High Martial: I Grind Professions

Chapter 552: Chapter 339: Battle with Saphis 2

His opponent’s figure dissolved into motes of starlight, vanishing from the arena.

”Winner: Li Wen (Lain Empire)!” the cold system notification chimed.

The entire process took a mere three seconds.

In the stands, the spectators supporting Li Wen instantly erupted into even more frenzied cheers, the roar of the crowd threatening to shatter the entire virtual space.

Countless people screamed in excitement, celebrating the foregone yet utterly decisive victory.

Hearing the tsunami of cheers, a faint smile touched Li Wen’s lips, and he gave a small wave toward the stands.

That simple gesture instantly ignited an even greater fervor.

The chants of ”God of Slaughter! Invincible!” reached a new crescendo.

Since the battles in most of the other arenas were still raging, Li Wen was teleported back to the waiting area.

He had just found his footing in the pure white space when he saw Blood Slaughter Barton.

This God of Slaughter from the Murphy Empire, ranked first on the overall leaderboard, was sitting cross-legged alone in a corner.

His blood-red eyes were downcast, his body shrouded in a palpable killing aura, as if he had just emerged from a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood.

He had finished his battle even earlier than Li Wen.

The waiting area was nearly empty at the moment; including Li Wen and Barton, there were only five people in total.

Without exception, they were all top-tier experts whose strength far surpassed their peers, each capable of ending a battle in an instant.

The few of them glanced at one another before silently sitting down cross-legged to meditate and wait for what was to come.

Time ticked by, second by second.

Several minutes later, all the battles of the first round finally concluded.

A flood of figures was teleported back into the waiting area, and the once-silent space instantly became clamorous.

Some excitedly discussed their victories, while others ruefully analyzed their mistakes.

...

The subsequent matches progressed like clockwork.

Match after match, though Li Wen faced some formidable opponents, none could withstand a single exchange with him.

When the notification for the end of his one-hundredth battle sounded, the first day of the competition came to a close.

Perhaps due to a deliberate arrangement by the Source Net system, Li Wen did not encounter any of the top-tier opponents like Barton or Hua Sha that day.

He effortlessly secured a one-hundred-win streak, earning one hundred points and cementing his position near the top of the leaderboard.

...

「Time flew. In the blink of an eye, it was the third day of the third stage of the competition.」

After Li Wen cleanly dispatched his 240th opponent, securing an impressive 240-match winning streak, a name finally appeared on the light screen in his waiting area—a name he had long awaited, and one that made countless spectators hold their breath.

[Next Match: Li Wen (Lain Empire) vs. Saphis Yingge (Alka Empire)]

The moment he saw the name, the corners of Li Wen’s mouth curled up involuntarily into a cold, anticipatory smile.

Ever since the hostile threat at the bone-age verification center, followed by the sinister glares and palpable jealousy he’d felt in the waiting area, this so-called genius of the Yingge Clan had been on his blacklist.

It was just that the random matchmaking had, until now, failed to grant him his wish.

「Meanwhile, at the other end of the waiting area.」

Saphis Yingge stared at the identical match information on his own light screen.

A smile also appeared on his face, only his was one filled with sinister cruelty.

He had long since calculated this, anticipating the duel that was bound to happen sooner or later.

At this moment, his heart was filled with a pathological excitement.

’Finally, my chance to crush this low-born cur under my heel in front of billions of spectators!’

He couldn’t even stop himself from muttering aloud, his voice laced with harsh mockery and disdain:

”Heh... Li Wen? Reached the eighth floor of the Heaven-Reaching Tower at a bone age of forty? His talent is somewhat interesting, I’ll give him that. But... that’s as far as it goes.”

While he acknowledged that Li Wen’s talent was impressive for reaching the eighth floor of the Heaven-Reaching Tower at a bone age of forty, he still didn’t believe Li Wen could go much further.

All because Li Wen had chosen the most difficult of Laws—the Time Law.

After all, throughout history, the Alka Empire had produced many extraordinarily gifted individuals, some with even greater talent than Li Wen.

Yet even so, many among them who specialized in the Time Law had failed to progress very far down that path.

The lucky ones might manage to cultivate to the level of a Tier Nine Star Lord; the less fortunate couldn’t even reach Tier Seven Star Lord.

Those who could break through to the Immortal realm using the Time Law were as rare as a phoenix’s feather.

But this Li Wen was even more arrogant. Not only had he chosen the Time Law, but he’d also chosen to dual-cultivate both his physical body and his Primordial Spirit.

That was why he was utterly convinced Li Wen couldn’t possibly get very far.

At this thought, the sneer on Saphis’s face deepened.

He was convinced that Li Wen was simply throwing his own future away.

Soon, the light of teleportation enveloped them both.

On the arena stage, the figures of Li Wen and Saphis Yingge materialized at the same time.

Saphis still possessed the same androgynously handsome features.

Only now, his chin was slightly raised, his gaze contemptuous and filled with the characteristic arrogance of the Yingge Clan.

He looked at the impassive Li Wen opposite him and was the first to speak, his voice deliberately raised to carry clearly throughout the entire arena space:

”A barbarian from a low-tier empire dares to call himself ’God of Slaughter’? Hmph, what a laughable title. Today, right here under the gaze of millions,

I will personally tear away your facade and show everyone just how pathetic a frog in a well you are—overestimating your abilities, choosing the Time Law, and even deluding yourself with dual-cultivation. We’ll see how easily you break!”

”Countdown: 3... 2... 1... Begin!”

The cold system notification cut off Saphis’s carefully prepared trash talk.

From start to finish, Li Wen’s gaze remained placid and undisturbed, as if his opponent were nothing more than a noisy pocket of air. He simply chose to ignore him.

This utter disregard was more humiliating to Saphis than any verbal retort could ever be.

The sinister glint in his eyes instantly solidified into tangible killing intent.

”You’re courting death!”

Saphis shrieked, and his figure abruptly blurred, like ink bleeding into shadow.

He activated his signature technique, Void Shadow Meld.

His entire body seemed to split into dozens of Ghost Shadows, making it impossible to tell the real from the illusory.

From every direction—above, below, left, and right—they swarmed Li Wen at a speed that surpassed the limits of the naked eye.

The bone-chilling killing intent nearly froze the air, and every shadow glinted with a cold light capable of tearing through a Star Lord’s armor.

Those were his Void Shadow Blades, nurtured over many years.

The battle instantly reached a fever pitch!

Saphis’s speed was astounding; he pushed the Yingge Clan’s innate talent for shadow and speed to its absolute limit.

He circled and lunged at Li Wen at high speed, his shadow blades striking like a viper’s fangs—viciously and cunningly aimed at Li Wen’s vital points.

All that remained in the air were the sharp shrieks of tearing wind and a blur of fleeting afterimages.

Li Wen, in contrast, appeared far more composed.

His footwork seemed slow, yet he always managed to evade the deadliest edges of the blades with the most minute of movements.

With palms, brushes, and flicks of his hands, he demonstrated a flawless mastery of the Time Law.

At times, he would form a small field of accelerated time around his body to deflect attacks.

At others, he would freeze a blade’s edge at a critical moment, causing it to veer off course.

On the rare occasion a blade grazed him, his formidable physique, comparable to that of a Tier Two Star Lord, was more than enough to withstand the blow, leaving only a faint white scratch on his battle armor.

On the arena stage, Saphis had transformed into a thousand phantoms.

His assault was a raging tempest, completely submerging Li Wen’s figure in a violent, black storm.

The ceaseless shrieks of shadow blades slicing through the air filled the arena, and Li Wen’s defenses seemed on the verge of collapse.

In the stands, the Yingge Clan faction supporting Saphis erupted in thunderous cheers, as if victory were already in their grasp.

’Excellent! Just like that! He can’t hold on any longer!’ Saphis was ecstatic, his eyes glinting with excitement.

He felt his strategy was working perfectly.

Just as he’d predicted, Li Wen’s movements were beginning to show an extremely subtle lag under his high-speed suppression.

’An opening! Now’s my chance!’

Just as Li Wen parried a diagonal slash from a shadow blade, his arm seemed to enter that fleeting moment of vulnerability between moves—the old force spent, the new one yet to be generated—

CLANG!

A triumphant glint flashed in Saphis’s eyes! The ”opening” he had been waiting for had finally appeared!

”Thousand Shadow Annihilation! Now, shatter!”

He gathered the power of all his phantoms, his true body abruptly materializing high in the air directly above Li Wen.

With his hands raised high, countless pitch-black shadow blades converged and interwove with frenzied speed, as if drawn in by a black hole.

In an instant, they formed a colossal dark blade that seemed capable of devouring all light!

The colossal blade was wreathed in spatial distortions that tore at the very air, exuding a terrifying, world-ending aura!

This was the ultimate killing blow he had devised, perfectly timed for the ”opening” he had predicted in Li Wen’s defense.

It was the culmination of his profound understanding of the Law of the Void.