High Martial: I Grind Professions

Before long, it was noon.

As Li Wen finished his morning of immersive reading and closed the last ancient tome on high-dimensional energy topological structures, the experience points on his Scholar panel finally reached the maximum for Lv. 17.

With a flicker of his thoughts, he returned to his quiet room, his gaze sweeping over the familiar profession column:

[Profession: Scholar Lv. 17 (6,548,654 → 6,684,568 / 6,553,600) MAX!]

’Level up.’ The calm thought fell, and it was as if an invisible switch had been flipped in the depths of his sea of consciousness.

[Profession leveling up...]

[Profession: Scholar Lv. 18 (130,968 / 13,107,200)]

The moment his Scholar level leaped to Lv. 18, a power far vaster and more majestic than any previous upgrade descended upon him!

A familiar yet unprecedentedly drastic change unfolded in Li Wen’s sea of consciousness.

An endless, pure Spiritual Power that seemed to originate from the very source of the universe.

Like a Star River that had burst its banks, it materialized from thin air and flooded madly into his sea of consciousness.

This power was so immense that his sea of consciousness—a space that had been expanded many times and was as stable as a small world—now began to hum as if overwhelmed, forcibly stretched, torn, and then reshaped by the torrent.

The boundaries of his sea of consciousness expanded outward at a speed visible to the naked eye, each expansion accompanied by violent spatial tremors and the flickering of Law runes.

In this cycle of destruction and reconstruction, the barriers of his sea of consciousness grew tougher and thicker, faintly exuding an immortal aura, as if capable of bearing all of creation.

At the same time, the massive amount of Spiritual Power, without needing any deliberate guidance, spontaneously and efficiently converted into the purest Primordial Spirit power.

This newborn Primordial Spirit power, like billions of dazzling ribbons of light, flowed ceaselessly into the colossal Primordial Spirit manifestation standing tall in the center of his sea of consciousness.

This Primordial Spirit manifestation, identical in appearance to Li Wen and thousands of zhang tall, was now undergoing an unprecedented transformation.

Its once-clear, almost solid outline became more profound and restrained, as if forged from the purest light and Law.

Mysterious and unfathomable runes flowed across the Primordial Spirit’s surface, each one containing a deep understanding of the rules of heaven and earth.

As the vast Primordial Spirit power integrated into it, the internal structure of the Primordial Spirit underwent a qualitative change, becoming denser and closer to a truly tangible form.

As its eyes opened and closed, a divine light shone from within, seemingly capable of piercing through illusion and gazing directly at the source of the universe.

A powerful pressure, far surpassing anything before, naturally emanated from it, casting a solemn air over the entire sea of consciousness.

This time, the Primordial Spirit transformation brought about by the Scholar upgrade lasted much longer—nearly two full hours.

When the last trace of the Spiritual Power torrent subsided and his sea of consciousness stabilized, the Primordial Spirit manifestation stood quietly, radiating a majestic power that even Li Wen himself found unnerving.

Seventh Layer of Primordial Spirit!

This was a huge watershed in the Primordial Spirit Realm, a sign that one had touched the threshold of the Saint Realm!

This Primordial Spirit power alone, without any physical support, was enough to rival an ordinary Venerable.

If combined with a powerful Primordial Spirit Secret Skill, its might could reach the terrifying level of a peak Venerable!

Feeling the vast Primordial Spirit power in his sea of consciousness—a power that seemed capable of making stars fall and voids collapse with a single thought—Li Wen felt an unprecedented sense of heroic pride swell in his chest, his heart surging with uncontrollable excitement.

This power was the reward for his tireless pursuit of knowledge and his climb to the pinnacle of the Scholar path. It was also a solid foundation for him to protect the Human Race and fight against the Demon Race!

’I need to test this!’ The moment the thought arose, Li Wen’s figure vanished from the quiet room like a phantom.

The next moment, he appeared in the sky above a desolate mountain range hundreds of kilometers outside Changning City.

His gaze locked onto a towering, thousand-meter-tall peak before him.

With a mere flicker of his thoughts—no gestures or incantations needed—he was driven by a single intention.

"Annihilate!"

BOOM—!

There was no earth-shattering explosion, no billowing dust.

Instead, the space occupied by the thousand-meter peak seemed to be viciously clenched by an invisible, world-spanning hand and crushed inward.

The moment the mountain’s rocks, soil, and vegetation came into contact with that invisible force field, they began to disintegrate and annihilate at the most fundamental particle level, as if cast into a cosmic furnace!

Space itself visibly twisted and folded, swallowing the light and forming a brief, terrifying dark event horizon.

In the span of a single breath, the giant peak that had stood for untold millennia, along with a portion of the earth beneath it, vanished completely, leaving behind only a massive, circular crater, its surface as smooth as a mirror and bottomlessly deep.

Strange fluctuations, remnants of space being forcibly erased, lingered at its edges.

Gazing at the scene of miraculous destruction before him, even though he had been mentally prepared, Li Wen couldn’t help but draw in a sharp breath, his eyes filled with shock.

’This... this was just a crude mobilization of Primordial Spirit power, a pure display of overwhelming force... If I were to use the Shocking God Stab, powered by the Seventh Layer of Primordial Spirit...’

At this thought, Li Wen’s gaze sharpened, and he turned toward another, smaller mountain peak in the distance.

He made no effort to conceal himself, but his Primordial Spirit power was already highly condensed and compressed.

"Shocking God Stab!"

SWOOSH—!

An incorporeal, formless spike of Primordial Spirit shot out instantly, its speed surpassing the limits of thought.

It caused no spatial ripples and made no sound, as if it didn’t exist in this dimension at all.

However, along its trajectory, the void was silently pierced, leaving a pinprick-sized black hole that refused to close for a long time.

On the target mountain, a tiny hole abruptly appeared, piercing straight through from front to back, its edges as smooth as glazed glass.

The rock surrounding the hole had taken on a bizarre, crystallized state, as if it had been instantly melted by extreme heat and then rapidly cooled.

Its penetrative power and stealth had reached an unbelievable level.

’The power has indeed skyrocketed!’ Li Wen thought, exhilarated.

’With this Shocking God Stab alone, the destructive power is definitely at the level of a top-tier Venerable! It’s faster, stealthier, and completely indefensible!

Once I master a Primordial Spirit Secret Skill that can only be cultivated at the Seventh Layer of Primordial Spirit, my power will probably reach that of a peak Venerable’s combat strength.’

After testing the inherent power of his Primordial Spirit and the Shocking God Stab, Li Wen took a deep breath. With a flick of his wrist, his long saber was in his hand.

He needed to test the effect of combining his Primordial Spirit power with his own Martial Arts Cultivation.

"Primordial Spirit power, fuse!"

With a thought, his immense Primordial Spirit power surged like a hundred rivers returning to the sea, instantly pouring into the True Gang vortex in the qi sea of his Dantian.

The True Gang, already as condensed as liquid metal, began to boil the moment the Primordial Spirit power merged with it.

It emitted a dazzling light, its texture and the level of energy it contained undergoing a world-shaking transformation.

"Slash!"

Li Wen slashed out in mid-air.

It wasn’t a fancy move, just the purest of downward slashes.

A beam of dark gold saber light, condensed to the extreme as if it could slice through space itself, tore through the sky.

Wherever the saber light passed, a massive, bottomless gorge was plowed into the earth below, stretching for dozens of li.

The destructive energy contained within the saber light caused birds a hundred li away to fall from the sky in panic.

’Ten times! After fusing it with my True Gang, the power of this slash has increased by more than ten times compared to my normal full-power burst!’ Li Wen judged with precision.

Then, his intention shifted again.

"Primordial Spirit power, fuse with my entire body!"

BOOM!

This time, the Primordial Spirit power was not confined to his Dantian. Instead, like surging magma, it instantly permeated every cell, every meridian, and every bone in his body.

His skin was instantly covered in a faint, flowing flame of Primordial Spirit light, and his muscles bulged slightly.

His bones emitted soft cracking sounds, and his aura soared, as if he had transformed into a god of war from ancient times.

"Hah!"

He swung his saber again, and this time, the power contained in the blade was even more terrifying.

Before the saber light even arrived, several hills in front of him silently collapsed under the formless pressure, turning to dust.

When the saber light truly fell, it was as if a small asteroid had struck the surface, instantly forming a giant crater over a kilometer in diameter.

A shockwave swept out in all directions, and dust shot into the sky, forming a small mushroom cloud.

’Twenty times! My physical base combat strength was already approaching that of a peak King. After fusing the Primordial Spirit power with my whole body, my overall explosive power has increased twentyfold!

This power... has firmly stepped into the realm of an ordinary Martial Arts Venerable!’

Li Wen felt the world-destroying power within him, his heart churning with excitement.

What surprised him even more was that while the consumption rate of maintaining this full-body fusion, maximum-burst state was astonishing, the total amount of Primordial Spirit power in his ocean-like sea of consciousness was exceptionally vast.

’At this rate of consumption, maintaining this state of maximum burst... half an hour shouldn’t be a problem!’ Li Wen estimated.

At the level of Kings and Venerables, life-and-death battles are often decided in a flash. With a slight gap in power, thirty seconds is enough to determine life or death.

Being able to maintain peak combat power for half an hour was an enormous advantage.

’Less than a year... from just entering the King realm to now possessing Venerable Level combat power in my Primordial Spirit, physical body, and Secret Techniques...’

Li Wen stood in the void, looking down at the terrifying scars he had left on the land below, his heart filled with a thousand emotions.

’This rate of growth... even I find it... a bit too absurd.’

After testing the all-around improvement in his combat power, Li Wen’s excitement calmed slightly, replaced by a yearning for an even higher realm.

...

「Meanwhile, tens of thousands of li away.」

At Xin Huo University, behind Enlightenment Peak.

In a tranquil courtyard, the three Human Race Venerables—Ye Qin, Gu He, and Xingxuan—sat around a stone table, their expressions grave as they discussed the next steps to counter the Demon Race’s "Celestial Fall Plan."

The massive illusory image of the Demon Realm hanging in Blue Star’s sky was a sword of Damocles, constantly reminding them of the heavy burden on their shoulders.

Suddenly!

Almost simultaneously, the three of them shot their heads up, the color draining from their faces as a terrified glint flashed in their eyes.

"A Venerable Level fluctuation!" the three exclaimed in unison, their voices trembling with disbelief.

"The direction... it’s near Changning City!" Venerable Ye Qin instantly pinpointed the location, his expression changing drastically.

"Could it be the Wujing Demon Saint making a move? Is his target... Li Wen?!"

The thought struck them like a clap of thunder.

Li Wen—the genius in whom they had placed their highest hopes, the greatest hope for the future of the Human Race—was in Changning City right now.