Kotoka and Lily braced through the snowstorm and spent a few days after that exploring the hidden valley and the outer snow-clad valley thoroughly.
“Lily, this valley needs an appropriate name,” Kotoka stated.
Lily looked at the surroundings and reflected for a moment. Although this was a treasure land set aside for the mirror girl, she feared it would gather unwarranted suspicions if it were given a name directly associated with the mirror girl. However, it had an exceptionally elegant scenery, so she felt that it deserved an appropriate name.
“Madam Kotoka, I’ve actually thought about the name of the samurai family. If I choose Kagami as the name, it might get mixed up with the Kagami family of Kansai, so I thought of naming it Lyn instead1. What do you think?”
“Sounds good. You have the final say in this matter, Lily,” Kotoka chuckled.
Lily and Kotoka appreciated the view of the valley while exploring it and ended up reaching the foot of a millennium-old sakura forest. The sakura were still blooming even within the snow and fluttered in the wind, making it hard to distinguish between snowflakes and sakura.
I awakened in this world while holding the Sakura Parasol… and have finally obtained a home that I’ve resolved to protect and makes me feel at ease.
“Let’s call it Cherry Blossom Valley,” Lily said, “This hidden valley shall be called Cherry Valley and the outer valley where the temple is located shall be called Blossom Valley2.”
“All right,” Kotoka nodded, “It doesn’t seem like there’s any other entrance to the inner valley while the outer valley only has a single breadth of gap at the top. Thus, as long as we guard the entrance to the inner valley that allows only two people to pass through it at once, we can guard it with fewer guards and still prevent any troops from invading no matter how high their numbers are. Naturally, it’s hard to predict the outcome in case the opponent is a transcendent powerhouse.”
“Mhm. We basically need to keep this valley a secret at any cost,” Lily added.
“I shall return to Izu Port and convene the miners and onmyōji essential for the ore extraction and also convene a few woodworkers, stonemasons and carriage drivers and bring them over. As a lot of people are going to work in this valley, it’s necessary to arrange housing and supplies for them. Also, they need to be prohibited from leaving Sakura Blossom Valley for a few years after entering the inner valley, until our circumstances in the East become stabler,” Kotoka stated.
“Mhm. You’ve worked hard, Madam. I shall send some cavalrywomen and Yukiko to escort you,” Lily stated.
According to their estimate, it would take at least fifteen days for Kotoka to return with the required workers, so Lily had to guard this place personally until then.
The cavalrywomen guarded the entrance to the inner valley in accordance with Kotoka’s suggestion, but this valley was, in fact, located in a very desolate location, so not even a single monster entered it ever. A few elks did end up entering the valley accidentally and were caught by the cavalrywomen to be raised inside the valley.
There were only a few people present at the moment, so all of them decided to live in the temple once it was cleaned. After all, all the members of the group, including the cavalrywomen, were all women, so it wasn’t that inconvenient to live together even though it was a bit crowded.
Lily also didn’t show off an arrogant attitude and slept on the floor with everyone else.
As Lily had nothing to do except guarding this land, she entered Cherry Valley often and practiced the Tsukuyomi Swordstyle after looking for an elegant and scenic training spot.
The snow stopped falling for a while on one such day.
Nanako and Shiu arrived beside Lily and said, “Master, I heard there’s… hot springs inside Cherry Valley. Can we go take a look?”
“Sure, but are you just going to look?” Lily questioned back.
“Master…” Shiu added, “The weather is so cold, and it’s not easy to take a bath in the snow. If possible, we can take a dip in the spring once we’ve finished seeing it…”
“Heh,” Lily smiled sweetly, “If you wanted to go soak in a hot spring, you should’ve mentioned it earlier. Let’s go, I’ll come along with you.”
There were several hot springs in Cherry Valley and each one of them had a distinct connotation imbued in its view.
Lily held the parasol and arrived at one of them along with Nanako and Shiu. This location was situated underneath a sakura tree on a hillside which had rock walls on one side and faced a clear and beautiful pond on the opposite side.
“Mirror Pond Hot Spring,” Lily had named it this.
“Huh, why is there a wooden screen here?” Nanako voiced her doubts.
“Ah. I recall Yumi mentioning she wanted to bath a few days ago and requested the help of the cavalrywomen to create this screen from the broken boards of the temple. This side faces the pathway leading to that sakura forest, so there was a chance of getting seen by others,” Lily stated.
“Mhm. It’s not bad. Let’s request the craftsmen to create a better-looking screen once mother returns,” Nanako replied.
The water seemed to contain some kind of mineral and was thus white in color3. As it wasn’t translucent, there was no problem even if no bath towel was worn.
Thus, the girls began to undress beside the hot spring so that they could soak in it.
In truth, they did feel a little embarrassed even though they were all girls as undressing seemed to invoke a weird feeling in them.
Lily felt quite embarrassed as she untied the sash and disrobed the kimono behind the screen…
She felt the mood turn a little peculiar for some reason and felt two gazes peek at her fair body intermittently.
It was naturally none other than Nanako and Shiu, but as they were all girls, it didn’t necessarily mean the motive behind their gazes were strange thoughts.
Nanako’s gaze was actually pretty cautious and her face flushed up when her gaze landed on Lily’s breasts, “How come they were able to grow so huge. Is it because of her tall height…”
Nanako then bowed her head to look at her pair and felt disheartened, “Hmph! Even if I train with Kagura, there’s probably no way to make them bigger…”
As for Shiu’s gaze, it was actually directed at Lily’s buttocks and legs from the side of her waistline4.
“When will master look for me to train together again? Maybe it’s better to come to an agreement with Nanako next time so that we can help master train in escaping from bindings in a scenic hot spring spot,” such thoughts went through Shiu’s mind momentarily.
Shiu recalled the rough rope running across Lily’s fair body and in between her plump butt before it was tightened… and felt her body heat up.
“Master!” Shiu called out subconsciously.
“Huh?” Lily picked up a bath towel to cover her front subconsciously and turned around.
“M-Master, let me help you wipe your body!” Shiu stated finally.
“Tch! Why do you want to do it? It’s better for me to wipe master’s body!” Nanako said hastily.
Lily, however, just smiled warmly, “There’s no need.”
“Master… do you hate us now?” Shiu panicked.
“Of course not. You’ve accompanied me from the beginning and gone through fire and water. As such, I’ve decided to reward you both today. Let me help you wipe your backs,” Lily stated with a smile while blushing slightly.
“Ehhh?!”
“Let’s do it one by one. Mhm, you’re first, Nanako.”
Saying so, Lily pulled Nanako down into the lukewarm pond water while Shiu followed behind and stood beside them.
Lily then pulled Nanako towards her front, perhaps with the intention of covering the front of her body with Nanako’s body, but it failed to hide her breasts completely.
Lily used the bath towel to bundle her hair up and guided Nanako into sitting down in the water.
A feeling even warmer, softer and rippling than water pressed against Nanako’s back in the next moment…
Although Nanako couldn’t see it, Shiu blushed after seeing this magnificent and aesthetic scene yet also felt an inexplicable feeling and anxiety in her heart, “Hurry up! When will my turn arrive…”
On her 18th day in Cherry Blossom Valley, Lily finally finished learning the seventh-stage of Tsukuyomi Swordstyle’s first segment.
Her power was now boosted by seven times, and even though sevenfold power boost was just a consequence of the first segment’s seventh-stage from Tsukuyomi Swordstyle’s six segments, it had long surpassed the limit of Heian Empire’s strongest swordstyle, the Genji Swordstyle, that provides a fivefold power boost in its ninth stage. In fact, no one other than Yoshitsune knew about the existence of the ninth stage of Heian Empire’s Genji Swordstyle.
Lily had turned much stronger because of the boosts she received from practicing all kinds of esoteric arts until now, and even though it seemed like a mere power boost, Lily possessed a trifold physique boost and twofold spirit power boost from the blade maiden attribute in addition to the sevenfold power boost from Tsukuyomi Swordstyle.
And Lily was currently in the highest stage of the Awakened Stage, the 7th-stage.
If an average Awakened powerhouse who become a 7th-stage Awakened without the boosts of esoteric arts, physique and innate talents was taken as the reference, Lily’s real strength right now was equal to forty-two times that of said average Awakened powerhouse!
As for the strength of a Spirit Jade powerhouse, it was three times the strongest Awakened stage in the early Spirit Jade Stage, six times in the middle Spirit Jade Stage and nine to ten times in the late Spirit Jade stage.
However, powerhouses in this realm all practiced strength boosting esoteric arts like ‘Genji Swordstyle,’ ‘Taira Swordstyle,’ ‘Immobile Mountain’ and the like. As for Furinkazan-leveled powerhouses, they also possessed strength boosts from their spirit power attribute. This was the reason why the real strength of Tokugawa who was in middle Spirit Jade stage was thirty-nine times that of an average Awakened powerhouse while Takeda’s was forty times it.
Lily had showcased strength equal to two of the Furinkazan powerhouses in the battle outside the temple.
Although their total strength was equal, men and women were essentially different as women possessed better technique and speed while men possessed higher strength! Thus, in an actual battle, Tokugawa and Takeda were much stronger than Lily in terms of brute strength. Naturally, this also varied from person to person as some men didn’t possess higher strength and had better technique or speed. Thus, the theory that men possessed higher strength and women better technique had always been a topic of debate.
Tokugawa and Takeda thus wore heavy armor as they didn’t need to rely on technique and flexibility and possessed a higher defensive power in comparison to Lily.
As for Honda Yahatarou, he also possessed an innate talent in addition to Buddhist attendant attributed spirit power and strength boosting esoteric art, which was the Ancient Overlord Martial Art!
There were several types of ancient martial arts. For example, Honda and Dijon’s natural innates were inborn talents that allowed them to train in the Ancient Overlord Martial Art that gigantified the possessor’s build and increased their strength greatly as a result! There was also the Ancient Sumo Wrestling Art, Ancient Karate Martial Art, Ancient Barehanded Martial Art and the like that were mostly suitable only for men’s practice. They were all powerful martial arts that boosted the base strength of the body, but martial arts were difficult to practice and although a lot of men practiced them, only a few of them were able to practice them to the level of boosting their base strength.
Thus, even though Honda was only an early Spirit Jade powerhouse, his actual strength was thirty times that of an average Awakened powerhouse and matched with Lily’s, but his physical strength was much higher than hers.
However, Lily possessed a domain and its suppressive effect allowed Lily to overwhelm Tokugawa frontally and even respond to her three opponents tenaciously even though she was disadvantaged.
Lily was also good at adapting to the situation, so she made a comeback in the execution of the final killing move and used Honda’s power of purification to bring Takeda back to his senses and practically reversed the outcome of the battle.
