High Martial: I Grind Professions

Chapter 531: Chapter 329: Like Chopping Vegetables

Though they were strangers, they had reached a startlingly tacit agreement—first, they would eliminate the arrogant source of their trouble.

They quickly took up positions on four sides, trapping Li Wen firmly in the center.

Sensing the Early-stage Saint Realm aura emanating from Li Wen, all four of them revealed expressions of deep, offended humiliation and contempt.

”A mere Early-stage Saint Realm cultivator? And you dare be so dismissive of everyone?!” The red-haired man spoke first, his tone dripping with scorn. ”Hmph. You don’t know your own limits.”

The agile woman’s gaze was as sharp as a blade. ”State your name, so you know who killed you!” Her tone was bone-chillingly cold.

The man in golden armor, the one with the strongest aura of the four, remained silent, but his gaze was one of condescending scrutiny.

He was clearly absolutely confident in his own strength, viewing Li Wen as prey already in his grasp.

...

In the spectator space, when the four of them clearly appeared on screen surrounding Li Wen.

Someone finally recognized the man in golden armor with the impressive aura.

”It’s him! ’Jin Rock’ Carlos! A heavy hitter from World No. 13, ranked in the top one thousand! They say his Defense Power is incredible, and his comprehension of the Earth Element Law is nearing the Mid-stage Saint Realm!”

”What? A top-one-thousand expert?! Li Wen is in danger!”

”Four people ganging up on one Early-stage Saint Realm cultivator! This is...”

The hearts of the spectators from the Lain Empire were in their throats.

They knew Li Wen’s talent was heaven-defying—he had created a miracle by reaching the eighth floor of the Heaven-Reaching Tower at a bone age of just forty.

But that was in the Heaven-Reaching Tower, which primarily tested one’s talent.

Now, on a battlefield of life-or-death combat, he was simultaneously facing four Saint Realm experts, one of whom was ranked in the top thousand.

The situation was perilous! Many of them had sweaty palms as they silently prayed for Li Wen.

...

「Inside World No. 13.」

Surrounded, Li Wen faced the four’s undisguised killing intent and contemptuous words without the slightest flicker of emotion in his eyes.

’He didn’t need trash talk. He needed points.’

”Four of you. Perfect. I’ll use you to christen my blade.” As soon as the cold words fell, Li Wen’s figure suddenly blurred, as if melting into the shifting light.

Time Secret Skill—Time-slip!

Activate!

Only an afterimage remained, slowly dissipating in the gentle breeze.

BOOM! The red-haired man’s raging, fiery fist slammed into the afterimage, only to hit empty air.

”What?!” His pupils contracted as alarm bells screamed in his mind.

In the next instant, Li Wen appeared like a phantom less than a meter behind him.

A long blade, gleaming with a cold light, appeared silently in Li Wen’s hand.

The blade was not wreathed in the golden light of Wish Power. Driven only by pure Primordial Power, its speed was still pushed to the absolute limit.

SHLICK! The blade’s edge precisely and mercilessly pierced the vital point in the red-haired man’s back, right through his heart.

Simultaneously, the power of the Time Law surged from the blade, instantly freezing all life force around the wound. The blood didn’t even have time to spray.

The shock and fear on the red-haired man’s face froze as his body dissolved into white light, half of his points forcibly stripped away.

Li Wen’s points instantly skyrocketed!

”One down.” Li Wen’s voice was indifferent, as if he had just completed a trivial task.

Without a moment’s pause, his divine sense locked onto the next target: the woman who was forming hand seals, frantically condensing a massive, earthen-yellow shield.

The pupils of the remaining three—including the gold-armored man, ”Jin Rock” Carlos—contracted violently.

”Time Law?! Dammit!” Carlos cried out in alarm as a chill shot up his spine.

The targeted woman’s face went deathly pale. ”Earthen Bulwark!” she shrieked.

A massive, incredibly solid Earth Shield, covered in flowing runes, instantly materialized.

It shielded her completely, and it was her strongest defensive technique.

However, before Li Wen, a master of time, her actions were more than just a step too slow.

”Time-slip!” Li Wen vanished again, this time reappearing as if by teleportation in a blind spot to the side of the woman’s defense.

”Break!” The cold word escaped his lips as his long blade, carrying a heart-stopping silver glint, slashed out diagonally. Space itself seemed to lag where the blade’s light passed.

Under the interference of this time-slowing power, the flow of Law at the core of the seemingly indestructible ”Earthen Bulwark” experienced a brief, imperceptible stutter.

That momentary stutter became a fatal weakness.

CRACK—BOOM!

The arc of the blade instantly shattered the Earth Shield and, with its momentum unbroken, sliced through the woman behind it, cleaving her in two.

Another flash of white light, and Li Wen’s points soared once more.

”AHHH—!” The woman’s bloodcurdling scream echoed among the giant trees before abruptly cutting off.

The remaining two, including the top-thousand-ranked ”Jin Rock” Carlos, now had nothing but boundless terror in their eyes.

’Points? Rankings? Nothing mattered now but saving their own lives.’

The two of them acted in perfect unison, turning to flee in separate directions.

But how could Li Wen give them that chance? His cold gaze locked onto the third man.

He decided to eliminate the weaker one first and save the strongest, Carlos, for last.

Fluctuations from the Time Law clung to the third man like a shadow, enveloping him.

He tried to burst away at top speed but felt as if he were struggling through a thick bog, his movements becoming unnaturally heavy and slow.

PFFT!

Another impossibly fast arc of light flashed by.

With despair and resentment in his eyes, the third man followed the fate of the first two, vanishing in a flash of white light.

Li Wen’s points shot up like a rocket, instantly launching him into the top five thousand of the World No. 13 rankings!

In just a few short breaths, he had gone from an unknown nobody ranked in the hundreds of millions to a top-five-thousand contender, slaying three opponents in a row as his points skyrocketed.

Li Wen slowly sheathed his blade, his calm, placid gaze falling on the last man standing—the gold-armored Jin Rock Carlos, whose face was as white as a sheet.

By now, Carlos was scared out of his wits. Where was the slightest trace of the arrogance he’d had as a top-one-thousand expert?

He couldn’t even muster the will to resist. With a strangled cry, he pushed his Earth Element Law to its absolute limit.

The ground beneath his feet roiled, launching him away like a cannonball as he fled for his life.

All he wanted now was to get as far away from this time-wielding demon as possible.

But in front of Li Wen, escape was futile.

The corner of Li Wen’s mouth seemed to curl into the faintest of smiles as his form blurred once more.

”Time-slip!”

WHOOSH!

Though he had moved second, he arrived first, materializing as if from a teleport in front of the frantically fleeing Carlos, blocking his path.

Carlos skidded to a halt. Staring at the god of slaughter standing before him, blade in hand, he felt his heart was about to leap out of his chest.

The fear of death caused him to break down completely. Casting aside all pride, he began to plead, his voice trembling:

”Wait! Friend, wait! It’s a misunderstanding! This is all a misunderstanding! The tournament has only been going for three days; there’s no need for us to fight to the death right now!

A pyrrhic victory won’t do either of us any good! If one of us gets injured and it affects the rest of the tournament, the loss will outweigh the gain! Let me go, and I, Carlos, swear I’ll repay you generously!”

He spoke in a rapid-fire burst, trying to sway Li Wen with the promise of reward.

Li Wen looked at the golden-armored man before him, so arrogant just moments ago, and shook his head, letting out a soft, inscrutable chuckle.

”A pyrrhic victory?”

His voice was calm, yet it carried an indisputable edge. ”You... are not yet qualified to injure me.”

Before the words had even faded, Li Wen’s figure vanished once more.

This time, he applied time acceleration to himself, his speed instantly skyrocketing to a terrifying level.

He left a string of clear afterimages in his wake as his true self appeared before Carlos.

Carlos, horrified beyond belief, let out a furious roar as his golden armor erupted in a blinding light.

He threw out both fists, wreathed in the Earth Element Law, in a final, desperate struggle.

His defense was indeed far superior to the other three. Runes flowed across his golden armor, forming a solid protective barrier.

But all of it seemed clumsy and fragile before the arc of Li Wen’s blade, which was fused with the Time Law.

TSSK! TSSK! TSSK!

The blade’s light precisely tore through the protective barrier, shattering the runes on the golden armor.

Finally, with the effortless grace of a master butcher, it easily broke through Carlos’s strongest defense and pierced his vitals.

Carlos’s eyes went wide with incredulous despair as his body crashed to the ground and dissolved into white light.

His points were stripped away, and Li Wen’s rank once again leaped forward!

He had entered 812th place.