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At this time, Kagura had reached the mid Permanence Stage due to the large number of Emishi spirits she had absorbed in the past month. After all, she alone had taken more than half of them.

Kagura was a soul reincarnation and her perception was very high. She did not need to spend time comprehending the sacred relics, secret methods, realms, and other nuances all over again. She only needed to improve her strength so her absorption speed was extremely fast. Of course, she also absorbed hundreds of magatama in order to reach the mid Permanence Stage within a month. Needless to say, Kagura’s realm was now much higher than that of Lily’s

But even so, she had no power to fight back in the face of the Throne Stage archdemon and could only assist from afar.

Kagura was a living being with a physical body and a complete soul. Although she was considered a shikigami, this was only because of the soul bond between Lily and her. She was, in essence, still a living being and could naturally die. Perhaps the only advantage she had was that her soul could be attached to other treasures. However, her physical body was Nanako. If her physical body died, Nanako would also die. Naturally, she couldn’t be like the cat demon or demon hound who had spirit bodies and were not afraid to die again and again.

“Who exactly are you? You are not strong, but you carry a lot of treasures. You also have a shikigami with such means?” Ibaraki Doji looked at Lily in amazement.

“Kagami Lily of Eastern land!” Lily said.

“What? I haven’t heard of that name. Forget it, I will kill you and take your treasures! How dare you cut off my arm! Even if you are a country-level beauty, I won’t spare your life!”

The treasure orb returned to Ibaraki Doji’s hand and floated above his big claw. He erupted his Throne Stage demonic aura to amplify the purple lightning before throwing the treasure orb directly at Lily. Not to mention the lightning, just the force of the impact alone would be enough to shatter Lily’s body into pieces!

Lily grabbed the sakura parasol and ran to one side on the roof.

However, the orb was able to track her position and came slamming towards her.

Lily’s speed was not as fast as the treasure orb. She knelt on one knee and took a sliding step down the sloping roof, grating layers of broken tiles along the way. Rotating the sakura parasol with one hand, she blocked the treasure orb which flew towards her.

Boom!!! The orb grazed the rapidly rotating sakura parasol and got deflected. Although it was just a graze, the tremendous impact still caused the house beneath Lily’s feet to collapse, sending her crashing down into the rubble.

“Ah…” Lily screamed and her clothes were torn apart by the huge impact. Offloading the force with the sakura parasol produced a better result than using her sword to block, but the blow still consumed 20% of Lily’s spiritual energy and numbed her entire body.

Fortunately, she had been using the soul-controlling art to replenish her spiritual energy, but even so, replenishment took time. Right now, Lily was only left with 50-60% of her spiritual energy.

“Demon, don’t be rampant!” Hoshi Murasaki rushed over to Ibaraki Doji from the other side and slashed out with her sword.

Ibaraki Doji swiped his claw directly and three dazzling claw marks made of purple lightning materialized in the air.

Boom! The lightning spiritual energy exploded and sent Hoshi Murasaki flying.

“I’ll kill you first, you annoying rat!” Ibaraki Doji blurred into a phantom and instantly leaped over a dozen ruined houses towards Hoshi Murasaki.

Seeing that he was about to close the distance, several spiritual light bullets were suddenly shot from an obscure street in the ruins.

Boom! Boom! Bam! The light bullets accurately struck Ibaraki Doji.

A large group of onmyojis wearing uniforms and high hats was seen coming out of the streets and alleys while chanting incantations to attack Ibaraki Doji.

“Rashomon spirit, instead of waiting for His Majesty to crush you and the other devils in Mount Ooe, you dare to come to Heian-kyō to cause trouble?!” The cold and clear voice of a man resounded.

Abe no Seimei stood atop a roof with his fan in one hand and an ancient zither in the other, his long robe fluttering.

“Attack!” Seimei waved his fan, prompting dozens of onmyojis in the streets to chant incantations in unison. All at once, various colorful spells and spell charms flew towards Ibaraki Doji.

Boom! Boom! Boom! The attack range was so wide that it caught Ibaraki Doji off guard. Because of his huge body, a large number of spells managed to hit him.

“Seimei.” Lily was overjoyed. She had already planned to use Kimiko’s token. After all, she wouldn’t be able to beat Ibaraki Doji even if she exhausted all of her means. As for whether she could shake off his pursuit, it was hard to say. Lily was the main target of this Rashomon spirit’s hatred, after all.

“Master, I have found Miss Amako!” The demon hound transmitted his voice.

When Hoshi Murasaki was fighting against Ibaraki Doji, Lily had quietly released the demon hound back to the roof of the ruined temple to look for Amako Haruhiro who was caught by Ibaraki.

Lily took advantage of the chaotic battle between the onmyojis and Ibaraki Doji to quietly sneak in the direction of the ruined temple.

Abe no Seimei waved his fan and the group of onmyojis stopped attacking.

The smoke gradually dissipated.

Although there was smoke and black blood on his body, Ibaraki Doji only suffered from minor wounds that were healing at a visible speed.

“Hahahahaha! This kind of tickling attack, is this the strength of the Bureau of Divination? Abe no Seimei, it seems that you are unworthy of your reputation!” Ibaraki Doji laughed triumphantly. He fiercely flung the treasure orb towards the forefront of the onmyoji masters’ grand formation.

“Defend!” Seimei shouted.

Dozens of onmyojis chanted together and used spell charms to form a light blue shield to protect the group.

Ibaraki Doji’s treasure orb discharged purple lightning that was like a thunderstorm. The streaks of purple lightning struck and rattled the entire shield, causing cracks to gradually snake across its surface.

“What a strong energy!” Seimei couldn’t help but sigh.

Dozens of onmyoji masters collaborated to chant and resist the attack.

At this time, Lily had returned to the ruined temple without anyone noticing. She looked back at the battle between Ibaraki Doji and the onmyojis that illuminated the night sky not far away. She let out a sigh, “Unexpectedly, these onmyojis not only possess diverse means, but they can also work together to cast spells that are capable of resisting the Throne Stage archdemon. They are really a bunch of incredible guys, especially that Seimei and his bizarre methods.”

Lily saw that the evil spirit was completely occupied by the colorful rain of attacks and had no time to spare on her. She threw out a celestial maiden ribbon and climbed up the ruined temple lightly. Half of the temple’s roof had been blasted off and one could see the flashes in the sky caused by the battle.

“Master!” The big white dog was standing in a dark corner, and beside him, there was a woman in a white yukata. She had long, neatly combed hair similar to the noble ladies in the palace, and the hair hugging both sides of her cheeks was evenly cut.

The woman’s big eyes contained an innate temperament characteristic to nobles, but she was in shock at the moment, evident by her trembling dark pupils.

Lily stepped forward, “Are you Miss Amako Haruhiro?”

The woman just looked at Lily blankly and continued to tremble, “Don’t kill me, don’t kill me… I can do anything; don’t eat me…”

“Young lady…” At this moment, a thin woman who was covered with scars and lying in the dark corner, looking half-paralyzed, said, “She is Miss Amako. I…I used to be a night patrol female samurai on Suzaku Avenue and have once cleared the way for her. Please save her, please…”

Lily went over to the woman. She was thin and skinny with a sunken face and some terrible scars on her body.

“How are you?” Lily asked.

The woman’s eyes were hollow and she calmly said, “I’m going to die. I’m already in this state so there is no point in living even if I’m rescued. You take her away.”

“Sorry…” The night patrol female samurai had a respectable character, but Lily couldn’t bring back the dead. The accumulation of injuries over a long period of time was also impossible to heal even with the life-recovery magatama. At this point, her internal organs were probably exhausted.

Lily got up and prepared to carry Miss Amako.

The dying female samurai said again, “Girl, take away that bewitching biwa… Don’t let the evil spirit use it to bring harm to the world again.”

The woman used the last of her strength to look at a dark corner inside the roof.

In the corner of the room, there was a filthy animal skin on which several women were lying around in a trance. On the beam in that corner, there was an ancient and plain-looking biwa.

“Arcane biwa!” Lily’s heart started to beat wildly. It seemed that Ibaraki Doji was so enraged by Lily that he chased her outside without remembering that he left the biwa inside the roof!

Lily walked over and gently brushed her hand across the strings of the biwa, feeling the reverberation of a fascinating sound. She had barely plucked the strings, yet she seemed to have heard the profound charm and captivating power produced by the strings.

Lily used the Art of No-Thought and simply took up the biwa.

Seeing Lily take the biwa, the eyes of the female samurai finally froze— her eyes were still wide open but lifeless. However, a casual smile seemed to hang on the corners of her mouth as if it was her last revenge on that Rashomon spirit.

At this time, the evil spirit’s treasure orb was spitting lightning and thunder, constantly bombarding the protective shield amidst dazzling bursts of electricity and harsh crackling sounds!

The onmyojis all chanted incantations desperately and were casting spells together in efforts to support the barrier.

“Agh–!” Suddenly, a few weak onmyojis couldn’t support the barrier any longer and collapsed while coughing blood. The defensive shield became more unstable and was about to shatter! Once broken, dozens of onmyojis would die, at least!

Seimei sat on the roof and placed the zither in front of him, playing it. The sound of the zither was like high mountains and flowing rivers, majestic and endless!

“Ahhhh–!!!! B̲a̲s̲t̲a̲r̲d̲! Stop this headache; that damn zither!” Ibaraki Doji shouted painfully with one hand over his ears. The sound of the zither was clear and elegant, but carried a potent evil-slaying power that had a great effect on an extremely evil demon like Ibaraki Doji!

Disturbed by the sound of the zither, the orb stopped releasing lightning and floated idly in the air.

Dozens of onmyoji were temporarily saved.

I’m not done yet!

The evil spirit angrily tore off the roof of a house and threw it towards Seimei.

“Don’t hurt my dear friend!” Suddenly, a tall and handsome samurai with an upright appearance leaped up from the ruins and stood in front of Seimei. It was none other than Minamoto no Hiromasa. He gathered energy in his sword and swung it violently, chopping the roof into pieces and protecting Seimei as he continued to play.

“Rashomon spirit, this is an ancient zither borrowed from Izumo Mountain specifically to deal with you, an evil spirit who has committed many sins!” Seimei said while he played with grace and ease.

“Hmph, a mere broken zither! You want to use it to suppress this master? I’ll show you what the real mystical sound is!”

Ibaraki Doji suddenly turned around and leaped swiftly on the roof like a black wind. He jumped to the top of the temple in three steps and climbed into the ruined temple, wanting to take out the arcane biwa to deal with Seimei’s zither.

The arcane biwa, the first of the three pipas of the Heian Dynasty! Compared to it, that ordinary magic treasure zither borrowed from Izumo Mountain was simply incomparable!

However…¹

1. LazyButAmbitious: Lily– the master bandit