Mana 5 Chapter 12 (Patreon)

I speared through the water dragon’s heart as we both crashed back down into the lake below the waterfall. Waves washed out the bank and I stood atop it and wiped my hair out of my face.

It had taken some effort to bait the wary creature from its lair, but it had been worth it. I stood atop the peak fifth rank beast’s corpse in the lake. The strongest beast I’d killed to date, and that was without my bloodlines.

It had been three weeks since I had been hunting in the Ying family grounds. This dragon was one of the more powerful creatures in the area, and I had fought it several times before. Without my bloodline, it was far harder than the first time.

Each time we fought, the beast would retreat down through one of its many tunnels whenever it was losing. It seemed to have a branching cave system that covered the area.

I’d determined that the best strategy for the beast was to surprise it with an attack instead of trying to corner or slowly defeat it. It was just too capable of escape.

But the more I looked at it now that it was dead, the more it resembled an eel rather than a dragon.

I shook my head.

It was the peak fifth rank beast I’d managed to kill in the month I’d been here. Both of them had just at the cusp of the sixth ring. Though this was the only one with a bloodline of powerful beasts.

Cutting out its core, the core was twice the size of my fist, but it was still smaller than Old Jin’s core had been.

I had to wonder just how powerful Old Jin had been, and if he’d even been human.

The lines between human and beast blurred back in the mortal world. Now, it seemed that in the immortal world, humans were becoming more beast-like with their focus on bloodlines.

Putting the core into my spatial ring, I brought the water dragon’s corpse into the spatial ring as well and turned back, heading back to the cave I’d been using as my main campsite.

It was a quick trip back to the cave, and I knew my way, having cut a particular path through the forest in my time here. Beasts avoided my path now, and it was a peaceful walk back.

All around the cave, trees and bushes were shattered. The small clearing had seen dozens of battles since I’d begun.

For the first week, every time I had cooked beast meat out in the open, beasts would wander in and try to take a bite. Unfortunately, they’d then find themselves cooking on the spit next.

Some had been easier than others to kill. More than a few of them had been powerful fifth rank beasts, resulting in the shattered trees surrounding me. I was glad that they hadn’t tried to take me on as a herd.

“Master.” Aurora fluttered down by my side. I had let my mana beasts out when I realized I had more food than I could possibly eat, and they often lingered around the cave.

She looked around. “How did the hunt go?”

“Great. Finally got the slippery bastard.”

Flinging my arm to the side, the dragon’s corpse laid out by the cave.

“Oh. That’s a dragon?” Aurora asked, turning and shouting into the cave. “Quinn, come look at the water dragon.”

The gold dragon stepped out and raised her brow as she took in the corpse. “That’s barely a dragon.”

“Still has some draconic bloodline. I can feel it.” I defended myself. It had been my prey for over a week.

Quinn hummed in amusement. “Barely a dragon does not make it a dragon.”

“Alright. But remember, here in this world, the bloodlines are so thin this might be a powerful draconic creature to them.” I bowed slightly to Quinn and pulled her close, kissing her neck.

“No fair.” Aurora pouted.

“Oh yes. I think you are right. That does look more like a dragon.” Quinn smiled up at me. “Now that you got it, are you going to go deeper into the forest?”

Putting the water dragon on the spit as best as I could, I turned it slowly while I considered her question.

There was still another week before I expected Ming Feng back to bring me to the shard of the shattered world. And my wives had all been steadily working with Tianxi to complete missions and turn over as much profit as they could.

From everything they’d said, Tianxi had started to lift her business back out of the grave with their support, and the first shipment having come up from Murdock.

The Alliance had apparently gone rabid on the surroundings, scouring the area around Murdock and snagging any and all potent herbs and mana beasts. With the profits in Blueheavens, my wives were getting enough mana crystals to earn their own advancements.

Meanwhile, I had made slow but steady progress towards the sixth ring. I knew I needed to make sure I didn’t reach it before we went into the shard. We’d since figured out that I could advance to the sixth rank within the shard, so I only needed to worry up until we entered.

And I had a feeling I wouldn’t be the only cultivator entering and hoping to break through the sixth rank.

Looking deeper into the forest, I considered Quinn’s question again. “Yes. We’ll go deeper, but I’ll bring all of you along in case I need support.”

“Yay! Field trip!” Mei bounced on her feet at the edge of the cave, pumping her fists into the air while her foxtails swirled behind her.

Lumi was also drawn out of the cave by the smell of the cooking dragon. “Lunch?”

“Who has names for all the meals we’ve been eating each day.” Quinn sighed. “I think I’m going to get fat here soon.”

I looked down at Quinn’s sinuous body and gave her an unamused look. “I don’t think any of you are capable of getting fat.”

“Have you seen bird brain here?” Lumi poked fun at Aurora. “She’s fucking huge.”

“Hey!” Aurora flapped angrily into the air. She was in fact, not fat. They were talking about her mana beast form. “I’m not fat. Kunpengs are just big-boned.” Since growing to the fifth rank, Aurora had become even larger. She was getting so big that she could barely transform anywhere anymore. Or if she did, she’d ruin everything around her.

“And big chested.” Quinn coughed.

Aurora must have heard it, because she puffed her chest out with a smug smile. Her robe slipped, giving me a full display of her bountiful chest.

The soft, supple curve of her twin peaks and the deep valley was a sight every time.

My stares only made her smile wider as she noticed my attention.

“Enough playing around.” I said. Although I wasn’t sure if Aurora and Mei were entirely capable of being serious for prolonged periods of time. “Let’s eat this dragon and then we’ll head deeper into the forest.”

Remembering how delicious this dragon had been before, I tore off a piece from the outer edge that was already becoming crispy and bit into it. The flavorful meat filled my mouth and brought a moan out of me.

“Does it taste that good?” Aurora jumped forward and tore her own piece, biting into it so hard that the juices flowed down the corners of her mouth and ran down her chin. “If so goof.” She said around the food in her mouth, trailing off with a moan.

At that point, a chain reaction began, as each of the beasts quickly tore their own chunk of meat.

It didn’t take long before my mana beasts became ravenous animals, taking off chunks of the dragon as soon as it cooked and stuffing their bellies full of meat.

I was far more patient this time than previous feasts. I took care not to overindulge myself as my system digested the mana rich meat. All the excess in my meridians poured into my soul palace, where I crystalized it around my throne.

In the short time that I’d been in the hunting ground, I’d more than made up the crystalized mana I’d lost in faking my death. I knew it wasn’t enough to get me to sixth rank, but I was curious how close it would bring me.

From what Wenxi had explained to me and I’d read in the Ying Family belongings, to move from the fifth rank to the sixth rank required simply expanding the small world I’d created in my soul palace. And doing that required numerous mana crystals.

Sinking deeper in meditation while my body digested my belly full of meat, I stood up in my soul palace’s throne.

Large crystals the size of my forearm jutted out from around the base of my throne. Collected together, they might be about the same volume as my body.

But I hadn’t collected them just for decoration.

I dispersed the mana crystals, breaking them down from their condensed physical state into gas. And in the process, they filled the air around me, expanding.

Suddenly, my soul body felt like it was under extreme pressure, like when a higher rank cultivator pressed down around me. The volume of mana in a gaseous state was more than the piece of reality could stand.

It strained at the edges, and where it strained, it cracked. Mana rushed in to fill the gaps, slowly and painfully expanding the domain I was creating in my soul palace.

When it finally reached an equilibrium of pressure, the domain had nearly doubled in size to almost ten yards in diameter around my throne.

I sighed and shook my head. It might have been the least painful cultivation I’d done, but the amount of resources it devoured was astonishing.

I now understood why the immortal world seemed so slow, with so many people happy to just go about their day-to-day jobs. Everyone above the 5th rank would be able to passively generate some mana over time, but this clearly wasn’t something that could be rushed.

I would have to expand the space many times over, each becoming more expensive. But I was up for a challenge. I just wished it was one paved in combat and not acquiring wealth.

“What’s wrong?” Aurora woke me from my meditation.

“Nothing.” I sighed.

“You had that frown. You’re frustrated.” Aurora had been with me since I was five. She knew how to read me.

“I’m just realizing how long a path the fifth rank is. I need a lot more mana crystals.”

The mana beasts looked at each other before looking back at me. “Why don’t you take ours?”

I blinked. I hadn’t thought about that before. “But don’t each of you need them?”

Quinn shook her head. “No. If you were to reach 6th rank first, then I’m sure your ability to make mana crystals will be far greater than the five of us combined. If we focus on each of us in turn, it should be faster overall.”

Processing her plan, I realized she was right. Every new ring had given me a significant advancement in my capabilities. Even if I could fight on par with some sixth ranks with my bloodlines activated, that didn’t mean I was anywhere near their efficiency at drawing mana from the world. I’d had access to some of the best hunting available, and I’d still only made a dent in the expansion I needed.

My mana beasts had been busy too, devouring the mana beast meat and making their own mana crystals along with me.

“Alright. I’ll take you up on it. And I promise to return the favor.”

Aurora kissed my cheek. “We know, silly Master. You don’t have to say it.”

Kissing her back, I thanked her from my heart. “I know, just wanted to say it. Now, let’s pack up and head deeper into the woods.”

“Yay! Let’s hunt more dragons. That one was tasty.” Aurora flapped her wings several times before she disappeared into her ring.

Quinn rolled her eyes. “She’s totally going to go to sleep after all that food.”

“Don’t tell me curling up in front of a warm fire on soft blankets doesn’t sound absolutely perfect right now.” Lumi bumped hips with Quinn.

She rumbled in agreement, and the two of them disappeared into their rings.

I looked around for Mei and found her lying on the ground, holding her distended stomach. Her tails flopped helplessly back and forth under her. “So full. I didn’t know you could get pregnant from eating so much. Get this baby out of me.” She rubbed at her tummy.

“You aren’t pregnant Mei.” I crouched down next to her. “At least, I don’t think so.” The topic was a sensitive one.

“Will we ever get pregnant?” Mei turned to me, still holding her rounded stomach. This time, there was a little hope in her eyes.

“I don’t know. None of you have yet. We know you are in essence a mana projection of your soul, but as I’m now able to realize things more fully in the fifth rank, maybe there’s hope? Maybe with one of these ranks, you’ll each have bodies that could get pregnant again.”

Mei’s smile dimmed slightly, and she held her stomach again. “One day.” She vanished into a stream of light into her ring. It left me with chills seeing her like that. Of all my mana beasts, she was the one that clung to the idea the most.

I smiled, trying to cheer myself up. At first, they’d been so full of hope. Now they rarely talked about it. We’d tried hard at first, and just focused on having fun as time wore on.

Eventually, we’d accepted that their bodies had died when they gave me their cores. Though they could be physical in the world, they were made of mana, much like certain techniques.

But that was when we were in the mortal world. I meant what I’d said. There was a chance that they could manifest true bodies one day.

I’d just have to push forward in my cultivation with the hope that one of these levels would allow Mei and the others to get what they had wished to have for so long.

Pushing off the ground, I dusted off my torn pants and headed deeper into the woods.

Shafts of sunlight shone down from the canopy as I walked a familiar trail deeper into the forest. As I followed it, the canopy became thicker, and the forest became darker.

Beasts scattered before me. Having walked this trail often enough in the last three weeks, I was a known predator and many of the beasts wanted nothing to do with me.

My mana spooled out once again, sweeping around in a circular pattern, searching for powerful mana signatures.

But I came up empty as I strolled through the forest. It was almost as if the forest was opening up to accept me, or potentially swallow me whole.

I knew dangerous beasts lurked deeper within it. If a contingent of sixth rank guards warned Ming Feng to leave, that meant it was something that would even give her trouble, and she was at the peak of the fifth rank, with the most powerful bloodline in Blueheavens.

As I took my next step, I realized that the forest had calmed; birds had stopped chirping. The bugs all seemed to disappear from the air, landing and lying low when I approached.

I was going deeper into the forest than I had been before.

The water dragon had been my benchmark for how deep I could go, and now I was passing the branch of the path that led that direction. Making up my mind, I ventured deeper.

My senses started to pick up beasts again. Several fourth rank beasts became obvious to me. One even flickered out as a fifth rank beast’s mana blossomed where it used to be.

Other beasts needed to eat, and this deep in the woods, fourth rank beasts were nothing but prey.

My senses picked up a sixth rank beast, and I smiled.

That one would be worth the hunt.

I cut a new path through the forest, heading towards what I sensed as a cliff on a hill of the forest. Atop the cliff, a massive form lay still.

Rounding my way through the forest, I stepped on the very edge of the cliff and something ahead snorted.

Trees groaned and cracked as a large body rose from the top of the cliff. I had expected some type of predator, but instead, what stood up was a massive elephant. Its skin pebbled with rocky shards, and it took its first step towards me.

The ground trembled with its size and weight.

Fully in front of me, I realized just how large of a beast it was. The elephant lifted its trunk and trumpeted into the otherwise quiet forest.

Birds shot into the air for miles, hurrying to escape from the destruction of such a powerful beast.

I summoned my mother’s bonesword and tapped my white tiger bloodline. The white tiger was the king of the jungle, and there in the forest, it seemed appropriate. I had held back using my bloodline while training against fifth rank beasts, but this was a sixth rank and I’d need every advantage I could bring to bear.

And I knew I could use the ferocity as I went up against the sixth rank beast. The white tiger bloodline’s symbol came to life on my forehead.

It didn’t quite have the defense of the gold dragon, nor the penetrating power of the nine-tailed fox, but the white tiger was a killer capable in its own right.

The rocky elephant dropped back on all four legs with a thud, its massive tusks gleaming in a beam of sunlight.

I charged forward, my sword stroke becoming three jagged slashes, like the claws of a tiger.

But the rocky elephant only seemed bored as I ran. It turned its side on me as my slashes tore away at the rocky skin, but only managed to scrape off chunks of stone and no flesh.

The elephant stomped its feet, shaking the ground underneath me rather than attacking me directly.

I wobbled, the quaking ground an uneven surface for a moment.

In that space of time, the elephant’s trunk swung with overwhelming strength.

Out of options, I struck at the trunk, knowing it was going to overpower me. Sure enough, its hit knocked me away, but I was better able to control how I landed.

The elephant stomped its feet and charged, the ground quaking from the single animal stampede as it swiped at me with its ivory tusks.

I rolled to the side, managing to only be clipped by its wide feet as I swung a weak attack at its legs.

My sword bounced off its rocky exterior, chipping away a mass of stone.

This beast was far stronger than the water dragon I had faced. And this beast was meant for direct conflict, where the water dragon had been a creature designed for ambushes. The elephant wouldn’t run away.

Trees cracked and crashed to the ground as the rocky elephant ran in a wide circle to face me again, stomping its feet and rumbling the earth beneath us once again.

“If you’d please stop before you make a mess of my forest. That would be preferable.” A soft voice called out from the dark.

The elephant stopped immediately, tossing its trunk and trumpeting as if in complaint.

“I know. He attacked you, but you are large and terrifying to a small human.” A woman with startling white antlers on her head stepped out of the shadows. “He’s also been in the forest for weeks hunting. I have been keeping a close eye on him and his women.”

Pausing, I realized I couldn’t even sense the woman before me. The white, velvety antlers on her head had moss hanging from them. The way she spoke and stood spoke of years of life that her face and body didn’t show.

It was unsettling to know that she’d been watching me, and neither I nor my mana beasts had been able to sense her. She had an ancient, untouchable aura around her.

“I’m afraid you have me at a loss.” I stuck my sword in the ground as a sign of peace. “Who are you?”