High Martial: I Grind Professions

"What in the world happened? Could it be Red Flame Star...?"

Venerable Ancient Tree had a vague guess, but he couldn’t be certain.

Just then—

BUZZ!

An urgent communication talisman that had crossed the Star Sea materialized directly before Venerable Ancient Tree, carrying Fierce Lion Venerable’s signature divine sense fluctuations, which were now pulsing with excitement and the need to inform.

Arriving with it was a detailed victory report on the battle for Red Flame Star.

Venerable Ancient Tree swept his divine sense over it, and despite his millennia of composure, he instantly lost his self-control.

He shot up from his throne on the Ancient Tree of Life, an unprecedented light erupting in his eyes.

"Excellent! What a Changning Saint Venerable! Purging Red Flame Star and sealing the Star Gates! So that’s how it is! So that’s how it is!!"

Ecstasy instantly replaced all his doubts.

He immediately understood why the Demon Race on Cangwu Star was fleeing in such a panic—they had received a warning about the annihilation on Red Flame Star!

"Thinking of leaving? After invading my Cangwu Star for over two hundred years and slaughtering my countless kin, you think you can just up and leave?!"

A chilling light flared in Venerable Ancient Tree’s eyes as a torrential life aura and a fierce will to protect erupted from him. "It won’t be that easy!"

His grand and majestic voice instantly spread through the communication network of Cangwu Star.

It reached the ears of every Human Race Godfiend and every city commander:

"All warriors of Cangwu, hear my command! The main forces of the Demon Race are in a panicked retreat! This is a heaven-sent opportunity!"

"I hereby issue my Venerable’s decree:"

"First, all Godfiend squads in every warzone are to immediately break away from your defensive positions and converge on the nearest Stargate strongholds at top speed!"

"Second, your objective: harass and delay! We are not aiming for total annihilation. You must slow the Demon Race’s retreat! Create chaos! Buy as much time as possible! Remember, self-preservation is paramount. Do not engage in reckless, head-on clashes!"

"The counterattack—begins! For our fallen kin, we will claim a debt of blood!"

As the orders were given, the entirety of Cangwu Star instantly erupted.

The Human Race Godfiends, who had been suppressed for over two hundred years, were like tigers unleashed from their cages.

With bloodshot eyes, they lunged toward the Demon Race strongholds that were in the midst of a frantic retreat.

The retreat descended into a catastrophe.

The Low Tier members of the Demon Race were vast in number, and they had access to a relatively large number of "small" and "medium" Stargates.

However, panic led to stampedes and scrambles.

They tore each other apart just to squeeze into the shimmering portals faster. The scene was a bloody, chaotic inferno.

The real trouble, however, was for the Demon Kings and Great Demon Kings.

There were only a few dozen large Stargates on all of Cangwu Star capable of transporting beings of their level.

At this moment, every large Stargate was congested with a staggering number of High Tier demons.

Spatial teleportation required a stable channel and an accumulation of energy, so there were limits on the number of beings and the frequency of each transport.

"Get out of the way! Let me go first!" a tyrannical giant ape Demon King roared, swatting aside several demon generals blocking his path as he tried to force his way toward the shimmering portal.

"On what grounds! I was here first in the transport queue!" another, a Poison Scorpion Demon King, retorted, brandishing its giant pincers and refusing to back down.

"Stop fighting! Look! The Human Race is attacking!"

A Demon King pointed in terror toward the distant horizon, where several streaks of light—Human Race Godfiends exuding powerful auras—were rapidly approaching.

The panic intensified the chaos.

The High Tier demons, desperate to secure a precious spot in the transport, even began to fight amongst themselves.

Demonic energy collided and exploded, and the air was filled with unending roars and screams.

Meanwhile, the Human Race Godfiends formed battle formations on the periphery, their long-range attacks raining down.

They precisely struck the edges of the chaotic demon horde, creating even more casualties and panic, slowing the pace at which they could enter the portals.

The Human Race adopted a strategy of containment, deliberately not blockading every Stargate.

They intentionally left some openings to concentrate all the pressure from the High Tier demons onto those few large gates, exacerbating their internal conflict and infighting.

The entirety of Cangwu Star had become like a giant, slowly draining swamp.

And the High Tier demons were the thickest, most difficult-to-drain filth, struggling in a mire of despair and self-destruction.

Just as this chaos reached its peak.

VMMMM—

An indescribable, colossal will, as if originating from the very source of the universe, descended upon Cangwu Star without any warning.

This will wasn’t violent, yet it carried an absolute indifference and majesty, as if it were looking down upon all living things and passing judgment on their life and death.

Like an invisible tidal wave, it instantly swept across the entire planet.

It passed over mountains and rivers, over city ruins, and over every living being that was fighting, fleeing, and scrambling for their lives.

For a brief moment, time itself seemed to freeze.

All the High Tier demons who were frantically fighting for a spot in the transport, whether they were roaring Demon Kings or shrieking Great Demon Kings, suddenly froze in place.

The looks of tyranny, greed, fear, and anxiety... all of their expressions solidified in an instant.

In their crimson, jade-green, and deep-blue demonic eyes, the last glimmer of light swiftly dimmed and was extinguished.

THUD! THUD! THUD!

Like wheat cut down by a scythe, every member of the Demon Race who had failed to escape through the Stargates in time—whether they were on the planet’s surface or in the shallow layers of its crust—had the flame of their lives utterly extinguished in that very same instant.

From the Low Tier Demon Beasts to the Great Demon Kings comparable in power to titled Kings.

In that single instant, the flame of their life was utterly extinguished.

Their vast, savage, and tiny demonic bodies seemed to lose all support.

They collapsed in droves, instantly devoid of all life.

One second, the battlefields and Stargate strongholds were a cacophony of chaos, reeking of demonic energy.

The next, they had become silent graveyards, filled with nothing but countless, soulless, cold corpses.

Cyan Blade King, who was leading his squad to blockade the perimeter of a large Stargate stronghold, witnessed this scene that completely surpassed his comprehension.

One moment, the stronghold was a hellish scene of roaring Demon Beasts, squabbling Demon Kings, and overwhelming demonic energy.

The next, it was as if an invisible hand covering the entire planet had gently swept over it.

All the clamor, all the demonic energy, and all the fluctuations of life vanished without a trace in an instant.

All that remained was a deathly silence and a ground full of rapidly cooling corpses.

A bone-chilling fear, originating from the depths of their souls, instantly seized Cyan Blade King and all the Godfiends beside him.

Although the will that had just swept past was not aimed at them, the vast pressure it had unintentionally leaked—a pressure that felt as if it could easily crush stars—made every one of them feel as insignificant as a speck of dust in a gale.

They had no doubt that if even a sliver of that pressure had been directed at them, their fate would have been exactly the same as that of the demons who had fallen so silently.

"Saint... Saint Venerable..." Cyan Blade King’s Adam’s apple bobbed as he forced out the two words, his face ashen.

Behind him, the Godfiends who had weathered countless bloody battles were also frozen in place.

Cold sweat soaked their armor, their eyes filled with a mixture of awe and lingering fear for that absolute power.

Just as all the surviving members of the Human Race on Cangwu Star were lost in this deathly shock.

HMM... HMM... HMM...

Across Cangwu Star, at every Stargate stronghold, large and small, that had once shimmered with the light of space, the glow on their frames began to dim, contract, and extinguish at a rate visible to the naked eye.

This time, the process seemed even faster and more thorough than it had been on Red Flame Star.

The invisible Power of Space Law coiled around them like the most intricate of chains, winding and sealing.

It completely welded shut and smoothed over the channels behind the gates that connected to other worlds.

One by one, under everyone’s watchful eyes, the massive metal frames lost all their miraculous properties.

They were reduced to huge, cold tombstones in the starry sky, marking the definitive end of the Demon Race’s two-hundred-year invasion of Cangwu Star.

Li Wen’s immense Primordial Spirit power, which had enveloped the planet, did not linger.

After completing the annihilation and the sealing, it receded as quietly as the tide.

It left behind a reborn Cangwu Star and countless human warriors who were shocked into speechlessness by the Saint Venerable’s might.

His figure did not appear here; the moment the sealing was complete, he had already torn through space and headed deep underground.

...

「Ice Soul Star.」

This planet, perennially shrouded in a frigid, thin mist, had an atmosphere that refracted a faint, deep-blue light.

When Li Wen’s figure tore through space and appeared in its outer orbit, only a few hours had passed since he left Cangwu Star.

However, for the Demon Race on Ice Soul Star, those few hours were a race against death.

Evidently, news of the Blood-Scale Demon Saint’s encounter on Cangwu Star and the emergency retreat order had already been passed to the high command of the Demon Race on Ice Soul Star through some secret channel.

Compared to the Demon Race on Cangwu Star, who were caught completely off guard, the demons on Ice Soul Star had a sliver of precious warning time.

Li Wen’s massive Primordial Spirit power instantly flooded across the entirety of Ice Soul Star like flowing mercury.

On the surface, the battle between the Human Race and the Demon Race was still raging. Amidst the ice-covered city ruins, cries of battle mingled with the roars of demonic creatures.

But Li Wen keenly sensed that the powerful demonic auras that had once occupied Ice Soul Star were rapidly weakening and dissipating.

"They’re faster at running than the ones on Cangwu Star." Li Wen’s voice was barely audible in the cold void, tinged with a frigid killing intent.

He did not immediately pursue the ones who had slipped through the net and fled underground.

His Primordial Spirit locked onto all the demons still rampaging on the surface, from the weakest Demon Beasts to the Demon Kings currently besieging the Human Race’s final defensive line.

With a single thought, all creation fell silent!

An invisible ripple of his Primordial Spirit instantly swept over every inch of Ice Soul Star.

The Demon Beasts that were in mid-roar and mid-charge suddenly went rigid.

The bloodthirsty red light in their eyes went out, as if someone had pressed a pause button.

Then they fell silently, their filthy Demon Souls utterly annihilated along with them.

The Demon Kings locked in fierce battle with human experts were savagely roaring one moment.

The next, they lost all signs of life without even a chance to struggle.

In an instant, the surface of Ice Soul Star fell into an eerie silence.

There was only the mournful cry of the cold wind sweeping up ice dust, and the foul blood and shattered ice of the demons left on the ground.

The human warriors stared, momentarily stunned, at the enemies who had suddenly vanished before their eyes.

"It’s... It’s the Saint Venerable! Changning Saint Venerable!" someone finally realized, letting out a joyous cry of survival.

Across Ice Soul Star, cheers erupted like a spark setting a prairie fire, swiftly igniting the frozen planet.

Li Wen’s figure did not linger on the surface.

After confirming that all the demons on the surface had been reduced to ash, he took a step forward.

Space warped, and his entire being vanished into the hard, cold depths of Ice Soul Star’s mantle.