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“Lynne…wins…” There was only silence, even the judge was speechless.

For a moment, Lily had wanted to pull out a life-recovery magatama, but when her spirit probe scanned through Akimoto, she gave up. His spirit jade was completely destroyed, there was no possibility of surviving that.

“Izumo Mountain…” Suddenly Lily heard Kagura’s voice, “No wonder…”
“Kagura?”
“Master, I didn’t think I’d see this sort of sacrificial combat arts again. I had thought it was only a coincidence, but he mentioned Izumo Mountain in the end… It looks like he was a descendant of the ancient Izumo Samurais.
“Ancient Izumo Samurais?”
“That is a very ancient civilization, far before the Heian dynasty. They were a prosperous civilization during the time of my master, Suzuhiko-hime. In the lands of the west, these ancient samurais believed and practiced the way of life and death. They did not have specific forms or skills, they only relied upon instinct and experience, whenever they attack, it’s almost always taking a blow to deal a blow. Even my master, as powerful as she was, received sword intent inspiration from these mortal samurai.”

Lily looked at Akimoto and silently prayed for him, no matter how many questions she had, she could no longer ask.

“Whether or not you are a descendant of the Ancient Izumo Samurai, you have inherited their spirit, only such persistence is hard to understand nowadays.”

“Mister Akimoto, your bushido may be out of date in this era, but it will never be out of date in my heart. Your request, I will keep it in mind.”

“Izumo Mountain…” Lily’s eyes reflected the distance, that ancient place far in the west, she wanted to see and explore what sort of legends resided there.

Ancient Izumo Samurai, that ancient human clan that existed in that ancient era, do they still exist?

In the spectator stand, Minamoto no Yoshitada stood up, “This samurai had the demeanor and uprightness of the ancient samurai, I shall pay for his burial.”

“Please wait.” Lily walked over and saluted those on the viewing platform, “Cover him in a grass mat, and bury him in a random mountain road on the outskirts of Heian-kyo.”
“Eh?”
“What!??”

The audience was puzzled.

“Kagami Lily, you’ve already won! Do you need to humiliate the dead?” Middle Councilor Ikeda accused.
“For an ancient samurai like him, nothing is more suitable than the nameless wild, boundless land, mountains and rivers.”
“……”

Hearing this logic, they could only nod.

To bury this warrior who only sought victory at the cost of his life in an elegant ceremony would be a vulgar insult, it would not reflect the path within his heart.

Looking at her, Minamoto no Yoshitada could only nod. He had once considered her to be nothing more than a criminal to interrogate. But he was rapidly coming to realize that this beautiful young woman had a perception superior to Genji’s top samurai, him.

“Let it be as Miss Kagami requested.”

“Miss Kagami,” Minamoto no Yoshitada addressed Lily, “Since your identity is already known to us all, in the competition, how about we address you by your real name? This is also a measure of my respect for you.”

At this stage, she no longer needed to hide. But looking back, if she hadn’t used a pseudonym she might have already died. She might have been targeted by Shenzu in the preliminaries, or ambushed by martial saint Sakanoue no Tamuramaro. A pseudonym had been absolutely necessary.

She saluted, “Lily is unworthy of the praise but I accept.”

With the end of the match, the tournament’s top four and semifinal matchups had been determined.

The first semi-finals match, Taira no Shizuru versus Nanashi.

The second semi-final match, Minamoto no Tsukawa versus Kagami Lily.

The semi-finals would be held on the morrow, and the finals on the last day of the third day of the Yoshitsune Memorial. On that day, the Emperor, Emperor Emeritus and Cloistered Emperor would all attend and spectate.

On the eve of the semi-finals, Lily chose to rest in the rooms arranged for the contestants. This room was only a few hundred meters away from the Heian palace, there should not be any person who would dare attempt anything here. On this critical night, this place could be said to be one of the safest places for her to avoid assassinations.

……
……

Thousands of miles away in the Tanba province, the rain and mist surrounded the mountains.

Uesugi Rei, a tall mature beautiful noble lady could only carry the front of a stretcher forward while Minamoto no Kenki followed behind her supporting the other end.

Toyama was limping at the front with a torch, tracking Hatano’s traces.

That large group of wild samurais left plenty of tracks, it wasn’t difficult to trace the group holding Hatano captive.

Nakajou had regained some sense, “Don’t make two mistakes, either send me down the mountain or leave me here and go rescue Hatano. How can you rescue her carrying a stretcher, Uesugi Rei, what are you thinking?”

Rei’s gaze was soft as she looked through the rain and fog, “I don’t know, there are many times when there is no correct method. Since none of us can determine what the right choice is, then we should not make any foolish decisions.”

Kenki also nodded his head, though he was the leader, how could he make the ‘pragmatic’ decision to discard a dying comrade, and if he made it how could he actually do so? But if it wasn’t done, then they might all be dragged to death, or they might miss the timing to rescue Hatano.

“Miss Uesugi, how about you and brother Kenki go rescue Miss Hatano, I will stay here to guard brother Nakajou, we will await you here.” Toyama reasoned.

“No,” Kenki responded, “In this maze-like forest, if we separate, it will be impossible to rejoin again.”

Rei nodded, Kenki was correct. They were unable to find an exit to this place, how could they say with confidence that they could find their comrades?

But, carrying this stretcher really lowered their speed.

After half a day, they finally found the location of the wild samurais late at night. They had followed the footsteps of the group to a ravine, there was a suspension bridge covered in vines leading across the ravine to a cave where there were several guards. In front of those guards was a bonfire.

“This should be their stronghold!” Kenki whispered.
“Though we haven’t been able to get out of this forest, I don’t think they are trapped here.”
“Right! We will rescue Miss Hatano and then force them to tell us how to get out of this forest…but…can we actually defeat all those enemies…” Toyama was injured after all, and those wild samurai and onmyouji were experts on par with him.
Rei silently nodded, “Brother Toyama, wait here and guard Nakajou.”

Since they had arrived here, there was no chance of getting lost. Naturally, Rei had no intention of going on a rescue operation into their lair of enemies with a stretcher in tow.

“Nn!” Toyama agreed.
“Miss Uesugi, I shall accompany you.” Kenki declared.

Uesugi Rei and Minamoto no Kenki quietly crept to the suspension bridge.

“Let’s cross the bridge…” Kenki started to say, but Rei had already leapt across the ravine.

He looked at the other side of the ravine, there was not enough space for a run up, and even if he could barely make the jump, he would need to use a big burst of aura. That would attract a lot of attention.

But Uesugi Rei could easily leap over this ravine with just her physical power and a tiny amount of aura. The gap in strength between them was widening during this expedition.

Rei had reached the other side of the ravine quietly, she quickly and silently walked towards the guards in the dark like a ghost. Suddenly, she dashed out, like a stream of silver light and attacked, ‘Swish! Swish! Swish!’

Moonlike silver blade slashes flashed through the air. Those few guards fell without noticing anything.

Kenki rushed over the bridge, looked at her and nodded before the two plunged into the cave.

The cave was twisty and dark, Rei walked in front and Kenki followed behind. Whenever they encountered an enemy, Rei would immediately attack and kill. She had her domain activated, with it activated she could detect normal arcane barriers and bypass them.

Currently, deep within the cave, several ten wild samurai and onmyoji were gathered around the campfire and cooking.

Hatano Kana was tied to a cross shaped wooden frame in an empty clearing not far from them.

Hatano still had her armor and upper breastplate on, but her shoulder pads, and sleeves had been ripped off, and one of her shoulder straps was broken, leaving her breastplate hanging down revealing part of her plump breasts.

Her lower armor had been stripped, leaving her with nothing but her red garter cloth and leggings. It was obvious they planned on ‘eating’ her after finishing their meal.

Thankfully this group was not well off, the food in the cave was not sufficient and the foragers had only just returned, the food had not been cooked.

Hatano Kana was the eldest daughter of the Hatano clan who once guarded the Tanba province. Decades ago, her home had been razed by Shuten’s subordinates sending her clan wandering in foreign lands. She had sworn to regain her clan’s territory and painstakingly trained toward this goal. This time, she had returned to this ancient province she had never visited before for the purpose of investigation. She had planned on using the information she gained to persuade the imperial court or the surrounding martial families and remaining Hatano clan members. She had not expected to land in the hands of these filthy beasts before taking a step into ancient Hatano territory.

She trembled uncontrollably, her face red with disgust and regret…was her battle to restore her homeland going to end like this?

If she had lost to Shuten, she would have nothing to say. But these wild wretches were humans who had likely been born in this Tanba province, how could she accept something like this?