Book 3: Chapter 53: Battling Ka and Zan

The omnipresent snow churned strongly inside the valley where an impressive snugly robed red-clad girl faced two apex powerhouses of the East in front of the old, dilapidated temple.

Whether it be the Midō sisters, or the opponent retainers Amari, Sakai, Sakakibara and the rest, all laid a silent witness to the unprecedented battle which was about to begin as it was bound to become a legendary battle of the East regardless of its outcome!

Kagami Lily, an obscure girl of unknown origins, was about to face two of the Furinkazan alone in battle today!

It wasn’t a battle that retainer-ranked samurai were qualified to partic.i.p.ate in!

Tokugawa wielded a bronze cudgel that spewed fire and smoke from the sharp maw of the demon beast’s head at the top end of the cudgel which held the shape of a tiger’s head, and his armor looked like the incarnation of a mobile fortress.

Takeda donned a mountain-like spirit power and heaved the Ko-Bizen Sanetoshi in his hand like a mountain-splitting blade!

“Boom!”

A row of several meter tall stalagmites sprang up from the ground and shot through the snowstorm towards Lily like a jagged tooth of a mountain deity!

Lily jumped up suddenly and tiptoed on the tip of the stalagmite gracefully, but Tokugawa also jumped up simultaneously with a shout. Even Lily didn’t expect Tokugawa to have the ability to jump up so high even though he was armored heavily, and in the next moment, the eyes of the demon beast-shaped tip of his cudgel shone with a red hue as a ma.s.sive serpentine flame spewed out of its maw. Tokugawa then spun the cudgel around and sent the serpentine flame attacking towards Lily.

“Snowdrift!” Lily waved her odachi and the katana clad in a crimson vortex of sakura stabbed the serpentine flame, extinguishing it out of existence!

“Boom! Boom! Boom!” A series of flaming explosions erupted between Tokugawa and Lily subsequently.

The nearby Takeda-Tokugawa retainers were all left agape after witnessing Lily tiptoeing onto the stalagmite’s tip and extinguishing the flame with her katana…

“T-This Kagami Lily is equally matched with the strongest two of the Furinkazan!”

The flame, stalagmite and chaotic sakura looked like celestial visions to them and bolstered the fact this battle was totally out of their grade!

The huge stalagmite exploded into pieces with a wave of Takeda’s hand, following which he charged towards Lily like a ma.s.sive mountain.

The tachi in his hand was also clad in an earthen hue as it struck towards Lily!

Lily steadied her gaze and rushed a step forward instead of retreating, making an instantaneous and unpredictable judgment to avoid the blade approaching her with double speed by leaning her shoulder to the side slightly and slashed at Takeda’s shoulder with her katana.

“Crack!” Takeda’s full-body heavy armor was a treasured item as well, yet Lily’s katana still managed to cut deep into the shoulder plate because of the weight behind the slash. However, her katana got stuck inside the armor as a result.

“What?!” Lily was shocked by the fact that her grade 7 katana, Crescent Moon, had failed to cut through the armor.

Takeda seized this chance to counterattack, but Lily kicked his wrist instantly to veer his strike and used the counterforce to pull the katana out and roll backward.

However, Tokugawa’s ma.s.sive cudgel came striking down towards Lily from above while she was in the middle of rolling back!

“Boom!” Although the cudgel missed its mark, it caused the snow and earth to blow up and the resultant aftershock sent Lily flying back.

Nevertheless, Lily flipped over in mid-air and landed on the ground safely.

“Takeda’s armor alone is so tough, yet I also have a feeling that the toughness of Tokugawa’s heavy armor is much higher!” Lily discovered that a tiny nick had formed on her Crescent Moon1.

Lily had never battled an opponent whose defense was so high that her katana wasn’t able to cut through it. The Furinkazan didn’t just have strength to their name and also held unfathomable aces in their hands that the average samurai could never possess. The weapons of Tokugawa and Takeda, as well as their armors, were all extremely precious treasures.

As such, even though Lily had the ability to match up to the Furinkazan in terms of strength, it was pretty difficult for her to kill them!

She also had no leeway in battle as her delicate body and thin clothing didn’t possess the ability to withstand the attacks of Tokugawa’s cudgel and Takeda’s katana.

“The katana and cudgel in Takeda and Tokugawa’s hands are both grade 7 items and they are also donned in grade 7 armor! Although Honda’s pike is grade 7 as well, his armor is only grade 6,” Lily inferred, “It’s hard to deal with grade 7 armor!”

Although it was hard to deal with, Lily had no choice but to do it as she had no way out of this situation and could only steel her heart and engage in mortal combat!

Lily wasn’t Tokugawa and Takeda’s equal in terms of brute force, let alone defense, but her advantage lied in her domain!

Thus, Lily controlled her domain to suppress the two of them. Tokugawa’s movements were clearly suppressed because of the heavy metallic armor he was donned in, but the transcendental intensity in Takeda’s mountain intent actually allowed him to resist Lily’s domain by a huge margin.

“Hmph! Tokugawa, you dodo. It’s pretty obvious that such heavy armor doesn’t match your flame spirit power, yet you insist on wearing it because you are afraid of death. This, in turn, has made it difficult for you to manifest your intent properly and suppressed you under my domain greatly!” Lily concluded.

The pressure on Lily reduced a little after Tokugawa’s speed slowed down, but Takeda’s blade arts were still as aggressive as always!

His strikes contained the power to overturn mountains and rivers!

Lily still managed to dodge Takeda’s strike by a hair’s breadth with illusive deft movements and waited for the opportune moment after that, delivering a strike towards a gap in Takeda’s armor.

The edge of Lily’s blade streaked across Takeda’s waist and blood sprayed out from within in an arc.

However, Takeda was a Spirit Jade powerhouse and also someone who specialized in body training, so his body had long shed the shackles between a mortal and a pract.i.tioner. His body contained a spirit jade inside it and his muscles teemed with transcendental vitality!

Even if he suffered from one-inch deep blade wounds, they healed pretty rapidly as the spirit power circulating through the spirit jade could heal any injuries as long as they weren’t severe wounds like bisected limbs! This was the core difference between a sword saint and a Spirit Jade powerhouse.

It was much harder to kill a Spirit Jade powerhouse than a mortal samurai!

The only option left was to exhaust them to death by making them expend their spirit power continuously or beheading them or delivering a fatal blow to their vitals—such was the toughness of the Spirit Jade Stage!

The spirit jade of men was located in the center of their hearts! When mortal men attain the Spirit Jade Stage, their hearts experience a transformation and turn strong enough to exhibit the power of the Spirit Jade Stage, and the translucent magatama that forms inside their heart becomes the central structure through which the spirit power in their bodies circulate. The heart of men contains a chaotic mist of spirit power prior to attaining the Spirit Jade Stage, and they are only able to become a Spirit Jade powerhouse after going through the thorough process of forming a spirit jade.

However, becoming a Spirit Jade powerhouse came with huge risks as failure led to the explosion of the heart. This was the reason a lot of sword saints didn’t dare to take the risk that easily.

The spirit jade was also the embodiment of a s.p.a.ce that contained the spirit sea above which the soul floated. Hence, this spirit jade was also the most fatal weakness of Spirit Jade powerhouses.

The Spirit Jade Stage was, after all, the first step taken by creatures towards divinity, and though some higher-leveled Great Demons possessed the ability to stay alive even after getting beheaded and could connect their heads back again, a vast majority of human powerhouses were unable to do this unless they trained in some bizarre and heretical evil arts.

As such, a vital spot like the spirit jade’s location was bound to have the highest level of protection and was shielded by very thick armor that was difficult to break through!

However, unlike male pract.i.tioners, the spirit jade of women was located inside the spirit palace that laid at a spot three inches below the lower abdomen, and the soul was protected inside the spirit jade that floated within the spirit palace.

This was the reason why the hearts of female pract.i.tioners didn’t differ much from that of mortal women and were just a tad bit stronger.

Takeda’s armor had a lot of gaps, but Tokugawa was covered in dense metallic armor, so it became pretty difficult for Lily to find an opening in his armor.

Lily didn’t dare to receive the attacks of the flaming demon-headed cudgel directly and proceeded vigilantly even though its speed had slowed down a little as it would leave her in desperate straits if any of the attacks landed on her. However, even though it was quite easy for her to dodge Tokugawa’s attacks, she didn’t possess any means to counter them.

The only option left was to retreat.

“It seems like it’ll be hard to kill Tokugawa in a single blow, so I’ll have to take it slowly!”

Lily maintained a set distance from Tokugawa with her nimble footwork, but she spun around occasionally and sent rapidly flying crescent moons packed with power to attack him. They could even change their directions according to Lily’s thoughts, so it was simply impossible for a heavy opponent like Tokugawa to dodge them. He was thus forced to block them by brandishing his cudgel, but it was unable to resist the attacks of the immaterial crescent moons and as a result, a huge number of crescent moon-shaped sword beams ended up striking his armor. Although they failed to break the armor, the aftershocks from the attacks quaked his resilient body and mind, leading to the gradual seepage of blood from the corners of his lips. Although he managed to block the attack, the aftershocks of the attacks harmed the internal organs inside his resilient body, but they were just slow and minor injuries and expended a lot of Lily’s spirit power. This would’ve been a huge drawback typically, but as a blade maiden, Lily held the upper hand in terms of replenishing spirit power in comparison to her opponent.

Tokugawa simply didn’t possess the means to chase after Lily if she wanted to flee within the domain, so she planned to continue engaging with him and Takeda like this and exhaust him to death gradually.

If it weren’t for the domain’s suppression, the two powerhouses would’ve undoubtedly forced Lily into an impa.s.se.

“This can’t be… she actually has the upper hand?” “She’s able to suppress two of the Furinkazan in battle? This Kagami Lily is too fearsome!”

The retainers of Tokugawa and Takeda exclaimed in astonishment as well, but they couldn’t help their lords in any way and could only provide commentary from the sidelines.

“Honda! Why haven’t you made a move yet?!” Tokugawa screamed worriedly while sweating heavily. Although his mouth was bleeding, he had only received light injuries until now. Still, he felt pretty smothered by the gradual exhaustion of his strength.

“My lord…” Honda, who observed the battle while holding his pike silently until now, began to waver as well.

“Honda Yahatarou! Are you going to just keep looking on as that vile woman injures our lord just for the sake of reputation?!” Sakai’s face was flushed with nervousness and fury, too.

“Forgive me, Lynne! It seems like loyalty and honor really cannot coexist! I cannot just sit back and watch as you continue to injure my lord even if I have to shoulder the stigma of dishonor on my name! Watch out!” Great Bodhisattva Hachiman manifested behind Honda again, and his pike turned into a golden light beam as it stabbed towards Lily.

“Oh, no!” Lily’s pulse quickened and was forced to give up on attacking Tokugawa in order to dodge Honda’s stab with a roll. However, the nearby Takeda attacked Lily again with a stalagmite summoned from the ground! Thus, Lily was forced back to the edge of the mountain temple once again.

Honda possessed both speed and power as well as the divine blessing of Buddha, so he wasn’t affected by the domain’s suppression that much. Although Lily didn’t fear Honda, his pike, which possessed a ma.s.sive reach, restrained her greatly!

Takeda Tsunen.o.bu and Tokugawa Shigemori, two of the Furinkazan, as well as Honda Yahatarou, who possessed strength slightly higher to them, a total of three Spirit Jade powerhouses, had joined forces to besiege Lily with aggressive maneuvers2!

1. Robinxen: Oh man her sword got damaged?! How convenient is it that she happens to have some superior material for crafting a new one!
2. Robinxen: Activate the plot armour! Engage all failsafes! Deus Ex Machina initialise!