High Martial: I Grind Professions

"Simulating opponents and environments of varying difficulties is the core standard by which we evaluate combat readiness.

"Quite a few people have already come to test themselves ahead of time. See that huge light screen in front of the tower?

"It displays the light motes of everyone inside the tower in real time, showing which layer they’re on. That guy from the Holy Radiance Race, Keynes Huiyao, made it to the 5th Layer during his last test. He’s recognized as the strongest in our batch.

"Pato Tielin of the Maka Race, that silver-armored kid from the Monroe family, and I are all stuck in the later stages of the 4th Layer."

Lorne’s tone was tinged with a hint of resignation, but also a longing for the higher layers.

"Reaching the 5th Layer makes you the best?" Li Wen asked, sizing up the colossal tower that radiated an invisible pressure. He could feel the vast energy contained within it.

"Extremely difficult!" Lorne affirmed. "In past training camps, anyone who reached the 5th Layer was a top-tier genius. It’s not a given that someone who can reach the 6th Layer will even appear once every few centuries.

"The 7th Layer? That’s basically the stuff of legends, only heard of in the training camps of the core imperial sectors. As for the eighth or 9th Layer... I’ve never heard of a single preparatory member succeeding."

His words were filled with awe for the difficulty of the Heaven-Reaching Tower.

At that moment, Instructor Blood Blade also gave a concise explanation of the Heaven-Reaching Tower’s rules.

They would enter in batches of one hundred. All encounters inside the tower were virtual projections, but they felt indistinguishable from real combat.

The final score would be a comprehensive evaluation based on the number of layers cleared and the time spent on each layer.

Most importantly, the training camp regulations stipulated that anyone who failed to pass the 3rd Layer on their first test would be eliminated immediately.

Soon, the 189 people were divided into two batches.

Keynes Huiyao, Pato Tielin, the silver-armored youth from the Monroe family, and the rest of the first batch of one hundred took a deep breath and streamed into the tower’s entrance, which emanated a vast and ancient aura.

Outside, the massive light screen lit up, and one hundred motes of light, each representing a life, instantly appeared at the first layer’s position.

Time ticked by.

Everyone’s eyes were glued to the light screen.

After only a moment, one mote of light, moving far faster than its peers, shot up to the second layer with unstoppable momentum.

"That should be Keynes Huiyao."

"It has to be him! That speed is insane!"

A series of low gasps arose from the crowd of the second batch.

Before long, a second mote of light also struggled its way up to the second layer.

Speculation about the identity of this "second person" immediately spread through the crowd. Some said it was the youth from the Monroe family, while others thought it was Pato Tielin.

However, while about half of the first batch of testers’ light motes were still struggling on the first layer...

...the mote of light that had first entered the second layer once again erupted with astonishing speed, abruptly leaping to the 3rd Layer.

"Hiss... How long has it been?"

"Keynes Huiyao’s strength... he’s even stronger than he was during the last test," Lorne Meck said grimly, standing beside Li Wen.

Li Wen nodded slightly. Such speed indeed demonstrated a level of strength far beyond his peers.

The subsequent ascent became slow and arduous.

The motes of light constantly moved and flickered within the tower, indicating fierce battles.

Motes of light were constantly extinguished, meaning the challengers had failed and were being teleported out.

Most of their faces were grim, especially those who had stopped at the second layer. They were ashen-faced—this meant they might be facing elimination.

Finally, when the first batch’s test concluded and the tower gate reopened:

Keynes Huiyao: 5th Layer!

Nearly twenty people: successfully reached the 4th Layer.

The vast majority of the rest: stopped on the 3rd Layer.

A few individuals: regrettably stopped at the second layer.

Keynes Huiyao strode out of the tower with his head held high, his hair fluttering in the faint energy breeze, his face restored to its usual confidence and arrogance.

The shadow of being bested by Li Wen in the bone age test seemed to have been completely swept away.

His sharp gaze swept over the waiting second batch, lingering for a moment on Li Wen, his eyes filled with an undisguised desire to compete.

’When it comes to the hard metric of absolute combat power, a forty-year-old Li Wen could never possibly shake my position as number one of this batch!’

This achievement of his was enough to rank him among the very best in the training camp’s history over the past decade.

"He’s really strong," some senior members from previous batches, who had come over after hearing the news or finishing their own training nearby, murmured as they looked at Keynes Huiyao’s results.

"Looks like this batch’s number one in combat power is his for the taking," someone had already concluded.

"Whew... That was close. I almost failed at the final hurdle of the second layer," a member who had barely reached the 3rd Layer said, wiping away cold sweat as he walked out, still shaken.

Soon, it was time for Li Wen’s second batch to enter.

The result of the bone age test meant that Li Wen was no longer the ordinary, unnoticed newcomer he had been before.

As he strode toward the tower gate, he undoubtedly became the absolute center of attention.

The gazes of his peers followed him intently, filled with an indescribable curiosity and anticipation.

This person who had created the miracle of a forty-year bone age—how far could he go on the battlefield of the Heaven-Reaching Tower, a true test of hard power?

Could he once again shatter everyone’s perceptions?

Even Instructor Blood Blade, who had maintained a stern expression as if indifferent to everything, raised his eyelids at this moment.

His deep, sharp eyes were locked firmly on Li Wen’s calm and unperturbed back.

The shock of the forty-year bone age still lingered in his mind. He too wanted to know: just what was the true combat power of this young man from an unknown race?

"Hey, did you hear? There’s a monster with a bone age of forty among this year’s new recruits!"

A well-informed senior member rushed to the front of the tower, asking the other senior members who had gathered to watch the first batch.

"What? A bone age of forty?" Those senior members had just come out of the Heaven-Reaching Tower not long ago. They were all astonished to hear this and immediately started asking for more details.

"Who is it? Don’t tell me it’s that kid from the Holy Radiance Race? He looks pretty formidable..." someone immediately said, pointing at Keynes Huiyao.

"No, look who everyone in their batch is staring at," a sharp-eyed senior member immediately noticed something was off.

"The one in the middle! That guy with the restrained aura! Everyone’s attention is on him, even Instructor Blood Blade is staring at him!"

The senior members’ gazes all snapped to focus on Li Wen.

To their senses, Li Wen’s aura was still calm and ordinary, even seeming a little weak.

This was a far cry from the image of a peerless, forty-year bone age genius they had imagined.

"That’s him? He looks... so unremarkable," someone said with a frown, their tone full of doubt. "There must be some mistake, right?"

"Is his aura just that restrained? Or..." Another person’s expression grew solemn as they considered another possibility.

Under the watch of these countless gazes, filled with anticipation, doubt, and curiosity.

Li Wen’s figure calmly disappeared into the deep, ancient gates of the Heaven-Reaching Tower.

The tower gates closed.

The motes of light representing the second batch instantly lit up on the first layer of the light screen.

The dull clang of metal sealed off all the noise, gazes, and discussions from the outside world.

Li Wen had arrived in another space.

Before him was not the empty tower chamber he had expected.

The scene abruptly distorted and reassembled like a shattered mirror, finally settling into a heart-pounding, vast void.

Beneath his feet was the only solid ground—a massive, floating metal platform engraved with abstruse and complex runes. A cold sensation seeped through the soles of his shoes.

Overhead was a deep and boundless cosmic curtain, with countless stars scattered like cold diamond fragments, emitting a distant and detached light.

Absolute silence enveloped this void, broken only by the barely perceptible shimmer that occasionally flowed through the platform’s runes.

"Heaven-Reaching Tower, 1st Layer. Trial commencing."

A cold, emotionless, metallic, synthesized voice suddenly echoed through the void, shattering the dead silence.

The instant the voice fell, the deep space in front of the platform began to twist and boil violently, like a lake into which a giant boulder had been thrown.

BZZZT—!

Blinding blue-white electric light erupted from thin air with a jarring crackle.

Amidst the distorted light and dancing arcs of electricity, countless figures were rapidly molded into shape by an invisible force—hundreds of humanoid mechanical puppets reeking of steel and slaughter.

Their bodies were cast from a dull, heavy, unknown alloy. Ghostly blue energy cores were embedded at their joints, emitting a low hum.

In their empty eye sockets, two crimson points of light suddenly ignited, like bloodthirsty beasts opening their eyes. They instantly locked onto the lone figure in the center of the platform—Li Wen!

There were no battle cries, no roars.

Only the dense, dull grinding of cold metal joints driven by energy.

The hundreds of sounds converged, forming a scalp-numbing tide of death.

The next moment, destruction descended!

BWOOM—!

Blinding light erupted from hundreds of crimson eye sockets simultaneously.

Hundreds of high-energy particle beams, each powerful enough to pierce a battleship’s armor, tore through the tranquil void.

They instantly interwove into a web of destruction that covered the entire platform, leaving no blind spots.

It bore down on Li Wen, carrying an aura of utter annihilation.

At almost the same instant, the engine ports on the backs of several dozen mechanical puppets in the front rank roared to life, erupting with ghostly blue flames.

The immense reverse thrust turned their massive bodies into afterimages.

Wielding high-frequency vibrating alloy blades that emitted a low hum, they fearlessly charged forward.

The web of light was a snare from above, the rushing tide a trap from the ground.

In an instant, these two destructive forces completely submerged Li Wen’s seemingly small and helpless figure.

However, in Li Wen’s eyes, these terrifying attacks were like a child swinging a wooden stick—riddled with openings and completely devoid of technique.

Since it was his first time in the Heaven-Reaching Tower, he wasn’t in a hurry to act.

Faced with the descending web of destruction and the charging tide of steel, Li Wen’s figure merely swayed with extreme casualness, like a flash of lightning, leaving a faint afterimage in his place.

The particle web that could tear space apart and the immensely powerful alloy blades all swung at empty air, not even touching the hem of his clothes.

His speed was too fast, his Body Technique too unpredictable, far surpassing the puppets’ targeting and attack speed.

’The attack power is decent, but their energy-drive model is simplistic, their coordination is crude, and they lack variation...’

Li Wen calmly felt the destructive energy and storm of metal rush past him, his mental assessment completed in an instant.

The probing was over.

SHIIING—!