a surge of emotion:

'Seven months... In just over seven months, I've gone from a novice King to the absolute peak of the King Realm... This string of fortune feels almost too fantastical, even to me.'

His power test complete, Li Wen didn't leave immediately.

He stood motionless in the void, his gaze falling to the long saber in his hand.

With a thought, his Lv. 17 skill, [Absolute Focus], instantly activated!