High Martial: I Grind Professions

Chapter 536: Chapter 332: Slaughter Through

A massive, damp, and gloomy cavern lay underground, formed by the tangled roots of a giant tree.

Keynes cowered in a narrow crevice deep inside, barely large enough for one person.

He desperately suppressed the signature glow of the Holy Radiance Race until it was nearly extinguished. His chest heaved violently, each breath a shuddering gasp of someone who had just escaped death.

He had just survived a brutal hunt, giving everything he had to barely shake off a ferocious opponent and hide here.

The wounds on his body still ached faintly, and his spirit was utterly exhausted.

The broadcast announcing Sheng Mos’s fall boomed like a thunderclap in the cave where he hid.

”Sheng Mos... is dead? Killed by Li Wen...” Keynes trembled, his face instantly turning deathly pale. 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

The image of Li Wen from Trial Base 7 surfaced in his mind—that calm yet unfathomable figure—along with his own pathetic sense of superiority back then.

Now, that figure loomed impossibly large in his thoughts, transformed into a terrifying god of slaughter.

’Even a monster like Sheng Mos...’ The fear in Keynes’s heart magnified endlessly.

Any pride he had as a member of the Holy Radiance Race, any goal of breaking into the top million, was now replaced by the most primal instinct to survive.

’Hide... I have to stay hidden... Just hold on until the end...’ he chanted frantically in his mind, curling up even tighter.

...

...

Time slipped by amidst fear and slaughter.

Three days passed in a flash.

For the survivors in Giant Wood World #13, those three days were hell.

The name ’Li Wen, the God of Slaughter,’ echoed through the world with increasing frequency, carried by one cold system broadcast after another.

Each announcement signified the fall of another top-100 expert!

Indiscriminate! Ruthless! Efficient!

Li Wen’s figure, like the Reaper incarnate, moved through the skies, forests, and caves of World #13.

His Spiritual Sense had an astonishing range, and when combined with the terrifying speed granted by the Time Law, no contestant he discovered could escape their fate. Whether they fought back stubbornly or fled for their lives, they all ended up dissolving into a flash of white light.

In just three short days, nearly thirty of the top one hundred contestants had fallen to his blade!

Every time a broadcast sounded, a commotion would erupt in the spectator area.

The section for the Lain Empire had long since devolved into a sea of frenzy.

Every announcement of ”Li Wen has killed XXX” was met with deafening cheers, as if proclaiming the glory of their empire.

Meanwhile, the spectators from the other empires, especially the Tyrone Empire, looked grimmer with each passing announcement.

A sense of helpless despair spread as they watched Li Wen’s name remain unshakably fixed at the top of the leaderboard, his points skyrocketing like a runaway snowball.

Li Wen’s score had opened up an insurmountable gap between him and Nash, who was in second place.

The title ’God of Slaughter’ was forged, solid and true, from the blood and points of the top one hundred experts.

Throughout World #13, everyone was on edge, spooked by the slightest sound.

The only thought for those lucky enough to still be in the top hundred, or those who thought they had a sliver of a chance to break in, was to—Hide!

The deeper, the better!

They prayed the God of Slaughter wouldn’t find them, prayed they could just survive until the thirty days were up.

...

...

A vast plain was covered in ten-foot-tall weeds that emitted a strange, fluorescent glow.

The wind rustled through the grass, but the plain was silent, as if even the insects had vanished.

Suddenly, the air rippled, and a figure in black appeared without warning in midair.

It was Li Wen, dressed in black with black hair, a long saber dangling from his left hand.

He hovered in the air, his eagle-like gaze sweeping over the sea of grass swaying below, his eyes as sharp as a knife.

After a moment, his gaze locked onto a spot on the plain.

The corner of his mouth curled into a cold arc. His eyes were those of a predator that had just locked onto its prey.

”Finally found you, Nash.” His whisper dispersed in the wind.

「Dozens of miles away.」

Nash, who had just emerged from the shadows at the base of a giant fluorescent blade of grass to find his next prey, suddenly felt the hair on his body stand on end.

A bone-chilling sense of mortal danger descended without warning, as if he were being stared down by a ferocious beast from the abyss.

”Damn it! It’s that fiend!” Nash’s expression changed drastically as the realization hit him.

In all of World #13, only one person could exude such terrifying pressure: the God of Slaughter, Li Wen.

Without a shred of hesitation, without even needing to confirm which direction the enemy was in, the instinct to survive overrode everything else.

The earthy-yellow light of his Law erupted from Nash’s body, and he instantly sank into the ground beneath his feet, like a drop of water into sand.

His speed was astonishing, and he left almost no trace.

He had comprehended the Earth Element Law.

The underground was his home turf.

Not only were his Defense Power and attack power greatly amplified underground, but his burrowing speed far surpassed what he could achieve on the surface or in the air.

This was the greatest source of his confidence, the reason he still dared to hunt for points while everyone else was in hiding.

Dozens of miles away, Li Wen clearly sensed the trajectory of that Earth Element Law energy as it rapidly fled deep underground. ”Trying to run?”

His eyes turned cold, and his figure blurred in an instant.

The flow of time distorted around him, and his speed abruptly surged to an unbelievable level.

He became a black streak of lightning, shooting off in the direction Nash had fled.

At the same time, his immense Spiritual Sense spread out like a vast, invisible net, locking tightly onto the fast-moving ball of earthy-yellow light deep underground.

A heart-pounding underground chase began in an instant!

Nash pushed his Earth Element Law to its absolute limit.

At times, he would soften the rock layers ahead of him into mud to speed his way through; at others, he would instantly conjure thick, solid rock walls behind him in an attempt to block his pursuer.