With the wind flowing through his long black hair and a content smile adorning his face, Vasari sitting atop Otis created a picturesque scene that even the world's best artist would fail to replicate.
He was on his way home from spending the last few hours with Miss Covington. They did not spend their time solely on smooching and other scandalous activities but also went shopping.
Vasari knew he was a big spender, unable to save and always wanting things, not just for himself, but for those close to him too. It didn't help that he was a father of 8 (9, if you include the horny Pegasus). Being a parent was expensive, and Vasari was finding that out the hard way.
With 2700 Cloud Points, Vasari had a decent chunk of money to spend. The first thing he bought was healing pills, specifically Bone Mending pills. He was surprised to find different variants of the same product; for example, there were Bone Mending pills made using wood energy but also ones that used light energy and water energy, and they had different benefits compared to the other variants. A single low-grade Rank 3 Bone Mending pill cost Vasari 50 Cloud Points.
He bought three Rank3 Bone mending pills, one of each type, and also other products to assist not only his cultivation but his women's too.
Miss Covington told him to get an elixir called 'Mana replenishing Elixer'. The name was straightforward, and the elixer did exactly that. It helped a cultivator replenish their depleted mana up to 15% quicker.
It might not seem like much of an increase, but it could save someone crucial minutes or perhaps even hours.
With every rank increase, came improved benefits. Vasari bought 30 of these elixirs, which came to 200 Cloud Points in total.
He also bought Kurumi a crossbow that was much better than the one she used on the mission, as well as a 'Formations Guide for Newbies' textbook. He remembered her interest in formations, he bought it thinking it would be a nice gift for her. And lastly, he purchased a load of arrows for both the Nakata sisters. All in all, he spent 650 Cloud Points, but he thought it was well worth it.
Back at home, the first thing he did was give the girls their gifts. Kurumi was especially excited about hers. She gave Vasari a big hug before dashing to her room with the thick book in one hand and the classy crossbow in the other.
Besides Kurumi, everybody was sitting in the lounge area of the large house. Witney was comfortably seated on Vasari's lap while Gia and Jiang Xia were on either side of him on the big sofa. Opposite them was another sofa where Talia, Hiromi and Hozomi sat.
"So you are also joining the mission with us?" Talia asked after Vasari recounted what Miss Covington told him.
"Yes. I'm leaving a day after you do since the sect is gifting me a custom-made artefact that will only be completed in six days."
"Ooh, do you know what it is?" Witney asked while excitedly hopping on his lap.
"No clue." Vasari blandly said and held Witney down before she woke up a slumbering beast.
"That means Hozomi is in charge of the house while we're gone."
"Hehe, goodluck keeping the cubs in check, Aunty Hozomi." Witney giggled and seeing Hozomi's aghast expression, everyone broke out in laughter.
"Hiromi, why are you laughing? You're going to be helping." Hearing Vasari's words, Hiromi's face comically transformed to have the same expression as her mother's.
The girls and Vasari spent a few hours casually chatting. Vasari, Hozomi and Hiromi talked about their experiences on the battlefield and the sights they saw while travelling to and from the town of Grimdale.
The four rookie beauties also spoke about their self-proclaimed expert gardening skills and how amazing the property would look once everything starts to grow.
––––
In Vasari's sub-space, he and Witney were playing with the little dragons.
After finding and eating the Wyrm meat that Vasari scattered throughout the forest, the little dragons grew even more.
Vasari didn't think they would be able to chew through the tough meat, but he heavily underestimated his children. They had no problem sinking their razor-sharp teeth into the Wyrm meat and easily digested it before their bodies automatically refined the energies gained from it.
Once the cubs got tired and fell asleep, Witney asked Vasari to train with her.
Initially surprised by the request, Vasari didn't know how to answer. But after thinking it over, he thought it was a good idea. He could test out the Dragon Elephant Prajna Body Art in battle, while also seeing how much Witney has progressed.
Moving away from the sleeping dragons, Vasari and Witney stood opposite each other as they prepared to spar.
"I'm not going to take it easy on you babe."
Witney declared while getting into a fighting stance.
Vasari chuckled, he knew that she had forgotten that this wasn't his real body, but he kept his thoughts to himself, not wanting to douse her competitive spirit.
"Hmph, here I come!" Witney announced before pushing off the ground and rapidly closed in on Vasari, who had yet to move.
When she punched out, Vasari quickly sidestepped, her punch narrowly missing his chest. Witney quickly reacted, using her momentum, she dug her left foot into the ground and quickly spun while kicking out with her right leg.
Vasari blocked her spinning kick with his forearm and skidded back a metre from the impact.
"Good power." Vasari praised with a proud smile before he stepped forward and threw a punch at Witney. There was no real power behind it, but Witney was none the wiser as her eyes widened, and she hastily attempted to block the approaching fist.
She crossed her arms above her face and closed her eyes as she braced for impact. However, she felt nothing even after 2 seconds. She opened her eyes and lowered her crossed arms slightly to see what happened. Witney was left surprised when she couldn't see Vasari anywhere in front of her.
"Never take your eyes off your opponent."
Witney hopped in surprise when she heard Vasari's voice in her ear and his large hand slapping her ass.
"You!!"
Vasari laughed when she saw her furious expression and quickly backed away. Witney turned around in anger and chased after Vasari, when she caught up, she threw a combo of punches and kicks.
Her technique and form were perfect, her speed was outstanding, and her punching power wasn't any less impressive than Alex's, but she still couldn't land a clean hit on Vasari.
Vasari traversed the growing forest moving backwards while simultaneously blocking and deflecting Witney's attacks.
With gentle eyes, he watched Witney's every movement, noticing every mistake she made, weaknesses in her attacks and all the openings she unknowingly created.
When he was satisfied with studying her fighting style, Vasari went on the offensive.
Vasari stomped his feet into the ground, immediately coming to a stop, and quickly entered a horse stance.
Witney was caught off-guard by his sudden stop and couldn't prevent herself from crashing into him.
'Gentle Giant.'
Vasari proceeds to perform the martial technique. Spreading his right leg out, rotating his hips 45 degrees, and holding out his arms, he caught Witney before she could crash into him and hugged her into his embrace.
"Didn't I just tell you not to take your eyes off your opponent?" Witney opened her eyes when she heard his voice again and felt his muscular arms wrapped around her. She saw his majestic eyes gazing at her with a gentle expression which caused her body to heat up from expectancy. Vasari's smile widened when he saw this, he kissed her forehead before throwing her in the air and swiping her feet to make her body rotate.
Her body dropped to the ground, and her sect robes were dirtied from the soil.
"Vasari! I'm gonna kill you!"
"Hahahaha!"
Vasari once again got into the horse stance and prepared for another round of battle.
This time Witney held nothing back and started using her martial techniques.
'Maybe I went too far…' He thought when he saw that she was really trying to hurt him now, but he couldn't help but have a big smile whenever he saw her face scrunched up in anger.
"So cute…" he subconsciously said, which only infuriated her more.
For the next half hour, Witney relentlessly attacked Vasari with a variety of hand-to-hand martial techniques. However, she could land a hit on Vasari after he started doing these weird stances. All her attacks either completely missed their mark or he easily parried it.
She felt as if her attacks were just going right through Vasari's body, but when she calmed down and started fighting with a clear head, she immediately thought of a way to break his defence.
"Solar steps: 1st Movement."
The soles of her feet glowed bright yellow before she exploded forward with a burst of speed, catching Vasari off guard.
She jumped up slightly and performed a superman punch and for the first time since they started this training, her first connected against Vasari's jaw, sending him flying back 5 metres.
"Hahaha, yes! I win!" Witney exclaimed and punched the air in satisfaction.
Vasari got up from the forest floor and shook his head in helplessness.
"You win, you win." Her lifted his arms in defeat and walked towards her.
"Hehe." Still ecstatic about finally landing a punch, she jumped onto Vasari. Her arms wrapped around his neck and her legs around his waist.
"Vasari, that was fun. Let's train more often." She said while tucking a few loose strands of hair falling down Vasari's face behind his ears.
"Anything for you, dear. We can train with the others next time, I think they will enjoy it."
"You're right. Let's do it tomorrow."
"Of course."
They spent a few minutes flirting with each other before he sent her out of the sub-space to get cleaned up.
Now that he was alone, Vasari held out his hand, and after a few seconds, a scroll came flying into his palm. He opened the scroll and a wave of excitement washed over his body.
'Chaos Void…'
Now that Vasari was at the Mana Body stage, he needed a Cultivation Method to break into the next realm and what better Cultivation Method was there than one created by his past self, specifically for him?