CHAPTER 163 – DESPERATE STRAITS

“What?!” Lily was utterly dumbfounded, “The Throne Realm?”

“I shattered Shenzu’s Throne Palace in our previous battle and stripped her powers away forever! Just how did she recover her powers to the peak-stage Permanence level? She even broke through to the Throne Realm during this match, and it’s not something that can be targeted. Those six blades, spirit arms, and an aura that’s similar to Rokuhara’s… Did she really inherit his powers? It’s incredibly difficult to inherit powers from someone else as the action violates the heavenly order. The fact that she hates me so much and her desire for vengeance must mean that Rokuhara’s dead.”

Lily concluded roughly.

“It seems like you aren’t just the remnant of the Jade Maidens!”

Moonflowers bloomed around Shenzu as her strength shot up several times!

Her domain then suppressed Lily’s domain with ease, subjecting Lily to the pressure of an opponent’s domain for the first time ever. The moonflowers released an oppressive, mind-affecting pressure that filled Lily’s body with powerlessness.

Shenzu’s strength had already approached the summit of ascension within Lily’s awareness.

“The peak-stage Throned General level!”

Shenzu’s strength had reached the peak-stage Throned General level after breaking through to the Throne Realm again by inheriting a share of Rokuhara’s powers and soul. Although she was still one step away from attaining the Throned Sovereign Realm, who possessed powers on the level of natural disasters, she was close to the next level!

“Do you understand it now, Kagami Lily?!”

A bunch of thicker, thorned azure stamens lashed down at the arena, causing it to tremble. Cracks appeared on its grade 7 wooden floor as Shenzu’s strength had far exceeded the limits of the arena on which all the past finals of the Yoshitsune Memorial Tournament had taken place.

Ayaka looked at Lily worriedly, but there wasn’t anything that she could do too as breaking through to the Throne Realm was a situation well-defined within the rules.

Unless Lily conceded the match, all Ayaka could do was sit still and wait. However, Shenzu had no plans to give Lily a chance to concede as she was intent on subjecting the latter to a miserable death after humiliating her.

Lily blitzed across the arena to dodge those thorned stamens, but she found it difficult to do so without her domain’s aid. It was also quite difficult to keep dodging these attacks under the influence of her opponent’s domain as even the slightest mistake in her micro-level based footwork could lead to grave consequences for her.

Bam! Lily’s body shuddered when she parried one of the stamens with her blade, and at the same time, another stamen doubled back to her behind and lashed at it, sending her flying forward.

The stamens then followed up with consecutive attacks to Lily in mid-air.

“B̲i̲t̲c̲h̲!” Lily swung Yasutsuna with all her strength and unleashed a series of crescent sword beams that severed the stamens.

However, this was just a casual domain attack from Shenzu. The four spirit arms arrived behind Lily as Shenzu shot towards her at a speed several times faster when compared to her previous realm!

Lily couldn’t evade in time and though she tried to react, her speed was affected by the pressure from Shenzu’s domain, making it hard for her to blitz away!

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Lily was thus forced to parry the attack with her blade!

Clang!

Lily’s immediate surroundings quaked from the force behind the strike!

A lot of the spectators panicked and retreated farther after hearing this ear-splitting noise.

Lily felt as if a monumental force had struck her, feeling a crushing pain all over her body. Her Spirit Jade within her abdomen also shuddered from the fierce shockwaves and cracked a little.

Boom! Lily crashed into the arena like a comet, causing one side of it to tilt down from the heavy force. Most of the samurai shouldering the arena got pushed down while the others got blown away into the sky.

It was becoming impossible for the samurai to shoulder the arena.

“This is the grand ceremony for Lord Yoshitsune’s memorial. The samurai of Genji won’t have any face left to meet Lord Yoshitsune’s soul in the afterlife if we can’t even shoulder an arena for Ms. Kagami!”

Yoshitada stood up suddenly when he saw that the arena was on the verge of toppling because of the injured samurai youths. He tore away his upper garment and revealed his scar-filled, muscular torso as he dashed underneath the arena to support the corner where a dozen Genji youths had fallen.

“Men of Genji! You must preserve until the final moment of this match no matter what happens!” Yoshitada thundered with veins popping out of his forehead.

“Argh…” Lily moaned in pain as she raised her tattered body inside the crater that had formed in the arena. She gasped for deep breaths and salivated uncontrollably, wetting her lips.

“S-So powerful… I never imagined there was such a huge gap between the late-stage and peak-stage Throned General levels…” Lily had expended about 30-40% of her spirit reserves to block the attack just now.

Although Lily could restock them, her current reserves had an incredibly high capacity, so she couldn’t replenish them that quickly. However, there was no doubt that the attack would’ve killed her if she had normal reserves instead.

“What do I do?” Lily found herself at a dead end for the first time ever, “I’ve already brought out my whole strength and using external powers or treasures is equivalent to conceding the match. Do I use Rebirth again? That’s easier said than done and it was just a coincidence that I succeeded last time, owing to Shenzu’s lack of vigilance because she underestimated me. It’s impossible to succeed at it again!”

“Hahahahaha! You’re shivering, right? Do you regret what you did now? Are you scared?” Shenzu ordered the stamens to lash at Lily again and forced her to move towards the arena’s center region. She didn’t want Lily to get away with her life by a disqualification from falling off the arena. The outcome and honor given to the winner of the Yoshitsune Memorial Tournament meant nothing to her as she was a key suspect in Yoruko’s murder case. All she wished was to kill Lily!

Shenzu blitzed towards Lily once again. Lily unsheathed her other blade, Crescent Moon, and blocked Shenzu’s six blades with it.

“Do you think using dual blades will make any difference?!”

Shenzu’s six blades slashed at Lily simultaneously.

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Lily dodged two of them and blocked two more with Yasutsuna while parrying the dual blades in Shenzu’s hands with Crescent Moon.

Bam! A phantasmic golden-azure hellish energy crashed against Lily’s Crescent Moon and sent her flying towards the thorned stamens, which hoisted her up in the air again and lashed her.

“Hahahahaha! I’m going to lash you to death!” Shenzu chuckled psychotically as the moment of vengeance approached closer.

However, vast amounts of blood flowed out from her mouth before she even realized it.

“Hmm?” Shenzu felt her soul experience a dull ache and looked at the flushing Lily, noticing that her other blade exuded a strange soul aura.

Shenzu had received Rokuhara’s instruction, so even though she didn’t know much, she knew that there were attacks that targeted the soul directly.

“You b̲i̲t̲c̲h̲! Your blade can attack souls?”

“Keogh!” Shenzu felt her power wither momentarily and kneeled while holding her abdomen, “B̲i̲t̲c̲h̲…”

Lily seized this chance to sever the thorned stamens that were free of Shenzu’s control now and landed on the floor gently before kneeling as well.

Her breasts were just hidden behind a few tattered pieces of cloth right now and her celestial maiden underwear was completely exposed outside. One of the shoulder straps had fallen off to the side and her bountiful breasts quivered underneath the sweat-drenched underwear as they heaved up and down.

Saliva flowed down Lily’s lips from the exhaustion that assailed her.

Shenzu raised her body and moved towards Lily, “How dare you use such vile means to ambush me, you despicable woman!”

Two of Shenzu’s spirit arms flew towards Lily’s left hand to attack Crescent Moon, but Lily couldn’t even muster enough strength to stand up and was forced to block them by just raising her blade.

Clang! Crescent Moon got blown away by Shenzu’s blade strikes and fell outside the arena.

Lily had now lost her means to execute a soul attack as well.

Shenzu arrived before Lily and stepped on her face, “You suggested that I concede just moments ago, didn’t you, b̲i̲t̲c̲h̲? I’ll give you a chance as well. Swear to the Heavens that you’ll become my lifelong slave and give up all human rights to become my carpet-munching b̲i̲t̲c̲h̲! I’ll spare your life then. What do you say? Hahahahahaha!”

Shenzu’s skin flushed up and her eyes also glazed over as vapors of white mist arose from her body, her mouth salivating uncontrollably as she chuckled hysterically, fantasizing about Lily becoming her personal b̲i̲t̲c̲h̲!

“Go on! Concede the match now and become my personal b̲i̲t̲c̲h̲! I’ll make you regret choosing to live if you do so though!” Shenzu raised her blade and slashed at Lily’s beautiful neck to cut it off!

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“Nooooooo!” The spectators below the arena cried out in fear. They never imagined that their goddess might lose her life today and bawled out, unable to endure seeing their goddess humiliated like this.

“Lily!” Ayaka’s face flushed up as well and her breaths quickened a bit as she forgot her position and almost acted to kill the psychotic woman who was humiliating Lily right now!

“Ms. Chief Advisor,” Yoritomo stated calmly, as if he were watching a play, “This is a fair duel that’s under the attention of the Genji and the entire world. No one is allowed to interfere with it1.”

Even the Cloistered Emperor behind the curtain laughed evilly, “Hahaha. I also wish to see the outcome of these two heroic girls’ duel. I’m hoping no one is crude enough to interfere with it, or else…”

“B̲a̲s̲t̲a̲r̲d̲s̲!” Anxiety filled Ayaka’s heart. It was possible for her to rescue Lily by breaking past Minamoto no Yoritomo’s guard, but it was quite difficult for even her to break past both the Cloistered Emperor and Yoritomo’s guard. Moreover, she also couldn’t disobey a rational order from the Cloistered Emperor.

“Become my slave, Kagami Lily! Concede and become my slave! Become my personal b̲i̲t̲c̲h̲!” Shenzu’s blade slashed at Lily’s hand.

“F̲u̲c̲k̲ you!” Lily executed a scissors kick with her legs suddenly and toppled Shenzu to the floor and then parkour rolled far away before standing up feebly with her blade’s support. As for Shenzu, she got up and shot towards Lily immediately!

Lily raised her blade to block Shenzu’s attacks, but only managed to parry the blades in the four spirit arms’ grip with Yasutsuna as Shenzu’s dual blades made towards her abdomen!

“Die!”

Lily was unable to move a single step right now and didn’t have any other blades to block Shenzu’s dual blades2.

The dual blades stabbed into Lily’s abdomen and gave rise to a clanging sound, which was then followed by an intense shockwave that caused the arena to cave in!

Shenzu’s dual blades had stabbed Lily’s Ancient Mirror!

The primordial Ancient Mirror didn’t have a single scratch on it, yet a few cracks had appeared on Shenzu’s blades3.

“What?!”

Although the Ancient Mirror was safe, the resulting impact still sent Lily flying back until she crashed into the floor while entangled in two stamens.

Bam! The arena had smashed apart in the region where Lily had crashed and was on the verge of breaking apart now!

Kimura and Mori shouted aloud and dashed beneath the arena to support the cracked area just in time to prevent it from breaking apart completely!

As for Lily, she was buried inside the rubble in the arena with her Ancient Mirror tossed a few meters away from her.

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Shenzu spread out her six blades around her and walked towards Lily from behind.

Lily’s legs numbed and blood flowed out from her lips as a scorching pain assailed her chest and underbody. She tried to get up but found it impossible to do so. All that remained in her blurring vision was the Ancient Mirror that laid on the damaged floor, an item that had accompanied her all along in this desolate world.

“My mirror… My beloved… My everything…” Lily reached out towards the mirror and dragged her feeble body towards it. Although it was just a few meters away, it felt so far away to her. She even abandoned her blade and completely forgot about her opponent who was closing in on her from behind right now.

Just one obsession filled her whole being right now, which was to not let the mirror fall in anyone else’s hands even if she were to die accomplishing it!

Because it had her senior sister’s soul in it.

The battle between Lily and Shenzu had extended so long that it had long become night and the black clouds of the dark skies had dissipated momentarily to reveal the bright full moon.

The moonlight shone upon the Ancient Mirror and made it glow with an exquisite glow that added to its crude design. Lily was close to the mirror now and recalled how she had observed the moonlight after training in lunar intent for the first time.

The moon within the mirror was just like a reflection on water. Although ephemeral, it brimmed with charm.

Shenzu had already raised her blade behind Lily to strike her down by now.

“Lily!” Ayaka planned to do anything in her power to rescue Lily at this moment, even go against the world!

However, Lily continued to ignore the threat behind her, her eyes glazing up as she revealed a naïve, charming smile akin to that of a girl who had fallen in love for the first time.

“The moonlight is so beautiful.”

Boom!

A powerful aura emanated from Lily’s body and the spirit pressure alone shook Shenzu back and made her shut her eyes, filling her with a primal fear!

She retreated, “J-Just what is this power?!”

A dark starry sky had formed above the crimson spiritual sea inside Lily’s Spirit Palace right now and these starry skies contained a bright full moon within them. The moonlight transformed into beautiful silver threads that cocooned the crack on Lily’s Spirit Jade and restored it with ease, following which the Spirit Jade pulsated with a brighter and prettier crimson glow.

The crimson spiritual sea roiled up as Lily’s blade maiden spirit power morphed into droplets and soared to the skies to form a blood-red spiral galaxy, which then flowed towards the Spirit Jade cocooned within the moonlight threads. The silver threads also pulled the full moon out from Lily’s Spirit Palace deftly and fused it with charm intent, giving rise to a white glow that illuminated the whole Spirit Palace.

All that remained above the spiritual sea within Lily’s body once the light scattered was her Spirit Jade, which was now encased in a Permanence Spirit—A translucent, desolate, and beautiful violet moon.

References

Silva: Says you who interfered in Lily’s previous match, you realize how hypocritical you are?Robinxen: Blades twice in this sentence annoys meeee!Silva: Wow, this ancient mirror is the strongest shield