A beautiful woman waiting for a man in his room, in his very own bed often led one to jump into a certain conclusion—she wanted to sleep with him. But this only reminded him of the movies where a husband or child would go home at dawn and end up with his wife or mother waiting for him.

This was the ambiance that Mitsuko Hashimaya provided.

"Have I kept you waiting for too long?" he asked. Li Yang only raised a brow at the Priestess, exhibiting an air of only mild curiosity.

Mitsuko blinked, but then frowned. "Not too long—but you must understand that I am not here for silly questions. Who are you?"

"I'm Li Yang."

Her lips twitched in frustration. "Please do not think that you can get away with living here with nobody confronting you for your sins.. For your very nature is an anomaly in this world that we live in."

Li Yang blinked. Had she caught on fast to the idea that he was from another world? Not necessarily. But.. "I do not understand what you are referring to. What sins have I committed?"

"You killed one of unblemished snow rabbits living in the sacred forest and have trespassed into our grounds—but more than that, you fooled me into thinking that someone in the temple had disobeyed our laws against harming the holy creatures when it was you all along."

He wanted to contradict it.. but the memory of killing a rabbit did pop back in his mind. "How did you decide that it was me?"

"Your aura," Mitsuko said. Her gaze hardened on him even as she motioned and gestured, a beautiful rose-quartz like energy streamed around her. "The Ao around you.. while it does emanate across all living creatures, only women are supposed to harness it. But you—at the inn, you were the one who had awakened her powers, didn't you? It matched the same traces of Ao left when you killed the rabbit and left."

The people around here were truly fast, or maybe he had failed to clean up his tracks as cleanly as he could. Li Yang's sword was strapped in the side of his robe, and the itch to procure it in his hands was present—but it was only if it descended into a fight.

"What do you plan to do then, Priestess?" he asked.

Mitsuko stood up from his bed, regally lifting her head to eye him. "What to do with you? Someone who is not meant to actually exist in this world? An unforgivable anomaly?"

If it was a fight to the death.. Li Yang couldn't help but think of what would happen to Setsuko. Would they consider her impure and tainted because it was him who awakened her and not some other woman?

He ground his teeth for a moment, "Whatever it is—leave Setsuko out of this."

She tilted her head at him and smiled. "Oh, you want me to simply ignore her? Really. Unbelievable that someone in your position has time to make demands with me. You are in a bad spot, Li Yang. If I were to report this to my superiors, death can only be a hair breadth away from you. I do not think that you are also capable of defeating me."historical

His fingers twitched over the hilt of his weapon. She did not seem to be bluffing—if she was one of the trusted people of the High Priestess, then it did speak of her ability even if he had hardly seen it himself.

What were his options?

"Throw that sword down now." Mitsuko's tone contained authority.

Or rather, the air around him suddenly made a heavy-like pressure that held him down. It was like an invisible hand pressing him down into the very spot he was rooted in and save for him summoning a shroud of qi to cover him—he might have fallen head first into the ground or to his knees.

It was powerful, surely, but not the same as when he faced Setsuko's energy blasts.

Mitsuko had no idea of how well-learned this man was and if anything, she would assume it into someone not adept like her.. but the sudden intensity of her Ao hammering the man down—it couldn't do anything to him.

He was still standing despite her aura.

A thin layer of Ao enshrouded his body in a density and finesse that was worthy to be acknowledged. He could do it better than a good number of people in the temple—but she wasn't just anybody here.

"Stand down if you want to be spared," she said. "A man who can only use Ao to enhance his physical abilities is of a lower class than mine." Mitsuko could easily win this if that was all he could do.

Child's play.

Out of the seven Ao Energy types, hers was of the unique variant and she had trained for so long under the temple to be outclassed by someone she barely met. She had worked too hard for this situation to be used against her.

Li Yang could feel the Ao around him becoming denser and heavier, almost visible to one's naked eye—but she probably didn't keep the Ao in the same intensity at where she was standing. A sudden spike of his own qi blasted around him to break through the nearest hold of her Ao and he dashed forward.

She had concentrated all the Ao at his specific position, but now the man broke through her aura and pulled out his sword, he quickly held it against her neck.

There was no time to be a gentleman.

It was only fair to attack those who attacked him first.

Mitsuko looked at him in mild surprise—her concentration was needed then to make him submit. It was mildly peeving to the Priestess. "Do you think that you can simply aim a sword at me and think it's enough to make me bend to your will?"

It was a trick question.