Book 5: Chapter 96: Resolutely Take Action

“Don’t come over! Stay back, you ugly demon! I, I am blessed by heaven1!” Ijuin trembled and wriggled backward.

“Shut up!” The evil spirit roared.

Slap! Slap! It delivered two resounding slaps to Ijuin’s face, causing blood to trickle from the corners of her mouth.

“Lord Michizane forbade us from violating women at will. I have been holding back for many years! Today, you sent yourselves to our door looking for death. Who can you blame? Look at you, you’re so scared that you p.i.s.sed yourself, yet you dare to talk so strongly in front of me!”

“Little b̲i̲t̲c̲h̲!” The evil spirit grabbed Ijuin’s calf, ripped her short skirt with one claw, and tore her top with the other.

“Ahh—” Ijuin screamed with a red face, “Help…help me! Father— brother— help!”

“It’s useless for you to call anyone today. As the saying goes, you have to live with your own mistakes! Just resign yourself to fate! Let this uncle strip you naked first, you p.i.s.s-loving sword girl! I think it’s better to call you a b̲i̲t̲c̲h̲!”

“No— ah— help— help—!”

At this time, Lily was silently watching all this.

“It’s not that I don’t want to save you guys, but I’m really not his opponent. If you want to blame someone, blame yourselves for not knowing how high the sky is. You have also killed and bullied a lot of innocent little demons. Maybe this is retribution!”

Lily turned around to leave. However, the screams of those girls tugged at her heart. Those beautiful clan sisters were of similar age to Lily. She couldn’t sit back and watch them die in humiliation after being ravaged.

No matter whether they were right or wrong, it was natural to save one’s own kind, especially those of the same clan.

“Hey! Kagura, are you confident in killing Michizane?”

“Michizane is the head of the four great vengeful spirits and his power is boundless. Even if I use the Blood Spirit Magatama, I have no confidence that I will be able to kill him. However, there is no problem repelling him and keeping Master safe.” Kagura replied calmly.

“Okay, I understand.”

The girl under the parasol with long, fluttering hair, had only taken a few steps before she stopped and lowered the parasol. Lily turned around resolutely and put away the parasol with a ‘swish’ sound

“Ah— no!” Ijuin was directly pressed to the ground by the big hand of the evil spirit while the other hand reached out towards her skirt.

Ijuin cried weakly in defiance, “You dare… I am the sword miko blessed by heaven. If you dare to touch me, you will suffer the wrath of heaven!”

A sarcastic smile appeared on the evil spirit’s ugly face, “Hahahaha, the wrath of heaven? Are you still dreaming of your heavenly destiny, you stupid woman? Even the heavens cannot save such a stupid beauty like you who willingly came to our door! Hahahaha, heaven’s wrath, come on, come on— let me see what the wrath of heaven is like—!”

Whoosh—!

A long, mournful hum cut through the night sky and a blade glinting with the cold light of the moon descended from above. Crescent Moon directly severed the lascivious hand of the evil spirit that tried to m̲o̲l̲e̲s̲t̲ Ijuin!

Afterwards, Lily, who was wearing a red dress with long sleeves and a short skirt, landed on the ground with a gust of fragrant wind. Her slender legs stood straight, and with a lift of her foot, she kicked the broken-armed evil spirit with a resounding ‘bang’!

“Hmm?” Michizane’s eyes that shone like fire and thunder also froze, looking at the girl who suddenly appeared.

“Who is it?”

“Another one delivered herself to our door?”

“Wow, this one is so tall and beautiful!”

Several demons abandoned the women they were holding and pounced towards Lily.

Ijuin stared dumbly at this heroic girl who suddenly appeared. She was so tall and beautiful, and even maintained a calm and valiant spirit when facing these hundred ghosts that made Ijuin unable to stand up

Although Ijuin Reira was a sword miko, she was a straight girl2 who liked boys3. However, at this moment, she couldn’t help blushing.

“Hehehehehe—” Lord Tokihara, the ancient public minister at Michizane’s feet, had a bizarre expression as he hid his face and laughed, looking at Lily.

“Tokihara! You villain who framed Lord Michizane, what are you laughing at?” A ten-meter-tall gray yaksha asked angrily. This powerful-looking yaksha demon held a steel trident and stood beside Michizane, disdaining to partic.i.p.ate in the activities of those inferior hundred ghosts that pounced on the female warriors. Of course, this so-called inferiority was relatively speaking and none of them were weak characters.

“This woman is not so easy to handle, hehehehe—” Tokihara continued to laugh.

Those demons and monsters, as well as the evil spirit whose arm was cut off by Lily, howled and lunged at her.

At this time, the phantom soul power in Crescent Moon had been temporarily withdrawn by Lily and turned into a phantom soul sword that was placed in the mirror s.p.a.ce. This spirit-tempering power could be withdrawn and replaced at any time as Lily had long grasped this technique.

She did this because the effect of the phantom soul sword on vengeful spirits was far less than on humans. Vengeful spirits were souls full of powerful resentment that turned into demons, so naturally, their souls were very resilient. Even if Lily exhausted all her phantom soul energy, it wouldn’t be enough to kill a few great vengeful spirits. As for vengeful spirits at Michizane’s level, phantom soul power was almost useless.

Secondly, in this matter, although these demons were planning to perform atrocities on the girls, it was the sword mikos who were first at fault in the end. If possible, Lily didn’t want to kill these demons, mainly because they were Michizane’s subordinates.

In truth, although this Michizane was extremely vicious to the person who framed him and the royal family he hated, he generally disdained to hurt the innocent and weak, and could be considered a great vengeful spirit with integrity. If possible, Lily didn’t want Kagura to kill Michizane. Of course, he may not get killed, but he could get seriously injured. However, Lily didn’t want to become enemies with Michizane.

Lily conjured her domain, Sakura Blizzard, and immediately suppressed the surrounding demons.

“Oh?” Michizane’s thick black beard twitched slightly as he watched this red-clothed woman display a completely different battle style from the previous woman.

Lily was surrounded and faced the attacks of several evil spirits, but she remained calm and relaxed, her long hair fluttering. She raised her long sword high and gathered her spiritual energy, slashing out like the mysterious moon in the twelve moon phases. In that blood-colored mysterious moon, there seemed to be a ripple of silver moon intent.

Boom!!! Several demons and monsters were blasted into the air by the powerful impact of the mysterious moon slashed from the back of the sword. Their bodies caved in and their bones were broken as they fell to the ground!

“What??!” The hundred ghosts were shocked.

Even Michizane raised his thick black eyebrows slightly and the corner of his mouth twitched as he said, “Oh? Moon intent?”

The sword miko sisters who also saw this scene were all shocked and a bit of hope couldn’t help but rekindle in their eyes.

“This, who is this samurai elder sister?”

“So powerful…”

Taking advantage of the hundred ghosts’ surprise and hesitation, Lily urged Sakura Blizzard to scatter countless cherry blossoms that danced wildly in the fragrant wind, hiding a powerful blade in the middle. Although it couldn’t kill the hundred ghosts, it forced those monsters and demons around the girls to retreat.

However, there were still many powerful demons that couldn’t be forced away by her domain alone.

Lily flicked her long sleeves.

Whoosh— whoosh! A rain of ice cones flew towards the demons.

“Arcane arts?!!” The female onmyoji in the back were shocked, “Isn’t she a female samurai?”

“Sister samurai…these are just low-level arcane arts, what’s the use?!” Ijuin was just saved, but it seemed that her habit of disdaining others began to kick in again.

“However, she can actually cast arcane arts instantly? Did she use some kind of arcane tool? Isn’t that a legendary level that only a rare genius onmyoji like Abe no Seimei can achieve? Why is she a female samurai…?”

The demons didn’t take such low-ranking arcane arts seriously, either.

However— Boom! Boom! Boom!

When those ice cones. .h.i.t the demons, they erupted into an ice explosion that actually blasted away the hideous and fierce demons.

Although each ice cone seemed to be formed from low-level arcane arts, the power of Lily’s mind was strangely high, thereby raising their lethality. In addition, Lily had incorporated her moon intent. Not just any arcane art was suitable to be integrated with moon intent. Only the wind and ice arcane arts could be combined with moon intent because the ice cones carried a bleak moon-like aura which made their power even more amazing!

“Oh? What remarkable mental strength. How can a young woman have such obsessions? She can also instantly cast arcane arts. When did such a girl appear in the Heian capital?” Even Michizane, who had been watching, couldn’t help but marvel.

After forcing the demons back from the girls, Lily immediately shouted, “What are you still dazing about? Why don’t you run!”

“Eh?!” The girls were still in a state of astonishment and many of them began to look at Lily with longing eyes. The shocking move just now caused them to overestimate Lily. They thought Lily was enough to kill all these vengeful spirits.

“Sister samurai, aren’t you here to defend the heavenly way?” A wide-eyed female samurai asked as she sat on the ground.

“Screw defending the heavenly way4! Run!” Lily shouted.

However, at this moment, a huge, hairy ghost hand which was enough to crush a house stretched out from the smoke cloud.

Lily saw the big hand that covered the sky and the moon open up to grab her. It was clearly very slow, but no matter how Lily moved her body from side to side, that big hand would always shroud her figure.

Lily stimulated all her spiritual energy and the other side of her sword blossomed with red flowers. Lily spoke to this great vengeful spirit for the first time and shouted, “Lord Michizane! This little girl knows that she shouldn’t have offended you and your hundred demons, but these girls were all influenced by someone who misinterpreted the heavenly oracle and offended you! Please, I ask Lord Michizane to let them go. With your level of strength, why bother with these ignorant girls!”

“Hehehehe—” Michizane laughed thunderously and the huge face of this demon king was revealed from the smoke cloud, “Little girl, who do you think I am? Although I, Michizane, disdain to kill innocent people indiscriminately, I am not a kind-hearted person. These women disrespected my heavenly prestige, shouldn’t they be punished?! And you, although you may have held back, you still hurt many of my subordinates. Do you think you are qualified to negotiate with me?”

Under Michizane’s huge ghost claw, Lily had no choice but to swing her sword with all her strength.

Whoosh— That slash, which was enough to kill a peak Permanence Stage powerhouse, was actually deformed under the spiritual pressure of that huge hand, dissipating into a stream of scarlet light that flowed away between the fingers.

“Ahhh—” Lily let out a delicate cry. Her legs couldn’t withstand that spiritual pressure which layered like thousands of mountains, forcing her to kneel on the ground. A deep pit was formed in the sandy pavement where she kneeled. Lily’s breath quickened as her chest heaved up and down, and crystal droplets of sweat couldn’t stop flowing from her body…

Clang! Lily no longer had the strength to raise her sword and let go of Crescent Moon.

“Quickly…run…” Lily was dripping with fragrant sweat and her trembling hands barely supported her knees under that terrifying, overwhelming pressure. It almost felt like her bones were about to break…but she still forced herself to look back at the girls, “Still not…running? Run!”

1. Robinxen: Your two brain cells have entirely given up now?
2. LazyButAmbitious: That’s rare
3. Robinxen: Dear G.o.ds, they still exist?! I thought they were extinct.
4. Robinxen: Haha, this is great.