Victor wiped the sweat from his forehead. "Alright, Fang Chen, think… how do you get out of this one?"
The answer didn't come fast enough.
One of the Qin disciples—a lanky guy with an annoyingly smug expression—spotted him and leapt onto the rooftop with qi swirling around him.
"There h..."
Before the disciple could alert the others, Victor's instincts kicked in.
Qi gathered around him as he spun and extended his palm.
"Gale Strike!"
A sharp blast of wind erupted from his hand, hurling the disciple backward like a ragdoll.
The poor guy let out an undignified yelp before crashing through a nearby rooftop, disappearing in a shower of tiles and dust.
Victor blinked. "Damn, didn't know I had it in me."
But the brief victory was short-lived.
"He's on the roof!" someone bellowed from below.
"Oh, come on!" Victor groaned.
Without wasting another second, he took off running, leaping from rooftop to rooftop like an adrenaline-fueled parkour master. He didn't know why but since he began cultivating in game his body had really changed.
He felt a lot more agile and could perform moves a normal person could only dream of. He felt like he was some sort of kung fu master... only that this wasn't kung fu... this was a cultivation world.
Victor's footsteps echoed against the tiled surfaces, mingling with the furious shouts of the Qin disciples scrambling after him.
Unfortunately, Victor wasn't just being chased by angry grunts anymore.
From above, Elder Qin Han descended like some vengeful deity.
Victor glanced up with an horrified look."Oh, great. Grandpa Wrath has joined the party."
Elder Qin Han's cultivation aura bore down on him like an invisible mountain, making it harder to breathe with every passing second.
Victor was having difficulty moving when a thought creeped into his mind. 'I could log out. Yeah, that's it—just log out!'
He immediately tried accessing the logout interface, but… nothing happened.
The log out option wasn't working.
"What the hell?!" Victor panicked, frantically trying again. Still nothing.
His heart raced even faster, not from exertion this time but from pure, unfiltered terror.
'But last time I... wait… the last time I was in a situation like this, I didn't log out myself.' He thought back to when that other lunatic cultivator had been chasing him. 'I was yanked out because—'
Then it hit him.
His mom. She'd pulled the plug in real life. That's what had saved him.
Victor skidded to a halt on another rooftop with widened eyes. "Oh, shit. It wasn't me logging out. It was Mom pulling the plug!"
The realization hit him like a ton of spirit stones. A player couldn't log out in a dire situation. They'd have to face it head on or wait for it to blow over.
And then the second, even worse realization followed: It's the weekend.
"No school today," he whispered with a hollow voice. "Which means Mom has zero reason to pull me out of the game."
He laughed hysterically... this was the kind of laugh that came from a man who knew he was about to die. "Guess I'm screwed!"
Victor resumed fleeing even though the situation was hopeless.
Elder Qin Han descended like a hawk as his aura came crashing down like a tidal wave.
"You thought you could escape the Qin family?" His voice was like steel scraping against stone as he shot Victor a disdainful gaze.
Victor forced a grin despite the suffocating pressure. "Escape? Nah. This was just... a strategic cardio session."
Qin Han's eyes narrowed; "Your jokes won't save you now."
His hand glowed with lethal qi as he extended his palm, forming a dark crimson sphere of destructive energy swirling with faint streaks of black.
The air around it distorted, and the rooftops around Victor began to crack
"This technique will cripple you," Qin Han sneered. "I lowered my strength so you won't die... I want to hear your screams of agony!"
Victor's eyes widened. Crap. This isn't just
some regular attack.
Summoning every ounce of focus, Victor gripped his sword tightly. Qi surged through his body, hotter and more volatile than ever before.
If l'm going down, I'm taking you with me!
"SHADOW CRESCENT STRIKE!"
Victor poured every bit of his strength into the technique as he roared.
His sword glowed with blinding energy which was more intense than anything he had produced before.
<[ Momentary Heightened Shadow Crescent Mastery ]>
<[ Martial Sword Technique Potency Increased by 60% ]>
The blade couldn't handle the overwhelming force—it cracked and then shattered completely—but not before releasing a devastating crescent-shaped wave of dark shadowy energy.
The two attacks collided mid-air
BOOOOOOOM!
A thunderous explosion rocked the entire surroundings, creating a shockwave that shattered nearby windows and sent debris flying in every direction.
When the dust settled, Victor was on one knee, panting heavily with his shattered sword hilt still gripped in his trembling hand.
The rooftop was a wreck and he had fallen through, but-he was still alive.
Across from him, Elder Qin Han's face twisted in disbelief as he hovered in mid air.
"How...?" the elder muttered with a tone of shock. "You're only at the Qi Refining Realm Stage 3... You shouldn't be able to deflect that even though I lowered my attack strength."
The Qin disciples below stared up in awe and confusion, whispering among themselves.
Victor spat out some blood and grinned through it. "Yeah? Well, I'm special like that."
Elder Qin Han's shock quickly twisted into rage. "I'Il kill you myself!"
Elder Qin Han lunged at him.
Unfortunately, Victor didn't have any ounce of strength left at this point and had used up all his Qi in that one attack so there was nothing he could do to stop the approaching figure.
Victor clenched his teeth, bracing for the end. This was it. No miraculous logout. No mom to pull the plug. Just—
Suddenly, out of nowhere, a burst of petals exploded into the air.
Victor's eyes shot open. "Wait, what—?"
A feminine figure in flowing robes materialized amidst the swirling petals. She moved like the wind itself—graceful, effortless, and unbelievably fast.
Before Elder Qin Han could get to him, she grabbed Victor by the arm, and in an instant, their bodies disintegrated into a flurry of delicate pink petals.
Victor's last coherent thought before everything blurred into a haze of color was:
"Well… that's new."