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Lily opened her eyes the moment blood spilled.

“Shota?!” Lily witnessed the bisected body of Shota fall from the stalagmite and for some reason, she felt a powerful grudge from there which was completely harmless to her.

She didn’t know about Shota’s feelings for her and will never know them now that he was dead.

“Kyah—!!!” A female disciple’s scream echoed throughout the gloomy cave¹.

The sounds of battle and cries echoed out in the torch-lit cave in the next moment.

“Why didn’t I find anything with my spirit probes?!” Lily also felt alarmed and unsheathed Crescent Moon.

Shimizu also stood beside Lily and grabbed the handle of her blade.

However, the cave was too dark and the torches ahead of them kept swaying here and there because of the battle. The disciples of the dojos could be seen raising their blades to fight the unseen enemies while a few fled towards Lily’s direction. A few red Hannya masked shadows flickered through the passage and appeared in the vicinity of the disciples amidst the battle to reap their lives.

These red Hannya masked figures were taller than ordinary humans by a lot and held massive swords in their hands. However, they were still extremely fast with their movements and each one of them was clad in eldritch energies that placed their strength on the level of early-stage sword saints.

“Aaaah—!”
“Argh—!”

The disciples were no match for these demon ninjas who were on the level of a sword saint and thus perished one after the other.

Lily and Shimizu arrived at a tacit understanding and rushed to the forefront by dashing through the flustered disciples.

Although they hadn’t surfaced within the spirit probes previously, the eldritch energies beaming off them within the darkness was clearly perceptible right now. It was likely that these Hannya masked demon ninjas possessed some kind of stealth technique that allowed them to hide from a spirit probe.

However, it seemed that they would get discovered immediately as long as they used their spirit power to fight.

Lily circled around a disciple who was scared out of his senses while holding his sword in the darkness. He didn’t know how to employ a spirit probe, so he could only wait to battle the enemy that might appear at any time.

Lily instructed in a soft and calm voice as she circled past him, “Tell everyone to flee towards the front.”

Lily’s calm voice that was accompanied with spirit power seemed to seep into the disciple’s soul in the middle of this loud and chaotic battle. It brought the disciples back to his senses immediately and prompted him to pass Lily’s words to the disciples around him.

Lily had already reached the end of the ranks by now and Shota’s bisected body laid at the corner, the illumination of the torches reflecting its miserable state from time to time.

Lily’s heart filled with fury and although he wasn’t a disciple related to her, she couldn’t take his miserable death lying down!

A shadow appeared before Lily all of a sudden within the darkness, the tight-fitting black robe of the demon ninja paired with the malevolent red Hannya mask catching her eye instantly.

The ninja heaved the massive sword and chopped it towards Lily sideways.

Lily ducked down to dodge the attack and this caused her hair to block her vision for a moment, but she unleashed her crimson spirit power and illuminated the walls of the pitch-black cave in the next moment with a light that was even brighter than that of the torches. The red Hannya masked demon ninjas who were hidden in the darkness were all exposed momentarily because of the illumination.

The sword in Lily’s hand swerved out with astonishing speed and although it seemed like a powerless attack from her upright body, the heavy strike landed on the demon ninja’s blade with fierce momentum and sliced through it as if it were nothing, following which the crimson blade clad in scorching fury cut through the ninja’s body.

Although the enemy possessed the strength of an early-stage sword saint, Lily’s blade was too strong and sharp. The demon ninja’s blade, on the other hand, was just a grade 3 blade. Although demons possessed a high innate strength, they were in most part creatures that relied on their bodily strength and these demon ninjas also lacked good weapons.

After all, a good sword was the culmination of a human grandmaster.

As such, the Hannya masked ninja welcomed death!

Lily sensed the sounds of chains snaking towards her within the gloomy darkness suddenly at this moment!

She flipped backward lithely and dodged the attack, following which the heavy and sharp sickle smashed at the rocky ground where Lily stood previously.

“A chain-sickle! It’s the person who killed Shota!”

Lily reacted quickly and stepped on top of the sickle that had landed on the ground and even though the opponent hidden in the darkness tried to pull it with all their strength, they failed to even make it budge.

Lily’s hair floated up in anger. She kicked up the bisected sword of the dead demon ninja before her and caught it with her left hand before nailing it to the ground through one of the links of the chain-sickle, locking it in place.

After that, she leaped up and stepped across the chain of the chain-sickle to reach the sickle user, who was a herculean demon ninja that was about 3 meters tall and wore the same malevolent red Hannya mask as the other demon ninjas. However, the demon ninja’s face that was looking up at the red-robed samurai women walking on the chain was filled with a bit of fear right now.

“Let me see what kind of evildoer you are under this mask!” A thin beam of red sword light slashed out from Lily’s Crescent Moon.

“Clank!”

The chain was cut off and the red Hannya mask was also split into two halves. As it slid down, a fiendish and pale, human yet inhuman face with its head covered in a black head-covering came into view with a pair of eyes as dark as the night that were affixed onto Lily with a cold snake-like gaze.

Lily stabbed her crimson blade into the opponent’s heart at the same time she landed on the ground.

Lily could stab her opponent’s heart with precision without the slightest error even if she didn’t have a proper footing!

Shimizu had also transformed into a white illusionary shadow right now and made rounds through the cave with Tranquil Bamboo in hand, leaving dead bodies of the Hannya masked demon ninjas in her wake.

Shimizu had already practiced the mystic swordplay to the seventh stage by now, so her strength had increased greatly, and she had also broken free from the haze of being defeated by Uesugi Rei!

Although these ‘elite Hannya demon ninjas’ excelled in battling within the darkness and had dealt with the other disciples with ease, they were no match for Lily and Shimizu!

More than ten sword saint ranked demon ninjas had perished in just a few exchanges.

And this was also a considerable loss for the faction that had attacked Shimizu and Lily on this occasion.

“Hehehe. I never thought the two of you would become so strong in just a few days… Mirror girls are indeed quite fearsome and need to be eliminated as soon as possible!”

A burst of demure yet somewhat bewitching laughter emerged from the darkness.

Lily felt like she had heard this voice somewhere before.

A purple light appeared within the darkness along with a powerful eldritch aura and illuminated the whole passageway of the cave.

“I-It’s the abominable demon kunoichi from that night!” Lily recognized the enemy immediately.

Although the sexy woman who appeared from within the darkness wore a golden Hannya mask, the voice and the feeling of the spiritual fluctuations from the woman assured Lily of her conjecture.

Shimizu had also realized who their enemies were at this moment, “Hmph! So, the real purpose behind bringing out such forces was me! This is indeed too ironic. The elders delegated me and my little sister to protect these disciples, but they ended up getting harmed because of me.”

“If you know that, why not hand over your ancient mirrors and surrender obediently?” Yuki Mayumi stated coldly.

Lily was stunned after hearing this, “Mirrors? It seems that the fact that I’m a mirror girl has indeed leaked already and reached the ears of the Hundred Demons so quickly. From our previous clash, it seems like this demon kunoichi doesn’t have the ability to sense the aura of the ancient mirror. Thus, it must have been because of the statement from Lord Kamakura. Oh, Lord Kamakura, you bestowed Lily with so many benefits and attached so much importance to me, but why did you have to state my identity as well…”²

1. Robinxen: As an isekaijin I can make a test of courage reference here and score a girl!
2. Silva: For all we know, since he’s supposed to be “all-knowing”, it’s either part of his plan to lure out Hundred Demons or to get rid of the mirror girls.

   Judging from what a jerk that Lord Kamakura is, I’d say it’s the latter.
   Robinxen: You know it never actually crossed my mind he might be attempting to eliminate them…