I Can Only Cultivate In A Game-Chapter 231: Altered Sense Of Direction

Victor shot Aeri Fan a grin that looked far too boyish for the power vibrating off him.

"Then we all drown heroically."

She snorted. "Reassuring."

Victor proceeded to activate his Void Emperor Bloodline which boosted his senses multiple fold.

He sent it forth, letting it penetrate the sea beneath them.

A couple moments past and then the seam suddenly widened like a blinking eye.

He instantly thrust an arm forward.

"Now!"

They dove as one and their bodies slid under the foam.

White roar gave way to crushing pressure, a darkness so thick only the faint glow of their inner qi marked each other’s outlines.

Victor felt Xuan Qing’s fingers clamp on his robe as they descended towards the eye shaped opening beneath the waterfall.

The seam brushed his forehead like a cold cloth as they got pulled towards it uncontrollably.

A heartbeat later, the world inverted as the swirl of water fell away.

Victor felt weightless like he was a drifting mist.

The weight suddenly returned and then he landed while gasping like he’d been holding his breathe this entire time.

...

...

(( The Awakened Academy ))

A rhombus shaped clock ticked on the far wall of the Vice Chancellor’s conference room. Each click echoed like a nail driven into secrets best left buried.

The table beneath that clock was a polished slab of brown wide enough to seat twenty, but tonight only six chairs were occupied and none of their occupants wore expressions that suggested restful sleep would come easily tonight.

The Vice Chancellor sat at the head with her fingers interlaced under her chin and her eyes fierce behind her silver-rimmed glasses. ƒree𝑤ebnσvel-com

Her uniform was immaculate, as always: a deep navy cloak embroidered with the sigil of the Awakened Academy.

To her right sat Instructor Vex Rhane, the commander of Camp 11 whose presence could silence a dozen rowdy cadets with a single flick of his eyes. He tapped a knuckle on the table with a look of restlessness.

"Let’s go over it again," the Vice Chancellor voiced calmly, causing everyone to lean a fraction closer. "Instructor Rhane, the waiting chamber in which student Victor Revenant—"

"—waited during the legacy weapons trials. You say sabotage is the only logical conclusion?"

Vex exhaled with a low growl barely leashed. "It wasn’t a system glitch, Ma’am. Vents re-routed, security overrides bypassed, the temperature regulators spiked intentionally. And the kind of compound found in the residual gas? Alchemically treated. Not something a student could just brew in a dormitory sink."

An older instructor across the table, Junaid Myres, cleared his throat. His tan face was lined like a dry riverbed; he’d taught elemental warfare for ten years and hated conspiracies almost as much as he hated incompetent students. "So you’re saying an instructor mixed poison gas and rigged the flame conduits to ignite on cue? Why? What do they gain by killing a first-year? Even one who now holds the Warrior Legacy Blade?"

"That is the question, Instructor Myres," The Vice Chancellor said smoothly. Her eyes did not leave Vex Rhane’s. "Tell me your theory."

Vex’s brow furrowed. He had been rehearsing a more restrained version in his head but looking at these faces, he chose honesty instead.

"Either someone wants Victor removed or..." his voice dropped to a dangerous rumble as he added, "someone is testing how far they can go within Academy walls without being caught. If they can make a first-year combust in an official waiting room, what can they do on open ground?"

Silence met him. Then Vale drummed her nails on the table causing each tap to sound like a pistol shot.

"I see. So we root out a snake within our own nest."

Instructor Myres snorted. "Snake? More like a wolf in robes. You want this to stay quiet, Vice Chancellor? Even if it is mere speculation... If word spreads an instructor tried to kill a student—"

"It will not spread," The Vice Chancellor cut him off. "I will not allow scandal to fracture the trust we have left in this Academy’s iron chain of command. We have too many eyes on us already: the Senate, the sponsoring Houses, the Council of Domed Cities..."

She leaned back. "Instructor Rhane, being camp 11’s commander, you are closest to this boy. You have his trust?"

Vex Rhane’s lip twitched. "He is stubborn, reckless, cocky as a rooster on fresh grain, but he listens when it counts. I wouldn’t say I have his trust but I am sure we interact more than any of the other instructors."

The Vice Chancellor nodded. "Good. You will find the sweeper who handled that chamber. And any other minor functionary with routine access. If they saw anything unusual — any instructor with clearance accessing maintenance scripts, or requesting private time with the chamber controls — I want names."

"Yes, Ma’am." Vex’s voice was iron.

The Vice Chancellor fingers stilled their drumming. She rose, and all six instructors mirrored her like a single living organism, scraping chairs back in unison. But she did not dismiss them immediately.

"There is another matter," her tone shifted from razor-sharp to coldly practical. She tapped a hidden pad on the table; a holoscreen flickered to life in the air between them, displaying a rotating globe marked with the labyrinth of domed cities connected by thin arterial corridors under the ocean’s depths.

A blinking dot hovered at the rim of one such corridor: the boundary beyond which was the locations of unsafe areas outside domed cities.

"The first-year Outland Excursion," The Vice Chancellor stated. "We cannot delay it any further. These students need more than simulation drills and curated inner-city patrols. They need to see how real the world is when the protective glass cracks."

She flicked her eyes to Instructor Myres. "You will coordinate the Outland rotation: seven thousand first-years divided into manageable deployment units. Each unit will move under the watch of handpicked instructors and auxiliary combat staff."

Myres grunted his assent. "One group every week until the entire year’s been blooded. Where are you planning to send the first wave?"

She gestured to the blinking dot. "Sector K-22. The Rim Wilds. Semi-controlled. Some resurgence of corrupted flora but minimal apex threats. Enough to test nerves without slaughtering half our cadets on day one."

She didn’t miss the sidelong glance Vex Rhane shot her. She raised a brow.

"You have concerns, Rhane?"

He hesitated only a moment. "With all due respect, Ma’am, if there is a traitor on the inside — or multiple — sending freshbloods beyond the dome before we find the serpent’s head... we may be feeding them straight into danger. We know not the motives of whoever is behind the Victor Revenant Incident and if Victor Revenant is their only target."

The Vice Chancellor did not smile but her eyes glimmered with grim appreciation.

"And that, Instructor, is why you will accompany the first batch. Your eyes, your instincts, your blade. If there’s a shadow lurking among our ranks, I trust you to slit its throat before it strikes the students."

Vex inclined his head, accepting the weight without flinching.

His mind, however, was already at work. Victor would need to be told once they confirmed that an instructor was truly behind the incident.

...

...

(( Ascendant Realms ))

The moment they were sucked through the swirling underwater rift beneath the crashing waterfall, Victor and the others were flung into the unknown.

Their feet touched solid ground again but everything was... wrong.

[ You Have Discovered A Hidden Realm ]

[ Warning: Laws In This Realm May Differ To That Of The Usual ]

All the players got instant notifications as soon as they landed here.

The air was thick with mist that pulsed with ethereal hues of violet and green.

The sky, if one could even call it that, was an infinite stretch of swirling darkness pierced by seven moons of various sizes and colors.

The moons floated impossibly close, casting shadows that contradicted their sources.

There was no sun. No warmth. Just a cold, endless night.

"Ugh... what the hell...?" muttered Aeri Fan as she pulled herself off the ground and helped one of the players to his feet.

Victor groaned and looked around. "What does it mean by laws may differ?"

Gravity felt heavier, but it wasn’t just that.

Immediately Victor tried to turn left, he stumbled right instead.

He tried to walk forward and ended up tumbling back. The others fared no better. Two of the players collided face-first after trying to step aside from one another.

"This is insane," Mirael hissed while raising her hands defensively. "My body’s not responding correctly. It’s like—"

"The world’s flipped," Victor muttered.

"That’s what the notification means by laws may diffy..."

He looked down and raised his hand.

The Arrow sigils etched into his skin from his bloodline flickered faintly, trying to adapt to this spatial anomaly.

The terrain was worse. Massive, spiky cliffs floated in mid-air, connected by spiraling tendrils of root-like chains.

Trees with metallic branches curled downward like spider legs, and glowing, horned fruits pulsed with a heartbeat of their own.

"Guys..." Brin voiced with a disturbed tone. "We’re not alone."

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