High Martial: I Grind Professions

Chapter 325: Chapter 184: Battling a Peak King-Conferred, Part 2

The Demon Race’s intentions were obvious: use the threat of this activated, super-large Star Gate—one large enough for a Great Demon King to pass through—to pin him, a Venerable of the Human Race, firmly in place.

If he made the slightest move, such as leaving Mountain Rain Pass to reinforce another position, the top-tier Demon Race forces lying in wait behind the gate would almost certainly seize the opportunity. A flood of Great Demon Kings would pour through in an instant, and the resulting disaster would be incalculable.

The deterrent and pinning value of this idling Star Gate was far greater than its immediate use in battle.

A similar scene was unfolding at another crucial, super-large fortified pass.

That equally magnificent gate was also merely active—runes glowing, nebula swirling—yet no enemy appeared.

The goal was singular: to keep the Human Race’s other strategic-level Venerable tied down, making it impossible for him to be elsewhere.

...

Jiale Pass, a major fortified pass.

On the bitterly cold walls of the pass, Fang Qinghan, Peak Master of Nine Heavens Peak, stood with his hands clasped behind his back.

He stood as straight as a pine, his green robes strangely still in the wind. The ancient longsword on his back remained sheathed, yet it naturally caused faint arcs of lightning to flicker in the air around him.

The runes on the large Stargate before him blazed, and the nebula vortex within spun noticeably faster—a clear sign that teleportation had begun. Members of the Demon Race were infiltrating through the gate.

Fang Qinghan remained calm. Instead of looking at the Star Gate, he turned slowly, his gaze sweeping like a bolt of lightning across the empty shadows on the wall.

”You’ve been lurking long enough. Come on out, you rats from the Shadow Organization.”

Before his voice had even faded, the lightning around him grew dense and lively. Tendrils of Electric Snakes began to writhe silently through the air, emitting a faint CRACKLE and bathing the area in flickering light and shadow.

The instant his words fell, the shadows at the edge of the wall seemed to come alive. They twisted and writhed, and from them, a figure in pitch-black battle armor wearing a ferocious, dragon-shaped mask emerged in complete silence.

A cold, sharp aura, in no way inferior to Fang Qinghan’s, pulsed outward. It was none other than the leader of the Dragon Division, the strongest of the twelve division leaders of the Shadow Organization.

There were no superfluous words. The battle erupted the instant their auras clashed.

The Dragon Division Leader’s figure flickered, leaving only an afterimage as his true body merged into the shadows of space itself.

The next instant, several black blades, condensed to their absolute limit, slashed out from the void from vicious and cunning angles, aiming straight for Fang Qinghan’s vital points.

Fang Qinghan’s eyes narrowed. Without drawing his sword, he brought his index and middle fingers together like a blade and tapped lightly at the empty air.

In that instant, thunder cracked!

A dazzling bolt of purple lightning materialized from thin air. It didn’t strike directly, but twisted and coiled like a living serpent, hitting the weakest point of each black blade with unerring precision.

When the lightning and shadows collided, there was no earth-shattering explosion—only an ear-piercing shriek and terrifying ripples of annihilating energy. They instantly twisted and tore the space for dozens of yards around the two combatants.

Combat between top-tier King-level experts had no flashy moves; every exchange involved a degree of understanding and application of the Rules.

The Dragon Division Leader’s figure was elusive, a phantom weaving between reality and illusion. Every attack carried a soul-tearing chill.

Fang Qinghan, on the other hand, was as steady as a rock. A domain of lightning formed around him, and with every gesture, he summoned the Nine Heavens Divine Thunder.

Sometimes like coiling chains, other times like an immense net, he neutralized each of his opponent’s vicious and cunning attacks. Wherever the purple lightning passed, space stabilized and shadows receded.

Just as the two top-tier experts were locked in their ceaseless battle, the aftershocks shaking the entire pass, there was finally a major commotion from within the activated Stargate.

Dozens of powerful demonic auras erupted skyward as a group of formidable Demon Kings, all at the Marquis Level, streamed out.

They were clearly prepared. The moment they stepped out of the Star Gate, they acted without a hint of hesitation, not even daring to glance at the two Kings whose battle was raging so intensely it seemed to darken the sky.

They immediately unleashed their full power, transforming into dozens of demonic lights of various colors and scattering frantically in all directions.

”Hmph. Trying to run?” A cold snort, like a roll of distant thunder, echoed just as the group of Demon Kings had fled a mere few hundred feet.

A stalwart figure suddenly appeared high in the air to the side of the Star Gate. It was none other than the Mountain Rain King, who had just withdrawn from Mountain Rain Pass.

His gaze, cold as a knife, locked onto the scattering Demon Kings below. He raised a hand, preparing to unleash a swift and brutal attack to exterminate them.

However, the instant the Mountain Rain King raised his hand, another vicious, baleful aura, also at the peak of the King Tier, suddenly descended.

A tall figure wearing a fierce tiger mask tore through space. Wreathed in monstrous blood flames, he threw a punch straight at the Mountain Rain King’s back. It was the leader of the Shadow Organization’s Tiger Division.

The Mountain Rain King’s reaction was lightning-fast. Forced to turn and face the ambush, he thrust out a palm. His immense Power of Rules collided violently with the blood-red fist’s energy.

BOOM!

As if two stars had collided, a terrifying shockwave swept out, blasting the already panicked group of fleeing Demon Kings below into even greater chaos and disarray.

With four top-tier King-level experts now paired off in combat above Jiale Pass, the battle escalated in an instant.

The Power of Rules clashed and tore. Lightning roared, shadows writhed, and blood flames scorched the sky. The very barriers of space shattered like a broken mirror, a scene straight out of the apocalypse.

How could the dozens of Demon Kings below dare to linger?

Seizing the perfect opportunity while the cataclysmic battle above drew all attention, they fled, scared witless. Mustering every ounce of strength they had, they desperately suppressed their demonic auras and shot away from the battlefield, flying for their lives toward the brightly lit human cities deep within Blue Star.

To them, the King-level battlefield was a meat grinder. The humans’ smaller, more weakly defended cities and settlements—those were the true hunting grounds for their ”Operation Year’s End.”