I Can Only Cultivate In A Game

It turned out that Victor had arrived at the courtyard in time to witness Qin Fei's attack, and he saw Bai Ting Ting struggling under Qin Fei's merciless grip.

He had used a palm strike coupled with his wind arts to launch the pompous young master into the air.

Qin Fei didn't even notice Victor's presence until it was too late.

Victor immediately scooped Bai Ting Ting up in his arms, holding her princess-style.

"Hold on tight," he whispered firmly whime activating Shadow Blink.

[ Void Emperor Bloodline - Shadow Blink Activated ]

Their forms blurred and vanished instantly from sight, leaving behind only ripples on the koi pond.

At that moment, guards burst into the courtyard, alarmed by the noise and chaos.

Qin Fei staggered to his feet from the rubble with blood trickling down his chin. He stared in the direction Victor and Bai Ting Ting had vanished with maddened bloodshot eyes.

"Don't just stand there!" Qin Fei screamed while pointing wildly. "Get them! Capture them both!"

The guards hurriedly rushed in different directions, shouting orders and activating their cultivation techniques to scour the entire estate. But Victor had already cleared the walls, leaping swiftly through the darkness, carrying Bai Ting Ting safely in his arms.

She clung tightly to him, still trembling with hurried breaths. "You came… you really came back for me."

"I told you, didn't I?" Victor reassured gently as they raced through the moonlit trees. "I never break my promises."

As they vanished into the night, the turmoil behind them only intensified. The Bai-Qin estate erupted into further chaos, and Qin Fei's desperate rage echoed loudly.

...

...

About Thirty Minutes later, Victor had arrived at the location where the former ore vein slaves had been camping out for the last week.

Two figures emerged with looks of caution on their faces. One was limping while the other was supporting him.

It was Chen Wu and his father.

Their looks of caution vanished the instant they spotted Victor's face.

But then their eyes followed the body in his arms and Chen wu instantly froze.

Victor slowly lowered Bai Ting Ting whose eyes were closed all the way here and whispered.

"We've arrived,"

The moment she opened her eyes, the world came to a stop.

Bai Ting Ting enthralling eyes locked onto the figure standing about twelve paces away from her... the man she thought was dead for over a year...

The man she had never stopped loving despite all of Qin Fei antics. The man that her heart would forever belong to...

Chen Wu stood with his mouth slightly open and his face scarred from work and pain.

He didn't know when he instictively dove forward.

Just as he did, she ran forward as well.

They collided in a tearful embrace that made even Tarkos grunt and look away.

Victor crossed his arms, watching.

"If only my love life was any less tragic," he shook his head but was glad that this came to be beautiful conclusion even though his work wasn't done yet.

<[ Hidden Objective Complete: Reunite Bai Ting Ting and Chen Wu ✅️ ]>

[ Rewards: +20,000 Wisps Of Qi, +5% Increase in Mastery of all techniques, +5% Bloodline Integration ]

...

...

Inside the halls of the Bai Qin Estate, tension throbbed like a living thing.

The Great Assembly Chamber, typically reserved for high-priority meetings among the elders, was thick with incense smoke and frustration. Scrolls lay half-opened on the central jade table with some ink still drying from earlier frantic recordings.

The hall echoed with the clipped tones of anxious elders whose once-proud robes now felt heavy with unrest.

"We are unraveling," Elder Bai Hu growled while slamming his palm against the lacquered armrest of his chair. "In less than a month, our ore vein slaves disappeared, the mine was burned to the ground, and now... now Bai Ting Ting has been kidnapped from her own courtyard? Under our noses?!"

The word kidnapped felt like a scab they couldn't stop picking at. They refused to call it what it really was: an escape. A rescue. No, not in front of these ancient walls. Not in front of their pride.

"The internal fractures within the younger generation are becoming visible," murmured Elder Bai Yao while stroking his beard slowly. "Tensions are spreading like fire in dry fields. Disrespect, disregard, disorder. And now this."

"But who?" a voice said from the far end. "Who dares to strike at us from within? We are not fools—this is coordinated. Deliberate. Someone is guiding this chaos."

Another elder grunted. "Or some thing. A hidden force. A cultivator with a grudge. Perhaps even a rival family… but that shouldn't be possible since we drove them all out."

"And yet," Elder Bai Yao continued, "we had no such disruptions until recently. Nothing like this. Which means this thing... or someone... must've slipped in recently."

A cold silence followed. It was Bai Jin, the sharp-eyed elder of internal affairs, who finally voiced the thought all had been circling.

"The new disciples."

Murmurs erupted. Objections. Doubt.

"They are just brats—most barely at the Qi Refining Realm."

"But they are the only recent variable," Bai Jin pressed. "And Qin Fei… he spoke of a name—'Fang Chen.' He was furious. He kept repeating it."

"Fang Chen," another elder echoed. "We've combed our records. No such name exists in our registries."

"Then it is an alias."

"Or a hidden agent," Bai Hu muttered.

With paranoia twisting through their thoughts, a full investigation was launched under Bai Jin's guidance.

They didn't care for sleep or decorum anymore. Everyone was summoned from servants to slaves, kitchen hands, ore haulers, guard patrols, animal handlers... every individual within the estate, regardless of status, was questioned about the name Fang Chen.

Even the cleaners were questioned twice.

By dusk, sweat and suspicion laced the air like thick smoke. But the biggest effort came when they turned their gaze toward the new recruits.

One by one, the new disciples were summoned.

Each was interrogated thoroughly by a rotating circle of elders. Some trembled, some cried, some blustered but none had any answers. Many were cleared and dismissed back to their quarters.

Even Chen Fen, the mild-looking, quiet disciple who had drawn little attention and was only mostly ever seen boot licking Qin Fei got brought in and dismissed.

His respectful demeanor raised no flags. If anything, he seemed too dull to be of interest.

Upon returning to his small courtyard, Victor merely closed the sliding door behind him and chuckled before sitting in a cross-legged position.

"They didn't even suspect a thing..."

His mind immediately began to sink into meditation as internal qi flowed gently through his meridians.

His lips curled slightly—not into a smile, but something quieter. Deeper.

He knew they were looking. He knew the storm he'd created but he wasn't worried. Not yet. His plans were almost complete.

Back in the assembly, only a few new disciples remained to be questioned.

Among them sat Bai Heng, the boy from earlier during the selection.

Elder Qin Mu paced slowly around him with hands clasped behind his back.

"Bai Heng, have you ever heard the name... Fang Chen?" the elder asked softly, but with an edge that could cut jade.

Bai Heng blinked. "Fang Chen…?"

He furrowed his brows. "I don't... think so—"

He paused.

A flicker of memory rose.

A windy afternoon within a courtyard... He and Chen Fen had been on garden duty. A piece of paper fell out from Chen Fen's inner robe.

He'd picked it up without thinking, and for a brief moment his eyes scanned the contents.

"Thanks to Fang Chen we got..."

Just those words.

Then Victor had swiftly snatched the letter back, offered a calm thanks, and continued on like nothing had happened.

"Wait," Bai Heng muttered. "I… I might've seen that name once."

Instantly, every elder in the chamber turned to him.

"Speak," Qin Mu snapped.

"I-It was a letter," Bai Heng stammered. "Chen Fen dropped it while we were tending the peach gardens. I picked it up. I didn't read it! Just a glance, I swear! But I saw a line... something like 'Thanks to Fang Chen we got—' then he took it back."

The room exploded.

"He had the name on him?!"

"A letter? Who was it to?!"

"Did it mention what was gained?!"

Elder Qin Mu shouted, "Gather the guards! Fetch Chen Fen immediately!"

"Should we alert the inner guardians?"

"No—if we do, it'll become a scandal," Bai Yao said sharply. "Send a group of outer court disciples. Enough to escort him here quietly."

Orders were relayed in lightning succession.

Within minutes, seven uniformed disciples were dispatched under the cover of dusk, moving swiftly toward the eastern courtyards.

"Find me everything there is to know on Chen Fen... his original, background, father, mother, everything!" Elder Qin Han said to one of the uniformed guards around.

Inside his courtyard, Victor opened his eyes slowly.

He felt the disturbance long before the knock.

A smile appeared at the corner of his lips.

"So," he whispered to himself, "I guess it's time."

...

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