I Can Only Cultivate In A Game-Chapter 187: First Target

Victor and Tarkos, both wearing luxurious looking outfits over their jaded robes, strolled through the lavish entrance with their hands clasped behind their backs like nobility.

They were guests, after all. The attendants didn't bat an eye. They were acustomed to secrecy and discretion.

The duo were ushered toward the spa quarters, but Victor subtly whispered, "That's him, by the indoor waterfall."

Tarkos gave a slight nod.

Near the cascading waterfall, Elder Min Zhen reclined within a heated crystal pool surrounded by scented steam and delicate falling petals.

Three of the house's finest maidens attended to him—

Each of them was the visual embodiment of temptation.

Their bodies were wrapped in translucent silk veils that clung to their damp skin. One who had ivory-blonde hair knelt beside him and massaged his shoulders with petal-oil.

Another with rich caramel skin straddled the elder's lap while whispering promises into his ears. The third ran her fingers across his chest.

It was a truly alluring sight.

Min Zhen groped and fondled the women greedily while laughing in delight, unaware of the two shadows slowly emerging from beneath the rippling water.

Victor's and Tarkos's heads surfaced slowly behind the waterfall. They had sneaked around when no one was looking.

Victor made sure the talismans he had prepared were within reach.

Like a serpent, Tarkos surged forward and wrapped his arm around the elder's throat. The maiden on Min Zhen's lap screamed and leapt back, only to fall into the pool with a splash. Min Zhen's laughter choked into a violent gurgle as he struggled against Tarkos's grip.

The elder thrust his hand upward, intending to release a wave of qi—but Victor was already right behind him.

Pah!

He slapped a qi-locking talisman onto the elder's spine.

"Wha—?!" Min Zhen immediately felt his qi flow weaken.

Victor slapped on three more onto his back in quick succession trapping the elder's qi in his dantian.

Tarkos growled as he increased the pressure around the elder's neck.

Bones snapped while the elder let out a howl of agony. In the next instant, he yanked the elder's head clean off.

Blood sprayed across the pool in crimson arcs, staining the waters like wine.

Screams erupted. The women fled in a frenzy while shrieking as they slipped across the marble tiles with horrified expressions.

Victor turned and said urgently, "We need to go. Now."

But Tarkos wasn't behind him. He had vanished.

Upon squinting his eyes, he spotted a blur moving through the corridors of the Jasmine House.

One by one, every maiden within the vicinity was silenced.

It took only moments for heads to litter the surroundings.

When he returned to his initial position, blood was still dripping from his knuckles. Victor looked at him in disbelief.

"You killed all of them?"

Tarkos wiped his hand on a discarded towel. "Yes. Anyone who sees our faces cannot live."

"They were innocent!"

"They were liabilities. Loose threads unravel cloth."

Victor clenched his jaw but now wasn't the time to argue. They had to leave at this instant.

They disappeared through a secret route that Tarkos had prepared beforehand. By the time the Emerald Coil Pavilion dispatched their inner guards to the Jasmine House, the attackers were already long gone.

The entire area went into lockdown. The corpses—maids and the elder alike—were discovered in the spa wing. Panic spread, and cultivators in the city moved around with fear and whispers.

---

Elsewhere, within the Emerald Coil Pavilion, three elders sat in a shadowed room behind a frosted jade screen. The cold glow of candlelight flickered across their aged faces.

"Elder Min Zhen is dead," one with thin white eyebrows and layered green robes, spoke with a low tone.

"The Jasmine House confirmed it," the more burly elder with a scar running from his chin to his ear, added. "Decapitated. Talismans all over his body. Someone powerful did this."

The third elder who happened to be a woman with stern eyes, hissed, "We must report this to the main sect."

The first elder banged his palm on the table. "No. We report this now, we'll be deemed weak. Incompetent. The other leaders might vote for us to be removed from here and we'll lose the Pavilion privileges."

"Then what do you propose?" the woman snapped.

"We clean this up. Quietly. We find out who's behind this and we eliminate them."

"We need a lead..."

"Then let the hunt begin. We'll activate the Silver Wraiths. No one escapes the Pavilion's shadows."

The elders all nodded.

But somewhere, far beyond their awareness, Victor and Tarkos were already planning their next move.

"One down," Victor murmured while rubbing the blood from his fingers.

Tarkos smirked. "Twelve to go."

"Don't kill any other innocents," Victor stated.

"Innocents? Nobody is innocent Fang Chen. Stop being so naive."

"The Jasmine House maidens did nothing wrong."

"They were in the right place at the wrong time. Blame it on their fate."

"I blame it on you. You could have let them live."

"And risk everyone's discovering our identities? I'm not sure you have what it takes to do this..." Tarkos voiced before walking away.

"I know they're NPCs but I'm only gonna kill those involved," Victor mumbled.

...

...

Now that they had information on every single person they were after, Victor and Tarkos sharpened their plans like blades ready to strike.

Zhao Feng was next—

Victor recalled the schemer that led the group of Jade Serpent disciples that day.

The face that smiled smugly as he watched him fall into the pond. The voice that barked commands when they attempted to get him for themselves.

If it wasn't for Shen Mo, things would have gone a whole lot differently that day.

They knew Zhao Feng wouldn't be easy. Due to the increased disappearances, Jade Serpent Sect members had grown cautious.

Senior disciples like Zhao Feng were no longer walking around alone. He was often surrounded by lower disciples—always in groups of at least ten. Most of these were Foundation Establishment to Core Formation Realm. Alone, they were nothing. But in a swarm, they could be a real problem.

Victor and Tarkos stalked them from a distance for nearly a full day. Zhao Feng's group followed a predictable route.

They moved from vendor to vendor in Yinfrost City, extorting excessive tributes under the guise of "tax collection." It was routine—harass traders, intimidate the weak, ensure fear bloomed wherever they passed.

But fate gave them an opening.

Zhao Feng broke away from his group to relieve himself. He moved into a nearby restroom near the edge of a quiet alley, muttering something about how pathetic it was that even a city like this didn't have private courtyards for elite disciples.

Victor followed with his face mostly obscured beneath his mask. He calmed his heartbeat as he closed in from behind.

The moment Zhao Feng turned his back, Victor pounced. He plunged his blade forward—fast and deadly.

The sword dug into flesh, but Zhao Feng activated a defensive technique at the last second.

His body twisted and emitted a

green aura as he transformed into half-man half-serpentine creature with scales forming across his back.

The blade was meant to pierce through his heart but instead only drove into muscle.

"Damn it! Why can't this fucker just die in one strike!"

He let out a vicious hiss and spun around as his eyes narrowed in shock and fury.

"You?" Zhao Feng hissed upon recognizing the voice even beneath the mask. "You little worm... You're alive and here?"

His throat vibrated, and he reared his head back before spewing a high-pressure stream of greenish venom toward Victor.

"Prepare to lose your face, scum!"

There was no room to evade this attack due to the clustered space but just as the venom was about to reach Victor, Tarkos appeared between them.

Tarkos turned to face Victor, letting his back take the full blast.

A sizzling sound filled the surroundings like boiling oil poured onto hot iron. The venom dripped off Tarkos's tattoo-covered back, hissing, bubbling—but not burning.

The tattoos had absorbed the venom's potency.

Zhao Feng's eyes widened in disbelief. "Impossible—what are you?"

"The last face you'll see before your demise..."

In the next instant, Tarkos

was behind Zhao Feng.

There was no slash, no roar—just a soft squelch.

Tarkos stood with his arm elbow-deep in Zhao Feng's serpentine chest.

His fingers gripped a heart still pumping its last beat before he squashed it with force.

Zhao Feng gasped while his legs buckled.

His eyes darted in disbelief as his life drained away.

Victor stepped forward slowly as Zhao Feng's body dropped to its knees and then slumped lifeless to the floor. Tarkos tossed the heart aside like a spoiled fruit.

Victor crouched beside the corpse. "That was for the pond, you bastard."

The air in the restroom thickened with silence. The scent of blood and venom danced together, clashing like acid on steel.

"What now?" Victor asked as he began cleaning his blade.

"We drag the body somewhere quiet. Make it look like a disappearance again," Tarkos voiced while reaching into a small pouch and pulling out a few talismans.