I Can Only Cultivate In A Game
Chapter 242 - 242: Getting Imprisoned

They emerged from the swirling currents like ghosts clawing their way back to the realm of the living.

One by one, Victor and the others broke through the surface of the cold water, gasping for air as the glistening veil of the waterfall roared down behind them.

Sunlight kissed their soaked forms unlike the world they had just escaped which was bathed in eternal twilight.

Victor pulled himself onto a rock ledge and stared up at the sky. Real, blue sky.

They were out.

Aeri Fan groaned as she rolled onto the mossy bank. "I never want to see another floating rock again."

Brin flopped beside her. "Or upside-down mountains. Or gravity that makes no damn sense."

"I feel like… I'm going the wrong way even when I know I'm not," Mirael stumbled as she tried to stand and immediately veered left when she meant to go right.

"Yeah…" Victor nodded. "Our bodies got used to that world's reversed motion system. Muscle memory's gone full traitor."

The group staggered awkwardly across the damp clearing, drenched, disoriented, and aching but alive.

Tarkos scanned their surroundings with narrowed eyes. "We should get moving. The longer we stay in the Blight Swamps, the more chances something else decides to hunt us."

"Agreed," Aeri Fan said and closed her eyes. A thin glow traced down the veins of her face as she reached inward toward her soul bounded mount.

A moment later, she opened her glowing Soul Eye. A ripple of spiritual light shimmered in her gaze.

"I've found her," she voiced with a swell tone but in the next instant, her expression turned concerned. "But… something's wrong."

"What is it?" Victor asked.

"She's being attacked." Aeri's hands clenched. "Surrounded."

The bond between beast and master was more than just emotional... it was spiritual.

Aeri saw flickers of struggle and pain.

Her mount was being marched away by a group of cultivators.

However, the moment it sensed the call of its master, it forcefully thrashed around and leapt into the air.

It's massive wings beating against the sky as it flew off.

Victor stood up. "We've got to go to her."

"She's already coming." Aeri pointed toward the southeast. "She broke free and is heading here."

They turned their gaze in the direction she indicated.

Not even a minute passed before a tremendous roar echoed through the trees, followed by the thundering flap of wings.

A massive serpentine and lion mixed beast emerged from the forest canopy with a scorching heat trailing behind her as she descended.

She landed hard enough to shake the ground.

Victor reached out and steadied Xuan Qing as the force of the landing caused some of them to lose their balance.

"Thank the heavens," Brin muttered.

The group wasted no time. They scrambled onto the beast's back, strapping themselves into the custom saddles nestled behind Aeri's lead seat.

The moment they were on, she tapped into the soul bond again, urging the beast skyward.

But before they could even get airborne, shouts rang out all around them.

"Surround them!"

"Don't let them escape!"

Clanking armor and the glint of spears burst from the trees.

From every direction, more than twenty armored men stormed out with their weapons raised. They moved with the discipline of trained warriors, closing the encirclement in perfect formation.

Victor's hand moved to his blade on instinct.

Then he saw the sigil on their armor and instantly recognized it's origin.

His eyes widened slightly. "Blue Flame Palace guards…"

Aeri Fan swore under her breath. "Seriously? What are they doing here?"

Xuan Qing's brow furrowed, but she stepped down from the beast. "Stand down!" she called with a strong and commanding tone. "I am Princess Xuan Qing of the Blue Flame Imperial Bloodline. Cease this nonsense!"

The response was immediate.

The soldiers froze as their weapons dropped slightly.

"P-Princess?" one of them stammered. "You're… alive?"

The commanding officer stepped forward and immediately went down to one knee. "Your Highness! We had received word you were taken and presumed—" He stopped mid-sentence and glanced around at the others in disbelief. "We never thought—"

"I was never taken. I went willingly," Xuan Qing stated firmly, then stepped aside and gestured to the group behind her. "These are my comrades. They risked their lives for me. Treat them with the respect they are due."

The soldiers murmured among themselves.

Victor finally allowed himself to relax until the eyes of the one of the lead palace guards locked on him.

A beat of silence passed.

Then the man's eyes narrowed.

"Fang Chen," the guard said coldly.

Victor tensed.

"In the name of Blue Flame Palace Law, you are hereby placed under arrest for the abduction of Princess Xuan Qing!"

Time froze.

"What?!" Xuan Qing's eyes widened in fury.

"What the hell did you just say?" Aeri Fan growled, half-drawing her blade.

Victor's gaze sharpened, but he didn't move. "You've got the wrong idea."

However, the lead palace guard didn't listen.

The order had already been shouted. The guards moved.

In seconds, the formation split.

Some remained half kneeling to the princess, while the rest surged toward Victor.

They pointed weapons at his throat as they got into formation.

"Don't resist," one barked. "We don't want bloodshed."

Xuan Qing shoved her way to the front. "Are you *mad?!* He saved my life! I *command* you to stand down!"

But the commanding officer didn't budge. "Your Highness… the investigation into your disappearance pointed to Fang Chen. Witnesses stated you were last seen with him alone before your vanishing. We cannot ignore protocol."

"I *went* with him!" Xuan Qing snapped. "He didn't *abduct* me! I followed him of my own will!"

"Then you can explain that at the palace," the officer voiced with a rigid tone. "But until then, we have our orders."

A strange silence spread across the group.

Victor looked from the spears to Xuan Qing, who looked like she was ready to burn the entire forest down.

"It's fine," Victor finally voiced while raising his hands slowly.

"Fang Chen—" Xuan Qing began.

"It's fine," he repeated with a calm tone. "Your dad won't keep me locked up for long anyways."

He stepped down from the beast and moved towards the guards.

The lead palace guard nodded, signaling two guards who stepped forward and bound Victor's wrists in glowing suppression cuffs—enchanted devices designed to seal cultivation. Victor didn't flinch as they clicked shut.

...

...

Fang Chen was escorted through the corridors of Blueflame City's inner palace by a pair of stern-faced guards.

The hubbub of courtiers, soldiers, and official bustle seemed distant to him. His wrists were bound by suppression cuffs but having learnt array formation and seal techniques to an extent, he could sense where the flaws were located.

Which meant he could break out of them at any time but he chose not to.

With each step, the runes glowed faintly, numbing the flow of qi in his veins and warning him that any attempt to use mystical abilities would come at great peril.

They opened the heavy iron door to a dimly lit dungeon cell. The stone walls were damp and faint whispers of moss coated the cracks.

The air seemed stale as to the sound of unseen drip-drips of water echoed. Victor stepped in and the guard locked the door behind him. Embers of torchlight hovered in rusty sconces outside his cell's barred window.

However, he was not alone.

"Look who landed in my domain again," came a cold, mocking voice from the shadows. Victor's eyes adjusted to reveal Serika Varnis sitting on a hard bench in the cell on the left.

Chains hung from her wrists, and her emerald eyes glistened with self-satisfaction. "Not lost this time, I see?"

Victor took a slow breath and sat on the floor without responding.

"You stick your head out for them and end up like this?" she voiced with a taunting tone. "Princess trouble? Who would've guessed she'd stick her nose in your business." She gestured idly at Victor. "Now you get to stew down here. Why am I not surprised?"

Victor closed his eyes. "Not for long old hag."

---

Meanwhile, in the grand hall of Blueflame City's palace, Xuan Qing fought fiercely against the tide of political judgment.

"Kāng zhōng," City Lord Xuan Wenzhou voice echoed through the chamber lined with jade pillars like thunder. "He stole *you*, he endangered you! He's locked up as he should be."

Xuan Qing planted her feet firmly beneath her royal robes. Her violet eyes flashed. "Father, he didn't *steal* me! He followed my command. I asked him to sneak me out! He shouldn't be imprisoned!"

Xuan Wenzhou's face crackled with rage. "You endangered everything—yourself, the city. I'll not risk you again, not with any man! Three months of confinement in your room should teach you obedience."

The court froze. Walls and statues seemed to swallow the tension.

"What?! Why must spend three months under guard in my room? I didn't even do anything wrong! You never let me go out!"

"I have made my decision! Guards... escort the princess to her chambers," he commanded softly.

She trembled with tears. "I hate you," she screamed.