Mana 6 Chapter 9 (Patreon)

Stepping out of the longhouse, I cracked my back as Phoebe walked with me.

There was an empty space away from any of the buildings, and we headed that way, preparing to train.

“Are the girls going to be alright on their own?” Phoebe asked.

“They’ll be fine. None of them are made of glass; most of them are actually quite terrifying.” I couldn’t wait for Phoebe to see them in action.

Getting ready for sword practice, I did a few toes touches and jumped a few times to get my blood pumping out of practice. It was what I’d done years ago when I was a mortal and training under my father.

“Is that necessary?” Phoebe watched me curiously.

“Probably not anymore. I started this before I began cultivating, and it helps mentally.” I answered honestly before finishing the light warm up. I almost pulled out my bonesword, but thought better of it and pulled out a plain sword from my spatial ring.

Phoebe nodded as I took my first stance. “Let me see your form.”

Drawing the sword up level with my eyes, I burst into action, blurring forward as my blade sang through the air. Passing blades of grass caught on the wind became my enemies. I cut them in two with flashes from my blade.

I parried the wind as I spun from move to move in my practiced forms. Once this had been my father’s technique, but I had made it my own after years of battle.

Several minutes later, I came to a stop, my sword hovering just a hair's width above the grass.

“Passable.” Phoebe said.

I nearly fell over. “That’s it?”

“You know the sword. That is clear.” Phoebe continued. “But you are just using the weapon. Your intent doesn’t extend beyond the blade itself. That is what we need to work on.”

I tossed her the sword. “Show me.”

Phoebe grinned, holding the sword still before beams of her sword intent shot out as if she’d just performed a dozen slashes. I watched as bits of grass exploded around us, separated instantly from the grass below.

As it swirled, Phoebe met my eyes, pleasure across her face. “The next thing we need to work on is using your intent of the sword stroke to affect the world. When that happens, you’ll be able to cut without even moving your sword.”

“No domain?” I asked.

“No domain.” She agreed, flipping the sword and handing it back to me.

I shifted my body, once again assuming one of my sword stances. But this time, I didn’t move the sword. Instead, I tried to visualize the sword stroke, moving through it in my mind even while my body remained still.

Nothing happened.

Taking a deep breath, I tried again. I felt a little silly standing there mentally picturing my moves, but I trusted Phoebe.

Like trying to push a rock that didn’t exist, I went absolutely nowhere.

Grumbling, I shifted my stance to one that was more aggressive. My body was tense as a board as I stood there, willing my sword to cut without moving.

After another minute of nothing, I grew frustrated and stepped forward, performing the slash on my own.

“Maybe we should try something else.” Phoebe replied dryly, and I realized she was now sitting cross-legged with a small domain around her as she floated in the air. “Let’s get you a target and set it up. You aren’t allowed to strike it. Your attack must fall short, but let’s see if you can’t manage to extend your intent when you’re able to move.”

Taking a rolled up reed mat from my spatial ring, I used a stick to stand it up straight.

I made slow, careful strokes with my blade, making sure they fell just a little short each time. And with each hit, I pushed myself, willing the intent of my sword stroke to go beyond my sword and finish the attack.

I continued through my motions; the movements becoming mindless. At one point, I pulled off my robe, leaving my chest bare while I worked up a sweat. Using my cultivation would only slow my focus on the sword.

My father had always said that practicing without your cultivation built up reflexes better, and I wasn’t about to change that now.

I continued through the motions, trusting in the process. While I’d hoped it would happen instantly, I’d had enough training to know the first is often the hardest.

Murmurs sounded around me, and I realized a group of the Yunpi women had come out and were watching me. They were chattering amongst themselves as I continued to stop each of my sword strokes inches from the reed mat.

Phoebe stopped floating next to me and wrapped herself behind me, using her hands to guide my own. “Now close your eyes.”

I did so and felt her soft hands guide my sword.

“That’s it. We are going to cut it this time. Can’t you feel your blade against the reed mat? Now we are going to push right on through.”

Feeling the resistance, I continued on through the stroke. There was a satisfaction in finally cutting the mat even if I was cheating.

“Now carefully, open your eyes.” Phoebe whispered.

I cracked them open, and extending about a foot out of my blade was a ghostly white aura. It was that aura that cut the reed mat, not my blade.

“You just needed a little push and to stop relying so strongly on what you saw. You need to feel the intent.” She kissed my cheek as she stepped back.

Seeing and feeling the sword intent, I drew it back into my weapon and then pushed it back out.

A foot was about the limit of my sword intent’s reach at the moment, but it was progress. And now that I knew what it felt like, I already had at least a little control over it.

Retracting it, I spun the sword back to a neutral stance and relaxed.

My body complained as I released all the tension, but I ignored it, channeling life mana through myself and restoring my muscles. “So, what’s the next step?”

“Now you need to use it more. Practice and practical experience is what is needed to keep it growing.” Phoebe leaned back over me now that I was at rest. “Well done.” She pecked my cheek once more.

We still had observers, so I grabbed Phoebe’s arm and pulled her along with me. “Phoebe, what is it you want out of all of this?”

“All of what?” She smiled innocently.

I rolled my eyes at her games. “I bound you, but you must want something out of it. Some sort of goals of your own?”

Phoebe pushed a few loose strands of hair back over her ear. “I want to know what happened to my world, those I knew back then.”

“We can try to find Xiaobai again.” I offered, but she shook her head.

“I’d rather not seek her help. It was kind of her to send you my way to help me, but we were never friends. Honestly, enemies is closer to the truth. Our parents held neighboring territories.”

Realizing if she was resistant to the easy answer to what happened, knowing wasn’t what she really wanted. “Ah, so what is it you want?”

Phoebe glanced at me, her gaze sad. “I don’t know… Everyone I ever knew is gone. The world I knew has been shattered and drifts out in the void.” The proud phoenix woman I knew disappeared. Her shoulders slumped, and she leaned against me. “At the end of the day, I’m lonely. I need to find my new place in the world.”

As much as her touch invited a certain passion in me, I knew that wasn’t the cure for her current situation.

Instead, I just held her. It would take time for her to figure out where she fit into the world, and she wouldn’t be able to do that inside of me. I’d need to try to bring her out of her ring to experience this new world and make sure she doesn’t get too lonely.

I rubbed her back, and she leaned into me harder, snuggling into my shoulder. I smiled; it was the most emotionally intimate moment we’d had since I’d brought her into my ring.

“You know the climb never stops?” Phoebe murmured into my shoulder. “People will continue to stretch themselves, risk their lives for more. But at what point is it enough? You are already in the top percentage of the world.”

I frowned, looking down at her. “But there are people stronger than me that want to harm me and my family. I can’t let that go.”

“There’s always someone stronger.” Phoebe reminded me. “So, when does this all end?”

“Maybe one day? I hope that one day I’ll be content with my strength. But that day hasn’t come yet.”

“That would be nice.” Phoebe sighed. “But I have yet to see a cultivator strong enough to do that.”

My mind couldn’t help but think about Terrance. He had held himself from going into the void to seek the 7th rank and instead reached the pinnacle of the 6th rank, remaining to protect his family.

“Oh good, I found you.” Breeze panted, leaning on his knees. “This place is so big.”

Phoebe pulled herself off of me and gave me a small smile, her eyes softer than before as she turned into a beam and disappeared inside of her ring.

I kissed my palm and pressed it to her ring, feeling a small pulse from it in response. “What do you need, Breeze?”

“Mom and dad wanted to have you over to the branch family for dinner today.” He said quickly.

I nodded slowly. “We can do that. I assume all my wives are invited?”

“Eh.” Breeze hesitated. “Sure.”

I took that as unknown, but I wasn’t going to go without my wives. They’d helped me through so much already; I could use their advice and buffering again.

***

“It’s so pretty.” Mei jumped ahead of the group to an extensive flower garden and sniffed a particularly large orchid. I’d decided to bring my mana beasts as well. They deserved more time outside of my rings and it was perfectly safe inside the Yunpi estate.

“Come on, there will be more things inside.” I offered my arm to Mei, and she happily took it, bouncing at my side.

All of my mana beasts were ecstatic to be part of this. It made me realize I hadn’t been particularly fair to them, keeping them in their rings so often.

“Welcome.” My mother was waiting for me at the base of the hill. A winding path led up to a colossal cloud-shaped building, complete with a view inside of a warm fire-lit gathering.

Hundreds of cultivators gathered inside.

“Mother.” I bowed like a filial child. “Glad to see you, too.”

Her eyes raked over my wives and mana beasts before she shook her head. “I can’t help but worry at times that my leaving is the cause for you splitting your love so thin.”

“It hasn’t been split thin, mother.” Aurora got between me and my mother. “It is so bountiful that it could fill the sky.” She waved her hands high above her.

I glanced back at all the women following me; they nodded along with Aurora’s assessment. I felt a weight lifted, knowing they all agreed. Even if at times I felt like I wasn’t giving each of them enough individual attention, they were content.

“I’m glad to hear that. Maybe one day I’ll add a few men to my marriage, but for now, your father is certainly enough.” She glanced through the group behind us. “You didn’t take up any of the other branches’ offers?”

Shrugging, I started walking, and she turned to walk with me. “It isn’t as if I’m dying for female attention. One has stood out, but the rest just feel like a flock of geese.”

“Who’s the lucky one?”

“Ai.” I said quickly. “Her and a little girl, Xiexie, have been the only two of the Yunpi that I’ve gotten to know.”

My mother put an arm around my shoulder. “We’ll fix that. Ai is from the South branch. Xiexie is from the east, and you’d probably get along with her father, who just has orgies in his cave for months on end.”

I couldn’t help but laugh, imagining Xiexie telling me once again how her father closed himself up in boring cultivation day after day.

She was right. I’d get along with her father; he might even have some fantastic dual cultivation techniques up his sleeve.

“But we are from the West branch of the family. Normally, the rules are for marriage to occur such that you don’t marry back into your branch for three generations, but given that your father is from outside the family and you have a strong bloodline, you are fine to pair with any of the girls from the other three branches.” My mother explained. “So, no flirting with the girls of the West.”

I rolled my eyes. “You make it sound like I’m just going to be picking up girls left and right.”

She stared me down for a moment, raising a single eyebrow in confirmation that she really was thinking that. And the trail of women behind me made it hard to refute it.

But each and every one of them was special. “So, how many of the other branches do I have to choose?”

My mother smiled. “My elder told me they are hoping you take them all.”

I nearly spit out blood. “No. I won’t be taking them all.”

She would have responded, but we’d reached the end of the winding stairs. People from the party were starting to turn and watch the two of us as we approached. “Be on your best behavior.”

Somehow, my mother always managed to make me feel like a child.

“Welcome.” A motherly voice spoke, and a woman that didn’t look more than five years older than my mother with just a few graying strands of hair broke away from a group that was talking to her.

I recognized the voice immediately. “Elder.” I bowed.

“See, you respect your elders.” She said, as if dismissing a rumor. “Come, I want to meet you and all of your lovely wives.”

The elder grabbed my forearm, and it was like being in the jaws of a beast as she pulled me forward into a group. “Everyone, this is Isaac, Lilly’s son.”

My wives mingled among the group.

“Oh, there are a lot of rumors going about. I’m glad to meet the man himself.” Another man stepped forward, shaking my hand in greeting. “I assume most of it is swill spilled by Guli.”

I raised a brow and turned to the elder. “Is Guli the grumpy elder from the meeting?” It sort of defeated the purpose of the curtain, but it wasn’t like I wouldn’t piece it together.

“Yes, he’s from the South. You know about the branches?”

“My mother has explained them.” I said quickly.

She nodded.

But before she could continue, Mei introduced herself, invading the elder’s personal space. “Hi, I’m Mei.” She held out her hand.

“Hello, pleasure to meet you.” The elder took Mei’s interruption smoothly. “May I ask what exactly you are?”

“I’m Master’s ser—”

Putting a hand over Mei’s mouth, I stopped her from embarrassing me. “She and the others are souls of mana beasts that I bound to my body as part of my cultivation.”

Mei bobbed her head, making her cute ears flop back and forth on top of her head.

I knew that a few of those around us had likely pieced together what Mei had been saying, and they were now looking at me like I was some sort of sexual deviant. But I wasn’t about to apologize for our relationship.

“Mei here was my third mana beast and is bound in this ring.” I pulled my robe aside to show off the six rings on my chest.

“And his best.” She confirmed with a happy nod.

I froze, wondering if my mana beasts were about to have it out right there in front of the elders. But when I turned slightly, I smiled to see Aurora distracted with one of my wives. The last thing I needed was the two of them to start a spat in the middle of the family gathering.

“Well, aren’t you just a darling?” The elder smiled at her before focusing back on me. “They are just soul projections, but you treat them as your wives?”

“Yes, they will be with me the rest of my life and they are all lovely women.”

The elder nodded as if she was correcting her view of them. “A very interesting technique. Their physical manifestation draws mana from those rings, and each of them has their own pool. Really, it is like you are six sixth rank immortals.”

I nodded. “With six times the resources required.”

The others around us murmured at that, clearly realizing the power that provided.

“Your journey in your cultivation must have been an arduous one at that. You aren’t even fifty and at the sixth rank.” The elder pulled me over into another group as I started my story in time with her question.

“Well, in the mortal world, we didn’t even start cultivating until we were eighteen.” There were some appropriate gasps at that.

“So you’ve been cultivating less than thirty years, with a sixfold difficulty, and you still stand before us more accomplished than most of our young geniuses.” She shook her head in disbelief. “I want to hear the rest of your story. It could be vital information for our younger generation to help them accelerate their paths.”

I wasn’t an idiot. She was helping promote me among the group, but I would take the help. This meal was a game of family politics, and I owed it to her to play my part.

So, I took a breath and started into my personal story. I spoke about my early days in cultivation, diving into how I broke my meridians the first time I’d tried to touch my bloodline.

The gasps in the crowd were only overshadowed by the growing number of smiles in those that listened to me. Everybody liked a good underdog story, and I’d had a number of underdog moments throughout my life.

I’d climbed and trained my way through the cultivation ranks, joining the Ferrymen and becoming a leading figure in the war against the Sun and Moon hall. This was far more excitement than most of them had experience on their cultivation journey.

Mei joined in on the story, pointing to herself as I described one of my lower points, where I’d rested my broken body in the cave where I’d found her in her fox form. She then pointed out my various mana beasts and wives as they came up in the story.

Before long, it felt like I had the entire branch family floating nearby, listening to my story as I overcame trial after tribulation.

More than a few times, my glass magically refilled itself as I continued.

When it came to my final ascension to the immortal world, many leaned in even closer. I enjoyed their complete outrage as I described the heavy chains clamped onto me when I’d entered the world and being put up for auction. I could see the shock that any of our bloodline would be treated that way, and I felt some community to them for the first time.

I painted Lanhua not as someone who bought me, but someone who saved me from less reputable hands. She protected me under the guise of owning me as a servant.

My telling of that part earned me a bright smile from her, and I noticed that her eyes were a bit more reflective than usual. Tears lingering in them.

Having their full attention, I moved on, describing my time in Blueheavens and the paths that I crossed. They seemed even more interested as family names were mentioned that they recognized. My triumphs there were met with loud applause, especially when I described how I’d thrashed the young geniuses of other known families.

But none of the cheers were as loud as when I described my battle with Leo. They were eating up every word, calling out for more and more details to be added as they cheered and a few acted out my words in gestures.

Smiling, I shifted the story, describing when I’d claimed Phoebe’s core as the prize of one of my latest adventures. My cultivation technique drew a lot of interest, and more questions arose of how it worked and how I had taken her core within my body.

Starting to grow tired, I moved quickly into coming to the Yunpi family, ending my story.

By the end, the elder was grinning ear to ear as people pulled me away to talk and discuss family matters.

And my wives started their own work. The Hua sisters quickly moved around, talking merchant deals and ways to begin to open up trade with the Yunpi family. And some of my other wives were entertaining those waiting to talk to me. They all had my back, using their skills and charm to help position me as strongly as they could with my family, and I loved them all the more for their help.

I’d been nervous about meeting my family, but I felt like the night had gone well. They were helping me feel like I belonged, and I was thankful. I took a moment to look around the group, at where we’d come, smiling as I watched Mei bouncing around and hugging just about every family member in sight.