High Martial: I Grind Professions

Chapter 445: Chapter 283: Two Months Later

Two months passed in the blink of an eye.

The date was March 22nd, 247 in the Galactic Calendar.

As the morning sun filtered through the window, casting soft patches of light, Li Wen slowly opened his eyes.

In those deep eyes, the sharp edge of his youth was gone, replaced by a settled warmth and restraint.

In the past two months, he had intentionally slowed the pace of his cultivation, leaving more time for the most important people in his life.

He left his room and went to the living room.

On the dining table, light porridge and side dishes were already set out.

Li Wen sat across from his parents, quietly enjoying this ordinary yet incredibly precious breakfast with them.

His parents wore contented smiles, chattering about daily life.

They recounted their travels over the past two months, during which he had shown them the many wonders of Blue Star.

From the glaciers and auroras at Blue Star’s poles to the vibrant life of the equatorial rainforests.

From the vast majesty of the Great Rift Valley to the colorful underwater world of the Coral Sea.

Together, they had watched countless sunrises and sunsets, experiencing different cultures and customs.

Li Wen responded patiently, but he knew in his heart that this precious time was about to come to an end.

After this departure, his return would be uncertain. The universe was vast, and the path ahead was unknowable.

The morning passed quietly amidst warm and idle chatter.

The warm afternoon sun shone through the glass, stretching their shadows across the floor.

Li Wen stood up. ”Dad, Mom, I’m going to go cultivate.”

”Go on. Your work is important.” His father patted him on the shoulder, his eyes filled with complete trust and support.

”Be safe and come back soon.” His mother’s eyes showed a hint of sadness, but they held even more pride for her son’s achievements.

Li Wen nodded, his figure blurred slightly, and he silently tore open the space before him, stepping through.

The next moment, he was on the cold and desolate Black Rock Trial Star.

Violent and chaotic torrents of energy still ravaged the celestial body.

But to someone of his current realm, they were no more than a gentle breeze on his face.

He hadn’t been completely relaxing for the past two months. Besides spending time with his family, he had never stopped honing his power.

As was his habit, he opened his status panel.

[Age: 39]

[Realm: Venerable]

[Class: Martial Artist Lv. 6 (1120/6400), Scholar Lv. 20]

[Skills: Bladework · Venerable (Severing Void 100%, Falling Star 100%, Thunder Prison 100%, Imperial Aegis 100%, Instant Flash 100%)]

[Cultivation Techniques: ”All Things Return to Ruins Finger” · 2nd Layer (99%), ”Shocking God Stab” · 7th Layer (100%)]

After two months of cultivation and daily bladework refinement, his Martial Artist class had successfully advanced to Lv. 6.

The fusion of his physical body, True Gang, and vital energy became more harmonious, and his physical strength saw another considerable increase.

At the same time, his bladework had reached the peak of the Venerable realm.

But more importantly, there was the second layer of the All Things Return to Ruins Finger, into which he had poured a great deal of effort.

Originally, at his initial stage of the Ninth Layer of Primordial Spirit, he shouldn’t have been able to cultivate the second layer.

But during the past two months of traveling with his parents, his Primordial Spirit had once again improved significantly.

Somehow, he had met the conditions for cultivation.

After two months of constant practice, it had reached 99%. The final one percent, the last bottleneck, was within reach.

This was also the goal he had set for himself.

The day he perfected the second layer to 100% would be the day he left Blue Star and stepped into the boundless cosmos.

Li Wen stood silently in the void, his eyes slightly closed, his consciousness sinking into the vast, boundless sea of consciousness.

Here, the Primordial Spirit Dharma Idol, originally 9,000 zhang tall, was now approaching 10,000 zhang.

In front of the Dharma Idol, immense Primordial Spirit power condensed, transforming into billions of strands of light, each finer than a human hair.

They sketched, wove, and simulated the ultimate runic array contained within the second layer of the All Things Return to Ruins Finger in the void of his sea of consciousness.

The runic structure of this second layer was more than ten times more complex than the first.

It was no longer just a matter of gathering and erupting energy; it involved the fusion of deeper principles of spatial oscillation and the Law of energy annihilation.

Countless runes imbued with the true meaning of destruction needed to be combined in a specific sequence to form a complex, three-dimensional, and dynamic structure.

Every simulation was like walking on the edge of a ten-thousand-foot cliff.

Just as a runic array took form, it would begin to tremble violently in the next moment due to conflicts in its internal energy circuits.

The structure would distort and finally collapse with a silent roar, dissolving into specks of starlight in his sea of consciousness.

Other times, too many energy dissipation points would cause the entire array to lose its stable form, deflating rapidly like a leaking ball.

Failure, then reconstruction. Another failure, another reconstruction... The cycle repeated endlessly.

Li Wen’s mind was like the core of the most precise supercomputer.

He calmly analyzed every point of collapse through countless failures, adjusting the energy poured into each and every rune.

He utilized the 200% comprehension boost and the state of absolute focus from his Scholar class, pushing his thought speed to the absolute limit.

Time lost all meaning in his sea of consciousness, where only the light and shadow of runes being created and destroyed flowed.

After an unknown number of collapses, the simulation in his sea of consciousness finally reached a turning point.

When Li Wen embedded a core rune—one that served as a stable spatial anchor—into the array’s nexus at an extremely subtle angle,

the entire runic array, which had been on the verge of collapse, suddenly shuddered.

The previously violent and conflicting energy flows instantly found a channel for release and balance. Like a hundred rivers returning to the sea, they surged endlessly but no longer clashed.

Countless runes flared with brilliant light, connecting and resonating with one another, finally forming a stable, perfect, three-dimensional runic structure that radiated an annihilating aura.

’Success!’

The moment the runic array stabilized completely, the Li Wen in the outside world snapped his eyes open.

Two beams of tangible light pierced the void, seemingly causing even the chaotic energy storms of the Trial Star to pause for an instant.

He could clearly feel the last trace of stagnation and fog in his mind regarding the second layer of the All Things Return to Ruins Finger completely dissipating.

The progress bar, stuck at 99%, was instantly filled by an immense force the moment the runic array in his sea of consciousness stabilized, reaching flawless completion.

According to the secret technique’s records, the power of the second layer of the All Things Return to Ruins Finger had already surpassed the limits of the Peak of Saint Realm.

Although there was still a considerable gap before it could truly threaten a Star Lord Level existence,

it was enough to give him a decisive killing move against the vast majority of Saint Realm opponents in the boundless cosmos.

”Finally... it’s done.” Li Wen muttered to himself, his eyes burning with scorching battle intent and anticipation.

He needed to test it. He needed to witness the power of his arduous cultivation with his own eyes.

With a flash, he appeared in one of the Trial Star’s most desolate and solid core regions.

The Trial Star’s strongest Defensive Array network was buried underground here.

He slowly raised his right index finger. This time, there was no earth-shattering energy accumulation, no world-changing phenomenon.

There was only a terrifying will, condensed to the point of absolute restraint, yet capable of freezing space itself, gathered at his fingertip.

An indescribable sense of weight spread out, as if his fingertip held not power, but a miniature black hole on the verge of collapse.

The next moment, Li Wen’s gaze sharpened, and he pointed down at the vast, black rock landscape below.

”All Things... Return to Ruins!”

HUMMM—!

A colossal beam of finger light, several times more condensed than when he used the first layer and almost pure black in color, shot out without a sound.

It created no sonic boom from tearing through the air. Instead, the space it passed through showed bizarre distortions and ripples, as if being forcibly smoothed out and then torn apart in the same instant.

The beam of light didn’t seem fast, yet it appeared to ignore spatial distance, instantly hitting the center of the target area.

BOOOOOM!!!!

This time, the colossal boom was muffled, like an ancient beast roaring from within the planet.

A terrifying, bottomless, giant basin with a diameter of over a hundred li instantly formed around the point of impact!

The edges of the basin were as smooth as a mirror, showing a molten, crystallized state from the instantaneous application of extreme heat and pressure.

A destructive energy shockwave spread out madly in a ring.

Wherever it passed, the black rock landscape, as hard as any alloy, disintegrated and vaporized layer by layer like a brittle cracker.

WHINE—! HUM—! HUM—!

Deep beneath the Trial Star, countless dazzling curtains of energy light suddenly flared to life.

Layer upon layer, they formed a massive, hemispherical shield of light that covered the entire impact zone.

This was the Trial Star’s final defensive measure. The light shield flickered violently, emitting a hum as if it were under an unbearable load.

Energy frantically flowed, annihilated, and regenerated across its surface.

Finally, just before the aftershocks of the shockwave dissipated, it barely managed to maintain its form without completely shattering.

Even so, the giant basin beneath the shield, and the spiderweb of cracks stretching for thousands of li around it, were a clear testament to the destructive might of this single strike.

Its destructive range and depth, as well as the force of its impact on the Defensive Array, were all far stronger than when he had first tested the first layer of the finger technique at the initial stage of the eighth layer of Primordial Spirit!

Li Wen hovered in mid-air, looking down at the cataclysmic scene he had created with his own hands.

Feeling the lingering aura of annihilation at his fingertip—an aura sufficient to make the soul of an ordinary Saint Realm expert tremble—a satisfied smile finally appeared on his face.

The second layer of the All Things Return to Ruins Finger was perfected. Its power had not disappointed him.

The surging aura around him began to recede, and the violent energy fluctuations quickly subsided.

Just as he was about to tear open space to return to Blue Star, bid his parents a final farewell, and formally embark on his journey through the stars,

However, at the very instant his mind moved and the first spatial ripples began to spread—

”Hahaha... Good! Good! Good!”

An old but gratified and hearty laugh pierced through the spatial barrier without any warning, echoing clearly in the depths of Li Wen’s mind.

The laughter seemed to carry a strange rhythm that instantly soothed the surging power within Li Wen, causing the spatial energy he had gathered to freeze.

Li Wen’s pupils contracted. His whole body tensed in an instant as his Primordial Spirit power swept over his surroundings like a tidal wave, purely on instinct.

’What kind of person could approach me so silently and even transmit their voice directly into my sea of consciousness?’

’Such methods are far beyond what a Saint Realm expert is capable of!’

The next moment, his vision blurred and distorted.

It wasn’t the dizziness of spatial teleportation, but rather felt as if he had been directly displaced by some higher-level power.

When his vision refocused, Li Wen found that he was no longer on the desolate, shattered Black Rock Trial Star.

Instead, he was in a completely unfamiliar, strange space.

There was no earth and no sky here, only a deep, boundless, dark void.