Mana 5 Chapter 23 (Patreon)

Ming transported us using her domain for about half an hour before she needed to take a break. In her excitement, she had overtaxed herself. Not to mention the desert wasn’t nearly as rich with mana as we headed towards the monolith. To the point it was even less than out in the ambient world.

Luckily, it was around that point that the red sun hanging over the desert chamber began to sink down beneath the base of the monolith in the distance.

I hadn’t expected the chamber to have night and day cycles.

But I didn’t love the idea of night. Night often had its own beasts, who were especially good at hunting in darkness. So far we hadn’t seen any local wildlife in the desert though.

“We should stop and prepare to rest for the night.” I said, halting abruptly in the middle of the sand.

Ming was sagging on her feet as she tried to keep up with us as we walked through the desert. Her ascension to the sixth rank had taxed her mana reserves and she’d only pushed herself further to get us away from the scene of the fight.

So far, we’d discovered that the desert was not only a desert of water, but it would seem, one of mana as well. The deeper we went into the desert, the less mana there was in the air. And that meant Ming had less to draw from as she tried to recover from our trip in the domain.

Something told me that as we got to the monolith, we may not find any mana. We’d need to conserve what we had.

“Sounds good.” Ming panted. Her red and gold hair fluttered up as she unceremoniously plopped down on the ground. “I’m sure you two have noticed that the mana here is far thinner.”

Pulling a large hock of mana beast out of my spatial ring, I handed it to Ming. “I think something like this might help you more.”

Ming snatched the meat out of my hands and tore into it like she had been starving for days.

I took out a piece for myself and Rachel, eating it and digesting the mana within the meat. It wasn’t as good as eating it fresh. The mana within it felt good as it flowed into my body. I was glad I’d saved a good bit of the meat from my hunting.

I was relatively used to a world with less mana, but many of the cultivators in the shard wouldn’t be. I had a feeling it was part of why so many of them had stayed on the outer edge of the desert.

“How are your wives?” Ming asked, making conversation as we sat down to camp for the night.

“It isn’t like I have had a chance to talk to them.” I hedged, wondering what she knew.

Ming waved her hand. “After the ambush, they would not stop strategizing about how to get back to you. Then they rested, and they woke up relaxed and no longer discussing it. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out you have some way of communicating.”

I looked at Ming questioningly. I didn’t love that she was uncovering so many of my secrets. “They are fine. They all made it out of the ash beast situation with only minor injuries.”

“Good. The group of you are cute together. I hope that one day, I have a family like that.” Ming stared off into the distance.

“It’s pretty great.” Rachel said, finishing her hunk of meat. “They look after each other and cover each other's weaknesses.”

Ming sighed wistfully and looked away, out over the desert at the monolith. “Sounds nice.”

Her back was like a lonely mountain as her hair swayed in the faint breeze. With the other families moving against her and the betrayal within her own group, I had a feeling she was feeling rather isolated.

“We have your back.” I reminded her.

“Thanks. At least for now. Soon the tomb will start to pit us against each other. When that happens, I won’t blame you for trying to win. You and your mysterious many bloodlines stand a chance at winning all of this. Don’t hold back. Not for my sake.”

I grunted in acknowledgment. When the time came for everyone to fight, I wasn’t planning to bow out. Winning was the best way to secure my prize of the phoenix’s core, if it still rested here in the tomb.

Selfishly, I hoped my wives would go the route of the Biji family.

“I won’t fight.” Rachel surprised both of us. “This has been a humbling experience. I know when I’m out matched.”

“Don’t say that.” I tried to support her.

“It’s true. The fact that I don’t have a bloodline and I’ve made it this far is grand, but it is unlikely that I’m going to break through to the 6th rank before the end of this. Without a bloodline, I’m at a disadvantage.”

“She’s right. Sometimes it is important to know your own strength.” Ming nodded to Rachel in respect. “Too many have died before they could discover their own advantages.”

I knew she was right, but I didn’t like Rachel looking down on herself. And while I wasn’t sure what it was specifically, there was something in Rachel she had yet to harness that Madam Orchid had been trying to find.

Hopefully, I’d be able to awaken her bloodline.

“It looks like the sun is going down.” Rachel said. “As much as I hate this place, I’ll admit that the sunset is pretty.”

I joined Rachel. Wrapping my arm around her, we sat watching the red sunset dye the sand and the monolith red as it set behind the monolith. Darkness closed in around it.

When the red sun was nearly gone, a new object rose out the other side of the monolith.

From the left side of the monolith rose an eerie purple orb. It cast far less light than the red sun, but with the purple moon came the sound of shifting sand.

I lifted my hand, catching some grains that were falling onto me and bringing it close while Ming sparked a fire in her hand. With the light, I realized what was hitting my hand wasn’t sand.

Instead, it was ash.

Beastly howls filled the night of the purple moon.

“Shit.” Ming cursed.

I sighed. “It would seem we won’t be able to rest tonight.” Looking out over the sand, I didn’t see any ash beasts yet.

As I listened, their howls were echoing off the stone walls of the chamber. It seemed like they were sticking to the exterior of the desert for the moment.

“I’m not hearing any close by. We should do our best to recover with what time we have. Like the other chambers, I think the tomb is pushing us and guiding us where it wants us. In this case, it seems to be pushing us towards the center of the desert.” I noted.

Ming nodded, sitting down cross-legged and working to restore her strength.

Lightning boomed in the distance, and the sound of multiple battles raced across the desert. The chamber was barren; there were no trees or even grass to dampen the sound as it traveled over the endless sand.

I kept tabs on the sound. While it echoed around, making it hard to pinpoint, I could tell that the fights were growing closer.

When a group’s fight came within range of my senses, I recognized one of the combatants. Breeze’s incredibly sharp mana brushed against my own. I wasn’t sure what they were fighting, but there was no doubt they were in the middle of a battle.

“Ming, times up. Breeze and some others from Blueheavens are approaching.” I nudged the two during my watch. “And it sounds like they’re bringing whatever they are fighting with them.”

“I’ll handle it.” Ming stood up, her sixth rank cultivation evident.

“No, you won’t.” I stopped her. “You are our ace in the hole, but if you don’t conserve your mana, you won’t be when we need it.” Ming activating her domain consumed far too much mana, for her to use it for a fight we could win without it, would be a waste.

“Let us deal with the ash beasts; you stay on watch for more enemies.”

She opened her mouth to argue, but she recognized the sense in what I was suggesting and snapped it shut with a click. “Be safe.”

I hurried off in the direction of Breeze’s fighting. Beyond wanting to help him, I was excited to see his sword work in action.

Ming and Rachel were hot on my heels.

We quickly reached Breeze, spotting him and three others fighting off ash beasts.

Breeze’s blade sliced through the night as it glowed with sword intent.

Ash beasts fell, but the small team was outnumbered. The pack of ash beasts outnumbered them five to one.

Knowing I needed to conserve my mana, I drew my bone sword from my spatial ring. After coating the edge with a thin layer of void, I joined them, cutting through two lower ranked ash beats.

Breeze flashed a smile as we joined their fight, doubling down in his attacks. His energy went up as the odds tipped in his favor.

Rachel shot past me, her chakrams slicing through ash beasts as she threw them in an arc, cutting through several more before they returned to her.

She caught the weapons on her wrists, where they twirled like dancing bracelets as she crouched down, preparing for her next attack.

I tried to watch Breeze’s form as we fought, but between my own fight and the darkness, I still wasn’t sure if he fought using my father’s style or not.

As a larger group, it didn’t take long before we had cleared out the ash beasts.

“Ming, are you injured?” Breeze asked, realizing she was there for the first time. As planned, she’d stayed out of the fight.

Her face flushed with anger. I knew she already wasn’t pleased about staying out of the fight. She no doubt didn’t love that he’d called her on it.

I stepped in before she got upset. “We tried to travel through the center of the desert already. Ming is in the sixth ring now, so she drains her mana faster than she can recover. She needs to conserve it.”

“Ah, that makes sense.” Breeze nodded. “Are there ash beasts in the central region?”

“None that we saw.” I replied.

He looked around. “They started to pour out from the edges of the chamber. There were these endless streams of ash that rose up to become these abominable beasts. We lost two, to the surprise.” He shook his head. I could tell he blamed himself for their deaths.

I knew that feeling. “Don’t be so hard on yourself. You made it through and pulled several with you.” I did my best to reassure the swordsman.

Breeze gave a solemn nod. “I know, but I can’t help but recognize my own mistakes.”

That sounded like the same teachings I had once gotten from my father. It made me itch to know.

“This might be a strange question, but who taught you your sword technique?” I knew I was abruptly changing the subject, but it was eating away at me. I missed my father, and seeing a bit of his technique had reminded me of precious memories.

“A newly risen sword saint.” Breeze replied proudly. “He became well known about a decade ago. He’s called the Steel Saint. His cultivation might only be fifth rank, but even sixth ranks take him seriously.”

“Impressive.” I tried to keep him talking. “What’s his real name, though?”

Breeze shot away from me, drawing his sword. “Master warned me he has enemies out there. Who are you?” I had apparently spooked him.

Instead of replying, I just took in Breeze’s stance. It definitely fit, but there was only one way to make sure.

I drew my sword and leveled it at him. Between two experts of the sword, there was another way to communicate.

“What are you doing?” Ming demanded.

“Testing a theory. Stay out of this.” I had to know for sure, and I could tell that Breeze was loyal. He wouldn’t give up the name, but I didn’t need it. I knew my father’s style like I knew myself.

Stepping forward, I started the forms my father taught me long ago.

First stroke.

Our blades collided, mirror images of each other. Neither of us were using mana, and I certainly wasn’t giving off any killing intent.

Breeze was dedicated to the sword, and I had a feeling he’d see the same thing in my moves that I saw in his.

Second stroke.

Once again, our blades were mirror images. I picked up the pace, moving into the third, fourth, and fifth strokes.

On the seventeenth stroke, our moves were different, but I anticipated that my father had found ways to develop his forms since we’d trained together. Thirty years of practicing the sword technique would create differences.

“They are using the same technique.” Rachel commented aloud. She and Ming had stopped to watch.

“Not quite. There are subtle differences. It’s like their sword skills come from the same place, but they are slightly off.” Ming commented, seeing the subtle differences.

I pushed off Breeze’s sword, satisfied that he was indeed trained by my father, but Breeze came at me again. There was no killing intent, instead I could see the desire for a challenge rising in his eyes.

It was a full press. He was keeping his sword moving, a strong point of the technique to keep me on the defensive. I was familiar with this situation, only from the other side.

In Jonny and my many duels, I had been leading from Breeze’s position. But I remembered the one duel Jonny won, and he’d done it by pulling a strange counter.

I baited a high chop from him, then blocked it close to his guard before stepping in and breaking his form by pushing up.

He recovered, drawing back his sword to the right, but my left hand was already moving. I’d abandoned my sword and jabbed three consecutive gut punches into his stomach.

Breeze coughed and stumbled back. He was breathing hard with a satisfied smirk on his face. “That was reckless.”

“But it worked. I had it done to me by an old sparring partner.” I held out a hand to shake his.

“You’ve also trained with my master.” Breeze could sense my sword technique just as well as I could his, if not better. More than that, he’d seen my ability as a swordsman. He looked at me differently than he had before; there was a new respect.

I had a different realization. “But, now that I’ve confirmed your technique, I have a new question for you. Where is my father?”

“Father?” Breeze asked, taken aback. He looked puzzled for a moment before his eyes cleared and a look of awe overtook his face. “The Steel Saint is your father?”

I nodded. “If he’s the one who taught you that sword work, then yes.”

“This is the man you wanted my family to look for?” Ming asked, smiling. “Well, that was easy.”

I shrugged. I was just happy to have found a clue to my father.

Breeze stepped forward and grabbed my shoulder, pulling me into a hug.

I was so surprised I didn’t react for a moment.

“That makes us brothers. My master adopted me, brother.”

“Uh. Oh.” I pat him on the back. It was a bit odd to suddenly have a sibling. “After we are out of here, I’d like to meet him again. It’s been too long.”

Breeze nodded happily, seeming excited to help. “He’s in Blueheavens, I’d be happy to show you to him.”

“If you two are done with the reunion, we need to keep moving.” Ming reminded us, looking around a bit anxiously.

Breeze pat me on the shoulder one more time. “Let’s go brother.”

Rachel gave me a questioning face, and I shrugged. It wasn’t the worst thing in the world to have a new brother, especially at the moment, when even allies could become enemies. But I wasn’t sure I was as immediately accepting as he’d been.

We pushed deeper into the desert as the purple moon raised itself along the sky.

The howls of the ash beasts grew distant once more as we pushed deeper toward the center, and the signs of fighting were also disappearing.

Lighting had stopped flashing in the distance, and the explosive fire that had been reappearing had stopped as well. If I had to guess, everyone had begun moving through the center of the desert, much like I anticipated this chamber wanted.

“Ming, if the ash beasts are coming from the edge of this chamber, do we want to push all the way to the monolith? It may be safer to break here until the red sun rises again.”

The mana was still thinning at that point, and there was practically none left for me to recover with. It even felt like the air was starting to leech the mana from my body.

If the ash beasts went away with the red sun’s rise, then it would be in our best interests to wait out the purple moon. At least in theory, the tomb made up its own rules.

“We have no guarantees.” She reminded me. “But I can see the logic. Let’s camp for now. We might as well start a fire to preserve as much mana as we can.”

I paused, thinking it through. The fire would make us easy targets, but I had a feeling others would also be conserving their strength as they dealt with the decreased mana.

And it would only be a matter of time before we ran into another group, regardless. We were all being corralled in the same direction.

I looked at the monolith. The number at the top was still a number, but now it showed one twenty-two.

That was many more cultivators than when we’d entered, but it was fewer than it had been before the ash beasts had risen. Given that over four hundred entered the tomb, that meant less than a third had made it this far.

I felt a pang of momentary fear. I needed to check in on my wives.

So as soon as we settled down, I didn’t wait. I immediately dove into our shared soul space.

“Master!” Aurora tackled me when I woke up on my throne. She grabbed my hands and pulled me off the throne to dance as she skipped around in a circle. “You found your father!”

She was so happy that it was infectious.

“He did?” Kat stepped into my soul palace. “That’s wonderful, but I’m curious as to how?”

Kissing the excited mana beast on the forehead, I pulled her close. I had to admit; I was excited to get to see him again. I’d been worried about his fate in the immortal world, and I was glad to hear he was free and doing well.

“Breeze’s sword style is my father’s. I’m positive his master is my father.”

“Fantastic.” Kat clapped her hands together. “That should be much easier than chasing down your mother.”

“It’ll be our top priority after we leave here.” I agreed. “How is everyone?”

“We are just fine. The suddenness of the ash beasts was a surprise, but we handled them and moved through the center of the desert. You?” Kat said it all casually, but I had a feeling the ash beasts had been a bigger challenge than she was letting on.

“Ming broke through to the sixth rank, and we pushed through the center before the purple moon came out. We only fought a few ash beasts to help Breeze’s group. Since the ash beasts stayed to the outer edges, we were spared having to fight much. Our group also continued on in the center. We were just setting up a fire when I meditated to check on all of you. Mana seems to be disappearing the closer we get to the monolith.”

I’d decided that the desert was more a test of endurance and tactical skill than raw strength. The ash beasts that descended on the groups weren’t that tough. It was the lack of mana in the desert that would eventually kill many of the cultivators.

Most relied heavily on mana, and once it petered out from fighting ash beasts or other cultivators, the real challenge for survival would begin.

“I’ll have the girls look for fire on the horizon when I leave so we can meet up.”

I nodded, excited at the thought. I wanted us all together where we could protect each other before we were thrown into whatever challenge the monolith would bring.