My CEO Harem Cultivation System

Mitsuko sat in a lotus position inside one of the available minor portals in Mashiro Temple's Sacred Forest. All around her surroundings, it resembled something akin to a clear and vivid ocean, unperturbed and untouched as she meditated.

This was one of the tranquil spots hidden away from the rest of the world. It had once been filled with numerous dangerous water creatures lingering beneath its still surface, but when one's heart was at peace—there would be nothing to attack.

While the Priestess herself agreed to train and teach him in the ways of bending and moving the life energy of Ao, she also wished for him to actually work hard on it.

It wasn't everyday that one could encounter a rare and talented genius.

The High Priestess might have been initially worried at the appearance of Setsuko's raw connection to the world—the learning curve would stunt the woman in ways that prevented them from overtaking her.

Power was useless without practice and perfection.

—a person invaded her private ground, the man's footsteps plunged into the water—but then Li Yang was walking on the surface of the water without any hindrances.. The man quickly acclimated to the new environment as he had done with the ones he had travelled through earlier.

By far, this one was the most peaceful he could see and experience. He soon briefly wondered about creatures that could do the same as him. The only one that crossed his mind was an insect, and then a lizard that could run through water.

Little thoughts that amused him, until he finally caught the attention of the Priestess who had ordered him to find her.

"Priestess Mitsuko I'm here," he said.

His voice broke through the silence of the dome around them. Her red eyes opened in shock as she stared at the man who easily walked on water. Around him was an aura that rent through the heart and soul of the genius Priestess Mitsuko Hashimaya. 

It took her at least three tries to get it right, and if she had to be honest—it hadn't even been very long since she had arrived here. How did he get here so fast? When she, Rei and Lei had been tasked to find the High Priestess before, it had taken all three of them splitting up to find the location of Rhelea before dawn.

Unprompted, but as if reading her mind, Li Yang inclined his head to her. "I've learned how to read my surroundings with my spiritual senses—no, Ao senses rather." He needed to quit referring it to similarly named cultivation terms, but it was a force of habit.

"Still…" Mitsuko stared at him dumbfounded.

Li Yang glanced around them and smiled briefly, "This place is peaceful unlike those that I have visited. All of them had monsters."

Mitsuko raised her gaze and met his eyes, more seriously this time. She awarded his answer with a nod. "Yes, this place is the only spot safe from… wait, surely you do not mean that you have checked and defeated them all, have you?"

"I checked everywhere," he said.

While he may have not actually defeated everything in his way—due to him running out of time, he still managed to search at almost every spot until he found her. This amount of time was the only one acceptable to him. He wouldn't waste another minute if there was a way to make things easier for him.

Mitsuko looked at him from head to toe, her gaze lingered far too longer at the gashes on his robes. One was across his shoulder and showed off his chest, and another one was a slash on his abdomen that distracted her from the main thing she was supposed to notice.

There were no wounds.

But surely multiple enemies had attacked and caught him off guard! Could his ability to disappear and reappear behind her made it easy? No, even that kind of skill or ability shouldn't have been possible to use at all times.

There were Ao not categorized among the primary colors, rare and often thought of as simply myths and legends—and she categorized his skill as either Black or White Ao. Still, that meant this man was beyond normal.

The Priestess hesitated and stared at him. "Are you really, Li Yang?" she asked him quietly. Mitsuko wasn't sure if this was some sort of hallucination or maybe something… someone else? Surely, she must have gotten bored and started imagining this man as stronger than he ought to be?

"Who else would I be?" He chuckled. Li Yang felt the remainder of the A+ Stellar Boost Pack wearing off. Only two minutes remained until the counter cooled off and he'd be forced to return to his normal state. But other than that, he was satisfied. He had managed to grasp more than simply body enhancement with qi and it was due to her insistence for him to use Ao to find her.

However, the two's thoughts were not aligned.

The Priestess still tried to grasp the situation. She had fought with him earlier and his current strength now was greater than at that time. Had he really been holding back when they first fought in his bedroom?

Mitsuko frowned and stood up and moved towards him. Each of her footsteps barely touched and skidded through the water's surface. She knew she should keep her distance from this person, but her steps still brought her closer. "There is something odd. What if you are some transcendental being or avatar of the long-forsaken and banished Aseroth?"

Li Yang raised a brow at the sudden conclusion. "Then you must think that I'm some god?"

"A banished god returning to seek vengeance." Mitsuko raised her hand and she glared at him. Ao swirled and formed around her hand with a notorious glow of red. "Someone trying to influence and change the world to his own whims and desires—so you've approached unawakened women and tried to use their power for your own."

Li Yang tensed and kept his gaze on her. "That's ridiculous. If that had been the case, I wouldn't have allowed Setsuko and I to enter this temple—the reality of things are far more disappointing than your assumptions."

Mitsuko's eyes narrowed at him. "Then explain your sudden change in power—surely, if you were this powerful then there is no need for training or any of this nonsense. You're not here to learn, but to sabotage the temple, aren't you? It's far easier to destroy something by doing it from the inside."

Perhaps it was just the moment. Or something else that made him think of it as something indiscriminate, but Li Yang snorted at her words and shook his head. "I have no interest here, I am more interested in returning back to my home."

"What?" Mitsuko stared at him, baffled at his words. "Home?"

"You're smart enough to know that simply battling this out would be useless." Li Yang's timer was ticking down, closer and closer to his end and it was only by sheer hesitation that this woman did not attack him immediately. "We've already made an agreement to help one another, let us simply stick to that."

"No."

Li Yang clicked his tongue. If neither of them would reach an agreement, then it might turn to a fight to a death. He could escape with his skill, but then she'd simply chase him down and knew that the temple was where he'd go.

"If you have no intention to harm the temple—then allow yourself to undergo a contract in order to assure one another that our agreement will not go astray. It doesn't matter if you are a god or someone else entirely, contracts hold."

"There is a contract that will reassure you this much?" He raised his brows, it seemed familiar. However, if mere words cannot form a contract here, then it meant that something else made it binding and gave the Priestess assurance.

"Some might call it a dominion-subjugation contract, or a blood contract."

He had heard it before, from Setsuko herself. It was a hypothesis on why the ones awakened by the High Priestess was loyal to Mashiro Temple, he just didn't expect that the Priestess in front of him now wanted it. Li Yang already had a contract—at least, a contract from the Heavens.

That was already more than enough for him.

He didn't need another one.

"You heard me." She eyed him. "But I assume you do not know what this type of contract is—it will be a simple one made in blood. The terms will be dictated between us to ensure there are no betrayals. We will ingest one another's blood, and there will be a punishment if either of us retracts from the contract. If you agree with me, then we can be both at peace."

"How sure are you that I'd simply bow my head and agree with you?" He frowned.

"Didn't you say that you wish for a conversation rather than a battle?" Mitsuko said. 

Her tone was flat, but there was still a wariness within her. The man could escape, but understood that by virtue of numbers, the Mashiro Temple was greater than him. He could also choose to kill her—but he also wished to avoid it. Or was wary of her.

She didn't know, but she was willing to push through regardless.

Li Yang crossed his arms. "First tell me your condition."

"You will not betray and attack the Mashiro Temple and neither will you ask your awakened one, Setsuko to do it for you. You cannot use any form of intermediary to do so, say hire the Kin Hunters to cause an attack or something similar."

It was actually a good one.

However, the need to make an even more beneficial one lingered in his mind.

"The conditions you give me should also be the same for you. No harm shall come to either me or Setsuko when it is something you are aware of and it should be something that you will stop at all costs." he said. He thought about the High Priestess Rhelea at this moment and smiled at Mitsuko. "Do you think you can do that? If neither of us are capable of fulfilling it, does it mean we both die?"

If she'd agree to something like this, then it was perfect, he had no plans to attack the temple and she'd unwillingly act as a shield if there ever came a time for the High Priestess to make a move—and if it was a no, then she'd back out. The two of them could forget all about this.

Either one was fine for him.

—-—-

Author's Note: Contracts! Law and order, er, wish I had the time to play Genshin Impact. "A contract to end all contracts," seems pretty cool. Anyhow, it's just me tying in to Li Yang being someone under a heaven-bound contract. Not that he's a Zhongli. Anyhow, I'm under a contract to write, heh. You're under no obligation whatsoever~ Thank you for reading!