Lily followed Hiroyasu as they departed from the Matsuda Clan. On their way towards a small forest area, they pa.s.sed through a wooden bridge over a stream.

Near the entrance of the forest, among the bushes at the roadside, a mossy statue of an earth deity was installed there.

"Huh?" Although Lily only brushed past it briefly, she saw the earth deity shedding tears with her extraordinary vision.

It was an extremely strange phenomenon. Could it be giving her a warning?

Even the earth deity"s stone statue possessed spirituality. Only a kindhearted girl with sharp intuition like Lily could trigger the spirit of the earth deity to give her a forewarning.

Lily followed Hiroyasu into the forest that was shrouded in dim-light. It was extremely dark in here, the only light source came from the candle flame that had yet to be extinguished. The villagers often came to this forest to offer their prayers to the earth deity.

Due to the darkness, the two had no choice but to slow down.

"Hiroyasu, where is Miki?" Lily asked.

"We"re almost there, it"s just ahead of us." Hiroyasu continued leading Lily into the depths of the forest. The entire trail was covered by the trees at both sides like a tunnel.

Two figures walked over from a distant place.

They had ragged clothing and s.h.a.ggy hair. Lily couldn"t see their face clearly due to the darkness. All she saw was the cold glint in their eyes.

At this moment, Hiroyasu soundlessly got into the woods and disappeared from sight.

Lily stopped her steps.

She turned around and saw two more figures approaching her from the back.

These people all had wooden clubs in their hands and hanging at their waist was a sword.

They were carrying swords yet holding wooden clubs. If she was their target, then their intention was crystal clear.

Lily maintained a slow and steady speed, she walked forward as though nothing had happened.

These people must be lying in wait to ambush her, but she couldn"t be completely sure yet.

From the front, the two men in s.h.a.ggy clothes walked towards Lily with constant speed and a wooden club in hand. They didn"t make any abnormal movement.

And the two from the back seemed to be increasing their speed as naturally as possible.

Within the dark forest, aside from the cries of the ignorant insects and the babbling sound of the stream, there was only the crunching sound of the footsteps.

The distance between Lily and the two men in front shortened greatly. One of them was a burly middle-aged man with a bushy beard. The other one was an ugly man with small eyes. The two of them look very normal and walked towards Lily without minding her. It was as though they were really just pa.s.sers-by, but that was actually the strange part because there"s no way ordinary men wouldn"t fix their glance on a beauty like Lily.

These men brushed past Lily from both sides.

All of a sudden, the cries of the the insects seemed to cease.

That bushy-beard suddenly lifted the wooden club in his hand. He held it in both hands and turned his body sideways to hit the back of Lily"s head.

Lily immediately stooped down, so the wooden club ended up brushing past her hair and hit the empty air. At the same time, she kicked the ground with one leg and quickly took a step back. She followed up by using her other leg as the axis to turn around while drawing the wooden sword from her waist. A beautiful arc was drawn from her wooden sword as her body rotated.

"Bang!!!" That wooden sword landed a firm hit on the chin of bushy-beard, which caused him to fall backward.

The bushy-beard was in the way of the other guy, so he dodged to the side. He stopped his steps when he found a leeway to attack and lifted the club.

During the time he lifted the club, Lily was adjusting her stance and sheathed the wooden sword.

The man performed a vertical strike at Lily, but Lily"s wooden sword was longer and faster. She squatted halfway and performed a thrust.

"Pfff!" The thrust with more than 60 kwan of force hit the dead center of the man"s chest. The wooden club of the man stopped half a foot above Lily"s head.

The man"s ribs were fractured and he was sent flying from the wooden sword"s thrusting force that"s equal to two hundred plus kilograms.

At this time, the two who were originally three to four meters behind Lily already rushed over and attempted to drive the wooden club into Lily from both sides.

And the bushy-beard whose chin was smashed by Lily was just getting up while holding the side of his face.

Lily lifted the wooden sword over her head.

"Pow! Pow!"

The wooden clubs were stopped by the wooden sword. The clubs which possessed enough power to split the head was not worth mentioning to Lily.

After repelling the two"s wooden club, Lily stood up and took a step back. The two men continue to brandish their clubs at Lily.

Lily"s footwork was very nimble. She quickly shifted to the side and got next to one of the man. It just so happened to cause him to hit the air with his wooden club. At the same time, Lily executed a short and quick horizontal slash that"s slanted downward.

"Dong!" The two hundred kilograms of power behind the wooden sword struck the man"s head like a hammer, which caused him to kiss the ground and twitch like a c.o.c.kroach.

The other man halted his step and performed a horizontal swing at Lily.

Lily raised the power of her wooden sword slightly, then she swung it fiercely.

"Pow!" The club separated from the man"s hand.

The man who just lost his club staggered. Lily didn"t wait for him to recover and followed up with a diagonal slash.

"Bang—!" The face of that man deformed from the strike and died on the spot.1

Blood leaked out from the corner of bushy-beard"s mouth. His chin was deformed and killing intent oozed out from the eyes of the still muddy-headed man. He unsheathed the shoddy iron sword from his waist and carried out a slash at Lily.

That swing was very fast. The iron sword that reeked of blood already reached in front of Lily. She dodged to the side with unusual movements. That movement which went beyond the limits of the human body was only possible due to the use of Spirit Power. The shining sword tip practically swept past right in front of Lily"s eyes.

Bushy-beard lost his center of gravity and exposed his side. Lily didn"t miss the chance and attacked with powerful force!

"Crack!"

The wooden sword snapped as it hit the bushy"s beard"s skull.

Bushy beard fell motionless onto the ground with his skull shattered.

The fight ended in less than ten seconds. From start to finish, n.o.body said a single word. n.o.body asked why, nor did anyone explain the reason for this ambush.

And now, there"s no way to find out.

As for Lily, she only used Spirit Power to dodge in that last moment. The rest of the time, she used the base strength of her body to defeat these four people.

Lily adjusted her breathing and looked at the snapped wooden sword in her hands with a forlorn feeling.

After all, this was Lily"s first and only sword.

Maybe it already had many tiny cracks due to its long service and because it had to bear Lily"s out of norm penetration force.

Lily switched the wooden sword to her left hand, then she picked up bushy-beard"s shoddy katana with her right hand before she turned around and left.

The day was already dark, and the earth deity statue at the entrance of the forest still had a look as auspicious as before. A wooden sword was stuck right next to the statue. A white strip of cloth, tied around the center of the blade, fluttered lightly in the night wind.2