I Can Only Cultivate In A Game-Chapter 375: A New Objective
> [You have entered the Devil Forest.]
[Warning! The Devil Forest is a cursed region filled with unknown perils.]
The system text hovered briefly at the edge of Victor’s vision before fading.
The forest answered in its own way.
The air thickened instantly becoming heavy, damp, and saturated with a malignant spiritual pressure that crawled across the skin like invisible insects.
The towering trees twisted skyward at unnatural angles with their bark blackened as though scorched by ancient fire.
Their branches contorted into claw-like shapes that interlocked overhead and strangled the light.
This place was alive and it hated everything that entered.
The moment his foot touched the soil, qi surged through his legs and he launched upward, landing lightly on a thick branch before rebounding again. His body flowed from tree to tree, with smooth and economical movements.
His feet barely brushed bark as he used Shifting Winds Arts to propel himself forward at blinding speed.
Leaves exploded outward in his wake.
Branches snapped under the pressure of displaced air.
From the forest floor, glowing and hungry eyes watched but Victor didn’t slow.
The Devil Forest was divided into regions, each attuned to different curses, different entities, different rules. Demonic beasts prowled beneath the canopy, some bound to specific territories, others roaming freely, drawn by qi like moths to flame.
Victor felt them all and ignored them.
A demonic hound lunged upward from the shadows with jaws distended far beyond natural limits and teeth dripping with corrosive saliva.
Victor flicked his wrist mid-leap.
A compressed blade of wind tore through the creature’s skull.
Its body fell without a sound.
A serpentine beast, covered in crimson scales, coiled around a tree trunk and struck with lightning speed.
Victor twisted in mid-air and drove his heel downward.
The impact shattered the creature’s head and split the tree beneath it clean in half.
He never broke momentum.
Minutes passed.
Then more.
The forest tried everything from illusory whispers to gravity distortions to pockets of cursed miasma that dissolved flesh on contact but Victor adapted instinctively, adjusting his trajectory, bending space just enough to avoid danger without wasting energy.
Eventually, the terrain began to change.
The trees thinned.
The ground darkened.
The air grew colder.
Victor slowed.
Ahead of him, the forest of trees abruptly ended.
A vast black expanse stretched before him.
> [Submerged Death Swamp Discovered]
[Warning: Falling into this water will result in instant death.]
[No player, cultivator, or beast has returned from the depths of the Submerged Death Swamp.]
The swamp was exactly as he remembered.
Pitch-black water that absorbed light instead of reflecting it. A surface so unnaturally calm that it felt wrong like staring into a bottomless void pretending to be liquid. Fog hung thick above it, rolling in slow waves that obscured everything beyond a few dozen meters.
No tall trees grew here.
Only silence.
And floating logs.
Short, uneven pieces of decayed wood drifted atop the swamp, spaced irregularly, forming the only path across the mile-wide death trap.
Back then, Victor had crossed this place step by painstaking step with his heart pounding and every nerve screaming. He had done it alongside Lady Li Yang and her guards.
Now?
Victor stood at the edge and exhaled slowly.
"I remember you," he murmured.
The swamp answered.
Ripples spread across the surface.
Then—
Hundreds of green glowing eyes opened.
From beneath the water, shapes began to rise.
Humanoid figures emerged silently with water cascading off bandage-wrapped bodies. Their forms were tall and thin, movements jerky yet precise, as though guided by some unseen will. Their faces were completely obscured, wrapped tight, except for those glowing eyes that fixed onto Victor with eerie intelligence.
The Swampbound Devils...
They hadn’t changed.
Victor had.
The first one stepped onto a floating log.
Then another.
Then ten more.
They moved in perfect unison.
Victor smiled faintly.
"So you’re still here."
The moment his foot touched the first log, they attacked.
Three leapt simultaneously, forming blades from condensed swamp qi in their hands. Their trajectories perfectly intersected Victor’s predicted landing spot.
Four years ago, that would’ve worked but now...?
<[ Shadow Blink Activated ]>
He reappeared mid-air above them with his palm already extended.
"Gale Strike."
A compressed vortex detonated downward.
The logs shattered.
The Swampbound Devils were ripped apart and their bodies were flung into the swamp where they sank instantly, swallowed without a ripple.
More charged forward.
Their movements adjusted instantly, compensating, recalculating.
Victor landed lightly on another log with a calm look.
"You can predict patterns," he said. "But you can’t predict will."
He moved without jumping from log to log... he ran across their heads.
Wind formed beneath his feet, stabilizing each step for a fraction of a second before collapsing. Swampbound Devils attacked from every angle but Victor cut through them effortlessly.
A sword slash severed five at once.
A telekinetic pulse crushed another cluster mid-air.
Void Severing Threads flashed invisibly, slicing limbs, decapitating bodies, unraveling bindings.
Those that managed to predict his position found only empty air as he shifted space subtly, stepping half a pace sideways into safety.
Within seconds, the swamp was littered with sinking bodies.
The water remained calm.
Victor reached the far edge without once looking back.
He paused only briefly, glancing down at the black water.
"This place hasn’t changed," he said quietly. "I have."
He stepped onto solid ground and the Devil Forest didn’t relent.
Beyond the swamp lay regions of poisonous spores that clouded the air in shimmering waves. Victor activated Qi Cloak, pushing through unharmed as the toxins disintegrated on contact. 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚
A clearing of carnivorous flora attempted to ensnare him with whip-like vines.
He burned it all down with a single Dragon Breathing Arts release.
A demonic ape ambushed him from above.
It never landed.
Victor crushed its skull mid-air with telekinetic force and kept moving.
Time blurred.
Hours passed.
Yet where it had taken him days to transverse this forest before, this time the Devil Forest yielded in a matter of hours.
Eventually, the oppressive pressure thinned.
The twisted trees gave way to normal ones.
The cursed air lightened.
Victor slowed to a stop at the forest’s far edge and looked back once.
The Devil Forest remained behind, ancient, malicious, eternal.
But it had failed to claim him again.
Victor exhaled.
Ahead lay the Qilin Frost Mountains.
Behind him lay a forest that gave him the ability to restore.
He adjusted his grip on his sword.
"Next," he said softly.
And with steady steps, Fang Chen moved on.
...
...
The air changed the moment Victor stepped into the Qilin Frost Mountains.
Cold here was not merely temperature... it was will. The wind howled with a sharp, cutting edge, carrying flakes of ice infused with spiritual pressure that gnawed at the skin and seeped into meridians.
Incredibly high peaks rose like frozen guardians. Their slopes were glazed with layers of blue-white frost that shimmered faintly with qi. Every breath crystallized in the air before dispersing.
Victor paused on a ridgeline with his robes fluttering violently behind him.
He remembered this place.
Not fondly.
Last time, the Qilin Frost Mountains had been a test of endurance and restraint—of knowing when to retreat, when to hide, when to avoid provoking beasts that were not meant to be trifled with. The Qilin that roamed these lands were not ordinary spiritual beasts. They were creatures of balance, ancient and proud. Even a low-ranked Qilin could slaughter careless cultivators with ease.
A system chime sounded.
> [Objective Received]
Task: Gather Ten (10) Qilin Horns
Requirement: Rank 2 or higher
Status: In Progress (0/10)
Victor blinked.
"...What?"
He summoned the panel again, rereading it to be sure.
Ten Qilin horns.
Rank 2 or higher.
No explanation.
No hint.
No reward preview.
He frowned slightly.
"Why would it do that?" he wondered, recalling that there was no such objective the last time.
"Throwing me into things without context."
His first instinct was suspicion.
Qilin were not commonly hunted. Doing so too recklessly could provoke the wrath of higher-ranked guardians or worse, draw the attention of sects that revered Qilin as sacred beasts.
Horns, especially those of Rank 2 and above, were rare materials used in high-grade talismans, frost-forged weapons, and certain body-tempering pills.
Ten was... excessive.
Victor considered ignoring the objective.
Then dismissed the thought.
If the system wanted something this specific, there was a reason. And experience had taught him that ignoring such objectives usually led to complications later.
He exhaled slowly.
"Fine," he said. "Let’s see what you’re planning."
Victor moved deeper into the mountains, adjusting his pace to avoid unnecessary attention. The Qilin Frost Mountains were vast, riddled with valleys, frozen lakes, and ancient trails carved by beasts over centuries.
Qi density here was high, but unstable. Bursts of frost qi surged unpredictably, freezing exposed flesh or crystallizing spiritual energy mid-technique.
His spiritual sense suddenly caught something and Victor stopped.
Ahead, standing atop a frozen outcrop, was a Frost Qilin.
It was smaller than the legendary depictions... roughly the size of a large horse but its aura was undeniably thick.
