Book 3: Chapter 57: Apparition within the Snowstorm

The whistling sounds of the wind were akin to the shrieks of a grieving woman as the bone-chilling snowflakes fluttered inside the mountain temple while emanating speck-like white light under the moonlight.

“The wind direction has actually changed. All of it is directed towards the interior of the temple now,” Yumi looked at the surroundings worriedly.

“Lady Mimori, don’t you feel it’s getting much colder? I-I can’t withstand it any further,” Shiu hugged Yukiko’s arm tightly.

“I also feel the same. This weather is obviously cold to an abnormal degree and requires us to circulate our spirit power to maintain a warm body temperature. I’m afraid we’ll exhaust ourselves and freeze to death if this goes on,” Yukiko stated worriedly.

“But the weather outside is much colder!” Yumi furrowed her brows slightly. This cold weather didn’t embody the romance of snow any longer and was a shuddering frigidness instead.

“Wake up master immediately. She might be in more danger if she remains asleep,” Yukiko stated.

“Although master would probably be fine since she’s much stronger than us, it’s still best to wake her up. This frigidness is not normal,” Yumi was always in a dilemma until now. She wanted to wake Lily up, but she also didn’t want to disturb her rest.

A gust of whistling wind flowed into the mountain temple with a whoosh at this moment and extinguished the bonfire!

“What?!” The girls were stunned, and Lily also opened her eyes under the frigid curtain of night.

The girls sensed an extremely intense eldritch energy in the next moment.

A faint and distant scream filled with resentment traveled through the intense snowstorm, “Who? Who stole my heart? Tell me, who was it?! Aaaahhh!”

The eldritch energy turned increasingly denser and the temperature also began to drop rapidly.

“Crack! Crack!” A thin layer of frost began to encroach over the floor and inner walls of the temple.

“Master… I sense something coming towards us…” Yukiko, Yumi and Shiu hugged their master tightly.

“It’s a monster. Although I don’t know what monster it is, this abnormal frigidness doesn’t just contain the coldness of snow and originates from the heart’s sorrow instead,” Lily placated the girls gently and though they were covered by silk cloths, Lily tightened her grip on Crescent Moon underneath them.

A poignant and fantastical blue light shone through the broken wall of the temple at this moment and a real, yet phantasmal woman donned in a beautiful white kimono and a light amethyst silk outer garment floated inside, the whole temple freezing over with her arrival. The snowflakes also followed behind her like living creatures and covered the inside of the temple with a layer of snow.

The woman donned in white had pretty looks and a pointed chin with skin as fair as snow. She had gorgeous eyeshadow applied under her eyes and her lips were pale white with only her underlip possessing a slight azure gloss.

The woman’s body looked a little translucent and emanated a phantasmal frigid blue glow that illuminated the girls within the darkness of the dilapidated temple.

The girls felt a frigidness that could even freeze souls momentarily and the exceptionally intense and bizarre eldritch energy emanating from the translucent woman left all the girls except Lily dumbfounded.

Lily was the only one who held her katana underneath the silk cloths and gazed at the floating translucent woman gallantly.

“It’s the first time I’ve run into such an intense grudge in normal circ.u.mstances other than a night parade,” Lily soliloquized internally.

“Who?! Who carries the scent of the heartless man who stole my heart? Who?!”

“Crash!” A violent gust of wind blew over and threw the silk cloths covering the girls away, making them hug each other in fear within the frigid coldness.

“Yuki-Onna… It’s the legendary Yuki-Onna!” The trembling Yumi stated while hugging her sister and Shiu behind Lily, “Haihime brought up the legend of Yuki-Onna once, and according to it, Yuki-Onna appears somewhere in Echigo or Shinano on the arrival of each winter.”

“Hahaha. It seems like you are quite knowledgeable. You ought to know what’s my purpose then?” The frigid and desolate glow in Yuki-Onna’s eyes made Lily’s heart quiver.

This Yuki-Onna was shrouded in a bone-piercing cold and her strength far exceeded that of Tokugawa, Takeda and Honda, and the eldritch energy emanating off from her indicated that she might’ve attained the peak of Spirit Jade Stage. She wasn’t an opponent that Lily could defeat even in a perfect state, and in addition to that, her powers were further amplified within this snowstorm!

Lily clenched the handle of Crescent Moon, but she didn’t unsheathe it yet and prepared to counterattack Yuki-Onna’s attack silently at any moment. Only then did she open her mouth to speak, “Lady Yuki-Onna, we’ve come here to handle matters relating to humankind and have no intention of disturbing you. I hope you can take a step back as we have no hatred nor grudges between us and thus have no reason to fight.”

“Hmph! So, the scent of the heartless man comes from you!” Yuki-Onna eyed Lily.

“Huh?” Lily was taken aback.

“You are the one who stole my heart! You heartless man! Aaaaahhh!”

Yuki-Onna screamed suddenly and the wind that followed caused everyone to close their eyes. Yuki-Onna used this chance to pounce towards Lily while carrying a frigid wind along with her, leaving no time for Lily to react. However, just when Lily intended to face an attack, she found Yuki-Onna diving between her legs and lifting her skirt up before taking a careful look inside.

“What are you doing?!” Lily’s face flushed up instantly.

“That’s weird. So you weren’t crossdressing and were really a woman. What’s going on…” Yuki-Onna laid down Lily’s skirt with a blank look and floated back up again, donning a pensive look.

“What do you mean by what’s going on? I’m the one who wants to know that! I shall fight you if you want, but for what reason are you lifting my skirt up?!” Lily kneeled on the ground with one knee and prepared to execute an Iai strike at any moment.

“I got it…” Yuki-Onna’s eyes fell on Lily’s crimson long-sleeved kimono, “The scent comes from the garments you wear. Hehehe. Your garments have the scent of that heartless man.”

“Huh?” Lily sniffed her sleeves and detected no masculine scent from them. In fact, she wouldn’t have worn them if they smelled like a man.

“You are quite strong but so thoughtless, woman. The scent I was referring to is the mark left behind by the heart, not a man’s odor! It seems like you are also a pitiful woman abandoned by that heartless man, girl?” Yuki-Onna turned aggrieved suddenly and looked at Lily with sympathy.

“Heartless man? Who’s this heartless man you are talking about?” Although Lily had no interest in this apparition, it seemed that Yuki-Onna viewed her in a sympathetic and approving note because she had mistaken Lily for a misfortunate woman abandoned by the unknown lover. Thus, Lily and the other girls’ safety was a.s.sured for now.

“It’s obviously the man with whom you entangled in these garments…1”

“Huh?” Lily wanted to retort, but she closed her mouth and reminded herself that she must not lose her calm because of this misunderstanding about entanglement with a man the other party had mentioned.

Lily obviously hadn’t done anything like that, but this kimono belonged to Lady Shizuka and was quite pretty and durable. It could also be stored within the mirror, which was why Lily wore it often.

Since it was Lady Shizuka’s kimono, it had to be a man she had entangled with, so Lily had a rough idea about the ident.i.ty of the heartless man in question.

1. Robinxen: Her yanderadar is overwhelmingly powerful…