High Martial: I Grind Professions

Chapter 309: Chapter 179: The Demon Emperor Appears, Mountain Rain Pass in Peril

His vast and keen Primordial Spirit perception was like an invisible tide.

It swept across the entirety of Changning City and its key surrounding nodes with a range and precision that far surpassed anything he could do before.

What would have previously taken him ten minutes to patrol at full speed, his Primordial Spirit now meticulously completed in just two minutes. The efficiency was terrifying.

To test the likelihood of this solidified Primordial Spirit body being discovered, he directed his Primordial Spirit to descend onto the busiest street in the city center.

The Primordial Spirit body adjusted itself slightly, obscuring its mouth and nose in the shadow of its clothes, then merged into the crowd and began walking at a normal pace.

Pedestrians passed by it without a second glance, as if it were just a silent, plainly dressed passerby with a slightly odd way of carrying itself.

Only those born with exceptionally keen Spiritual Power might feel a faint, almost imperceptible pressure, but would find it nearly impossible to discern its true nature.

A Primordial Spirit solidified to the point of being indistinguishable from a living person—this was the very origin of the name ”Avatar State.”

It also explained how those at the peak of the King-level could rely on this Divine Technique to create avatars and simultaneously guard different strategic locations, making it difficult for the Demon Race to distinguish the real from the fake.

Satisfied, he ended the test. The Primordial Spirit body instantly left the crowd, turning into a streak of light barely visible to the naked eye. It returned to the meditation chamber in the underground fortress and re-entered Li Wen through the crown of his head, merging perfectly with his physical body.

After its return, Li Wen did not get up immediately. He began to carefully assess the comprehensive leap in power that came with reaching the Fourth Layer of Primordial Spirit.

First was his conventional combat power.

He mobilized the power of his Primordial Spirit, meticulously fusing it into the True Essence circulating throughout his body.

In an instant, the activity and explosive power of the True Essence in his body surged, and a sense of greater power filled his entire being.

He made a quick assessment: with the amplification from fusing it into his True Essence alone, his normal combat power was now comparable to that of an ’entry-level Marquis Level’ expert. The boost was more than double what it had been previously.

Furthermore, the duration he could stably maintain this fused state had extended from a brief period to several minutes.

Taking it a step further, he completely fused the even more immense power of his Primordial Spirit into every inch of his flesh and bone!

BOOM!

An even more violent and tyrannical sense of power instantly erupted.

His muscle fibers felt as if they had been injected with the power of stars, his bones emitted a faint hum, and every movement contained a colossal force capable of tearing space itself.

His combat power now stood firmly in the ’normal Marquis Level’ domain. The boost had reached a staggering fivefold.

And this state of extreme fusion, though it consumed a huge amount of energy, now lasted for about a minute, extended from a mere few dozen seconds before.

These two tiers of amplification meant that without relying on any Primordial Spirit attack Secret Techniques, and solely depending on his own Martial Arts Cultivation combined with the power of Primordial Spirit fusion, Li Wen already possessed the raw power to match or even suppress most Marquis Level experts.

However, this was not the most crucial improvement from his breakthrough.

For him, the greatest qualitative change lay in his ultimate killing move, the Primordial Spirit attack: the *Shocking God Stab*.

The perfected 7th Layer of the *Shocking God Stab*, when activated at the Third Layer of Primordial Spirit, could already produce a terrifying spiritual piercing capable of posing a fatal threat to ’entry-level Marquis Level’ experts.

Now, with his Primordial Spirit stepping into the fourth layer, the very essence of his Primordial Spirit power had undergone a qualitative leap, like being upgraded from refined iron to divine gold.

Li Wen calmly assessed its power. ’Using this purer, more tyrannical Primordial Spirit power to activate the runes of the 7th Layer *Shocking God Stab*...’

’An ordinary Marquis Level expert hit by this attack would have their soul and Primordial Spirit instantly and utterly annihilated, with no chance of survival.’

’If a top-tier Marquis Level expert encountered it without a top-grade Primordial Spirit defensive secret treasure or technique, they would also be in extreme peril.’

His offensive capabilities in the way of the Primordial Spirit had, at this point, firmly established themselves at the peak Marquis standard.

...

「Late night, August 1st, Year 235 of the Galactic Calendar.」

「The heart of Jiangnan Province, Mountain Rain Pass.」

As the largest interstellar fortress in the province, Mountain Rain Pass was filled with an almost stagnant, deathly silence.

It was a stark contrast to the bustling scenes in places like Bluestone County, Rocksolid Pass, or even Changning City, which were teeming with people and stationed experts.

Inside the core area here, it was so quiet that the only sounds were the low hum of the energy matrix and the occasional, faint ticking of monitoring equipment.

The root of this abnormal silence was its guardian—the King-level expert, the Mountain Rain King.

Ever since he had personally taken up station here several years ago, the Stargate connected to Mountain Rain Pass had been firmly locked down by an invisible deterrent.

The Stargate itself was only as large as a major pass, capable of accommodating beings up to the Marquis Level of the Demon Race.

If the Demon Race dared to send Marquis Level demons through, it would be no different from moths flying into a flame.

The presence of the Mountain Rain King was the pass’s most solid, and also its only, bulwark.

This long period of peace had caused the number of stationed experts at the pass, including maintenance and monitoring personnel, to dwindle to fewer than ten people.

At this moment, the Mountain Rain King was sitting quietly in the core cultivation chamber of the pass, his aura as vast and immovable as a boundless mountain range.

Since he began his watch, this place had become a forbidden land that struck terror into the hearts of the Demon Race; even probing harassments had become rare.

The Demon Race knew full well that sending in cannon fodder would be pointless, only serving to increase their casualties.

However, the Demon Realm was not sitting idly by.

On the other side in the Demon Realm, connected to the Mountain Rain Pass Stargate, the atmosphere was as heavy as lead.

Ten figures exuding terrifying demonic auras and overwhelming might stood solemnly. They were all Great Demon Kings, capable of matching the King-level experts of the Human Race.

Among them was the Five-tailed Celestial Fox, Fu Yan, who had recently lost a close blood relative. The flames of vengeance in its eyes had not been extinguished; on the contrary, they had grown even colder from suppression.