Vasari and Witney spent quite a bit of time designing the layout of the forest. They had to make it feel natural and also think of the future when the sub-space does eventually expand.
Vasari also didn't have a lot of time until he had to meet up with DT and Jaxon for the mission. When he told Witney about it, he got more than earful and when she told the others, Vasari was admonished from all sides but he couldn't back out of the mission after he was the one who asked them to join him.
The main reason they were upset was because they couldn't join him. They had similar contracts to Jude and the others, so they were not allowed to partake in any mission unauthorised by their faction.
Fortunately, the Nakata girls had no such restrictions and persuaded Vasari to take them with him, much to the envy of the four rookie beauties.
"Ready?"
"Ready."
"Don't resist," Vasari said before putting his hand on Witney's shoulder and a second later she disappeared.
Seeing that it worked Vasari released a heavy breath of relief and felt a few pounds lighter. To say he was nervous to send Witney to his sub-space was an understatement. Even though he had brought the wolf cubs into the sub-space and it turned out fine, there was always a possibility something could go wrong if another human entered the sub-space. Fortunately, it seemed that there were no problems.
Vasari closed his eyes and his consciousness appeared in the sub-space. He saw Witney looking around in amazement. Her icy blue eyes scanned her surroundings composed of tall green grass and a sky of whiteness.
"This place looks awesome. How does it even work? How is there warmth when there's no sun? How are you here when your real body remains outside and why do you feel so real."
Witney bombarded Vasari with questions while feeling up his body in wonder.
"Woah! Why are you touching down there?!"
"Hehe."
"Ahem, to answer your question…I have no clue how it works but I'm sure we'll figure it out together. Anyway, can you get that shovel for me please?"
Witney tied her hair back and rolled up her Sect robe sleeves as she prepared to do some manual labour.
Or so Vasari thought…
"Ok, so I did some last-minute research and decided to change the layout of the forest a little bit. Follow me, I'll show you. Bring some seeds and you'll need that shovel too."
Witney pulled a small notebook out from her robe pocket and flipped a few pages until she got to where her notes were.
Vasari was already regretting bringing her here. He thought Witney would help him a little but it seems like she was only going to give him more work.
"I should've just sprinkled the seeds wherever and let nature take its course. Now I'm stuck here working my ass off" Vasari mumbled to himself while picking up the shovel.
"Did you say something?"
"I said you look really beautiful with your hair tied up like that."
"Thank you~" Witney twirled around with a bright smile on her face after hearing his compliment, before she skipped away and beckoned Vasari to follow along.
For the next hour, Vasari dug and planted hundreds of tree seeds and a variety of plants.
They only managed to complete half of Witney's master plan and had to finish it the next day.
Witney was pleasantly surprised when she saw some of the trees and plants already beginning to sprout up from the soil.
Due to Vasari diligently cultivating, they could now stay in the world for 85 minutes before the pain in his eyes appeared. His Dantian was 95% filled with Mana and he was confident of reaching the Mana Body stage before leaving for the mission in two days.
–––––
"And done! Woohoo babe, we did it!"
Witney cheered and jumped into Vasari's arms before raining kisses on his face.
Vasari worked his ass off these past 5 days but it was all worth it seeing how happy Witney was and how much this forest would benefit all 8 of his children.
"You did great Witney. I must admit that I didn't think it would turn out as good as it does but you made it work. All we need to do now is let everything naturally grow then throw some animals in here for the babies to hunt."
"You're forgetting something."
"What?"
"You have to give the forest a name."
"Why me? You're the one who designed the layout. You can name it."
"If you say so." Witney rolled her eyes but Vasari knew she wanted to name it from the start. "How about the Forest of Creation? No, I don't like that. Umm, what about Wisari Forest or Vastney Forest."
Vasari laughed when he heard her suggestions causing her to pout adorably and pinch his cheeks.
"Hmph why are you laughing? If you don't like the names I gave then you name the forest."
"Fine. Let's go with…Boundless Forest. It's fitting since it's located inside the Eye of Boundless Creation."
"It's good enough I guess. I personally prefer Wisari Forest but we'll go with Boundless Forest."
Vasari chuckled before kissing Witney on her cheek. She was just too cute. The couple stared at the nascent forest with fulfilment and excitement about the future.
Little did they know that Boundless Forest was just the start of the many things they would create together.
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36 hours until Vasari had to meet up with DT and Jaxon.
Vasari was cultivating in one of the empty rooms in his mansion. He was extremely close to breaking through to the Mana Body stage.
When he completely converted all the Superior Qi in his Dantian to Mana, he felt a loud popping sound come from inside his body and a burst of energy rejuvenated his being. Right now he was converting the Superior Qi currently flowing through his meridians into Mana.
'Almost there…'
'…96'
'97'
'98'
'99…'
'100'
Just then Vasari's body stiffened before it started convulsing uncontrollably. He clenched his jaw, the feeling of every muscle in his body suddenly straining assaulted his body and he struggled to even move a finger, this lasted for a full 10 minutes.
Even his thoughts were limited due to the pain and he just waited for the pain to recede.
'Fuck me. That was unexpected.' Vasari thought while sitting back in a lotus position.
Before starting this cultivation session, Vasari asked Hozumi about her experience when she broke through into the Mana Body stage. He also asked Gia to look on the Mananet if anybody posted about their experience in breaking through to the Mana Body stage.
Surprisingly it seemed that everybody had a similar experience. Once the Superior Qi in their Dantian was completely converted into Mana they heard the same popping sound come from inside their body but that was the only thing that matched Vasari's experience to the others.
Hozumi and others on the Mananet experienced a type of body cleanse with a black, gooey, and nauseating substance being released from their pores. This is what Vasari expected to happen to him and was the reason he decided to cultivate in an unused room instead of his bedroom.
However, due to his perfect foundation, unique Physique and Imperial Dragon Bloodline, his body contained zero, that's right, ZERO impurities, thus when the Mana in his body attempted to cleanse it, it strengthened his muscles, tendons and flesh instead.
"That wasn't too ba-" Before Vasari could complete his sentence a familiar stinging pain in his eyes caused him to grunt in pain. Like before, a flood of information was sent directly into his brain, giving him a headache in the process.
When the pain subsided and all the information was received, Vasari's sweaty face had an ecstatic smile.
"Finally." Was all he said before taking off his blindfold and performing the hand sign to unseal his eyes.
His eyelids opened and his eyes shone in a brilliant before receding.
Vasari changed hand signs to now having both palms connected and his fingers interlocked. He held that pose for a full minute before changes in his eyes began to occur.
The bright gold and royal blue of his right iris was replaced by a honey-golden colour, and the dark violet and cyan of his left eye was replaced by a blue-violet colour.
"So by consuming mana, I can seal my eyes this way and still be able to see. However, I won't be able to use any abilities of my eyes." Vasari spoke to himself as if to confirm what the information being sent to his brain contained.
He then separated his fingers but kept his palm together for a minute and the brilliance of his Heavenly eyes returned.
"It uses quite a bit of Mana but I think it's understandable. Let's try the new abilities I can finally use."
Vasari brought out a single seed of grass from his spatial ring that he had left over from the forest construction and held it in front of his face.
He stared at the seed with a concentrated gaze and in a low murmur he uttered a single word.
"Destroy."
Vasari watched with rapt excitement when the seed slowly started disintegrating from its tips and slowly moved down until it was completely erased from existence.
Vasari wanted to jump up and celebrate but a wave of exhaustion left his body plonking to the ground.
'Destroying that tiny seed used 90% of the mana stored in my Dantian." Vasari's eyes were wide in disbelief while he lay limply on the cold floor. His meridians were already absorbing any ambient Mana in the air and slowly he regained some energy.
Vasari planned to try the other ability he learnt that used his Eye of Boundless Creation but that would have to wait until another time.
He spent the next few hours refilling his Mana before taking a break to spend time with the girls. He equipped his blindfold and sealed his eyes completely. He didn't want to waste any mana at the moment when the mission was just around the corner.
The girls didn't even notice that he broke through to the Mana Body stage and only after he broke the news to them did they congratulate him.
It wasn't their fault for not noticing, usually a cultivator's appearance would slightly improve after entering the Mana Body stage due to the impurities leaving their bodies but Vasari was already flawless so no change physically occurred.
After talking to the girls about his experience and other miscellaneous topics, Vasari went to spend time with the wolf cubs and Otis. He decided to bring the cubs on the mission with him to gain experience fighting against other beasts. When he told them about it they howled to the sky in anticipation.
After playing with the cubs, he went to his room. Once he entered, he unsealed his eyes and took off his blindfold. He heard water movement coming from the bath so he walked over and when he peaked inside the bathroom he saw Witney submerged in steaming hot water leaving only her head above the surface. Her eyes were closed, her face relaxed, and she was leaning her head on the back of the tub.
Floating above the steaming hot water with their limbs spread out and carefree expressions on their scaly faces, the newborn dragons joined their mother for a nice hot bath.
Vasari looked at this scene with dumbfounded eyes and wondered how this situation came about.
Shaking his head to clear his thoughts, Vasari sneakily made his way to the bathtub. The little dragons almost immediately sensed his presence and opened their eyes but before they could squeal he put his finger to his lips and they somehow got the message.
They continued staring at him with bright curious eyes as he circled the bathtub until he was standing directly behind Witney.
"BOO!"
"AAAHHHHHHH!"
Witney screamed in fright and her eyes shot open to find Vasari laughing at her from above. All the movement she made formed small waves in the bathtub. The baby dragons expertly rode these waves while squealing excitedly. To Witney, it sounded as if they were laughing at her and their squeals perfectly matched the tempo of Vasari's laughter.
'Tsk they really are his children,' She thought and let them have their fun while it lasted but she would soon have her revenge.
"What are you doing here?" Witney asked while pulling the little dragons helplessly drifting back closer to her.
"I just broke through and I'm celebrating by spending time with my family. Tomorrow is also my last day before I leave for the mission." Vasari's clothes instantly disappeared and he hopped into the bath with Witney and the hatchlings. Seeing their father now in the bath with them, the hatchlings started frantically kicking their legs and swinging their tail side to side to swim to Vasari.
Witney pouted when she saw this and pinched Vasari with her toes under the water. He chuckled before wrapping his long legs around her back and slowly dragging her closer until the only gap between them was the baby dragons that were trying to climb up Vasari's chest.
The family of 6 enjoyed a nice bath together while Vasari told Witney all about his breakthrough.
Vasari spent the rest of the night and the next morning with Witney and the baby dragons. After lunch, he spent time with the rest of the girls and at night he started learning his new techniques.
When he woke up on the day of the mission, he sent the baby dragons to the sub-space for the first time and let them explore the forest by themselves. He then said his goodbyes to Witney, Talia, Gia and Jiang Xia before he left with the Nakata girls for the city.
Vasari and Hozumi travelled on Otis, Hiromi and Kurumi travelled on the Flash Thunderbird, Zephyr, while the 4 wolf cubs ran on the ground.
Soon they reached the destination where they were supposed to meet up with the other disciples partaking in the mission and saw DT and Jaxon waiting for them.
"Vasari over here! You made it just in time dude."