I Can Only Cultivate In A Game

Some of the flaming quills in mid air, suddenly paused.

He then flicked his fingers backwards, causing them to turn around and shoot towards the beast.

Puchiii~

A loud cry rang out in the next instant as five of the flaming quills pierced through the giant porcupine spirit beast.

One of its eyes was completely stabbed through and blinded.

As it staggered backwards in pain, Victor threw his blade forward, blinding the other eye.

"...No biting after dinner," Victor said and raised his hand.

"Dragon Breathing Art: Skyfire Spiral."

From his mouth, a spinning vortex of flame shot out, shaped like a circular saw and blazing white. It slammed into the beast's flank, cutting through bone and muscle as it howled in pain.

Victor vanished and reappeared in mid-air.

"Gale Strike."

He swept his palm downward.

A crushing burst of wind descended, flattening the beast and pushing it to the ground with bone-cracking force.

The beast whimpered and fell unconscious.

Victor landed softly, dusting off his sleeves.

"Dinner's over."

He then turned to the three disciples that were impaled and dashed towards them.

"Celestial Restoration..." After completing a few hand signs, he activated one of his healing techniques.

A draconic light suddenly burst forth from him, and strange sigils appeared on the bodies of the three disciples.

The flames threatening to burn them to a crisp, instantly died down.

---

Days Later, While crossing a natural bridge formed over molten rivers, a sudden spiritual tremor split the bridge.

Rocks cracked. Lava bubbled. Beasts below shrieked.

The disciples panicked as the bridge tilted.

Victor shouted, "Don't panic, use your movement techniques, now!"

Some responded by leaping into the air with half-formed flight steps while some flailed.

Victor sped forward with wind dash and grabbed the stragglers midair before using glide to jump twice towards the other side.

"Seriously, people?" Victor exhaled. "I said use your movement techniques, not fall with style."

...

...

In the blink of an eye, two weeks went by and at this point, the disciples had gained a lot of experiences.

But they wanted to visit one final location before returning to the sect... or specifically, the disciples wanted to acquire something and it required them to visit this location.

Hours into wandering past the edge of the Willow Ravine, they arrived at a strange terrain.

An invisible wall of heat that made breath feel like drinking boiled water, hit them first.

The path into the caldera narrowed to a rough tongue of black glass.

All around, veins of red light pulsed under their feet like the land's heartbeat. Even the wind came in gasps, tasting of metal and ash.

"Welcome to Red Furnace Hollow," Fang Chen voiced with a cheerfully miserable tone. "If you don't have fire affinity, imagine you're an egg. Now imagine the world is a wok."

Qian Bo's cheeks already shone. "Senior, I feel like a dumpling."

"Hold the metaphor. Save the steam. Cooling lattice, half-moon spread."

Nie Lan made quick hands signs causing lines to appear around them.

A cooling mist surrounded them causing heat to bleed off the path just enough to keep the disciples from swooning.

But it wouldn't last long. Nothing did here.

They were after the Fire Sprouting Stalk.

This was a stubborn, temperamental herb that liked to grow on knife-edges above open vents. The sect's apothecaries refined it into marrow-warming pills; for novices, one sprig could mean years of cultivation progress.

The problem was getting to it without cooking their lungs.

"Eyes," Meng Xinyi murmured from the rear, pointing with her chin.

High on an obsidian fin, tiny red flags wavered. Buds could be spotted exhaling a curl of flame like a kitten huffing.

These were fire Sprouting Stalk... plenty of it.

Victor made the call. "We hold here. I'll scout the approach; then we rotate in pairs if it's safe."

They pushed on until the heat changed quality from "bad idea" to "you're kidding."

When the last pulse of Nie Lan's lattice faded, it was like somebody dropped a red cloak over them.

The heat caused their vision to swim as their tongues felt like paper.

"Senior," Zhang Rui said hoarsely, "we won't all make it to the ledge."

Fang tasted the air. Even his meridians prickled, and his void-blood liked extremes. If he drove them forward another thirty paces, half would wobble and one would collapse.

Yao Lin's face prideful face bore a lot of steaming sweat. "We can't—"

"I know." Victor turned. "Any of you running a fire-rooted constitution?"

Luo Min lifted a hand tentatively. "I… I have strong fire in my marrow. I won't faint."

"You sure?" Victor questioned with raised eyebrow. "Faint and I will never stop telling the story. How's your grip? Those ledges are knifebacks. One slip and you turn into stew."

Luo Min's mouth quirked. "I'll take for everyone. One trip, two if I can."

He glanced at the others. Xinyi nodded without being asked; Qian Bo, tried to hide relief and failed. Nie Lan kept chalk poised, ready to lay down another refuge if Luo Min made it back within reach.

"Alright," Victor stated. "You go. We hold. If you feel your insides sizzle, stop and breathe through your heels."

"That's not real advice," Nie Lan whispered.

"It works," Victor lied with a straight face.

Luo Min wrapped her sleeves around her palms and moved.

Even the stone beneath her feet had turned glassy due to heat.

She kept low and within a minute was climbing like a lizard along the fin.

Victor stayed with the rest, raising his awareness in preparation for anything.

He spread his qi across them like a thin veil, dulling the worst of the heat's teeth. If something came, he'd feel the ripple before he saw it.

Twenty minutes stretched. Luo Min swayed, crouched and crept.

Soon, the buds were within reach.

She knelt and reached out to touch the stem. The instant she made contact, a warm and invigorating fiery energy briefly spread through her meridians.

To someone without a fire based constitution, this would have turned them to toast but fortunately, she did.

She proceeded to loosen the basalt with a split of qi and then lifted the whole rootball. She did it right.

The stalks' heat wilted as she coaxed them free.

She had taken four at once, being as careful as a midwife.

Victor suddenly felt the air tremble...

"Trouble," the word hadn't finished leaving his mouth before a scream skittered down the glass.

Two figures unfolded from the heat shimmer above Luo Min in masks as black as banked coals with long wraps wound around their hands.

They flowed down the fin and toward her, timing their steps to the land's pulse.

One threw a chain that sang through the air while the other's fingers spat little comets of condensed flame.

Apparently, they were after the Fire Sprouting Stalk as well.

Luo Min jerked back, clutching the roots to her chest. The chain kissed her sleeve a bit but she dodged the comets of condensed flames.

However, she was now anchored to the rock on a ledge the size of a tea tray, and two thieves had her in a pincer.

"Stay here," Fang said to the disciples. "Hold formation."

"Senior—" Xinyi started.

"Hold," he repeated and then activated his Void Emperor Bloodline.

[ Void Emperor Bloodline Activated ]

The world sharpened. The heat stopped being a blanket and revealed itself as a map of rising currents and cold seams.

Victor stepped forward and became untouchable by the heat.

<[ Void Emperor Domain Is Active ]>

Within a radius of ten paces, he bent the rules of his surroundings.

He put his foot down on nothing and didn't fall.

In the next moment, he dashed forward with his wind arts, becoming a line of white in this hellish red landscape.

The thief with a chain had just swung out again when Victor Shadow Blinked.

In the next instant, he was between Luo Min and the chain-wielder with his fingers closing on metal mid-snap.

The links were hot enough to blister but his qi didn't care. He grabbed hold of it, twisted to change the trajectory, causing the chain to jerk the masked man off balance, nearly off the ledge.

"Hi," Victor voiced pleasantly. "Don't mind me."

The second masked cultivator had the opportunity to stage another attack and swiftly went for it.

Comets of flames soared toward Victor's face at quick pace.

He proceeded to spit the Skyfire Spiral through his teeth, causing it to spin forward like a rotating blade of chaos.

The comets folded into the spiral like birds into a storm and came out as nothing much, dying with a hiss.

"Fire against a dragon-breather?" Victor clucked. "Bold."

The chain swung forward again from a lower angle, aimed to tangle his ankles and whip him into the vent.

Victor dropped a half-inch and activated his Frost Bloom Palm.

The moment he grabbed the metal, cold crawled along the links in a crackle that sounded.

When the chain snapped, the masked man flinched and stared at the frost feathering his wrap.

Victor's vanished and reappeared before him with his palm shooting forward.

Bang!

Victor's palm found his sternum by reflex, sending the man flying back.