High Martial: I Grind Professions

Chapter 343: Chapter 190: Five Years Later, Full-Scale Attack (Part 2)

Li Wen’s figure abruptly solidified, the ancient long blade in his hand angled toward the ground. At its tip, a nearly imperceptible glint of light lingered in the air for several breaths before slowly dissipating.

The hard bluestone ground beneath his feet had, at some point, become covered in a dense, spiderweb-like network of cracks. The edge of each fissure was smooth as a mirror, sliced in an instant by an invisible Blade Intent.

Within a hundred-meter radius, the tips of every blade of grass and every leaf on every branch had bizarrely drooped downward, as if in worship.

Li Wen slowly sheathed his blade and let out a long breath. The terrifying pressure that had permeated the valley dispersed along with it.

With a mere thought, a translucent personal information panel unfolded before his eyes:

[Name]: Li Wen

[Age]: 33

[Realm]: Baron Level

[Class]: Scholar lv15 (116480 → 1029546 / 1638400)

[Skill]: Blade Technique: Path Realm (88%)

[Cultivation Technique]: Shocking God Stab: 7th Layer (100%)

Five years had passed in a flash.

Since accepting the mobile rapid-response mission covering a vast territory, Li Wen had grown accustomed to a life of constant transit and slaughter.

However, a trend had quietly begun to emerge several years ago: the frequency of Demon Race invasions in his designated zone dropped significantly. Even when incursions did occur, the battles would often end abruptly in an incredibly short time, as if an unseen hand were precisely manipulating events.

This deliberate avoidance left Li Wen, who was accustomed to frequent, high-priority support calls, with a strange sense of unease.

He reported this anomaly to the Headmaster.

The reply he received was to ”maintain readiness and observe the situation.”

The core objective of Li Wen’s support mission was to reduce casualties among the demigods of the Human Race.

Since the Demon Race had taken the initiative to scale back their offensives and reduce pressure on the front lines, his objective was, in a way, being met indirectly.

So, Li Wen obeyed the order and dedicated more of his time to his own training.

Five years of focused training yielded remarkable results.

After his physical body entered the Baron Realm, progress was no longer measured in simple levels.

The core of the path to the King Level was to push a core skill to the Domain Realm and stabilize one’s Primordial Spirit Realm above the 3rd Layer, the Night Travel Realm.

And finally, one had to comprehend a Cosmic Domain—a power unique to Kings, capable of harnessing the might of the world itself.

Without the restrictions of leveling, these conditions—which were like an insurmountable chasm for others—seemed, in Li Wen’s case, even simpler than his breakthrough from the Great Sun Realm to the Baron Level.

In those five years, his blade technique had progressed by leaps and bounds along the Path Realm, reaching 88% completion.

His Primordial Spirit had long since entered the 4th Layer, the Day Travel Realm. With a single thought, it could now roam and scout even in broad daylight, his powers of perception and insight far surpassing what they once were.

His Shocking God Stab had also been perfected, its 7th Layer runes fully nurtured. Its power was now contained, poised and ready to be unleashed at any moment.

In other words, he was only a single step away from the King Level. All that remained was to push his blade technique to the peak of the Path Realm and touch the threshold of that fundamental domain.

With his terrifying comprehension and cultivation speed, it would be no difficult task to bring his blade technique to the peak of the Path Realm within another year at most.

...

「Meanwhile, in the core nest of the Shadow Organization.」

Deep within a dark and cavernous secret chamber, completely isolated from any outside observation.

Wujing Demon Saint floated cross-legged in the void. Not the slightest ripple of energy emanated from his body, yet the very space of the secret chamber was subtly twisting and folding around him.

The ground beneath him sank silently, forming a perfect bowl-shaped depression as if it were bearing an unimaginable weight.

Light bent bizarrely around him, making his figure appear hazy and indistinct, as if he existed in another dimension.

An oppressive aura, originating from his very level of existence, was building in the absolute silence—like a volcano brewing for a billion years, climbing toward a critical point.

He was once a renowned Demon Saint in the Demon Realm.

To infiltrate the core territories of the Human Race and execute a plan of subversion, he had not hesitated to possess a human body, sever his own foundation, and lie dormant for ages.

Now, after amassing countless resources and pushing this body’s potential to its absolute limit, the power that once belonged to the Demon Saint Level was finally... returning!

HUMMM—!

Without any warning, the distorted space of the secret chamber violently collapsed inward!

It was as if an invisible singularity had been born, instantly swallowing all light and pulling everything into absolute darkness.

Immediately after, a tide of energy more terrifying than a supernova erupted from the center of the collapse.

An invisible shockwave swept outward. The incredibly sturdy chamber walls, inscribed with countless runes, shattered and disintegrated inch by inch as if they were made of paper-mâché.

This wasn’t a violent expulsion of energy, but a natural disturbance in the laws of space and time, caused by a qualitative leap in his very essence of life.

Shards of collapsed space were ground into the finest energy particles by an invisible force, only to be reabsorbed.

A spatial ripple, visible to the naked eye and imbued with the profound mysteries of destruction and creation, swept through the depths of the Shadow Organization’s nest at superluminal speed. It passed through layer after layer of rock, spreading farther into the earth below and the sky above.

Outside the secret chamber, the Great Demon King Fu Yan and the other leaders of the Shadow Organization, who had been waiting anxiously, all felt a tremor originating from the depths of their souls the instant the immense pressure washed over them.

It was a feeling of absolute suppression, a dominance asserted on a fundamental level of existence.

But a moment later, they were drowned in overwhelming elation.

”He succeeded! A Demon Saint! This is the aura of the Demon Saint Realm!” Fu Yan’s voice trembled with excitement, his eyes blazing with the fire of fanaticism and vengeance.

The other Demon Kings and Great Demon Kings also wore expressions of excitement and awe.

The dust and spatial fragments slowly settled.

A figure casually strode out from the center of the collapsed and annihilated chamber.

His appearance hadn’t changed much, and his clothes were still plain, but his eyes were as profound as the cosmic void, holding an indescribable majesty and ancient power.