High Martial: I Grind Professions

This was a speed he took great pride in, one sufficient to crush all the other recruits in his batch.

He had even deliberately unleashed a significant portion of his power early in the fight, all to widen the gap between himself and the others.

He wanted to solidify his position as the undisputed number one among the new recruits, paving the way for the subsequent struggle over resources.

But now?

’How long has the second batch been inside? It feels like a minute, tops.’

Yet someone had already cleared the first layer and rushed to the second, at a speed far exceeding his own.

This wasn’t just a slight lead; it was a nearly insurmountable, crushing gap.

It trampled the record he was so proud of underfoot.

Regardless of who this challenger was—be it the seemingly low-key Li Wen with his special-grade bone age, or some other powerhouse who had hidden their strength—it meant his "number one" spot in this combat assessment was now facing a massive uncertainty.

A flicker of imperceptible gloom flashed in the depths of Keynes’s eyes.

The surprised and probing stares from the other members of the first batch felt like thorns in his back.

Ultimately, he could only forcefully suppress his churning emotions, clinging to a sliver of wishful thinking for self-comfort.

He latched on to the opinion of one of the veteran members: ’Maybe... they’re just fast? The later layers are where true strength is revealed.’

But even he found this thought weak and unconvincing.

After all, wasn’t speed a part of strength itself?

To be fast enough to crush all the puppets on the first layer was, in itself, a terrifying feat.

He could only fix his gaze on the light screen, waiting to see how the point of light would perform on the second layer.

Inside the Heaven-Reaching Tower, Li Wen was completely unaware of the commotion he had caused outside.

He stood before the massive, metallic gate to the second layer, its surface flowing with runes.

He could feel the energy fluctuations emanating from behind it, several times more powerful than those on the first layer.

His expression remained calm and untroubled, and his grip on his blade only grew steadier.

He took a light breath and stepped into the unknown, more challenging trial space.

...

Inside the second layer of the Heaven-Reaching Tower.

The moment Li Wen’s figure appeared, he found himself in a hellish landscape.

Under his feet was scorched, cracked earth, searing hot to the touch.

Lava, like the blood of the earth, gurgled in the fissures, radiating a terrifying heat.

Overhead, thick, churning clouds of poison rolled like an inverted sea of ink.

Azure lightning coursed through the clouds, occasionally tearing through the sky to strike down with pinpoint, destructive accuracy.

The air was scorching and distorted; every breath felt like swallowing hot coals.

’An illusion? No, this is a combined attack using the true Law of elements.’ Li Wen made his judgment instantly, his expression calm and unwavering.

The thought had barely formed when disaster struck!

BOOM!

The ground beneath him, as if a slumbering behemoth had awakened, began to tremble violently and crack apart.

A colossal hand formed entirely of boiling lava burst from the earth.

Its five fingers spread wide, it lunged to grab him, the extreme heat warping and distorting the very space around it.

At almost the same instant, a piercing azure light flared at the center of the poison cloud vortex that had long been brewing overhead.

A divine bolt of azure lightning, as thick as a water bucket and filled with pure, destructive will,

tore through the roiling poison clouds. It descended with the might of a final judgment, aimed with absolute precision at the crown of Li Wen’s head.

Its speed and power far surpassed any attack from the first layer.

Furthermore, wisps of an intangible, bone-chilling spectral wind, which struck directly at the depths of the soul,

slipped silently through the cracks in space, stabbing viciously toward the sea of consciousness between his brows!

Three completely different yet perfectly coordinated, lethal attacks based on the Laws.

They instantly formed a deadly net, sealing off all of Li Wen’s possible escape routes.

For most cultivators at the peak of the Venerable realm, this would have been a fatal trial.

The spectral wind that directly assaulted the soul, in particular, was nearly impossible to defend against.

However, for Li Wen, whose Primordial Spirit had already been tempered to the Peak of Saint Realm,

the soul-corroding spectral wind was like a gentle breeze brushing against an ancient glacier. As it swept over the barrier of his sea of consciousness, it failed to stir even the slightest ripple.

Facing the grasp of the lava claw and the crash of the azure lightning, Li Wen didn’t even draw his blade.

His body flickered like a phantom, leaving a faint afterimage as his true form reappeared an incredible dozens of li away.

He had perfectly evaded the closing of the giant claw and the epicenter of the divine lightning’s strike.

The aftershocks, powerful enough to incinerate the physical body of a Venerable, merely caused the protective aura flowing around him to ripple slightly.

"Decent power, and the coordination is fairly exquisite. A pity..." Li Wen shook his head slightly and finally drew his blade.

SHING!

A flash of blade light appeared. It wasn’t some earth-shattering technique, just a few seemingly casual yet infinitesimally precise slashes.

Wherever the blade light passed, its edge, infused with supreme Blade Intent, easily tore through the lava claw’s core energy node, causing the claw to collapse with a boom.

The profound trajectory of the blade energy sent flying through the air deflected part of the lightning’s power, while the blade light precisely shattered the rest.

As for the formless spectral wind, it was utterly annihilated by the piercing Blade Intent.

And just like that, the initial crisis of the second layer was resolved.

The entire process was as smooth as flowing water, over in the span of a breath.

Although the attack intensity in the middle and latter sections increased, and the combinations of Laws became more complex and varied,

and powerful guardians formed from elemental aggregates even appeared,

before Li Wen’s blade techniques—forged through countless trials and returned to a state of pure simplicity—they were as fragile as clay chickens and pottery dogs.

His figure was ephemeral, his blade light flashing. Every strike accurately hit a Law node or energy core.

Wherever he passed, lava guardians crumbled, lightning guardians dispersed, and spectral wind guardians were annihilated.

The obstacles of the second layer were nonexistent before him. With just a few slashes, everything was reduced to dust and smoke.

「Outside the Tower.」

On the massive, ring-shaped light screen outside the Heaven-Reaching Tower, the points of light representing the Trial Takers twinkled like stars.

The crowd was intently observing the performance of the second batch, assessing the depth of the new recruits’ potential.

Suddenly, the point of light everyone was watching, which had just stabilized in the band representing the second layer, flared with a dazzling brilliance again after almost no pause.

It brazenly broke through the invisible barrier between the second and third layers, charging straight for the band of light representing the 3rd Layer.

It was moving even faster than when it had ascended from the first layer to the second.

"My heavens! This... how is this possible?!"

"The second layer... just like that?! Faster than the first?!"

"I’m seeing things! That speed... how did he do it? The elemental aggregate attacks on the second layer are no joke!"

"Look! The light’s on the 3rd Layer! How long has it been?!"

A tidal wave of gasps and shouts instantly swept through the viewing area outside the tower.

Everyone’s gaze was locked on that single point of light that had left all others in the dust, their faces filled with utter shock and disbelief.

This speed completely overturned their understanding of the Heaven-Reaching Tower trial’s difficulty.

Standing in the crowd, Keynes quietly clenched the fists hidden in his sleeves.

He had spent nearly five full minutes on the second layer!

Faced with the absolute speed represented by that unknown point of light, his five minutes seemed pale, laughable, and even stirred a sense of powerlessness deep within him.

The clearance speed he prided himself on had now become a huge joke.

"Hmph!" Pato’s rough, grating voice rang out, laced with clear indignation, breaking the stunned silence of some in the crowd.

"What’s there to be surprised about? It’s just dumb luck, or maybe his attack methods happen to counter the energy creatures on the second layer!

It’s not like this hasn’t happened before! Being fast doesn’t mean you have real combat power. Plenty of people are fast as lightning at the start and slow as a snail later on!"

He looked around, seeking allies. "Think about it! The second layer is mainly elemental Law attacks. If someone happens to be proficient in a Secret Technique that counters those elements, or has a Body Technique so fast they can dodge everything perfectly, of course their clearance speed will be absurdly fast! But that’s just a temporary advantage!"

This viewpoint immediately drew agreement from many.

"Pato has a point. It’s definitely possible for elemental counters to be at play on the second layer."

"Right, especially against those elemental aggregates. If you find their core weakness, you can destroy them instantly."

"Exactly, but the 3rd Layer is completely different! The Nielong Beast is all about pure, physical crushing power. In that confined space, a speed advantage is almost useless. You have to face it head-on!"

"Right! Let’s see how he does on the 3rd Layer! The 3rd Layer is the real acid test!"

"We’ll see if he’s the real deal on the 3rd Layer! No matter how fast you are, if you don’t have enough power, you’ll just get swatted to death by the Nielong Beast!"

The crowd’s discussion buzzed, their focus shifting back to the point of light now stationary in the area for the 3rd Layer.

Pato crossed his arms and sneered, a look of certainty and schadenfreude in his eyes.

Although Keynes’s expression remained grave, Pato’s words did manage to steady his nerves slightly.

His gaze was locked on the point of light, awaiting the revelation of the truth.

「The 3rd Layer of the Heaven-Reaching Tower.」

Silence.

Absolute silence.

It was a pure white space, only a dozen or so li across, and completely empty.

There were no dazzling displays of energy, no complex terrain or traps.

There was only a heart-pounding, pure "whiteness."

It was so quiet that he could clearly hear the sound of his own blood rushing through his veins.

Yet, in this extreme stillness, an immense sense of danger, originating from primal instinct,

wrapped itself around Li Wen without any warning.

BOOM—CRACKLE!!!

The pure white barrier of space before him was violently torn asunder by an impossibly tyrannical force.

A terrifying, giant claw covered in thick, dark-gold scales and glinting with a cold, metallic light, suddenly thrust out from the rift.

A deafening, brutal roar, like a tangible shockwave of sound, instantly filled the entire confined space.

A behemoth forced its way through the spatial rift and descended upon the area.

It resembled a primeval giant lizard magnified countless times over, but it possessed three hideous, terrifying heads.

Each head was covered in thick bone armor.

Its six crimson, slitted pupils were filled with nothing but the most primitive and pure desire for destruction.

Its long, barbed tail swept out casually.

It carved alarming, eye-piercing cracks into the hard, pure white walls of the space.

A ferocious aura, mixed with a nauseating stench of blood, instantly swept through the entire space of the 3rd Layer.

It was none other than a vicious beast known throughout the universe—the Three-Headed Nielong Beast.