High Martial: I Grind Professions

Chapter 460: Chapter 298: Centurion

Hiss—!

When the glaring ”Win Rate: 100%” and the long string of consecutive victories that followed came into view, Venerable Rongyan sucked in a cold breath. The disdain on his face was instantly replaced by gravity. ’Interesting... He got matched with me right after reaching the Extraordinary rank. So he’s a real powerhouse.’

Surprised as he was, as a Master-rank expert, he had his own pride and confidence.

He believed that if he were to start over, as long as he wasn’t unlucky enough to be matched against those top-tier prodigies experiencing the Extreme Fighting Arena for the first time, he too could achieve an extremely high win rate.

Even if he couldn’t defeat the person before him, he wouldn’t admit defeat so easily.

Besides, this was just a battle in the Virtual Cosmos.

A loss was just a single loss.

At this thought, his fighting spirit surged instead.

[3... 2... 1... Fight!]

The moment the countdown hit zero, a scorching heat wave erupted from Venerable Rongyan’s body.

A heavy hammer burning with dark red flames materialized, tearing through the air with the force to shatter mountains and split stone as it crashed down on Li Wen’s head.

This strike was immensely powerful, imbued with the Power of Law from his arduous cultivation of the Fire Law, enough to shatter the defenses of an ordinary peak Extraordinary cultivator.

Facing this ferocious hammer strike, Li Wen’s expression remained unchanged. He responded with the simplest, most fundamental of actions—drawing his blade and slashing diagonally!

CLANG—!

The ear-piercing sound of metal on metal rang throughout the fighting arena.

This time, the clear blade didn’t cut through its opponent as unstoppably as before.

A violent ripple of energy erupted from the point of impact between the blade and the hammer.

Venerable Rongyan felt an irresistible, terrifying force travel up the hammer’s handle.

It made his arms go numb, the webbing between his thumbs and forefingers threatening to tear, and the ground beneath his feet instantly cracked like a spiderweb.

The force of the slash sent him sliding back several hundred meters before he managed to stabilize himself.

’Such immense power! Such condensed Blade Intent!’ Venerable Rongyan was inwardly shaken.

His opponent was merely a 1-Star Extraordinary, yet the pure power and level of swordsmanship contained in that one slash made even him, a 1-Star Master, feel immense pressure.

A flicker of surprise also crossed Li Wen’s eyes.

This was the first true opponent he had been matched with since advancing to the Extraordinary rank.

His opponent’s physical strength, use of Law, and combat skills were clearly a huge step above his previous adversaries.

Although he still hadn’t been able to truly challenge his blade, it was finally no longer an instant kill with zero resistance.

”Again!” Venerable Rongyan roared, his fighting spirit completely ignited as flames surged around him.

As he swung his heavy hammer, he conjured a sky full of hammer afterimages, each carrying a world-incinerating heat and a heavy, oppressive presence that enveloped Li Wen.

Li Wen’s figure moved like lightning, weaving through the dense barrage of hammer afterimages.

The two clashed fiercely in the fighting arena, the roar of colliding energies echoing endlessly.

The battle lasted for a full thirty seconds, far longer than any of Li Wen’s previous fights.

Finally, Li Wen seized an opening.

The blade’s light cut in as tracelessly as an antelope hanging by its horns, and the cold edge sliced cleanly through Venerable Rongyan’s throat.

[Battle Over! Victor: ’Changning’ (Extraordinary 1-Star)! Battle Rating: SS-Rank!]

With a flash of light, Venerable Rongyan’s figure vanished, and the fighting arena returned to calm.

Li Wen stood in the center of the arena, slowly sheathing his blade.

That last battle had been the first time he had felt a hint of pressure in the Extreme Fighting Arena.

Just then, the Martial Daoist’s panel in his sea of consciousness quietly refreshed:

[Martial Daoist Class Experience +1]

Although it was only 1 point of experience—less than what he gained from arduously practicing his blade skills alone—this change brought a sudden epiphany to Li Wen, and his eyes shone with a brilliant light.

’It’s finally starting!’ he murmured, his voice filled with anticipation.

This meant that the high-intensity battles of the Extreme Fighting Arena, especially clashes with Master-rank experts, could now effectively stimulate and raise his Martial Daoist class level.

Things went just as he expected.

As his rank increased, the opponents he was matched with grew stronger, and the intensity and difficulty of the battles rose dramatically.

Although his win rate remained at 100%, his victories were no longer so effortless. Sometimes he even had to fight for a minute or longer to take down an opponent.

In correspondence, the growth of his Martial Daoist experience points began to become substantial.

[Martial Daoist Class Experience +1]

[Martial Daoist Class Experience +3]

[Martial Daoist Class Experience +5]

...

With every hard-fought victory, the experience bar would leap forward a small step.

It seemed the stronger the opponent and the more difficult the battle, the more experience he received upon victory.

Time flew by in a cycle of matchmaking, intense battles, and victories.

「Two hours passed in a flash.」

When Li Wen ended a 5-Star Master opponent with another stunning arc of light, his rank insignia flashed, and he was promoted to [Extraordinary 4-Star]!

At that moment, his Martial Daoist class’s experience bar had also accumulated a considerable amount from the continuous clashes with powerful enemies.

[Martial Daoist Class Level Up! Current Level: LV 7!]

The instant the panel refreshed, a familiar yet even more powerful warm current swept through Li Wen’s entire body.

His muscle fibers were repeatedly tempered, stretched, and reorganized by an invisible force, becoming tougher and denser.

His bones emitted a faint hum as their density and strength increased once more.

His vitality surged like a great river, and the speed and condensation of the True Gang Qi circulating in his meridians skyrocketed.

His physical strength increased by nearly a tenth from its original base.

At the Venerable Realm, this degree of enhancement—especially on top of Li Wen’s already far superior physique—was a tremendous leap.

At the same time, he could clearly feel that the amplification effect of his ”Berserk” skill had also increased by 10%, reaching 70%.

His whole body was filled with explosive power, and his comprehension of his blade techniques seemed to have sharpened slightly as well.

”Phew...” Li Wen let out a long breath. Feeling the transformation of his body complete, the sense of brimming power gave him more confidence for the upcoming base trial.

He glanced at the time display in the Virtual Cosmos. It was less than half an hour until morning on Sharp Edge Star and the first assembly time for the Source Net training base.

His consciousness withdrew from the Virtual Cosmos and returned to his body in the courtyard on Sharp Edge Star.

Li Wen took a moment to regulate his breathing, calming the surging vitality from his level-up. He straightened his robes and pushed open the sealed doors of the meditation room.

Outside the door, a number of figures were already standing in the central plaza of the courtyard.

The elite reserve members from different star systems and races were gathered in small groups, conversing in low voices. The solemn atmosphere was tinged with the scent of competition.

”Li Wen! Over here!” a familiar voice called out.

Li Wen looked toward the voice and saw Lorne Meck waving at him.

Li Wen smiled and walked over.

”Li Wen, you’re just now coming out? The assembly time is almost here,” Lorne Meck asked curiously. He had come out much earlier than Li Wen.

”I was holed up in the Extreme Fighting Arena in the Virtual Cosmos, busy raising my rank,” Li Wen answered truthfully.

”Oh? How did it go? What rank are you now?” Lorne Meck’s interest was piqued.

”Extraordinary 4-Star,” Li Wen said calmly.

”Extraordinary 4-Star?!” A clear look of surprise flashed in Lorne Meck’s blue eyes.

”That was just one night and a small part of the morning, right? Your promotion speed is... incredibly fast!”

He quickly assessed in his mind that being able to rush from the Sun rank to Extraordinary 4-Star so quickly meant Li Wen’s true combat power was likely approaching or had even reached the level of a 4- or 5-Star Master!

This guy from the unfamiliar ”Blue Star Human Race” really was hiding his true strength.

Just as Lorne Meck was about to ask Li Wen for more details about his battles—

”Silence!”

A cold, emotionless voice, yet filled with a heart-stopping killing intent, swept through the courtyard like a frigid current, silencing all the whispers.

All the reserve members in the courtyard, including the conversing Lorne and Li Wen, as well as the Holy Radiance Race genius Keynes Huiyao who stood in the distance, faintly surrounded by others, instinctively straightened their backs, their gazes uniformly turning toward the source of the voice—the air at the courtyard entrance.

There, a man with a lean, spear-straight figure dressed in a standard-issue black Source Net combat uniform floated silently half a meter off the ground.

His face was cold and severe, his gaze as sharp as a blade, as if it could pierce a person’s soul.

What was most striking was the medal he wore on his chest.

It was an insignia of a five-story tower made from some kind of dark gold metal.

On the body of the tower was a smaller symbol composed of a numeral in the universal cosmic language—”1,000”!

The medal seemed to carry an invisible aura of bloodlust, instantly drawing everyone’s eyes.

”A five-story tower... A Tier Five Slaughter Centurion!” Someone in the crowd who knew what it was couldn’t help but suck in a cold breath and exclaim in a low voice filled with awe.

Lorne Meck, standing next to Li Wen, had clearly also seen the medal. Noticing the fleeting confusion in Li Wen’s eyes, he immediately and discreetly sent a telepathic message to explain:

”Li Wen, see that medal? That’s the ’Slaughter Centurion’ medal, also known as the ’Slayer of a Thousand’!

But ’Slayer of a Thousand’ doesn’t just mean killing any thousand people. It means that under the strict rules and witness of the Slaughter Tower, he has killed a full one thousand incredibly powerful opponents of the same rank in one-on-one life-or-death battles!”

Lorne’s voice was grave. ”One of the core functions of the Slaughter Tower is to provide an absolutely fair, inescapable space for two people of the same realm to fight to the death!

”The rules are simple and brutal. Two people go in, and at most, one comes out. Either the victor lives and the loser dies, or... they both perish!

”To get the Centurion’s medal, he would have had to participate in and win one thousand of these life-or-death battles against same-rank opponents!”

”And,” Lorne’s tone grew even more solemn, ”a Tier Five Star Lord wearing a Tier Five Centurion medal represents an even more terrifying fact.

The number of Tier Five Star Lords who have died at his hands is at least one hundred!