I Can Only Cultivate In A Game-Chapter 404: Reverence

Ray slowly turned around and there he stood.

A tall man clad in a long, weather-worn coat reinforced with layered enchantments that had clearly seen countless battles. His hair was streaked with premature silver despite his relatively young face, and faint scars traced the edges of his jaw and neck.

His eyes, however, were what made Ray’s spine stiffen.

They were exhausted.

The kind of exhaustion that came not from lack of sleep, but from carrying responsibility for far too long.

The magical presence rolling off him was immense but controlled, refined, and terrifyingly deep as if he were deliberately suppressing it.

"So," the man said quietly with a calm voice edged with iron. "Humans?"

Ray swallowed.

"Commander."

The commander’s gaze flicked upward, toward the distant horizon where Gojo had vanished long ago.

"How many?" he asked.

Ray hesitated.

"...Two," he admitted. "On a large magical bird."

The commander closed his eyes briefly.

"...Hmm," he murmured. "After all this time."

The young man beside Ray stiffened.

"Sir," he began, "we don’t know who they are yet. They might not be—"

"I know," the commander interrupted softly. He opened his eyes again, and this time there was something sharp buried beneath the fatigue. "If they are headed in that direction... then maybe they’re unaware."

—

Victor opened his eyes and Ascendant Realms greeted him with familiar stillness.

The sky above his courtyard glowed with layered constellations, each star tracing faint geometric paths through the void. Spiritual energy flowed like invisible rivers through the air, grazing softly against his senses.

He exhaled.

Though only a day and a half had passed in the outside world, time flowed differently within Ascendant Realms. By his estimation, he had been absent for nearly ten full days here.

Ten days of cultivation lost.

Ten days of accumulated pressure waiting for him.

Victor stood and stretched, feeling the faint soreness lingering in his spiritual body. His Void Emperor Bloodline was dormant now, but echoes of its usage still lingered deep within him, like afterimages burned into his meridians.

At the edge of the courtyard, Qin Lau stood as he always did with his back straight and eyes alert.

"You’re back," Qin said calmly.

"Barely," Victor replied, rolling his shoulders. "Anything happen while I was gone?"

"No disturbances," Qin answered. "No intrusions."

Victor nodded, then paused as a faint ripple of notifications surfaced in his interface.

"...Huh."

He focused and several unread messages from Jin Kade materialized before him.

Victor raised an eyebrow and opened the messages.

They were short and direct, labelling his desire to meet and provide feedback on the earlier assignment.

Victor frowned and without hesitation, he sent a reply.

> Come to my courtyard.

—

Thirty minutes later, Jin Kade stood just inside the entrance with hands on his hips, clearly annoyed.

"You know," Jin said immediately, "Your beast didn’t let me through the last time. Just stood there like a wall."

Qin huffed softly. "Orders."

Victor raised a hand. "I wasn’t even here at the time. I was back in our world."

Jin blinked. "Wait—seriously?"

Victor nodded. "Long story. What’s so urgent?"

Jin’s expression shifted as his annoyance faded into something more uncomfortable.

"...That message," Jin said. "The one you asked me to pass along."

Victor’s heart tightened slightly. "You sent it?"

"I tried," Jin replied. "She blocked me."

Victor froze. "...Really?"

"Without a single response," Jin continued. "I thought it was weird, so I made another account. Different name. Different profile. Entirely fresh."

Victor already knew where this was going.

"The moment I sent the same type of message," Jin said, "blocked again."

Victor exhaled slowly.

"...Lena blocked you."

Jin nodded grimly as silence settled between them.

Victor looked away, staring at the stone tiles of his courtyard. All he had wanted—literally all he wanted—was to let his mother know he was alive and okay. That she didn’t need to worry.

But the bridge he had hoped to use had collapsed.

"She probably thinks it’s a scam," Jin said carefully. "Or something worse."

"Yeah," Victor muttered. "I don’t blame her."

He clenched his hand slowly considering the option of Jake and Max.

He hadn’t wanted to involve them.

Both were buried in their own lives now—universities, coursework, futures that didn’t neccessarily involve awakened or life far from domed cities.

But there was no other option.

Victor turned back to Jin. "I’ll give you my friends contacts."

Jin raised an eyebrow. "You sure?"

"No choice."

Victor transmitted the information.

"Message them instead," Victor said. "But I’ll add something extra."

"Extra?"

"Something only they’d know," Victor replied. "Something no one else was there for."

Jin thought for a moment, then nodded. "Got it. So what would that be?"

Victor paused, then added quietly, "The night at the underground fight club. We fled from law enforcement after winning illegally..."

Jin blinked in shock. "You did what?"

Victor shrugged; "Fun times."

After a moment, Jin straightened. "You owe me for this."

Victor smirked faintly. "Of course I do."

Jin waved and turned to leave.

Once he was gone, the courtyard felt... emptier.

Victor sat down cross-legged, closed his eyes and the world faded.

Spiritual energy flowed inward as he resumed cultivation.

After returning to Ascendant Realms, Victor cultivated normally while waiting patiently for his bloodline to revitalise. The strain from his previous usage had nearly drained him dry and activating it again would have been foolish.

But after a full day had gone by, he was back to normal.

Without hesitation, Victor rose from his meditative position in the center of his courtyard. Qin Lau stood nearby as usual, silent guardian and witness to everything that unfolded within these walls.

Victor inhaled slowly.

Then—

The arrow-like markings erupted across his face and neck like living inscriptions. Silver light spread through them in rhythmic waves.

"Void Emperor Bloodline..."

A low vibration spread outward as space bent.

And then—

His domain unfolded.

<[ Void Emperor Domain Activated ]>

It did not explode outward violently like a typical cultivator’s domain. Instead, it spread like a shadow stretching at sunset—subtle, inevitable, sovereign.

The air shifted and qi thickened as time within his domain became completely dominated.

Victor lifted his hand slightly.

"Ten to one," he murmured.

The domain trembled once and the world inside it slowed.

For every one day that passed in Ascendant Realms, ten would pass within.

Qin Lau’s eyes widened as he felt the time dilation. However, this wasn’t the only thing he felt... The qi density within the courtyard multiplied and the spiritual flow became smoother, more responsive and more refined.

Almost like the activation of the Void Emperor’s Domain had amplified the effects for only those underneath Victor’s banner... being his mount, he realized that he got to enjoy this special boon as well.

Victor returned to his seated position and closed his eyes once more.

He resumed cultivation.

Day one...

Day five...

Day twenty...

Day fifty...

The routine became simple.

Absorb qi...

Refine...

Compress...

Temper the soul.

Soul Transformation Realm was not a realm of brute force.

It was a realm of refinement.

At this stage, cultivators were not strengthening their bodies, they were restructuring the very foundation of their spiritual existence. Every percent gained was like polishing a diamond that had already been forged.

Progress was painfully microscopic but Victor did not waver.

Every few days in Ascendant Realms was equivalent to weeks and even months within the domain. He would deactivate the Void Emperor Domain briefly whenever his bloodline energy needed recovery. Even with his constitution, maintaining time dilation at that scale drained him.

Yet even during recovery—

He did not stop cultivating.

He simply did so at normal speed.

Then once restored, the domain expanded again.

Ten to one.

Ten to one.

Ten to one.

By the time the 100th day passed inside the domain, over three full months of continuous cultivation... only ten days had passed in Ascendant Realms.

And less than two days in his original world.

Victor opened his eyes on the 100th day.

There was no explosion of power.

No breakthrough.

Just... depth.

His aura felt denser and more cohesive as if the fragments of his soul were aligning more perfectly within their vessel.

He checked his progress.

<[ Soul Transformation Realm Progress: 23.8% ]>

He had raised it by about three percent.

He stared at it for a long moment.

In ordinary circumstances, that number might have been laughable but at Soul Transformation Realm?

It was monstrous.

Many cultivators spent over a year for similar advancement. Some could barely scrape 1% in that time.

Victor exhaled slowly.

"Slow," he muttered but sufficient.

If he maintained this pace, using time dilation strategically... in the five months time left before the hidden realm exploration, he could make a significant leap.

Perhaps even reach mid-stage.

Not far from him, Qin Lau stood in stunned silence.

At first, he had not realized what was happening but by the thirtieth day within the domain, he had felt his own cultivation was accelerating.

The qi density...

The smoothness of spiritual flow...

The subtle compression of time... 𝐟𝗿𝐞𝚎𝚠𝐞𝚋𝕟𝐨𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝕔𝕠𝚖

All of it benefited him too.

He had thought accepting Victor as master was a gamble, now all he felt was awe.

By the 100th day, Qin Lau’s respect had transformed into something deeper...

Reverence.