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The broken deck reached its tipping point and eventually flipped over. Lily was disquieted by the sudden chain of events. She swiftly ran to the underside of the hull and scaled her way to the top of the broken wooden keel.

The intimidating carp spirit stood atop the water’s surface, swells of violent waves swashing about its feet.

Peak Permanence Stage Archdemon!

Lily’s heart trembled. That was an archdemon who was only a half-step away from achieving the Throne Stage— much stronger than the Later Stage of Permanence! Although the gap sounded small, the difference in strength between the two realms was vast.

In normal circumstances, such strength far outclassed her own but her opponent so happened to be a water demon as well. Lily had no confidence to leverage a win in an underwater battle.

“Sister Shimizu!” Lily was also worried about her sister, but the carp’s hefty frame was wedged between them. She could only see the broken wreckage of the ship being devoured by the curtain-like mist below. Adding to her consternation, numerous pairs of glowing yellow eyes emerged from the depths. The kappas quickly encircled the broken halves of the ship.

“Who are you? I won the treasure with my own strength so why does it matter to you?” Lily was aware that it was impossible to defeat this carp spirit in a short amount of time. Shimizu’s safety still weighed heavily on her mind so she could only try and placate the situation.

“Blasted Mirror Girl! We water demons don’t concern ourselves with matters relating to the mirror girls. However, you brazenly barged into our territory and stole our treasures, even going to the extent of nearly killing my friend, Kyūbōzu. Do you still shamelessly say that this matter has nothing to do with me? I heard that you’re the most beautiful woman in East Nation. If you willingly offer all your treasures to me and become my underwater slave girl, I will spare your life. Otherwise, I will feed you to the fishes at the bottom of Lake Biwa!” The carp spirit’s thunderous voice roused the jaunting waves.

Lily’s face darkened. It was pointless to reason further with this demon.

“No, I can’t wait any longer.”

Both the hull under Lily’s feet and the prow on the other side were rapidly sinking.

Many samurai and merchants, even the samurai of the Maro dojo, either jumped or fell into the lake. However, Lily saw no signs of Shimizu.

Lily’s gaze sharpened, “Whatever demon you are, get out of my way!”

She leaped forward without hesitation, wanting to rush past the carp spirit’s blockade. Suddenly, a silver thread entangled her ankles and caused her to lose balance mid-air. Lily hurriedly flared her spiritual energy to shake loose the bindings, but the carp spirit had already reacted. As if a massive pillar, the long-handled sword swung towards Lily. It was difficult to avoid the strike mid-air so she could only block.

However, two jade balls spun over and shackled Lily’s wrists with silver threads, seriously interfering with her blocking posture.

BOOM—!!!

The mountainous impact was overwhelming— it was an attack backed by the Peak Permanence Stage and the power of water! The huge sword ruthlessly slammed into her Crescent Moon, causing the top-grade katana to grate and suffer a crack under immense pressure!

Although Lily possessed a hundred times her regular spiritual defense, the cumulative strength of a peak stage expert who was empowered by the substantial water attribute far out-paced her limits of resistance. Through the fog of dizziness, Lily felt her bones ache as she was sent flying for hundreds of meters.

Lily’s consciousness blurred for a while. The force behind the archdemon’s strike was nothing to scoff at, and her sloppy defense resulting from Ui’s hampering did little to remedy the blow.

Her body skidded across the water for a few meters before submerging. After a few moments, Lily managed to regain her bearings and swam up to the surface. Unfortunately, the first thing she saw was the speeding figure of the carp spirit. He controlled and surfed the raging waves while heading straight for her!

Just as Lily prepared to respond, her slender waist was entangled again, causing her to issue an indignant cry.

“B̲a̲s̲t̲a̲r̲d̲! That b̲i̲t̲c̲h̲ keeps attacking me at critical moments; so despicable!” Lily inwardly cursed.

However, the carp spirit didn’t care about Lily’s current plight and quickly arrived in front of her. While she had only emerged up to her chest, the carp spirit directly tread the water’s surface, causing him to look huge from her perspective.

Although Lily felt like a fish in the water, she was not the opponent of a Peak Permanence Stage water demon at all. Adding to her dismay, Ui kept harassing her in the dark from time to time.

Should I use the Record of One Hundred Demons?

Too bad; the massive sword was already falling towards her. There simply wasn’t enough time to unfold and activate the scroll.

Lily flung Crescent Moon in Ui’s perceived direction and exploded her spirit power to escape the mesh of threads. At the same time, Evil Slayer Yasutsuna appeared in her hand.

Clang—!

The ninth-grade katana resisted the heavy blow to a certain extent, but the force proved too much to handle. Lily was hit several tens of meters deep into the water, followed by the carp spirit who plunged after her. As he swam, water-attributed spiritual energy fluctuated around his body and adopted a streamlined shape. The vague shape continued to pulse and grow until it finally materialized: a huge thousand-year-old carp that spanned tens of meters and was adorned with blue and black scales.

The huge black carp swam very fast and descended towards Lily.

In a hurry, she stuffed the blue orb between her lips and adjusted her body to deal with the approaching carp.

However, another huge figure swam in her direction.

“Kagami Lily! You took my treasure and almost took my life as well. That was on land; let’s see how you fair underwater!” Kyūbōzu circled her from a distance.

“Damn!” Lily may not be Kyūbōzu’s opponent while underwater, much less dealing with the powerful carp spirit at the same time.

The carp spirit’s original form was deftly faster and stronger. Its huge frame stirred monstrous currents in the water as it raked its tail towards Lily.

In retaliation, Lily desperately struck her Yasutsuna at the carp’s oncoming tail.

Out of nowhere, countless spiritual threads restricted her body and limbs, forcibly restraining her movements halfway through the attack.

Boom!!!

It was as if the entire compressed lake slammed into Lily, sending gigantic ripples of thick foam bubbling in all directions.

The incomparably tiny Lily was swept away by the huge fish tail and rocketed into the distance like a cannonball.

Momentarily, Lily felt that she would be torn apart by the resistance as she flew upside down in the water. She gritted her teeth against the blue orb and mustered her spiritual energy to cloak her body. Although she tried her best to hold on, she soon lost consciousness.

…
…

“Sister Shimizu…Sister Uesugi…Senior Sister…” Lily muttered to herself in a daze, darkness clouding her eyes, “Where are you? Are you guys okay? I…I’m coming to rescue you. I’ll definitely…save you. Give me…just give me some time and I— I’ll be there soon…”

“Shouldn’t you be worrying about yourself?”

The voice of a naive and ludic girl rang among the intermittent echoes of bouncing balls.

Lily drifted face down, seemingly half-submerged in water. Her chest brushed against some rough pebbles as her body undulated in rhythm to the shallow currents.

A small foot rudely stepped on her buttocks and wrinkled her wet skirt— though there was barely anything left to wrinkle.

Lily parted her lips to catch her breath but gulped a large mouthful of water instead. She began to choke but quickly used her spiritual energy to regulate her body. Lily slightly lifted her head above the swaying surface of the water and panted.

Ah, where did I drop the blue orb?

Lily suddenly discovered a small glowing ball among the shifting pebbles in the clear water. It was the blue orb! She wanted to grab it but shockingly found that her hands and feet were tied, restricting her movements.

“Don’t move!”

Two blades crossed against Lily’s neck. She could feel that they were her own Crescent Moon and Yasutsuna without having to look at them.

Lily roused her spiritual energy and prepared to break free from the spiritual threads when the blades suddenly clamped tighter against her neck.

“Didn’t I tell you not to move?!” Ui barked from behind, pertly rubbing her foot back and forth on Lily’s buttocks. She continued, “Don’t you feel it? I took off your chest undergarment before tying you. By the way, you almost killed me by suddenly throwing that sword of yours! I can’t afford to give you an easy death. My hatred can only be cured after painfully torturing you.”

As expected, Lily didn’t feel the familiar fabric wrapping her chest area. She couldn’t help but get ashamed and angry, “You again! What do you want?”

She had some difficulty speaking as bits of water occasionally entered her lips.

At this time, Lily had no defensive undergarment protecting her so the possibility of Ui killing her was very high.

“What do I want? Of course…to slowly and carefully humiliate you on this deserted island with no one else to relieve my hatred! After I’m done, I’ll take your head to Big Brother Tamurakonoe so that he can receive the credit.” Ui said.

Lily’s heart settled a little. Since she was going to be tortured slowly, she would have a chance to escape.

She still had her mirror and although her hands were tied, she could break free at any time and retrieve her weapons. As long as Ui relaxed her guard, she could instantly break free and defeat the girl even with her bare hands.

However, Ui suddenly sat on Lily’s waist. The petite girl wasn’t very heavy but she deliberately used her spirit energy to suppress Lily’s body, drowning her protests under bubbles of water.

Ui ignored Lily’s struggle and directly lifted her long skirt, exposing the plump buttocks underneath. Lily only felt a hot and numbing itch on her right butt that disappeared soon after.

“Pervert, what are you doing?! What did you do to me?” Lily asked with a tinge of blush on her face.

“Hahahaha, this thing is called the Flower Rain Cursed Seal. I got it from the black market in Sinless Domain at a huge price. It is said that this cursed seal is the first spring seal in the world— a spring wine made by the peerless archdemon, Tamamo. This brew can be called the most powerful weapon against a young and healthy woman like you!”

“So what? You want to kill me anyway so why waste this on me?” Lily asked but her words seemed a tad weaker.

“So what, you ask? This Flower Rain Cursed Seal can only be eliminated if there’s someone in the world who’s willing to sacrifice their life for yours. That person would have to lick it a hundred times to remove it but the seal’s effect will transfer to them two-fold¹. I don’t think there’s any such person in this world. To remedy the effects, you must go to the spellcaster every day. Only the spellcaster knows how to integrate a certain behavior towards you, whether it’s a reward…or punishment. Only by receiving this reward can you stay sober, otherwise, starting from the next day, you’ll forever become a mad, crazy, and miserable woman with no mind. In case of such a scenario, I wouldn’t even need to kill you. That would be the best punishment for a talented and arrogant girl like you! By the way, it’s a pity that the spring wine was bought by Viper and Witch Momiji, otherwise, the combined effect with the seal would be extraordinary! Haahahaha…”

In the cold morning of Lake Biwa, thousands of kilometers away on a deserted island, a burst of bell-like, evil laughter echoed¹.

1. Robinxen: Oh no!… Anyway.