Book 5: Chapter 97: Lily In Trouble

“We…we can’t just run away…” Some of the sword miko sisters said.

“How can we let this elder sister be captured by that great evil spirit?! It is obvious that she came forward to save us…”

The sword miko sisters were caught in a dilemma. While they were afraid of Michizane, they were also unwilling to leave Lily and escape on their own.

Seeing that Lily was suppressed, the hundred ghosts finally recovered their momentum and rushed towards the girls.

“These…little b̲i̲t̲c̲h̲e̲s̲!” For a moment, Lily really wanted the demons to do as they wish and take away these indecisive little girls!

In desperation, Lily could only take out Yasutsuna.

Bzzt— The top-quality ninth-grade cursed katana had an unusual evil-slaying power that fused all of Lily’s insights and power!

The sword surprisingly broke through the spiritual pressure that Michizane had causally exerted, leaving a thin blood mark on his huge demon claw.

Michizane’s hand retracted and Lily proudly broke through the spiritual pressure, transforming into a crimson shadow that rushed between the group of women and demons. She waved Yasutsuna with one hand and released a terrifying scarlet blade light in front of the surging demons to stop them from advancing. She then shouted at the women, “Still not running?!”

“This…” The women were still hesitant. They wanted to run away, but felt ashamed to leave their benefactor behind.

Lily had no choice but to use her domain to stir up a storm of cherry blossoms. The extremely strong wind blew towards the girls and swept up their already tattered clothes. The whip-like cherry blossom vines smacked the thighs and b.u.t.tocks of the frontmost girls, forcing them to scream with blushing faces and run away to avoid the whips. Once a few people started to run, the rest of the girls seemed to explode like water in a pot of frying oil. Their formation instantly collapsed and they started to flee frantically.

By the side, Ijuin got up with the support of a green short-haired girl. Ijuin’s long hair blew in the wind as she said, “I would rather play the role of the villain to let us escape and leave you to face Demon King Michizane alone… Sister samurai, please tell me your name. I will order everybody to retreat and not let your sacrifice be in vain!”

“My name is Kagami Lily! That’s enough, just get out of here!” Lily urged several long whips of cherry blossoms to lash Ijuin’s thighs and b.u.t.tocks.

The whipping made Ijuin cry out in embarra.s.sment and forced her to flee with everyone else. Seeing that the girls had basically escaped from sight, Lily breathed a sigh of relief.

“Bind!” Michizane chanted a spell and an ancient scroll filled with resentment for the imperial court flew out of his hand before surrounding Lily.

Lily tried to jump over the long scroll, but it seemed to be alive and closed around her. Lily used Yasutsuna to slash the scroll, but the soft rice paper was unusually tough and only shook a little, unable to be cut.

“Retract!”

The words on the long scroll were full of resentment and exuded a terrifying spiritual pressure, after which, the scroll suddenly constricted like a whirlwind. It was so fast and strong that Lily couldn’t react or resist.

Lily was wrapped around by the long scroll several times and bound up. The scroll continued to tighten under Michizane’s guidance and the words emitted a terrifying black resentment that attacked Lily’s body.

“Ah—” Lily let out a delicate cry and almost fainted. This wave of resentment drained 70 to 80% of her spiritual energy and strength.

Michizane’s big hand held the end of the long scroll and lifted the bound up Lily, hanging her in midair and causing the hundred ghosts to howl.

Lily was completely powerless and her hair was drooping. The pain caused by the attacking resentment caused her willowy brows to frown.

“Lord Michizane, this woman cut down many of our brothers and let the other women escape. Give her to us! She is so beautiful, definitely worth more than dozens of those women! Let us hundred ghosts vent our anger on this woman!” An ugly evil spirit below said while drooling.

“Don’t worry, My Lord. We won’t mess around.” A one-eyed lantern demon said as it stared at Lily and stuck out its big long tongue.

“Shut up, all of you!” Michizane’s voice was like thunder, frightening the hundred ghosts into silence.

Michizane held the bound Lily with one hand and looked at the sword in her hand. Her hand was tightly bound, but she still clenched Yasutsuna stubbornly.

Michizane’s huge demon face approached Lily and his breath which carried the power of thunder generated a few electric sparks on her body, causing her some pain and numbness.

Lily knew that Michizane didn’t didn’t use his real power, otherwise, she wouldn’t be able to block his attacks. It seemed that he didn’t want to kill her immediately. However, Lily was also prepared. Once Michizane intended to kill her, she would use the Blood Spirit Magatama. Lily only had one piece of Blood Spirit Magatama and she had other uses for it. Unless it was a last resort, she didn’t want to needlessly use it here.

Just when Lily wondered what Michizane was going to do to her, his eyes fixed on her sword.

“Oh c.r.a.p…” Lily’s heart skipped a beat.

Michizane’s thunderous voice echoed like thunder, causing Lily’s ears to ring because of the close distance.

“I wonder why this is so familiar! Little girl, where did you get the material used to forge this sword?” Michizane asked, his slightly tattered court clothes floating around. The terrible resentment seemed like it would erupt at any time.

At this point, it was useless to give in and beg for mercy. If Michizane wanted to kill a woman like her, it was as easy as plucking a leaf from a flower.

Lily replied, neither humble nor arrogant, “Since Lord Michizane knows, why do you ask?”

“Oh? Hahahahahaha! Hahahahahahahaha!” Michizane laughed wildly and the strong resentment caused the long scroll to tighten even more, causing Lily to suffer a lot of pain. From time to time, electricity would sweep through the surroundings and enter Lily’s body, burning her clothes.

“Little girl, I thought you picked it up from somewhere, but after listening to you, it seems that you know something. Tell me, how did a little girl like you steal my iron seal?!”

What would come will eventually come. Lily had already hidden Yasutsuna, but in order to save those supid girls, she had no choice but to use it. Michizane had possessed that iron seal for thousands of years so he was naturally sensitive to the cursed katana which still carried the strong resentment absorbed by the iron seal. Of course, he immediately found out.

“Lord Michizane, more than half a year ago, you fought with Shuten Doji in the suburbs of Kamakura. At that time, my sisters and I were reluctantly caught up in the battle and we thought we would die without a doubt. After all, I only had the strength of an early stage Awakened back then. I had no choice but to interfere in the fight between you and Shuten Doji to allow my sisters to luckily escape and I took your iron seal!” In the face of such a high-level existence, it was better to tell the truth rather than spout flowery words. If the other party was tolerant, then that would be for the best, but if he wasn’t, then they would just have to fight to the death!

“Oh?” Michizane seemed to recall something, “Ah…my head. I remember clearly what happened a thousand years ago, but the events half a year ago are a blur… Oh, I remember now. It turned out to be that time. Hahahaha!” Michizane laughed wildly. Although he possessed terrifying power, he didn’t seem to be furious.

He carried the paper scroll that bound Lily close to his bearded mouth and stared at her with focused eyes, “Little girl, you said that you were only at the early Awakened Stage at that time, but you could actually see through the balance of my duel with Shuten Doji. How incredible! That backlash had hurt me a lot! But Shuten Doji also couldn’t avoid suffering a loss! You did what you had to do to save yourself and the lives of your sisters, but you shouldn’t have taken my iron seal!”

“Lord Michizane, at that time, Lily was a samurai of Eastern land. In the eyes of warriors from my Eastern land, I am a human and you are a demon. We are born to oppose each other. Demons eat people while samurai eliminate demons and seize treasures. This is only right and proper, what can I say?” Lily said bluntly.

“Ah?” Michizane rolled his eyes. He didn’t say anything for a while, but then he suddenly burst into laughter, “Hahahahaha! It is also true that the East is governed by that Lord Kamakura and the samurai over there are mostly stupid and ignorant, regarding all demons as enemies. What you did back then is understandable. But since you broke the confrontation between Shuten Doji and I at the same time, why did you only take away my treasure? Wouldn’t that benefit Shuten Doji? Do you think he looks handsome and powerful so you l.u.s.t after him? Were you biased against me?” Michizane grew angrier when he mentioned Shuten Doji.

“Lily cannot look favorably on a man who hurts women, even if he has the appearance of Pan An1. Lily wouldn’t take a second look! Lord Michizane, please calm down first. Lily…also…also took a piece of blood spirit magatama from his waist.” Lily said with a red face.

“Oh?!” Michizane listened with a happy expression, “Really? Hahahahaha! Good! Well done! Little girl, you really didn’t disappoint me. If you had only stolen my iron seal, I probably would have killed you today, but I’m happy that you made that Shuten Doji pay such a heavy price! Hahahahaha! By the way, who is Pan An?”

“Eh?” Lily recalled that, in her haste, she had mentioned the name of a historical figure from her original world, “No, it’s nothing…”

Michizane pondered for a while and said, “A piece of iron seal is of little use to me, but that blood spirit magatama is a strange thing that transcends this world! It’s just that very few people in the world know its true value and they even cla.s.sify it as ninth-grade magatama. How ignorant! For Shuten Doji, losing the blood spirit magatama must have been as painful as cutting off a piece of flesh! Well done! Hahahahahaha! Girl, what’s your name?”

“This little girl’s surname is Kagami and my given name is Lily.” Lily thought to herself that, although Michizane was really powerful, it could be inferred from his words that he was very old.

“Kagami Lily?!” At this time, the yaksha leaned halfway out of the demonic cloud beside Michizane and said, “Lord Michizane, isn’t that the female samurai who cut off one of Ibaraki Doji’s arms a few days ago?”

“Oh?!” Michizane’s eyes lit up, “Kagami Lily! Unbelievably, you were the one who cut off Ibaraki Doji’s arm, the general under Shuten Doji?”

The yaksha added, “It is said that after his arm was cut off by Kagami Lily, it couldn’t be reattached.”

“How exciting!” Michizane clapped his hands and said loudly, “Kagami Lily, did you use this sword forged by my iron seal to cut off Ibaraki Doji’s arm?”

“Indeed.” Lily affirmed.

“Hahahahahahahahaha! Wonderfully done! The iron seal was given to me by my old friend, Middle Counselor Ikeda. My old friend Ikeda’s daughter was captured by Shuten Doji and her death was unknown, causing him to die of grief and depression. This iron seal contains a strong resentment for the Shuten Clan, far exceeding ordinary evil-slaying power. So with your strength, you could even cut off Ibaraki Doji’s arm and stop it from ever regenerating. Miss Kagami, you did a really great job. After so many years, this old man has never been so happy until today! I will no longer pursue this matter regarding the iron seal. Just treat it as a gift from this old man! Hahahahahahaha2!”

1. TLN: Pan Anren was a writer during China’s Western Jin Dynasty. He was known for his outstanding looks and deposition, and was talented in composition and narration.
2. Robinxen: I… I actually like this guy.