Now that Lily’s understanding of the meaning of the moon had reached a very high level, she was more than halfway to the level of the true meaning of the moon needed to condense the permanence spirit. Her physical body training had also reached the bottleneck of the stage so she could already begin to improve her practice of spiritual energy.
Although it was possible to advance to the Permanence Stage without comprehending the true meaning of a particular path, the level of one’s strength would be shallow.
“Now, if I match my deep understanding of the meaning of the moon, I should be able to raise my strength to the middle stage of Spirit Jade.”
It wasn’t difficult for Lily to use magatama to improve her strength. However, for those who chose not to comprehend the meaning of a certain attribute and only relied on magatama to improve their level of strength, such as impatient people or those who lacked talent but were rich, in the same realm, they were usually the weakest.
Of course, if one had an innately strong body like some heaven-defying demons and evil spirits, or mastered an extraordinary power-multiplying secret method such as the mysterious Tsukuyomi Swordstyle in the mirror space or the Genji Swordstyle, they would also be much stronger than ordinary powerhouses of the same realm who relied on magatama to advance.
In reality, apart from some dignitaries and royal families, there were very few adepts who did not practice any other secret techniques to increase their strength. Those nobles who slacked off in their practice and relied on magatama could also improve to a certain level, but in actual combat, they were the weakest among adepts of the same level. However, compared to bottom-level adepts who had never seen a single magatama, they could still crush their opponents by relying on the basic combat power provided by their level of strength.
As for Lily, although she was arrogant and proud1, she was shouldering a difficult, unknown fate. Lily chose the most arduous, but also the most powerful path available to her.
Lily originally possessed blade maiden spiritual energy, the Tsukuyomi Swordstyle, and three times the basic physique of an ordinary female samurai which already gave her enough power to kill opponents of a much higher level than her.
At her current stage, Lily could sweep through opponents of similar level mainly because of the mirror’s gift, her threefold physique, and the Tsukuyomi Swordstyle, all of which were heaven-defying.
But as time went on, this gap would gradually narrow.
Although the Tsukuyomi Swordstyle was indeed heaven-defying, when it came to physique, there were some naturally powerful demons, evil spirits, and talented human warriors in the Permanence Stage or even the Throne Stage with stronger physiques than Lily.
Of course, Lily was now starting to train her body in the truest sense and integrating seductive intent into her body to strengthen it instead of just relying on the unpredictable gift bestowed by the ancient mirror’s mysterious power. Her current body was now much stronger than before she came to Heian-kyō and her threefold physique had improved.
As for opponents in the late Permanence Stage, Lily gradually began to come into contact with some who have grasped a bit of understanding in the meaning of a certain attribute. The secret techniques used by these opponents were not as good as Lily’s, but by relying on the great power brought about by the meaning of attributes, they could hold their own against Lily in battle. The higher one’s understanding of the meaning of attributes, the stronger they would be.
An example of this would be Tomoe Gozen who Lily met riding her horse across Lake Biwa. Although her level of strength was unclear, even if she didn’t have a heaven-defying secret technique that could increase her strength, just the powerful thunder and lightning she harnessed through the true meaning of thunder was enough to crush Lily multiple times over!
Moreover, Lily found that the ten-fold increase in power provided by the first segment of the Tsukuyomi Swordstyle did not work on her power of the moon. That is to say, the two triggered a superimposing effect rather than a multiplication effect. They had some subtle influences on each other in addition to the augmentation benefit.
Lily didn’t really understand it. The Tsukuyomi Swordstyle acted on the body to exert power while the power of the moon actually came from one’s perception of the meaning of the moon, which was a more mysterious power of attributes.
The two could be superimposed on each other, but not multiplied together.
The power of attributes was a kind of power that had nothing to do with one’s own physical strength, but was an auxiliary power obtained through perception.
It took about two days and one night as well as the absorption of hundreds of magatama for Lily to reach the mid Spirit Jade Stage.
This also surprised Lily very much. Her estimates of the time it would take to reach the mid Spirit Jade Stage was accurate, or even a bit faster, but the amount of magatama she needed to absorb increased greatly. Normally, only a few pieces were enough, but Lily used hundreds of them!
However, these hundreds of pieces were not spent for nothing as Lily comprehended the meaning of the moon and seductive charm, and her ‘container’ became larger. As a result, Lily’s mid-stage Spirit Jade strength and spiritual energy reserves were much greater than those of ordinary mid-stage Spirit Jade adepts.
Lily got up, her relaxed brows exuding a sense of confidence, and her seductive intent made her even more beautiful and enchanting. At this time, if Lily were to fight the Rashomon spirit alone, even if she couldn’t win, her current strength would be enough to fight him head-on.
However, based on today’s experience, wouldn’t it take at least a thousand magatama for her to reach the pinnacle of the Spirit Jade stage? Such a terrifying amount of consumption was unheard of, but fortunately, the remaining magatama Lily had was barely enough.
Lily felt that her yukata was soaking wet from her continuous practice and her body was covered in fragrant sweat, so she went to take a bath to refresh her body and mind.
The sexy celestial maiden lingerie also dried and Lily wore it inside her spiritual energy defensive treasure, the celestial maiden battle undergarment. After all, the celestial maiden battle undergarment was something like a small camisole and one needed to wear underwear inside. Otherwise, wouldn’t Lily’s nibs be shown through the undergarment, especially with a body like hers?
Lily was only wearing the celestial maiden lingerie and undergarment while she knelt in the room, combing her wet hair.
“Miss Kagami!” Suddenly, a miko pulled the door open violently.
“Ah!” Lily was startled and the comb that Taira no Masakado gave her fell out of her hands. She hurriedly used one hand to cover her chest and put the other between her thighs.
Seeing that it was a woman, Lily was somewhat relieved. She seemed to be the same careless miko who relayed Ayaka’s instructions to her the other day.
“What happened?”
“Miss Kagami, it’s not good!” The miko said while panting. Her eyes fell on Lily’s towering breasts covered her by the thin undergarment and she subconsciously averted her eyes, “That, those sword mikos and jade maidens are…currently lying in ambush on Suzaku Avenue to kill a great vengeful spirit!”
“Which one of the great vengeful spirits?” Lily asked hurriedly.
“I don’t know… We received this information from a hired Iga-ryu female ninja. We only heard that it is a very fierce and ancient vengeful spirit.”
“Miss Kagami, Lady Ayaka hasn’t returned from the imperial court yet. What should we do?”
“You ask me?” Was it because Ayaka hugged her and treated her the best that everyone seemed to regard her as the ‘mistress’ of this place?
Lily didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. However, these tsunaga sisters were likely to be in danger and she couldn’t just ignore them.
“Quickly go and try to inform Lady Ayaka! I…I’ll go first to see if I can stop them!” Lily didn’t even know who the great vengeful spirit was and she didn’t dare to brag that she could deal with it, but if it was just stopping those girls before they could act, even if she had to use a little force, she should be able to do it by herself.
“I have notified her, but there was no response. I am afraid that she is in an extremely important secret court meeting2.” The miko replied.
After all, Ayaka was not the emperor and she couldn’t just walk away from a court meeting. How could a group of radical female warriors attacking a great vengeful spirit be compared to major events in the imperial court? It was normal for Ayaka not to respond.
“I see. Anyway, I’ll go take a look first! You guys should stop bothering Lady Ayaka for now. After all, they are just a bunch of female warriors who don’t know their limits. I should be able to stop them.” Lily said.
“Understood, Miss Kagami.”
Lily hurriedly put on a short red kimono with long sleeves and didn’t even bother to wear stockings. She slipped her slender feet into a pair of wooden sandals and set off.
According to the miko, these women were setting an ambush in the southern section of Suzaku Avenue, a section of neighborhood previously inhabited by public officials, but it had been mostly abandoned due to conflict.
Lily rode the demon hound at high speed and arrived on Suzaku Avenue before rushing wildly southward.
After a dozen kilometers or so, Lily felt a powerful wave of resentment a few kilometers away which carried an aura so terrifying that Lily almost fell off the demon hound!
Lily hurriedly urged the demon hound to slow down, changing to a silent, fast trot so they could quietly approach.
Suzaku Avenue was so wide that, from a distance, Lily could see demonic clouds roiling with resentment and fury. A bearded judge who was more than ten feet tall and wearing an old court uniform was standing amid the demonic clouds and ghostly fog, appearing to be much taller than the surrounding houses and trees.
“Michizane!” Lily’s body jolted and she hurriedly hid behind an old willow tree. She reacted very quickly and took advantage of the situation to take out the sakura parasol.
Lily seemed to share some fate with this Michizane as this was now her third time meeting him. As the head of the four great vengeful spirits, his horrifying strength went without saying. She had even stolen his iron seal which was now hanging on her waist. If she really bumped into him, several lives wouldn’t be enough to survive.
Lily’s forehead was covered in cold sweat. She secretly put Yasutsuna into the mirror space and replaced it with Crescent moon.
What should she do now? Meeting Michizane was beyond Lily’s expectations. Should she take advantage of the fact that he didn’t discover her and slip away quietly?
However, just as Lily was about to slip away, there was an arrogant, high-pitched voice of a young girl in front of the demon cloud surrounding Michizane.
“Great vengeful spirit! We’ve been waiting here for you for a long time!” Ijuin Reira put a hand on her hip and puffed her chest out, pointing her samurai sword at the huge judge that looked like a demon god.
“This idiot!” Lily hid behind the willow tree, her chest tightening from anger!
Have these b̲i̲t̲c̲h̲e̲s̲ really lived long enough? Out of everyone, they chose to ambush the Demon King Michizane?!
Around Miss Ijuin, there were dozens of female samurai, onmyoji, and some female ninjas. There were also some female archers arrayed on the rooftops, surrounding Michizane and his entourage of evil spirits.
“Who are you people?” Michizane’s voice was thunderous.
“You don’t need to know who this lady is. You evil spirits are running rampant in Heian-kyō. Do you know how many innocent people you have harmed? The heavens are angry, the people are angry, and now the gods have sent down the heavenly oracle, which is the mission of our sisters, to obey the heavenly way and eradicate you evil spirits, returning the world to light!” Ijuin Reira said, her head held high.
