CHAPTER 27 – TRUTH ABOUT THE PHANTOM THIEF

“Damn! Catch that thief!” The now bald moustached man shouted. The samurais no longer cared about their hair and swarmed toward the black shadow. A few ropes suddenly snapped up between the trees and trapped the group, and on those ropes were several talismans. They exploded in a conflagration sending the group flying with severe wounds.

“Barbarian! You dare use such vile methods? Catch him! No matter what, catch him!” The samurais howled in fury.

“Brother Arashige, hurry, attack, brother Arash1……” mustache samurai finally saw Arashige’s unconscious loincloth state and the wretched appearances of the samurai who had gotten blown up by the talismans.

Apparently, when that shadow flitted around the forest, it was planting down talisman traps. The entire security group and Nobutoshi were both angry and helpless, they could only curse in resentment as the shadow fled away.

“Could it be… that no one can catch that thief? Even brother Arashige was unable… does that thief never fail?”

A scent of orchids swept past, Lily’s yukata skirt flapped as she took long quick steps and rushed after the shadow.

“What!?”
“That, that woman?”

The bearded samurai watched Lily’s footwork and speed, he couldn’t see through her realm, only now did he find out that this woman he had laughed at, was a real expert.

The shadow jumped through the trees above the branches at a high speed while Lily chased at an equal speed on the ground. The shadow noticed Lily and was taken aback, with a leap, it traveled up toward the surrounding pavilions. Lily hopped up to a branch and followed onto the pavilion in pursuit.

The dark clouds dispersed allowing Lily to clearly see the shadow. The shadow had a short humanoid shape, wearing a large cloak and holding a box with the tea set within. Under the silver moon, two shadows dashed past building after building, one chasing the other.

“Stop!” Lily felt the distance was being narrowed, her agility was equal to the thief and since she was taller with longer legs, her speed was superior!

“Mid-stage Spirit Jade realm, no wonder this guy dares to play around with those fools. With such strength, why steal?” Lily pondered while chasing.

Her eyes tracked the shadow as the distance slowly closed, suddenly the shadow threw the cloak at Lily, in an instant the fluttering cloak blocked Lily’s sight.

“Hmph! Little tricks!”

How could sight blocking work on a Spirit Jade expert? Lily drew her blade.

“Clang!” Lily easily deflected the hidden dagger behind the cloak.

With that the thief was finally revealed, landing on the rooftop in front. The thief had yellow-white fluttering sleeves and hair tied up in a mature style, a young girl who looked slightly older than her. Only, the young girl had two fluffy yellow-white cat ears and two swinging tails. The girl not only had cat ears and cat tails, but her posture was catlike, with both hands curled up into cat claws, she looked fast and agile.

“Bakeneko2!?3” Lily steadied herself through the shock.

She had seen this sort of monster in the Anthology of Tales from the Past4, but she had never considered it possible that the phantom thief would be a bakeneko Spirit Jade expert.

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“Hmph, to think a big breasted no brained female samurai would be able to recognize me!” That bakeneko took an intense battle stance, it was undeniably cute but the immense eldritch energy emitted revealed the danger. “Since you know my real identity, if you don’t want to die, get lost! Oh wait… I can’t let you go, since you’ve seen my real form you must——DIE!”

Even with the tea set on her back, the bakeneko was still extremely swift, her waist flexed like a cat and pounced towards Lily.

“Hoo——!” Three eye-catching scarlet claw marks flashed toward Lily! This claw attack broke the sound barrier flashing towards her.

This attack was extraordinary, Lily felt that she could not defend with her tachi, retreated on instinct, and sheathed Tranquil Soul. In her hand appeared a seventh-grade Katana seized from the Carp Spirit’s treasury.

The thief was just like an angry ferocious cat, she landed on all four and leaped at Lily, both arms flashing wildly, six claws attacking in succession.

“Clank!” Lily blocked with her blade, clearly seeing the thief’s hands. They were clearly a young girl’s hands, just with sharp long nails. Lily’s blade couldn’t reach the thief’s hands, it violently clashed with the savage claw marks. The bakeneko seemed to be angry Lily was able to defend, both claws flashed like lightning, claw after claw raked toward her.

Lily dodged to the side, stepping onto the slanted roof tiles and slid downwards, bakeneko followed with a yowl. Sliding down, Lily launched at the bakeneko, but with a flip the bakeneko curled into a ball and dodged Lily’s kick while sending a foot flying toward Lily, her skirt floating up revealing a long beautiful leg5.

Though the kick wasn’t as powerful as a claw, the unusual attack almost impacted Lily’s generous breasts. Lily grabbed onto bakeneko’s slender ankle and brutally threw her into the roof destroying a large number of tiles.

“Wah!” The bakeneko emitted a pained cry at the impact before retreating back onto the rooftop.

“You b̲i̲t̲c̲h̲, you’re somewhat skilled!”

“Isn’t that natural?” Lily lazily showed off what her hand was holding, a cloth bag containing the tea set.

“What!?? You, when did you?” Bakeneko jumped up in surprise, her face flushing in anxiety.

Lily waved her hand, directly storing the tea set away6.

“You… you b̲i̲t̲c̲h̲! You actually plan on keeping the tea set!” Bakeneko furiously howled and rushed at Lily, attacking wildly.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about7.”

Lily employed her spirit armor, though her delicate skin was enough to resist the wild claws, her clothes were torn.

“Meowwrr! I’m going to strip you!! Let’s see how much face you’ll have left!” The bakeneko shouted while shredding Lily’s clothes, exposing more and more of Lily’s body, even the celestial maiden’s inner garment covering her twin peaks was revealed8.

Lily didn’t rush, she timed her blow carefully, her katana snaked toward Bakeneko. She managed to twist over and land on the spine of Lily’s katana, withdrawing the blade swiftly Lily’s other hand struck with her scabbard.

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“Pow!” A heavy blow landed on the bakeneko’s rear.

“Eek!! Meow——! It hurts! You perverted woman, why dare you to aim for my a̲s̲s̲!”
“Since you dared to tear my clothes, then what’s wrong with spanking you?”

The bakeneko couldn’t help but back up, her petite body drenched with sweat, “You perverted woman, s̲l̲u̲t̲!”
“You dare say that? Who tore my clothes?”

“Fine! You’re capable, I won’t mess with you anymore. It’s not like that tea set is Fuji-san, I’ll let you have it! You just wait!” The bakeneko turned and ran.

“Wait!” Lily had already snatched the tea set but still chased.

Though the tea set was a precious treasure, Lily thought it too low quality, she planned on returning it to Nobutoshi for a favor. She wanted to learn the intricacies of tea ceremonies from him. However Lily had a phantom thief to catch first, she couldn’t allow her to escape.

While running, the bakeneko morphed into a little yellow black cat with white spots. Though similar, this wasn’t the cat attendant Lily had met at the monster bar. This bakeneko and that cat who could walk on two legs had completely different natures.

Morphing into a small cat made it easier to climb trees and escape, but Lily still chased, if a narrow path was encountered, she would grab her blade and directly create a path.

“Meow! This violent big-breasted woman!”

Lily trapped the bakeneko behind a high wall, though she could jump up, Lily could attack during that interval.

The bakeneko morphed back to her human form, she looked up at the powerful, big-breasted, queen-like Lily and resentfully griped, “You forced me, you forced me! I don’t like this ugly form! But……”

“Wait, what did you just mean? Why did you mention the tea set Fuji-san?”

The moment the bakeneko heard the name Fuji-san, her eyes filled with sadness and hatred, “None of your business!”

‘Boom!’ Thick clouds of eldritch dispersed, in the cloud a several meters long, two-tailed cat emerged with a hideous face and tiger-like claws. The monster radiated the aura of a mid-staged permanence expert.

Cat monsters are a type of extremely strong and savage monsters. A one-tailed cat monster is an early-staged permanence, three-tailed would be a late-staged permanence, and a four-tailed would be a throne-staged archdemon, just like the one in Lily’s Record of One Hundred Demons.

The one in front of her eyes was a two-tailed cat monster. She had the same colors as the small cat, but had turned into a beast-type archdemon.

“Middle-staged Permanence, you’re very strong! Only, I don’t want to kill you.” Lily coldly said.

But the morphed bakeneko had nothing to say to Lily, only savage killing intent. She jumped high into the clouds, descending with tiger claws slashing toward Lily.

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Lily evaded that claw, her upper clothes completely destroyed by the sharpness of the claw pressure. Lily’s only had the celestial maiden inner garment left, not a garment a cat monster could destroy. However the claw attack of a mid-staged permanence savage cat monster was enough to endanger Lily,

Suddenly the cat monster swiftly bit down at Lily, those fangs were more terrifying than a tiger’s. Lily blocked with her scabbard, but this ordinary seventh-grade scabbard was destroyed in one bite. The cat monster sent Lily flying with one swipe, sending her smashing through an old willow tree on the roadside.