High Martial: I Grind Professions

"This aura... That’s right! It’s the temporal fluctuation of a twenty-times speed!" A few others quickly confirmed it, their voices equally filled with shock.

"It’s really twenty-times speed!"

"Hiss... He dared to use twenty-times speed on his first time in, and he lasted for over two hours?!"

The plaza instantly erupted into an uproar!

Everyone’s eyes were filled with shock and awe.

Twenty-times speed! To withstand that for over two hours on a first visit... this was no longer a simple matter of strong willpower.

It meant that the very essence of his soul and his affinity for the Law were far beyond what an ordinary person could possibly imagine!

"HAHAHAHAHA!!" Kurudo’s signature roar of laughter instantly drowned out all discussion, full of triumphant joy and pride.

His stout body trembled with excitement as he pointed at Tuka, whose face had instantly turned deathly pale.

"Tuka! Did you hear that? Twenty-times speed! That’s over ten-times! A bet’s a bet! Hand over your Time Token for this month! Five hours, not a single minute less!"

Tuka stood frozen, as if he had been struck by lightning.

His brief joy and hope instantly vanished, replaced by immense disappointment, shame, and an indescribable, gut-wrenching ache.

Five hours of time in the Time Tower! That was almost his entire allocated quota for the month.

He could have lost to anyone, but it had to be his sworn enemy, Kurudo!

He felt as if his heart were bleeding. His face burned, as if he had been slapped dozens of times in public.

He glared at Kurudo’s smug, gloating face, his eyes practically shooting fire.

But he didn’t dare to back out of the bet in front of everyone, especially not over something involving Time Tower resources, which the base strictly monitored.

Gritting his teeth, he reluctantly retrieved a faintly shimmering jade token from his storage item.

It was the Time Token, which recorded one’s allotted time in the Time Tower. He threw it at Kurudo with all his might.

"Hmph! Take it!" Tuka’s voice, full of humiliation and resentment, sounded as if it were being squeezed through his clenched teeth.

After throwing the token, he couldn’t bear to remain and endure the crowd’s gazes—some pitying, others mocking.

He didn’t even spare another glance for Li Wen, the "culprit" behind his misfortune.

With a furious stomp, he transformed into a bleak streak of light and fled the plaza in disgrace, disappearing into the distance.

Kurudo deftly caught the Time Token. Feeling the five hours of time recorded on it, a brilliant smile bloomed across his face.

He provocatively brandished the token in the direction Tuka had vanished.

Then, he carefully put it away and looked around, smugly savoring his moment of victory.

As he walked out of the tower, Li Wen took in the entire scene in the plaza, including the drama over the bet he had caused.

Seeing the crowd’s shocked reaction to the twenty-times-speed aura, and hearing the exchange between Kurudo and Tuka, the last of his doubts vanished.

’Just as I thought. When the Time Tower’s speed is lowered from a high multiplier, outsiders can’t detect a thing.’

The twenty-times speed he had deliberately revealed served to display the caliber expected of a peerless genius, enough to awe the crowd.

It also perfectly concealed his even more astonishing trump card: one-hundred-times speed.

’It’s fine to reveal my combat power and some of my talents; that’s the capital I need to establish myself. But this ability to easily withstand a hundred-times temporal flow is tied to the secret of the Eternal Heart. It’s better to keep that hidden.’

’Revealing it would only attract unnecessary trouble and deeper scrutiny, with no real benefit to me.’

Li Wen’s thoughts were clear. ’Unless... I could trade it for more access to the Time Tower.’

A flash of eagerness appeared in his eyes as he thought of the terrifying training efficiency at one-hundred-times speed.

He had no interest in joining in the commotion with Kurudo and the others, nor did he spare a second glance for the looks of awe directed at him.

Once he confirmed he hadn’t aroused any suspicion, his body flickered and became an elusive phantom.

He instantly vanished from above the plaza, streaking toward his private courtyard residence.

A short while later, Li Wen was back inside his room in the quiet, secluded courtyard.

The heavy door slid shut without a sound, sealing off the clamor of the outside world.

Li Wen sat cross-legged on a meditation cushion in the center of the quiet room, completely calming his mind.

He began to carefully take stock of the bountiful rewards from his ten days of arduous training in the Time Tower.

...

Li Wen slowly opened his eyes. For a moment, it seemed as if tiny fragments of time were swirling in their depths before fading away.

With a thought, the familiar translucent panel materialized before him:

[Name: Li Wen]

[Age: 40]

[Realm: Venerable]

[Class: Martial Daoist lv7 (1120/12800), Scholar lv20]

[Skills: Saber Technique: Venerable (Void Rend 100%, Meteor Fall 100%, Thunder Prison 100%, Imperial Apex 100%, Instant Flash 100%)]

[Cultivation Techniques: All Things Return to Ruins Finger (2nd Layer, 100%), Shocking God Stab (7th Layer, 100%)]

"Ten days... and only a little over two hours in the outside world," Li Wen murmured, sensing the surging power within his body and the brighter, more condensed Primordial Spirit in his sea of consciousness.

The ten days of arduous training in the Time Tower had allowed him to fully process and integrate everything: the practical combat experience he’d gained in the Ultimate Combat Arena, and the life-and-death insights from clearing the eighth floor of the Heaven-Reaching Tower.

He could clearly sense that his understanding of the vast and profound Time Law had deepened.

He was still separated by a thin, indescribable barrier from having the Law officially appear on his status panel, or from using it to break through to the Saint Realm.

But he was certain he was on the right path, and his progress was accelerating.

’Martial Daoist experience... the gain from quiet cultivation is just too inefficient. It’s a luxury,’ Li Wen thought, shaking his head.