My CEO Harem Cultivation System

"...What do I want?" Thana said and stared at the man. Details about Li Yang quickly came to her mind's information and she quickly filled in the gaps. She spat at him. "I do not want your money and I do not want anything from you—"

"You don't have to want anything from me. But I doubt that you'll give me what I want without something in exchange—so name it," Li Yang said.

There were people like him.

Thana tilted her head at this man and resisted the urge to sigh. "You see this world in terms of transactions, do you not? You think that everything is merely exchanged in this world and that's how you've succeeded in the business world."

Li Yang frowned at her, but nodded. "It is a rare thing for anybody to do something without an equivalent exchange."

"Yes, yes," Thana said.

"Then there is something—"

She planted the scythe on the ground and smiled at him. "But for a being of my stature, that cannot be the case. You can already tell that I am a Grim Reaper—someone who is not besought by physical desires at all, I do not hunger, thirst or even engage in the procreational acts that your people engage in. I lack nothing and the act of desiring something else is irrelevant and unattainable to me."

The CEO stared silently at her.

Thana really didn't know why she even bothered in this conversation with this man. She was wasting her time and that was of great essence.

She took a step forward and beheaded a ghost attempting to consume its fellow ghosts to power itself up. 

As she stepped in front of the circle, the first layer of the ancient runic magic slowly began to disintegrate. She raised her scythe and pointed it at him—and she hardly blinked as the man blocked it with his sword.

This Li Yang was surely having enough bravado simply because they were being watched by his sponsors, patrons or whatever these Gods were to him.

Thana stared blankly at him.

"Understand that whatever it is that you and the ones that are watching you are doing—it does not concern me at all. I am simply here to do my job and I do not wish or want for anything at all."

"What about a conversation?" Li Yang asked. 

"Huh?"

"If you really have no desires at all whatsoever in the realms of physical desires—then I suppose this conversation of ours is merely a way to satisfy your mental needs?"

Thana's grip tightened around her scythe as she pressed the cold glint of metal on his chest. It seemed like he allowed himself to be touched by the metal because he wasn't even worried about his life.

Perhaps he was aware that a Grim Reaper couldn't do anything to a person who wasn't going to die yet and that added to his bravery. He was confident that the Grim Reaper was only trying to unnerve him.

Thana's plan wasn't working at all.

"Am I correct?" he asked her.

Li Yang realized that her movements were faster than his. Which should have been obvious, as they were on two different levels and stages. They were two different species. 

But his face betrayed to show any signs of discomposure at all.

In a way, his face tended to be schooled and frozen in that annoying blank look. And he had focused on simply doing what he at least knew best. Or assumed he knew it was the best thing for him.

Figuring out what the other party wanted.

Li Yang had always been used to listening to other people's demands and fulfilling that expectation. If that was what was required at this moment to find a way to Luo Ju Di and bring her back—then so be it.

"What are you trying to say?" Thana frowned at him. "I've lived a countless eon more than you—there is nothing remotely interesting in a conversation that I can get from you. If anything, this conversation of ours is simply me humoring a child."

Li Yang smiled for once.

"Then I can't help but simply wish that the others were like you—the ones I've met so far have been so extremely bored that I've been nothing but a way to pass their time. I may have wrongly assumed that it was the same for you, or for beings who didn't worry about anything."

Thana stared at his face, taken aback by the man's words… but mostly his smile. It was a disarming one. Not a lot of people smiled in the face of death—or its representatives. 

She huffed. "Not everyone can be like—"

The dark clouds above them grew even darker and lightning expelled from the skies. The Grim Reaper gritted her teeth as lightning exploded right in the center of the runic circle and destroyed the Death Circle.

Both she and Li Yang arrived at two other buildings.

This wasn't a freak storm at all.

"Hah, you've offended some Observers." The snooty voice came from the 'Panda' creature. "Better watch your tongue—"

The Grim Reaper ground her teeth and stared at Li Yang. "You know what, if you guys will keep bothering me about this Afterlife Train Station then fine. Let's just go there to settle this." 

"... You'll do that?" he asked, sounding a little perplexed.

A scoff escaped her lips. "Good to confirm that you aren't some kind of amnesiac Grim Reaper or whatever—you can actually show emotions, huh?"

"I'm here to save a person I know." Li Yang said.

He sounded a little offended enough to make the Grim Reaper snort. "Oh let me guess, is she some kind of lover of yours? Got to save her before she arrives in the Underworld huh? Humans."

Li Yang didn't give her a reply and simply arrived right next to her. After a second, he spoke with an awkward shrug. "She's the mother of my daughter."

"Sounds like some kind of story, huh?"

"It's not much."

"I wasn't actually serious. I've already heard and seen countless people's lives, what could have even been the difference with yours?" Thana slashed her scythe through the air and watched the fabric of the world get cut apart. 

Li Yang stared at the new wave of energy that was expelled out from the tear through the world. It was unlike anything that he experienced before. He thought that the energy waves in Telriah were already abundant, but it seemed like this place was just brimming with energy.

Thana threw him a look. "Alright, step right in and we'll get you to your destination. Try not to be a burden as there are entities that might attempt to steal your life."

"Noted," he said.

The Grim Reaper pursed her lips at him, thought about saying something but then decided against it. Finally, the two of them entered the portal.

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In Taiga's perspective—the Bossman was kidnapped by some kind of evil witch. Her eyes widened and she rushed towards the tear through space. Unlike last time, she wasn't going to let Li Yang slip away from her fingers again.

"I won't let you go again, Bossman!"

The Tigress Spirit made it into the closing gap right before it shut itself.

The world that they were familiar with was soon left behind them.