"Do you want to start first?" Yashito said.
Aeryn was becoming more and more irritated by his behaviour.
"Don't you think you underestimate me too much? But if you want it so badly, I'll make the first move to get rid of you faster."
She charged at him at extremely high speed, but lost her balance and fell to the ground beside him.
"Um, are you okay?"
"S-be calm, I'm fine."
It was the first time Aeryn had been able to use her Qi, and she couldn't control it at all. She'd already read and practiced a lot of books and made so many breakthroughs that she should be at the level of True Immortal. So the seals prevented her from feeling the Qi in her body, which was overflowing.
She got us and tried to land a hit on him but she didn't manage to amplify the sword with Qi so when Yashito built a wall of ice, thinking she was going to make an extremely strong attack, Aeryn's sword slashed back at her, almost hitting her in the forehead.
Yashito was as surprised as Aeryn, who was lost in her thoughts as to why she couldn't control her power.
"Are you sure you're alright? Do you want us to continue tomorrow?" Yashito said.
"No, no, I'm fine, I'm fine, let's move on." Aeryn replied.
All this time Yashito hadn't attacked her, not even once. So it was time for him to make a move. He built five ice pillars above his head and shot them toward Aeryn.
She strengthened her grip and raised her sword, ready to slice the ice pillars in two. Suddenly, the sword began to glow as some sort of particles from Aeryn's hands merged into the blade of the sword. The golden light emitted by the sword became even more dazzling, so that the whole place was illuminated by the light of the sword.
When Yashito saw this, he took a step to the right to stay out of the sword's reach.
Aeryn didn't know what to do and released all the energy by making a slash into the wind with the sword. The moment the blade touched the ground, a golden slash appeared where Aeryn had made her move, and moved forward, cutting through everything in its path. Trees, railings, the ground - nothing could stop the slash.
After making its way through the garden and across the street, it hit the mountain from behind, and as soon as it hit it, there was an explosion that blew up half the mountain.
Aeryn remained in that position without moving even a bit. Either she was unable to move after that powerful attack, or she didn't want to after what she'd unleashed.
Yashito, on the other hand, was glad that he'd decided to move away from the sword's reach. If that thing hit him, there would be nothing left of him.
"Okay, we don't have to continue our duel. I have gathered enough information."
"Y-yea, I agree, let's stop here." said Aeryn in a shaky voice.
They went into the house and Aeryn sat down on a chair in front of a table. Yashito went into the kitchen to make something for her.
While Yashito was gone, she began to wonder about him. Why did he stop the duel just like that? Was he afraid of her power? Nah, if he wanted to, he could easily finish her off from her point of view. But she'd soon find out what his intentions were.
He came back and offered her a cup of tea. To her great surprise, it was the Mahjon tea she'd ordered in the cafeteria. But how did he know how to make it? And what it was? The first time she mentioned it, he'd asked what it was. Strange.
Yashito saw that she was deep in thought, and it was evident from his words.
"I can see that you're quite confused. Well, let me explain everything to you."
Aeryn raised her head and turned to Yashito as quickly as she could.
"You aren't the first cultivator to come from the past. There are others who've come before you and have much greater power than you. But they'd the help of the system to support them, so they quickly became the most powerful beings. Your strength is almost as great as the others four years ago. They now have the title of the Celestial God. By the way, what realm are you in?"
"Um, I think I'm in the realm of the True Immortal."
Yashito, who was drinking his tea, spilled the tea from his mouth and almost choked.
"W-what the hell? T-true Immortal?
"What happened? Didn't you say their power was much greater than mine?"
"When they arrived here, they were only at the Nascent Soul realm. How is it that you're in the realm of True Immortal? And most importantly, why can't you control your power?"
"Ah, that, hehe. Okay, listen."
So Aeryn decided to tell Yashito the truth about her. From the moment he hadn't killed her, she knew she could trust him. If she told him the truth, she could also build a better friendship with him, and maybe he'd tell her his story.
After Aeryn finished her story, Yashito took a serious look at her and said, "I see, that explains a lot."
"N-now Yashito, would you like to tell me your story?"
Of course, Aeryn waited for Yashito to decline because he couldn't trust her yet.
"You aren't like the others, so I'll tell you."
That was unexpected.
"The first cultivators from the past appeared ten years ago. There were two women and three men. When they arrived here, they all acquired a system similar to ours, but they didn't know how to use it. But one of them figured it out and used it to become stronger. And in just four years, he became the strongest person on earth, touching the middle of the Heavenly God realm. He was the protector of this world, but he became obsessed over something, and then everything changed."
Yashito paused slightly, which Aeryn interpreted as a sign that something bad was about to follow.
"He started looking for something, and anyone who got in his way was wiped out. The other cultivators tried to stop him, but he was too strong for them to handle. Fortunately, we had the rankers who could almost match his strength. So with everyone's help, we managed to defeat him. But in his final moments, he decided to destroy himself to take the others down with him. One cultivator sacrificed his life to save the other cultivators and rankers. I was ten years old at the time. Although the cultivator managed to save the others, he couldn't prevent him from exploding and taking a third of the city with it."
He paused again and continued.
"I was lucky that I wasn't in range of the explosion at the time... But my parents weren't so lucky. From that moment on, I began to loathe cultivators."
At that moment, Aeryn felt the atmosphere around her grow heavier.
"But you're different from them, you don't seek power, you just want to return to your timeline. That's why if you help me find out what drove this cultivator mad, and destroy it, to help me prevent such an incident from happening again."
Aeryn could relate to that, because she hated cultivators too. Without them, none of this would have happened. Her parents would still be alive and she'd be living a normal, carefree life.
"We have a deal." Aeryn said in a determined voice.
"Glad to hear that." Yashito replied and they both shook hands.
"Also, I wanted to ask you, how do you know all that about this incident?"
"That's a story for another time."
Yashito rose from the chair and left the room, leaving Aeryn behind who didn't know what to do or say.
But he returned a moment later with a pillow and a blanket.
"Follow me." He said.
They crossed the hallway and arrived in a room with a bed, a closet, a bathroom on the left and a large TV.
"Let's just sleep for now. It's been a tiring day for both of us." He said and put the pillow and blanket on the bed.
"Oh, okay."
"Well, see you tomorrow. I'll take you to register as a hunter."
"Hunter? What's that?"
"I'll explain that to you tomorrow. But for now, go to sleep." He said and left the room.
Aeryn stood still for a while, staring at the door. Then she decided to sleep. Not because she was tired, but because she wanted the next day to come faster, because she was terribly impatient about what the future held for her.