I Can Only Cultivate In A Game

Victor eyes narrowed. "You want to test me?"

The elder smiled faintly. "I want to know if you're worth my time."

[ New Objective: Impress Elder Mo ]

It wasn't exactly vague but Victor really wondered why he had to impress this elder when they were the ones who needed him.

"And what if I'm not worth your time? What if I don't wish to partake in your test?" Victor inquired.

"Then you'll have to find yourself another elder to train you. If the fate of this city lies upon the shoulders of an incompetent cultivator, I'd rather not waste my time indulging them," Elder Mo stated while stroking his beard.

'Quite the character... someone who can defy the city lord if he wishes to...' Victor voiced internally.

He decided not to stress it.

Now was as good a time as any to test his new bloodline abilities.

With a slow breath, he activated Chrono Echo.

<[ Bloodline Channeling Is In Progress ]>

A translucent afterimage of himself separated from his body and stood beside him, mirroring his movements a second later like a delayed phantom.

"Not bad," Fang Chen muttered.

Next, he activated Void Cloak and wrapped his qi around a bunch of leaves falling from the tree up ahead.

In the next moment, they vanished.

The leaves had turned completely invisible.

And next he unsheathed Phantom's Dusk.

In the next moment, he activated Shadow Crescent Strike, launching a curving blade of dark energy into the air.

It sliced through the air as its edge crackled with silent lethality while Victor's face displayed a look of focus.

He stretched his fingers forward and wrapped his Qi around it, activating Void Cloak on the technique itself.

The crescent vanished mid-air.

A second later, the energy reappeared dozens of meters to the left and slashed straight through a thick tree trunk, cleaving it clean in half.

Fang Chen lowered the sword slowly while breathing out profusely.

Behind him, Elder Mo stepped forward while stroking his beard with a thoughtful look.

"Not only did you cloak your attack with Void energy, you shifted it to another position entirely," Elder Mo remarked. "Spatial redirection and cloaking combined... very impressive."

Fang Chen offered a nod. "Just testing things out."

[ Objective Complete: Impress Elder Mo ]

[ Reward: 20,000 Wisps of Qi, +5 strength, +3 Perception ]

"You'll start training tomorrow morning," Elder Mo said. "Be prepared. I don't tolerate sloth."

That night, Victor was assigned his own courtyard. Though he wasn't a disciple of the sect, the City Lord had pulled strings to ensure he was treated like a core disciple.

His room was spacious, with flowing silk curtains and crystal lanterns that adjusted their brightness according to the hour. There was even a small private cultivation chamber behind the residence.

He sat cross-legged in the chamber and activated his bloodline once more.

Elder Mo had instructed him to

attempt increasing the integration of his

Void Emperor bloodline before training

began in the morning. It wasn't a request... it

was a challenge.

His skin glowed faintly like a reminiscent of moonlight, and arrow-shaped marks spread across his arms, back, and chest.

The familiar weightless sensation coursed through his limbs. Victor focused, trying to deepen his bond with the Void Emperor Bloodline.

The integration sat at 3%.

For the next several hours, he pushed himself, trying to increase the percentage.

Sweat beaded across his brow, and the spiritual energy in the air slowly thinned as he pulled every trace into his body.

Yet after all his effort, it barely made any difference.

[ Void Emperor Bloodline Integration: 3.1% ]

He collapsed backwards while panting.

"This is going to be arduous..."

---

Morning came too soon.

Victor arrived at the designated training platform, surrounded by smoothened dark pillars and floating stone platforms.

Elder Mo stood at the center with his arms behind his back.

"You look like you got run over by a spirit beast," the old man remarked.

"Integration only moved 0.1%," Fang Chen muttered.

"Expected," Elder Mo replied. "Integration isn't something that can be brute-forced. But I will teach you a technique that will help speed up your bloodline integration. It's not tailored for your Void Emperor Bloodline specifically, but it works for all bloodlines."

Fang Chen's eyes narrowed. "What is it called?"

Elder Mo stepped forward and drew a circle in the air with his finger. Faint runes hovered in the trail.

"This technique is called the Bloodline Resonance Technique. It's ancient and obscure, but very effective. However, it's divided into four stages. Each stage is a challenge on its own."

Victor tilted his head. "What's the catch?"

Elder Mo smiled. "The catch is simple. If your bloodline isn't strong enough to handle the first stage, your body might implode from the resonance backlash."

Victor blinked. "Ah. Lovely."

"But you'll be fine," Elder Mo added with a grin. "You're the Void Emperor's successor, after all. Aren't you supposed to be more durable than the rest of us mere mortals?"

Victor gave a dry laugh. "You have too much faith in me."

"You'll practice the first stage here. You must learn to listen to your bloodline. Feel its pulse. Its echo. Sync with it and the spatial field around you. Once you do, the first stage of resonance will begin."

Notifications appeared in his line of sight:

[ Initiating: Bloodline Resonance Technique – Stage One ]

[ Warning: Failure may result in backlash. Proceed with caution. ]

The first layer required Fang Chen to sit in the center of a vast circle carved into the platform that was covered in complex ancient runes.

Victor sat down once again and crossed his legs.

Elder Mo placed three stones around him. "These are void attunement crystals. They resonate with spatial frequencies. Use them to begin syncing your rhythm."

Victor took a deep breath, then another, and then let his mind descend.

Into the blood. Into the echoing void.

Breath. Heartbeat. Thoughts.

In. Out. Thump. Clear.

Victor followed the same process repeatedly until he once more found his consciousness surrounded by pitch black...

Only a faint outline could be made out within this darkness.