I Can Only Cultivate In A Game-Chapter 364: I’m Making You My Burden

The corrupt entity snarled.

"It gives me every right! They lived because of stolen lives," it spat. "Every breath they took was purchased with blood. Their children laughed because others never got the chance to be born."

Victor’s grip tightened on his sword.

"And killing children now fixes that?" he asked sharply. "Does slaughtering innocents undo the past—or just multiply it?"

"They deserve it!" the entity roared. "They inherited the sin!"

Victor shook his head.

"No," he said firmly. "Sin isn’t genetic. Guilt doesn’t pass through bloodlines."

The entity’s form trembled.

"They benefited," it argued. "They lived in warmth and safety while the dead screamed unheard."

"And now you’re proving you learned nothing," Victor shot back. "You’re not justice. You’re vengeance trapped in a loop."

Silence fell again.

The storm howled around them.

Victor took a step forward.

"I won’t deny your pain," he said. "I won’t excuse what they did. But extermination isn’t balance—it’s surrender. It means the ones who died meant nothing except fuel for more death."

The corrupt entity’s voice lowered.

"Then what would you have me do?" it asked. "Forgive them?"

Victor hesitated.

"No," he admitted. "Forgiveness isn’t mine to demand."

He raised his sword... not threateningly, but solemnly. 𝑓𝓇𝘦ℯ𝘸𝘦𝑏𝓃𝑜𝘷ℯ𝑙.𝑐𝑜𝓂

"But there are prices besides annihilation. Debts besides extinction."

The corrupt entity stared at him as rage and doubt collided violently within its core.

For the first time—

It wavered.

Not in power.

But in certainty.

However, it didn’t stop... darkness continued to burst outwards from its being in waves.

The air itself had begun to rot.

Corruption no longer merely lashed outward in waves or manifested as claws and teeth. It seeped. It bled into the environment, into flesh, into spirit.

The Kahr’uun warriors in the surroundings staggered.

Blue-tinged skin darkened to sickly shades of black and violet as corruption crawled along their veins like living ink. Some dropped their weapons, clutching their heads as their magic destabilized. Others screamed as frost hardened around their limbs, only to crack apart moments later under internal decay.

One warrior fell to his knees as his eyes widened with terror.

"I—I can’t feel my mana..."

Another collapsed entirely, breath rattling as corruption flooded his meridians.

Victor turned sharply towards the corrupt entity; "Are you truly incapable of being reasoned with?"

The corrupt entity stood at the epicenter without answering as its beastly form expanded.

Heavy black mist continued to pour out from it. And although Victor could feel that his words were reaching it, the longer this continued, the more the land itself became an extension of its hatred.

Time was running out.

Victor gritted his teeth.

If this continued, there wouldn’t be anyone left to save... innocent or guilty.

He needed an answer. He couldn’t wait till his words got to the corrupt entity.

Killing the entity would only validate its hatred, sealing the cycle forever. Letting it rampage would annihilate the Kahr’uun entirely. Reason had failed. Philosophy had reached its limit.

That left only one option... a reckless one.

Victor inhaled deeply and then stopped holding back.

His Nascent Soul Realm aura erupted outward in a blinding surge.

The ground cracked... the air trembled.

An overwhelming pressure slammed into the battlefield as Victor’s cultivation fully unfurled, no longer restrained or concealed. His presence became suffocating... vast, ancient, and sharp, like a blade forged from condensed will.

Kahr’uun warriors gasped while some collapsed under the sheer pressure. Even the corrupt entity recoiled slightly.

It’s massive form shuddered as it turned its full attention to Victor.

"What are you doing?" it snarled.

Victor didn’t answer.

He reached inward.

Deep past flesh and bone... past meridians and dantian... into the inner bank of his soul, where fragments of his true self lay dormant. Where contracts were written not in ink, but in essence.

<[ Activating soul bond... ]>

His fingers trembled.

This was madness.

Soul bonds were meant for beasts... spiritual creatures with instinctual hierarchies, not sentient beings forged from hatred and betrayal. Even then, failure could result in backlash severe enough to cripple or outright destroy a cultivator’s soul.

And this wasn’t just any beast.

This was a being born from mass sacrifice, sustained by resentment, empowered by corruption older than Victor’s current life.

Yet—

Right now, it was in beast form.

That was the only opening.

Victor extended his will outward, shaping it carefully, precisely, forming the intricate spiritual framework of a soul bond technique. Symbols burned into existence around him as ancient sigils were carved from intent rather than qi.

"Don’t," Rhozan rasped weakly from where he lay. "Iruhun... you don’t know what that thing will do to you—"

Too late.

Victor thrust the soul bond forward and the world tilted.

The moment the bond made contact, Victor felt like his mind had been ripped open.

Agony exploded behind his eyes.

He staggered with blood trickling from his nose as a tsunami of foreign sensation crashed into his consciousness.

Hatred.

So much hatred.

It wasn’t a simple emotion... it was layered, complex and refined over decades. Rage braided with grief. Despair sharpened into purpose. Victor felt the weight of forty years of resentment slam into him like a mountain.

The corrupt entity roared.

"What are you doing to me?!" it bellowed as the sigils latched onto its form, glowing violently as the bond attempted to establish dominance.

Victor dropped to one knee with his teeth clenched so hard they threatened to shatter.

Inside—

He was falling.

Pulled into a mental battlefield far more terrifying than the physical one.

He stood within a vast void of black ice and screaming wind. Towering before him was the true presence of the corrupt entity... not a beast, but a towering silhouette stitched together from shadows, memories, and countless screaming faces.

This was its soulscape.

And Victor was an intruder.

"You dare?" the entity thundered. "You think you can chain me like an animal?!"

Victor forced himself upright as pain lanced through his skull.

"I’m not trying to chain you," he said through gritted teeth. "I’m trying to stop this from ending in annihilation."

The entity shot forward and the impact was catastrophic.

Victor felt his consciousness fracture as memories flooded him again... faster, harsher and even more violent. The sacrifices. The screams. The betrayal. Over and over and over.

His vision blurred.

For a moment, he almost lost himself.

Almost drowned.

But then—

Something anchored him.

A faint tug from deep within.

Victor’s eyes snapped open.

His Nascent Soul flared.

A radiant, defiant light burst forth from his core, pushing back the darkness. His soul stood firm...

"You don’t get to decide the fate of innocents," Victor growled. "Not because you suffered. Not because you were wronged."

The entity laughed bitterly.

"And who made you judge?"

Victor met its gaze.

"Someone who’s been used as a tool before," he said. "Someone who’s seen how easy it is to justify cruelty when you dress it up as righteousness."

The corrupt entity snarled and struck again... this time aiming directly at Victor’s Nascent Soul.

Victor screamed in agony.

The pain was indescribable.

It felt like claws scraping directly against his essence, trying to tear him apart from the inside. His soul bond framework flickered violently, threatening to collapse.

Outside, Victor’s body convulsed.

Kahr’uun warriors stared in horror as cracks of light and darkness rippled across his skin. Frost formed beneath him, then shattered instantly.

"He’s fighting it mentally..." someone whispered.

"Is he insane?!"

Inside the soulscape, Victor was on his knees.

Blood—or something like it—dripped from his mouth.

The entity stood over him.

"You cannot dominate me," it hissed. "I am not a beast. I am vengeance given form."

Victor laughed weakly.

"Then stop acting like one."

The words struck deeper than any attack.

The entity faltered.

Just for an instant.

Victor seized it.

He slammed his palm into the ground, forcing his will outward. The soul bond sigils flared brilliantly as threads of luminous energy latched deeper into the entity’s essence binding it.

"I’m not trying to make you my slave," Victor’s voice shook as he spoke. "I’m making you my burden."

The corrupt entity screamed as the bond tightened, constraining and forcing alignment.

"You will not kill indiscriminately," Victor continued. "You will not consume innocents. If you seek retribution—then it will be measured. Directed. And it will end."

The entity fought harder than ever with its rage boiling over and hatred clawing desperately at Victor’s soul.

But Victor did not retreat.

He endured.

Because if he failed—

Everyone here would die.

Victor’s body convulsed violently.

Frost shattered beneath him again and again as uncontrollable tremors wracked his limbs. His breaths turned into heavy gasps as each inhale burnt like knives of ice in his lungs. Blood trickled from the corner of his mouth, staining the snow beneath his face a dark, ugly red.

Inside him, the soul bond was tearing itself apart.

Too much.

It was all too much.

The hatred flooding through the bond was not a single raging river... it was an ocean, ancient and bottomless, pressing down on his mind from every direction.