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A Mage's Cultivation #4
Immortal Mana: A Mage's Cultivation, Book 4
Isaac sets off ahead of the rest of his family with Kat and his mana beasts. No matter how much he'd practiced with immortal mana before venturing into the immortal world hadn’t prepared him for it, and his first bumbling steps into the new world have him collared and sold to a brothel.
Those who did this to him will pay dearly for underestimating him. Isaac plots his escape and the new path in cultivation as he makes plans to break through to his fifth ring and seek revenge.
Those who did this to him will pay dearly for underestimating him. Isaac plots his escape and the new path in cultivation as he makes plans to break through to his fifth ring and seek revenge.
Audible Audio
First published November 9, 2021
About the author
Bruce Sentar
61 books901 followersBorn and raised in the agricultural midwest, I moved every year after school even as far as Shanghai before settling down with my wife in Chicago.
I have always enjoyed Wuxia stories and became thrilled when I discovered harem stories spreading to western books. I've written down my day dreams for years as an idle hobby. Inspired by the harem genre I'm finally fleshing them out into full blown novels.
I'm excited to share my stories with you as I turn them into novels and series.
Connect with me on Facebook for updates on my latest books.
https://www.facebook.com/Bruce-Sentar...
I have always enjoyed Wuxia stories and became thrilled when I discovered harem stories spreading to western books. I've written down my day dreams for years as an idle hobby. Inspired by the harem genre I'm finally fleshing them out into full blown novels.
I'm excited to share my stories with you as I turn them into novels and series.
Connect with me on Facebook for updates on my latest books.
https://www.facebook.com/Bruce-Sentar...
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Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 40 reviews
November 10, 2021
This one starts with a useful jump forward to settle some plot elements from the last book(s) without bogging the current story.
The next step to the immortal realm is a doozy, so some big obstacles to overcome. Well written, good pacing, and the MC remains reasonably balanced. The author says two more books, and that seems about right for this series. I look forward to the next one.
The next step to the immortal realm is a doozy, so some big obstacles to overcome. Well written, good pacing, and the MC remains reasonably balanced. The author says two more books, and that seems about right for this series. I look forward to the next one.
February 25, 2024
Final Rating: 2.89/5.00
Starting score: 2.50
+0.26 for credible arrival difficulties and concrete systems of power and dependence.
+0.24 for cultivation that expands soul spaces and builds on established lore.
+0.35 for practical caregiving and shared vulnerability within the family.
+0.20 for developed explicit intimacy with individual preferences and negotiated boundaries.
+0.20 for Lumi's personal history, Wenxi's political ambition, and Rachel's developing purpose.
+0.30 for clear combat tactics, consequential injuries, and decisive contributions from the supporting cast.
+0.14 for immediate resolution and a meaningful foundation for the next stage.
-0.40 for contradictions in Isaac's treatment of freedom and consent that the story inadequately examines.
-0.20 for convenient resources and exceptional advancement that weaken the new world's resistance.
-0.18 for familiar status-based conflicts and antagonists whose arrogance makes their behaviour predictable.
-0.28 for repetitive sexual comedy that interrupts danger and narrows Aurora and Mei's characterisation.
-0.11 for repetitive gestures and explanations that labour points already established.
-0.13 for verified errors in grammar and word choice.
Calculated final score: 2.89/5.00
I listened to a man regain his power, and cared most about the moments when he let his family carry him. The audiobook's treatment of freedom is the reason I cannot trust it nearly as much as it wants me to. Isaac can be wonderfully vulnerable with the people he loves and deeply dismissive of vulnerability that inconveniences him. His loss of power gives that contradiction room to develop, but the story too often rewards his renewed dominance without examining its use. His family taking over the work of keeping him alive brings warmth straight through my winter fur. There is also a stubborn demand that I admire him because the women around him do. The leap forward in time begins a new phase of an established life, with grown children, enduring marriages, and a hero who has become painfully stagnant. Sexual material remains a substantial attraction: explicit encounters recur through the story alongside frequent innuendo and some implied intimacy.
The arrival in the immortal world gives the adventure a strong footing. Greater gravity and denser mana have immediate physical consequences, and Isaac's existing experience cannot instantly cancel them. Being captured while trying to protect Kat makes his loss of freedom more than an arbitrary humiliation. The collar and later cuff turn power into something that can be rationed, obstructed, and used against its owner. Movement, money, information, and safe companionship become practical problems. His old skills retain their value under changed conditions, preserving the earlier books' work. Murdock also acquires shape through its institutions. The pavilion combines cultivation, performance, patronage, and commerce; the auction house connects wealth with the sale of people; ancient families turn inherited power into social permission. A servant can overhear valuable gossip precisely because powerful customers barely register his presence. I can understand how somebody becomes trapped here without needing another mountain of statistics to explain the trap.
The conflicts inside that setting are much more familiar. A privileged young man takes offence, humiliation threatens his standing, retaliation escalates, and family prestige supplies the next wave of aggression. The Ying family's decline gives that behaviour a motive: they are defending an image of strength that their actual position can no longer comfortably support. Once that motive is established, their responses become easy to anticipate. Guo Ying and his father keep reaching for the same mixture of contempt, threats, and faith in superior power. Even their limitations in combat reinforce the family resemblance. I wanted an opponent who could revise a bad assumption before Isaac punished it. The coordinated guards are sometimes more interesting opponents than the men whose names drive the feud. The larger realm promises unfamiliar dangers, yet its social conflicts follow tracks the series has already worn deep through the snow.
The fighting itself has considerably more energy and precision. Position matters, attacks have readable purposes, and enemies occasionally cooperate well enough to force Isaac to think. An archer concealing a shot behind a partner's advance is a stronger obstacle than another speech about an overwhelming cultivation level. Isaac has to identify that coordination and turn it against them. His injuries also matter for substantial stretches of the story. A damaged leg, internal wounds, and restrictions imposed by the cuff affect what he can do; wanting to win does not make his body immediately available for the task. His mana beasts carry, shield, rescue, and intervene, while Kat handles dangers and preparations outside his reach. Quinn's dragon form has the physical presence I want from a dragon, with weight, warmth, and protective force, rather than existing only as an attractive label attached to a woman. These scenes give my claws something solid to grip: a pack surviving through different abilities, with affection expressed through the work of getting one another home.
That work becomes the emotional centre when Isaac is too hurt to keep performing invulnerability. Kat loosens clothing stuck to wounds, tends him carefully, and finally gets to give back some of the care he once gave her. Mei can quietly make room for that exchange instead of demanding attention. The shared soul space allows the wider family to remain emotionally present even when they cannot physically reach him. Their love becomes convincing through adjustments around somebody else's pain. Having spent years caring for my father, I recognise how responsibility can become a habit that makes receiving help feel like failure. Kat's “It’s okay. You don’t have to keep being so strong.” addresses exactly that knot. Put the damned burden down for a moment. Being the Alpha of the Ice Wolf Clan does not make my ribs a bottomless store of strength. The scene gives dependence dignity and lets an established marriage contain more than admiration for its strongest member.
The explicit intimacy earns its place most convincingly when it grows from that understanding. There are extended sexual scenes involving both group intimacy and individual partners, with physical detail and active responses; the book does not rely entirely on suggestive jokes or disappear whenever a scene becomes sexual. Kat's needs remain recognisably hers. The negotiated rules of her more intense play, the distinction between requesting more and asking to stop, and Isaac's immediate attention when she needs comfort establish trust through behaviour. I want that specificity developed alongside the physical detail. Intimacy also has an established connection to cultivation and recovery, so it can affect the fantasy mechanics without suddenly inventing a new cure. Lumi's later intimate scenes give her room to express what she wants and alter the pace. The writing is strongest when desire includes listening, adjustment, and familiarity with an individual body and temperament. That gives the heat something to cling to beyond another declaration that Isaac is irresistible.
Lumi has the most affecting personal history among the new arrivals. Her attachment to a remembered cabin gives her loneliness a location, a texture, and a duration. Her soul preserves a home and companionship the outside world has lost. That is a much stronger reason to care about a wolf woman than blue hair, attractive curves, and a useful element. In the language of my own den in HowlStrom, she has kept watch beside a cold hearth long after anybody could come home to it. Isaac spending a whole night hearing her stories gives that attachment room to exist. Her competitiveness, curiosity, and desire for affection grow around that history. She also retains knowledge he needs and makes decisions that matter under pressure. I value those scenes because her life as a wolf remains part of her identity. Becoming desirable to the hero does not have to erase the life she had before meeting him.
Her introduction makes that later warmth harder to accept without questions. Isaac begins by deciding she will serve him regardless of what she wants. When he later pursues contact, she tells him to get off and let her go, and he chooses to keep control because otherwise she might leave. The narrative then moves into the discovery that she enjoys affection. That sequence treats a refused boundary as an obstacle to reaching the supposedly better answer underneath it. Later, she actively asks for touch, receives an assurance that she will not be forced to fight, and chooses to participate in the family. Those developments establish genuine changes in the relationship. They leave the earlier decision to override her refusal inadequately examined. I especially dislike this because the series has already shown, through Narissa, that a woman's independent path can be respected without being folded into Isaac's romantic life. Lumi's intelligence is explicitly established; her animal nature provides no convincing excuse for discounting her wishes. My tail does not make my refusal a guessing game. That trust deserves a more searching treatment of how it began.
Isaac insists, reasonably, on meeting potential partners as an equal rather than having his ownership transferred to somebody more attractive. He despises the people who sell him and recognises the degradation of being treated as merchandise. Madam Orchid receives a much more forgiving judgment because her terms are comprehensible, she offers protection, and her interests can align with his. Her protection is real. So is the coercion that makes her business arrangement possible. A clearly kept ledger cannot turn capture into voluntary employment. Charles exposes the emotional cost of this double standard even more sharply. He has endured years of enslavement, yet Isaac responds to his caution with contempt and physically intimidates him when his knowledge becomes inconvenient. Here is somebody whose confidence has been worn down by the very system Isaac wants to escape, and the stronger man mainly sees weakness. My idea of a pack includes what happens to the frightened creature who cannot immediately prove useful or impressive.
Kat's manipulation of another person's mind makes the problem harder to dismiss as mere impatience. Isaac can object in principle to altering consent while accepting increased suggestibility because it makes a difficult situation easier to manage. The wording is almost painfully direct: “I didn’t particularly like altering someone’s ability to consent.” His acceptance immediately around that thought is the issue. Distress survives the altered memories, and later consequences question how power is used against the weak. The story also gives Isaac moments of restraint, protection, and practical responsibility beyond his household. My frustration is with how unevenly his standards operate, especially when public reputation becomes a stronger reason for restraint than the other person's autonomy. I enjoy dark fiction that lets cruelty expose something ugly and consequential. This story repeatedly approaches that depth, then surrounds Isaac with reassurance about the quality of his character. The violence can be vicious; the self-examination remains much softer. I want the contradiction to put pressure on him, rather than dissolve into another explanation of why his particular choice was necessary.
Wenxi and Rachel give the new setting useful human interests beyond that argument. Wenxi wants influence within a family where intelligence alone has not secured her position. Her attraction to Isaac is entangled with ambition, and she takes risks, negotiates, reads evidence, and understands how appearances can protect a plan. Her participation has substance beyond recognising the protagonist's greatness. Rachel's grief gives her training a purpose, while the contrast between repeating a form and understanding how to adapt it creates measurable development. Her relationship with the pavilion also contains a history of shelter and belonging that makes leaving it a consequential choice. Both women have reasons to act that exist before becoming candidates for Isaac's household. His own tendency to assess whether a prospective partner brings a sufficiently useful skill into the family remains part of the book's controlling outlook. Their own wants make them more interesting than their qualifications for his household.
Aurora and Mei suffer most from the repeated comedy around sex and injury. Their capabilities remain important, but their everyday exchanges too often reduce Aurora to wanting sex and Mei to an outfit, a bounce, or another enthusiastic game. The nurse routine is particularly uneven. Careful attention to a wounded person can abruptly give way to excitement about getting to play nurse, even when the handling hurts him. That undercuts the preceding scenes' emotional seriousness. Sexual teasing also interrupts plans often enough to become a predictable beat; one encounter leaves too little time for the planning Isaac came to do and makes him late for training. The repetition brings diminishing emotional and comic returns. Danger, damage, recovery, sexual diversion, and renewed planning begin to feel like a circuit. I want good porn and a good story, and both benefit from partners who have more than one entertaining response available. Let the fox finish a thought before changing her costume again. Her intelligence deserves as much room as her enthusiasm.
The cultivation ideas provide another substantial reason to stay engaged. The distinction between controlling particular elements and controlling reality gives the earlier limits on Isaac's domain a meaningful explanation. Soul spaces gradually become more than private meeting rooms, and small physical details prepare the larger implications before the exposition spells them out. Connections to Old Jin also give the expanding system a history instead of making every new threshold feel unrelated to what came before. Rank still affects available power, but understanding, technique, and the relationship between the inner and outer worlds matter as well. The magical explanations stay close to practical decisions, so I can follow what an ability changes without memorising a stream of terms. That makes the system approachable within the audiobook's action. It also gives the shared soul bond a second purpose, connecting the family's emotional closeness to the physical possibilities of their cultivation.
The speed and convenience of advancement weaken the resistance those ideas promise. A valuable haul, a gifted cultivation scroll, and an advance that conveniently covers the next major requirement converge around Isaac. The robbery carries real danger, while the later arrangements keep delivering unusually helpful terms. His exceptional heritage and instinct repeatedly let him get more from an opportunity than the established rules would lead an ordinary cultivator to expect. The early captivity makes the world feel expensive and difficult to negotiate; later progress gathers momentum so quickly that parts of that harshness become temporary scaffolding. Exceptional advancement keeps moving him away from living with dependence and limitation long enough to change. The storm has force, but the route through it increasingly seems laid out for this particular set of paws.
The prose also spends too much effort confirming its own signals. Wide eyes, deepening blushes, meaningful looks, and explanations of what those reactions indicate recur throughout conversations. Wenxi can demonstrate that she has understood something, only for Isaac's narration to explain the understanding again. That repetition slows exchanges which already have a clear purpose. Separately, the wording needs another editing pass. The phrase “force of her fall negligent to me” uses negligent where negligible is intended. Using “recanting my experiences” confuses withdrawing a statement with recounting events. “I wasn’t about to let me get his hands on me” puts the wrong pronoun into an otherwise straightforward action. These are specific errors in meaning or sentence construction, and they deserve a proportionate deduction. In the best care scenes, a simple action already tells me what the relationship means. Elsewhere, another layer of interpretation slows a gesture that already carries its own meaning.
The ending gives this stage of Isaac's journey an actual destination. The immediate problems have consequences and resolution, while the larger questions about his family and the immortal world remain open for a reason. His responsibility also starts extending into the practical needs of a wider community, which gives leadership more substance than winning a public contest of strength. This volume earns a place beyond advertising another one. Isaac's authority receives far less searching scrutiny than his vulnerability receives loving attention, and that imbalance limits the whole experience. I believe in this pack most when someone can lower their guard without losing the right to refuse. That is the warmth I would carry back into HowlStrom, and the standard I would keep at the door.
Starting score: 2.50
+0.26 for credible arrival difficulties and concrete systems of power and dependence.
+0.24 for cultivation that expands soul spaces and builds on established lore.
+0.35 for practical caregiving and shared vulnerability within the family.
+0.20 for developed explicit intimacy with individual preferences and negotiated boundaries.
+0.20 for Lumi's personal history, Wenxi's political ambition, and Rachel's developing purpose.
+0.30 for clear combat tactics, consequential injuries, and decisive contributions from the supporting cast.
+0.14 for immediate resolution and a meaningful foundation for the next stage.
-0.40 for contradictions in Isaac's treatment of freedom and consent that the story inadequately examines.
-0.20 for convenient resources and exceptional advancement that weaken the new world's resistance.
-0.18 for familiar status-based conflicts and antagonists whose arrogance makes their behaviour predictable.
-0.28 for repetitive sexual comedy that interrupts danger and narrows Aurora and Mei's characterisation.
-0.11 for repetitive gestures and explanations that labour points already established.
-0.13 for verified errors in grammar and word choice.
Calculated final score: 2.89/5.00
I listened to a man regain his power, and cared most about the moments when he let his family carry him. The audiobook's treatment of freedom is the reason I cannot trust it nearly as much as it wants me to. Isaac can be wonderfully vulnerable with the people he loves and deeply dismissive of vulnerability that inconveniences him. His loss of power gives that contradiction room to develop, but the story too often rewards his renewed dominance without examining its use. His family taking over the work of keeping him alive brings warmth straight through my winter fur. There is also a stubborn demand that I admire him because the women around him do. The leap forward in time begins a new phase of an established life, with grown children, enduring marriages, and a hero who has become painfully stagnant. Sexual material remains a substantial attraction: explicit encounters recur through the story alongside frequent innuendo and some implied intimacy.
The arrival in the immortal world gives the adventure a strong footing. Greater gravity and denser mana have immediate physical consequences, and Isaac's existing experience cannot instantly cancel them. Being captured while trying to protect Kat makes his loss of freedom more than an arbitrary humiliation. The collar and later cuff turn power into something that can be rationed, obstructed, and used against its owner. Movement, money, information, and safe companionship become practical problems. His old skills retain their value under changed conditions, preserving the earlier books' work. Murdock also acquires shape through its institutions. The pavilion combines cultivation, performance, patronage, and commerce; the auction house connects wealth with the sale of people; ancient families turn inherited power into social permission. A servant can overhear valuable gossip precisely because powerful customers barely register his presence. I can understand how somebody becomes trapped here without needing another mountain of statistics to explain the trap.
The conflicts inside that setting are much more familiar. A privileged young man takes offence, humiliation threatens his standing, retaliation escalates, and family prestige supplies the next wave of aggression. The Ying family's decline gives that behaviour a motive: they are defending an image of strength that their actual position can no longer comfortably support. Once that motive is established, their responses become easy to anticipate. Guo Ying and his father keep reaching for the same mixture of contempt, threats, and faith in superior power. Even their limitations in combat reinforce the family resemblance. I wanted an opponent who could revise a bad assumption before Isaac punished it. The coordinated guards are sometimes more interesting opponents than the men whose names drive the feud. The larger realm promises unfamiliar dangers, yet its social conflicts follow tracks the series has already worn deep through the snow.
The fighting itself has considerably more energy and precision. Position matters, attacks have readable purposes, and enemies occasionally cooperate well enough to force Isaac to think. An archer concealing a shot behind a partner's advance is a stronger obstacle than another speech about an overwhelming cultivation level. Isaac has to identify that coordination and turn it against them. His injuries also matter for substantial stretches of the story. A damaged leg, internal wounds, and restrictions imposed by the cuff affect what he can do; wanting to win does not make his body immediately available for the task. His mana beasts carry, shield, rescue, and intervene, while Kat handles dangers and preparations outside his reach. Quinn's dragon form has the physical presence I want from a dragon, with weight, warmth, and protective force, rather than existing only as an attractive label attached to a woman. These scenes give my claws something solid to grip: a pack surviving through different abilities, with affection expressed through the work of getting one another home.
That work becomes the emotional centre when Isaac is too hurt to keep performing invulnerability. Kat loosens clothing stuck to wounds, tends him carefully, and finally gets to give back some of the care he once gave her. Mei can quietly make room for that exchange instead of demanding attention. The shared soul space allows the wider family to remain emotionally present even when they cannot physically reach him. Their love becomes convincing through adjustments around somebody else's pain. Having spent years caring for my father, I recognise how responsibility can become a habit that makes receiving help feel like failure. Kat's “It’s okay. You don’t have to keep being so strong.” addresses exactly that knot. Put the damned burden down for a moment. Being the Alpha of the Ice Wolf Clan does not make my ribs a bottomless store of strength. The scene gives dependence dignity and lets an established marriage contain more than admiration for its strongest member.
The explicit intimacy earns its place most convincingly when it grows from that understanding. There are extended sexual scenes involving both group intimacy and individual partners, with physical detail and active responses; the book does not rely entirely on suggestive jokes or disappear whenever a scene becomes sexual. Kat's needs remain recognisably hers. The negotiated rules of her more intense play, the distinction between requesting more and asking to stop, and Isaac's immediate attention when she needs comfort establish trust through behaviour. I want that specificity developed alongside the physical detail. Intimacy also has an established connection to cultivation and recovery, so it can affect the fantasy mechanics without suddenly inventing a new cure. Lumi's later intimate scenes give her room to express what she wants and alter the pace. The writing is strongest when desire includes listening, adjustment, and familiarity with an individual body and temperament. That gives the heat something to cling to beyond another declaration that Isaac is irresistible.
Lumi has the most affecting personal history among the new arrivals. Her attachment to a remembered cabin gives her loneliness a location, a texture, and a duration. Her soul preserves a home and companionship the outside world has lost. That is a much stronger reason to care about a wolf woman than blue hair, attractive curves, and a useful element. In the language of my own den in HowlStrom, she has kept watch beside a cold hearth long after anybody could come home to it. Isaac spending a whole night hearing her stories gives that attachment room to exist. Her competitiveness, curiosity, and desire for affection grow around that history. She also retains knowledge he needs and makes decisions that matter under pressure. I value those scenes because her life as a wolf remains part of her identity. Becoming desirable to the hero does not have to erase the life she had before meeting him.
Her introduction makes that later warmth harder to accept without questions. Isaac begins by deciding she will serve him regardless of what she wants. When he later pursues contact, she tells him to get off and let her go, and he chooses to keep control because otherwise she might leave. The narrative then moves into the discovery that she enjoys affection. That sequence treats a refused boundary as an obstacle to reaching the supposedly better answer underneath it. Later, she actively asks for touch, receives an assurance that she will not be forced to fight, and chooses to participate in the family. Those developments establish genuine changes in the relationship. They leave the earlier decision to override her refusal inadequately examined. I especially dislike this because the series has already shown, through Narissa, that a woman's independent path can be respected without being folded into Isaac's romantic life. Lumi's intelligence is explicitly established; her animal nature provides no convincing excuse for discounting her wishes. My tail does not make my refusal a guessing game. That trust deserves a more searching treatment of how it began.
Isaac insists, reasonably, on meeting potential partners as an equal rather than having his ownership transferred to somebody more attractive. He despises the people who sell him and recognises the degradation of being treated as merchandise. Madam Orchid receives a much more forgiving judgment because her terms are comprehensible, she offers protection, and her interests can align with his. Her protection is real. So is the coercion that makes her business arrangement possible. A clearly kept ledger cannot turn capture into voluntary employment. Charles exposes the emotional cost of this double standard even more sharply. He has endured years of enslavement, yet Isaac responds to his caution with contempt and physically intimidates him when his knowledge becomes inconvenient. Here is somebody whose confidence has been worn down by the very system Isaac wants to escape, and the stronger man mainly sees weakness. My idea of a pack includes what happens to the frightened creature who cannot immediately prove useful or impressive.
Kat's manipulation of another person's mind makes the problem harder to dismiss as mere impatience. Isaac can object in principle to altering consent while accepting increased suggestibility because it makes a difficult situation easier to manage. The wording is almost painfully direct: “I didn’t particularly like altering someone’s ability to consent.” His acceptance immediately around that thought is the issue. Distress survives the altered memories, and later consequences question how power is used against the weak. The story also gives Isaac moments of restraint, protection, and practical responsibility beyond his household. My frustration is with how unevenly his standards operate, especially when public reputation becomes a stronger reason for restraint than the other person's autonomy. I enjoy dark fiction that lets cruelty expose something ugly and consequential. This story repeatedly approaches that depth, then surrounds Isaac with reassurance about the quality of his character. The violence can be vicious; the self-examination remains much softer. I want the contradiction to put pressure on him, rather than dissolve into another explanation of why his particular choice was necessary.
Wenxi and Rachel give the new setting useful human interests beyond that argument. Wenxi wants influence within a family where intelligence alone has not secured her position. Her attraction to Isaac is entangled with ambition, and she takes risks, negotiates, reads evidence, and understands how appearances can protect a plan. Her participation has substance beyond recognising the protagonist's greatness. Rachel's grief gives her training a purpose, while the contrast between repeating a form and understanding how to adapt it creates measurable development. Her relationship with the pavilion also contains a history of shelter and belonging that makes leaving it a consequential choice. Both women have reasons to act that exist before becoming candidates for Isaac's household. His own tendency to assess whether a prospective partner brings a sufficiently useful skill into the family remains part of the book's controlling outlook. Their own wants make them more interesting than their qualifications for his household.
Aurora and Mei suffer most from the repeated comedy around sex and injury. Their capabilities remain important, but their everyday exchanges too often reduce Aurora to wanting sex and Mei to an outfit, a bounce, or another enthusiastic game. The nurse routine is particularly uneven. Careful attention to a wounded person can abruptly give way to excitement about getting to play nurse, even when the handling hurts him. That undercuts the preceding scenes' emotional seriousness. Sexual teasing also interrupts plans often enough to become a predictable beat; one encounter leaves too little time for the planning Isaac came to do and makes him late for training. The repetition brings diminishing emotional and comic returns. Danger, damage, recovery, sexual diversion, and renewed planning begin to feel like a circuit. I want good porn and a good story, and both benefit from partners who have more than one entertaining response available. Let the fox finish a thought before changing her costume again. Her intelligence deserves as much room as her enthusiasm.
The cultivation ideas provide another substantial reason to stay engaged. The distinction between controlling particular elements and controlling reality gives the earlier limits on Isaac's domain a meaningful explanation. Soul spaces gradually become more than private meeting rooms, and small physical details prepare the larger implications before the exposition spells them out. Connections to Old Jin also give the expanding system a history instead of making every new threshold feel unrelated to what came before. Rank still affects available power, but understanding, technique, and the relationship between the inner and outer worlds matter as well. The magical explanations stay close to practical decisions, so I can follow what an ability changes without memorising a stream of terms. That makes the system approachable within the audiobook's action. It also gives the shared soul bond a second purpose, connecting the family's emotional closeness to the physical possibilities of their cultivation.
The speed and convenience of advancement weaken the resistance those ideas promise. A valuable haul, a gifted cultivation scroll, and an advance that conveniently covers the next major requirement converge around Isaac. The robbery carries real danger, while the later arrangements keep delivering unusually helpful terms. His exceptional heritage and instinct repeatedly let him get more from an opportunity than the established rules would lead an ordinary cultivator to expect. The early captivity makes the world feel expensive and difficult to negotiate; later progress gathers momentum so quickly that parts of that harshness become temporary scaffolding. Exceptional advancement keeps moving him away from living with dependence and limitation long enough to change. The storm has force, but the route through it increasingly seems laid out for this particular set of paws.
The prose also spends too much effort confirming its own signals. Wide eyes, deepening blushes, meaningful looks, and explanations of what those reactions indicate recur throughout conversations. Wenxi can demonstrate that she has understood something, only for Isaac's narration to explain the understanding again. That repetition slows exchanges which already have a clear purpose. Separately, the wording needs another editing pass. The phrase “force of her fall negligent to me” uses negligent where negligible is intended. Using “recanting my experiences” confuses withdrawing a statement with recounting events. “I wasn’t about to let me get his hands on me” puts the wrong pronoun into an otherwise straightforward action. These are specific errors in meaning or sentence construction, and they deserve a proportionate deduction. In the best care scenes, a simple action already tells me what the relationship means. Elsewhere, another layer of interpretation slows a gesture that already carries its own meaning.
The ending gives this stage of Isaac's journey an actual destination. The immediate problems have consequences and resolution, while the larger questions about his family and the immortal world remain open for a reason. His responsibility also starts extending into the practical needs of a wider community, which gives leadership more substance than winning a public contest of strength. This volume earns a place beyond advertising another one. Isaac's authority receives far less searching scrutiny than his vulnerability receives loving attention, and that imbalance limits the whole experience. I believe in this pack most when someone can lower their guard without losing the right to refuse. That is the warmth I would carry back into HowlStrom, and the standard I would keep at the door.
February 25, 2023
superb
Ooooooh this was very good. I was hesitant to start this one because I knew what it entailed. I’m not big on captivity books but this one was done so well. Sentar truly is a master of his craft. I’m panicking because I only have two books left in this magnificent series. I’m begging for Sentar to write a series with the kids. Oh man, can you imagine how good that would be? Also, is the illustrious madam orchid going to join isaacs list of wives? I’m very curious about this and about her background… also the sisters bloodline! It’s so cool how Isaac can pull up bloodlines like a Rolodex… once he gets stronger if he can switch on the fly during combat he’ll be a literal god amongst immortals . The story is truly ramping up and so is my excitement! Onward, lads!
Ooooooh this was very good. I was hesitant to start this one because I knew what it entailed. I’m not big on captivity books but this one was done so well. Sentar truly is a master of his craft. I’m panicking because I only have two books left in this magnificent series. I’m begging for Sentar to write a series with the kids. Oh man, can you imagine how good that would be? Also, is the illustrious madam orchid going to join isaacs list of wives? I’m very curious about this and about her background… also the sisters bloodline! It’s so cool how Isaac can pull up bloodlines like a Rolodex… once he gets stronger if he can switch on the fly during combat he’ll be a literal god amongst immortals . The story is truly ramping up and so is my excitement! Onward, lads!
November 11, 2021
Doesn’t disappoint!
I’ve been looking forward to this one for a while and Bruce did not disappoint. With all the intense action and underdog expectations of the first arc, this second arc of Mana is just as good. I especially liked how personal Bruce makes the emotions and relationships—like the care and attention Isaac gives to Kat after satisfying her particular wants and needs. I’m interested to see where this goes next as Isaac climbs the cultivation ladder. It sure sounds like there are some rather interesting allies and enemies awaiting his advancement!
Great job, Bruce, and I can’t wait to see what comes next in blue heaven.
I’ve been looking forward to this one for a while and Bruce did not disappoint. With all the intense action and underdog expectations of the first arc, this second arc of Mana is just as good. I especially liked how personal Bruce makes the emotions and relationships—like the care and attention Isaac gives to Kat after satisfying her particular wants and needs. I’m interested to see where this goes next as Isaac climbs the cultivation ladder. It sure sounds like there are some rather interesting allies and enemies awaiting his advancement!
Great job, Bruce, and I can’t wait to see what comes next in blue heaven.
May 21, 2023
A fresh start for familiar characters
Issac moves to the Immortal World with not the most auspicious start, being captured and sold into slavery. I enjoyed the new story although it is fairly brutal as he fights his way through this new world. A bit less sex in this book than the previous books but that is to be expected as he is nearly always recovering from injuries for a lot of this story, and separated from his wives. This was a good book although it felt shorter, or maybe I just read it faster than normal as it was hard to put down.
Issac moves to the Immortal World with not the most auspicious start, being captured and sold into slavery. I enjoyed the new story although it is fairly brutal as he fights his way through this new world. A bit less sex in this book than the previous books but that is to be expected as he is nearly always recovering from injuries for a lot of this story, and separated from his wives. This was a good book although it felt shorter, or maybe I just read it faster than normal as it was hard to put down.
March 11, 2022
A interesting cultivation story continues
I am enjoying the continuation of the story immensely the characters are pretty well three-dimensional the personalities are interesting both the bad guys and the good guys give a good background and good feeling to the story. I'm really enjoying the story it's fast-paced it's well written no chronicle errors that I've seen that throw off the story for me it's like watching a movie in my mind's eye can't wait to read the next one.
I am enjoying the continuation of the story immensely the characters are pretty well three-dimensional the personalities are interesting both the bad guys and the good guys give a good background and good feeling to the story. I'm really enjoying the story it's fast-paced it's well written no chronicle errors that I've seen that throw off the story for me it's like watching a movie in my mind's eye can't wait to read the next one.
April 9, 2023
This has exactly the same problem as the previous one, in that it’s a good story when there is one, but by the time everyone has had a bit of screen time there’s not much left. Any new ‘romance’ is now so perfunctory it feels like he’s putting together a softball team. A second softball team I guess. I liked the idea of a reset but it didn’t stick. I guess this series is not really being written for me.
November 12, 2021
Great start to a new chapter in the MC’s journey!
When I first started reading, I was a little skeptical because of the time since the end of the first trilogy, but I need not have worried. The characters are still the same, but a new story can be told! Great writing and a good story. If you likes the first trio logo, pick this up as it seems to be even better!
When I first started reading, I was a little skeptical because of the time since the end of the first trilogy, but I need not have worried. The characters are still the same, but a new story can be told! Great writing and a good story. If you likes the first trio logo, pick this up as it seems to be even better!
November 16, 2021
good addition
Love this series. I like how it also deviates from normal cultivation stories by having him still have some power in the new world. Most have them ascend and then be the weakest so it’s like rereading the same story. Really want to know more about the different cultivation types. Seems like there is a lot of potential there for a cool storyline to develop.
Love this series. I like how it also deviates from normal cultivation stories by having him still have some power in the new world. Most have them ascend and then be the weakest so it’s like rereading the same story. Really want to know more about the different cultivation types. Seems like there is a lot of potential there for a cool storyline to develop.
January 14, 2022
Still one of the best cultivation novels I've read!
Love this series and glad to see it got picked up again for another story arc by the Author.
Simply a book I couldn't and didn't want to put down right from the beginning, with a new world, new allies and enemies and new heights of power to achieve, I'm looking forward to more, hopefully!
Love this series and glad to see it got picked up again for another story arc by the Author.
Simply a book I couldn't and didn't want to put down right from the beginning, with a new world, new allies and enemies and new heights of power to achieve, I'm looking forward to more, hopefully!
July 18, 2023
honestly, the first two books were good.. but after book 3, the main character transitions from and idiot to a fool.. and I really dislike the shift of direction taken with aurora, from one who is wise and considerate to a stereotypical blonde.. its actually annoying to read at this point in the story.
March 15, 2025
It took far too long for me to read this one
I stopped after the third book in this series, even though this one was out at the time because honestly, the last book felt like a good ending point. I was also thinking we wouldn't see most of the girls in this one, but I'm glad I was wrong and everyone is back together. This book is a fantastic new chapter in the series.
I stopped after the third book in this series, even though this one was out at the time because honestly, the last book felt like a good ending point. I was also thinking we wouldn't see most of the girls in this one, but I'm glad I was wrong and everyone is back together. This book is a fantastic new chapter in the series.
November 9, 2021
Fun
Great read. Really enjoyed it. The only issue I had is that its literally just an intro to the immortal word. Its all laying a foundation for the next book or two. Which would be amazing if those books were already out lol..
Great read. Really enjoyed it. The only issue I had is that its literally just an intro to the immortal word. Its all laying a foundation for the next book or two. Which would be amazing if those books were already out lol..
November 17, 2021
Fantastic
A true pleasure to read!!! Some of the best world building as always!!! All the characters are enjoyable in the their own way even those we love to hate!!! I can't wait to see what comes next!!!
A true pleasure to read!!! Some of the best world building as always!!! All the characters are enjoyable in the their own way even those we love to hate!!! I can't wait to see what comes next!!!
November 19, 2021
nice sequel!
A fun series that moves the story along in the latest sequel. The characters are fun and I’m looking forward to the newest arc in the series. I would suggest the story if you enjoy cultivation novels and this author has been very entertaining to read.
A fun series that moves the story along in the latest sequel. The characters are fun and I’m looking forward to the newest arc in the series. I would suggest the story if you enjoy cultivation novels and this author has been very entertaining to read.
December 23, 2021
Refreshing new start
I really enjoyed this book. It was a fresh start for Isaac and Kat. This journey allowed for Kat to time shine. I loved the different levels depth her character has. This also allows for audience to learn a little more about his mother.
I really enjoyed this book. It was a fresh start for Isaac and Kat. This journey allowed for Kat to time shine. I loved the different levels depth her character has. This also allows for audience to learn a little more about his mother.
March 21, 2022
Fantastic read
I normally hate the story of a once master turned slave. Bruce Sentar walked a fine line with the story of the “how the mighty have fallen” idea. And it turned out fantastic.
I normally hate the story of a once master turned slave. Bruce Sentar walked a fine line with the story of the “how the mighty have fallen” idea. And it turned out fantastic.
March 27, 2022
Excellent book
I love this series there is so much potential in multi world stories and cultivation truly a multiverse even th children can find their own way and start whole new series under the same foundation
I love this series there is so much potential in multi world stories and cultivation truly a multiverse even th children can find their own way and start whole new series under the same foundation
November 12, 2021
Best yet
This book in many was has broken from what the other books did and still in some are the similar. I can't wait for the next one
This book in many was has broken from what the other books did and still in some are the similar. I can't wait for the next one
November 13, 2021
great to see the story continue
Another fun read from the author. It was nice to see the continuing adventures and I can’t wait for the next book.
Another fun read from the author. It was nice to see the continuing adventures and I can’t wait for the next book.
November 13, 2021
Sweet
The book continues in the way that I liked from the beginning i cant wait for the next one to come out
The book continues in the way that I liked from the beginning i cant wait for the next one to come out
November 13, 2021
Good start to the second Arc
A new world, new cultivation, new rules. Starting out as a slave isn't great, but the MC isn't going to let that slow him down for long...
A new world, new cultivation, new rules. Starting out as a slave isn't great, but the MC isn't going to let that slow him down for long...
November 29, 2021
Brilliant!
Great follow up to the story. As interesting as the previous ones. Waiting for hardcover to add to my library :)
Great follow up to the story. As interesting as the previous ones. Waiting for hardcover to add to my library :)
December 18, 2021
Excellent
Fantastic read! I absolutely loved it! I can not wait for the next one to be release! Such great characters in this book!
Fantastic read! I absolutely loved it! I can not wait for the next one to be release! Such great characters in this book!
December 20, 2021
The return to this series brings new girls, new enemies, new power and new adventure while retaining everything great about the first trilogy. I'm so excited for more.
March 6, 2022
Enjoyable and fast paced story
Isaac and his families' story continues in this sequel. A fun story that sets the stage for more to come.
Isaac and his families' story continues in this sequel. A fun story that sets the stage for more to come.
June 10, 2022
Welcome Back. YES!
July 10, 2022
Great book
This is a good book. You shouldy read it. I like the story. The characters are fun. The book is a good read. i enjoyed it alot.. Download or buy it today. why not?
This is a good book. You shouldy read it. I like the story. The characters are fun. The book is a good read. i enjoyed it alot.. Download or buy it today. why not?
June 24, 2023
Outstanding Series!
This book continued the great momentum of the first trilogy, and elevated it to new heights. Definitely a must read series!
This book continued the great momentum of the first trilogy, and elevated it to new heights. Definitely a must read series!
October 12, 2023
Electrifying
This one right here literally kept me reading until I finished. Read at work home and in bed. Now it's 1246 am and I'm ready to dive into the next book..
This one right here literally kept me reading until I finished. Read at work home and in bed. Now it's 1246 am and I'm ready to dive into the next book..
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