High Martial: I Grind Professions
Chapter 153 - 120: Li Wen, Not Bad
The previous testers’ highest scores of eighty or ninety layers seemed utterly pathetic before the terrifying figure of one hundred and eighty-eight.
This was no longer just a lead, but a display of almost crushing superiority.
’His physical body’s level is probably infinitely close to the threshold of a Super Martial Artist, and his momentum has also reached its peak.’
Li Wen instantly assessed Ron Zaka’s true strength.
The level of power contained in that spear thrust far surpassed the limits of an ordinary High-level Martial Artist.
Ron Zaka seemed to turn a deaf ear to the tide of gasps rising behind him, simply standing his ground.
He gazed at the path that had pierced one hundred and eighty-eight golden walls, his face showing no surprise—only a matter-of-fact calm and a hint of satisfaction deep within his eyes.
He casually propped the black spear on the ground, as if he had just completed some trivial, insignificant task.
The testing continued.
The remaining nine people in the tenth group completed their tests one by one, but with the brilliance of Ron Zaka’s earth-shattering spear thrust still fresh in everyone’s minds, the subsequent groups of geniuses seemed mediocre in comparison, despite their considerable strength. 𝓯𝙧𝙚𝒆𝙬𝙚𝒃𝙣𝙤𝒗𝓮𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢
Their scores were mostly in the dozens of layers, with the highest barely exceeding one hundred and forty. Under the glow of that 188-layer achievement, they failed to stir up the same colossal waves of excitement as before.
This brief silence was not broken until the thirty-first group of geniuses took to the testing area.
Among the ten, one person was particularly eye-catching.
He wore a simple black combat uniform. His frame wasn’t particularly tall, but every step he took carried an aura as steady as a mountain and as contained as a smoldering fire.
Most importantly, his face was completely unfamiliar to the local geniuses from Blue Star.
"Fang Chenghong? Who is Fang Chenghong?" someone in the audience murmured.
"He’s the one in the black clothes."
"I heard he’s a genius from Red Flame Star? Is he that good?"
Amidst the curious and scrutinizing gazes from the many Blue Star geniuses, this off-world visitor named Fang Chenghong calmly walked over to the weapon rack.
Without any hesitation, he reached out and gripped a standard-issue long spear.
The moment he gripped the spear, his entire aura seemed to coalesce, shifting from stillness to motion in a single instant.
There were no flashy preparatory moves, nor was there a momentum-building charge like Ron Zaka’s.
Fang Chenghong simply stood his ground, his waist and stance perfectly aligned. He drew his right arm back slightly, like an archer drawing a bow, and then his arm shot forward as his wrist snapped violently!
"WHUMMM—!"
A low, powerful hum emanated from the spear.
The spear shot out, straight as an arrow!
A beam of deep red spear light, condensed to its absolute limit with a single, incomparably sharp point of cold, dark starlight at its tip, tore through the layers of golden qi-and-blood walls as easily as ripping through silk.
SHUNK! SHUNK! SHUNK! SHUNK!
Utterly unstoppable!
Wherever the spear light passed, the incredibly sturdy qi-and-blood walls seemed as fragile as paper, shattering one after another on contact.
Its speed and ferocity were so great that the hearts of everyone in the audience leaped into their throats.
The number on the light screen shot upward:
Fifty layers... one hundred layers... one hundred twenty... one hundred fifty... one hundred seventy...
Finally, the spear light pierced the one hundred and eighty-sixth layer. Upon touching the one hundred and eighty-seventh, it dimmed, its momentum completely spent, and slowly dissipated.
"Fang Chenghong, one hundred and eighty-six layers!" the recording attendant announced in an equally booming voice.
BOOM!
The entire Heart Mirror Hall erupted in an uproar even more intense than the one for Ron Zaka.
"Oh my god! One hundred and eighty-six layers?!"
"That’s only two layers less than Ron Zaka?!"
"The guy from Red Flame Star is that powerful, too?"
"Who in the world is this Fang Chenghong? I’ve never heard of him before."
Gasps and murmurs rose and fell in waves. The shock on the faces of the Blue Star geniuses was even greater than their astonishment at Ron Zaka’s performance.
This was because he had completely shattered their expectations. A name that had never once appeared on the Blue Star Youth Platinum Rankings actually possessed such terrifying strength.
On the main platform, the composed expressions of the dozens of Marquis Level powerhouses were now replaced by astonishment.
One of them, a dignified, middle-aged Marquis Level expert with a handsome, jade-like face, watched the figure standing tall with his spear in the testing area below, his gaze complicated.
"Brother Fang," a nearby Marquis Level expert in a green Daoist robe said with a smile, his tone tinged with inquiry,
"It seems the Fang family truly produces one talent after another. Such inherited genius is enviable. However... why would your esteemed family be willing to part with such a prodigy and send him to our Fire Hall?"
The Marquis Level powerhouse addressed as "Brother Fang" gave a helpless, wry smile at his words and sighed.
"You flatter me, Brother Qingsong. It’s not that the family didn’t want to keep him for our own core training. Alas, the boy is stubborn. Once he’s made up his mind, even nine bulls couldn’t pull him back.
He’s dead set on pursuing the path of the ’Nine Heavens Divine Body,’ and he took a liking to the Fire Hall’s deep heritage and guidance in this area. He insisted on coming here..."
"The Nine Heavens Divine Body?" Another silver-haired Marquis Level powerhouse raised an eyebrow, his tone full of understanding.
"So that’s why. It seems the Fang family’s affair with the Nine Heavens Divine Body is a persistent one, isn’t it? First, there was that other one, still stuck as a Super Martial Artist, unable to break through... and now this junior has come to try?"
"Sigh..." The Fang Marquis shook his head helplessly, yet deep in his eyes lay a faint, almost imperceptible glimmer of hope and resolve.
"One generation plants the trees, and the next... well, they have to at least try. Even if he fails, the Fire Hall’s training system will be of great benefit to his future."
Upon hearing this, the other Marquis Level powerhouses all nodded slightly and fell silent, but the way they now looked at Fang Chenghong was clearly with a newfound gravity.