High Martial: I Grind Professions

Chapter 167: Chapter 129: Stargate

”You will have a short rest. In one hour... the final assessment will begin—live combat.”

The voice of the Chuhe King, seemingly carrying an immeasurable weight, suddenly rose in volume, piercing through the lingering gasps of awe and murmurs of discussion above the Enlightenment Plaza.

The invisible shockwave of his voice washed over the heart of every prodigy.

The massive stir caused by the comprehension assessment results had yet to calm. Many were still caught up in anxiously contemplating their rankings. But now, an even more terrifying, ultimate trial had mercilessly arrived.

For a moment, a strange quiet fell over the boisterous plaza. In that silence, everyone’s blood began to pound in their veins.

Almost instinctively, over a thousand pairs of eyes snapped back to the slender yet remarkably upright figure in the center of the field—Li Wen.

He was the one whose Spiritual Sense was rated ”Peerless,” the one who, under the gazes of thousands, had comprehended ten stances to surpass everyone and claim first place.

And he was a skill-type Awakened, one whose abilities lay in insight, perception, and combat control.

He already possessed the innate advantage of seeing through the battlefield and anticipating his enemy’s every move, making him a natural-born warrior.

’Now, what happens when you combine that with his world-shocking, ”Peerless” Spiritual Sense?’

’It means that in a life-or-death battle where the situation can change in an instant, he will possess an unrivaled ability to gather information, analyze the situation, and react.’

’Adding wings to a tiger? No, this was more like a divine dragon returning to the sea, or a flood dragon plumbing the abyss.’

A single thought, tinged with intense apprehension and even greater curiosity, surfaced in everyone’s mind.

’Just how terrifying will his performance in live combat be?’

Could this dark horse, who had fought his way up from behind, once again shatter everyone’s expectations in the final and most critical stage—live combat?

In the crowd, Ron’s golden pupils contracted slightly as he clenched his fists. Du Yun’s expression was grave, his aura as heavy as a volcano on the verge of eruption.

Chu Feng pursed his lips, a complex glint in his eyes. Nangong Xue’s ice-blue gaze drifted to the distance, lost in thought.

...

The very air across the plaza seemed to grow thick, charged with the tension of the coming battle.

Li Wen, too, felt the torrent of gazes, so intense they felt tangible.

He lifted his gaze, looking calmly past the sea of bobbing heads and into the distance.

In the preceding strength test, he had been constrained by his beginner-level Martial Artist physique, achieving a score of only 105 floors and fading into mediocrity among the top prodigies.

But for the final live combat test... everyone’s physical body would be standardized to the level of a High-level Martial Artist.

This meant the final shackle on his combat prowess—his only weakness—was now gone.

The brilliant edge he had suppressed for so long was finally free of obstruction.

Deep within Li Wen’s eyes, the placid lake was shattered. A sharp glint ignited, burning like a wildfire sweeping across the plains.

...

Time had never passed so quickly.

For the thousand prodigies holding their breath and centering themselves, the one-hour rest felt like it was over in just a few deep breaths.

「Afternoon.」

Guided by attendants in archaic robes, the thousand prodigies filed into a building of unimaginable grandeur—Ember University’s Virtual Center.

Gone were the simple helmets and metal platforms. In their place were over a thousand devices, arranged in neat rows that stretched as far as the eye could see.

A cool, ethereal blue light flowed across their sleek, futuristic frames, making them look like precisely sculpted works of art lying in silent slumber.

Each device pulsed with a powerful energy, creating a strange harmony with the ancient academy’s atmosphere—a perfect fusion of cutting-edge technology and the time-honored Martial Dao.

Not only Li Wen but even the well-traveled Ron and Fang Chenghong, who hailed from a technologically advanced planet, were awed by this understated luxury and the immense technological power it represented.

A silent, oppressive feeling permeated the air—a mixture of the top-tier academy’s deep heritage and the bloody slaughter that was about to unfold.

”Take your positions according to your assigned number.” A crisp, cool voice echoed through the vast hall.

No one needed to be told twice. The thousand prodigies quickly found their virtual pods, their movements a mixture of tension and excitement.

VMM—As the heavy pod door slid shut without a sound, a faint neural link signal shot through their senses like a jolt of electricity.

When their vision cleared, they were no longer in the familiar simulation plaza.

A bone-chilling cold mixed with dry, grit-laden wind assaulted their faces.

The wind howled a mournful dirge, carrying the scent of rust and gunpowder.

Beneath their feet was cold, rough, ocher-colored earth. Li Wen and the others found themselves scattered at the base of four hundred-meter-tall city walls.

Strangely, they were all facing inward, toward the city, not out at the vast wasteland beyond the walls.

An empty city.

A massive, deathly still city of stone.

Li Wen’s gaze swept across the scene. Dilapidated streets crisscrossed the city, and abandoned houses stood like the skeletons of great beasts.

Besides the wind, the entire city was silent. Then, his gaze was violently seized by something in the city center.

A colossal, indescribable ”doorframe” towered over the ground, reaching a height of nearly thirty meters.

Its material was neither metal nor stone, yet it shimmered with a dark, cold metallic sheen. Its edges were engraved with countless runes, so complex they were dizzying, which now pulsed with a faint, eerie light, as if breathing.

In the center of the gate, where a door should be, was a slowly rotating, deep, and vast vortex of a nebula, twinkling with innumerable specks of starlight.

It looked like a wormhole to the void or some great abyss. As its light swirled, it emitted mysterious and terrifying spatial fluctuations.

The sensation was incredibly real, as if one could step through it and arrive in a completely different world.

”Hiss... a Stargate.” The voice, coming from a corner, was filled with utter shock and disbelief.

”What? A Stargate?!” More exclamations spread through the crowd like ripples.

’A Stargate?’ Li Wen’s memory flooded back like a reversed tide.

Fang Chengwu’s solemn expression appeared before his mind’s eye... his chilling words detonated in his thoughts once more:

”Blue Star’s underground is riddled with Stargates... They’re divided into temporary and permanent gates... The size of the gate determines the upper limit of the invading aliens’ power... Our greatest enemy is the Alien Demon Race from the depths of space... They see humans and Demon Beasts as nothing more than resources...”

An icy chill shot up his spine.

’So that’s it.’ The simulated scene before him was a projection of an actual Star Gate outpost.

The city’s desolation was a tragic microcosm of a place that had been repeatedly washed in blood.

’Is this... the war humanity has to face?’ The realization hit Li Wen with the weight of a mountain.

’The front lines... is this a simulation of Celestial Wind Pass? Or some other place?’

He thought of Marquis Ningwei, who stood guard over a medium-sized, permanent Star Gate.

”I imagine some of you have already recognized this.” A clear voice, carrying with it an boundless authority, suddenly echoed from the city’s center, instantly silencing all chatter and debate.

Everyone looked toward the source of the voice. Atop the massive Star Gate, a figure in green robes had appeared at some unknown point. He stood with his hands clasped behind his back, his robes whipping in the wind. It was Marquis Qingyuan.

His calm gaze swept over the young faces arrayed at the foot of the four walls, his eyes as deep as a starlit, ancient abyss.

”That’s right. This is a Stargate. Your one and only mission in this final assessment—” Marquis Qingyuan’s voice suddenly turned sharp, carrying a piercing quality like the clang of steel.

”Is to prevent and to kill.”

”Prevent any member of the Demon Race that comes from this gate from reaching the top of the walls.”

”Kill every demon that comes through the Star Gate.”

”Your final score will depend on only two factors: first, the number you kill. Second, the individual strength of those you kill.”

The words were concise. There were no embellishments, only cold, bloody orders.

The moment his voice faded, Marquis Qingyuan’s figure vanished into thin air, like a wisp of green smoke scattered by the wind.

RUMBLE!

In the city’s center, the swirling vortex of the nebula suddenly erupted with an unprecedented, dazzling light.

The blinding starlight, like that of an exploding star, instantly bathed the dead, empty city in a ghastly, pale white.

And then—

”ROAR! GROWL! AWOOO!!!”

An uncountable number of chaotic, tyrannical roars, filled with pure bloodlust and a desire for slaughter, erupted from the center of the starlit vortex like rolling thunder.

The sound pierced the heavens. As the light dimmed slightly, a tide of figures emerged!

No—a tide of demons.

They appeared, a black torrent rushing forth as if from a shattered dam.

Their forms were bizarre, a thousand strange and grotesque shapes.

Some stood nearly three meters tall, their muscles gnarled like stone, with green faces and savage tusks. Others were less than a meter tall, as agile as phantoms, with pointed ears and sharp fangs.

Still others were covered in scales or bone armor, like bipedal beasts... Their only common feature was the combination of a humanoid body with a savage, bestial head, all of them exuding a sickening demonic aura.

These ”humanoid demons” clutched an equally diverse array of weapons that gleamed with a dull light—great-axes, bone spikes, poisoned daggers, warped scimitars... They were clearly well-armed and highly skilled in combat.

Their auras... were uniformly that of High-level Martial Artists.

Identical to the prodigies standing below the walls.

Their numbers... were a dense, endless swarm.

With a single surge, at least ten thousand members of the Demon Race poured out of the Star Gate.

In an instant, they had completely filled the wide central plaza of the city. A thick, cloyingly sweet miasma of demonic energy and bloodlust billowed into the air, forming a vast, crimson cloud that blotted out the light from the virtual sky.

The demon tide showed no hesitation.

Like bloodhounds catching the scent of prey, they snapped their heads up in unison. Tens of thousands of demonic eyes—crimson, emerald, or ghastly white—instantly locked onto the thousand tiny figures at the base of the walls.

The killing intent was a tangible, bone-chilling gale.

Then—

”AWOOOOOO—!!!”

A unified war cry, even more ferocious than before and seemingly issued by ten thousand demons at once, shook the very foundations of the city walls.

In a matter of moments, the tens of thousands of High-level Martial Artist-rank demons automatically sorted themselves into four devastating torrents, like four cataclysmic landslides.

Brimming with a mad desire to crush everything in their path, they launched the most primitive and brutal of assaults from four different directions... a charge aimed at the four city walls.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

Countless bare feet, hooved claws, and insectoid legs trampled the hard ground, the sound of their advance converging into a terrifying tsunami.