I Can Only Cultivate In A Game-Chapter 372: Slipping Into Ascendant Realms
"Gojo," he said softly while patting the beast again, "are you alright?"
Victor’s gaze shifted downward, noticing how hostile the land beneath them had become.
The earth had split and a massive crevice tore across the land like a wound inflicted by a god-sized blade, stretching endlessly in both directions. Its edges were jagged and uneven, as though the ground had been pried apart by immense force rather than broken naturally. And below...
Nothing.
Pitch-black darkness swallowed everything beyond the edge. No reflection. No light. No bottom.
Victor stared into it for a long moment with a slightly suspicious expression.
"That thing goes deep," he muttered. "Too deep."
Even Gojo angled away slightly, adjusting instinctively to keep distance from the abyss. Whatever lay down there, it wasn’t something the frost raptor wanted to fly over for long.
Victor closed his eyes briefly and focused inward, strengthening the soul bond.
’Talk to me,’ he projected calmly.
The response came clearer this time, shaped by instinct and emotion rather than language.
Understanding struck him immediately.
"...Of course," Victor whispered.
Gojo had lived his entire existence in the icy region. A land of eternal frost, mana-saturated cold, and temperatures that would kill most living beings instantly. That wasn’t just where Gojo lived... it was what he was made for.
The moment they crossed the border, they didn’t just leave a region behind.
They left Gojo’s world.
The air here was warmer. Not warm by human standards but compared to the glacial hellscape Gojo called home, it was an entirely different environment. The mana density was off. The elemental balance was wrong.
No wonder his speed had plummeted.
Outside territory, Gojo conveyed faintly. Body resists.
Victor exhaled slowly as his eyes narrowed.
"That’s on me," he said quietly beforebpatting the massive beast’s neck. "I should’ve thought of that."
Speed mattered right now.
Victor didn’t have a map. He didn’t have coordinates. He didn’t even know what lay ahead. All he had was momentum and losing that meant spending more time in this unsettling region where the land felt thin and the sky felt hostile.
He glanced at Eirene.
She sat calmly beside him on Gojo’s back with the dark markings faintly visible against her skin. Her expression remained composed despite the oppressive atmosphere. Unlike Gojo, she didn’t seem affected by the change in temperature at all.
Probably because she was born of corruption and extremes.
An idea formed.
"Eirene," Victor said while turning to her. "Can you generate frost-based magic?"
She tilted her head slightly. "Define... frost."
"Cold. Snow. Ice. Anything that can lower the surrounding temperature."
She blinked once, then nodded.
"I can access multiple elemental manifestations," she said. "Including cryogenic phenomena."
Victor raised a brow. "You’re really getting good with words."
She paused briefly.
"...Learning," she replied.
That earned a brief huff of amusement from Victor despite the tension.
"Alright," he said. "Let’s try something simple. Create a snow cloud. Above us."
Eirene closed her eyes.
Victor felt it through the soul bond like a system rerouting power. The corruption meter within him stirred faintly as the dark markings along his skin warmed for a split second before stabilizing.
All of a sudden, the air above them distorted.
Particles condensed rapidly as mana coalesced into visible form. A low, rolling whoom echoed overhead as a thick cloud of gray-white vapor materialized directly above Gojo.
And then it snowed.
Soft flakes drifted down at first, melting faintly as they touched the warmer air until Eirene adjusted the spell.
The temperature dropped.
Victor immediately felt a sharp chill creeping into his clothes.
Gojo felt it more.
The frost raptor released a pleased rumble that vibrated through Victor’s bones as the snow settled against his scales. Frost mana surged outward from Gojo’s body instinctively, responding to the familiar sensation.
Victor grinned. "Good. More."
Eirene opened her eyes and lifted one hand.
Two more clouds manifested.
Then a third.
Snowfall intensified causing thick flakes to pour down around them as the air temperature plunged. It wasn’t the soul-crushing cold of the icy region but it was enough.
Enough to remind Gojo of home.
Enough to ease the strain.
Through the soul bond, Victor felt the Gojo’s relief.
A bit of strength and stability returned as Gojo’s wings beat harder.
The massive beast swept forward with speed climbing steadily to around sixty percent.
The oppressive drag that had slowed him vanished as frost reclaimed the air around them.
"Attaboy," Victor muttered before patting Gojo again.
The snow clouds followed them as they flew, tethered to Eirene’s will, drifting smoothly overhead like obedient familiars. Below them, the dark land blurred once more as speed returned to their journey.
Victor finally relaxed his shoulders.
"That should do it," he said. "Thanks."
Eirene nodded, maintaining the spell without visible strain. "I can sustain this for a long duration."
Victor glanced at her. "Won’t it affect you?"
She hesitated, then shook her head. "If it does, I do not mind."
Something about that answer sat heavily in Victor’s chest. "Don’t push it. Rest when you’re exhausted."
Eirene simply stared at him with an inexplicably expression.
He turned his gaze forward again.
With Gojo stabilized and their pace restored, Victor finally felt like he could finally log into Ascendant Realms.
Victor inhaled slowly, then exhaled.
"Alright," he muttered. "Time to get some answers."
He shifted his posture slightly, steadying himself against Gojo’s movement. His mind focused inward, not on qi circulation or technique activation but on separation.
Just like before.
His Void Emperor Bloodline stirred.
Space responded.
Glowing arrow like marks appeared all over his body as his white hair floated upwards.
Eirene stared at him in awe as Victor eyes glowed up like white diamonds, recognising the vibration of space around them.
The sensation was subtle yet unmistakable... the world seemed to loosen its grip on Victor’s consciousness.
Reality thinned as layers peeled apart.
Victor had learned to recognize it: the moment when the physical body became an anchor rather than a vessel.
Victor closed his eyes and the system interface materialized without any console or external device.
Just intent.
<[ Initiating Consciousness Phase Shift ]> 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝕨𝕖𝗯𝚗𝚘𝕧𝕖𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝕞
Target: Otherworld 1
Synchronization: Stable
Anchor: Physical Body – Active
The world tilted... sound dulled... sensation stretched.
Victor felt himself pulled sideways, slipping between layers of existence like a blade sliding into a sheath.
The last thing he felt was the steady rhythm of Gojo’s wings and the cold snowfall drifting over him.
Then—
Darkness.
And light.
And a world that was never supposed to be real.
Victor opened his eyes.
The first thing he felt was stillness... profound, absolute stillness. No wind howled past his ears. No frost-laden air pressed against his skin. No rhythmic beating of wings beneath his feet.
He was no longer in the sky.
He was back in ascendant Realms.
The familiar atmosphere wrapped around him instantly, carrying with it a sensation he could never quite put into words.
It was density, as if reality here had more weight, more intention. The air shimmered faintly with spiritual particles, visible only to cultivators who had crossed a certain threshold.
Victor exhaled slowly.
The small cultivation space greeted him just as he remembered it.
A modest chamber with a small pond behind, reinforced by formation arrays etched into the stone walls. The spiritual pressure here was stable and refined... perfect for closed-door cultivation.
It was the very same space Chen Wen had lent him the last time he entered Ascendant Realms and somehow winded up in Lingyun Town.
Nothing had changed.
And yet... everything had.
Victor pushed himself to his feet, glancing instinctively to the corner of his vision.
A translucent timer hovered there, its numbers steadily counting down.
The numbers represented hours and from Victor’s calculations, it was roughly about six to seven days.
"Good," Victor muttered.
Before doing anything else, he summoned his status panel.
The familiar interface unfolded before him in crisp clarity.
---
[Status Panel]
Name: Fang Chen
Bloodline: Void Emperor (Full Integration)
Cultivation Realm: Peak Nascent Soul Realm
Qi Reserves: Full
Status: Renowned
Physique Grade: Higher Bronze
Potential: A+ Rank
Affinity: Balanced but Undeveloped
Luck: Below Average
Martial Sword Techniques:
• Shadow Crescent Strike (Mastery: 85%)
• Phantom Mirage Step (Mastery: 75%)
... (see more)
Cultivation Arts:
• Shifting Winds Arts (Mastery: 81%)
• Dragon Breathing Arts (Mastery: 60%)
• Celestial Restoration (Mastery: 35%)
... (see more)
Bloodline Abilities:
• Shadow Blink
• Qi Cloak
• Vision Boost
• Telekinetic Qi Control
• Void Severing Threads
• Void Severing Slash
• Time Remap
... (see more)
Corruption Meter: 10%
Mounts: Unregistered Beings (Unavailable)
[Attribute Points Available: 20]
---
Victor studied the panel carefully.
Several things stood out immediately.
The corruption meter was still there.
He frowned slightly. "So even across universes, you follow me..."
That alone was unsettling. Whatever effect the corrupt entity had on him, wasn’t bound to a single reality.
Then there was the mounts panel.
Greyed out. Unavailable.
Victor let out a quiet breath of understanding. "Figures. Gojo isn’t registered here."
Ascendant Realms didn’t recognize external beings... not ones from another plane entirely. As far as the system was concerned, Gojo and Eirene didn’t exist... at least not while he was here.
