I Can Only Cultivate In A Game-Chapter 200: I’m Finishing This Tomorrow

[Trial III Complete] [Reward: Coordinates to Hollow Verdant, 1x Unknown Class Scroll, +50,000 Wisp Of Qi, Ancient Grove Affinity +5%]

[ Nascent Soul Realm Progress 14% —> 15% ]

Victor dropped to one knee with a look of exhaustion.

His qi was depleting rapidly. He pulled out the coordinate scroll and stored it into his spatial ring.

Now it was time to move.

...

...

As he sprinted toward the Hollow Verdant, following the faint lines of ancient glyphs along the ground, he noticed scattered loot—cultivation pills long buried, an old dagger forged of violet jade, and a talisman of wind resistance.

He scooped them up quickly.

But as the final mile neared, his breath grew shallow. Sweat poured down his back. His vision swam.

He was really struggling to hold on due to his bloodline not being fully integrated.

"I can't keep this up much longer..."

He knew he had to quicken his pace and get out of here as quickly as he could.

All of a sudden, he spotted shadows with flickering limbs and glowing red eyes in ghe distance.

These phantom silhouettes that were neither dead nor alive, watched him from behind shattered trees.

He gritted his teeth and pushed forward, determined to reach the Hollow Verdant before his strength gave out.

[Warning: Bloodline Synchronization Below Optimal Threshold. Depletion Accelerating. Seek Shelter or Exit Soon.]

Victor ignored the alert and kept running while the red-eyed phantoms flanked him silently, as if waiting for him to fall.

Victor dashed across the ruined pathway, ducking under a collapsed archway as shadows flickered between trees and mists.

The silhouettes were everywhere now with crimson eyes glaring from the semi-invisible bodies that slithered and vanished like smoke.

He drew his blade and coated it in Void qi as they blocked his path up ahead.

He prepared to slice one of them clean in half.

The moment, the edge of his sword met one of the dark phantoms, the silhouette didn't split.

Instead, it merged with his blade.

"What the—?!" Victor jerked back, trying to shake his sword free, but the dark energy crawled along the blade and into his hands like smoke turning solid.

A burning weight took root in his muscles.

[ Warning: Ancient Grove Phantom Curse Engaged ]

[ Movement speed and physical output reduced by 50% ]

[ To dispel curse, exit Ancient Grove ]

"Great," Victor hissed as his body turned much slower and heavier than before.

He dodged the other silhouettes, trying to avoid further contact. But they were relentless, slipping through trees, rising out of the ground, or materializing out of the mist.

Three more managed to brush against him.

[ Phantom Curse Amplified x4 ]

[ Total mobility reduced by 80% ]

Victor collapsed to one knee as his breath turned shallow. He could barely move now.

"No... not now."

He gritted his teeth and activated his Void Emperor Bloodline.

His veins glowed faintly with violet light as white tattoos appeared all over his skin and his qi surged.

His body felt a little lighter after its activation but he was far from being close to his initial full speed.

Slowly and painfully, he trudged forward.

After minutes of struggling and movement, he finally spotted something...

A massive structure carved into the heart of a shadow-drenched hill was visible in the distance.

It towered upward like a monument to dread. Huge chains, thicker than trees, wrapped around it in clusters. Mist erupted from the seal like breath from a beast trying to escape. Hundreds of talismans glowed in layers over the surface.

It was the Gate.

Victor stumbled closer while the pressure of the ancient grove intensified like it wanted to crush him.

His vision blurred slightly but he was finally close so he kept pushing on.

All of a sudden, something cracked the ground ahead.

A burst of earth and light, and a creature phased up from the ground.

Its body was like a stitched corpse fused with void smoke.

An Undying Horror Guardian.

It didn't speak... It roared... And charged.

Victor barely had time to roll sideways before the creature's arm which was shaped like a bone blade, slashed where he had been.

The shockwave alone hurled Victor twenty feet into the air, slamming him through a broken altar.

He hit the stones hard while coughing out blood as his sword clattered away.

"No!"

He summoned the sword back with Void qi threads, catching it just in time to block another downward strike.

But he was still too slow and heavy.

His Void qi fizzled under pressure.

The creature launched a heavy knee into his gut sending him sliding across the grounds once more.

He retaliated with Wind Gale Burst, but it barely pushed the creature back.

The phantom curse still weighed him down and made his attacks weaker than normal.

"Damn it! Come on!"

He activated Shadow Crescent Strike with his remaining qi, swinging with all his might.

The crescent hit the creature dead-on, blowing part of its chest off.

But it regenerated.

"Oh, come on!"

A shadow spike erupted from the ground under him and skewered his thigh.

Victor screamed.

The creature lunged one last time and stabbed through his chest before he could raise his sword quick enough to block it.

[ You Have Died ]

---

Victor awoke at the threshold of the Ancient Grove, gasping.

He looked down.

No wound. No blood. His qi was full.

But his cultivation, though...

[ Cultivation Level: Nascent Soul Realm - 4% ]

"F*ck."

Tarkos leaned against a boulder with his arms crossed. "You died, didn't you?"

Victor scowled. "You could tell?"

"You're not exactly subtle when you're upset."

Victor pouted and began making his way back towards the Ancient Groves; "I'm going back in..."

Elder Mo appeared a moment later. "You should not go back tonight."

Victor turned to him. "I can still—"

"No," Elder Mo interrupted. "At night, the Grove's dangers double. Even someone at my level cannot traverse it when the moon rises. You must rest and return tomorrow."

Victor clenched his fists.

"I was so close. I saw the gate. The talismans. I nearly made it."

"Then you know what to expect now," Elder Mo stated while gently placing a hand on his shoulder. "Tomorrow, you enter stronger."

Victor exhaled with a shaky breath while Tarkos handed him a flask of warm tea.

"Welcome back to the land of the living," he said.

Victor took the flask and sipped as his eyes looked back toward the darkened tree line of the Ancient Grove.

"Tomorrow," he whispered. "I'm finishing this tomorrow."

...

...

The night dragged on with eerie echoes slithering through the twisted trees beyond the threshold of the Ancient Grove.

Screeches echoed like broken flutes, distant yet present, and unnatural whispers seemed to crawl across the surface of Victor's skin.

Tarkos remained seated on a boulder nearby with his arms crossed. His usually smug demeanor was subdued by the oppressive atmosphere.

However, Elder Mo remained serene despite the tension in the air. His old eyes scanned the ancient trees bathed in pale moonlight, and he finally broke the silence.

"You hear that one?" he asked softly.

Victor tilted his head.

A deep croaky moan trembled through the grove, rising like thunder from some hollow abyss.

"That comes from beyond the gate," Elder Mo said. "From the realm of the Dark Immortals."

Victor raised a brow. "Didn't know echoes traveled dimensions."

"They don't. Unless something on the other side wants to be heard."

The fire crackled between them as Elder Mo spoke of the first cultivators to face the Dark Immortals—men and women who wielded heavenly flames and collapsed mountains with their fists. "But even they couldn't kill the corrupted immortals," he said. "Only seal them."

Victor poked at the fire with a stick. "Kinda rude that they didn't leave better directions for fixing the damn gate."

Elder Mo chuckled while shaking his head. "They likely never thought anyone would need to."

Victor later moved to a meditative pose beside a glowing spirit flame Elder Mo had conjured to suppress the Grove's passive repulsion effect. He cultivated long into the night, pushing his Nascent Soul Realm from 4% back to 7%.

When dawn broke, the grove moaned again, louder now, as if it were aware of Victor's return.

Victor dusted himself off and turned toward Elder Mo and Tarkos. "I'm ready."

"Remember," Elder Mo said, "this is no place for hesitation. You are only tolerated in there. You are not welcomed."

Victor gave a half-smile. "Story of my life."

With that, he stepped through the line where life gave way to shadow.

The world didn't recoil from his presence, but neither did it welcome him. The Grove's heavy pressure immediately returned, curling around his limbs like serpents of lead.

But this time, Victor knew his path.

He sprinted through the twisted ruins, past shrines to forgotten gods and carcasses long turned to dust. He sidestepped a fallen altar, darted around a mist-drenched cavern, and leapt over fissures that hissed with blood-red steam.

Avoiding the phantom silhouettes was easy now. He kept his Void Qi compressed around his body and moved with speed, evading them.

None managed to successfully touch him.

When he reached the spot where the creature had killed him the day before, Victor stood fully energized and utterly focused.