I Can Only Cultivate In A Game-Chapter 397: Tyrant Of Time

He stopped directly beneath Qin Lau’s towering head.

"I didn’t come here because I thought I was stronger than you. No... you are far more powerful than I am."

He looked up with a calm gaze.

"I came because I know I can dominate you."

Victor lifted his hand and time resumed.

Qin Lau wings flared violently as he recoiled. The reality he controlled slipped through his grasp for the first time in centuries.

"This is your domain," Victor continued evenly. "But within mine—"

He smiled.

"—you don’t get to decide how this ends."

The Corrupt Triangle trembled from uncertainty as Qin Lau hovered in the air with his wings half-spread and eyes locked onto Victor with a gaze no longer purely arrogant.

Something else had entered it now...

Caution.

It suddenly came to a realisation upon recognising the aura that was seeping out of Victor.

"You possess..." Qin Lau’s voice dropped several octaves, "...the Void Emperor Bloodline."

Victor did not respond.

He stood there calmly within his Domain with arrow-like lunar markings glowing softly across his skin and arms relaxed at his sides, as though he were not standing in the heart of a legendary death zone facing a sovereign spirit beast.

Qin Lau’s talons flexed.

"So that is it," the beast muttered. "So you’re one of the heirs of time and space..."

His wings flared violently.

"But even emperors bleed."

The air trembled and with a thunderous flap of his wings, Qin Lau’s body split.

One became three as it conjured three perfect clones each radiating the same oppressive pressure, the same corrupted authority, the same monstrous qi signature.

One positioned itself to Victor’s left, another to his right, and the original hovered directly above him.

The Triangle groaned as their domains overlapped.

They attacked simultaneously.

From above, Qin Lau exhaled a compressed vortex of violet annihilation so dense it collapsed inward on itself.

From the left, one clone hurled a spiraling lance of crystallized darkness that tore the ground open as it passed.

From the right, the other clone folded its wings inward and vanished, reappearing behind Victor with talons aimed directly at his spine.

For the first time since entering the Triangle, the battlefield felt perfectly coordinated.

Victor lifted his gaze.

"Time Remap."

The world slowed to another stop...

Every attack froze mid-motion. The vortex above him became a twisted sculpture of destruction. The lance hung in the air inches from his shoulder. The clone behind him was locked mid-swipe with the talons less than a breath from contact.

Victor stepped forward.

The ground beneath his feet was still cracked from earlier devastation, yet nothing moved... not even dust.

Then Victor flicked his wrist.

The world reversed.

Space folded backward. Attacks unraveled. The clones snapped back into position as if pulled by invisible threads. The vortex retreated into Qin Lau’s lungs. The lance dissolved into raw qi and returned to its source.

The moment time resumed, the clones were gone and he was back where he started.

"What—"

Victor hadn’t moved from his original spot.

Qin Lau let out a roar that shook the heavens.

"I refuse to believe you can do this forever!"

He attacked again.

This time, it was overwhelming.

Qin Lau slammed both wings downward, collapsing the air into a spiraling gravity well. The ground imploded upward. Entire sections of the Corrupt Triangle were dragged into the vortex, crushed into nothingness.

Simultaneously, Qin Lau’s eyes glowed bright violet as a soul-targeting roar erupted—an attack meant to bypass physical defenses and crush Victor’s consciousness directly.

The system screamed warnings.

> [WARNING: Multi-Layered Annihilation Detected]

[WARNING: Soul Disruption Field Active]

Victor exhaled slowly.

"Time Remap."

Everything froze.

The gravity well hung suspended with chunks of land floating like islands in midair. The soul roar became a silent ripple, frozen halfway through reality.

Victor didn’t even look strained.

He stepped through the frozen battlefield, passing through destruction that could have erased peak Soul Transformation Realm cultivators.

He stopped directly in front of Qin Lau’s frozen face.

"You keep saying forever," Victor said quietly, as though speaking to a stubborn child. "That’s because you’re still thinking in terms of endurance. Sure you’re stronger... but in this case, I am more powerful than you are."

He tapped the air.

The world reversed.

Again.

Qin Lau snapped back to his starting position.

His eyes widened.

He remembered.

He remembered everything.

The attacks.

The pauses.

The rewinds.

Every failure stacked on top of the last.

He attacked again.

And again.

And again.

Each time Victor use time Remap to pause and reverse.

Victor didn’t move.

At one point, he folded his arms.

The Void Emperor Domain remained activate. Within it, time was no longer a river—it was a tool.

Qin Lau began to snarl between attacks, growing less precise and more frantic.

"Break—out—of—this!" he bellowed, unleashing everything at once.

It didn’t matter.

Pause.

Reverse.

Again.

Again.

Again.

Minutes passed.

Then longer.

Victor’s Domain did not waver.

Since he crossed into Soul Transformation Realm, it felt like he had boundless spiritual energy which allowed for Void Emperor Bloodline to remain active for longer than before.

Qin Lau’s rage twisted into something darker.

Confusion.

Then desperation.

"No... this isn’t domination," Qin Lau hissed with trembling wings. "This is imprisonment!"

"Are you willing to be my mount now?" Victor questioned slyly.

"No!" Qin Lau roared and kept attacking continously, letting the same situation repeat over and over and over.

At last, Qin Lau did something unexpected.

He stopped attacking.

His wings folded inward and his massive body turned slowly away from Victor as he proceeded to flee.

The Corrupt Triangle screamed as Qin Lau shot forward, tearing through space with desperate speed, aiming for the edge of the Domain.

For the first time, Victor raised an eyebrow.

Time rewound.

Qin Lau snapped back to his original position mid-air.

He froze and turned his head slowly.

Victor was still there.

Still calm.

Still unmoved.

Qin Lau tried again.

Flight.

Rewind.

Again.

Rewind.

Again.

Rewind.

Each attempt ended the same.

Each memory remained.

The realization hit like a collapsing star.

"You’re not fighting me," Qin Lau whispered hoarsely. "You’re... resetting me."

Victor finally unfolded his arms.

"Now you understand," he said evenly. "This isn’t a loop you can overpower."

He stepped forward.

"This is a cage."

Qin Lau roared with an incensed tone. "You will eventually run out of qi and when you do, I shall rip you open! Eat your heart and drink your blood!"

Victor chuckled. "Cute."

Qin Lau was shocked at how unfazed Victor remained.

"It is just as you have said... I cannot do this forever. However, you’re gravely mistaken if you think that makes me incapable of leaving here whenever I please..." Victor stepped forward again.

"You said it yourself... I possess the Void Emperor Bloodline. I could instantly leave the Bloodshade Hunting Grounds whenever I please and come back again whenever I please... So imagine this becoming your reality... everyday..." 𝐟𝐫𝕖𝗲𝘄𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝕧𝐞𝚕.𝕔𝕠𝐦

Qin Lau eyes widened upon realizing what Victor meant. He could simply just teleport out of here when his qi reserves were starting to dwindle and return when they were filled back up. Rinse, repeat, rinse, repeat... and he would be forced to bear the turmoil over and over and over again.

Just today, this situation had nearly driven him insane... he couldn’t bear to imagine how it would feel to experience this daily.

For the first time in centuries, the Sovereign of the Corrupt Triangle felt something he had long since forgotten... fear of inevitability... meeting an opponent that was weaker than he was... yet undefeatable.

Victor met his gaze steadily.

"You can keep attacking," he said. "You can keep running. Or—"

He took another step forward.

"—you can accept that the era where you ruled uncontested ends now."

A heavy contemplative silence stretched within the Corrupt Triangle.

Qin Lau remained hovering in the air with wings half-folded as the violet corruption around his body ebbed and flowed like a wounded tide. His massive pupils contracted slightly as he stared at Victor, no longer with rage, but with something far more dangerous to a sovereign spirit beast...

Shame.

"How..." Qin Lau muttered with a low and strained voice, "...how could I possibly allow this?"

He clenched his talons causing qi to ripple outward in restless waves.

"A mere early-stage Soul Transformation Realm cultivator," he continued bitterly. "Turning me into a mount? If word of this spread—if the ancient sovereigns learned of it—I would become a laughingstock."

His wings trembled with wounded pride.

Victor stood calmly beneath him with his Void Emperor markings dimmed now while deactivating his domain. He did not mock Qin Lau. He did not press him further.

He simply said, evenly,

"I won’t stay at early-stage Soul Transformation Realm forever."

Qin Lau’s gaze sharpened.

Victor took a step forward while restraining his qi restrained but unmistakably vast.

"You’re looking at what I am now," Victor continued. "Not what I’ll become."

He lifted his eyes, meeting Qin Lau’s directly.

"And when that day comes—when I shake the heavens, overturn destinies, and carve my name into the laws of existence—you won’t be ashamed."

A faint smirk appeared on Victor’s face as he recalled the whole reason he started playing Ascendant Realm in the first place.

"You’ll be grateful."