Leave a comment

The dim glow of the fire illuminated Lily’s curves as she gasped for breath somewhat powerlessly against the hard rock behind her, a few strands of her pretty, wet hair stuck to her cheek.

Although she was in such a condition the purple moon within her spirit palace still radiated a beautiful purple glow.

Lily finally found some time to reflect on her current situation now that she had found a hiding place in this crevice between the boulders.

“It’s misty all over here and I can’t even distinguish where I am. How do I escape this place? Should I return to the abyssal cliff and try climbing it? Although it’s feasible, there’s a chance that I might be moving away from it instead of approaching it when it’s hard to tell directions here. Besides, even if I’m lucky enough to reach the cliff and climb all the way up, it’s doubtful whether I can still traverse the boundary world. There’s no guarantee that I won’t fall down to the depths of Yomi as punishment again.”

Lily did not regret eating more than three items of Yomi, though, as she knew it was dangerous. In fact, her physique had received a boost of sixty percent from the act.

Besides fortuitous encounters, enlightenment, the celestial maiden’s physique, and normal training, improving the physical body was an exceptionally slow process.

Lily possessed a female body, which in itself was not suited to train the body because of its innate nature, so she felt that the risk was worth taking it if the return was a sixty percent increase in physical strength. Besides, it was not as if she had lost her life in exchange for the power.

“As matters stand, my main priority should be to survive this predicament and figure things out slowly…”

Lily reached towards her waist and fastened the belt of her underwear armor.

“I should get enough rest first.”

Lily closed her eyes and took a nap within the crevice.

Since Lily possessed the celestial maiden’s physique, she recovered pretty quickly. Other than the fact that the purple moon’s power cannot recover by itself, the injuries she had received from the attacks of the demons all healed during the short nap that she took.

The celestial maiden’s physique bestowed incredibly fast healing power to its user when they were asleep, but that did not mean it was without any weakness. The drawback of the physique was that it made the user’s body several times more sensitive than the ordinary woman, the degree of sensitivity increasing in tandem with the increase in physical strength.

The world was fair, so this drawback was the punishment given to the celestial maiden’s physique in order to maintain balance.

Lily could sleep soundly even in such a harsh environment thanks to the celestial maiden’s physique as well¹.

A premonition of danger assailed Lily suddenly, forcing her to open her eyes, and she sensed a powerful, dark aura shroud the boulders she was hiding within.

It looked like she had been discovered.

Although the crevice was a good hiding spot, it was not that hard for the demons of Yomi to find her as long as they checked the region meticulously.

Lily got up and rushed out of the crevice while gripping Yasutsuna, only to see a group of hideous-looking demons surround her. Fortunately, there was no Big Dipper archdemon among them.

Lily’s eyes flashed with an icy glint as she looked at the demons. “Hmph. Come at me, demons! I’ll make this place your grave!”

…
…

Heian-kyo. In front of the Ministry of Justice’s prison.

The black-armored samurai guarding the entrance moved to the sides and opened the gates of the prison.

Ijuin, Shiina Airi, and the other girls walked out of the prison listlessly while dressed in tattered clothes.

Although their outfits were tattered, no one had tortured or violated them. After all, the group consisted of young ladies from prominent families in Heian-kyo, and these families all had their own connections inside the court.

The black-armored soldiers carried out the orders of Minamoto no Yoritomo faithfully, and even though they had been locked up, the jailers did not dare to treat them roughly as there was a chance that a relative of Yoritomo was among this group of young ladies.

“We’re free…?” Ijuin questioned while looking at the boundless night sky outside, her eyes not feeling that uncomfortable.

“Ms. Ijuin!” Taira no Shizuru, Minamoto no Hiromasa, as well as the retainers of the families from which the young ladies hailed were waiting for them outside.

Thanks to the efforts of Shizuru, Hiromasa and several others, as well as the pressure from many prominent families, Minamoto no Hirohikari was forced to release the ladies in the end. However, all the mirror girls, and those determined to be one, were still locked up inside the prison.

Yoritomo had only ordered the capture of the mirror girls to prevent further chaos. It was Hirohikari who had ordered the capture of the Uesugi cavalrywomen, the sword maidens and the jade maidens. He naturally could not handle the pressure from all sides, though. After all, it was his own nephews and nieces who had come crying to him.

Ashikaga Makoto was still locked up, too.

Shimizu, Shiu, and Mizue looked at the released girls from a distance behind Shizuru while hiding their faces with bamboo hats and veils.

Their release was not the end of the matter. They had communicated with each other inside the prison and tried to figure out the truth behind the control of Heian-kyo by the black-armored troops as well as the aim of the dark forces acting behind the scenes.

A few of them were afraid of returning home, but most of them tagged along with Ijuin to her house.

“Our top priority is to rescue Ms. Ayaka!” Ijuin concluded after discussing it with the sisters.

“Yes. Ms. Ayaka is the protector of the mirror girls. It’s impossible to oppose Minamoto no Yoritomo and rescue them unless we save her. The empire has persecuted the mirror girls for thousands of years and our families also don’t dare to oppose Yoritomo on this matter. Moreover, most noblewomen aren’t mirror girls,” Shizuru said.

“This is Ms. Minamoto no Shimizu,” Shiu introduced.
“You’re the rumored genius from the East, one of the Six Swords?” Ijuin asked.
“Indeed,” Shimizu answered succinctly.
“I’m Shimadzu Inari, and hail from Tsukushi Island, the biggest island to the south of the mainland.”
“Shimadzu? I’ve heard of them. Tsukushi Island is one of the core regions of the Taira clan,” Shizuru added.

“Ms. Shimizu,” Ijuin said a bit arrogantly, “I’ve heard that the Six Swords of the East are all weak. The samurai of the East were once hailed as the bravest warriors in existence, but they are on the brink of ruin now. Is it true that you just have a few powerhouses of the Spirit Jade level?”

“Heh. Are you implying that you are stronger than me, Ms. Ijuin? How about we have a duel to prove it, then?” Shimizu smiled icily.

“Come on! Calm down now!” Mizue stepped forward to mediate between the two immediately, “We can’t afford to fight among ourselves when we’re facing such a powerful enemy…”

“Indeed!” Shizuru said with a grim look, “Let’s first figure out how to rescue Ms. Ayaka. The chief advisor’s mansion is surrounded by tens of thousands of black-armored troops and many powerhouses, so there’s no way we can force our way inside. Defeat is all that awaits us if we go in front from the front, and Yoritomo will no doubt use this as an excuse to capture us. In my opinion, he only released you because he did not want to handle the pressure of the prominent clans. I’m afraid that we can’t avoid getting punished if we get captured again.”

“Unless we rescue Ms. Ayaka, there’s no way we can oppose Yoritomo!” Airi said.

“However, Ms. Ayaka’s mansion is under heavy guard right now, and she still hasn’t recovered consciousness. Even if we are able to break through the outer formation somehow, we still have no means of entering the mansion since we’d still need to deal with tens of thousands of black-armored troops,” Shiu added.

“Ugh… That’s a real problem, indeed.” Ijuin and the other girls got lost in thought.

…
…

Tamamo-no-Mae’s mansion in Suno.

“Apply this medicine on her body just as I prescribed every day. She should be able to wake up as long as you continue it for a few months.”

Shinsenen explained to Natsu and Rei.

“I have other matters to deal with, so I’ll be leaving first,” Shinsenen added.
“Thank you, Ms. Shinsenen.”

Natsu took care of Tamamo-no-Mae mainly once Shinsenen left. Her complexion had turned a lot better now thanks to the medicine she had been fed daily via an eyedropper and it seemed like it would not take long before she woke up.

Rei was responsible for the security of the manion.

After returning to her room, Rei felt lonelier than ever as the extended night creeped in.

“Where are you, Lily? Are you doing well?”

Rei gazed at the starry sky subconsciously. “Just where did you go, mother? Are you still alive?”

She took out her mother’s jewelry box, which was the closest item she possessed of her mother, and opened it before touching it carefully, immersing in fond memories of the past.

Rei then fetched her mother’s fan from the box and saw the little child depicted on it, which was none other than her younger self. Her mother had drawn the picture on the fan personally.

“Mother…”
“Hmm?”

Rei opened the fan in full, showing its back to the moonlight accidentally, and discovered something inside the fan because of the moonlight.

She pondered for a while and used a knife to open a small cut on the side of the fan and pulled out a slip of paper which was wedged in between the two sides of the fan.

“Mother?!” Although the writing paper was blank, Rei could feel some kind of energy left behind by her mother from it.

“Only you can see this, Rei…”

“It’s my mother’s voice!” Rei exclaimed in surprise. It seemed that her mother’s will had remained on this blank writing paper.

“Only I can see this? See what, though?”

Rei tried a lot of things, but there was no use. All she could feel was the traces of something transparent appearing on the paper when she infused it with her spirit power.

She lifted the paper and let the moonlight illuminate it, only to discover that the transparent traces on the paper were actually shining letters.

“It’s a letter! Mother left a message for me!”

Although Rei felt shocked, she read the message immediately.

“Rei, I’ve left his message to tell you about the secret of the sword you always carry with you, the Ancient Sword Nameless…”

Ancient Sword Nameless?!

Rei continued reading the message, the words vanishing the moment she read them, but it also seemed as if the words had been engraved onto her soul at the same time.

“My ancient sword is actually…”

Even someone as cold and emotionless as Rei felt her breath turn rushed after reading the message. She opened her eyes wide in amazement as she passed her eyes through the shining letters.

…
…

Lily had spent three days in these abyssal depths and had kept fighting demons in order to survive.

Although she had not found a way to escape this place, she had killed three Throned Saints, as well as 106 Throned Monarch within the last three days, snatching their anima with her blades.

This had refined her spirit power even further. However, she was still a long away from refining the ocean of spirit power in her spirit palace to the limit.

Lily had found two crevices in the meantime, so she was able to get enough rest. The more she fought in the place, the more she adapted to it, and always maintained vigilance even during battles so that she could avoid dangers. She had come across a Big Dipper archdemon only once thanks to that, and had used the purple moon’s power to escape from it immediately.

1. Robinxen: It can do anything!