Mana 6 Chapter 16 (Patreon)

Jonny and Steve were voracious.

Not only had they consumed all the mana crystals they had, but then Steve started to mix the herbs into pills.

I had never studied alchemy in detail, but it was a powerful tool for many cultivators on their path to the top.

Here, with unlimited herbs, Steve was going to be a valuable asset.

“So, I was thinking we work our way through. We keep somewhat to the sides but wide around as we go. That way, we’ll get a solid amount of herbs while continuing towards our goal.” Jonny laid out his ‘grand plan’.

“What about those other weed pickers that will come behind us? Won’t they see that the fields are empty and report it?” I figured we still had a few days before the Bishou realized their assassins had failed.

Jonny paused for a moment before coming up with another idea. “We can try to recruit them on this mission. We can see how many we can gather and try to push forward.”

I frowned. Bringing more cultivators would ruin the chance to sneak past, and it would put ourselves at risk. “No, we should avoid them. But if they see us, we need to protect ourselves and silence them.”

I hoped we didn’t run anyone, especially any of the Leon family, which would raise extra concern or attention. Stealth was our best chance right now.

“Damn.” Jonny hissed. “I see the logic, but that is ice cold.”

Steve’s alchemical cauldron popped, and he rose from his meditative state, lifting the lid and wafting out fragrant medicinal scents. He collected the pills and rose as the cauldron entered his spatial ring.

“Done already?”

He nodded, joining us.

Staying in one place only increased our risk of being caught, so we hurried along the path deeper into the forest. I kept my senses alert for another potential ambush.

It was hard on me keeping myself so alert.

“Hey, can you just take this entire field with your domain?” Jonny asked as we broke off the path to another clearing.

I wasn’t sure. Stretching out with my domain, I managed to capture the area in three chunks. I laughed at the mess of soil and herbs now filling my soul palace.

“Let’s keep going.” I pushed Jonny forward.

If Lanhua was in the back of this greenhouse, I wanted to get to her quickly. And while sneaking out might be safest, I wouldn’t mind taking out a good chunk of the Bishou and leaving the Leon family weaker.

When I took another step, black-robed figures were bursting out of the forest.

My domain snapped into place around them all, my blade flashed through the air, killing them.

“What was that?” Jonny dodged to the side, having anticipated another attack.

I frowned at the group. They were mostly lower-level cultivators, and I couldn’t sense a sixth rank immortal nearby. “I think they were just monitoring the greenhouse. If they were here for us particularly, they wouldn’t have sent such small fries.”

Realizing that there was no reason to keep hiding, I flooded my face with life mana and restored my face. “Ah, much better.” At this point, even if they didn’t recognize me, we were off the path and they would send more to hunt us down.

“I think you looked better the other way.” Jonny said with a straight face.

Wagging my sword at him in a mock threat, I grumbled before picking the spatial rings off the assassins and blasting their bodies to paste.

“You should really let us have some of the fun, too.” Jonny recovered and straightened out his robe.

“As if you saw them coming.” I knew he had reacted several seconds too late.

“I did too!” Jonny laughed while holding his belly.

Steve snorted.

I laughed so hard at Steve’s comment that my eyes started to water. “Fuck Steve. You are too brutal.”

“Maybe we should move on before another group comes along?” Jonny suggested.

Shrugging, we kept on moving past the dead bodies. There was a time it would have affected me more, and I almost missed that part of myself. Death and killing had become such a normal part of my life.

“I’ll keep my eyes peeled. So far, the groups we’ve seen have been fairly weak. After all, they are practicing on fifth rank weed pickers.”

“Still can’t believe they are doing this shit to us. We were their best workers!” Jonny grumbled.

Steve gave Jonny a flat stare.

“Oh, don’t give me that.” Jonny crossed his arms as we kept going before he stopped dead in the middle of the path. A sudden and horrifying realization crossed his face.“I’m going to run out of kebabs!”

“The tragedy.” I said dryly. “I’m sure we can make you something with mana beast meat caught here.”

“It isn’t the same.”

Wanting to divert him away from the topic of his mother’s cooking, I made idle conversation, keeping my senses open as we moved through the forest.

***

I skipped rocks over a pond as I sat on a rock.

“Master. We can keep watch; you should get some rest.” Aurora was perched to my right, kicking her feet off the edge of the rock.

“We’ve been out here three days. I’m wondering if this is really a spatial artifact.” I stared out at what seemed very much like the world itself. The sky above was blue, and there was no sign of the edge of the greenhouse.

“You think so, Master?”

“Yeah. Which means we could get lost.” I grumbled. We’d been walking with the idea that we’d hit an end to the greenhouse. But I was starting to believe there wasn’t one.

Aurora bobbed her head. “That would be a risk. I could always fly up above the forest and scout.”

I shook my head at that idea, glancing back over at Jonny and Steve’s sleeping forms to check to make sure everything was still okay.

“No, we’ve killed several dozen Bishou already. If you take to the air, someone will notice you. They have to be on alert by now.”

“At least you are on the right track if you are still killing them.”

I grunted, agreeing with her assessment. As long as we kept finding assassins hiding among the trees, we were still in their territory.

And even if it was real, that still meant the Leon family had a second way out of this area because the Bishou weren’t using the greenhouse to get here or people would have seen them moving in and out of the Leon territory.

I sent another rock skipping as it bounced over a dozen times and landing on the other side with a sharp crack, hitting one of my previous rocks.

We were stranded, and I hated it. I just wanted to be back with my wives. It would be nice to have Michelle hand me a cup of tea while Kat messaged me. And sit in the kitchen while Thea cooked.

I was actually quite spoiled back home.

Tossing the next rock up in the air, my sword flashed out, cutting it in two with my sword intent.

Phoebe pulsed in her ring, and I released her. “If you have the time, we should practice your sword.” She had pursed lips that told me there was more to it than that.

“Worried about me?”

Phoebe laughed. “Yes. I don’t know what we are getting into, but I have a bad feeling.” She squinted off into the direction we were traveling. “Why here?”

“Hmm?” I didn’t quite understand her question.

“Why have the Leon Family stationed an army of assassins out here in the middle of the jungle? Why aren’t they instead mobilizing all of them to take over cloud city?”

“You think there’s something out here that they are working on? Possibly something worth guarding.” I understood her concern. “Then we better practice.” I swished my sword through the air, feeling a sudden urgency in growing my strength.

Phoebe made her own sword from her mana. “Your sword intent is doing a wonderful job of stretching out from your blade, but the next step is to separate it from your sword.”

She stepped forward with a simple slash, and a second blade made of sword intent shot out from her own. Phoebe whirled and struck again, but this time her sword intent ghosted behind her actual blade like a second rapid strike. “Your father is at this level.”

I remembered when his attack had separated from his sword. “And that was enough for him to fight up a rank.”

“You’ll need more to fight up a rank. The last step is to be able to use sword intent without a sword.” Phoebe chopped out with her bare hand, and sword intent cut a large rock cleanly in two. “But that’s later. Come.”

I darted in at her side and attacked, but her own sword intent blocked mine. I was unable to cut through it.

“Every attack at the seventh rank will have the same overbearing power as sword intent.” Phoebe cautioned me. “You won’t be able to win as easily as you have lately.”

Blocking her counter, I went to sweep her feet before she kicked back, sword intent riding on her leg.

Quickly, I tapped my void mana and shot back, away from her attack.

“See, that is the kind of threat you face fighting a seventh rank immortal. Now keep going. Separating your intent from the sword is the vital next step.”

Phoebe pushed me back. Each of her limbs was imbued with sword intent, and all of them could cleave me in two. Yet I only had my sword to try to stop her.

Now I understood the real threat of the seventh rank cultivator.

Even with my domain extended, she cut right through it, as if her intent overrode my domain.

During one kick, I realized I would not get my sword intent up in time. There was a flicker of my sword intent shot off my blade to block her next move. It was barely there, but it had happened.

I smiled, now understanding how it felt to extend it beyond the blade’s motion. I had wanted my sword there, but was physically unable to at the moment.

“Fantastic.” Phoebe’s eyes shined. “Again!” She changed how she fought, adding in some brutal martial arts. Each and every motion was meant to break my bones or maim me.

It was a sharp contrast to her pretty and delicate features as she gave me a savage grin, nearly catching me at multiple points.

I dodged back as she flipped backwards with a kick, her dress flipping up around her and distracting me for a moment.

She bent awkwardly and swept my feet with one leg, followed by the other. I used my sword intent again, shooting it off towards her, but she broke right through that wisp.

Her shin grazed my own, and I thought for a second that I was about to be a foot shorter.

Luckily, she stopped just in time. “Phew. That was a good sparring session.”

“Has anyone ever told you that your fighting style is terrifying?” I put my sword away and sat back down on the rock, snuggling closer to Aurora, who had been keeping watch while we were distracted.

“It’s an old style. In my time, fighting was extremely common. Not only was there the motivation of striving to grow, but monsters were spilling out of the world itself, trying to extinguish all life.” She sat down next to me.

“That… that sounds awful.” I wondered how much had changed since then. “What happened to the monsters?”

She waved off that question. “It would be a tale of its own, and I don’t quite know how it ended. The event that shattered my world was two unbelievably powerful creatures fighting. Given that this world and so many others have come into the picture, I can only assume who the final winner was.”

Beings with the ability to shatter a world. That was a chilling thought. I wondered what sort of rank they had to be.

“What was your part in the battle?” I asked, curious to learn more about Phoebe’s past.

She blushed, opening her mouth once and not speaking before trying again. “My father was the powerful one. I was sort of a spoiled brat at first. But then, when things went sideways, I matured pretty quickly.”

“Yeah? I can’t imagine you as a spoiled brat.” I leaned back on the rock. It was cool and felt good in the humid jungle.

Phoebe rolled her eyes. “I was the daughter of a very powerful mana beast. He lorded over the region, and I walked around untouchable.”

“Is that where you learned that fighting style?”

“No, it was later when I was sent off to be an emissary to a little island nation that was constantly at war.” She had a nostalgic look on her face. “Good times. But then I was stranded on that shard of the world and spent many days creating that tomb. You have a lot of time to think when you do something like that.”

I couldn’t imagine the pain and thought that would go into making your own tomb. “But now you are here.”

Aurora had been quiet, but she couldn’t keep herself from leaning over me and asking. “Are you happier here than back in that tomb?”

Pausing, I wanted to hear her answer, too.

“Of course.” Phoebe pecked me on the cheek. “In some ways, it feels like a fresh start. If we are able to one day have kids, I think that would make it even better.”

“Kids.” Aurora wrapped her arms around me, leaning her head on my shoulder. “Dozens of little chicks and pups running around you… and… whatever they call baby dragons.”

“Dragonlings.” Phoebe added.

“Dragonlings, a few dozen of those, too.”

I coughed into my hand. “Let’s start with a lower number.”

“Nope. Dozens and dozens, now. You won’t deny me.” Aurora gave me an evil giggle.

My eyes wandered over to Phoebe. “What exactly do we need for that?”

“Your little spark of creation and a very complex enchantment.” Phoebe leaned on my other side. “But we will only get one chance to get this right. The spark of creation will be used to an extent that another try isn’t possible. I know you’ll want to wait until after you fill your sixth ring.”

“I won’t want to leave one of my mana beasts without the opportunity.” I agreed.

“What about your seventh ring? That mana beast wouldn’t be real.” Aurora asked.

“Do I really need more? Rings were originally a way to absorb mana before my body was capable. I’m not sure that I need to push further; I just want to keep all of us safe and keep learning. There’s much about the world I clearly don’t know.” I said, while rubbing Aurora’s back.

“The beasts you have are very capable. Why me?” Phoebe asked, but there was no bite to the question.

I looked over at her. “At the time, because I was told you could help make my mana beasts real. But now you are so much more than that. You’re a teacher, helping me with my sword intent. And I'd like to think my lover and friend.”

She narrowed her eyes playfully at me. “Good answer.”

“I have had a little practice.” I joked. “But enough of that. You think we might have actually teleported here? Wherever this is, instead of being inside a massive spatial artifact?”

Phoebe nodded. “Seems more likely. At this point, this place is too large.”

I nodded, scanning the horizon yet again. There were certainly marvels in the immortal world, but this one was fake.

“Master, I think it’s Jonny’s turn. Can I wake him up?” She batted her eyelashes at me.

“Sure.”

Aurora bounced up from the rock happily, sweeping into the cave.

Jonny came soaring out later. “What the actual fuck?” He shouted, landing on his feet.

“Aurora, what was that?” I pursed my lips to keep from laughing at the look on Jonny’s face.

“He kept looking at my ass earlier. This ass is for Master alone.” She smacked her rear playfully.

Jonny looked at me to put her in line, but I didn’t much care at her retaliating.

“Pretty sure you can manage to not check out her ass, yeah?” I asked, but I had to admit, I’d failed to ignore my mana beast’s assets.

Aurora glared at Jonny, crossing her arms.

“Yeah… I’ll try.” Jonny said sheepishly.

“Anyway, I told Aurora she could wake you up, because it’s your shift.” I caught him up on anything I’d observed.

Jonny gave me a sharp salute. “I got this. Go get your beauty rest.”

Aurora and Phoebe wasted no time. They each grabbed one of my arms, pulling me into the cave.

When I pulled out a bedroll, Phoebe took it from me and laid it out while Aurora fluffed my pillow.

“If I didn’t know better, I’d think you two were excited to get me to sleep.” I laughed.

“Duh. Because that’s when the fun happens.” Aurora rolled her eyes. “Sleep tight, Master.”