High Martial: I Grind Professions

The hard ground shone with a cold, metallic luster. It was enclosed by an invisible boundary—an energy barrier—beyond which lay a boisterous virtual spectator space, where countless eyes were focused.

Sure enough, the moment Chu Feng, Nangong Xue, and the members of Li Wen’s "third-party loose alliance" landed, a silent understanding was already in place. No signal was needed.

The three teams, in the very instant they landed, moved like three giant plows, sweeping toward the relatively weak or isolated contestants in the center of the arena.

Flashes of sabers and swords, glints of spears and the force of fists erupted in an instant.

The powerful auras of the prodigies collided, letting out a dull, thunderous roar.

Afterimages flickered as blood and streams of data light sprayed through the air.

"Teaming up? That’s against the rules!"

"Dammit! This isn’t fair!"

"Damn it, they planned this!"

Those contestants who failed to find strong allies in time, or were instantly targeted by the three major teams, were still powerful in their own right. But under the combined assault of several top-tier prodigies, they stood no chance.

Cries of shock and fury rang out on the arena—completely soundproofed from the outside world by the energy barrier—only to be silenced a second later by the onslaught of merciless attacks.

The virtual spectator space erupted into chaos.

The eliminated contestants and the supporters from their schools let out a deafening storm of boos and angry denunciations:

"Shameless! Teaming up beforehand! What kind of provincial mock exam is this?"

"The three major powers have cornered the whole thing! No one else stands a chance!"

"We strongly protest! There’s a loophole in the rules!"

"..."

However, just as expected, the rules did not prohibit this kind of unofficial, verbal alliance formed before the start of the battle.

Strictly speaking, the actions of the three parties were the optimal solution found within the framework of the rules, albeit a utilitarian and ruthless one.

The proctors responsible for supervision remained calm and did not intervene.

The outcome was set. The rage of the defeated could not change a thing.

Just a little over two minutes.

When the final contestant, a fighter at the Peak of Unity Realm, was pierced through the chest by a blast of Nangong Xue’s Frost Sword Qi and dissolved into a flash of white light, only the three factions remained on the vast arena, numbering about thirty people in total.

The once chaotic battlefield instantly became empty and grim.

The three groups each occupied a corner. The air was thick with a tense atmosphere, so quiet that even breathing could be heard clearly.

The brief, suffocating silence was broken.

What should have been a three-way standoff suddenly changed.

Chu Feng held his dark silver spear, his eyes as deep and placid as an ancient well.

The members of the Provincial City First Middle School alliance behind him shifted their feet slightly.

At the same time, on the other side, Nangong Xue—the female prodigy as cold as frost—raised her ice crystal sword at an angle.

In almost the same instant, their targets were not each other, but—

"Move!" A low shout came from an unknown source.

The members of Chu Feng’s and Nangong Xue’s teams, like two well-trained armies, erupted with astonishing speed and coordination, unleashing their immense, oppressive auras.

Like two surging tides, they charged from the left and right, crashing down on the third loose alliance—the largest group, but also the most mixed in terms of strength—led by Wang Shuo.

"Chu Feng and Nangong Xue have teamed up?!"

"They’re going to wipe us out first!"

"We’re screwed!"

The loose alliance was instantly in an uproar. None of them had expected the two titans to join forces against them at this moment.

The expressions of Wang Shuo and the others changed drastically as they scrambled to organize a defense and counterattack.

The scene instantly escalated from a one-sided slaughter of the weak into a brutal, chaotic melee involving only top-tier prodigies.

Spear light coiled like a dragon, Sword Qi was chillingly sharp, saber flashes split the air, and domineering fist energy reigned... All kinds of powerful techniques clashed violently.

Massive energy fluctuations erupted across the arena in brilliant yet fatal displays of light. The piercing sound of metal clashing rang out continuously, leaving the audience breathless, their blood pumping, crying out for more.

The moment the melee erupted, Li Wen felt an immense pressure bearing down on him.

The members of Chu Feng’s and Nangong Xue’s teams were perfectly coordinated. Their target was clear, and their every move carried a chilling, murderous intent.

A sharp aura instantly locked onto him.

A tall, sturdy young man wielding a broad, serrated battle saber charged like a wild bull, breaking through the brief clashes in front of him. His blade, imbued with a heavy, earth-yellow saber intent, swung straight for Li Wen’s face.

It was none other than the prodigy ranked eighteenth in the first provincial mock exam—Zhou Kai.

"It’s Zhou Kai! He’s targeting Li Wen!"

"Zhou Kai was ranked eighteenth in the first mock exam! Li Wen is only in the forties!"

"It’s over, it’s over! Li Wen is in danger!"

In the Bluestone Third Middle School spectator area, the students who had been anxiously watching Li Wen cried out in alarm. The atmosphere instantly grew tense to the extreme.

Through the real-time scoreboard projected above the arena, they could clearly see that after the initial culling and the points being split by the third-party alliance, Li Wen’s current rank was indeed hovering in the forties.

If he were killed by Zhou Kai now, he would lose half his points and almost certainly drop out of the top fifty. This meant Li Wen’s final ranking in the second mock exam might even be lower than his first.

Zhou Kai’s eyes glinted with an arrogant battle lust, disdainful of Li Wen’s reputation. His serrated saber, carrying an oppressive aura, tore through the air with a heavy, fierce momentum, as if it could split the earth itself.

"Li Wen? Let’s see what you’re really made of!"

Facing this ferocious strike, Li Wen’s eyes were as calm as still water, without a trace of panic.

He didn’t even immediately use his newly mastered Defensive Form.

His footwork was like a flickering shadow. Instead of retreating, he advanced, sidestepping half a pace. The fast saber that had appeared in his hand at some unknown moment struck out diagonally, like a viper striking.

The gray-white saber gleam on its edge was condensed and restrained, not emitting much light, but its speed was extreme. It struck with pinpoint accuracy at the node where Zhou Kai’s saber was strongest yet also most clumsy—the thick point where the serrations met the spine of the blade.

CLANG!

A clear, melodic sound, far beyond that of a normal clash of metal.

There was no earth-shattering shockwave from the impact. It was as if Li Wen had merely brushed a speck of dust from his blade’s tip.

Zhou Kai’s heavy saber strike, which looked powerful enough to cleave mountains, was knocked sharply aside by this seemingly light flick. The immense force numbed his wrist, instantly interrupting his ferocious follow-up attack. The clever redirection of momentum caused him to lose his balance slightly.

The arrogance in Zhou Kai’s eyes vanished, replaced by sheer astonishment.

He steadied himself and let out a low roar. His serrated battle saber became a whirlwind of slashes and sweeps. Streaks of earth-yellow saber qi crisscrossed the air, each strike as heavy as a mountain, as he tried to suppress Li Wen with absolute power.

But Li Wen’s response was even more shocking to the spectating students from Bluestone Third Middle School, and even to the many experts who saw the exchange clearly.

Li Wen’s figure weaved like a phantom through the dense, heavy saber shadows. His fast saber flickered, tapping, parrying, deflecting, and guiding. The gray-white saber gleam remained restrained, yet it always managed to intercept Zhou Kai’s attacks at their most awkward points.

Zhou Kai’s assault seemed ferocious, but it was as if he were trapped in an invisible swamp. Sixty percent of his power was deflected or redirected, preventing him from ever posing a real threat.

It didn’t look like Zhou Kai was overwhelming Li Wen. Instead, it was more like Li Wen was calmly and effortlessly guiding Zhou Kai’s every attack.

Li Wen moved with his saber, borrowing and deflecting force, his cold gaze analyzing the trajectory of his opponent’s every exertion of power.

After a few exchanges, he had a clear judgment of Zhou Kai’s strength:

’His saber style prioritizes power, following the path of brute force over technique. It’s fierce, but lacks variation and finesse, especially in the transitions between power flows, where there are several minor openings.

’In terms of pure saber mastery and refinement of application, I’m a cut above him. If I were to activate Absolute Focus right now...’

A sharp glint flashed in Li Wen’s eyes, but he suppressed the urge to play his trump card:

’It wouldn’t take more than three seconds to finish him, but now isn’t the time to reveal everything.’

His figure drifted back several yards, nimbly avoiding a wide, sweeping strike from Zhou Kai, his gaze sweeping over the chaotic heart of the battlefield.

There, the light of Chu Feng’s spear and Nangong Xue’s Sword Qi had become the cores of two storms, putting immense pressure on the core members of Wang Shuo’s team.

The real clash of the titans had only just begun.

He needed to conserve his strength, to remain hidden, and to deliver a decisive blow to the strongest competitor at the most critical moment.

Zhou Kai seemed to have been thoroughly enraged by Li Wen’s composure. The muscles in his arms bulged, and the earth-yellow glow on his serrated battle saber suddenly flared.

"ROAR! Take my Earth-Splitting Slash!"

On the virtual floor of the massive coliseum, waves of energy rippled ceaselessly.

The three factions were like three writhing demonic dragons, coiled together in a deadly struggle. The clang of metal and the boom of exploding energy echoed throughout the entire space.

Zhou Kai’s roar echoed in Li Wen’s ears. Like a maddened bull, every one of his strikes was heavy and powerful, accompanied by a shriek that tore through the air.

A faint red vital energy flowed around his body, and his saber strikes were incomparably fierce. He sought to shatter Li Wen’s defense within a few blows.

However, it was as if he wasn’t facing a person, but a bottomless, icy pool.

Li Wen’s figure dodged and weaved within a tiny space. The movements of the Star-Shattering Battle Saber in his hand, wreathed in a gray-white edge, were simple and precise to the extreme.

Every block, every deflection, was as if perfectly calculated, steadily parrying Zhou Kai’s mountain-splitting attacks.

His gaze was terrifyingly calm. His profound eyes looked past the frenziedly attacking Zhou Kai, his focus locked firmly on the core of the battlefield—on the storm stirred by Chu Feng’s dark silver spear, and on the frozen path left by the Frost Sword Qi from Nangong Xue’s hand.

The center of the battle was the true stage for prodigies.

Chu Feng’s spear struck like a dragon, its shadowy glint condensed and unwavering, easily tearing through the third party’s defenses.

Nangong Xue’s figure was ethereal. Wherever the blade of her ice crystal sword passed, even the air seemed to freeze, leaving behind a chilling trail that made one’s heart palpitate.

Wang Shuo, another top-ten prodigy, and several other experts ranked in the teens struggled to hold on under the combined pressure of Chu Feng and Nangong Xue. But every clash was met with dimming light and disintegrating figures.

"Kill!"

"Hold on!"

"Aargh—!"

Screams and roars rose and fell one after another.