Mana 6 Chapter 3 (Patreon)

My mother and Lanhua headed further into the Su Family estate to join my wives and Tianxi for lunch.

Breeze and my father came next. I walked towards them. “Mom’s already headed in. Join her, but after this we should talk about training with the sword. I think I’m a little rusty.”

The smile from my father warmed my heart. “Yeah, we should. Your swordsmanship needs the rust beat off of it.”

He said it good-naturedly, but his words chilled me to the bone. My father wasn’t always the softest of trainers.

Too many years of training under him and his rather militant view of training had a small sweat prickle at the back of my neck.

Breeze chuckled in understanding as my father walked a little faster, catching up with my mother. It was almost like he was a little scared to let her out of his sights.

“Brother, you seem to have the best luck with the ladies. Hopefully, as I hang around you, some of it will rub off on me.” Breeze nudged my side. “And Lanhua seems quite close to your group. Is there more I should know?” He bounced his eyebrows suggestively.

My father had taken Breeze in as a disciple and adopted him. The young rascal grew on you like a barnacle.

“No, she’s simply been an ally.” Nudging him back. “She has secrets, and I won’t bring harm to my family.”

Breeze looked at me like I was an idiot. “Suit yourself. But she’s got that sort of sexual energy that would make most men stupid in the head.”

“Do I look like I need more sex?” I deadpanned at Breeze. In fact, I did not.

“I think if you have fourteen wives, you really like sex.” He deadpanned right back.

We both burst out laughing. “Okay, that’s fair. But beautiful women are a dime a dozen in the immortal world.” I said. It was true, with the health of immortality, most of the women we passed on the streets held a clear natural beauty.

“Beautiful women who look like that, are strong cultivators with bloodlines, and totally into you aren’t… that… rare… Damn you lucky bastard!” Breeze realized the error of his words as he finished his sentence and took in all my wives. Because I had a whole handful of them.

I smiled, proud that I’d recently added Ming to my family as well. “It’s okay, Breeze, one of these days you’ll find the woman of your dreams too.” I encouraged him.

“She’ll need to be a swordswoman, with completely unmatched beauty in her swordsmanship.” Breeze sighed. “One day, I’ll find the woman that makes my sword sing.” He lovingly stroked the sword at his hip.

I wondered if he would be better off if he found a sword that could love him back. My father was obsessed with the sword, but only in martial form. The way Breeze stroked his sword made me think he loved the sword entirely too much.

“Maybe Lanhua could help you there; it feels like she’s integrated into society far more than either of us. She may even have some ladies at the pavilion that study sword dancing.”

“Sword Dancing?” Breeze’s interest was piqued. “That’s a thing?”

Sometimes I forgot that Breeze grew up in the outer rings of the city and likely hadn’t been as exposed to art. Much less something like the Orchid Pavillion. “Yes, we can catch up to Lanhua. I’d bet she could give you special tickets to a show.”

“Sword dancing.” Breeze murmured under his breath with a hitch of excitement in his eyes.

I was happy we’d pivoted the conversation away from my relationship with Lanhua. Her secrets and hidden plans with my mother put me on edge. She’d proven that I could trust our interests were aligned, but I wasn’t about to let her deeply into my life.

And I still remembered the one time she touched me in the orchid pavilion. Just the memory giving me goosebumps. Breeze thought she was a tempting woman, but he had no idea. Whatever Lanhua cultivated could make a man go crazy, which only made me more cautious.

Wanting to get past that memory, I focused back on our walk, leading Breeze back into the Su family estate.

“You know, you are going to get more women when you go to the Yunpi family.” Breeze commented. “Maybe you should jump on this Lanhua thing sooner rather than later.”

I sighed. “How did we get back to this topic?”

Breeze pointed with his chin, and somehow I knew he was gesturing to her rear as it pressed up against the tight white fabric of her dress.

I rolled my eyes, but something else occurred to me as I watched Lanhua.

As connected as she was with the immortal society, she was also the perfect person to know more about the assassin and the Bishou. She was, after all, the one who’d been able to place what organization the assassin came from based on my description. And I wanted answers. I’d have justice for my wives.

Breeze got the wrong idea as I stepped towards Lanhua, giving me a thumbs up and a wink.

Lanhua had separated from my mother and was chatting politely with Michelle. She turned as I approached. “Isaac, join us.” She gestured, purposefully avoiding contact.

“You know, Lanhua, after our brief conversation, I had a thought.” I rested my arms on the back of Michelle’s chair. “Would you happen to have a contact with the Bishou?”

Michelle frowned. She hadn’t heard that name before, but Lanhua knew who I meant.

Lanhua paused before answering. “You won’t get anything from them. They are professionals. Besides, your mother wouldn’t condone such a risk.”

“The assassins?” Michelle put it all together quickly. “If you do know, let him go. He’s too stubborn; he’ll find it out from someone else.” Her eyes drifted over to Ming.

“True. I could just ask the Feng family.”

Lanhua put a hand on my arm as if to stop me, and a little tingle of pleasure raced through me. She pulled back her hand as if she’d burned it. “Please, don’t. I can give you my contact, if you allow me to come with you.”

“Not a problem.” I smiled. “But I’m bringing Celina too.” My lovely wife was a master at poison. While we shared the Yin Harmony Bird bloodline, she had exercised it far more. The Yin Harmony Bird was once a beast known for devouring poisonous insects and snakes in order to make its own poison more potent.

Over the years, Celina had indulged in every poison she could find, and her use of the bloodline was likely one of the most potent poisons in even the Immortal World.

She’d love to venture into an assassins' den and sample their poisons.

“We can do that.” Lanhua relaxed. “After lunch?”

Even if I was eager to rush off into a snake pit of assassins, I could wait until after lunch. I was thankful Lanhua was being so helpful, but I also noted that she did, in fact, have a contact with the assassins. I couldn’t help but be curious who she’d sent them after.

***

“You said your contact was here?” I pushed aside what made for a door in the slums, which rested against the eastern exterior wall of Blueheavens. The outer ring of the city was threatening to burst with people, and those who were the least fortunate among them were pushed outside the wall into a shantytown that leaned up against the otherwise opulent blue walls.

The wall was a stark contrast to the haphazardly stacked huts, stacked precariously on top of each other like a set of children’s toys about to fall down with one heavy gust of wind.

Every time a board creaked under me, I was bracing to launch myself out before it all came toppling down.

We walked through a dark hallway underneath the top layer that had been out in the sun.

Lanhua walked before me, her white dress almost blindingly bright among the shanties.

Celina stood out far less in dark green robes and a dark feathered shawl. She was dressed too nicely for the area, but she at least was more subtle than Lanhua.

“He’s around here somewhere. It isn’t as if people don’t move around here. A place to rest among the shanties is more of a finders-keepers policy.” Lanhua explained.

“I can imagine.” I pushed a loose board back into place as we rounded the corner.

In my moment of distraction correcting the board, three knives appeared at our throats, the people holding them seeming to bleed out of the shadows.

I took on the Yin Harmony Bird bloodline and reinforced my throat with metal mana. Reaching out, I quickly got a sense of their power, and I relaxed.

The would-be attackers were all quite weak, only at the third level of cultivation. But they had immaculate techniques when it came to blending into the shadows.

I clapped.

“Well done.” I smiled as the knife pressed into my throat. It didn’t manage to even scratch my skin. I gently, but firmly, pushed their hand away. “I came down here to talk to the Bishou.”

Getting a better look at my attacker, I realized the knife at my throat was held by a waif of a girl with hardened eyes. She refused to speak, her throat holding the same scars as the man who had attacked me earlier. But hers were pinker, fresher or at least not dulled with age.

She jerked her head, and the other two snapped off of us and disappeared into the shadows while the girl stared hard at me for a moment before turning for me to follow.

I could sense the other two hanging in the shadows. Now that I was more familiar with their technique, I was able to locate them.

“Follow her.” Lanhua rubbed at her neck. “This is about as friendly as they get.”

“Wonder how they treat people they don’t like.” Celina chuckled, eagerly taking the lead with a little skip in her step.

Lanhua glanced at me oddly. “She’s a little…”

“Celina is an assassin herself. This is like scoping out the competition for her.” I explained, following her. And she was probably eager to get her hands on new poisons.

Our guide stepped into what looked like a shadow in the corner, but then she stepped further than the room dimensions allowed.

“Oh, that’s pretty neat.” I watched Celina go into the hidden tunnel, following her. “No cultivation, just an optical illusion. It was actually a tunnel in the corner. One of the two walls ended, but the other did not.” I inspected the corner. A mundane trick amid the world of cultivators like this was rare, but effective.

In the shadows of the corner, it looked like any other dark corner that we’d passed in the shantytown, but I stepped deeper into it, entering a tunnel.

“Sometimes a mundane solution can be better implemented than any high-level cultivation technique.” Lanhua said, following after me.

I nodded. “You don’t have to be at the sixth rank to mix poison that can kill someone at the sixth rank. Likewise, their stealth technique relies not just on cultivation, but also on the presence of shadows along with that dark muted robe.”

Pausing, I looked over my shoulder. “Lanhua, are you sure you want to join us? I can’t promise this will end well, and I don’t want to ruin your relationship with the Bishou.”

Lanhua shrugged. “I’ve used them once in the last hundred years; it isn’t much of a loss to me.”

I was curious what she’d used them for, but I knew she had no reason to tell me. Turning back, I hurried to keep track of Celina as she darted after our guide, who was picking up the pace as she wound through tunnels and back out into the shanty. She knew her way, flowing through the tunnels like a rat in its warren.

Before long, I was fairly sure we were underground and under the city walls. At the very least, we hadn’t reemerged into the shanty town for several minutes.

I kept my senses active, but we just continued moving through tunnels.

Finally, the tunnel opened up to a dry cistern, likely abandoned by the city. Either that, or water had been diverted by the Bishou as they took up residence.

Whatever the answer was, it hadn’t been used in a while. It didn’t smell like a sewer at all. If anything, there was a sickly sweet scent in the air that reminded me of poisons. I kept my Yin Harmony Bird bloodline at the edge of my awareness, ready to call it up at any moment.

Our guide ghosted across the cistern as a dozen dark robed figures circled our group.

I waited to find out if it was a trap or a welcoming party.

The fact that they hadn’t drawn their weapons was at least a good sign. All twelve of them had the same dark gray robes covering nearly all of their skin. It broke up their form in the darkness and seemed to make it difficult for my eyes to focus on them.

“Sorry to drop in on you, but I’d like to have a chat. Is there a place to sit down and talk?” I crossed my arms and relaxed, but I was ready for an attack at any moment.

One of the assassins ghosted away, and I had a moment to sense them with my cultivation. All twelve of them were at least at the fifth rank. One among them was at the sixth, but he didn’t appear to be the one I had met earlier.

The Bishou seemed to compare at least to a moderate sized ancient family. But instead of a bloodline, they seemed to be united by assassination techniques and the mutilations.

The assassin came back, guiding an old man.

“Hello.” The old man gave a slight bow. He didn’t go deep, but I didn’t get the sense it was out of disrespect. He was older and seemed hunched in general. I pushed into him with my senses, but he wasn’t a cultivator. That got my attention.

The man looked up at me. “I will be translating for your discussion.”

I raised an eyebrow. “Who are you?”

“Disposable.” The old man coughed. “They plucked me from my shanty. They feed me and take care of me in return for my translation services. Of course, I know the risks of such things.”

“That’s horrible.” Celina said.

“They are assassins, dear. It’s certainly not the worst thing they’ve done today alone. Now, can we move on?”

I saw no reason to wait. “We were attacked by a Bishou assassin earlier today. I would like to know who hired that attack.”

The old man watched the sixth rank assassin as he made sharp hand movements, contorting his hands into different shapes. At one point, he made a dry, hollow laugh.

“They are aware. You and your family are still marked targets. You are naïve to think that men who cut out their own throats to stay silent will give you answers.” The old man spoke as he watched carefully. He looked on the edge of bolting if this even turned a little south.

“I can pay you double what you were paid to cancel the order.” The assassin earlier had gotten far too close. We were more prepared now, but I didn’t want to stay on edge if we could avoid it.

The old man nodded, looking at the assassin's hands again. “A job taken is a job served. There is no reprieve from the Bishou.”

I scowled. “Do you realize who you are picking a fight with? I’m Isaac Hughes, married to the Feng family and heir to the Yunpi family. If you succeed in this, your organization will be wiped out.” I was growing angry, but Celina put a hand on my arm to stop me from doing anything rash.

“We are aware of who you are; that is what makes the job so enticing. As for our order, it is kind of you to consider us, but we will manage.” The old man looked up at me. “Don’t kill me, please, when this goes south.”

Lanhua stepped forward. “I’m owed a favor from the Bishou. I would like to call it in.”

There were more rapid hand movements after his statements, and these seemed far more agitated. “Your favor has been called in by letting you and your two guests walk in for this conversation. Otherwise, you all would be dead.”

I snorted. “Fat chance you’d be able to kill me. If you don't cease to endanger my family, I will rip your organization up by the roots and salt the field to make sure it never lives again.”

“You are in no place to make demands. You are here in our home. How dare you threaten us?” The tension in the room built, and the old man took a step back, clearly sensing it.

There was almost a physical form to the tension; several of the Bishou around us put their hands on their body, no doubt ready to draw hidden weapons.

But Celina and I had our bloodlines to protect us, and I had no doubt that Lanhua could protect herself.

“The Bishou misunderstands.” I corrected the assassin. “If you do not cease, then you are at war with me and you grossly underestimate the damage that will cause. These are not idle words of some young master. Allow me to demonstrate the price you will pay for any attempt on my family’s life.”

My Yin Harmony Bird and Heavenly Dragon bloodlines flared to life. The glowing marks on my forehead lit up the dark cistern as my power exploded, making my robes flap.

Celina was right behind me, her bloodline coming to life as she twirled two daggers of her own.

But Lanhua was different. She exhaled sharply, and I could feel her strength change beside me.

At the very least, she was prepared to fight.

The sixth rank assassin didn’t hesitate, throwing three needles in a spread at all of us.

The old man fell over, trying to hurry away. He pulled himself off to the side.

I prepared for battle. I needed to make an example of these assassins and make everybody think twice about attacking one of my wives.