Mana 6 Chapter 8 (Patreon)

Blowing out a breath, I sat on the porch outside the largest building in my new courtyard. This new home was far grander than I had been expecting. Everything was made from carved marble with immaculately done carpentry for the furniture.

The walls that demarcated the courtyard were ten feet high. They gave privacy but were largely decorative. An immortal could easily get over them.

Inside the walls was a wide open area with four houses and a communal longhouse, which all circled around a small pond. In the center of the pond was a small shrine dedicated to the Pixiu.

I sat on the communal building’s porch, enjoying a little quiet time to myself.

When I’d returned home to my wives with all the Yunpi ladies, my wives had been less than pleased. They relaxed a little when I said the women would serve in the courtyard as servants for the moment.

After introductions, I’d broken away to catch my breath, and at least one of my wives must have caught on, because I’d had at least a few moments without being disturbed. Someone was playing guard duty, or I’d be swarmed with Yunpi ladies right now.

Besides Ai and Tabatha, I was having trouble telling the various women apart. There were so many of them.

Xiexie had served as a great distraction, running around and playing with them. Many of the women had put on shawls or other coverings to make themselves a little more modest after Xiexie kept pointing out any goosebumps or perky nipples showing on various women, claiming that they were cold.

“So this is where you ended up.” Lanhua came out carrying a sleeping Xiexie against her shoulder. “She fell asleep on me, and it was too loud in there. I’ll leave you to your musings.” She turned away.

I waved her down. “Sit. She’s going to sleep like a rock. I have a feeling.”

Xiexie was already blowing and retracting a little snot bubble as she slept on Lanhua’s shoulder.

“I didn’t expect you to be so good with kids.” I commented.

Lanhua shrugged only one shoulder. “I’ve picked enough up off the street for training at the pavilions. Once they grow older, I give them the options of what sort of work they want.” She added the second statement quickly after seeing the look on my face at the thought of young ones at the pavilions’ training.

“Makes sense. How are you settling in?”

“Not really settled in at all yet. This is a lot of change, but we were told that we’d all get a stipend for cultivating. And there were missions available for more rewards from the family. I get the feeling that your mother wants us to go do missions and share our rewards with you.” Lanhua raised an eyebrow in question.

I nodded, understanding what the family wanted from me. Giving me a nice cushy courtyard and throwing thirty women at me wasn’t exactly subtle. It was a bid for me to stay and father children that might contain the Yunpi bloodline.

“Sounds in line with what they want. They’ve given me thirty women and a large courtyard. They don’t want me to leave, not even for missions.” I muttered, not being able to help the bit of bitterness at being cooped up.

“Is that so bad?”

“Probably not. There are plenty of people that would love the opportunity, but I can’t help but be restless. I haven’t gotten to where I am by soaking in luxury and resting on my laurels.” I replied.

Lanhua pulled out a large hand-knit blanket from her spatial ring and placed it beside her. Then she gently laid Xiexie off, slowly pulling away and sitting beside me. “I have no doubt that your cultivation is hard earned, maybe even harder earned than so many of those here.” She gestured around at the Yunpi family estate before continuing.

“But does that mean your future has to be any different from theirs? At what point is it enough?”

Her words struck something a little too close to the heart of the problem for me. Cultivation was an ever-growing practice. There was, in theory, no end to cultivation, but I’d never heard of someone past the seventh rank. But Mei’s bloodline grew a new tail with each rank and was supposedly the nine-tailed fox. I’d always assumed there was more.

I wondered what rank Xiaobai had reached? Or even Old Jin?

Both of them were impossibly strong to the point that Xiaobai didn’t fear the entire Feng Family. But I wasn’t sure at what point it would be enough for me.

“I don’t know Lanhua. What I know is that there is a threat against my family, and I’m not currently strong enough to take it out.” Gazing into her eyes, I sighed. “I want to pick a fight with the Leon family.”

She curled her brow, and a smile rose on her lips. “I said I’d give up that revenge.”

“How about you pick it back up for me? Help me strike at the heart of the Leon family. You must have information that would be helpful.”

Lanhua pursed her lips. “I do. I’ve been watching them for a long time. For you, I’ll help.”

I leaned forward, brushing my lips against her cheek, feeling the same familiar sense of pleasure rush through me as when she touched me. “Thank you.”

“Does it bother you?” She squinted at me, watching for my reaction more so than my answer.

“We practice dual cultivation techniques in my harem. I’ve felt pleasure greater than I thought possible. Your cultivation intrigues me, but I don’t hold it against you.” I pulled her hand out of her lap and held it, feeling the same sensation. It was like little bubbles of pleasure were popping against my skin.

Lanhua’s hand snaked inside my robes, her fingers grazing my chest and making pleasure swell up inside of me. “We need to be careful. I’ll let you build up a little resistance. This is a consequence of my technique and bloodline. If I go too far, I fear I’d turn you into a panting lap dog and that’s the last thing I want. It has been a long time since I met a man who could control himself when I touched him.”

She leaned forward further and planted a soft delicate kiss on my lips, making pleasure tingle along them.

Grunting and at a loss for words, I pushed all the pleasure through my shared soul space, using the technique that Kat had made for us all.

Several excited gasps came from inside the communal building.

Lanhua stopped teasing me and looked towards the noise. “What was that?”

“I share the cultivation and pleasure with my women. It’s a technique that Kat made. If you were to join us, she’d share it with you.”

Lanhua leaned in again, running her hands along my chest and kissing me more deeply.

There was a chorus of sounds from the wives inside as she did it. She pulled away with victory on her lips. “That will be more fun than I thought.”

“You should have seen it when all of us were in the same bed.” I laughed, recovering quickly from her technique. “I’m pretty sure we can crank it up far past that.”

“Let’s leave it there for now.” Lanhua patted my robe. “I’ll take this little one to one of the houses to sleep, and then go to sleep myself. We can talk later about your plan for revenge.”

Grunting, I had to agree with her. After our kiss, talking about revenge seemed overly sour.

As Lanhua left, I turned to the longhouse knowing that I needed to dive back into the mess.

I stood up, dusting off my robe and straightening it from where Lanhua had played with my chest.

As I stepped through the entrance, dozens of heads turned my direction. I kept my spine straight as I pushed through and found Michelle, giving her a kiss as an introduction.

“Lanhua was something else.” She whispered, clearly having pieced together what had happened.

“She is. But more than the kiss, I’m agreeing to strike at the Leon family with her. We’ll discuss more in the morning, but we also need to consider how our family is going to handle the transition.” I spoke softly in the room, knowing that the women would be loyal to their elders and report back what they heard.

Michelle patted my chest. “Go mingle. Otherwise, these girls might just tear my throat out for hogging you all night.”

***

I woke up the next morning tangled in limbs. My wives had kept me plenty busy throughout the night after the party, almost like they were trying to wear me out.

I peeked, making sure nobody else had snuck in and smiling when I saw only my beauties around me. I extricated myself from the mess. My mana beasts had already disappeared, making it much easier to escape. Mei always upped the challenge, smothering me to her chest in my sleep.

Slipping my robes on, I ducked out of the home we had chosen to use. The courtyard was quiet, the sun just starting to spread its orange glow over the top of the wall.

The home that we all slept in did not have a kitchen. Instead, it was in the communal building that I needed a better name for. The long white building looked similar to the others of the Yunpi estate.

I was tempted to call it Cloud something, but that just seemed confusing.

“Morning, Isaac.” Ai called, already starting to cook while Lanhua amused Xiexie.

“Big brother!” Xiexie tried to rush over to me, but Ai snagged her while managing to keep the pan on the stove. Xiexie frowned, her limbs swinging in the air as she flailed. “Big brother, they said that I couldn’t sleep with you.”

“They are correct. You cannot sleep with big brother.” I told her. She was doing a great job of blocking the Yunpi ladies, but the last thing I wanted was for her to block my wives.

“I told you.” Ai shook a spoon at Xiexie. “Now sit on the counter and watch me cook. This is how big brother likes his food.”

Xiexie squinted in suspicion. “But you just met big brother.”

“So did you. Do you think you know more?” Ai questioned her.

Xiexie nodded like that made perfect sense.

“Sleep well?” Ai raised her head, ignoring Xiexie, who looked like she might sit still for the moment.

“Well enough. What about you and everybody else?” I looked around, not seeing any of them lingering.

Lanhua snorted. “They came back into the house drunk as skunks and passed out all over it.”

I raised a brow at Ai in question. “Did we drink that much last night?”

“Many of them were nervous and drank too much.” She averted her eyes in embarrassment.

“Not your issue. You are awake. And I could use the breather. My wives will get up here shortly.” At the mention of them, my rings started to pulse. I released my mana beasts.

Mei grabbed my cheeks and gave me a big kiss before bolting over to Xiexie and sweeping the girl off her feet. “Hi! I’m Mei.”

Xiexie was held aloft with her mouth agape as her head spun back and forth between the mana beasts. Then she focused in on Mei, extending her head to the side to take in Mei’s back. “Wow. You have tails.”

“They are fluffy too.” Mei put Xiexie down and swirled her six tails around.

Aurora, Quinn and Lumi got down on Xiexie’s level and introduced themselves.

Ai watched them curiously. “They all have sixth rank cultivations.”

“They are my mana beasts, and they live here.” I pulled my robe aside to show off my rings.

“Who’s in this one?” She pointed at the blank one; the rest were stylized for each of my mana beasts.

“It is empty. I don’t know who will fill that one.” I went ahead and answered the question I knew would come after.

She nodded. “Do you need help to fill it? How do you fill it?”

“I need a powerful mana beast core.” I explained; Lanhua was leaning on the counter now, listening in.

“Any core?” Lanhua asked, her interest peaked.

I thought about it for a moment. So far, I had varied the elements that I put into each ring. It had served me well so far. “Something of the earth or water elements, preferably.”

Lanhua pushed a piece of food around the counter for a moment before looking up at me. “The Leon family’s prized possession is a beast core of a guardian lion. They believe it helps their kids develop the bloodline.”

I felt a smile bloom on my lips at the thought of it. “It isn’t quite so simple to fill my rings. I have to either suppress or come to an agreement with the soul of the beast within the core.” I gestured to my mana beasts.

“Master is the best!” Aurora piped up on cue.

‘Master?’ Ai mouthed.

“Don’t mind them. They are goofs most of the time.” I didn’t need that nickname to catch on among the Yunpi women.

Mei bounded over to me, her tails flailing and nearly knocking Ai’s meal over. “But you are my Master.”

“Master?” Xiexie said. “Why do they call you, Master? Are they your servants?”

Aurora bobbed her head rapidly. “Yes, we serve Master in a very specific way.”

Xiexie’s mouth made a big ‘O’. I was thankful that she didn’t truly understand.

Ai jumped in. “Oh look, breakfast is ready. Come on Xiexie, sit down.” Lumi shooed Xiexie over to the table where Ai was laying down huge dishes of food. It was more than enough to feed my very large family.

“Aurora, can you go wake everyone? It would be terrible for them to let this food go cold.”

“Yes, Master.” She pointedly said the last part as her wings flapped, and she soared through the doorway.

Ai sat down across from me while Lumi put Xiexie next to me. She was refusing to sit anywhere else. “They all seem lovely.” Ai commented.

“And fluffy!” Xiexie said excitedly, trying to reach a bowl before Lumi lifted it for her and scooped out a portion of fried rice with egg and peas mixed in. “I want mana beast friends like you. How do I cultivate them?”

I paused halfway to filling my own plate. I wasn’t sure if she could learn the cultivation technique of the mortal world, but I couldn’t think of a reason she couldn’t.

But my thoughts were interrupted as my wives filed in.

“This looks lovely.” Thea gave Lanhua and Ai a big smile, unsure which of them made it.

“It’s all her.” Lanhua pointed to the side.

Several more mana beasts joined the table as they left my wives’ rings, and the table quickly filled up as they started chatting and passing large bowls of food around the table.

Michelle was the one to cut through the chatter with a question. “So, Husband. How are we going to attack the Leon family?”

I glanced over at Lanhua. What she’d said had certainly given me an idea. Taking the core would be a wonderful measure at not only hurting them short term, but possibly long term if it did somehow help them invoke bloodlines.

“Lanhua, go ahead and tell them about the beast core.”

Everyone’s attention shifted, and Lanhua was surprised at the reception. But she recovered quickly, launching into more detail about where it was located and when it was brought out for use.

“You went through this ceremony?” Kat asked.

Lanhua nodded slowly. “But since I do not have their bloodline, I was removed from the Leon family.”

“Idiots.” Celina snorted. “But they are too proud to accept that another bloodline would be similarly helpful. So, how do you want to go about this? Smash and grab or stealth mission?” Celina turned her question to me.

“I’m not sure yet. Seventh rank cultivators are no joke, and a family their size has several. I think whatever we do will have to wait until I’ve solidified my position here in the Yunpi family. Xiexie, when can we see your father?”

“In two days, he’ll come out for a breath of fresh air.” She said without looking up from her food. “You aren’t going to make me leave, are you?”

“Nope.” I thought she made a great barrier for the Yunpi ladies, and I was already growing attached to having her around. Her innocence was refreshing. “You can stay here as long as you’d like.”

She looked up at me with a big grin on her face before going back to eating.

“I see she’s wormed her way into the family. Just wait until Ember gets here.” Kat chuckled.

That was a recipe for disaster, but it was one that I’d deal with later. “So, we need to talk about all of these missions we were offered. Which one makes sense for me to take?”

Ai cleared her throat. “I don’t think you’ll be able to take any missions, Isaac.”

I frowned. “Did your elder tell you that?”

“They suggested that you would be remaining here for a while.” She looked ashamed even as she said it.

“I don’t blame you. I don’t really even blame the elders. But regardless, I will be leaving at some point soon.”

“We’ll look through the missions and divvy them up.” Michelle nodded, taking the task. “But if you are going to stay here, you might as well work on your sword work.”

I glanced over at Phoebe, who gave me a single nod, confirming she’d help.

“Great. Let’s finish breakfast and get to work.”