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Lily drew in a cold breath and stated, “It’s snake women¹!”

The other disciples also regained their senses at this moment while many of the female disciples screamed in fear.

Itamoto Yashiro also froze momentarily after watching his little brother’s head fall to the ground.

Snake women emerged from the curtain of the night with two unusual sickles in hand in succession.

“DIE!” Itamoto Yashiro roared in fury and charged towards the snake women after drawing out his katana.

Many brave ones among the other male disciples also drew their katanas and charged towards the snake women.

Even Shimizu wore a cold expression on her face and got up while placing her hand on the handle of Tranquil Bamboo and murmured faintly, “Snake women are said to be the subordinates of the great demon Kiyohime of Kansai, so why have these monsters appeared in Sagami province? From the looks of it, it seems like these snake women are low-grade monsters that consist of superior mid-ranked and inferior high-ranked monsters. If that Kiyohime is also here, we are truly done for and even I would perish instantly. However, it seems like Kiyohime hasn’t come here.”

“Don’t be reckless! These snake women are quite dangerous!” Lily cried out.

However, it was already too late. The disciples had already charged into the snake women valiantly and although they acted crudely in normal times and were hotheads who liked to fight and flirt, they would battle with their lives on the line at the critical moment irrespective of the enemy’s strength. At this moment, Lily felt that the reason the Land of East hadn’t fallen into the hands of the Hundred Demons wasn’t just because of the existence of Lord Kamakura and the Furinkazan.

Although the samurai of the East may lack good and honest people, almost all of them possessed bone-deep bravery!

“Die!”
“Die!”

The male disciples screamed as they charged into the snake women, but these snake women were all 3 meters tall and wielded sickles that were as wide as an archway.

The snake women swung their sickles swiftly before the blades of the disciples could even reach them.

“Spurt—!”
“Spurt—!”

The disciples at the forefront were either sliced into two or lost their limbs!

No matter how brave they were, in the end, it was just the bravery of ordinary men. The disciples who just possessed the strength of sword masters couldn’t even perceive the strength of the enemies, so they simply had no chance against the mid-ranked and high-ranked monsters²!

Itamoto was also infuriated and amassed all his spirit power to strike the snake woman who killed his little brother at the spot where its human torso merged with the snake’s body using his blade.

However, the enemy was an inferior high-ranked monster and stronger than Itamoto by 2-3 ranks!

While the disciples were charging ahead or holding onto their blades or guarding the girls after the battle began, a few giant creatures leaped out from the other side of the woods suddenly.

“Kyaaa—!” A girl on the other side screamed.

These creatures were actually giant heads and were all taller than 2 meters. Their heads seemed human yet inhuman with a huge lifeless eye protruding out at the top, followed by a nose covered in pustules and a wide jaw with teeth as huge as wooden sandals. These fiendish creatures didn’t have anything below their necks and bounced over towards the disciples monstrously.

The bonfire was still lit before the mountain walls and the vicious snake woman laid to one side while the frightening Ōkubi³ laid to the other side. They besieged the alarmed disciples that were putting up a tenacious resistance from both sides; the picturesque scene of the training excursion had changed into the painting of the ends of time in an instant.

Although these Ōkubi were just mid-ranked monsters, they didn’t possess that much offensive power and relied on scaring people and then dragged the unconscious people back into the woods to gobble them up.

The snake women, on the other hand, were too fearsome as they had already killed 4-5 brave disciples in an instant.

“Clang—!” Itamoto’s amateurish strike collided with the thick sickle and his katana snapped off into two pieces.

The intense force behind the strike knocked him to the ground and by the time he raised his head to get up, his eyes greeted the large sickly dropping towards him. In that instant, he thought he was done for already.

“Pfft!” A shadow flashed past swiftly and chopped at the snake woman’s arm. It was none other than Shota who had seized the chance to strike the snake woman while its focus was on Itamoto. However, the skin of an inferior high-ranked monster was too tough, so Shota could only deliver it a bleeding flesh wound.

“F̲u̲c̲k̲! Shota⁴, it’s actually you!” Itamoto was shocked as he wasn’t expecting Shota who didn’t get along with him to save his life at such a critical moment.

“Make no mistake! I didn’t do it to save you, I just found the best chance to kill this snake woman, that’s all!”

“Kill, my a̲s̲s̲! You couldn’t even chop of its hand!”

The snake woman’s tail transformed into a swift afterimage suddenly and lashed out at Shota in the next instant.

“Nanako, sword!” Lily yelled out.

Nanako picked up Crescent Moon that Lily had left at her side and threw it towards Lily.

Skilled as she was, Lily didn’t even need to turn around to grab the sword and broke into a short sprint, that was followed by a sharp increase in speed before a sudden forward jump.

“Crouch, you fool!”⁵ In this desperate moment, Lily didn’t even feel like remembering Itamoto’s name and could only yell at him in such a way.

Itamoto, however, failed to react in time and just stopped down slightly and turned back to take a look when he felt a fierce wind hit his back. A red leaping shadow appeared in his vision and stepped on his shoulder before springing forward towards the snake woman.

The snake woman possessed a strong grudge and had the instincts of a snake, so she brandished her sickle towards the incoming Lily instinctively.

Itamoto raised his head to look forward and thought, It’s over. Miss Kagami can’t dodge in mid-air. It’s just impossible to block the attacks of the sickles that are longer and swifter with a katana!

The two sickles attacked Lily from both sides at the same time.

The katana in Lily’s hand, Crescent Moon, left glowing afterimages as she swung it multiple times in either directions!

“Clash! Clash! Clash!” A few sparks flashed across the darkness of the night!

The snake woman’s sickles were cut into several pieces!

The long katana in Lily’s hand emitted a cold light as it rode the momentum and proceeded to strike the snake woman!

“Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!” A few crimson sword beams flashed across the night, following which the snake woman was dismembered into eight pieces, its green blood splashing in all directions!

And Lily landed past the snake woman.

“What?!” Itamoto was stupefied by this development.

After landing on the ground, Lily swung her katana and sent a crescent sword beam tearing up the ground towards two Ōkubi.

“Pfft! Pfft!” The two Ōkubi exploded into a dozen or so tiny human heads after getting struck by this crescent sword beam and fled in panic.

Lily, however, didn’t pause, and turned into a crimson afterimage as she flitted across the frontline!

Whenever the crimson shadow passed by a snake woman, a crimson sword beam streak across its body, following which the snake woman would fall to the ground while twitching and bleeding heavily!

In just a few breaths, the snake women were all writhing on the ground while curled up and issued mournful heart-wrenching screams before dying.

Shimizu had also sprinted over with the intention of aiding Lily in battle, but she slowed down to a stop and even moved her hand away from her katana as it was already unneeded now.

Shimizu felt that Lily’s swordplay had become even swifter and fiercer in just the few days they hadn’t met… and this shocked Shimizu while also making her feel a bit miffed.

“Is Lil’ Sis Lily truly more talented than me? Why have I run into another bottleneck after that night of enlightenment… was it because I was too impatient and overly avaricious?”

Itamoto collapsed back to the ground while Shota who had been thrashed to the ground by the snake woman got up with much difficulty. The two samurai then looked at the bloodstained bodies of the snake women before them.

The fearsome and powerful creature that seemed undefeatable to them and had broken off Itamoto’s sword with a single strike, killed numerous disciples instantly, and thrashed Shota before he could even react, had been killed by the big-breasted woman in red so simply in a frontal confrontation.

At that moment, Itamoto thought he would definitely die and that the snake women would massacre all the disciples…

“Damn it! You damned monster! How dare you kill my brother! You monster!” Itamoto screamed madly and attacked the body of the snake monster’s leader with his broken blade.

The female disciples sobbed intermittently while kneeling down on the ground with their hands blocking their sobs as they gazed upon the dead bodies of the male disciples while the living male disciples had lifeless looks on their faces with their bodies glistening in sweat under the illumination of the bonfire.

The training area had become a land of massacre instantaneously and then sunken into a deathly stillness in the next moment, only leaving behind the crazed and pained screams of Itamoto who was attacking the dead snake woman with his broken katana.

Lily stepped forward and blocked Itamoto’s broken katana at this moment.

“Enough! It’s already dead.”

Lily flung her red sleeves and Itamoto staggered back a few steps before sitting back on the ground again.

As for Lily, she activated the mystical inscriptions on Crescent Moon and collected the animas of all the snake women into the katana.⁶

1. Silva: It’s a Lamia!!
   Aoi: 蛇女 aka Hebionna. Origin lies in Japanese folklore and they are more apparitions than an actual race of creatures like western Lamias.
2. For reference sake:
   Superior Mid-Ranked is equal to High-Tier Sword Master and Inferior High-Ranked is equal to Low-Tier Sword Saint. Aka late-stage sword master and early-stage sword saint.
3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C5%8Ckubi
4. Robinxen: That’s illegal.
5. Robinxen: No fly! No run! Only crouch!
6. Robinxen: EXP gain!