High Martial: I Grind Professions

"If the data from the Heaven-Reaching Tower is correct, Naraku shouldn’t be a match for him," Isabel said.

At that moment, she was studying Li Wen with great interest, her long lashes fluttering slightly.

"I wouldn’t be so sure, Isabel," a stern-faced man with a greatsword on his back said grimly,

"Naraku, at the very least, is someone who reached the middle of the 7th Layer of the Heaven-Reaching Tower. He’s spent the last six months training arduously in the Time Tower, and his power has advanced considerably.

He’s just a low-bloodline native with a bone age of a mere forty years. Even if he’s had some lucky breaks, how could his foundation and depth possibly compare to ours? I don’t believe he can defeat Naraku so easily."

"Whether that’s true or not, we’ll have our answer soon enough." Isabel didn’t argue, only offering a faint smile, her gaze still locked on Li Wen.

...

On the platform, the countdown numbers pulsed silently against the backdrop of the Star Sea.

"Kid," Naraku’s hoarse, deep voice echoed from beneath his cloak, thick with disdain and condescending scrutiny. "I hear you rejected the internal invitation from the Source Net?"

His crimson eyes were fixed on Li Wen, as if trying to see right through him.

"Do you realize that will become the single worst, most foolish decision of your entire life?

You missed your chance to climb up to the high branches, so now you’re doomed to wallow in the mud forever!"

"Is that so?" Li Wen’s voice was calm and flat, as if Naraku’s tirade wasn’t even directed at him.

Naraku was taken aback by the dismissive question, then let out a bizarre laugh.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk... Just as I thought. The fatal flaw of you vermin from lower civilizations is your narrow-minded ignorance. You wouldn’t know a golden opportunity if it hit you in the face!

Did you beat a few third-rate nobodies on that backwater planet of yours and start thinking you’re actually invincible in your class? How pathetic!"

"At least," Li Wen’s gaze finally focused on Naraku as he calmly stated a fact, "I didn’t fall on the 7th Layer of the Heaven-Reaching Tower."

The words were like an invisible needle, precisely striking the sore spot in Naraku’s heart he was most sensitive and bitter about.

"You’re courting death!" An astonishing amount of killing intent and rage erupted from Naraku’s crimson pupils.

’How dare a bug from a lower civilization bring up my failure?!’

"3...2...1!"

The instant the countdown hit zero, Naraku’s form blurred.

He seemed to melt into the starlight, leaving only a faint afterimage in his place.

The next moment, he reappeared like a phantom several miles to Li Wen’s side.

"Shadow Devour: Thousandfold Tear!"

Naraku roared and ripped his hands forward!

The shadows around him seemed to come alive, coalescing into countless twisted, sharp, black claws that pulsed with a soul-eroding energy.

These claws were not physical, yet they contained an uncanny power that could tear space and corrode the mind. In an instant, a dense swarm of them covered the vast area around Li Wen.

Space whined as if under an unbearable load, and faint black cracks flickered into existence at the edges of the shadow claws.

This was his initial application of the Law of Shadow, infusing the Power of Law into his attack.

It gave the Shadow Claws a space-rending property, making their might far greater than any ordinary energy attack.

For a moment, all the light in the Star Sea arena seemed to be swallowed by this sudden eruption of profound darkness.

’So fast! And what a bizarre attack!’

’He’s definitely more than a cut above the grandmasters I faced in the fighting arena.’

A chill ran down Li Wen’s spine as he instantly felt the pressure.

He didn’t dare be careless. With a single thought:

"[Absolute Focus]!"

HUMMM! Li Wen’s eyes instantly grew incredibly deep and clear, as if they held an entire cosmic Star River.

Everything around him slowed down.

Naraku’s phantom-fast movements, the attack trajectories of the Shadow Claws that contained the Laws of Tearing and Corrosion, and even the subtlest fluctuations in the flow of energy—were all reflected clearly in his perception.

"Void Rend!"

Li Wen stood his ground. Holding his saber in his right hand, he made a seemingly casual slash forward.

An arc of silvery-white saber energy, condensed to its absolute limit and carrying an aura that could slice through anything, shot out.

The saber energy sliced with incredible precision into the densest cluster of Shadow Claws, striking their most vulnerable energy node.

SCHRRIIIP—!

A piercing, tearing sound rang out.

The torrent of Shadow Claws, surging with the power of a Law, was forcibly split down the middle by that single, seemingly unremarkable arc of saber energy.

However, Naraku’s attack wasn’t completely neutralized.

Dozens of Shadow Claws still shot out from tricky angles, flying toward Li Wen’s vital points with a bone-chilling cold.

Li Wen’s footwork shifted with profound mystery. His figure was like a willow seed drifting in the wind, or a fish darting through rapids.

He didn’t try to block every attack head-on. Instead, using the superior Insight granted by [Absolute Focus], he dodged with millimeter precision, only parrying the occasional, unavoidable strike with his saber, which was wreathed in dense true energy.

Each impact created a dull thud of explosive energy. Li Wen’s frame trembled slightly with each block, but he remained firmly rooted to his spot.

His counterattacks were concise and efficient, with arcs of saber energy periodically striking at Naraku from unbelievable angles.

Although Naraku managed to neutralize them with his own bizarre Body Technique or a Shadow Shield, the two were, for a time, locked in a dead heat.

On the Star Sea platform, shadows and silver light clashed and intertwined, sending out continuous ripples of energy.

...

「Below the platform.」

"Huh?" Kane, one of the spectators, let go of some of his disdain, a flicker of surprise in his eyes. "This guy’s... Body Technique is something else. He neutralized Naraku’s ’Thousandfold Tear’ that easily?"

"It’s not just his Body Technique," Sisko said, his gaze narrowing. "That arc of saber energy... its timing and angle were terrifyingly precise. It struck the weakest point of Naraku’s attack directly. That combat instinct..."

"Still, is this all he’s got?" Raymond, the man with the greatsword, asked, his brow still tightly furrowed.