I Can Only Cultivate In A Game-Chapter 399: A Prank?
Victor glanced at the timer floating faintly in the corner of his vision.
> [ 240 : 17 : 25 ]
He had spent three days in the Bloodshade Hunting Grounds but he still had over ten days left.
Victor turned inward.
"Then I’ll cultivate."
He sat down, crossing his legs.
The moment he closed his eyes, the world quieted.
The courtyard trembled faintly as heaven and earth responded to his circulation. Wisps of energy flowed toward him in visible streams, drawn by his Soul Transformation Realm foundation.
<[ Soul Transformation Realm Progress: 20.01% ]>
Behind him, Qin Lau settled into a coiled posture with his wings partially unfurled and his eyes half-lidded but alert.
A sovereign stood guard.
A future heaven-shaker cultivated.
And somewhere deep within the sect, elders whispered with trembling voices.
"Fang Chen..."
"What kind of monster did we nurture?"
The answer was simple.
One who had only just begun...
...
...
New Avalon City was quiet in the early afternoon.
Sunlight filtered through the transparent curvature of the city’s upper shield, diffused into a warm, artificial glow that bathed the apartment complex in perpetual late morning.
Inside Apartment 17-C, life moved gently.
Victor’s mother sat on the couch with her posture slightly slouched and a five-month-old girl perched comfortably on her lap. The child was far too big for her age...
She had long limbs, alert eyes, a head already crowned with thick, dark hair that stubbornly refused to lie flat. Anyone seeing her would have guessed she was already a year old.
The girl stared intently at a small holographic projector hovering just above Victor’s mother’s palm.
Images shifted one after another.
Family photos.
Old recordings.
Moments frozen from a time that felt impossibly far away.
Victor’s mother lifted a finger and pointed at one of the images which was a blurry shot of a man smiling awkwardly at the camera, holding a much younger Victor in his arms.
"That’s dada," she said softly.
The little girl blinked, then slapped the air excitedly.
"Da... da," she mumbled, the syllables clumsy but enthusiastic.
Victor’s mother laughed hesitantly as though she wasn’t fully convinced she deserved to laugh yet.
"Yes," she said warmly. "That’s dada."
The image changed.
Now it showed Victor.
He was older, taller and smiling with that familiar crooked grin he always wore when he thought no one was watching. He had an arm slung around a friend’s shoulder.
Victor’s mother paused a little longer on this one.
She pointed again.
"And that," she voiced with a gentler tone, "is big brother."
The little girl stared hard, her brows knitting together as if she were committing the face to memory.
"Big... bruh," she tried.
Victor’s mother beamed.
"Yes. Big brother."
For a moment, everything felt... normal.
The apartment smelled faintly of cooked vegetables and broth. The low distant buzz of the city’s atmospheric systems filtered through the walls. The holographic images cast soft light across the living room, dancing over old furniture that had been repaired too many times to count.
This was peace.
Fragile, stitched together peace... but peace nonetheless.
---
In the kitchen, Lena stood frozen.
The pot on the stove simmered quietly as steam curled upward in lazy spirals. The vegetables were done. The protein had been seasoned and plated. Everything was ready to be served.
But Lena wasn’t looking at the food.
She was staring at her phone.
Her brow furrowed deeper with every second that passed.
The message sat there in her inbox, glowing faintly against the dark interface of the Bird App social space.
> Victor is alive.
He asked me to pass this message to you so you can tell his mom not to worry.
He said he’ll return soon.
Lena scoffed softly.
"...Seriously?"
She tapped the sender’s profile.
A teenager.
Gaming clips.
Achievements from some VRMMORPG.
A messy profile filled with memes, badges, and enthusiasm.
Location tag: Helios Dome, Sector R-9.
A domed city that was way too far.
Lena’s lips pressed into a thin line.
"A prank," she muttered. "It has to be."
Her grip on the phone tightened.
She had been with Victor’s family long enough to know how fragile things were.
She had seen Victor’s mother at her worst—nights spent staring at the door, flinching at every news alert, replaying emergency broadcasts again and again even when they offered no new information.
She had watched her break down when the Mana Defense Corps officially listed Victor as missing.
Not dead.
But not alive either.
That limbo had nearly destroyed her.
It was only after months—after the baby was born, after routines were forced into place, after exhaustion dulled the sharper edges of grief—that Victor’s mother had begun to smile again.
Small smiles.
Careful smiles.
Smiles Lena protected like glass.
Lena stared at the message again.
What kind of person would do this?
What kind of kid would think it was funny to give false hope?
Her jaw clenched.
"These stupid kids..." she hissed under her breath.
She didn’t hesitate anymore.
She blocked the sender.
A confirmation ping echoed softly.
Then she deleted the message.
Gone.
Erased without ceremony.
Lena exhaled slowly, as though she had just snuffed out a small but dangerous flame.
She turned her head toward the living room.
Victor’s mother was laughing again, bouncing the baby gently on her knee. The little girl was clapping at the changing pictures, completely unaware of how precarious her happiness was.
Lena’s resolve hardened.
I can’t let anything ruin this.
Not again.
She placed her phone face down on the counter and picked up the plates.
She put up a convincing smile...
"Lunch is ready!" Lena called cheerfully as she stepped into the living room.
Victor’s mother looked up as surprise flickered across her face before settling into gratitude.
"Oh, thank you, Lena," she said. "You didn’t have to rush."
Lena waved it off, carefully setting the plates down on the table.
"Nonsense. You’ve both been playing all morning."
The baby reached out immediately, fascinated by the steam rising from the food.
Victor’s mother adjusted her hold, laughing softly.
"Careful," she said gently. "That’s hot."
The baby eyes suddenly emitted a silver glow and a small spinning wind, was conjured above the food.
It siphoned a portion of the heat, making it perfectly fine to consume.
Lena watched in awe while Victor’s mother only opened her mouth a bit but then closed it without saying a word.
Even though they were slowly getting used to the baby’s extraordinary existence, witnessing such deeds would always awe them.
Victor’s mother used to be worried about anyone figuring this out which was why she always kept the baby in the room whenever there were visitors around.
Since it was only Lena here at the moment, there was no need to bother.
Lena noted the way Victor’s mother’s shoulders were more relaxed now. How the dark circles beneath her eyes weren’t as pronounced as they had been months ago. How she spoke with more energy, more presence...
’She’s healing,’ Lena thought.
And she would not allow some random message to reopen old wounds.
They sat together and ate.
They talked about mundane things.
The weather inside the dome.
A neighbor’s noisy child.
How fast the baby was growing.
Victor’s name came up only once—briefly, cautiously.
"He would’ve loved this," Victor’s mother said quietly, watching her daughter smear food across her cheek. "He was always good with kids."
•••
•••
~ Ascendant Realms ~
Ten days passed in what felt like a single, unbroken breath.
For Victor, those ten days were spent in absolute stillness, seated cross-legged in the heart of his core disciple courtyard, surrounded by layered formations, spirit-gathering arrays, and rare resources the Violet Springs Sect had spared no expense in providing.
And yet...
Progress was painfully slow.
His Soul Transformation Realm cultivation advanced by less than one percent.
When Victor finally opened his eyes and checked his internal state, he wasn’t frustrated.
He was... resigned.
"Figures," he muttered softly.
This realm wasn’t like the ones before.
Qi no longer surged recklessly forward, smashing through bottlenecks with brute force. The Soul Transformation Realm demanded refinement, comprehension, soul alignment, and an almost cruel degree of patience.
Many cultivators spent decades here.
Some spent centuries.
Some never left it at all.
The fact that he had progressed even a fraction—after only ten days—was already bordering on abnormal.
Still, knowing that didn’t make the waiting any easier.
Victor exhaled slowly and let his senses drift inward. His connection to the White Dragon Legacy was more profound, the draconic warmth beneath the frost more defined. The Void Emperor Bloodline throbbed calmly, no longer restless, as though it too understood that this was a realm that could not be rushed.
Then—
A subtle tug brushed against his consciousness.
Victor’s eyes sharpened.
He glanced at the timer hovering faintly at the edge of his vision. 𝑓𝑟ℯ𝘦𝓌𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝑐ℴ𝓂
Only a few minutes remained.
"So that’s it," he murmured.
Ascendant Realms was about to force him out.
On the bright side, he wasn’t worried.
He could cultivate in his original world. The soul connection between both worlds had deepened after his breakthrough. What he comprehended here would not be lost there.
As the final seconds ticked away, Victor adjusted his posture, steadying his breathing.
Then—
The world folded inward.
