Though Lily was female, she had tremendous spirit reserves!
Although her realm was at the permanence level, her spirit reserves were more abundant than her opponent’s throne realm. Most of the spirit energy was stored within the spirit sea within the spirit palace. Though it was named ‘sea’ the truth was that the difference in size between the realms was significant. For example, a spirit jade expert’s reserves could at most be called a pond, a permanence expert would have a lake, and only when one reached the throne realm would the spirit reserves resemble a sea!
Only, when compared to the body, that incredible space within the spirit palace could be termed ‘sea’.
And Lily, although only at the permanence realm, had spirit reserves comparable to a sea.
Currently, turbulent waves roared within her spirit palace, the dense, surging spirit energy gave Lily endless power!
Experts could conquer and rule the weak, but to do such heartless and atrocious acts yet speak of it as a righteous and natural act, and moreover, the victim in question was someone who had helped her.
Lily’s body looked to be tilted forward, but her slender feet were planted firmly and her ankles rolled. For an ordinary person, this was a slash made with the power and weight of the entire body, but for Lily, who’s physique had surpassed most male permanence experts, and her natural precise control over her body, allowed the force of her sword strikes to reach the peak, and sometimes even surpass the limits of her body’s physical strength.
This was one of the reasons why Lily had such incredible striking power as a female, the other was of course her fundamental sword style, the Tsukuyomi sword style.
If she was to compete in lifting weights, she would probably not win over a man of the same realm, but when it came to slashing, her blows were simply heavy!
Clang!!! Yasutsuna’s heavy blow came crashing down onto the enemy’s tachi, the impact violently shook him, the ground underneath his feet cracked and the ground was plowed as he was forced back!
“B̲i̲t̲c̲h̲! Why is this woman’s slashing power so strong!” The ancient samurai head could feel the aura of Lily’s full powered blow, it should be a bit weaker than his, but she had suppressed him with her domain giving her the advantage.
But he had never thought that this woman would have such powerful slashes!
Seeing the ancient samurai head retreat in a flash, Lily’s eyes flashed and she extended a hand casting countless arcane arte flame bullets. Though it was a low leveled arcane arte, the number of bullets filled the skies, and the power of each bullet was immense with the strength of her heart, if a bullet struck, the damage would not be small!
The ancient samurai head came out of the explosions with scorched and smoking clothes, his dark and metallic body revealed.
“Ha!” He roared, his dark body glowed with serene luster, “Mirror girl Lily, just how much do you understand about ancient swordsmanship!”
His steps were heavy, but his speed fast, in an instant he had rushed in front of Lily, “I’m afraid of death! Do you dare say you aren’t afraid!?”
He slashed down at Lily, but Lily skidded to the side and hacked out a two handed horizontal slash. The ancient samurai head didn’t block, he just turned and limited Lily with a horizontal slash!
“What!?” Lily was surprised, this ancient samurai head was also using the sacrificial sword style?
Quickly, one hand released Yasutsuna and blocked the head’s attack with Crescent Moon as her now single-handed horizontal slash continued its path to the head’s waist.
Bang! Lily felt like she had slashed against an iron wall, the impact unexpectedly sending pain through her wrist.
And she had only left a blade mark on the head’s waist, though there was a cut, no blood was shed!
“Ahahahaha! You thought ancient swordsmanship was about suicidal tactics? Ridiculous! Real ancient swordsmanship needs to be paired with my Nioh bronze body training method! When you reach the throne realm, your entire body is as hard as eighth grade tamahagane! Only then can you truely ignore all enemy attacks and kill! Those fools who don’t know this body training and can only attack, how far can they walk? Ahahaha! Ahahahahaha!”
The head laughed wildly as he once again attacked Lily!
Bang! Though Lily’s sword skills were superior, the blows she landed only resulted in shallow blade marks. With his secret body training method, his skin and flesh were as hard as Tamahagane and he could completely ignore all of her attacks and focus on offense.
“Hah—!” He sank a slash down into the earth, completely missing Lily as she slashed at the base of his neck. Bright sparks flew as if her blade had been reflected back against a blunt weapon.
Raising his foot, he took advantage of her lost balance and landed a heavy kick on Lily’s waist, sending her flying out.
Boom! Lily was thrown through the ancient stone walls of the ruins and rolled uncontrollably into a wreckage.
“Ahahahaha! Ahahahaha! Mirror girl Lily, so what if your domain suppresses me? You can’t hurt me, it’s useless!” He charged in to attack.
Lily swung out, slashing a blade light at him.
This sort of long distance sword skill was something he could also dodge, he swiftly evaded the attack and rushed at Lily. This head’s swordsmanship and movement methods were quite good, he wasn’t just a barbarian with an iron body!
Lily’s body glowed with crimson spirit energy as she met his charge.
Clang!!! Two tachis impacted, sending both skidding back.
His body was as hard as tamahagane, impact vibrations no longer harmed him, and this nioh training method had noticeably increased his strength, his slashing power now rivaled hers!
Lily’s method for dealing with his sacrificial sword style was simple, directly target his weapon. As long as she properly targeted his weapon, she wouldn’t have too much trouble with his sword style.
Only, in terms of slashing power, Lily no longer had the advantage, and she didn’t have a tamahagane hard body, so the clashes would affect her more and her loss of spirit energy would be greater.
Though her spirit reserves were greater, she still had to climb to the peak of Izumo Mountain, she could not allow herself to be exhausted here.
Afterall, who knows what sort of dangerous existences would await her when she entered the main peak.
Should she use her violet lunar energy?
Lily estimated that if she used up her violet lunar energy, she should be able to kill him, but she didn’t want to waste the energy here.
“Ahahahaha! You have nowhere to go now woman! Behind you is the ancient ruins, and I’m blocking the only way out! There’s nowhere to run! If you surrender I can hand you to Shuten Doji, that way I can earn more and you get to live! Isn’t it the best of both worlds?”
He was laughing wildly in front of her, alike a gigantic ancient bronze statue!
Lily stood there for a moment with head lowered, she thought of Akimoto Hara and all those other now mindless ancient samurai yet still obsessed with life and death.
The image of Akimoto Hara holding a broken blade and piercing his own chest appeared in front of her eyes.
“Is it really that foolish to fight with your life on the line?”
“Ha!” The ancient samurai head slashed down as Lily held Yasutsuna up to block. He pushed forward full power, ignoring the superficial wound he took from the sharp blade.
His shoulder slammed against the edge of Lily’s blade pushing it away before he slammed a palm into her stomach.
Bang—! Under the boost provided by Nioh’s bronze body, the palm blasted Lily a dozen meters high, before she fell back down and rolled on the ground.
“Mirror girl Lily, there’s only death if you don’t surrender! Since you dared to come to this Izumo Mountain, you should have been ready for this day, ahahahaha!” He flared his monstrous aura as he laughed.
Lily grabbed her blade and stood up, her voice chilly and poignant, “I ask of you this question.”
“Ah? What is it you want to say?”
“Do you really think it’s foolish to gamble your life and fight without regard to injury?” Lily’s black hair covered her face, her eyes could not be seen, all that could be seen on her white face was a crystalline tear1 rolling down to the corner of her lips. Those bright red lips were stretched out into a wanton smile.
“Of course it’s foolish! Absolutely foolish! That’s just a way for foolish weaklings and those without talent to make excuses for their incompetence! How laughable! If you gamble your life in a fight, then someday you really will die! How far can you travel upon the heavenly path like that? How foolish! Fools like that deserve to become mindless crazed madmen! Their women should become mine! In this ancient city, those who oppose me, die!!!”
Thinking that Lily had no more methods to deal with him, he felt that victory was at hand. His face twisted with joy and arrogance as he dashed towards Lily his powers flaring all over.
He was alike an incomparable tyrannical and indestructible ancient beast of copper and iron!
“You should die too! Though it’s a pity, but destroying beautiful things is what I like the most! Just like killing that fool who dared to disobey me, that wastrel Akimoto Hara’s mother—!!!”
Facing his beastlike charge, Lily closed her eyes, turned sideways sheathing her sword and taking an iai stance.
She whispered, “To always fight with the resolve to die, I cannot say that you are wrong when you say they cannot travel far on the heavenly path. But you dare laugh at and despise the spirit of a samurai who dares put his life on the line?”
She faced the fierce blade coming at her alike the fangs of a giant beast, her body flared with crimson spirit aura—
“The foolish idiot is you!!!”
Lily’s black hair fluttered in the crimson aura, the jewel like eyes revealed by the fluttering hair shone with a brilliant glow.
Her delicate hand gripped the hilt of her katana tightly!
Force traveled down her slender jade legs.
Her slender waist accumulated endless spirit force and circulated it through her entire body!
Shing—!!!
A world destroying scarlet blade light!!
Pfhh——
Lily’s Yasutsuna, brought with it the fury of a kind hearted genius young lady, it was filled with the resentment of the countless ancient warriors it had cut—and slashed deep into a body as hard as eighth grade tamahagane!
The ancient samurai clan head was cut in half from shoulder to waist.
“What——!?? This, impos…ible…”
The upper body of the ancient samurai clan head fell off, and landed on the ground behind Lily, those eyes filled with horror and disbelief slowly dimmed2.
