High Martial: I Grind Professions

And Changning City, the place where Li Wen had risen to prominence, was the first to be hit, plunged into an unprecedented state of uproar and shock.

"A Ven... a Venerable?! The Changning King... no, Venerable Changning! Venerable Li Wen!"

In every street and alley, people ran to spread the news, their voices trembling with excitement.

Online forum servers overloaded in an instant. Threads with "Li Wen" and "Venerable" in their titles erupted like volcanoes.

"My god! Is it true? Lord Li Wen has become a Venerable?!"

A young man training at a martial arts hall stared at the emergency bulletin on his light-screen, and the training equipment in his hands fell to the ground with a CLANG.

"A Venerable... that’s a Venerable! There were only three on all of Blue Star—living legends! And now, the fourth one is from our Changning?"

In a teahouse, an old, white-haired man’s hand trembled as he stroked his beard. An incredulous light burst forth from his cloudy eyes.

Disbelief was the initial reaction of the vast majority of citizens.

The status of a Venerable was too lofty; they truly stood at the pinnacle of the Human Race.

In the two hundred-odd years since the beginning of the Galactic Calendar, although King-level and Marquis-level experts had emerged, the position of Venerable had remained vacant, like an impassable chasm.

And yet Li Wen, a legend who had come from Bluestone County and risen to fame in just over a decade, had actually broken through this chasm!

"Did you hear? The Changning King... wait, no, Venerable Changning! He’s from our very own Bluestone County!"

The former residents of Bluestone County felt immensely proud, their chests puffed out. Walking down the street, they couldn’t help but share in this glory, as if they too were basking in that supreme honor.

Some were flabbergasted, feeling this speed was like a fantastical illusion, something that defied all common sense.

"He’s a Venerable? I haven’t even reached the rank of Super Martial Artist yet."

The young Martial Artist who had sighed with emotion ten years ago when Li Wen was conferred the rank of Marquis was now middle-aged.

Standing at the entrance of the martial arts hall, he looked up at the sky, his face a canvas of complex emotions—envy, but even more so, the thrill of witnessing history.

The young apprentices beside him had eyes shining with light. Li Wen’s existence showed them that the peak of the Martial Dao was not unattainable.

For the vast majority of people in Changning City, Marquis-rank powerhouses were already beings above the clouds, entities to be looked up to.

But a Venerable was a star from the legends!

Now, this star had been born so "close" to them, igniting a wildfire.

It stirred within this city, which had long endured the threat of the Demon Race, an infinite yearning and fervent desire for power and for the future in countless people.

An intangible sense of unity and pride permeated every corner of Changning City.

...

This city-wide shockwave instantly reached the core district of Changning City: Li Manor.

At this moment, the atmosphere within the manor was peaceful. Li Wen’s parents, Li Hong and Wang Juan, were chatting idly with a group of relatives from the clan.

A young clan member was habitually scrolling through his light-screen when a bold, red, pinned news alert instantly caught his eye.

His pupils contracted. He shot to his feet, his voice sharp and distorted from extreme agitation.

"A Ven... a Venerable! Brother Wen is a Venerable! It’s been officially announced! Just now!"

"What?!"

"A Venerable?!"

"Ah Wen?!"

A chorus of gasps rose one after another, and then the entire hall fell silent, so quiet you could hear a pin drop.

Everyone looked at the clan member in disbelief, then frantically pulled out their own communicators or opened their light-screens to check.

When the official announcement—jointly issued by the Human Race’s High Council, Spark University, and the military—came into clear view...

"The Human Race’s fourth Venerable, Venerable Li Wen, has successfully broken through today!" —the entire Li Manor erupted!

"It’s true! Ah Wen really became a Venerable!" Li Hong slapped his thigh, tears of joy streaming down his old face. His previous trace of worry vanished completely, replaced by boundless pride.

"Heavens be praised! My son... my son is a Venerable!" Wang Juan covered her mouth as tears slid silently down her face—tears of joy and relief.

"Hahaha! The heavens have blessed the Li clan! Brother Wen is mighty!" The clan members erupted in earth-shaking cheers, hugging and jumping in their excitement.

They knew very well that the Li clan’s current status, wealth, and peace depended entirely on Li Wen alone.

As the saying goes, when one person prospers, all prosper with them. The more Li Wen was like a great, towering tree that blotted out the sun, the more they, the branches and leaves attached to it, could bask in the sun and rain, growing safely and luxuriantly.

The slightest resource or bit of protection that leaked through Li Wen’s fingers was, to them, an unimaginable fortune and a guarantee of survival.

Now, that great tree had grown into one of the colossal pillars supporting the Human Race of Blue Star.

After the ecstatic celebration, Li Hong and Wang Juan sat in the main seats of the living room, accepting a tide of congratulations from their clan members.

The two of them shared a smile, their faces filled with undisguised, heartfelt pride and contentment.

This honor was enough to gratify them for a lifetime.

...

At this moment, Li Wen naturally had no time to pay attention to the shock and clamor of the outside world.

Facing the sincere congratulations from the three Venerables—Ye Qin, Gu He, and Xingxuan—he maintained his innate humility, smiling and clasping his hands in response.

"It was a fortunate breakthrough. I must thank the three of you seniors for your protection and guidance."

"Enough with the ’senior’ talk. Now that you’ve entered the Venerable Realm, we should address each other as martial brothers according to custom," Venerable Gu He said with a smile, stroking his beard.

"Understood! Senior Brother Gu He, Senior Brother Ye, Senior Sister Xingxuan." Li Wen clasped his hands and bowed.

After a brief exchange of pleasantries, Venerable Ye Qin saw the unconcealed eagerness in Li Wen’s eyes—the desire to test his own power—and smiled knowingly.

"Alright, that’s enough with the formalities. Junior Brother Li, I know what you want to do most right now. Come with us. We’ll take you somewhere new."

Li Wen’s eyes lit up at his words. "Somewhere new? Senior Brother Ye, you mean...?"

"To test your strength." A hint of playfulness flashed in Venerable Ye Qin’s eyes.

"Otherwise, what were you planning? To cut loose and test your power on Blue Star? You’d tear the place apart. Even though the Blue Star left to us by the Ancestor is stable, it can’t withstand the wanton testing of a Venerable Level combatant."

"Er..." Li Wen had indeed been thinking about that problem.

Although Blue Star was vast, an outburst of power from a peak Venerable Level expert could shatter mountains and split the earth, affecting an area hundreds or even thousands of *li* across. The slightest carelessness could cause irreversible damage.

The phenomenon from his breakthrough just now had nearly destroyed Enlightenment Peak.

"Just follow us." Venerable Ye Qin said no more. The space around him rippled slightly, and his figure shot upwards, transforming into a streak of light that rocketed toward the heavens.

Venerable Gu He and Venerable Xingxuan shared a smile and followed close behind.

Li Wen’s heart surged with excitement as he immediately followed.

The four of them were like four retrograde meteors, tearing through the sky. Their speed increased continuously until, in the blink of an eye, they broke through Blue Star’s thick atmosphere.

The moment they left the atmosphere, the environment changed drastically.

A violent stream of solar wind particles, like billions of invisible blades, came howling toward them, carrying cosmic dust.

The bone-chilling cold seemed capable of freezing one’s very soul. Even more terrifying was the ubiquitous and fluctuating cosmic radiation, which possessed extreme penetrative power.

This was a harsh environment capable of instantly and severely injuring, or even killing, a King-level expert.

This was the forbidden zone of life—outer space!

Li Wen could clearly feel an invisible force field automatically manifesting around his body. It was a natural shield formed from a Venerable Realm’s control over energy and laws.

This shield effortlessly insulated him from the deadly particle streams, radiation, and low temperatures, while maintaining the stability of his internal environment.

A King-level expert might be able to survive for a short time in space by relying on secret treasures or special battle armor.

But it would be impossible for them to move as freely as a Venerable, let alone stay for an extended period or fight.

This was the difference in life-form hierarchy.

He took a deep breath, feeling an unprecedented sense of freedom, as if he had broken free from invisible shackles.

Here, his speed was greatly liberated. With no air resistance, a mere thought sent his velocity soaring once again.

Venerable Ye Qin didn’t stop, continuing toward a seemingly unremarkable planet in the deep, dark void that emitted a faint, grayish-white light.

Li Wen followed close behind. In the boundless starry sky, the planet rapidly grew larger in his field of vision.

After a few minutes, the four of them finally reached the planet’s low orbit.

Observed up close, the entire planet had a desolate, rocky texture.

Its surface was covered with massive, ancient craters. There was no atmosphere and no signs of life—it was dead and desolate.

Venerable Ye Qin led the other three to land on a relatively flat wasteland composed of some abnormally hard, black rock.

"This is the place." Venerable Ye Qin pointed to the ground beneath their feet, his voice resounding directly in Li Wen’s mind via Spiritual Power.

"This star has no name. It is a Trial Star that the Ancestor casually refined while roaming the cosmos back in the day. The Ancestor used his great divine techniques to reshape its material structure, making it far more durable than an ordinary star."

He paused, his tone laced with a hint of pride and awe.

"Even a Saint Realm expert, striking with their full power, could only damage its surface. As for completely destroying it?

That would be as difficult as ascending to the heavens. This is also the place where we Human Race Venerables test our strength and practice high-powered techniques."

’The Ancestor’s methods are truly heaven-defying,’ Li Wen thought. He crouched down, his fingers gently brushing over the black rock beneath his feet.

It was cool to the touch, its texture unimaginably dense. He infused a trace of True Aura into his fingertip and pressed down hard.

Yet, it only left a nearly invisible white mark on the surface. Its hardness far surpassed any known substance on Blue Star.

"Thank you for the guidance, Senior Brother Ye." Li Wen stood up, fighting spirit soaring in his eyes, all hesitation gone. "In that case, I’ll begin!"

Before his voice had even faded, Li Wen’s aura changed abruptly.

A vast and majestic pressure, one that seemed capable of propping up the heavens and the earth, erupted with a BOOM, instantly enveloping the entire black wasteland.

The black rock ground beneath their feet seemed to sink slightly.

An invisible domain silently expanded. This time, the domain contained more than just the power of spatial lockdown and energy control.

It was also infused with flickering, dancing slivers of purple lightning, filled with both destruction and rebirth.

A Venerable Level domain had already begun to evolve in the direction of a "self-contained world"!

Li Wen didn’t mobilize a single shred of his Primordial Spirit’s power.

With a mere thought, the True Aura within him—which had undergone a qualitative transformation and now resembled liquid, purple-gold lightning—surged violently.