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Lily’s strike hit with such tremendous force that it sent Jamako crashing into the ground, causing the earth to deform and sending rocks flying skyward.

“Even if you’re at the Celestial Stage, how can you have such a strong defense?” For the first time, the female demon felt that both her and Jamako’s lives were truly at risk. Abandoning any thoughts of monopolizing the lunar crystals, she quickly notified a dozen or so Empyrean Stage powerhouses.

The loss of divine power was so severe that Jamako nearly lost his sanity. Among his peers, no one had ever dealt him such a devastating blow with a single strike!

Jamako had been in Yomi for many years and knew about the legendary beings that resided there, so he had always been careful not to provoke them.

Instantly, he burned more of his divine power, causing his speed to skyrocket as he flew out to prevent Lily from launching another attack.

“I never expected Kagami Lily to be so cunning! All this time, she’s been pretending to be at the Big Dipper Stage, putting on a convincing act just to catch us off guard! She must have already been a powerful Celestial Stage expert¹, and after fusing with several lunar crystals, likely six, her strength has increased even further!”

Jamako knew he couldn’t afford to be careless anymore. He pulled out a taiko drum and began beating it fiercely with his large hands. The thunderous beats released powerful shockwaves, shattering the surrounding mountains and causing the ground to cave in.

Frightened, the female demon retreated to a safe distance. The power of this high-grade spirit artifact drum was terrifying, fueled as it was by the ignition of Jamako’s divine power.

Lily took out the sakura parasol and opened it in front of her. The shockwaves crashed against the sakura parasol, but they were deflected, spreading toward nearby mountain peaks and causing them to crumble.

Lily held up the sakura parasol and charged directly into the taiko drum’s shockwaves. Jamako’s shockwaves struck her repeatedly, but to his surprise, they couldn’t stop Lily.

With no other choice, Jamako retreated swiftly. He lifted the taiko drum and hurled it violently at Lily. The massive drum, as heavy as a Yomi mountain, came crashing toward her.

Lily put away the sakura parasol and spun her body, using one leg as the axis. Her other slender, graceful leg drew a wide arc as she kicked upward with force.

An extremely loud drumbeat resounded as her kick connected. Jamako was shaken to his core, vomiting blood once again.

Lily leaped into the air, soaring above the taiko drum. With another powerful kick, she sent it hurtling back toward Jamako. Jamako waved his iron fan, summoning a mighty hurricane in a desperate attempt to block it.

The taiko drum, now carrying even greater force from Lily’s kick than it had when infused with Jamako’s burning divine power, crashed into his already injured chest, completely shattering the ribs he had just pieced together.

“You wretch! I swear I’ll kill you!” Jamako roared, picking up the taiko drum, burning more of his divine power, and charging toward Lily.

Lily’s gaze was icy as she gripped her sword and thrust it toward Jamako!

“Let’s see if your blade can withstand this!”

Oborozuki Muramasa pierced through the taiko drum with a powerful thrust, its tip plunging into Jamako’s burly arm. Lily twisted the blade sharply and yanked it back!

With a sharp crack, the taiko drum split in half.

Lily’s blade didn’t hesitate, smoothly turning to slash through Jamako’s massive form. The blade struck Jamako’s chest with a heavy blow, tearing it apart and sending blood gushing out like a tidal wave.

“Ah…” The blow drained Jamako, leaving him with less than half of his divine power.

Suddenly, the female demon’s whip lashed out, entangling Lily’s wrist and halting her pursuit of Jamako. Lily gripped her sword with one hand and swung it backhandedly.

A hazy moon blade flew toward the female demon, who struggled to dodge as she was unwilling to release the whip. She didn’t expect the blade light to be so fast and her head was severed in one swift motion!

Decapitated, the female demon flew into a frenzy, burning her divine power. Her head became grotesque, hair disheveled, as she hurtled toward Lily, launching poisonous needles from her gaping, fang-filled mouth.

Lily swiftly retreated to avoid the poisonous needles, but they relentlessly tracked her movements.

Seeing this, Lily grabbed the long whip coiled around her arm and yanked hard. The female demon, refusing to release the whip, was pulled directly into the path of her own needles.

“What?!” The female demon’s poisonous needles embedded themselves into her own body.

Lily yanked the whip once more, pulling the female demon closer. Ignoring the whip tangled around her hand, Lily gripped Oborozuki Muramasa tightly and slashed down with both hands.

Without the protection of divinity, the female demon was split in half by Oborozuki Muramasa.

However, the female demon’s soul had already fled to her severed head. Sensing the hopelessness of her situation, she quickly turned and flew away.

Lily quickly took out Himiko’s Longbow, drew it back fully, and released. The arrow shot forth with a swift whoosh. Infused with hazy lunar force, the arrow pierced through the female demon’s head.

“No…” The female demon’s head fell lifelessly to the ground.

Suddenly, Jamako gathered his energy and appeared behind Lily. She turned to defend herself with her sword, but Jamako grabbed her wrist.

“Hahaha! No matter how strong you are, you can’t match my strength!” Jamako, ignoring the fatal wound on his chest, burned his divine power and sent a heavy punch toward Lily’s face.

This punch carried incredible force!

Unexpectedly, Lily blocked the punch with her elbow.

“What?” Jamako couldn’t believe it. Lily was actually strong enough to block his punch with her elbow? This was a pure physical confrontation! How could she possibly possess such strength?

Lily kicked Jamako away with a powerful blow and immediately leaped after him. She raised Oborozuki Muramasa and slashed down with all her might at the unwilling, terrified Jamako!

A bright, crescent blade of light appeared! It resembled the enigmatic moon! This was another manifestation of lunar power that Lily had mastered after comprehending its heavenly principles and reaching the Big Dipper Stage!

This was arcane lunar force. Arcane lunar force and hazy lunar force weren’t inferior or superior; they simply possessed different characteristics.

Hazy lunar force was ethereal, intangible, and elusive. It could be light or heavy, fast or slow, soft or sharp, concealing endless killing intent and power! Meanwhile, arcane lunar force was lofty and brilliant, specializing in frontal assaults with unparalleled slashing power!

Even as Oborozuki Muramasa cleaved into Jamako’s chest, it couldn’t pierce through the divine protection guarding his spirit sea. His spirit sea was shielded by an incredibly hard, crystal-like divine core, resembling blood spirit magatama, encased in a strange layer of divine light.

Even Lily’s hands throbbed from the force of the recoil.

Although the sword failed to penetrate the divine protection, the violent impact reverberated through the blood spirit jade divine core, leaving Jamako’s spirit sea and soul in turmoil…

For male and genderless deities, whether from Takamagahara or Yomi, their cores were located within their hearts, formed by the crystallization of blood spirit jade, making them extremely tough.

In contrast, female deities possessed softer, more ethereal cores located deep within their lower abdomens. Instead of a hard core, they had a condensation of mist and blood soul fluid, and a special nurturing space called the spirit palace.

When a female deity’s vital point was attacked, they primarily relied on the energy released by the blood soul fluid for defense. The advantage was that if the defense held, the spirit palace would remain intact. However, compared to the blood spirit jade crystals of males, which had decent resistance against direct attacks from divine weapons, female deities were at a disadvantage.

After death, whether male or female, their blood spirit jade crystals or blood soul fluid would scatter across the world, condensing into blood spirit magatama. If the fragments were insufficient to form a complete magatama, they would instead become magatama fragments.

Naturally formed blood spirit magatama veins also existed in Yomi and Takamagahara, but they were extremely rare. When discovered, they often sparked world-shaking battles!

Jamako’s eyes rolled back as he collapsed to the ground. Although not yet dead, his spirit sea had been severely damaged by the impact, and most of his divine power had dissipated. He could barely remain conscious. Once his divine power depleted further, he wouldn’t even be able to maintain his divinity.

Lily noticed a strange power flowing out of Jamako’s body, coalescing into a transparent, glowing ancient crimson jade plaque, engraved with jōmon patterns.

The jade plaque began sinking toward the ground, as if preparing to burrow into it.

Lily instinctively tried to capture it with her spiritual power, but found it ineffective. Remembering the sakura parasol, she quickly took it out and opened it, activating its anima-absorbing power. The plaque resisted, but Lily infused her own power into the parasol, gradually overcoming the resistance and drawing the plaque inside. Without hesitation, Lily stored the parasol in her mirror space, imprisoning the plaque to prevent its escape.

Suddenly, a black shadow darted toward Lily’s feet! Instinctively, she brandished Oborozuki Muramasa.

The blade pierced through the female demon’s head, pinning it to the ground.

The female demon had intended to bite Lily’s bare feet with her poisonous fangs one last time, but she was discovered and finished off with a single sword strike. This was the first powerful expert at the Empyrean Stage that Lily had ever slain.

Shortly after, Jamako’s spirit sea completely collapsed, and he too succumbed.

Lily’s consciousness entered the mirror space. Though none of the sisters were present, she didn’t concern herself with that. She opened the sakura parasol, confident the plaque couldn’t escape in this realm.

In the mirror space, the plaque emitted a faint light and transformed into a small, two-inch-tall statue—a hideous, fierce-looking purgatory evil, yet remarkably lifelike.

Lily found it very strange. Unsure of what the statue was, she decided to store it away in the storage room.

At that moment, two successive explosions sounded from outside. Lily quickly returned her attention to the outside world.

Fluctuations surrounded the corpses of Jamako and the female demon. Lily didn’t know what was happening, but she noticed piles of blood-red, translucent objects scattered around them.

Upon closer inspection, they were all blood spirit magatama. Lily counted them, finding 36 blood spirit magatama around Jamako and 18 around the female demon.

She waved her hand, collecting them all. Though there were only 36 and 18, the size and weight of these blood spirit magatama were much greater than any Lily had obtained before.

Each one was equivalent to ten of the blood spirit magatama used to summon Kagura’s power, including those from when Lily was sold into slavery. In other words, by Takamagahara and Yomi’s standards, the blood spirit magatama Lily obtained from these two major Yomi powerhouses equaled 360 and 180 magatama, respectively.

1. Robinxen: No… you’re getting even more distant from the truth with this theory…