High Martial: I Grind Professions

Chapter 450: Chapter 288: An Interlude

There were slender humanoid creatures with pale blue skin and several soft, glowing antennae on their heads.

There were also stalwart giants, over three meters tall, with muscles gnarled like rock and skin that resembled a keratinous hide.

There were also diminutive races, as small as children and only a couple of feet tall, yet their movements were exceptionally agile and swift.

And there were even more bizarre beings: some with transparent wings sprouting from their backs, others with a vertical eye on their foreheads, and still others with arthropod-like limbs. The variety of forms and races was endless.

But they all had one thing in common: they were all humanoid.

Li Wen keenly sensed that among these alien visitors just disembarking from their ships, their auras were generally not powerful. Those who had reached the Venerable Realm were few and far between.

As Li Wen observed them, they were also observing him.

This was because everyone else had disembarked from a ship, while he alone stood on the platform.

He naturally stood out from the crowd, drawing many curious, reverent, and even inquisitive looks.

He hadn’t arrived on a ship. What did that imply?

Either he had consumed a precious Time Stone to travel alone through the river of time—a symbol of wealth, power, or backing.

Or, he had comprehended the Time Law, which was a sign of even greater power.

Or... he had flown all the way here, crossing the void with nothing but his physical body.

But in any rational assessment, the probability of the latter was virtually zero.

The nearest life-bearing planet to Lain was thousands of light-years away.

Spending hundreds or even thousands of years just to fly to a single planet? That would be an act of unimaginable folly.

And so, everyone who noticed Li Wen almost instantly reached the same conclusion.

He must have traveled through the river of time!

He either possessed immense personal strength or hailed from a powerful family or faction.

In their eyes, Li Wen’s status rose even higher.

This invisible aura of status also affected the official personnel of Lain.

A staff member clad in standard-issue silver flexible armor briskly approached. His aura was calm and steady, and impressively, he had reached the King-level.

His demeanor was respectful yet proper. He proactively placed a hand over his chest in a salute to Li Wen and spoke in clear, if slightly accented, Galactic Common:

”Honored sir, welcome to Lain. Is this your first visit? Do you require directions to the nearest city, Dubhe City, or somewhere else?”

Li Wen’s expression was placid. He replied in the same standard, unaccented Galactic Common, ”Yes, it’s my first time. Just point me toward Dubhe City.”

His voice was steady and powerful, and his Galactic Common was so flawless it sounded like his native tongue.

At these words, a flicker of surprise, nearly imperceptible, flashed in the staff member’s eyes, and his respectful demeanor intensified.

’Such perfect Galactic Common isn’t something a person from some backwater place could easily master.’

’It further confirms my suspicion that this Li Wen comes from a significant background.’

Little did the man know that for Li Wen, who possessed the Scholar class, mastering a language that took others years of practice was child’s play.

He immediately turned to the side, his posture growing even more deferential as he gestured for Li Wen to follow.

”Of course, sir. Please, follow me. There is a dedicated guidance channel ahead that will allow you to fly directly toward Dubhe City. Once you enter the city, you’ll find more detailed navigational aids.”

Li Wen nodded slightly and looked in the direction the staff member was pointing.

Looking at this man before him—a guide who exuded a King-level aura—Li Wen couldn’t help but feel a stir of emotion.

’Back on Blue Star, a King-level expert is a titan who presides over an entire region, a revered powerhouse and a core pillar of the Human Race.’

’Yet here on Lain, a simple staff member at the planet’s entry platform possesses such power.’

’A quick glance across the platform reveals that Marquis Level auras are commonplace among the bustling crowds; those below that rank are actually the minority.’

However, Li Wen didn’t dwell on it or show any surprise.

’I know this is just the periphery of Lain; the true core lies deeper within.’

”Thanks,” Li Wen said to the staff member, not lingering any longer.

His body blurred into a streak of light, nearly invisible to the naked eye, as he instantly accelerated.

He shot along the wide aerial path the staff member had indicated, heading toward the nearest mega-city, Dubhe City.

’Just as Ancestral Master Chang Jia’s intel suggested, the entirety of Lain is enveloped in an impossibly powerful void-sealing Array.’

Li Wen tried to subtly channel the power of space and found the resistance immense—far stronger than anything on Blue Star.

’Even a Low Tier Star Lord would probably struggle to tear through space for a simple teleportation here.’

’Travel here has to be done with raw flight speed.’

Fortunately, speed had always been Li Wen’s forte.

The power of his Primordial Spirit combined perfectly with the formidable physique he had forged through the Martial Dao.

His True Aura flared, propelling his body forward through the air at a terrifying speed that far surpassed any ordinary Venerable.

Just a few minutes later, a sight of indescribable magnificence overwhelmed his vision.

Dubhe City!

This mega-city, the gateway from space, completely shattered Li Wen’s concept of what a ”city” could be.

It wasn’t built on traditional ground, but rather integrated into the unique surface structure of Lain.

Its borders stretched to the very edge of the continental shelf, with a churning, bizarrely-colored liquid ocean swirling below.

The city seemed to stretch on endlessly, its total area far exceeding the entire surface of Blue Star!

Countless skyscrapers, massive as mountain ranges, pierced the clouds, constructed from some material that was neither metal nor stone.

They gleamed with the unique luster of metal or Energy Crystals, their forms ranging from sharp and angular to sleek and rounded, all exuding a futuristic aesthetic.

A multi-layered, crisscrossing transportation network wove between the buildings.

Countless flying vehicles of all shapes and sizes—from small, shuttle-like personal flyers to massive public transport ships—zipped ceaselessly along invisible sky-lanes in an orderly, high-speed flow.

Enormous holographic billboards floated a thousand meters high, advertising goods, services, and bizarre tourist destinations Li Wen had never seen before.

Light and shadow flowed across them, and the sound seemed to be directionally broadcast through some sort of force field, preventing any chaotic noise.

The massive city was a perfect fusion of unimaginable feats of engineering and a highly advanced technological civilization.

Majestic, advanced, bustling, and vibrant.

This was Li Wen’s first impression of Dubhe City, and it was merely the tip of the iceberg of Lain’s might.

Dubhe City, a megalopolis that fused ultimate technology with a powerful cultivation civilization, revealed its highly efficient nature to Li Wen.

He hovered for a moment, his gaze locking with precision onto a magnificent, crowded building: the Lain Empire’s Interstellar Citizen Registration and Authentication Center.

Blue Star had been disconnected for too long, forgotten in a corner of the vast Star Sea. As for him, Li Wen, he was currently, in no uncertain terms, an undocumented person.

’Identity... is the first ticket of admission to the stage of this Star River,’ Li Wen understood.

Without a legal identity, getting anywhere in the Lain Empire, let alone the wider cosmos, would be impossible.

And a core objective of his hasty departure from Blue Star—opening a Virtual Cosmos account—required Imperial citizenship as a prerequisite.

A fervent gleam flashed in Li Wen’s eyes at the thought of the Virtual Cosmos.

’For a practitioner of the Martial Dao, experience isn’t just gained through the daily grind of practicing saber techniques and comprehending the Laws. The other, most crucial path, is combat.’

’Battles against evenly matched opponents! Life-or-death struggles!’

’On Blue Star, I’ve already reached the pinnacle and can no longer find a worthy opponent. Even the Four Emperors of the Demon Race can’t provide me with sufficient pressure.’

’But the Virtual Cosmos—the ultimate network spanning all human territory in the universe, connecting countless civilizations and powerhouses—is the battlefield I’ve always dreamed of.’

’There, I can transcend the barriers of time and space, instantly matching with thousands of opponents of comparable strength and skill.’

’Every exhilarating clash will become precious experience, fueling a surge in my Martial Dao level and further tempering my hard-won combat techniques.’

His mind made up, Li Wen’s figure became a barely perceptible streak of light as he descended toward the authentication center’s distinctive, rhombus-shaped entrance.

The authentication center’s interior was vast. A floor made of mirror-smooth energy reflected the flowing Star Map projected onto the domed ceiling.

A long queue of Cultivators from various races snaked from the entrance all the way to the service counters deep within the building.

The auras in the line varied, but the majority were at the Marquis and King-level.

Li Wen silently joined the end of the line, his aura retracted, as calm and deep as a tranquil pool.

The queue was long, but the processing speed was remarkably high.

The line moved quickly, and soon it was almost Li Wen’s turn.

Just then, an immense pressure swept out without restraint, descending like an invisible mountain and making the very air feel thick and stagnant.

A middle-aged man in dark gold scale armor, his face a mask of arrogance, radiated the undisguised, powerful aura of a Venerable Peak.

Ignoring the queue, he strode directly toward the foremost service counter.

The Marquis and King-level Cultivators in the queue buckled under this pressure as if struck by a physical blow.

Their complexions paled and their auras wavered as they subconsciously scrambled to the sides, instantly clearing a path for him.

At the end of the newly formed aisle, only Li Wen remained, standing perfectly still.

The Venerable’s pressure, immense enough to suffocate lesser gods and demons, washed over him like a gentle breeze over a monolith, leaving not the slightest ripple.

The Venerable Peak expert stopped in his tracks, his sharp gaze instantly locking onto this unexpected obstacle.

He subconsciously swept his spiritual sense over the man for a cursory scan.

To his surprise, he couldn’t detect the slightest fluctuation of energy or the faintest hint of a cultivation realm.

The odds of a ”normal person” with no Cultivation whatsoever appearing in an official building in Dubhe City, the heart of Lain, were ten thousand times smaller than running into a Star Lord.

The middle-aged man’s heart jolted. He had an instant realization—this seemingly ordinary young man’s Primordial Spirit Realm was far beyond his imagination!

His expression changed slightly as he instantly retracted all of his imposing aura and the last vestiges of his arrogance.

He didn’t dare probe any deeper with his spiritual sense; that would be tantamount to a blatant provocation, a declaration of war.

Without another word, he turned around with surprising crispness and obediently walked to the back of the line to wait his turn.

This scene left everyone who had moved aside speechless with shock. Their gazes, fixed on Li Wen’s back, were now filled with an indescribable mixture of awe and curiosity.