I Can Only Cultivate In A Game-Chapter 374: Duplication Mirror

The ground cratered beneath it as it slammed down, completely pinned in place.

Its plates cracked.

Blood seeped out.

The beast trembled violently and its body swelled as its internal qi spiraled out of control, unable to withstand the pressure bearing down on it.

Victor looked at it once.

"Stay down," he said.

He stepped past it.

Behind him, the beast collapsed completely.

Victor didn’t slow down.

By the time the fog thickened again, he was already gone.

The Misguided Misty Paths stretched endlessly, but Victor’s pace never wavered.

The terrain transformed beneath him into ridges, depressions, half-formed cliffs and the likes but he adapted effortlessly, adjusting his wind platforms, twisting mid-air, redirecting momentum whenever it was needed.

He felt no fear nor hesitation.

Only clarity.

Eventually, the mist began to thin.

Light filtered through.

The oppressive pressure lifted.

Victor slowed to a walk as the fog finally parted completely.

Before him rose a vast chasm carved into the earth like an ancient scar.

Dark stone walls plunged downward at impossible angles. Their surfaces were etched with old battle marks and formation remnants. The canyon stretched far into the distance with its depths cloaked in perpetual shadow.

A cold wind howled upward from below, carrying with it the faint scent of blood and decay.

Victor stopped at the edge.

A new notification appeared.

<[ Region Detected: Dark Canyon ]>

Threat Level: MODERATE

Estimated Survival Rate: 98.7%

Victor exhaled slowly.

If the Misguided Misty Paths preyed on the mind, then the Dark Canyon devoured the body.

Victor stood at the edge of it, gazing down into the abyss as cold, turbulent winds swept upward like the breath of some colossal beast slumbering beneath the earth.

The canyon was vast that the opposite wall blurred into shadow, so deep that even his enhanced vision struggled to pierce the darkness below. However, his spiritual sense was now powerful enough to delve very deeply and sweep through the surroundings.

Layers of rough stone descended endlessly, cracked and warped by ancient forces with their surfaces riddled with scars left behind by battles long forgotten.

Four years ago, this place had nearly killed him.

A version of himself that had stepped out of the water and attacked him with his own techniques.

Victor’s gaze hardened.

"That won’t happen again," he murmured.

A system notification blinked briefly at the corner of his vision.

[ Environmental Hazards Detected:]

• Hostile Spiritual Beasts

• Unstable Qi Currents

• Sinkholes

• Toxic Miasma Zones

• Reflective Anomalies

Recommendation: Caution

Victor dismissed it without ceremony.

Caution didn’t mean hesitation.

The last time he stood here, he felt a chill due to the danger. But now?

"Next," he said calmly.

And with the confidence of someone who had already survived far worse, Victor stepped forward.

The moment he entered the canyon’s airspace, the temperature dropped sharply. Qi currents fluctuated wildly and invisible streams crashed into one another like unseen tides. The ground beneath his feet was unstable and one careless step could cause entire slabs of stone to collapse into the abyss.

Victor didn’t walk.

Activating Shifting Winds Arts, he launched himself forward causing his body to blur as compressed air carried him across massive gaps. His feet touched the ground only when necessary, and even then, it was brief—light as a feather, sharp as a blade.

Below him, something roared.

A massive shadow surged upward from the canyon depths with wings unfurling as a Black-winged Ravager burst into view. Its body was covered in serrated scales, eyes glowing with feral hunger as it locked onto Victor mid-air.

Four years ago, Victor would’ve panicked.

Now?

He twisted his body effortlessly in the air and flicked two fingers forward.

A Void Severing Thread flashed.

The invisible strand cut through the air with supreme sharpness.

The Ravager’s head separated cleanly from its body before it could even finish roaring.

Blood sprayed across the canyon walls as the corpse plummeted into the darkness below, its severed head following a moment later.

Victor didn’t even slow down.

He landed briefly on a narrow outcropping, scanning the surroundings. Qi disturbances rippled around him... some natural, others not. Toxic zones shimmered faintly with greenish hues where corrupted energy pooled, dissolving stone over time.

Victor adjusted his trajectory and leapt again, clearing the danger zones with ease.

Halfway through the canyon, the terrain grew treacherous.

The stone beneath him suddenly gave way.

A sinkhole opened without warning, swallowing the ground in a violent collapse. Victor dropped instantly as wind roared past his ears while he fell hundreds of feet in seconds.

He remained calm.

Mid-fall, he extended his palm downward.

"Gale Strike."

Compressed air detonated beneath him, reversing his momentum violently. Victor shot upward like an arrow, flipping mid-air and landing cleanly on a stable ledge just as the sinkhole finished collapsing into nothingness.

Dust billowed... silence followed... while Victor let out a calm exhale.

"Still sloppy," he muttered, more to himself than anything.

As he continued, something else stirred.

A familiar pressure crept along his senses causing Victor to pause.

Ahead of him lay a shallow pool nestled between broken stone slabs. Its surface was perfectly still—unnaturally so. The water reflected the canyon walls... and him.

Four years ago, this exact scenario had caused him great trouble.

The reflection shifted but this time, Victor felt no threat.

Because this time, he understood.

The Void Emperor Bloodline stirred subtly as space itself responded to his awareness. Victor reached out and the reflection didn’t step out.

It failed to.

The surface of the water rippled violently, as though something was struggling to manifest but couldn’t find purchase.

Victor raised his hand.

"Disperse."

A pulse of spatial authority radiated outward.

The pool shattered causing water to evaporate instantly into mist as the anomaly collapsed with a soundless scream.

Victor stared at the empty space for a moment.

"You’re not copying me anymore," he said quietly. "You’re lagging behind."

<[ You Have Just Destroyed A Duplication Domain ]>

[ Rewards: ]

• +75,000 WIsps Of Qi

• +5 all sub stats

• Tier IIII Artifiact loot - Duplication Mirror

Victor paused briefly as wisps of qi gathered from across the surroundings and phased into his being.

At this point, he got even much more closer to a breakthrough.

However, this entire scenario was incredibly surprising to him. He didn’t expect to gain any reward from this.

Years back, he would never have thought of this because he was too weak. Now he was glad he didn’t have the option of teleporting to Blueflame City or he’d have missed this.

A small twinkle caught his vision from the position of where the pond used to be located.

Within it, was a mirror... the same mirror the system had just mentioned.

"Hmm a Tier 4 artifact... that’s gotta be powerful..." Without moving any closer, Victor reached out with his will and the mirror floated towards him.

It was oval shaped and slightly larger than the palm of an adult but had strange snake like engravings around its edges.

Victor didn’t want to waste any more time around here so he swiftly kept it in his storage space, deciding he’d check it out properly later.

With that, he moved on.

The remainder of the Dark Canyon passed almost uneventfully.

More beasts lurked... serpentine horrors clinging to cliff faces, ambush predators hiding in the shadows... but none posed any real threat. Victor’s aura alone was enough to make most retreat. Those that didn’t... didn’t live long enough to regret it.

By the time the canyon walls began to recede and light flooded the horizon, Victor was already accelerating again.

He cleared the final ledge in a single bound.

Beyond the canyon lay a series of towering mountains with peaks poking the swirling clouds above.

Travel through them would normally take up to a day like the last time Victor bumped into Lady Li Yang.

This time, Victor took minutes.

He sprinted along ridgelines, leaping from peak to peak with explosive bursts of wind beneath his feet. Each jump carried him thousands of feet through the air causing his silhouette to cut across the sky like a streak of white lightning.

Below, travelers stopped in their tracks.

Cultivators paused mid-journey with their eyes widening as they caught glimpses of him.

"Did you see that?"

"No way... that speed..."

"That wasn’t a Core Formation cultivator."

"Nascent Soul... at least."

Whispers followed him as he passed overhead, vanishing before anyone could even fully process what they’d seen.

Victor didn’t hear them.

Or rather—he did, but they didn’t matter.

His mind was elsewhere.

Ahead.

The air began to change.

The mountains thinned, vegetation grew denser... shadows deeper. The scent of damp earth and ancient wood replaced the dry stone of the canyon.

Victor slowed as he arrived at a familiar location.

Before him rose a vast, ominous woodland littered with towering and twisted trees that formed canopies which blotted out much of the sky. A faint crimson hue lingered in the air, carrying a thick spiritual pressure with it.

This was none other than the Devil Forest.

The same place where he had once fallen into the Dragon Pond of Tears and gained the white dragon legacy.