I Can Only Cultivate In A Game-Chapter 389: Resonance Fragment
Eirene shook her head once. "I remember nothing before existence. But I feel... familiarity."
That gave Victor pause.
He studied her briefly—the way she sat so still atop a moving behemoth, unbothered by speed, altitude, or danger. The way her presence felt anchored, as if even reality hesitated to interfere with her.
She wasn’t weak.
She had never been weak.
She had simply been consumed.
Eirene lifted one hand, curling her fingers slightly.
Above them, the air vibrated.
Snow clouds began to form, condensed od frost mana.
She conjured multiple and within seconds, snow began to fall. It was gentle at first and then it became heavier, coating the space around them in a controlled storm.
The temperature dropped rapidly.
Gojo let out a satisfied rumble as his wings beat faster.
Victor nodded approvingly. "That should help you maintain speed."
It wasn’t the absolute cold of the icy region, but it was enough. Gojo’s aura stabilized further with frost blooming naturally along his scales as his movement regained the sharp efficiency Victor was used to.
They flew like that for a long while.
Hours passed.
The sky darkened and brightened in strange cycles as light bended oddly at the horizon. Sometimes Victor caught glimpses of things moving far below... massive shapes slithering across broken landscapes, winged silhouettes circling ruined structures, glowing eyes watching from shadows that shouldn’t exist.
He didn’t engage.
He didn’t investigate.
Eventually, with the routes he had scouted and Eirene’s snowfall stabilizing Gojo’s condition, the journey smoothed into something almost... routine.
That was when Victor exhaled slowly.
"...Alright," he said. "I think now’s a good time."
Eirene turned her head slightly.
"You are leaving again," she stated.
"Temporarily," Victor replied. "I’ll still be here. Just... not here."
She watched him for a moment.
"Another world," she said.
"Yeah," Victor nodded. "Another world."
He leaned back slightly against Gojo’s neck, adjusting his posture to minimize physical movement.
"I’ve already been gone too long," he continued. "A few days here means weeks there. And if I’m not careful, I’ll come back to find myself already late to my own future."
Eirene did not ask what he meant.
She didn’t need to.
Victor closed his eyes.
The sensation of shifting between worlds was familiar now but still profound.
He reached inward.
Into the place where identity fractured cleanly into two names.
Victor Revenant.
Fang Chen.
Two existences.
Two truths.
One soul.
The Void Emperor Bloodline stirred smoothly, like a tide responding to the pull of a distant moon.
Victor felt Ascendant Realms respond.
Not like a server.
Not like a system.
But like a place.
A world that recognized him.
Accepted him.
Welcomed him back.
His consciousness began to slide.
The sound of rushing wind faded and the feeling of Gojo beneath him dissolved.
The cold vanished as his consciousness spun horizontally, slipping into the otherworld.
---
Victor opened his eyes and qi washed over him instantly.
He was back in his core disciple chamber in Violet Springs sect. The air was saturated with spiritual energy carefully maintained through formation arrays embedded in the walls.
His body—his Ascendant Realms body—sat cross-legged where he had left it.
Unmoving... and unharmed.
The timer in the corner of his vision ticked down quietly.
Victor exhaled.
"...Good."
Just when he was about to move on, he noticed that the timer had increased.
"Whoa..."
[ 320 : 59 : 52 ]
Initially it was around around 150 hours but now it was practically times two the amount.
He flexed his fingers, feeling the Soul Transformation Realm had something to do with the jump in time.
But nonetheless, this meant he could spend up to 13 days in here without being ejected.
Victor rose to his feet slowly, testing the flow of energy through his meridians.
It was stable.
The consolidation phase was progressing beautifully.
But there was no time to relax.
Six months.
That was all he had before the hidden legacy realm opened.
And if what he’d seen so far was any indication, the juniors from the Azure Ember Empire weren’t just monsters... they were catastrophes waiting for an excuse.
Just because he had reached Soul Transformation Realm, it didn’t mean that he prepared to compete with some of them.
Victor’s gaze hardened.
"I need to keep pushing."
Victor had just settled into a meditative posture when—
DING. DING. DING.
A cascade of translucent notifications unfolded before his eyes, one after another, overlapping in quick succession.
Victor opened one eye, then the other.
"...About time."
He straightened slightly as the system interface expanded.
---
[Objective Completed: Gather 10 Qilin Horns (Rank 2+)]
[Objective Completed: Register for the Hidden Legacy Realm Exploration]
[Rewards Available]
---
Without hesitation, Victor reached out and claimed them.
[ Azure Ember Recognition Mark]
A crest-like sigil materialized in midair before sinking into Victor’s chest, just beneath his collarbone. It didn’t burn. It didn’t hurt.
It anchored.
Victor felt the acknowledgement immediately.
[Azure Ember Recognition Mark Acquired]
Type: Authority / Clearance Sigil
Issued By: Azure Ember Empire
Effect(s):
Grants official recognition as a registered junior representative of Blueflame City
Allows entry into the Hidden Legacy Realm when it opens
Prevents automatic suppression or expulsion by imperial formations
Enables limited access to imperial teleport arrays, records, and legacy seals
Confers conditional protection under Azure Ember imperial law
Victor’s eyes narrowed slightly.
"So this is basically... a permit to survive," he muttered.
Without it, stepping into the Hidden Legacy Realm would have resulted in instant rejection or forced ejection.
The second reward followed almost immediately, carrying an unmistakable pressure that made the air in the courtyard tremble.
[ Soul Stabilizing Boon ]
[ Implementation Complete ]
Then a third notification appeared, glowing differently from the rest.
---
[Special Reward Acquired: Phantom Dusk Resonance Fragment]
[Applicable Item Detected: Phantom Dusk — Soulbound Weapon]
[Integrate Fragment?]
---
Victor’s brows lifted.
"...Phantom Dusk?"
He hadn’t expected anything tied directly to his sword.
With a flick of his will, he summoned Phantom Dusk from his storage.
The blade appeared before him; slender, and dark as twilight. Its surface drank in the ambient light rather than reflecting it with faint runes etched along the fuller throbbing softly in response to Victor’s qi.
"Integrate," he said calmly.
The fragment dissolved into motes of dusky light and flowed into the sword like smoke drawn into a vacuum.
For a moment, nothing happened.
And then, Phantom Dusk glowed.
The runes along the blade flared, shifting subtly as if rearranging themselves. The sword let out a low resonant sound that vibrated through Victor’s bones and into his soul.
A new notification appeared.
---
[Phantom Dusk — Resonance Progress: 1 / 3]
[Effect: Dormant — Further fragments required to unlock full resonance]
---
Victor narrowed his eyes.
"One out of three..." he murmured.
So this wasn’t a simple enhancement.
It was a set.
A phased awakening.
He ran a hand along the flat of the blade, feeling a difference. Phantom Dusk felt heavier, not in mass, but in presence. As if something ancient had stirred within it, only to fall back asleep once it realized it was incomplete.
"Looks like you’ve got secrets too," Victor muttered before dismissing the sword back into storage.
His attention returned to the remaining rewards.
---
[Qi Wisps Acquired: 60,000]
[Soul Tempering Essence x3]
[Void-Infused Spirit Stones x5]
[High-Grade Meridian Stabilizer x1]
---
Victor exhaled slowly.
"Sixty thousand wisps..."
That alone was enough to make inner disciples salivate since they were still Nascent Soul cultivators. For him, it was barely enough to fuel his current cultivation Progress by 1%.
He absorbed the qi wisps immediately, letting them settle into his reserves without circulating them yet. The additional resources were stored carefully, already categorized in his mind for later use.
When everything finally went quiet again, Victor leaned back slightly, intending to return to meditation.
That was when the air before him shimmered once more.
A new objective unfolded.
---
[New Objective Available]
Consolidate Your New Realm
→ Travel to the Bloodshade Hunting Grounds
→ Hunt and Slay One Designated Creature
---
Victor paused upon reading the notification.
The name alone stirred memories he hadn’t revisited in a long time.
"...Bloodshade Hunting Grounds."
His gaze drifted to the far wall of the courtyard as recollection surfaced unbidden.
The oppressive red mist.
The constant drain on qi.
The feeling that the land itself was hostile.
And deeper than that—
The place where he had nearly died.
The place where he had captured the Mythical Shadow-Eyed Moon Serpent.
For Princess Xuan Qing.
A faint grimace tugged at his lips.
"Tch... if I show my face at the palace again, she’s going to talk my ears off."
He could already picture it.
The crossed arms.
The sharp eyes.
The pouted lips.
The endless complaints about why he never visited her.
Victor shook his head lightly, pushing the thought aside.
He rose to his feet and began pacing slowly as he mentally mapped the Bloodshade Hunting Grounds once more.
The Bloodshade Hunting Grounds
A vast, cursed region divided not by walls, but by survivability.
The Outskirts
The safest zone—if such a word could even apply. Spirit beasts here were moderately strong, aggressive but predictable. Cultivators of all levels passed through, whether to train, hunt, or escort others.
Victor had once considered this place dangerous but now, it barely registered.
The Yellow Zone was where things started to get serious.
