My CEO Harem Cultivation System

"Even the Underworld rejects these Sluaghs," Thana said.

Li Yang pulled his blade out from a creature and stared at her. "What?"

All around them hung an even thicker stench of death. If this place was an immaterial plane full of Spirits from various paths of the universe, now the cloud of demise and finality was prevalent and overrode the blank state.

The Grim Reaper placed her foot on top of the spirit's chest and ignored its attempts at mauling her with its crooked beak. Her eyes glowed like pale stars and shone down on the dark entity's body.

She held the scythe in her hand tightly and stared down at the creature. Almost ignoring the man's question in lieu of staring down at the creatures hindering her duties.

"And so they roam freely and take the weak ones to their ultimate deaths. Where did you take this Luo Ju Di? Do you know of her name—of this woman's life?"

It responded with a monstrous screech.

Li Yang's own blade trickled with the warmth of blood… some of which were his own, but he only paid attention to her words and didn't mind his injuries. He glanced around him in these pseudo-city streets and found it littered with hundreds of these Sluagh's corpses.

In the back of his mind, the Achievement of a Rampaging Beast - II was already prodding him to check the rewards, but he was still wary of his surroundings.

Somehow, a vast majority, if not of all the creatures here contained the same Afterworld Dissolution Skill he had—evading his blade for quite some time and then striking him hard.

There was only the Grim Reaper's presence and his own luck that he survived this mess, he doubted it was possible to do alone. For now, he focused on the remaining Sluagh left alive and found no intelligence in its eyes.

Only a never-ending flurry of horrendous sights and fury was in its vision.

"I don't think trying to converse with this beast will do us any good," he said.

"Yeah, attempting to interrogate them is worth nothing." Thana spat, even though she had tried and it didn't work. "Best kill it. Would you do it? I've noticed that you've been lazing about and making me kill the vast majority of them."

"It does seem to be your area of expertise," he said. "I believe it's best to let professionals do their work without any interference."

"Did your people like you having this kind of sassy rebuttal? Just slice its throat, will you?"

Li Yang's body felt heavy in this place, a sign that it really wasn't meant for a living person at all, some kind of afterlife restriction that kept him slower and as if he was moving through a thick pressure of water—but he still struck his sword down the creature's throat.

The results were as nauseating as it could be in the real world.

But Thana didn't bat an eye at the violence and simply looked around them.

"This is the three hundredth Sluagh we've encountered, and we've yet to see any signs of them flocking together in their little herd. If we continue down the road at this rate, we might never see her again."

Li Yang looked up to her face.

Those casual and careless words were thrown so easily.

He refused to go back without Chunhua's mother. "We can't stop looking, Miss Grim Reaper. We have to find her—"

"It's Thana for you," Thana finally said it and averted her gaze. 

It was an unnecessary bit to share her name, but she still said it. It was just unfair for her to know everything about him, but for him to call her improperly. 

The Grim Reaper continued informing the man. "This plane is far larger than yours and we have no compass, no direction at all to lead us to her… things would be different if you could tell us where she is."

"All I know is that she was taken by the beast that Chunhua told me." Li Yang's jaw hardened. "I have nothing more at my disposal and I already tried earlier to gather items to find her. The best way I've done it is by summoning you—but even that was a gamble on my part."

"Do you have some sort of connection with her? Spiritual or anything at all?"

"She's the mother of my child." Li Yang said, but found it unhelpful at all.

Even he knew that was all the link he ever had with her.

What else was Luo Ju Di to him? Their memories from when they first met was never something that stuck in his mind at all, instead his attention was on somebody else back then.

She only re-entered his life a year ago to ask him to be a father, never wanting to be involved with him as well.

Thana crossed her arms as the Sluagh beneath her disappeared into the darkness. She barely managed to snag the dark feather from the creature and collected it into her bag.

"I'm asking you if you love her—what if she's your soulmate or something? Connected by something like fate or destiny intertwining the two of you?" Thana found herself asking. "It might be possible to track her down using a shared connection."

"What if I could do that?" Li Yang asked, suddenly remembering something in the Shop. "Connect a string that'll connect me to Luo Ju Di? That'll help us find her in this plane."

"It has to be a pre-existing one… and how did you even get yourself a thread of fate?" Thana stared hard at him.

There were many heroes and legends true, the Grim Reaper had heard of them all. But to actually meet someone as fabled as the person in front of her now was still a little—well, annoying to the Grim Reaper's time conscious side.

Li Yang was thinking back on the red string of fate and he resummoned the System's Shop to check on it.