I Can Only Cultivate In A Game-Chapter 424: Unparalleled Might

Author’s Note: Do Not Unlock Yet. Chapter Is Still Under Construction.

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Victor’s mind spun as his throat tightened. ’And I... the me he knew... saved this guy?’

That shouldn’t be possible.

Unless...

Unless the Fang Chen Bai Feng remembered wasn’t Victor from now but a Victor he hadn’t become yet...

He wondered just how strong that Victor was... that saving a Void Tribulation cultivator had been trivial.

Victor’s temples throbbed.

’Just how high did I climb? What level did I reach?’

The thought almost drowned him.

He forced himself to breathe, to calm his racing heart. There were too many unanswered questions. But the more he thought about it... the more it made sense.

The Void Emperor Bloodline dealt with Time and Space, not just space alone. So far, his ability to manipulate time on any scale was miniscule but who was to say that didn’t change in the future?

After a few minutes, he exhaled and let the whirlwind in his head quiet.

He had something else to take care of.

He rose slowly, watching as Rhozan began preparing the burial rites. The entire underground Ice City soon gathered with thousands of blue-skinned Kahr’uun forming a silent circle of mourning. The crystalline floors glowed faintly, amplifying the solemn atmosphere.

They sang soft, echoing incantations.

They chanted in ancient tones.

They wrapped Bai Feng’s body in woven frost-thread cloth.

Victor remained quietly in the background with his arms folded, watching the ceremony. He felt like an outsider, which he was.

But he stayed.

For Bai Feng.

Even if he didn’t fully know why.

When it was over, when Bai Feng’s body was sealed in a crystalline sarcophagus and lowered beneath the froststone floor, Victor finally turned to leave.

Rhozan hurried to him immediately.

"Iruhun," Rhozan voiced while stepping forward with all four hands clasped respectfully. "Please... you must reconsider. The corrupt entity will come for us. If you leave now, we may not survive its wrath."

Victor didn’t stop walking. His steps echoed sharply across the ground.

"That," Victor said flatly, "is no longer my problem."

Rhozan stumbled with a shocked look. "Iruhun—!"

Victor paused. Turned his head slightly. And then spoke with a tone colder than the ice around them.

"You lied to me."

Rhozan trembled.

"You omitted truths just to push me into fighting your battles," Victor continued. "You used my empathy. My compassion. You saw a soft spot and exploited it."

Rhozan fell to his knees. "We—we had no choice—"

"There is always a choice," Victor cut in.

His voice wasn’t loud.

It didn’t have to be.

His words were sharp enough to cut.

"I gained power... painstakingly in order to make sure I never have to experience what happened with my father ever again..." Victor spoke while placing a hand on his chest. "But I was still controlled. Controlled by my own heart. And you used that. Manipulated it."

Rhozan’s face grew tight with shame. 𝑓𝓇𝘦ℯ𝘸𝘦𝑏𝓃𝑜𝘷ℯ𝑙.𝑐𝑜𝓂

"You didn’t tell me your people were responsible for the deaths of ten pregnant Kahr’uun women. You didn’t tell me your ancestors created the corruption in the first place. You didn’t tell me the entity has a justified vendetta."

Victor shook his head slowly.

"In the future, I will be careful who I help. Because living beings—no matter the species—seek to exploit others for their benefit."

Rhozan’s shoulders slumped, defeated.

Victor turned away again.

"The corrupt entity," he said as he walked, "is justified in its vendetta against you."

Gasps spread through the gathered crowd. Fear, guilt, and grief trembled across their faces. But Victor didn’t slow. He walked through the crowd as they parted, making a path for him.

He was nearly at the tunnelway that would lead him to beginning his exit journey when—

A small figure ran from the crowd.

A tiny body slammed into him.

Victor stopped.

He looked down.

It was the young girl... the same blue-skinned child who had given him a gift before.

Her tiny arms wrapped around his waist with innocent force. Then she pulled back and placed a small, frost-crystal pendant into his hands. This was yet another new gift.

She smiled at him with her eyes brightening with admiration.

She had no idea what had happened.

No idea of the lies.

No idea of the guilt her people carried.

All she knew was that the man who saved them was leaving.

"Are you going?" she asked with a soft, sweet voice. "Safe travels, Iruhun. Thank you for everything. And for defeating the big bad corruption. My big brother will be happy from above."

Victor’s heart twisted.

His cold eyes softened. Just a little.

He tried to speak, but the words didn’t come. They felt heavy. Wrong. Insufficient.

He looked at her pure and hopeful tiny looking face... untouched by the sins of the past.

Does she deserve the hatred of the corrupt entity?

Should she suffer for what her ancestors caused?

He didn’t know.

Maybe no one did.

Victor reached out and gently ruffled her hair and then he kept walking.

The tunnels of the underground ice city stretched endlessly ahead, veins of frost-lit stone branching and curving like the inside of some colossal frozen beast. Pale blue crystals embedded in the walls cast a soft glow that followed him, yet none of it eased the heaviness in his chest.

The small Kahr’uun girl’s arms around his waist replayed again and again in his mind.

Her smile.

Her trust.

Her words.

My big brother will be happy from above.

Victor grinded his teeth together...

He had meant every word he said to Rhozan. He hadn’t lied. He hadn’t exaggerated. The Kahr’uun leadership of the past had committed an unforgivable sin, one that had given birth to the corrupt entity. Retribution no matter how cruel, did not come from nothing. Actions had consequences. Cause demanded effect.

And yet...

Should the innocent pay for the crimes of the dead?

Victor’s steps slowed slightly as his boots crunched against frost-dusted stone. His thoughts tangled.

That little girl had not existed four decades ago. The warriors who died on the surface had not held the knife over those pregnant women. Many of the tens of thousands living in this city now had never known the old world at all. They had been born into this frozen refuge, inheriting a sin they did not choose.

Was justice truly justice if it devoured the innocent along with the guilty?

Victor exhaled slowly causing white mist to escape his lips.

He hated how familiar this dilemma felt.

He himself hadn’t much experienced the world but in a lot of video games he had played in the past, the strong always justified cruelty with necessity. The weak always bore the consequences. And people like him... people with power... were constantly forced to choose between moral absolutes and ugly realities.

He kept walking without looking back.

By the time Victor disappeared fully into the winding tunnels, the echoes of his footsteps had long faded. Only then did Rhozan finally allow himself to collapse to one knee.

Hopelessness weighed heavily on the Kahr’uun leader’s shoulders.

Around him, the city remained silent. The people had dispersed after Victor’s departure with their faces etched in confusion, fear, and grief. Hope had entered their lives like a blazing comet... only to vanish just as suddenly.

Rhozan lowered his head.

’We are doomed.’

That thought settled in his heart with terrifying clarity.

They had already lost the previous Iruhun. Bai Feng’s death still felt unreal, like a nightmare that refused to end. Watching him die... watching the corruption reclaim him even after Victor’s miraculous healing, had shattered what little certainty Rhozan still possessed.

But one truth had crystallized in his mind during those final moments.

Victor was different.

Bai Feng had spoken to him with familiarity. With reverence. With recognition.

And the way Bai Feng final act had been directed solely toward Victor...

Rhozan clenched his fists.

Victor is the true Iruhun.

Bai Feng had never been meant to come here. He was displaced by powers far beyond Kahr’uun understanding. From what little Rhozan could piece together, Victor himself might have been the one responsible for Bai Feng’s arrival five years ago.

The thought made Rhozan shiver.

If the true Iruhun had turned his back on them now...

Then their civilization truly stood on the brink of extinction.

Rhozan rose slowly.

Victor had spoken harsh truths. Painful ones. But he had not been wrong.

It is our sin.

It is our retribution.

It is our problem.

Rhozan straightened his back.

Then they would face it.

If the corrupt entity wished to wipe them out, it would do so over a mountain of resistance. The Kahr’uun would not vanish quietly into the ice like frightened prey.

"No," Rhozan muttered to himself. "We will not wait to be hunted."

He summoned the remaining elders and commanders that very hour.

Word spread throughout the underground ice city like a tremor through frozen ground.

All capable warriors were to gather.

Not for another desperate plea.

Not for false hope.

But for a final stand.