Mana 6 Chapter 31 (Patreon)

“You need to stay outside.” Bai stood before me, holding her young one while also blocking me from going inside the room.

“Bai, she’s having quadruplets.”

Mei screamed out from inside again, and my body raged, wanting to be there with her. I put a hand on Bai and tried to gently move her. She was holding our child, so I limited any force. She didn’t budge at all.

Bai had been back for several weeks, and we’d been getting to spend more time together as I got to know our child. Bai had made it clear that she could only stay if she didn’t use her influence on the world, and that was fine by me.

But it seemed that she didn’t have any issue using her influence to keep me out of the room where Mei was giving birth.

“It’s quadruplets—I should be in there to help.”

“You won’t do any good. Besides, she asked for you not to be there for the birth. She has Aurora right beside her should she need any healing.”

I paced outside the room as Mei screamed again. I considered using our soul space to pop up right next to Aurora, but I knew I’d only be there a moment before I’d be shooed back out. And I didn’t want to distract anybody from helping Mei.

Kat poked her head out the door to see me squirming. “That’s two of the four. Things are going well.”

“Thank you, Kat. You should ask Bai here if she’ll move aside,” I tried.

“Absolutely not. Mei said she didn’t want to ruin sex with you by having you see it,” Kat scowled at me.

“I’ve seen over a dozen children born; it did absolutely nothing.”

Kat shrugged. “She’s the one giving birth, so she’s in charge.”

Bai continued to cradle little Sai in her arms and leaned against the door. “Relax.”

Mei continued to scream, and I had to sit down. Not being next to her while she was in pain was killing me.

I knew that what Kat said was right. While I had seen a number of births, I wasn’t quite sure where I could be helpful with the people Mei had by her side. But I wanted to comfort her and help her. She was having my children, damn it.

Turning to pace, I saw Jonny heading my way with Tabitha on his arm.

I hadn’t seen Jonny in a bit; he’d moved out of my courtyard and in with Tabitha. They seemed to be doing well, and I was happy for my friend.

“Which one is giving birth?” Jonny asked.

“Mei. The quadruplets have come.”

Jonny hissed. “Yeah, that’ll do it. Good thing me and Tabby are never having kids.”

The glare Tabitha gave in response made me think that that hadn’t been fully decided yet.

“Good thing,” I chuckled. “After this, it’s going to be a nonstop flood of children for the next few months.”

All of my mana beasts and Yunpi women were pregnant. Mei and Aurora were in the lead, with Ai, Rue, and Tia not far behind.

“Yeah… that sounds like a blast.” Jonny didn’t sound convinced.

“Children are wonderful,” Tabitha coached, clearly trying to work on Jonny and get him to come around; I looked forward to watching him soften.

Someone knocked on the door behind Bai, and she stopped leaning on it.

Kat poked her head out. “We are done, and Mei is dressed. You can come in now.”

Bai stepped to the side as I blurred past her and ducked under Kat’s arm. I was instantly by Mei’s side.

Mei had a sheen of sweat on her face and looked a little pale, but otherwise, she seemed to have come out okay. And now she had four little bundles piled up in her arms.

Each one was precious. They mostly looked like human babies, but each of them had little fox ears sticking up from their heads rather than human ears on their side. I wondered if they had any little fox tails hidden in the bundles.

“They are so beautiful.” Mei looked between them, seeming to try to make a decision. “Here, this is Meimei.” She handed me one of the little girls.

“You can’t call her Meimei. That’s going to be so confusing.”

She glared daggers at me, managing it quite well given her currently woozy state. I decided to save that battle for later.

And I was stopped short anyway by a splash on the floor behind me. I turned to see Aurora holding her large belly, and the floor wet beneath her.

“Aurora?”

“Shit. I think we need another bed,” she groaned.

“Yay! Our kids will be twins,” Mei said excitedly.

I opened my mouth to tell Mei that wasn’t how it worked before snapping it shut. It wasn’t the time to push Mei.

Pulling out a bed from my spatial ring, I threw it down next to Mei. “Let’s get you in bed. Kat, can you help me prop up all of these pillows?”

I helped Aurora get situated in the bed; her large stomach made it harder for her to move around. Happy to finally be semi useful, I doubled down on making sure that she was relaxed in the bed.

“Master, I’ll be fine.” Aurora stroked the side of my face.

***

“One day, they’ll realize that, if they all rush me, there’s nothing I can do.” I watched the group of children from the side of the area. Foo was actively trying to herd them around and keep them from doing anything too stupid.

I now had over fifty children ranging from newborn to Bai’s first, who was just reaching three years old. They were still too young to display their bloodlines, but the Yunpi family was more than hopeful.

I wasn’t sure how I was still alive. I was fairly certain I should have dried up by that point. When I had imagined a harem, I hadn’t imagine the army of children it would produce.

“They aren’t going to rush you,” Aurora said, holding her youngest. “They love you.”

“Until I deny them candy once.”

Most of the Yunpi ladies were helping Foo herd the group.

I had handled a few kids before, but this… this was too many. We were outnumbered.

Luckily, Foo managed to corral all of them into the longhouse, and our servants came out of the woodwork to help get each of the kids in appropriate chairs while their mothers doted on them and got them ready.

This time, the servants weren’t meant to tempt me. They were simply around to help with the number of kids that I was producing. I was already making what felt like the whole next generation of Yunpi.

“Grandma!” First one, then a whole lot of them, cried out as my mother entered and proceeded to spoil them rotten.

“Don’t pout. It doesn’t look good on you, Master.” Aurora came to my side after getting her little angel seated.

Isabel was a cute little girl, among the oldest. She had her mother’s green and gold wings that made her easy to pick out of any crowd. Aurora had surprised me. After her first, she hadn’t been too keen on making more.

“I’m not pouting. My mother needs to stop giving them so much damn candy.”

Which, of course, meant that that was the moment my father decided to come in holding an entire bag of homemade candies. I knew it brought my mother no end of amusement to play with them and give out candy as bribes, but really, did they need a whole bag?

Isabel turned around in her seat and looked up at us. “Can I go say hi to grandma?”

“Of course you can.” Aurora bent down with a smile.

Isabel fluttered her wings to get out of the seat quicker and ran across the longhouse to latch onto my mother’s dress and start chattering.

She wasn’t alone. My mother was swarmed by my children. I almost felt sorry for her.

Aurora drifted off to watch over Isabel, and I snagged Phoebe.

“How are things going for you, Phoebe?” Her oldest had raced over to my mother, but Phoebe’s youngest was still held in her arms. He was only a few weeks old.

“Great.” She bumped my hip. “How are you? Too many yet?”

“Definitely too many. We are immortal; why rush this?” I shook my head, hoping that they would slow down after this. “But I want to hear more about you. Have you found a place in the world that you want?”

Phoebe gave me a smile that warmed my heart. “I think I’ve found a lovely place to call home. Plus, I wouldn’t have had a second child if I had any concerns. You don’t need to check up on me like this.”

“I do. All the kids, all the wives, I have to work to make each of you get what you need from me.”

Phoebe pecked me on the cheek. “Thank you. You are wonderful to all of us.”

***

“Grandpa!” Little eight-year-old fox quadruplets charged my father, Isabel trailing behind them. “We want sword practice.”

My father grunted and waved them forward. The five of them all had their wooden swords as they trailed after him.

“When did he usurp me as the favorite grandparent?” my mother pouted, her bag of candies left untouched in favor of activities.

My courtyard was like a storm. Kids ran every which way, either chasing someone or something.

“They want to play, not sit in your lap and eat candies.”

Lilly puffed out her cheeks and stood up, rolling her sleeves. “Then I’ll go teach them to cultivate.”

I watched her march after a group of kids while I stayed sitting on the porch of the longhouse. They were all growing up so fast.

Bai reappeared next to me.

“I thought you were going to be gone for a month?” It had only been a few days since she’d left.

“It was shorter than my grandfather had expected.” She plopped down next to me.

“Can I ask if things there are going well?” I was always curious about what was happening in the higher realms of the universe.

Bai frowned. “Sort of, things move incredibly slow. You don’t exactly build up a universe in the matter of days.”

I raised an eyebrow, wondering if she’d say more.

But she waved it off. “Don’t ask—I can’t say anything about it. My grandfather says it is better off if the worlds don’t know.”

I shrugged, going back to watching the chaos around me.

I had gotten used to the mystery that came with Bai and the work her family apparently did to keep the worlds in harmony. I certainly didn’t want to deal with whatever mundane balances they had to continually keep. I was content to stay with my family.

I’d had a hell of a journey so far, but as I sat watching my women, children, mana beasts, and parents play, I couldn’t imagine running off again at that moment.

I was connected into a community that brought me joy every day, even if the children did sometimes wear me down. And my cultivation plus that of my wives, paired with our ability to move through each other's soul spaces, made us nearly untouchable for the moment.

For now, I was going to sit still and enjoy. I had no doubt that one day my children would grow up and go on their own adventures. And when they needed me, I’d be there, ready to help them.

“Brother.” Breeze slid in beside me like a ghost.

He was often running around with Steve now-a-days. The two of them remaining free of the entanglement of women. Well, if you didn’t count Steve’s mana beasts.

Speak of the devil, Steve appeared on my other side. “I see you are unoccupied for once.”

“Forty-two wives and…” I struggled to count how many children I had, waving it off. “Dozens and dozens of children will do that to you. How are you two managing?”

“The dojo is the same old, same old.” Breeze shrugged. “Despite Lanhua’s best efforts, I haven’t been able to find the lady that makes my sword sing.” He sighed wistfully.

Lanhua had done her best to play matchmaker, but ultimately had come up short for Breeze. He’d traveled the major cities looking at all the sword dancers that Lanhua could find for him. He eventually came back here and started his dojo, training people who were more interested in the sword than cultivation.

“That’s a shame, but who knows, maybe one day soon, she’ll walk in your door for training,” I encouraged Breeze before turning to Steve. “How goes the preserve?”

“Wonderful. The Yunpi are excited about the work, and recently, we had a forest dragon give birth,” Steve spoke up and went on about the beasts of the preserve with more excitement than he applied to most things.

I had had the idea based on what I’d seen of the forest that the Feng family kept near Blueheavens. We then had found a nice, secluded spot and started to bring some beasts into the area, hoping to raise some sixth rank beasts. These would be needed since I had successfully taught Xiexie to cultivate rings for her own mana beasts, and many of my children would join her.

Breeze tapped Steve and nodded at the approaching Lanhua. “Seems we are out of time.”

“Come back for dinner, both of you,” I shouted before they scurried off. “You’d think they were allergic to women,” I grumbled.

“No, they just understand that your time is in high demand.” Lanhua sat down next to me, her hair pinned up above her head. She had long ago stopped dying it black, and her silver hair caught the sun brilliantly.

“I hope our second has your silver hair,” I commented as she sat down, her belly just starting to show with our second child.

Lanhua smiled. “I’m so happy as it is. Since realizing that the cultivation technique given to me made me a cultivation cauldron, I had never pictured having kids.” She rubbed her stomach with a distant smile filled with joy.

“Of course, and we burned all records we could find of it in the Leon family. Hopefully, no one will have to endure that again.”

She leaned against my shoulder, resting her head on me.

I held her by the waist. For the last one, she had been so tired for most of her pregnancy. Cultivation could only help a woman so far to deal with all the changes occurring in their body.

“It’s fine. Similar techniques exist. I’m just happy that Thea has joined me in finding other young girls and saving them off the street. My anger has been quenched by now. We uprooted the Leon family and all of my past tormentors. It’s time to let that all rest,” she murmured, her eyes still closed as she lay on my shoulder.

I paused, waiting a moment before a soft snore came from her. She must have been that exhausted from playing with the kids while pregnant again.

Good thing I wasn’t going anywhere. Now I could be a shoulder for her or any of the others when they needed it.