High Martial: I Grind Professions

Li Wen came to a sudden realization. "So that’s how it is! No wonder you two seniors were able to get here so quickly!"

’He was shaken to the core. To think that Blue Star held such a world-shaking secret—that it had been refined by that legendary Ancestral Master.’

This explained why the three Venerables had become Blue Star’s Guardians.

"Come, I’ll take you to see the control core," Venerable Ye Qin said.

Accompanied by the three Venerables, Li Wen stepped into the most central and secret area of the Fire Hall for the first time.

After passing through layers of powerful restrictive formations, they arrived in a simple, ancient stone chamber.

In the center of the chamber, a fist-sized Crystal Stone floated in the air, emitting a soft and gentle glow.

Within the Crystal Stone, phantoms of mountains and rivers, oceans and continents, seemed to slowly swirl, containing an ineffable, majestic vitality and a vast, mighty power.

This was the control core of Blue Star!

Under Venerable Ye Qin’s guidance, Li Wen separated a strand of pure Primordial Spirit power and carefully merged it into the Crystal Stone.

Instantly, he felt his consciousness form a subtle connection with the entirety of Blue Star. A faint pulse, like the heartbeat of a "Mother Earth," reached him.

"After leaving your mark, your sensitivity to energy on Blue Star will be much sharper, especially for fluctuations at the King-level and above."

Venerable Ye Qin looked at Li Wen, who had successfully left his mark, his eyes filled with anticipation. "And..."

His voice carried a trace of excitement and yearning:

"If your Primordial Spirit can advance further and reach the legendary Eighth Layer... then you might even be able to try refining this control core!"

"Once you succeed in refining it," Venerable Ye Qin’s gaze seemed to pierce through the stone chamber, seeing a bright future,

"your control over the entire Blue Star will reach an unprecedented level! All energy flows, life auras, and even the subtlest spatial folds on the planet,"

"will be clearly mapped in your perception! All the hidden agents and spies of the Demon Race will have nowhere to hide!"

"Of course," Venerable Ye Qin smiled, his tone brimming with immense confidence,

"if you can truly reach the Eighth Layer of Primordial Spirit, the power of your Primordial Spirit alone, comparable to the Saint Realm, would be enough to sweep across the universe!"

"At that time, things like the Stargate, or projections of the Demon Realm, will be like paper before you, destructible with a flick of your finger! The Demon Race will never again dare to take even half a step onto Blue Star!"

As he described that exhilarating vision of the future, Venerable Ye Qin’s eyes shone with an incredibly bright light.

’The Eighth Layer of Primordial Spirit...’ Li Wen gazed at the slowly rotating control core before him, which carried the mysteries of the entire planet.

Sensing the vast power it contained, he repeated this goal in a low voice.

Beneath his calm tone was a resolve as firm as a rock.

He knew that this was not just a realm, but a symbol of the responsibility and power he shouldered to protect the Human Race and repel the Demon Race.

This path to the Eighth Layer of Primordial Spirit—he would walk it with unwavering determination.

...

After staying at Xinhuo University for a while longer to take care of some miscellaneous matters and further consolidate his cultivation at the Seventh Layer of Primordial Spirit, Li Wen bid farewell to Venerable Ye Qin and the others.

There was still one matter he urgently needed to test.

And that was to personally experience just what heights the 180% boost to his aptitude from his Lv. 18 [Absolute Focus] could propel him to.

Leaving the grand and solemn gates of Xinhuo University, Li Wen’s figure flickered, instantly transforming into a streak of purple lightning that tore through the sky.

A distance of tens of thousands of miles was, for him now, a journey of merely two or three minutes.

He didn’t return directly to Changning City. Instead, with a slight shift in his thoughts, his majestic Primordial Spirit power surged out like an invisible tide, instantly covering a vast area far exceeding a thousand miles.

Mountains, rivers, towns, and wilderness—everything was laid bare in his mind.

He randomly selected a remote, desolate, and precipitous mountain range. With a flash of lightning, he had already landed silently on its peak.

The mountain wind howled, whipping at the hem of his clothes. Li Wen slowly closed his eyes, his mind becoming as calm as still water.

’Lv. 18, Absolute Focus, activate!’

VMMMM—!

An unprecedented and irresistible torrent of aptitude descended upon him.

An incredible 180% boost was instantly applied to his thought processes.

In that instant, the world around him seemed to be drained of color, becoming gray and blurry.

The passage of time grew viscous and slow, as if he were trapped in amber.

The howling wind, the chirping of insects and birds—all extraneous noise vanished.

In his world, only the long blade in his hand remained.

It was no longer just cold metal, but seemed to possess a life of its own, connected to him by blood and mind.

Casting aside the thought of pursuing ultimate destructive power, Li Wen completely immersed himself in comprehending the essence of the Way of the Blade.

Under the 180% boost to his aptitude, the bottlenecks in his blade techniques that had once stood before him like insurmountable chasms, and the abstruse, profound true meanings of the Laws, now became clearer and more transparent than ever before.

The ultimate truth of "speed"—not just surpassing physical velocity, but the penetration of will, the edge that severs causality.

The ferocity and creation of the Law of Thunder—life contained within destruction, the momentary burst that is eternity.

The profundity of spatial cutting—where the blade’s edge passed, space was like thin paper, and even dimensions could be severed.

There was even a trace of the concept of endless continuity, perceived from the river of light, that silently merged into his understanding.

Countless insights flowed like trickling streams in his mind, colliding and merging.

They finally converged into a surging river of Law, washing over the boundaries of his understanding of the Way of the Blade.

He moved.

One strike, then another, he slowly swung his blade.

There were no earth-shattering energy explosions, no ear-piercing screeches of tearing voids.

Each strike appeared simple and unadorned, yet contained a profound Dao rhythm of returning to simplicity.

The blade’s edge cut through the air, leaving behind faint trajectories of Law that rippled like water.

They lingered for a long time, as if inscribing the mark of the Dao into the void itself.

At times, his figure was like a sudden clap of thunder from the high heavens, incomparably swift, the flash of his blade gone in an instant, leaving only an afterimage in space.

At other times, it was like the vast river of light pouring down, his blade’s momentum continuous and layered, seemingly without end.

And at other times still, he seemed to merge completely with the surrounding space, his figure blurring, the light of his blade untraceable, yet present everywhere.

In this state of self-forgetfulness, where his mind resonated deeply with the Laws of the Way of the Blade, time completely lost its meaning.

In a flash, a full ten hours had passed.

When Li Wen slowly opened his eyes and withdrew from that state of extreme focus,

although more than half of the majestic Primordial Spirit power in his sea of consciousness had been consumed, it was still as abundant as a deep ocean.

An ineffable sense of enlightenment filled his heart. He could clearly feel it.

His understanding of the Way of the Blade had made an unprecedented and massive leap forward, a breakthrough born from long accumulation!

[You have focused on practicing your blade technique for ten hours. Blade Technique +34%]

[Skill: Blade Technique · Domain Realm (65% → 99%)]

A single session, a full 34% increase!

This terrifying efficiency was simply unheard of.

It had directly pushed his blade technique realm from the mid-stage of the Domain Realm all the way to its absolute peak.

He was only that final 1% away from creating the first Martial Art that was truly his own, one containing the profundities of Venerable Level Law!

Staring at the shocking 99% on his status panel, even with his resilient will, Li Wen couldn’t help but sigh with emotion.

’For others, the later they get, the slower their improvement and the bigger the bottlenecks... But I’m the complete opposite.

The further I go, the faster I improve. This 180% aptitude boost is truly a divine artifact that defies the heavens and changes one’s fate.’

As long as he crossed this final one percent, it meant he would truly possess the qualifications to knock on the door to the Venerable Realm.

A King-level expert in his thirties was already enough to shake the universe and be considered a grave threat by the Demon Race.

But a Venerable in his thirties... The corners of Li Wen’s mouth curled up unconsciously, a sharp glint flashing in his eyes.

’What kind of scene would that be? How terrified would the Demon Race be?’

He sheathed his blade, which let out a clear, satisfied ring.

With a flicker, he vanished from the desolate mountain peak, leaving behind only faint ripples of Law that continued to spread through the mountain wind.

After just a few breaths’ worth of teleportation, the familiar silhouette of Changning City appeared in his field of vision.

...

「Three days passed in a flash.」

Today was the day Li Wen and the others were to set off once again for that mysterious Star Domain.

This trip would, in all likelihood, be Li Wen’s last time entering the Star Domain.

Because the next time he returned would be the day he condensed the profundities of Venerable Level Law and officially stepped into the Venerable Realm!

And that strange Star Domain had a rule limiting entry to only those below the Venerable Realm.

It was precisely because he was aware of this that Li Wen had resolutely put his ongoing thesis publication plans on hold.

He paused his scholar level progression, choosing instead to seize this final opportunity to enter the Star Domain.

Compared to the last time he entered the Star Domain, his [Absolute Focus] had risen by another two levels.

This meant his aptitude boost had increased by an additional 20%!

In the uniquely advantageous environment of the Star Domain, the true meanings of the Law he could comprehend and absorb would surely far surpass what he had achieved before.

How could he possibly miss such a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity?

In the early morning, Li Wen awoke from his meditation. As his eyes opened and closed, flashes of lightning and blade light seemed to appear within them.

He freshened up briefly, then spent a few moments flipping through a book on high-dimensional energy structures.

Without further delay, his body transformed into a stream of light and sped toward Xinhuo University.

The Celestial Martial King, Ling Feng, Sun Rui, and the rest of their party had already gathered at the teleportation plaza within Xinhuo University three days prior, making their final preparations and conversing.

Li Wen’s arrival instantly drew everyone’s attention.

"The Changning King is here!" a few people from the other three planets whispered.

"You’re finally here!" Ling Feng was the first to greet him, a hearty smile on his face as he clapped Li Wen firmly on the shoulder,

"We were just waiting for you!"

Sun Rui also stepped forward with a smile. "Senior Brother Li, I’ll have to learn a few more tricks from you this time."

Li Wen smiled and exchanged pleasantries with them. "Senior Brother Ling, Junior Brother Sun, sorry to keep you waiting."

His gaze swept across the crowd and landed on the Celestial Martial King, whose aura was as solid as a mountain and around whom space faintly rippled.

The Celestial Martial King gave him a slight nod, a hint of imperceptible approval and understanding in his eyes, as if he had already seen through something.