High Martial: I Grind Professions

Bluestone Second Middle School: Tang Jin (Real-time Points: 980).

"Come at me, you bastards!" Tang Jin roared. His massive chain hammer slammed into the ground with terrifying force, sending rubble flying.

Two blue-clothed enemies tried to block, but they were smashed—blades and all—into the pavement.

A third blue-clothed enemy launched a sneak attack from the side, but Tang Jin’s heavy shield sent him flying over ten meters with a savage bash, slamming him hard into a low wall.

Simple, brutal, and effective! His points steadily climbed.

The audience from Second Middle School was fired up. "A brute? If brute force gets the win, then he’s a true champion!"

Vocational High: Shadow (Real-time Points: 1150).

At the entrance to the sewers, a figure in black slid into the darkness, clinging to a rusted pipe like melting ink.

A moment later, the grate of a ventilation duct opened silently. A blue-clothed sniper was focused on aiming at a distant examinee who was struggling against a siege.

A cold glint flashed as a dagger plunged precisely into the back of the sniper’s neck, striking from his blind spot.

Shadow retreated silently back into the duct as his point total jumped again. Like a venomous snake in the dark, he specialized in picking off difficult targets.

A wave of low murmurs swept through the vocational high’s viewing area. "So sneaky! But damn, that was a clean kill!"

First Middle School: Qi Yuqing (Real-time Points: 750).

She weaved nimbly through cluttered streets and alleyways, using obstacles to block her enemies’ pursuit.

She cleverly led several blue- and purple-level virtual humans to an area filled with oil tanks and shell craters. She made a sharp turn, and the purple-clothed enemy closest behind her scraped its blade tip against the ground, striking a spark.

BOOM! The fiery explosion instantly engulfed the unlucky pursuers.

She seized the opportunity to leap gracefully onto another ruin, catching her breath.

"Senior Sister Qi is so smart!" She had quite a few supporters among the First Middle School students.

Bluestone Third Middle School: Li Wen (Real-time Points: 1100).

He didn’t engage in head-on clashes like Tang Jin, nor did he deliberately pursue an elegant style like Jiang Lingyun.

Li Wen’s figure moved like a shadow blending into the ruins. His steps were precise and swift, each one landing in a blind spot or on a stable piece of rubble, making almost no sound.

His targets were the so-called "Hunters" hiding in the shadows, believing themselves to be concealed.

Just as he stepped onto a relatively open street, flanked by piles of abandoned shipping containers and half-destroyed trucks, the small jade figurine deep within the sea of consciousness between his brows abruptly opened its eyes.

Invisible, imperceptible ripples of spiritual energy instantly spread out from him like a high-precision holographic scanner, covering a fifty-meter radius in three-dimensional space.

A three-dimensional model of the city block was clearly imprinted in Li Wen’s mind, as if he had activated a god’s-eye view.

Seven meters ahead and to the right, behind an overturned ice cream truck: a green-clothed swordsman held his breath, his long blade ready to launch a fatal sneak attack as Li Wen passed.

Fifteen meters to the left, inside the cabin of a crashed civilian aircraft: two blue-clothed enemies each occupied a firing position with a clear line of sight, their cold gun barrels tracking Li Wen’s movement.

Thirty meters straight ahead, behind a window on the second floor of a half-collapsed diner:

Three figures—light purple, medium purple, and dark purple—stood like statues, their vacant gazes piercing through the ruins to lock onto his position from afar.

They showed no immediate signs of attacking; they were simply observing.

But Li Wen could clearly sense a faint aura of danger emanating from the dark purple virtual human.

Dark purple represented the Unity Realm with 100% mastery over the physical body, just shy of comprehending battle momentum.

Three meters below his feet, in the shadows of an abandoned subway tunnel entrance: one blue-clothed and two green-clothed enemies lay in ambush, apparently waiting for him to engage the enemies on the surface before striking from behind.

’An organized hunt? We’ll see who’s hunting whom,’ Li Wen thought coldly.

The green-clothed enemy behind the ice cream truck made his move.

The blade flashed like a viper’s tongue, striking with cunning precision toward Li Wen’s exposed ribs.

In the live viewing area, the hearts of the students and teachers from Third Middle School leaped into their throats.

"Watch your back!"

On the screen, however, it was as if Li Wen had eyes in the back of his head.

Without breaking stride, he executed a sideways pivot so subtle it was almost imperceptible in his high-speed advance. The killing blow scraped past the fabric of his clothes, missing by a hair’s breadth.

At the same time, he flicked his wrist, and a crimson arc of blade-light flashed past in silence, as fast as lightning!

SHHNK!

As the blade-light passed, the green-clothed swordsman froze. A thin, bloody line appeared on his throat before he dissipated into a flash of white light.

Points +50!

The entire exchange happened in a flash, as fluid as a choreographed dance.

Li Wen didn’t even glance back. He continued his charge without the slightest pause, heading straight for the diner where the three purple-clothed enemies were hiding.

"Beautiful!"

"So smooth!"

"Did you see that? That’s control! The control of the Unity Realm!"

The Third Middle School’s viewing area erupted in thunderous cheers and applause.

Their worries for Li Wen instantly vanished, their excitement ignited by his precise and efficient counter-kill.

The two blue-clothed snipers in the aircraft cabin pulled their triggers the moment Li Wen entered their optimal range.

Two electromagnetic sniper rounds tore silently through the air, sealing off his escape routes.

"Watch out for snipers!" a student in the real world cried out in alarm.

Under the watch of Li Wen’s Primordial Spirit, the bullets’ trajectories were perfectly clear.

He didn’t try to dodge. Instead, he slammed his foot down on a tilted marble slab as he ran.

BANG! The slab shattered under the immense force!

Using the recoil and precise control over his center of gravity, his figure instantly executed an incredible Z-shaped change in direction while at high speed.

WHOOSH! WHOOSH!

The two sniper rounds grazed his afterimage before burying themselves in the ground, leaving behind molten holes.

The end point of his change in direction was, shockingly, the side of the crashed aircraft—a complete blind spot for the snipers inside.

In front of the screens, many in the audience couldn’t even see how Li Wen had pulled off that seemingly precognitive dodge and directional change.

Before the blue-clothed snipers could readjust their aim, the latent power of the "Sun-Piercing Rainbow" secret technique gathered in his palm.

BOOM! Li Wen viciously slashed at a seam in the aircraft’s deformed armor.

The immense power of his Unity Realm blade technique and the explosive sharpness of the "Sun-Piercing Rainbow" erupted at once.

Amidst a harsh screech of tearing metal, a huge gash was ripped open in the aircraft’s hull.

The two blue-clothed snipers inside, who had just poked their heads out to relocate, were shredded by the violent force and shattered metal.

Points +100 x 2!

In the real world:

"Hiss!"

"He took out two peak-level opponents just like that?"

"How in the world did he find them? This terrain is so complex!"

"Who cares how! That was just badass! His points are almost at 2,000! He’s a shoo-in for the top ten!"

The students from Third Middle School were so excited their faces were flushed, and many began to chant instinctively, "Li Wen! Li Wen!"

The three purple-clothed figures of varying shades on the diner’s second floor seemed to be enraged by the successive loss of their subordinates. They all moved at once.

They burst through the glass windows like cannonballs, descending in a triangular formation with the suffocating pressure of the Unity Realm and blade-lights that were even faster and stronger.

The flashes of their blades wove into a net, completely sealing off Li Wen’s escape.

In the real world:

The hearts of every spectator clenched once again.

Facing three Unity Realm opponents at once! One wrong move and it was almost certainly a death sentence! 𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶

Even the students from First and Second Middle School couldn’t help but be drawn to the intense battle.

In the shadows of the abandoned subway entrance beneath the diner, the three ambushers also seized the opportunity. They lunged out like venomous scorpions, intending to coordinate with the purple-clothed figures to deliver the final blow.

A pincer attack from above and below! A hopeless situation!

But in the face of this predicament, Li Wen’s expression remained perfectly calm.

Under the watch of his Primordial Spirit, nothing could escape his notice.

The deadly net from above and the treacherous stingers from below were imprinted in his mind like a clear vector diagram.

’Now!’ Li Wen’s eyes narrowed, showing no hint of panic.

He abandoned the conventional options of blocking or dodging, instead lunging toward the ruins to his left.

The move seemed reckless, as if he were about to crash into a teetering pile of prefabricated concrete slabs, putting himself in an even more perilous position.

Both the descending purple-clothed figures and the ambushers emerging from below instantly adjusted their trajectories to lock onto him.

However—

RUMBLE!