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Naturally, Lily didn’t plan on staying in the small wooden hut, she silently followed behind Rika.

Lily kept up with Rika as she ran down the small hill towards a village built in the middle of towering ancient trees.

The village consisted of many small wooden houses in between ancient trees and connected by wooden corridors. Lily could see many raccoons running around in a panic.

From the distance, Lily could see a big python a foot thick and ten something feet long coiled on the trees. Its jaws were wide open facing those raccoons, snake tongue tasting the air.

“Village chief, what should we do?” On another tree, an old raccoon with white eyebrows and a cane walked out surrounded by other raccoons and looked at the python in panic.

“What to do? Our hunters are all out of the village now, who in this village is capable of dealing with such a big python?” The chief shouted.

“Ahhhhh—” Raccoons ran left and right as a young raccoon fell over. Its mother frantically ran over to protect it, but the big python was already approaching the two raccoons.

“Mommy—I’m scared!”

“Kinchi, mother’s here! Mother’s here!” That racoon mother had never encountered such danger but still tried to protect her child, but when she saw that gigantic jaws approaching, large enough to swallow both mother and child, her legs softened and she could no longer stand up.

This gigantic python was a snake at the early stage of the soul jade level. Such a monster was not rare in the Izumo mountains, but it was the first time one such monster had invaded this raccoon village.

“B̲a̲s̲t̲a̲r̲d̲! Don’t you dare hurt Kinchi¹!” The round form of Rika ran towards the snake and humanized midstep. She grabbed a vine and swung up in between the python and the mother and child.

“Demon! Back off!” With a jump, Rika had kicked the triangular head of the python.

Bang! Rika had some experience practicing martial arts, and this kick of hers was equal to the full forced blow of an awakened 3rd stage, but facing a naturally strong spirit jade python, it was of no use. The python whipped its tail over and captured Rika.

“Ahhh—!” Rika let out a scream.

“Rika!”
“Rika!!”

Seeing Rika captured, the raccoons all cried out in shock!

Many young raccoons rushed up with sticks and farming tools, others threw stones, but none of it had any effect.

With a flick of its body, the python sent all the surrounding raccoons flying away.

It tightly wrapped Rika in its coils and opened its jaws wide, intending to swallow Rika whole.

“Noooo!!!” Rika cried out.

Suddenly a white figure appeared in front of the python’s big jaws, and instantly Yasutsuna was unsheathed.

Shing—!

The silver blade swiftly traced a line through the python’s thick neck.

Pffft—! The massive and heavy python head dropped to the ground, creating a massive puddle of blood.

But the python’s life force was tenacious, even without its head the body of the python, still tightly wrapped around Rika, twitched violently.

“Not good!” Quickly taking a few steps forward, Lily laid a hand on the corpse and sent out a wave of spirit energy.

Omn—! The forest seemed to shiver as the python lost all resistance and fell to the ground, unmoving.

Rika also fell forward, right into Lily’s embrace.

“Oh—!”
“Ohhhh—!”

The raccoons of the village all cheered.

A few older female raccoons came forward with tools, and started dealing with the python corpse.

And the elders slowly approached, leaning on a cane.

“Thank you miss, you have saved our village.” A white eyebrowed raccoon elder thanked Lily.

“No, I was saved first.” Lily replied, “It was only a bit of effort.”

Lily put down a red faced Rika, “Sister Lily, you’re so strong. Much stronger than the strongest warrior of this village! He proposed to me before, hm, I’ll tell him that I’ll accept his proposal when he can defeat sister Lily!”

“Eh!?”

“Miss, you’ve helped us greatly, not only is the village spared the danger of that python, it also solves our ration problems for this month. For some reason, powerful monsters have been increasingly sighted in the forest and our hunting teams have encountered danger more and more. Now, everyone can stay within the village this month and not worry about going out and hunting.” The village chief thanked Lily.

Lily warmly smiled, silently thinking, “These raccoons are really peace loving demons.”

Humans and demons, were they really natural enemies?

Lily thought of Lady Kimiko, Sugawara no Michizane, and Youta. No matter how strong or how weak, weren’t there demons coexisting with humans?

Though Sugawara no Michizane could not be counted as a kind gentle existence, he also couldn’t be counted as an demonic evil existence like Shuten.

“You’re called Lily right? Then Miss Lily, please attend our celebration tonight.”

“Huh?”

“A sudden windfall of supplies, of course everyone must celebrate! Miss is our benefactor, you must attend!”

“Ahah……” Lily gave a weak smile, it wouldn’t be easy to refuse.

That night, the bonfire was lit in the middle of the village. The raccoons of the village had all come down from the trees and happily danced around the fire, celebrating.

There were also raccoon families, accompanied by their raccoon kids jumping on the branches of the trees in joy.

Rika seemed to be one of the most popular in the village, for a while she and a few male raccoons humanized and danced around as handsome men and beautiful women and the next moment they were round raccoons, singing, dancing and frolicing.

Lily stood on the wooden steps leading up a tree, looking at the happy raccoons. She couldn’t help but sigh, these little guys had just suffered a catastrophe during the daytime, and yet were so happy just a few hours later.

As for herself…

A deep sense of loss flashed through her.

Since she had arrived in this Heian world, she had wholeheartedly searched for a method to awaken sister Rinne.

But now, she could only see fog around her.

She had devotely prayed to the gods for guidance, but not only did she not receive any revelations, she had been the target of a terrifying heavenly punishment.

That, was definitely a heavenly punishment!

And as a result, her sakura parasol, which had accompanied her all this time, had suffered terrible damage to protect her.

Now…what should she do? What direction should she go? How could she save Rinne?

If the gods didn’t allow sister Rinne to wake up, if the gods didn’t leave a path of life for her or sister Rinne, what should she do?

Where could she go for answers? When would she be able to awaken sister Rinne?

When Lily had first felt sister Rinne’s slumber, she had felt it was not an ordinary slumber, but she had never thought…that the truth might surpass anything she had imagined!

Lily felt her own powerlessness…

“Miss Lily, come down and play? There are many handsome men down here!”

What handsome men? Those were all transformed raccoons.

Lily softly smiled and shook her head, her mood really didn’t suit the joyful celebration.

It was night, the bonfire had gone out and most of the raccoons were drunk, but Lily, under the guidance of Rika, embarked on the road to ‘great grandpa’.

They walked into the depths of the forest. Under the ancient trees, were many mushrooms glowing blue, and many pairs of small eyes looking at them.

“Follow the blue lit road and we can reach great grandpa’s house.” Rika swung her tail and hopped forward, as if meeting the ancestor of the raccoons was a very joyful thing.

“Sister, great grandpa’s house is very far away.” Rika turned back, and saw Lily’s expression, “What’s wrong? Sister Lily, you don’t seem too happy?”

Lily warmly smiled, “There’s nothing wrong Rika.”

But even though she had said that, walking in this dark orchid road alike a sea of stars, Lily really felt lost.

Looking up into the starry skies, she basked under the glow of the gentle moon. The gentle rays of lunar light that illuminated her path, was also the source of her powers.

“But I…but I…am I able to awaken sister Rinne? Just climbing to the top of that mountain is already a feat few people are capable of. But even then, I’m still far far away from ascending, but even if I do ascend, would I be able to resist the gods?”

“If…if the gods don’t allow sister Rinne to awaken, don’t allow us to live, then what should I do?

The more she understood this world, the more she felt the cold cruelty of the world.

Lily was only a small lonely weak girl in this world, but even so, she was determined when she encountered the night parade of one hundred demons, but now…she was lost and confused.

For the awakening of sister Rinne, she endured all the suffering, and risked everything!

But…the rules of this world were set by the gods, right?

If the gods didn’t allow either Lily or Rinne to live, was it possible to resist the gods? Resist the heavens?

A cold gust of wind ruffled past her, threading through her long hair. Lily reflectively hugged herself, feeling unusually cold.

The road ahead, mystery, hidden forest, darkness.

“Do I…really have no more hope? Can I really not awaken sister Rinne…” Lily shed tears silently.

“Sister? Why are you crying?” Rika stared at Lily confused.

“No, nothing… nothing’s wrong.” Lily forcibly smiled through her tears.

In any case, she must at least, repair her sakura blossom parasol.

Even if there was no road forward for her to walk, she would at least not fail the hopes of the companions who had sacrificed for her.

1. Yuki: Hah.. it doesn’t want to hurt the baby raccoon… merely eat it…