CHAPTER 100 – VENERATED NIGHT MOON SHRINE

“She doesn’t have much strength left! Kill her! We can’t let her escape!” Ijuin’s clothes were wrecked and she stared at the wraith with hatred.

Lily calmly replied, “Don’t bother, she can’t leave this place.”

“Huh?” The group of women looked at her in confusion.

“Noriko…it’s you? Is it really you?” Hashiki, who had originally been hiding far away, slowly approached with a dazed expression.

“Careful! That’s a wraith!” A sword miko wanted to stop him.

“This wraith, if she had wanted to harm this man, she would have done so earlier.” Lily calmly said.

Hashiki approached the mortally wounded ugly wraith, and from that wraith’s figure emerged the image of a beautiful woman.

That beautiful serene woman looked at Hashiki, “I did not imagine that Lord Hashiki would still remember me…”

“Noriko! It’s my fault, all my fault! I should have protected you…What happened to you? Why did you become like this?” Hashiki cried and attempted to touch Noriko, but all he could touch was a cold phantom image.

“Why did I become like this? Because of people’s hearts…those jealous servants took advantage of your absence and framed me for thievery, then beat me to death. They were afraid of the incident and threw me into the wilderness, but I didn’t see Lord Hashiki return, so I couldn’t die… and came back.” Noriko smiled brightly.

“Noriko…waaah, no, why is this happening, why! Who framed you? I’ll drag them to the officials!”
“There’s no need, those people no longer reside in this world. I…I’ll be leaving soon.”
“Noriko!!! No, why, why didn’t you tell me you were Noriko? I offered those rewards to destroy the demons, I caused your death!”
“Lord Hashiki, I originally returned for revenge, I knew this would be the result. I cannot be with you anymore…Hashiki, I hope to see you in the next life, thank you, for stopping my spirit from entering the netherworld.”

Noriko’s spirit slowly floated up, turning into a beam of spiritual light, blooming in the night sky with a gentle splendor, but fleetingly vanished forever.

“Noriko——!!!” Only Hashiki was left there painfully crying1.

Lily and the sisters all placed their hands together, eyes closed and silently prayed for that fragile, beautiful soul.

“May you not be reborn in this dark age, for the darkness is not only in the world, but in people’s hearts.”
“To part with your lover with your original appearance, should be your deepest wish…”

From Lily’s eyes, a single teardrop fell.

The Tsunaga Sisters all left with heavy hearts absent-mindedly.

The team disbanded. As they split, Lily turned toward Ijuin Reira and left a single question, “Perhaps, this world had no wraiths, but what gave birth to them were hearts more wicked and sinister than demons, human hearts. Are we qualified to raise the banner of justice and fight monsters everywhere?”

“……” Ijuin looked at Lily’s retreating tall graceful back, and couldn’t come up with an answer.

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Lily started returning to the Chief Advisor’s mansion, she walked past a small hillside between the warrior’s residential area. Leading up the small hill were small stone steps and an old brown torii gate.

Lily stopped, she didn’t know why, but those steps lured her, turning she walked up to the steps.

The stone steps only lasted a hundred steps before reaching the hilltop. An elegant and peaceful shrine awaited her at the top, the clouds came and went, the leaves grew and withered, everything was in tune with nature, and the shrine was quite clean.

“Not many people come up here.”

Turning toward the voice, Lily saw a young maiden carrying a broom walk out of the room beside the shrine. She had a single black ponytail and wore the traditional red white of a miko. Though not tall, she was calm and mature.

“Ah…sorry, I didn’t know why but I was drawn here.” Lily gave her apologies.

“Kagami Lily, right?” When the young maiden talked, her mouth hardly moved, making her seem unusually quiet.

“Eh? You know me?”
“Yuu.”
“Yuu? Your name?”

The young maiden nodded. She and her maid, Kyori were part of Ryu Island duel’s audience, they naturally remembered Lily, however Lily might not have paid them too much attention.

“Ordinarily, people will ignore this place.”

“Eh? But the entrance is so conspicuous? I feel as if something has attracted me here.” Lily wondered, “Miss Yuu, can you tell me which divinity is worshiped here?”

Yuu didn’t give an answer, but steadily looked at Lily before turning and entering the shrine, Lily followed. Yuu walked up to the shrine and stepped to the side.

Lily looked in, but the shrine door was closed, only a flag was planted outside with the words “Venerated Night Moon”.

“Is this a shrine dedicated to Tsukuyomi no Mikoto?”

Lily’s Lunar Blossom, Tsukuyomi Swordstyle, and Lunar Intent were all secret great paths that this great god had created. When meeting a shrine dedicated to this divinity she would wholeheartedly worship.

She immediately went to kneel down at the base of the shrine and bowed devotedly.

“Eh? Why?”

Lily felt an incredible resistance preventing her from prostrating to the shrine. She could only worship with her hands held together

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“Disrespectful.” Yuu unhappily said.

Lily had no way of explaining, all she could was get up with an apologetic smile. She felt embarrassed to have disturbed the quietness of the shrine and planned on leaving.

However when she turned around, and faced the bright moon above the torii gate, she had a strange feeling.

“This…”

It was unbelievable, facing that moon, Lily’s understanding of Lunar Intent unendingly increased. She did not know if it was because she had previously contemplated over the Twelve Moon Phase Instrument or if it was a special uniqueness of this shrine, but now, looking at that moon, Lily could clearly feel the cold, empty but peerless energy the moon emanated.

Lily involuntaraly knelt down at the steps of the shrine.

“Hey——You!”

It was disrespectful to the extreme to sit with your back to a shrine.

Yuu was beyond unhappy, “Please leave at once!”

However, Lily had entered a captivated, void state, her eyes and heart only had the moon within them.

“Leave! Disrespectful woman!” Yuu couldn’t resist anymore, she swung a broom at Lily.

Before the broom hit Lily, an immense wind pressure was generated from Lily’s body and destroyed the broom, leaving nothing but twigs and half a bamboo pole.

But despite the wind, Lily’s hair did not move.

“Eh?” Yuu was surprised.

Lily sat on her knees facing the bright moon, in a void state of obsession. In this dark shrine, the pink clad maiden glowed in hazy moonlight.

“What!?” Shocked, Yuu retreated involuntarily, and in that instant, wind came.

The fallen leaves drifted in the wind, twirled and danced around Lily. The entire shrine was focused on her, wind currents twisted around her forming a swirling current that covered the mountain and hills, the ground trembled.

The wind was not violent, but the energy held within was not to be doubted. Yuu’s skirt was blown up despite her attempts to hold it down, she could only hide behind the house, holding onto the building while looking at the still sitting Lily, quiet and motionless despite the endless wind.

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Lily, still sitting in the center of the wind remained motionless, not a single strand of hair out of place.

“What, what’s with this woman?” Yuu wondered, “Eh?”

Lily’s mesmerizing eyes, staring fervently at the moon, were shedding tears.

“Kagami Lily…”

Dewdrops formed on Lily’s long eyelashes gathering into a single crystalline drop, she blinked softly and the dewdrop fell onto the two bountiful mounds on her chest.

When Lily came back to her senses, looking around, she could only see Yuu leaning on the building already asleep.

Lily got up, she felt different, her body felt light. Even that faint cloudy moonlight in the sky allowed her to feel a hint of the mysteries within.

“Lunar intent…” This night, the benefits Lily had gained within the shrine combined with the accumulation of previous understandings of Lunar energy allowed her understanding of the lunar intent to increase significantly and almost leap to a new level.

She felt that her knowledge of the moon was only separated from the true meaning of the moon by a thin ceiling like barrier. The moment she broke through and understood the true meaning of the moon, would be the moment she truly became a permanence staged warrior.

Looking at a sleeping Yuu, she couldn’t bear waking her up. Pulling a pink shawl from her mirror, she covered Yuu’s body and left the shrine.

“To think that a shrine I encountered by chance would allow my understanding of the moon to reach a new height. I’m so close to breaking through to permanence, but that last step, the true meaning of the moon, I’m afraid it won’t be that easy.”

Lily returned to the Chief Advisor’s mansion and went into closed door training, she felt that her charming intent would not improve in a short amount of time.

“No more delays, I can’t be too greedy, I can wait, but Yoruko’s spirit cannot wait, I still need to avenge her!”

As long as her charming intent reached the true meaning before she broke through, then she would obtain the greatest benefits for her physique refining. Compared to her current Mid staged Spirit Jade, her understanding of charming intent could be said to have caught up, but the effect was not too great, and as a supporting path, it could be ignored.

Lily planned on using great quantities of magatamas to increase her power to Late Staged Spirit Jade.

That day, Lily went into closed-door training for a full sixteen days.

The time lapse was beyond her expectations, but she had started the absorption process, to stop would be to cut her efforts in half, the loss of magatamas would not be small.

She had lots of magatamas, but her consumption was not a small number. Care was still needed.

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This time, a full five hundred magatamas were absorbed before she reached Late Stage Spirit Jade. If others were to hear this, they would take it as a joke.

For other adepts, ten something magatamas would be enough to go from Mid Stage Spirit Jade to Late Stage. For it to require a full five hundred magatamas? Never seen before in history2.

References

Silva: Damn, what is this 3rd rate drama! lolRobinxen: Exp sinks. Terrible.