High Martial: I Grind Professions

Every slash, every finger strike, the very flavor of the Law contained in each of his opponent’s attacks—all of it was repeatedly digested, deconstructed, and comprehended, amplified by absolute focus and hundredfold time.

The flashes of inspiration that had flickered by mid-battle now became incredibly clear.

"A blade... it’s not just a tool for slaughter. It’s an extension of will, power, and Law..." Li Wen muttered, giving his wrist a slight flick.

HUM!

A beam of blade light, condensed to the absolute limit, silently slashed out.

It lacked an earth-shattering aura, but it carried a strange sense of "stagnation," as if the flow of time paused slightly wherever the blade light passed.

This was a new insight into "stillness" and "flow," born from his hundredfold temporal perception and his integration of the annihilation concept from the All Things Return to Ruins Finger.

He began to move upon the flowing river of time.

His figure was like smoke, an illusion. His Body Technique seemed slow, yet it left overlapping afterimages within a tiny area, as if he existed in several slivers of time at once.

This was the manifestation of his search for ultimate efficiency within temporal distortions, a combination of his own Body Technique and his experience dodging the Heaven-Reaching Tower’s attacks.

The light from his blade grew ever brighter, yet also more ethereal.

At times, it was like a cascading Star River, carrying an unstoppable resolve. At others, it was as heavy as a mountain, filled with a steadfast will to protect.

Then it would become exceedingly slow, the trajectory of the blade’s edge clearly visible, as if struggling to advance through viscous time.

But at a certain tipping point, it would suddenly accelerate, erupting with a sharpness that could tear through anything.

This was a nascent application of manipulating the differential flow of time.

Gradually, Li Wen became completely immersed.

His blade was no longer just the cold glint of metal.

When he pushed his Blade Intent to its limit, the tip of his blade seemed to carve a subtle ripple through the air. This ripple wasn’t a spatial tear, but... a fold in time.

"Time..." In the instant he withdrew his blade and stood still, Li Wen clearly captured the faint yet undeniably real, strange rhythm at its tip.

It was different from the cutting of space, different from the annihilation of energy.

It was more like the rudimentary form of "accelerating," "decelerating," and even "freezing" the motion of all things.

It was ethereal, tyrannical, and reigned supreme over numerous fundamental Laws.

He looked around this strange space dominated by the Time Law, feeling the faint resonance between the long blade in his hand and the river of time.

An incredibly clear and resolute thought formed in his mind:

’Since I’ve embarked on the path of Law... I’ll choose this, the strongest of them all—the Time Law—as my primary path of cultivation!’

...

「Five days passed in the blink of an eye.」

Inside the Time Tower, the silvery void was vast and boundless, the ripples of time seemingly within arm’s reach.

Li Wen sat cross-legged within, his body wreathed in a strange fluctuation, imperceptible to the naked eye.

It was the trace of the Time Law flowing and churning in the depths of his consciousness.

However, while five days had passed inside the Time Tower, only an hour and a quarter had elapsed in the outside world.

In the plaza outside the Time Tower, an even larger crowd had gathered than when Li Wen first entered.

A few well-informed students had already spread the basic information about this new "monster," sparking waves of amazed and curious discussion.

"Tsk, Student Li Wen has been in there for over an hour and still isn’t out. He’s really something else!"

The short, plump student known as the base’s know-it-all was smacking his lips, his tone filled with a sense of vicarious pride, as if he himself had accomplished something so impressive.

Just then, a slender student with two soft antennae on his forehead hurried to the plaza to get in line, happening to overhear the plump student’s words.

He and the plump student had a long-standing feud, so upon hearing this, he habitually began to mock him, his voice dripping with disdain:

"Hmph. Kurudo, your vision is about as ’profound’ as your strength!"

Who told you that staying in longer makes you impressive? For all you know, he didn’t even dare to set the multiplier above 10x and is just crawling along at a snail’s pace in there!

"It’s his first time in the Time Tower. It’d be impressive enough if he can just keep his wits about him."

A sharp glint flashed in the eyes of the plump student called Kurudo. Far from getting angry, he revealed a cunning smile.

A grin spread across his chubby face as he addressed the antennaed student. "Well, well, Tuka! Perfect timing!"

"Since you’re so sure Student Li Wen’s multiplier is no more than ten times, you dare to make a bet with me?"

Tuka’s brow furrowed, his guard immediately up. He scoffed, "Heh~ A bet? Kurudo, what tricks are you trying to pull now?"

He instinctively felt that something was off about Kurudo’s confident demeanor.

Seeing this, Kurudo immediately upped the ante, deliberately goading him and raising his voice a few notches.

"What? You’re chickening out before you even hear the stakes? Tsk, tsk, tsk. I guess the rumors are true. You people from the Soft Beard Race are just as soft as those things on your head!"

The words were a clear racial slur.

"Kurudo! You’re courting death!" Tuka exploded in rage, like a cat whose tail had been stepped on.

The greatest taboo for his race was having someone make fun of the sensory antennae on their heads, especially using the word "soft."

Kurudo had precisely hit his berserk button, and his reason was instantly drowned by fury.

"Fine! A bet it is! I’d like to see what you’re willing to put up!"

"Excellent! Finally acting tough for once, like a real man!" Kurudo clapped his hands and laughed, then cupped his fists in a bow to the surrounding onlookers. "You all heard him! Tuka wants to bet against me, Kurudo!"

He cleared his throat and announced loudly, "We’ll bet on the time multiplier that Student Li Wen, who just went in, is maintaining inside the Time Tower!"

"Tuka bets his multiplier won’t exceed ten times! I, Kurudo, bet it will! As for the wager... how about five hours of Time Tower access! What do you say, Tuka? Do you dare to accept?"