High Martial: I Grind Professions

Chapter 168: Chapter 130: Actual Combat: An Unmanned Realm

The earth trembled.

The city walls seemed to groan.

A concentrated, violent aura of blood and qi surged forth like a roaring tsunami from a sea of blood, crashing down on the people at the foot of the wall.

It was a terrifying pressure, enough to shatter an iron will.

A sky-blotting tide of blood, killing intent boiling over.

At the foot of the city wall.

The pupils of most of the young prodigies constricted to pinpricks.

Their faces turned deathly pale, their breathing hitched.

Even though they came from extraordinary backgrounds, even though they were exceptionally talented, even though they had experienced numerous trials and life-or-death battles... this scene before them was different.

A stampede of ten thousand demons, hell-bent on trampling the city walls and devouring everything in their path.

The sheer brutality and horrifying killing intent of a true racial war slammed into them like an invisible sledgehammer, striking every one of them in the heart.

It was a shock beyond words.

Compared to a cruel, genuine war for racial survival, their past duels in arenas and ranking matches seemed as gentle as child’s play.

At this moment, the shadow of death had never felt so real.

SHIIING—!

The sound of a blade being drawn, so impossibly clear and sharp it seemed capable of severing fear and tearing through the wind pressure, suddenly rang out from a corner of the wall.

It wasn’t a loud sound, yet amid the deafening stampede of ten thousand demons and the countless sharp intakes of breath, it pierced everyone’s eardrums with absolute clarity.

All eyes followed the sound.

That location... was where Li Wen stood.

At some point, he had silently drawn the old-fashioned, Standard Rapier from his waist.

The blade, angled toward the ground, reflected a cold glint—a light as frigid as his gaze.

His body was as unmoving as a mountain.

The sharp glint that had just ignited in his eyes now merged as one with the cold steel in his hand.

Within a three-foot radius around him, the air seemed to be pushed aside and distorted by an unseen force, forming a perfect vacuum.

The illusion that he was just an unremarkable face in the crowd during the strength assessment was utterly torn to shreds by the ring of his blade.

A deep, restrained, yet resolute battle intent capable of tearing through an army of thousands slowly rose around him.

The storm was coming. The blade was drawn!

...

”KILL—!”

It was unclear who let out the first furious roar, but in that instant, the thousand prodigies at the foot of the wall transformed into a thousand streaks of light, fearlessly charging toward the surging tide of the Demon Race!

At the base of the western wall, where Li Wen was.

Hundreds of members of the Demon Race crashed toward the battlements like a black tide.

Leading the charge was a group of lizard-like humanoids covered in scales, carrying blades and shields. Their triangular, vertical pupils were filled with cruelty.

”Perfect timing!” Li Wen’s gaze was as sharp as a blade. The Standard Rapier in his hand let out a clear, humming vibration.

He took a step forward. Instead of retreating, he advanced, surging against the demonic tide.

VWOOM!

Before the blade arrived, its power had already manifested.

A layer of condensed, gray-white saber light instantly coated the blade.

”Flowing Rainbow: Fleeting Shadow!”

The flash of the blade was like a bolt of lightning, too fast for the eye to follow.

The saber’s power moved, and the air seemed to be torn open by an invisible force, creating a vacuum fissure!

SPLAT! SPLAT! SPLAT! SPLAT!

A single slash! The heads of four shield-bearing lizard demons flew into the air simultaneously!

Foul-smelling demon blood shot into the sky, erupting in several fountains.

Before the saber light, their sturdy scales and refined iron shields were as fragile as paper.

Where the blade passed, it left a cut as smooth as a mirror, through which one could even see the squirming organs inside the demons’ bodies.

[Points +4!]

A virtual notification flashed through Li Wen’s consciousness.

But this was only the beginning.

His figure didn’t pause for an instant, transforming into a gray-white afterimage that plunged deep into the demon horde.

”Flowing Rainbow: Layering Waves!”

His long blade danced, no longer delivering single, linear strikes, but crashing down like layered ocean waves, each slash stronger than the last.

With each application of the saber’s power, the gray-white light grew more intense, its might increasing exponentially.

The Ninth Layer of saber waves swept through like a furious tide. In its wake, the severed limbs and mangled corpses of the Demon Race, mixed with shattered weapon fragments, were thrown backward like a torrential downpour.

In just five breaths!

The thirty-foot area around Li Wen was completely cleared.

The ground was stained a murky green with viscous demon blood, and broken bodies piled up like a mountain.

Such ferocious and efficient slaughter instantly drew everyone’s attention.

HISS!

’Wha... What kind of saber technique is that?!’ Stationed at the eastern wall not far away, Ron pierced a Wolf Demon’s throat with his spear. As he caught a glimpse of the instantly-cleared ”slaughterhouse” at the western wall from the corner of his eye, his pupils contracted violently.

He considered his skill realm to be no less than Li Wen’s, but there was no way he could inflict such widespread, precise, and efficient damage in an instant. ’The practical application of that saber power... it makes me feel an extreme sense of threat.’

On the other side of the battlefield, Du Yun used his uncanny Body Technique to evade a volley of bone spears, his long spear flicking out like a viper’s tongue to take down several lesser demons.

He looked in Li Wen’s direction, his expression exceptionally grave.

’We’re both High-level Martial Artists in terms of physical body... but his control over his strength and his guidance of the saber’s power are nearing a microscopic level of refinement. That gray-white saber light... it’s truly terrifying.’

He knew that in terms of skill realm, he was also at the Peak of Power Realm and no weaker than Li Wen. But when it came to practical combat application and the efficiency of slaughtering the Demon Race, the Li Wen of this moment had far surpassed him.

No! He hadn’t just surpassed him; he had surpassed everyone present.

...

On all four sides of the wall, the chaotic battle raged on.

Most of the prodigies were caught in a bitter struggle.

The Demon Race was not only vast in number and fearless of death, but they also possessed astonishing combat instincts and coordination.

Snake Demons used poisonous fog in coordination with hawk demons’ aerial dives, while bear demons’ frontal charges provided cover for agile cat demons to launch sneak attacks. The tactical combinations were endless, and in an instant, dozens of prodigies were eliminated, overwhelmed by the demonic tide due to their miscalculations.

...

In a corner of the southern wall.

Nangong Xue moved like a drifting snowflake. Her sword flashed, and each light tap accurately pierced the brow of a cat demon whose skill realm was not particularly high.

Her cold face showed no emotion, but her gaze was involuntarily drawn north.

That person’s presence on the chaotic battlefield was like a lighthouse in the dark night—so powerful it was startling, and it also gave her a sense of urgency.

’His speed, explosive power, and control... are all perfectly unified. Pure killing efficiency... Is this the true combat capability of a Skill-Awakened?’

...

In the main control space.

The Chuhe King, Marquis Qingyuan, and other powerful experts floated on an invisible observation platform in mid-air.

A massive light screen was divided into hundreds of feeds, tracking every prodigy who showed outstanding performance.

Among them, the feed showing Li Wen was instantly magnified.

On the screen, Li Wen had just used the Heaven-Dropping Form to cut down a gigantic diving hawk demon with a single slash.

He didn’t pause, but immediately followed with a backhanded Guan Yue Form. The violent saber aura was like a giant axe cleaving a mountain, blasting a dozen or so pig demons crowded in a fan-shaped area in front of him—shields and all—into a bloody mist.

He didn’t even glance back at the corpse of the hawk demon he had just slain.

”Absolute calm, absolute control. Every move he makes is maximally efficient, with not a shred of power wasted. His movements are as smooth as flowing water, and he seems to have predicted the attack trajectory of every single Demon Beast.”

Marquis Qingyuan’s eyes glittered. ”He’s at the Peak of Power Realm, same as the others, but the power he’s unleashing far exceeds theirs.”

”That’s right,” another Marquis-level expert nodded in agreement.

”His saber’s power is approaching a critical point. Every kill, every swing of his blade, is a strike against that final barrier. This combat assessment is the perfect whetstone for him.”

...

On the battlefield, Li Wen’s mind was like a mirror of ice.

He completely shut out the praise from the outside world and the shock of his companions.

His consciousness was highly focused under the ultimate state of [Absolute Focus lv9].

Every breath, every heartbeat, seemed to merge with the humming vibration of the blade in his hand.

Every slash, pierce, and parry originated from the deepest instincts of his soul.

While frantically reaping the lives of the Demon Race, his brain operated like the most efficient battlefield computer.

He was hyper-aware of his surroundings.

Every flicker of the gray-white saber light was precisely timed to strike in the gaps between the demons’ attacks or at the nexus points of their power flow.

”ROAR—!” A Demon Beast several meters long and covered in barbs like a giant Ant-Eating Demon roared as it charged viciously from the side, its momentum savage, intending to send Li Wen flying.

Its hard back armor shone with a metallic luster, impervious to the attacks of an ordinary High-level Martial Artist.

Li Wen didn’t even look at it directly, as if he had eyes in the back of his head.

”Defensive Form: Mirror Reversal!” His steps didn’t change, but his saber arm swung back at an unbelievable angle.

The gray-white saber light didn’t meet the attack head-on. Instead, it carried a strange, viscous pulling force, tapping the weakest point on the side of the charging Ant-Eating Demon’s horn.

VWOOM! Something incredible happened.

The immense force of the collision, powerful enough to crush mountains, was deflected by this exquisitely precise backhanded slash.

The Ant-Eating Demon’s massive body instantly lost control, grazing Li Wen’s clothes as it crashed violently into seven or eight nearby Wolf Demons.

BOOM! Amid the crack of breaking bones and the wretched howls of the Wolf Demons, the giant Ant-Eating Demon smashed through a small section of the battlement and almost tumbled off along with it.

Li Wen, on the other hand, used the recoil from deflecting the immense force to propel himself. He became as light as a feather, flawlessly dodging several hidden poison needles as his rapier twisted and sliced in a fluid motion.

”SPLAT! SPLAT!” Two poisonous wasp demons attempting a surprise attack from above were bisected by the gray-white saber light.

Effortlessly handling immense power, using the enemy’s strength against them, and delivering precise, fatal strikes.

This scene sent a chill down the spines of Ron, Du Yun, and the others who had been watching Li Wen intently.

’Insight... terrifying insight! It’s not just about seeing weaknesses,’ Ron’s mind reeled.

’He perceived the flow of power, the changes in airflow, even the connection points of every wisp of qi. Only then could he achieve something like using four ounces to deflect a thousand pounds.’

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

Just as Li Wen was using his Defensive Form to its absolute limit to neutralize a wave of attackers, the ball of light in the center of the Stargate roiled violently once more.

Four auras, several times more powerful than those of ordinary members of the Demon Race, shot into the sky.

The light faded, and four Elite Level Demon Race commanders—noticeably larger, clad in dark gold runic bone armor, and wielding strange polearms—stepped out of the Star Gate with heavy footfalls.

They were wreathed in a dark red demonic miasma that was almost tangible. Their scarlet eyes instantly locked onto the most powerful auras on the battlefield—the directions of Ron, Du Yun, Li Wen, Fang Chenghong, and the others.

The corners of their hideous, split mouths curled into cruel smiles.

”HIIISSS—!”

Four tyrannical roars shook the entire battlefield.