CHAPTER 320: INNER BANK?

Victor sprang to his feet with qi flaring violently around him.

His hand instinctively flew to his back as he unsheathed his legacy sword in an instant.

The insect screech sounded like tearing metal as it lunged again.

Victor channeled wind qi through his limbs. "Wind Dash!" he muttered while vanishing in a blur and reappearing on a nearby boulder.

He swung his blade at the creature only for it to spit out a strange greenish spit that rammed into Victor’s Legacy sword and sent it flying from his grip.

The sword spun multiple times across the air and drove two feet deep into the gooey covered ground.

The creature then lunged again at Victor while spitting out more of its corrosive spit but he leapt into the air and front flipped over its massive figure.

The moment his feet touched the ground, his hands were already glowing with a pale blue light. "Frost Bloom Palm!"

He slammed his palms together, then thrust them forward. A wave of frost burst forth, freezing the creature’s saliva mid-drip and coating its mandibles in a crystalline shell.

The beast thrashed violently, shattering the ice. But in that moment of struggle, Victor gathered his qi into his lungs. "Let’s see how you like barbecue!"

He inhaled sharply, then exhaled flames shaped like a roaring dragon.

The Dragon Breathing Art scorched through the air, slamming into the creature’s head with explosive force. The beast shrieked, rearing back as parts of its carapace melted away.

Victor proceeded to walk towards forward and pulled his legacy sword out of the ground. "Guess even in hell, breakfast still tries to eat you, huh?"

And as the monstrous insect screeched again, preparing to strike once more. Although it was damaged, its durability was nothing to joke at.

The moment it charged, Victor coated his sword in Wind Blade and swung forward with intensity.

Two of the massive insect legs were instantly cleaved off as Victor leaned backwards, nearly coating the goo covered ground with his hair while the beast swept over him.

He proceeded to raise his left fist upwards at this moment, ramming it into the underbelly side of this creature.

It flew straight into the air and landed a couple of feet away while strange blueish liquid leaked from different corners of its truck sized figure.

The hulking insect’s body was still twitching when Victor’s blade came down one final time. A wave of blue ichor splattered against the cracked earth as the truck-sized monstrosity split cleanly in two. It’s carapace was no match for the Legacy Sword’s glowing edge.

Victor exhaled, letting the last traces of tension bleed out of his muscles.

The air smelled faintly acidic where the creature’s corrosive spit had struck the ground. Sizzling craters smoked like miniature pits of hellfire.

"Stubborn bastard," he muttered while wiping a streak of insect blood off his cheek.

His reflection rippled faintly in the violet puddle beneath him, distorted and otherworldly. "You should’ve known better than to mess with someone who plays on nightmare difficulty."

He spun the sword once, embedding it into the ground beside him. The bit of mana and qi still radiated faintly from the blade’s edge before dimming down.

The terrain around him was quiet again. No monstrous screeches echoed across the purplish wasteland. Just silence... and the faint thrum of his own heartbeat.

Victor flopped onto the nearest boulder that was acid free and stretched out lazily with hands behind his head. "Whew. That’s enough cardio for one apocalypse."

Despite the carnage, he didn’t feel exhausted, hungry, or even thirsty. He had a feeling that this was due to Commander Aiz flesh he’d consumed earlier and the thought of this had him reeking in disgust again.

He turned his head slightly, gazing at the strange horizon which was a curvy line of stone and bone, stained purple by whatever cosmic radiation ruled this place.

But Victor’s mind wasn’t on the scenery.

It was on the dream.

He had slipped into Lingyun Realm again.

That hadn’t happened in up to a month. At least not since he got lost in the unknown.

And it was never like this. He had never seen any gaming system notification whenever he drifted into Lingyun Realm in his sleep. This was the first time.

And Lingyun, who rarely spoke at all, had looked him dead in the eye and said:

"You have yet to tap into the full potential of your Nascent Soul Realm. Access your inner bank."

Those words still rang in his skull like a heartbeat. ’Inner bank?’

He had turned the phrase over in his mind a thousand times since waking up. No matter how he twisted it, it made no sense. Was Lingyun talking about qi reserves? His spiritual sea? Maybe some kind of hidden cultivation node that connected his physical self to his soul within the game?

Victor sighed while leaning backwards. "Great. Cryptic old dude gives me a riddle and screams at me to wake up. Classic."

He chuckled, but the unease didn’t fade.

Victor’s gaze drifted toward the horizon again. "Inner bank, huh? I’d ask for a tutorial video, but I doubt you’ve got Wi-Fi in the spirit realm."

He exhaled heavily and closed his eyes again, leaning back. Maybe... maybe if he fell asleep again, he’d end up back there.

Worth a shot.

He lay still for several minutes, trying to calm his thoughts.

Every now and then, a low wind would whistle through the surroundings, carrying the faint stench wet sand.

He tried counting sheep. That didn’t work. Tried circulating his qi through his meridians slowly to lull himself into a meditative state. Still nothing.

By the time an hour passed, Victor was still staring at the dark gooey ground beneath him.

"Why does sleep never come when you want it?" He muttered.

He shifted, rolled over, then sat up. His old resting spot had been reduced to a pile of slag from the insect fight earlier. The only other decent boulder nearby was the one he’d kept the last of Commander Aiz’s remains on. He didn’t know why he hadn’t disposed of it yet.

With a grunt, he made his way over and kicked the slab aside. "Well, big guy, looks like your corpse just became my mattress. Hope you don’t mind."

He lay down again, folding his arms behind his head and staring up at the swirling violet haze covered sky. It was oddly hypnotic with the way the light shifted like liquid smoke as colors bled into one another.

Minutes soon turned into hours. He shifted again and again and again... and yet, sleep refused to come.

His mind was too loud.

Images from the fight flashed through his thoughts before drifting back to Lingyun Realm... and then the Inner bank mentioned.

Victor sat up with a groan. "You know what, forget it. Sleep is overrated anyway."

He reached for his phone. The cracked screen flickered weakly to life, "Only fifteen percent battery left.

"Man, how do I get a device charged in the apocalypse," he muttered.

He scrolled through his offline notes, a few route markings, and a checklist of things he’d already explored. Judging by the time, another full day had passed since he’d marked the northern ridge.

That meant it was time to move again.

Victor pocketed the phone, rose to his feet, and stretched until his joints popped. "Alright. South, west, north, east. Let’s see which direction gets me eaten first."

He glanced around, mentally retracing his previous exploration markers.

The north had been mostly barren. It was just endless fields of purple moss and crumbling structures that looked like the skeletons of ancient towers. East was where the terrain started to get warmer when he reached a particular distance.

That left the south and west.

"South sounds nice," he murmured. "Hopefully less acid-breathing insects."

He proceeded to turn towards the south and began his journey. He had already expended a small amount of qi fighting the truck sized insect so now more than ever he was trying to preserve his qi. There was no way to fill up his qi reserves if he ran out again.

As he proceeded with his journey, a gnawing hunger to understand what Lingyun had meant consumed him from within.

What did he know about being a Nascent Soul Realm Cultivator? Even though he was in a sect, he never really had a master to put him through on matters of cultivation and he also rarely ever mingled with other players so his knowledge was limited.

Not to mention that his cultivation speed was so fast that it didn’t feel like he ever solidified his bases.

’Inner Bank... Inner Bank...’ his boots made a puddling sound with every step he took.

Each gust of wind carried strange sounds. Echoes that didn’t belong.

Victor slowed his steps and stopped at the edge of a wide crater. It’s surface bubbled faintly like molten tar. Beyond it stretched another expanse of dark ridges and faintly glowing rivers of ooze.

"Looks inviting," Victor said dryly. "Totally screams vacation spot."