I Can Only Cultivate In A Game-Chapter 401: Graveyard of Sleeping Titans
Every hour that passed externally gave him ten hours internally.
Victor focused deeply.
Qi flowed.
His meridians pulsed with spiritual energy.
His Soul Transformation core rotated slowly, absorbing, refining, stabilizing.
Each cycle strengthened his foundation.
Each breath reinforced his soul.
Each second accumulated progress.
Outside the domain, Gojo rested peacefully.
Eirene stood nearby, watching silently.
She could feel the distortion but she couldn’t exactly tell what was going on.
Victor sat unmoving within the domain with silver markings glowing faintly across his body.
He looked like a statue carved from moonlight.
Eirene tilted her head slightly without speaking.
She simply watched.
Inside the domain, days passed while outside it had only been a couple of hours.
Victor remained motionless.
Cultivating.
Refining.
Strengthening.
His control over qi improved further.
His Soul Transformation core became denser.
More stable.
More complete.
The inefficiency of this world was no longer a crippling disadvantage.
He had compensated for it with the Void Emperor Bloodline.
Eventually—
Victor opened his eyes again.
His pupils shimmered faintly with silver light before returning to normal.
He checked his internal state and noticed that his progress had increased.
Not dramatically.
But noticeably.
And most importantly—
It was sustainable.
He could continue like this even if he wasn’t in Ascendant
He could continue growing.
Victor exhaled slowly and deactivated the Void Emperor Domain.
The silver markings faded.
Time resumed its natural flow.
The ocean waves sped up again.
The wind returned.
Reality normalized.
Victor robes fluttered faintly as he rose to his feet.
He could feel it.
The Ascendant Realms cooldown was over.
He could return whenever he wished.
Victor rolled his shoulders slightly, feeling the strength coiled beneath his skin.
"Good."
But before returning, he decided to look around.
He stepped away from the tent and scanned the small island.
Gojo rested peacefully near the rocky edge, his massive frost-covered body rising and falling slowly with each breath.
Victor’s gaze shifted.
Eirene was nowhere nearby.
Victor frowned slightly.
He proceeded to walk around the island.
A wet, grotesque sound when he suddenly heard a wet slurping sound.
GULP.
Victor paused.
"...?"
He followed the sound toward the rear side of the island.
And then he saw her.
Eirene stood near a rough rock formation, holding what appeared to be an enormous slab of meat... larger than her entire torso.
She was shoving it into her mouth.
The meat stretched unnaturally as it slid down her throat, her body accommodating the impossible size with unnatural ease.
Victor’s eyes widened.
Her stomach...
Was enormous.
It bulged outward, distended far beyond normal proportions.
Victor stared in horror.
"Eirene!"
She paused mid-swallow and turned toward him.
A piece of meat still hung halfway into her mouth.
Victor rushed forward.
"What the hell are you doing?!"
Eirene blinked slowly.
Her expression remained calm and emotionless as she swallowed the remaining meat.
"My stomach made that sound again," she said matter-of-factly.
Victor stared at her.
"...What sound?"
She placed a hand on her swollen stomach.
"The sound master spoke of."
Victor froze as his mind replayed the moment from earlier.
When her stomach had growled.
When he told her—
~"Just because I wasn’t here doesn’t mean you shouldn’t eat."~
Victor’s face went pale.
"And... so?" he asked slowly.
Eirene nodded.
"So I put everything inside."
Victor blinked.
"...Everything?"
She gestured calmly behind her.
Victor turned.
His eyes widened in horror.
Empty. 𝑓𝓇𝘦ℯ𝘸𝘦𝑏𝓃𝑜𝘷ℯ𝑙.𝑐𝑜𝓂
The supply packs were empty.
Completely empty.
All the preserved meat.
All the rations.
Everything.
Gone.
Victor’s jaw dropped.
"That was TWO WEEKS worth of food!"
Eirene nodded calmly.
"Yes."
Victor grabbed his head.
"No, no, no, no..."
Eirene tilted her head.
"You said I should not wait until master gives permission."
Victor froze.
She was right.
He did say that.
He just didn’t expect her to interpret it like this.
Eirene spoke again calmly.
"If I put everything inside, the sound will never come again."
Victor stared at her swollen stomach.
"That’s not how eating works!"
She blinked.
"...It is not?"
Victor sighed deeply, rubbing his temples.
"No."
He took a deep breath and then began explaining.
"You’re supposed to eat in portions. Small amounts. Morning. Afternoon. Night. Gradually."
Eirene listened attentively.
Absorbing every word.
Then—
Without hesitation—
She shoved her hand into her own mouth.
Victor froze.
"...What are you doing?"
Her arm slid down her throat.
Completely.
As if her anatomy had no limits.
Victor’s eyes widened.
Then—
She pulled something out.
A large slab of meat.
Still intact.
Covered in saliva and viscous fluids.
She held it out toward him.
"Master can have this."
Victor stared at it as saliva dripped from it.
Thick...
Stringy...
Wet...
Victor stared silently.
Then slowly raised his hand.
"...No thanks."
Eirene blinked.
Victor sighed deeply.
"...We need more food."
He turned toward the ocean.
Fortunately, they were surrounded by water which made fishing possible.
Victor had never fished before but he knew aquatic life existed in oceans.
Although, he had no fishing tools, which according to the books were necessary for fishing, he could simply catch them directly.
Victor removed his white outer garments, revealing his toned body beneath.
He stepped toward the water’s edge and then dove in.
Splash~
Cold water enveloped him instantly.
Victor swam smoothly, using the training at the academy that had taught him survival skills.
He dove deeper.
And deeper.
Then paused.
"...Shallow."
Victor frowned.
He descended further but it was still shallow.
He swam forward, giving the island more distance but yet, it was still shallow.
Victor’s brows furrowed.
He estimated the depth to be somewhat around fifteen feet to twenty feet.
That was a strange level of depth for an ocean.
Victor looked around but there was nothing.
No fish...
No aquatic life...
No seaweed...
No coral...
Nothing.
Just empty water.
Victor’s confusion deepened.
This was an ocean so it shouldn’t be this shallow.
He swam farther, reaching one hundred feet away from the island but somehow, it remained shallow.
Still, there was not a single aquatic life in sight.
Victor stopped.
His instincts told him something was very wrong.
He held his breath and walked along the ocean floor.
The water barely reached above his head.
This was impossible.
It somehow didn’t seem like an ocean anymore. It was like a massive, endless shallow pool.
Victor frowned deeply when suddenly, he felt a tremble.
It was barely noticeable at first but then the tremble grew stronger.
The ground beneath his feet vibrated.
Victor slowly turned and looked toward the island.
His eyes widened upon spotting something uncanny.
There... on the side of the island, a massive eye opened.
It was enormous... way larger than Victor himself and emitting a golden glow.
Victor froze.
"...What."
The eye rotated, focusing on him directly.
Victor’s eyes narrowed as the tremble intensified and the entire island began to move.
Slowly... the island began to rise.
Water cascaded off its surface like waterfalls and massive chunks of rock shifted as the ground lifted upward.
Victor’s mind raced...
That was never an island... it was something else.
Something alive.
Victor remained perfectly still beneath the shallow water as the "island" continued to rise.
The truth dawned on him.
They hadn’t landed on an island.
They had landed...
On a creature but that wasn’t all...
Victor watched in stunned silence as the "island" ahead continued to ascend, carrying Eirene and Gojo with it.
Water cascaded in sheets from its surface, pouring off massive ridges and uneven terrain that were never terrain at all—but flesh... armored flesh that had been mistaken for stone.
And beneath him, the trembling hadn’t stopped...
Instead, it intensified.
The ocean floor cracked open...
Lines formed beneath the shallow waters like scars splitting apart as the ground beneath Victor lifted violently, forcing him upward as yet another colossal being emerged from below.
Victor’s pupils shrank.
"...Another one."
And then another.
And another.
And another.
As far as his eyes could see, the "ocean" was awakening.
Victor felt underneath him tremble even more intensely.
Which meant that it wasn’t just one creature... there were more.
And 6his had never been an ocean...
It was a graveyard of sleeping titans.
Or perhaps—
A congregation.
Hundreds of gargantuan magical beings rose from beneath the shallow waters, with their immense forms towering into the sky like living mountains.
They were monstrous beyond comprehension.
Each creature possessed a massive, flattened body structure resembling a fusion between a humanoid and a sea colossus. Their backs were covered in rough rock-like armor plates, layered and ridged like tectonic formations.
Their skin was gray-blue, ancient and scarred, glowing faintly with veins of luminous green energy that pulsed like magma beneath stone.
Their arms were massive with each limb easily stretching hundreds of feet long, ending in thick, clawed fingers that could crush entire buildings.
Their heads were grotesque and alien... as well as featureless except for—
One enormous eye.
A single eye embedded into the side of their upper torso, glowing with ancient intelligence and deep magical power.
And their mouths—
Their mouths were enormous vertical slits running down the center of their chest, capable of opening wide enough to swallow entire warships.
These were no ordinary magical beasts...
Victor’s heart pounded.
This entire region...
Was never water.
It was their domain... and he had landed directly on their backs.
