Book 3: Chapter 100: The Six Paths of Tsukuyomi Swordstyle

The rough horizontal pavement was the first thing that reflected in Haihime’s vision when she woke up and the withered leaves looked a little blurred because they were too close to her eyelashes.

Her spirit power had been depleted, her cursed katana also taken, and she had been abandoned at the entrance of the temple alone in this dark and cold night.

The sounds of merriment were audible from the interior of the temple and it seemed like Amanojaku’s coming-of-age ceremony had begun already.

Haihime got up with much difficulty and walked with an unsteady gait. The paths leading outside the temple were all guarded by powerful monsters and the current Haihime had no chances of successful escape. It was also meaningless to flee right now as she would have no means to resist without spirit power even if she managed to escape from the temple and wouldn’t make it that far into the mountains. Even if she managed to escape luckily, her clansmen wouldn’t be able to escape like her.

And she also had no way to kill the enemy who murdered her mother and clansmen.

She wandered absentmindedly without a destination in mind with disheveled hair and tattered clothing and made for the rear court of the temple subconsciously.

The temple was lit with plenty of lanterns and candles, which was a rare sight, and appeared brighter than usual. A few of the cat-masked kunoichi were dressed in promiscuous and erotic dresses right now and served as dancers and performing entertainers.

Amanojaku and the chiefs ignored Haihime and just drank their sake.

“Lord Amanojaku, is it fine to ignore Haihime like this? What if she runs away?” Kokurin asked.

“She has yet to recover her spirit power after getting injured and also doesn’t have her cursed katana. There are guards everywhere inside this temple, so there’s nowhere she can escape to,” Genga commented.

“Let her calm down a bit and get a clearer picture of her position!” Amanojaku stated, “I want her to give birth to my children instead of just obtaining her body, so it’s meaningless to force her. I want her to serve me with all her heart after I make her experience the deaths of despair!” Amanojaku toasted towards the monsters proudly.

Around the same time, inside the dark and opulent mirror s.p.a.ce.

Lily’s face was stained with tears and her dazzling skin was drenched in musky sweat as the sword intent in each of her movements were just like moonlight that streaked through the darkness!

She performed the sword-dance in a fluid and intuitive manner, and the sweat-drenched garments she wore, her skin, her everything, even the sword in her hand, had fused into a whole.

A faint flash of hazy fragrance was all that remained as Lily’s dancing stance became almost the exact same as the stance inscribed on the first monolith!

“I’ve succeeded!” Lily’s eyes lit up, “I’ve finally perfected the 10th stage of Tsukuyomi Swordstyle’s 1st segment!”

At the same time…

The Tsukuyomi Swordstyle Monolith in front of Lily began glowing suddenly and the whole cave began to quake as well.

The earth quaked and Lily discovered that the cave walls around her had begun to collapse as a cl.u.s.ter of beautiful crystals floated in midair while the three monoliths became distant.

Lily now found herself standing on top of a huge stone platform that had an endless chasm of mist underneath it.

The stone platform began to ascend and even though Lily felt amazed, she remained motionless on the ascending platform as she had no clue about how to deal with the current situation.

A hole sp.a.w.ned in the roof of the cave room in an inconceivable fashion and the tens of meters wide stone platform that Lily was standing on seemed to ascend to the 2nd stratum of the cave room.

An archaic monolith was also present in this location and the drawings etched on it were esoteric to a deeper extent. The monolith depicted the score of a celestial maiden’s sword-dance that Lily had never seen until now and she could sense that this was probably the 2nd segment of Tsukuyomi Swordstyle!

However, the monolith of the 1st segment also ascended up at this moment and lined up beside the 2nd segment’s monolith. Lily had a feeling that this circular cave room seemed to have enough s.p.a.ces for six monoliths, but there were only these two monoliths at present.

The celestial maiden’s swordplay engraved on the 1st segment’s monolith began to glimmer with a golden light suddenly and burned out of existence, leaving behind just a clean monolith.

“Buzz!” The whole cave room got shrouded in a haze halo following the buzz.

Lily then saw six paths of golden light specks form fuzzy words around her. These words exuded a very ancient and distant power, and each one of these paths were as high as the heavens as they revolved around Lily slowly.

The fluttering golden light specks converged at one of the paths continually until the words became gradually clear, forming the two words—Human Path.

Lily immediately sensed that she had gained a complete mastery of Tsukuyomi Swordstyle’s 1st segment after fusing all the sword movements in its 10 stages.

Her hair danced in the air under the influence of a formless power as the ancient, golden words reflected inside Lily’s eyes and her control over her body as well as her use of power and her understanding of sword arts were improving rapidly at this moment. It was as if she were standing high up on a pedestal as the stone platform underneath her turned transparent, reflecting the distant visage of earth enveloped in the flames of war, the battles that had occurred since times immemorial, the deadly duels, the cla.s.sic showdowns between masters, the remorseful end of heroes…

The scenes flitted by one after the other…

It was as if Lily was peering into the limits and essence of vicissitudes and agony caused by the human world’s sword arts and her vision, knowledge and experience reached a whole new level.

The golden light vanished, and the stone room regained its dim tranquility. The smooth monolith from which the celestial maiden’s sword score had vanished initially portrayed the drawing of a G.o.ddess performing the sword-dance from the stone wall, and all aspects of this G.o.ddesses’ portrait had attained perfection. However, the facial features of her peerless looks hadn’t been portrayed and only had the outline instead of a face. Her tall visage brimmed with elegance and the pure and transcendent way in which she carried her sword exuded an eternal aura that possessed unfathomable depths. Even the current Lily was left in awe of the s.e.xiness, beauty, and pure elegance expressed via the G.o.ddess’ portrait and she was utterly oblivious to the true intent contained within the way the G.o.ddess carried her sword.

Lily stepped forward to see the name of the G.o.ddess’ portrait penned via inscriptions br.i.m.m.i.n.g with unfathomable power—Tsukuyomi Swordstyle’s First Path, the Human Path.

Although the G.o.ddess’ portrait had no facial features, the outline of the face and the portrayal of her form alone was enough to make Lily imagine the beauty of the G.o.ddess. Lily felt that it was also possible that even the master engraver who created the G.o.ddess’ portrait believed it was impossible to reproduce the true beauty of the G.o.ddess’ mien on the monolith and decided to refrain from doing so.

However, even so, Lily also felt an inexplicable sorrow within her heart.

She could feel that this was probably the prettiest woman of Takamagahara, the Grandest Prime Battle G.o.ddess, Tsukuyomi-no-Mikoto.

However, she failed to understand why she was feeling such sorrow.

Lily was an extremely devout believer and wished to kneel and worship the G.o.ddess who had imparted the Tsukuyomi Swordstyle to her indirectly, but she was astonished to find that her knees failed to bend.

She wondered why this was the case.

Whether it was because the portrait didn’t have the G.o.ddess’ face or whether she was still unqualified, wondering whether only celestial existences like Suzuhiko-hime possessed the qualifications to kneel and worship G.o.ddess Tsukuyomi.

Even if she couldn’t kneel down, the longing and grat.i.tude Lily felt for this G.o.ddess didn’t diminish at all.

So the six segments of Tsukuyomi Swordstyle are actually called the Six Paths.

And I’ve perfected the First Path, the Human Path.

Lily expressed grat.i.tude towards G.o.ddess Tsukuyomi once again and used the Art of No-Thought to make the circular platform descend back to the 1st stratum which still had the monolith etched with the whole edition of Lunar Blossom.

The monolith depicting the sensual dance of Suzuhiko-hime, on the other hand, had vanished. Although Lily would never learn that dance because it was too shameful, it wasn’t good for such a precious relic to vanish without a trace.

The moment such a thought pa.s.sed through Lily’s mind, the platform continued to descend down and arrived at a hot and humid stratum that had an array of exotic flora along with hot springs. This stratum had actually had red pillars and winding, wooden corridors as far as the eyes went and even had a tall and splendid courtyard mansion in it. However, this mansion seemed to emanate a scent that bewitched Lily’s mind and almost made her lose control, so she used the Art of No-Thought and made the circular platform return to the 1st stratum where Lunar Blossom lied.

At the same time, Lily seemed to catch the faint voice of a woman calling out to her, and based on how it felt, she realized that it was coming from the world outside the mirror s.p.a.ce.

It was only possible for Lily to hear the voice of a woman pretty close to her via the mirror s.p.a.ce.

In any case, Lily was also planning to leave since she had finished perfecting Tsukuyomi Swordstyle’s First Path.

Her consciousness returned to the outside world with a single thought.

“Lily! Lily!”

Lily saw Yumi shaking her body anxiously while Yoriko tried to stop her, “What are you doing?! Who are you?! No one is allowed to disturb Miss Lynne’s meditation!”

“Yumi?” Lily raised her hand and signaled Yoriko to calm down before looking at Yumi who had appeared here and revealed a delighted smile, “Are you fine, Yumi?”

Yumi stepped back and kneeled down immediately after seeing Lily wake up, “Master, I almost harmed you. I should be punished for this!”

Yoriko also backed off, utterly confused about the situation.

“Just what has happened, Yumi?”

Yumi raised her head and was just about to explain when a faint scream reached from outside the village suddenly, followed by a series of powerful eldritch auras and the aura of carnage.

“Oh no!” Yumi shouted, “The monsters lying in ambush must’ve begun killing the villagers.”

“What?!” Lily got up immediately.

“Monsters?” Yoriko’s perception wasn’t as good as Lily’s and Yumi’s, so all she could do shiver in fright while looking at the direction of the scream, “Why have monsters come? Didn’t they say they’re letting us go and that they’ll spare us today?”

Lily didn’t continue listening to Yoriko and neither did she wait for Yumi’s explanation. Her eyes traveled towards the direction where the murderous aura originated from and she employed a spirit probe wide enough to scan the whole underground s.p.a.ce before wearing a cold smile on her face, “Yumi, protect Yoriko well and also make sure you protect yourself as well.”

Lily turned into a violet afterimage after saying this and rushed towards the direction of the villagers’ screams immediately.

“Whoosh!” A strong wind blew the skirts of Yumi’s and Yoriko’s dresses up and forced them to press them down subconsciously, yet there were no traces of Lily in the next moment.

The perfected Tsukuyomi Swordstyle’s First Path provided Lily with a tenfold power boost and her speed had also improved substantially compared to before!

“Phew!” Lily had arrived in front of the demons and the villagers in just a single breath and came to a sliding stop, giving rise to a cloud of dust behind her.

She saw the hundreds of villagers huddled together in fear helplessly inside the encirclement of a group of tall, sinister and dark monsters who herded the villagers deeper into the encirclement while killing them.

“Argh!” “Help!” “No!”

A mist of blood pervaded the air as the villagers fell under the sharp claws, fangs and weapons of the monsters.

Lily felt deep sorrow well up in her heart when she saw this h.e.l.lish scene of carnage and her eyes gained a crimson glow as her spirit power bloomed within this underground s.p.a.ce like amaryllises.

A reddish-purple veil shrouded the monsters and the villagers, followed by the manifestation of sakura formed from spirit power. The monsters who were killing the powerless villagers cruelly were also taken aback by this and looked all around in puzzlement.

A majority of them didn’t even have enough time to see where the girl who caused this sight was.

“Sakura Blizzard—Lyn!”

The ocean of sakura petals dancing in the air turned into countless blades and the luminescent streams of pink light streaked across the s.p.a.ce, flying towards the monsters.

“Splatter! Splatter! Splatter! Splatter! Splatter!”

The monsters’ screams overwrote the villagers’ call for help instantaneously and the rising mists of blood even dyed the roof of the underground s.p.a.ce which was hundreds of meters high in red.

None of the monsters below the 6th-stage Awakened level were left alive!