CHAPTER 339: BEHIND THE SCENES

Victor sat atop the mast with his legs crossed and his long white hair floating gently in the breeze.

His missing arm was still gone, but his body glowed faintly with a soft silver aura. His closed eyes twitched for a moment before he opened them and when he did, they glowed the same color as his hair.

The beast landed nearby with a heavy thud before folding its massive wings.

Victor slowly smiled while tilting his head toward the beast. "Heh... you look like you’ve been through hell." He voiced hoarsely.

The beast let out a low rumble that sounded like a scolding growl.

Victor chuckled softly. "Yeah, yeah, I know. I’ve been asleep for too long, huh?"

He raised his left hand, and qi gathered at his fingertips.

It was faint and unstable but undeniably there. For the first time, he could feel the flow of energy in the air around him.

Not just from the game, not from the system of Ascendant Realms... but from reality itself.

A ripple of invisible power swept outward, and the ice beneath him cracked slightly.

He looked down at his glowing hand, then back up at the beast with a smile spreading across his face.

"I can finally do it now..." he murmured with a profound look. "I can finally cultivate in reality."

He was now something else entirely... a cultivator in a world that wasn’t supposed to allow cultivation.

He stared at his right arm stump and raised it a little. "Let’s take care of this..."

The air around him vibrated as he mumbled. "Celestial Restoration—"

A bubble of light burst out, swirling like liquid gold around him.

Ding!

[ Celestial Restoration activated. Successful resonance with physical vessel. Regeneration possible ]

Victor’s eyes widened as the translucent notification flickered before him.

A system prompt. But this wasn’t the mana-based Awakened System everyone else had... it was his cultivation interface from Ascendant Realms... one that shouldn’t even exist in reality.

The surroundings trembled as light gathered at the end of his severed arm.

Slowly, his arm began to grow back.

Flesh, tendons, bones, and skin knitted themselves together in a luminous spectacle. The sensation wasn’t painful. It was... divine.

The massive white-scaled raptor perched nearby cocked its head with its blueish eyes wide with awe.

A low trill escaped its beak, vibrating through the frosty surrounding like an ancient chant.

Victor chuckled lightly. "Are you the reason I don’t get turned into a chunk of frozen statue despite being expose to this environment atmosphere?"

The beast tilted its head further, letting out a screech.

The light around Victor soon faded.

Unfortunately, the activation wasn’t enough to create a full new arm but he was close.

He clenched his left fist and smiled. "Not bad. Let’s try that again."

Once more, he channeled his qi, reopening the half-healed wound deliberately. Blood flowed.

He reactivated Celestial Restoration. The wound sealed in seconds while the arm grew longer again.

By the fifth activation, Victor’s arm had grown to full length and was now indistinguishable from his old one.

Not a single scar remained.

He exhaled softly. "Perfect... absolutely perfect."

The raptor gave a satisfied roar, beating its wings once in approval.

Victor leaned back, staring at the sky.

His thoughts drifted to everything that happened when he had fallen unconscious.

He hadn’t merely slept... he had crossed over.

Once again, he had found himself in Ascendant Realms, inside Lingyun Realm after falling unconscious.

Only this time, things were... different.

He still remembered it vividly... the endless hazy sky of the Lingyun’s realm, the floating pagodas, the mountains and every spiritual sight in the distance.

"Welcome back, mortal," the ancient voice had said when he appeared.

The Spirit of Lingyun that was always cloaked in pale blue mist, had continued his training in swordsmanship.

However, just like the last time he got in here, every slash, every breath, every ounce of concentration now came with flickering notifications, hovering faintly before his eyes.

[ Sword Intent refinement +1% ]

[ Bloodline Integration: 99.29% ]

These weren’t supposed to appear unless he was plugged in and gaming, but he wasn’t.

He was still just as shocked as the last time.

So, what was happening? Why was he seeing game-like prompts inside a cultivation realm that should only exist within a simulation?

"Maybe I have further blurred the line between reality and Ascendant Realms?" he had mused back then, watching qi flow through his veins like liquid stars.

Driven by curiosity and intuition, he began cultivating his Void Emperor Bloodline, pushing it closer to completion.

Days turned into weeks, though in that world, time flowed differently. He had no sense of hunger or fatigue. Only a burning focus.

A pull toward something absolute.

And then, one day—

[ Bloodline Integration: 100% ]

[ Transformation Complete ]

The moment that notification appeared, everything changed. The realm quaked. His spiritual veins expanded. His body, even in the real world, reacted.

He could feel his soul split... half anchored in Lingyun Realm, half in reality. He saw flashes of his real body, unconscious, hidden under ice... His hair turning fully white and longer, his skin getting rosier...

And then something that had never happened before whenever he crossed between worlds in his unconscious state, occured.

He could finally feel the Veil lifted... the Veil that prevented him from leaving Lingyun Realm whenever he entered while he was unconscious in the real world...

The Veil that prevented him from heading anywhere else in Ascendant Realms...

And with a single thought...

Boom!

When he next opened his eyes... he wasn’t in Lingyun Realm anymore.

He was physically present with his avatar in Lingyun Town, the very same one from the Ascendant Realms despite not being plugged into the game.

And he wasn’t dreaming...

"I’m really here..." he had whispered with a trembling tone. "How—how is this even possible?"

The city of Lingyun had changed.

The air itself seemed sharper and cleaner, mixed with the scent of molten spirit ore and rich spiritual soil. His boots crunched softly against the paved jade stones of the main street, and heads immediately turned.

"Fang Chen?" someone whispered.

"The Fang Chen?" another voice gasped.

Within seconds, murmurs became an uproar.

"It’s him—! The one who saved Lingyun from the Qin oppressors and Ironhand Marauders!"

"He’s here!"

"Didn’t he vanish after that?!"

Victor hadn’t taken three steps before he found himself surrounded by dozens of cultivators and townsfolk alike.

His name had long become legend here... stories of the lone Void-blooded cultivator who’d crushed the Oppressive Qin family, Ironhand Marauders along side other rogue cultivators and restored the town’s lost glory.

He blinked, awkwardly scratching the back of his head. "Uh... hi?"

A few gasps rippled through the crowd. Someone even bowed.

"Oh come on," he muttered under his breath. "I just punched a few people too hard."

"Fang Chen!"

A familiar voice rose above the noise. Victor turned just as Chen Wen pushed through the crowd, grinning like a man who had just seen a ghost and won the lottery on the same day.

"Brother Chen!" Victor smiled broadly, clasping his hand. "Still alive and kicking, I see."

Chen Wen laughed, slapping his shoulder. "You disappear for years and the first thing you say is that? You haven’t changed a bit!"

"Well, technically, I have. Probably got more handsome."

Chen Wen rolled his eyes, but there was genuine warmth there. "Come on, let’s get you somewhere quieter before this mob suffocates you."

---

They traveled through the city and it just so happened that Lingyun had prospered greatly since Victor’s last visit.

Stalls filled the streets, disciples in fresh robes hurried about, and spiritual arrays glowed faintly along the rooftops. The Bai Clan’s banners now flew proudly where once the Qin family’s had loomed like a shadow.

"Things look... alive again," Victor said quietly.

"Thanks to you," Chen Wen replied. "After what you did, the Bai family control a lot of resources and gave back plenty to the people as well. Now Bai Xue oversees most of the city’s trade and defenses."

"Oh? So she’s boss lady now?"

"You could say that." Chen Wen chuckled. "Speaking of family matters..." He opened the door to one of the Bai Clan’s inner courtyards.

And there she was... Bai Ting Ting, sitting serenely under a spirit peach tree with her hands gently caressing her noticeably round belly.

Victor’s jaw dropped. "Wait—what the hell, you—?!"

Chen Wen’s grin turned smug. "Surprised?"

"Bro, last time I saw you, the most romantic thing you did was argue about who’d pay for tea."

Bai Ting Ting covered her mouth, laughing softly. "Chen is just shy to act romantic in public, Fang Chen."

Victor sighed dramatically. "Ah, so he always had it in him. Should’ve known."

Chen Wen threw a pebble at him.

---

After sharing a meal and hearing tales of how Lingyun had flourished in his absence, Victor finally grew quiet. The lively conversation faded as he stared out toward the distant mountains beyond the clan walls.

"I need a place to cultivate," he said finally. "Somewhere quiet. Somewhere... deep."

Chen Wen didn’t hesitate. "We still maintain your old courtyard behind the western pavilions. No one’s touched it since you left."

Victor smiled faintly. "Perfect."