High Martial: I Grind Professions

Chapter 403: Chapter 243: Beginning the Breakthrough

With all that done, he finally relaxed. In a flash, he returned to the home he hadn’t seen in a year.

The Li family’s residence.

”Ah Wen!” His mother, Wang Juan, was the first to see her son push open the door. She rushed forward, studying him carefully.

”You weren’t hurt over there, were you? I heard it’s full of terrifying Demon Kings...”

She held Li Wen’s hand, chattering on as if pouring out a year’s worth of worry and longing.

His father, Li Hong, stood to the side. Though not as outwardly emotional as his mother, his eyes were filled with relief and pride.

”It’s good you’re back! It’s good you’re back! There’s just one more dish to go. Hurry and sit down.”

With that, he returned to the kitchen, leaving Wang Juan and Li Wen in the living room.

A comforting, home-cooked meal was soon laid out on the table. The familiar flavors filled Li Wen with a profound sense of warmth.

At the dinner table, Li Hong and Wang Juan asked in detail about his experiences in the Star Domain.

They told him about the changes in Changning City over the past year and caught him up on their relatives and friends.

Before they knew it, the conversation turned to Li Wen.

”Ah Wen,” Wang Juan said, placing a large piece of his favorite braised lion’s head meatball into his bowl. Her tone was cautious and probing.

”Look at you now. You’ve reached the King Realm, your strength is boundless, and you’ve done so many great things for the Human Race... Isn’t it time you started thinking about... settling down?”

Li Hong cleared his throat and chimed in.

”That’s right. Marquis Jiangling mentioned in his last communication that he has a niece. She’s also exceptionally talented, having reached the Marquis Realm at a young age. They say she has a straightforward personality and is quite attractive...”

He watched Li Wen’s expression. ”Of course, we’re not rushing you. We just feel that you should have someone by your side to care for you.”

Li Wen, who had been focused on eating the food his mother put in his bowl, paused.

He then looked up, a gentle but slightly helpless smile on his face.

He put down his chopsticks and ladled a bowl of soup for each of his parents.

”Dad, Mom, I understand your intentions. But now... it really isn’t the right time. The Demon Race is a great threat, a world projection hangs over our heads, and my current strength is nowhere near enough.

The King Realm is just the beginning; there are higher peaks to climb. As for romance... for now... I truly can’t afford to think about it.”

His tone was calm but carried an undeniable resolve. His gaze was clear, with no hint that he was just trying to placate them.

Li Hong and Wang Juan exchanged a look, seeing the mix of understanding and disappointment in each other’s eyes.

They knew their son’s ambitions and the heavy burden on his shoulders. The ”daughters of Kings” and ”nieces of Marquises,” however outstanding, were...

...probably far less important in their son’s eyes than a profound academic paper or a sliver of insight into a Law.

”Sigh, this child...” Wang Juan sighed. She swallowed the words urging him to marry soon and said instead,

”Eat more. I made your favorite soup. You can have another bowl later.”

”Okay, thanks, Mom.” Li Wen replied with a smile, picking up his chopsticks again to savor this rare, cozy moment of domestic warmth.

He could feel the profound weight of his parents’ love and expectations. It was just that the path he had chosen was one that fated him not to linger long on matters of the heart.

...

Legacy University, Venerable Breakthrough Cave.

After enjoying two warm, peaceful days at home—walking and chatting with his parents, and even visiting a few close clan members at the manor—

Li Wen bid his parents farewell once more and returned to the core area of Legacy University: the depths of Enlightenment Peak.

When Li Wen found Venerable Ye Qin and calmly stated, ”I’m ready to break through to the Venerable Realm,”

even the three Venerables, who had long known Li Wen’s power was unfathomable, momentarily lost their composure in their excitement.

”Good! Good! Good!” Venerable Ye Qin exclaimed, repeating the word three times as a brilliant light shot from his eyes. The wrinkles on his face seemed to smooth out completely.

”Hahaha! The heavens have blessed the Human Race! A thirty-seven-year-old Venerable! Junior Brother Ye, Junior Sister Xingxuan, we are witnessing history!” Venerable Gu He clapped his hands and roared with laughter, his voice shaking the room.

Though Venerable Xingxuan said nothing, her clenched fists and tightly pressed lips betrayed her own ecstatic joy.

They were even more excited than Li Wen himself!

This wasn’t merely a breakthrough to a new realm. It signified that in the grand chess match against the Demon Race, the Human Race was about to gain a titan powerful enough to completely shift the balance of power!

’A monster who could already fight a top-tier Venerable to a standstill while in the King Realm... once he officially enters the Venerable Realm, how terrifyingly high will his combat strength soar?’ The mere thought made their blood boil with excitement.

Personally guided and guarded by the three Venerables, Li Wen arrived at the very core of the ley lines beneath Enlightenment Peak. He stood before an ancient cave sealed by layers of powerful restrictive arrays.

The entrance to the cave was primitive and unadorned, exuding an aura of profound, ancient power. Arcane runes were inscribed upon it, faintly connecting it to the ley lines of the entire Blue Star.

”This is the Primal Origin Cave,” Venerable Ye Qin said solemnly,

”The Founding Master carved it himself long ago to channel Blue Star’s Power of Origin and assist cultivators in breaking through to the Venerable Realm.

The environment within is unique. It contains a trace of the world’s fundamental will, which can greatly increase the success rate of Law fusion and the strength of one’s domain transformation.

Go in. Focus on your breakthrough. The three of us will stand guard outside; nothing will go wrong.”

Li Wen nodded gravely, took a deep breath, and stepped into the cave.

The heavy stone door closed silently behind him, sealing the inside from the out.

「Inside the cave.」

The moment he stepped inside, Li Wen felt an aura completely different from both the vast stellar power of the ”Star Dome Cave” and the profound spatial fluctuations of the ”Cosmic Cave.”

There was no brilliant starlight here, nor any distorted space.

The space inside the cave was not especially large, roughly the size of a standard training arena. ℯℯ𝑙.

The light was soft, seeming to emanate from the very walls of the cave.

The floor wasn’t rock but a dark-gold material, warm and smooth to the touch like jade.

It had a peculiar elasticity and warmth when he stepped on it, as if it were breathing in faint connection with the pulse of the earth below.

On closer inspection, the floor wasn’t perfectly smooth. Instead, it was naturally patterned with countless fine, complex energy veins that flowed with a faint glimmer.

Like the blood vessels of the earth, these veins all converged toward a slightly concave, circular platform in the cave’s center.

The cave walls were a deep, dark brown, also covered with naturally formed patterns that were even more rugged and arcane.

These patterns weren’t static; they flowed and shifted with extreme slowness, as if chronicling the earth’s transformations over hundreds of millions of years.

Occasionally, where the patterns intersected, an exceedingly faint mote of light would flicker, yet it contained the profound meaning of some fundamental origin.

The most peculiar feature was the ceiling of the cave.

It wasn’t solid rock but a flowing ”canopy” that seemed to be composed of liquid energy.

The canopy possessed a chaotic, dark-gold luster. Within it floated countless motes of light—bright and dim, large and small—slowly rotating, blinking in and out of existence.

These points of light weren’t stars. They were more like... the tangible projections of Law fragments.

There were earthy-yellow clusters of light representing immense power, and emerald-green motes representing endless vitality.

There was a metallic luster that represented sharpness and cutting, and pale blue ripples that represented constant flow.

Li Wen even keenly sensed a few extremely fine, erratically jumping wisps of purple lightning that shared his own origin, as well as silver threads representing spatial fluctuations.

The air was suffused with an indescribable aura, a fusion of immense weight and vibrant life force.

With every breath, it felt as if he could draw in threads of incomparably pure earthen Spiritual Energy and the world’s fundamental will.

Furthermore, a faint, low-pitched thrumming, like the heartbeat of the earth itself, resonated directly in the depths of his soul.

It caused him to calm down involuntarily, his mind entering a wondrous resonance with the space and the planet beneath his feet.

”Primal Origin... so that’s what it is.” Li Wen murmured, his eyes filled with admiration.

This cave was itself a supreme treasure, an artifact for communing with the origin of Blue Star.

It didn’t offer specific insights into the Laws, but it provided the perfect crucible-like environment.

It allowed a cultivator on the verge of a breakthrough to take the Laws they had comprehended and, like a hundred rivers flowing into the sea, perfectly fuse and brand them onto the core of their domain.

This established a deeper connection with the world’s Origin Power.

He walked slowly, carefully sensing the aura in every inch of the space. His fingertips brushed across the flowing patterns on the walls, feeling their ancient, time-worn rhythm.

Finally, he returned to the slightly concave platform at the center of the cave and sat down cross-legged.

Breaking through to the Venerable Realm was fundamentally different from reaching the Marquis or King Realms.

To become a Marquis, one had to comprehend the prototype of a domain. To become a King, one had to perfect that domain and condense its core essence.

But to become a Venerable, one had to build upon that perfected domain and completely fuse the Laws of Heaven and Earth they had comprehended into it.

This would cause the domain to undergo a qualitative transformation, turning it into a ”Law Domain” imbued with the properties of a Law!

Li Wen’s consciousness sank into his mind-sea, connecting with the ocean of qi in his Dantian.

In an instant, his brilliant Cosmic Domain unfurled silently with him at its center.

This time, the domain didn’t expand outward. Instead, Li Wen firmly compressed and controlled it within a ten-meter radius of his body.

It was condensed until it resembled solid crystal. Within it, countless tiny, silver-gray spatial nodes flickered, forming an arcane and unfathomable model of a miniature cosmos.

Then, with a thought, he acted.

In his mind-sea, the runic core that represented his comprehension of the Law of Thunder suddenly blazed with light.

Countless fine, dancing arcs of purple lightning, containing both destruction and life, emerged like awakened sprites.

They surged from his body—not as a violent attack, but with a sentient quality, gently and tentatively touching the condensed Cosmic Domain surrounding him.

HUMMM—!

The instant the first wisp of the Power of the Law of Thunder touched the Cosmic Domain,

the entire compressed space of the domain let out a soft hum, as if a string on a zither had been plucked.

The spatial nodes within the domain, which had been operating in a stable manner, seemed to be injected with a wild vitality.

They began to flicker and tremble at a higher frequency, the connections between them growing tighter and more active.

Li Wen’s mind was as placid as still water. The power of his Primordial Spirit acted like the most precise of instruments, guiding more of the Power of the Law of Thunder.

It flowed like a trickling stream, weaving like silken threads.

It began to fuse on a deep level with every spatial node and every wisp of spatial power that constituted his Cosmic Domain.

This process was not a crude insertion but a profound assimilation and symbiosis.

The swiftness, ferocity, and piercing nature of lightning, along with the trace of creative power held within its destruction—like the revival of all things after a thunderstorm—

began to have a wondrous chemical reaction with the properties of space, such as its stability, inclusiveness, folding, and traversing capabilities.

...