I Can Only Cultivate In A Game-Chapter 213: Phase Four

Instructor Elric paced. "But there’s a catch. Each target has a different internal structure. Some soft. Some firm. Some reinforced to mimic high-grade magical materials. You won’t know which is which until your blade hits."

He stopped in front of them again. "If you channel too much energy into a soft one, you waste precious mana. Channel too little into a dense one, and you fail to cut. You will not have time to recover. Use your instincts."

Victor drew a slow breath, already preparing. He wasn’t like the others. While they relied on mana, flashy enchantments, or elemental boosts, his strength came from qi flow...

He closed his eyes, calling his qi to circulate gently through his arms and chest.

He didn’t try to use it explosively... He just let it pool beneath the surface.

"Begin."

Victor dashed forward.

The first target was light..

He could feel it in the resistance of the air before his strike even landed. Perks of the Void bloodline...

With a whisper of movement, he drew his blade and let it slide clean through. The dummy fell in half, clean as water parting.

The second dummy was firmer like metal.

He knew exactly just how much for he needed and tightened his grip on his sword as he sent a clean strike at it...

Fwwhiii~

His blade cleaved straight through it with a flash.

Third target was like jelly-like.

There was no need for force. He barely needed qi at all.

But the fourth was dense, heavy and stone-like.

He didn’t sense it properly so his first strike ended up bouncing.

"Oh..."

Victor cursed internally and adjusted on the move, preparing to strike the fifth.

That one was paper-thin. He nearly laughed.

His heart beat calmly, as he focused and decided to spread his senses a little better.

’Circulate... steady... draw from the dantian... anchor the blade in the flow...’

Then, like an invisible tide rising in his chest, he activated something unknowingly...

’Void Emperor Bloodline – Passive Sense Unveiling...’

Victor’s skin glowed slightly milky as arrow like marks appeared all over.

His surroundings blurred slightly, not visually, but spiritually.

The air and density around each object sang a little louder, and the targets before him were no longer just dummies...

They were resonating textures of mass rippling in space. Some vibrated weakly while others seemed to give off more intense vibrations...

Victor didn’t need to see.

He just needed to feel.

He moved and slashed at the next, causing the dummy to part like butter.

Seven...

Eight...

Nine...

On the tenth, he felt a sharp pulse beneath the shell like inner quartz. He allowed his qi to pool through his right arm and channeled the first form of his sword art:

The sword arced in a blossom-like twist, cutting not through brute force but refined motion.

Eleventh...

Each slash after that was a puzzle. He used variants of phantom moon slash carefully tailored to the resistance he sensed seconds before impact:

Seventeen dummies in, Victor’s qi reserves had been nearly halfway expended so he decided to deactivate his bloodline at this point.

He was sure he could take care of the rest without issues.

The eighteenth caught him off guard—

It had a spell barrier hidden within so despite being soft, his blade bounced, and he staggered, catching himself just before falling.

He let out a breath, narrowed his gaze, and smirked.

"Aish..."

He gathered a sharp breath and sent a powerful strike at the next dummy, shattering it in one clean vertical arc.

He missed two in total.

> [Result: 18/20 Successful Cuts – Passed] freёnovelkiss.com

Cheers erupted.

But they weren’t for him.

From the far side of the warrior section, another figure had just stepped back... Elyra Vorn.

She held her blade straight by her side as she just finished the challenge.

She hadn’t even broken a sweat.

The display hovering beside her read:

> 20 / 20

There was a moment of stunned silence.

Then—

The crowd exploded.

Screams, cheers, whistles. Even instructors at the higher viewing platform exchanged impressed glances.

The announcer’s voice boomed:

> "A flawless run! Elyra Vorn, with perfect execution—20 out of 20 successful strikes!"

"She didn’t miss a single one?" one second-year gasped.

"She’s a beast. I heard she was an S-ranked potential. But that’s insane even for an A ranked," a third-year muttered.

From the stands, Victor squinted. "Overachiever."

Reed, who had finished just before, ambled over, wobbling dramatically with his sheathed sword across his shoulders. "I got thirteen. But it’s not about how many you cut—it’s about how you look doing it."

Victor gave him a side glance. "You screamed on your tenth dummy."

"Battle cry," Reed said solemnly.

Victor smirked. "Sure."

Across the arena, other class sections were also deep in Phase Four.

In the Assassin section, silence reigned.

Students vanished and reappeared in split-second bursts as they faced their challenge: moving unseen through a tight simulation of alarms, slicing enchanted threads that represented "vital marks" on moving targets.

But there was one who didn’t even seem to exist.

A shadow moved across the space, effortlessly dismantling thread after thread with pinpoint-accurate flicks of a dagger.

> "Who is that?" a student whispered.

> "That’s Kallus Vire. Another S-ranked first-year," a third-year answered grimly. "They say his stealth ability doesn’t even show up on thermal scans."

Kallus sliced his final mark and twirled his blade once before it vanished beneath his sleeve.

> 20 / 20

Shockwaves rippled across the stands again.

Not to be outdone, a few mages in the next zone fired off back-to-back elemental bursts, casting reinforced spells at floating mirrors that required redirection or timed shattering.

The mage section was a mixture of beauty and destruction. Platforms glowed with colors as fire collided with wind and frost.

A second-year instructor crossed his arms, watching from above. "They’re evolving faster than expected. Some of those first-years are already outperforming our second years."

The head examiner said nothing. His gaze remained locked on the battlefield.

When all sections had completed Phase Four, the platforms began to descend.

The remaining students which were slightly fewer now, gathered at the center again.

Warriors took their place on the left flank, assassins to the right, mages and summoners forming their own neat formations.

Instructor Elric returned to the warriors section to address them.

"Those of you standing here now have proven your adaptability, your technique, and your ability to think beyond raw power."

He raised his hand.

"The next trial—Phase Five—will test not just your strength or precision, but your discipline under fire. You will face an evolving challenge—an obstacle course that changes the moment you engage it."

He stepped forward.

"You will not know what lies ahead. You will have to fight, think, and move—without stopping. You must work alone. You will not be timed, but every hesitation, every wasted motion, will be recorded and reflected in your score."

He turned to the rising wall at the far side of the arena. From behind it, shadows moved, machinery shifted, and platforms began to build.

"Legacy weapons are forged for warriors who can act without needing to be told how," he said. "Show us you’re worthy."

Slowly, the stone tiles separated and reformed—

It was no longer the clean, symmetrical platforms they’d grown used to. Instead, rising from below was an ever-shifting maze of elevated panels, spinning columns, and pressure pads. Glowing glyphs raced across the surfaces in circular patterns.

Instructor Elric stood with arms behind his back.

"Phase Five begins now."

He turned and gestured behind him, where the obstacle course was fully revealed.

It spannef the entire length of the warrior division’s half of the arena. Metal poles extended skyward like bamboo stalks, rotating panels moved in alternating directions, and thin bridges quivered above low-hanging shock panels.

Victor stared at the shifting terrain ahead. Everything was alive... panels were tilting, poles swaying, shifting patterns emerging and vanishing.

Instructor Elric continued, "You must reach the end of the course without falling or triggering more than three glyph panels. Every time you trigger a glyph," he pointed toward the glowing floor pads that blinked red, "the difficulty increases."

Gasps rippled across the crowd.

"Oh this is going to be fun," Reed muttered beside Victor. "By fun I mean, terrifying."

"There’s more," Instructor Elric stated as if he had just heared them.

He lifted his hand.

"Only your legs are being judged. Every strike, every reaction, every movement—has to come from your footwork. You will not be allowed to use your hands unless you’re correcting balance. No swords. No slashing. Just your body, your steps, and your mind."

Victor blinked. "...So basically ninja parkour?"

"I believe that’s the academic term," Reed whispered with a smirk.

A student nearby groaned. "My legs already hate me."

"Begin!"

Glyphs flared.

Victor was among the first to step forward. The platform beneath his foot wobbled immediately, and he had to shift his weight mid-step.

The moment his other foot landed, the platform tilted backward and tried to launch him off.