High Martial: I Grind Professions

Chapter 366: Chapter 206: What is the Number One King?

”Excellent!” The massive weight on the Mountain-Splitting Ape King’s heart lifted, and the irrepressible joy almost made it roar.

”With two Lords here, that Human Race Baron won’t be able to escape even if he grows wings!”

The other two surviving Demon Kings were instantly overwhelmed with awe.

They hastily sent a voice transmission to their newly arrived kinsmen, their words tumbling out in a rapid-fire succession:

”That’s the Sky-Splitting Peng King! His speed is unmatched among the Great Demon Kings of the Demon Realm! He once used this talent to escape unscathed from the pursuit of a Demon Saint!”

”And the Profound Armor Rhino King! His carapace’s defense is peerless, and his strength is earth-shattering! Even Great Saint Hunyan once personally praised his shell, saying it could briefly withstand a Demon Saint’s attack! He’s a truly terrifying existence at the very pinnacle of the Great Demon King level!”

The Sky-Splitting Peng King hovered in the void, its body covered in azure plumage that seemed condensed from spatial fragments. Each feather shimmered with a cold light that looked sharp enough to slice through space itself.

Its gaze was as sharp as a blade. With just a slight flap of its wings, the surrounding space rippled like disturbed water, sending out dangerous waves.

The Profound Armor Rhino King, by contrast, descended like a mobile mountain of obsidian. The shadow cast by its enormous body blanketed the region.

On its shell, as thick as a mountain range, flowed profound, earth-yellow runes imbued with the Law of Earth.

Every time its hooves fell, even just stepping upon the void, a deep rumble echoed out, making space tremble faintly as if unable to bear the weight.

They had been nearby. Upon receiving the Blood Slaughter Order issued by the Mountain-Splitting Ape King, they had torn through space and rushed over without the slightest hesitation.

Now, they saw the young human ahead, whose aura was merely at the Baron Realm.

Glancing back at the sorry state of the Mountain-Splitting Ape King and the others, a flash of unconcealed disdain crossed the Sky-Splitting Peng King’s sharp eyes.

The Profound Armor Rhino King let out a low growl like rolling thunder, the soundwave making the void hum.

”Hmph! A mere Human Race Baron is worth a Blood Slaughter Order? Let’s end this quickly. Don’t waste time!”

Just as the two peak Great Demon Kings appeared, the figure of the Celestial Martial King also materialized a hundred li ahead of them.

The divine senses of the two peak Great Demon Kings swept over the approaching Celestial Martial King. They sensed that his restrained fluctuations were at the King Tier, but they paid him no mind.

’This Human Race King before us has such an unremarkable aura. He’s probably just some nobody. If we can crush him along the way, it’ll just be icing on the cake.’

And so, with Li Wen intentionally controlling his speed, he soon led the pursuing Demon Race members to within a dozen or so li of the Celestial Martial King.

”Attack! Crush that Human Race Baron first!” Seeing Li Wen about to rendezvous with the Celestial Martial King, the Sky-Splitting Peng King shrieked and gave a powerful flap of its wings.

RRRRIP—!

Space seemed to be sliced open by an invisible blade.

Its figure vanished in an instant. This wasn’t just high-speed movement, but a true fusion with space itself, so fast that not even an afterimage was left behind.

In the next instant, its claws, as sharp as a Divine Weapon and glowing with the cold light of a Law that could sunder all creation, bizarrely emerged from the void behind Li Wen, striking straight for the vital point on his back!

Where the glowing claws passed, they left deep, pitch-black fissures in space.

The Profound Armor Rhino King’s attack was even simpler and more brutal, filled with the raw beauty of pure power.

It let out a low roar like a tremor in the earth’s veins and suddenly lowered its massive head.

Its giant horn, which shimmered with a dark luster and looked as if it could pierce stars, suddenly blazed with destructive light.

Its four hooves shattered the void as its massive body transformed into an out-of-control meteoric chariot.

Enveloped in a torrent of utterly pure power, it rumbled toward Li Wen, intent on crushing him.

Everywhere it passed, space let out a terrifying groan, as if it were about to completely collapse.

The two peak Great Demon Kings attacked with their full strength, their might shaking the heavens and the earth.

The world-destroying attacks converged directly on Li Wen.

In that critical instant, just as Li Wen was about to be completely engulfed by the two Demon Kings’ attacks!

The streak of white light, which had at first seemed so unremarkable, suddenly erupted with a terrifying power that froze space itself!

It struck later, yet arrived first!

It moved at a speed that completely transcended the concept of distance and ignored the flow of time.

In the instant before the Sky-Splitting Peng King’s claws and the Profound Armor Rhino King’s horn could touch Li Wen, it abruptly appeared before him.

The white light dissipated, revealing the Celestial Martial King’s face—aged, yet as placid as a timeless, frozen lake.

Facing the Sky-Splitting claws that could annihilate a top-tier King in an instant and the destructive charge that seemed capable of shattering stars, the corner of the Celestial Martial King’s mouth twitched upward ever so slightly.

It wasn’t a smile. It was more akin to the indifference born of absolute power, like one watching motes of dust float beneath the vastness of the heavens.

”So, this is a peak Great Demon King of the Demon Race?” His words were placid, yet they carried a lofty detachment, as if he were gazing down upon an endless Star Domain.

The next moment, he moved.

There was no earth-shattering buildup of power, no brilliant explosion of light.

He simply, plainly, pushed out his left and right fists toward the Sky-Splitting Peng King and the Profound Armor Rhino King, respectively.

His left fist met the Sky-Splitting Peng King’s space-rending claws.

BOOM—CRACK!!!

The light from his fist was plain and unadorned, yet it contained an indescribable, majestic power of Law.

Wherever the fist imprint passed, the sharp claws—capable of easily tearing through the defenses of a peak King—seemed to have met their absolute nemesis.

Without even a shred of resistance, they disintegrated and were annihilated inch by inch, like the most fragile glass.

The remaining force of the punch, completely undiminished and faster than thought, landed with unerring precision on the Sky-Splitting Peng King’s pride and joy: its azure-feathered body, which was still fused with space.

”No—!!!”

The Sky-Splitting Peng King only had time to let out a soul-shriek, warped and shrill with ultimate terror and disbelief.

PFFFT!!!

Its body, along with the spatial ripples generated by a speed hailed as the greatest among all Great Demon Kings in the Demon Realm,

was like snow and ice tossed into the core of a primordial star. It instantly—vaporized!

Utterly annihilated!

There was no explosion, no flying flesh and blood—only the purest, most complete disappearance.

It was as if this top-tier Demon King, which had roamed the Demon Realm for countless years and prided itself on its unrivaled speed, had never existed in this Star Domain.

His right fist met the Profound Armor Rhino King’s terrifying, star-shattering brute force.

DOOOOM—!!!

A sound so deep and muffled it was as if the very heart of the entire Star Domain had been violently struck.

Violent spatial waves visibly rippled outward.

The Profound Armor Rhino King’s indestructible, Demon Saint Level carapace—the very one that had earned a nod of approval from Demon Saint Hunyan—

the instant it touched that deceptively plain fist imprint, the ceaseless, earth-yellow Law runes flowing across it—runes that seemed capable of deflecting any force—were abruptly extinguished like candles in a gale.

KRA-KA-KA-KA—!!!

A grating, scalp-numbing cracking sound, like a dense hailstorm, rang out.

The Profound Armor, famed for being able to briefly withstand a Demon Saint’s attack, was instantly covered in a spiderweb of horrific cracks that reached deep into its true body, as if it had been struck head-on by an invisible, cosmos-piercing sledgehammer.

Then, before the Profound Armor Rhino King’s pupils, which were completely warped by agony and incomprehension, it exploded.

Countless fragments of the carapace, containing immense defensive energy, shot out in all directions like scattered meteorites into the chaotic void.

SPURT—!!!

The Profound Armor Rhino King’s massive true body was sent flying backward like a ball kicked with full force, at a speed more than ten times faster than its approach.

What it sprayed along the way was no longer blood, but a horrific, thick, pulp-like mist of blood mixed with shattered internal organs and bone fragments.

Its aura deflated like a punctured balloon, instantly plummeting from the pinnacle of the Great Demon King level. All that remained in its eyes was a stunned, bone-deep horror.

Dead silence!

An absolute, icy silence instantly froze every corner of this chaotic Star Domain.

The Mountain-Splitting Ape King and the three surviving ordinary Great Demon Kings, who had just narrowly dodged the aftershocks, felt the ecstatic joy on their faces freeze as if doused in ten-thousand-year-old ice. It solidified, then shattered, replaced by a bone-deep, soul-freezing terror and bewilderment.

They felt as if an invisible hand from the Nine Hells had seized them by the throat, strangling them so tightly that even their thoughts stopped, leaving only blank horror.

One of the ordinary Great Demon Kings stood with its mouth agape, its jaw trembling uncontrollably. Its eyes looked ready to pop from their sockets as it unconsciously mumbled, as if talking in its sleep:

”N-No... Impossible... Lord Sky-Splitter... he... even Lord Demon Saint Hunyan... he... one punch... and he’s... gone?”

Another Great Demon King was so terrified its mind completely shattered. It let out a shrill, inhuman shriek that cracked on the high notes:

”Run! Run for your lives!!!”

The instinct for survival, like a violent torrent of lava, instantly washed away all greed, cruelty, and every other thought.

The four remaining Great Demon Kings, including the Mountain-Splitting Ape King, didn’t dare to spare another glance at that withered, god-like, demon-like figure.

Like flies dropped in boiling water, they instantly scattered, transforming into four streaks of demonic light and fleeing for their lives in completely different directions.

At this moment, only a single thought remained in their minds.

’Get away! At any cost, get away from this Human Race monster! The farther, the better!’

”Trying to run now?” The Celestial Martial King’s voice was calm and steady, as if stating a foregone conclusion.

Yet, it resounded clearly in the depths of every fleeing Demon King’s soul, like the whisper of death itself.

His figure had, at some unknown point, silently appeared at the very center of the spatial storm.

He was seen slowly raising his hands, one high and one low. His movements, as if turning the millstone of an invisible universe and filled with an indescribable Dao rhythm, gently came together toward the center.

RUMBLE—!!!

In that instant, the entire expanse of space seemed to gain a will of its own, becoming an extension of the Celestial Martial King’s will!

Above and below the escape paths of the four Great Demon Kings, including the Profound Armor Rhino King and the Mountain-Splitting Ape King, the rules of space were forcibly twisted and molded.

Two giant hands of energy, covering an area tens of li in radius and emitting a hazy, chaotic white light, materialized out of thin air.

These two giant palms, one touching the heavens above and the other connecting to the hells below, seemed to form the very boundary between heaven and earth.

Carrying a weight that could crush all creation and an irresistible Power of Rules, they slowly and steadily closed in on the center.

A terrifying, irresistible suction force, originating from the very rules of space, abruptly descended!

”ROAR!!!” Under the threat of death, the Profound Armor Rhino King erupted with its final, instinctual power, forcibly revealing its complete, thousand-zhang-tall true rhino form.