CHAPTER 36 – KAMEYAMA ROAD

Half a month had already passed since the army started marching towards Kameyama Castle.

It was estimated that the entire army would need at least a month to travel this thousand mile mountain road, and the forward units would only need 15 days. However, with the constant battles breaking out, the truth was that the forward units had become just as slow as the rear units.

In the mountains, the sun rose in the west as rain came from the east.

The rain was sunsoaked, every raindrop warm as humid mist rose from the ground. In truth, it would feel much better for a heavy downpour to just come.

With such weather, the morale of the marching soldiers was low.

The soldiers had packed 20 days of rations, but at this speed it would not be enough. But with how close the supply units were, it would not be a big deal to stop the advance to resupply.

Within the forward units, the weakest person was still an awakened expert and they all had powerful bodies. The effect of this miserable weather was minimal on their physical conditions, but played havoc on their mental wellbeing. However, the biggest problem was that the forward units were still very far away from Kameyama Castle.

At noon, the army halted for lunch1.

The mountain road here was steep and narrow, utterly impossible to set up any formations.

Minamoto no Yoshitada and the others sat within a cave waiting for Lily and Hatano.

“Miss Hatano,” Yoshitada was covered in sweat, though his spirit armor allowed him to ignore the flames, the original heat of the terrain could only be countered if one processed wind, ice or water attributes.

“Lord Yoshitada.” Hatano walked in and knelt down in greeting.

Yoshitada pulled out a map, “We’ve been traveling in the mountains for half a month already. According to our original plans, we should already be near Kameyama Castle. However, when we look at the surrounding terrain, we really can’t tell where we are. I’m hoping Miss Hatano can point out our location.”

“Hm…this…let me see…” Hatano hesitantly looked at the map spread out before her, “It might be here…it also might be in this area…”

Since the army had marched for 15 days, the location should be near the forests of Kameyama Castle so she randomly pointed. In truth, how would she know where they were? As long as they moved forward, then there would be an opportunity to rescue sister Uesugi.

Yoshitada frowned, he could feel the uncertainty in Hatano’s response. He sternly rebuked her, “Miss Hatano, this is not a joking matter, can you really determine where we are?”

“If we continue in this direction, we will definitely arrive at Kameyama Castle, as for the specific location, this is not something I can remember clearly.”

“Hatano Kana!” Yoshitada stood up, “You claimed to be very familiar with the road to Kameyama and volunteered to guide the army, but now you can’t tell? There are tens of thousands of troops on this mountain path, what if we get lost, do you think this is children’s play?”

The sudden berating frightened Hatano.

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“I simply cannot specifically remember every mountain forest on the path but the current direction is correct without a doubt. The reason why Kameyama Castle cannot be seen is simply because the march speed has decreased and not because I do not know the way. In short, I can lead the army to Kameyama Castle, if you cannot believe me then punish me under military law.” Hatano took a strong stance, she knew that admitting she did not know the path was a serious crime, it was better to take this firm stance, either way with the map and the sun, Kameyama Castle would eventually be located.

Even if she would be punished for deceiving the army2, she still wanted to work hard and lead the army deep into Tanba to rescue sister Uesugi.

“Very well, then Miss Hatano, I shall have to ask you to lead the way!”

“Yes!” Hatano would not refuse, the moment she found a trace of sister Uesugi, she would lead the army that way regardless of Kameyama Castle.

“I accompany Miss Hatano to the front and protect her.” Lily stated.

“Mm, I shall entrust the task to you then.” Yoshitada nodded.

With that, Hatano and Lily traveled to the front of the army.

However, Hatano didn’t know the road at all. She had spent time in Kameyama Castle as a child, but how could a small child run around the mazelike forests around Kameyama? She had never been here before.

“Miss Hatano, would you like to ride a bird and get a sky view of the area?”

“No need, sister Lily, do you not believe me?” Although Hatano admired Lily, she was also jealous, Lily was the woman who sister Uesugi liked. Also, she could not completely believe in Lily, she was unwilling to let her know that she didn’t know the path.

“Believe…” Lily was also a little undecided.

The forward units matched into a valley. This valley was dark year round, filled with fog and a strong eldritch aura.

“Everyone, be careful.” Lily called out, “There might be danger ahead.”

Lily expanded her spirit probe and domain detection. Within this ten thousand large army, she naturally didn’t care about exposing her location, this situation was one where the enemy was naturally hidden and herself exposed.

“Huh!?” Lily quickly discovered that this mist could hinder the spirit probe, but while her domain detection was affected, she could still detect close to a thousand meters.

“There’s a large number of demons blocking the road, and both sides of the valley have enemies hidden in ambush!” Lily warned.

“Miss Lily!” Minamoto no Hiromasa rushed forward to survey the terrain, “We can split our troops in two, first climb up the valley and take the enemies by surprise before gathering up to deal with the ones on the road.

“Nn.” Lily nodded.

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Hiromasa dispatched 400 samurais out. Two hundred samurais would climb each side, and ambush the hidden demons.

As for the others, they continued to slowly march with Lily.

Those with sharp eyes could see that the ambushing demons had already drawn their bows and arrows, aiming at the marching human army. Before the arrows could be fired the two teams of samurai rushed out and charged into the ambushing demons. The demon’s formations were immediately thrown into chaos.

Hiromasa’s army was formed of squads of ten, and each squad was trained in the cone line formation. This formation was characterized by its strong attacking power and fast charge speed, however the weaknesses were that the sides had weak defense and the difficulty of changing directions, it is a good formation for surprise attacks.

Nine awakened samurai were led by one spirit jade samurai, the overall combat power and blessings was equivalent to one permanence staged demon.

With the charge and beheading of multiple demons, the valley sides became a mess.

Down below, seeing that both sides of ambushers had started battling, Hiromasa raised his katana and pointed forward, “Kill!”

Several thousand soldiers had formed a large long and slender formation. Hiromasa and several permanence experts formed the tip, the sides were formed of spirit jade experts, and the center was filled with the rest.

This formation was named “Fish Scales”3.

It was a large group attack formation that needed a minimum of several hundred people. It was a formation good at storming and frontal charges, you could say it was an enlarged formation of the cone line formation. From a distance, it looked like the scales of a fish swimming in the river, hence the name.

The attack power of the formation was gathered at the tip of the formation, the formation shined gold as the spirit power of thousands of soldiers was connected and sent to the tip of the formation. At this time, Hiromasa and the other permanence experts possessed the power equal to a throned arch-demon, even throned sovereign arch-demons would not dare face the charge of this formation alone.

At this moment, Hatano also charged with the formation; she was relatively safe within the formation.

As for Lily, she did not join the formation, she dashed forward, taking a detour on the side.

In the fog ahead, a great black army of demons and ghosts appeared, each ferocious and fierce and all excluding powerful auras. They howled and charged towards the formation.

Boom!!! Gold light exploded in between the two armies. The human formation brought with it the terrifying impact of throned sovereign experts, the resulting shockwave scattered a great number of enemies, the weaker ones were directly shattered by the impact.

Hiromasa as the focus of the formation had been boosted to the power level of a throned general, and the permanence experts beside him had all been boosted to the peak of permanence. With the terrifying impact of the formation, they beheaded all enemies encountered.

However, though the point of the fish scale formation was terrifying, the sides were relatively normal. The scattered demons all began attacking the sides. The samurais on the side of the formation had also been buffed, some now had the power close to a permanence expert, but there were many permanence-staged demons among the enemies.

On the side battles, there were many casualties, but the humans maintained the advantage through the virtue of the formation.

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Seeing an opportunity, Lily charged into the enemy army, with a swing of Yasutsuna, crimson blade lights chopped in all four directions. Just by relying upon her physical prowess and the power of her blade, it was more than enough for her to be invincible within this demon army.

Wherever her crimson clad form went, demons would fall beneath her blade.

Lily chose to specifically target permanence realmed arch-demons for two main reasons. First, demons below the permanence realm would be easy prey for the formation, and second, she needed to improve her realm. Lily’s insights were no longer lacking, and despite her physique continuously improving, her Tsukuyomi swordstyle had plateaued off. What Lily needed most now, was the anima of permanence realmed demons.

As a mid-staged permanence expert, Lily’s reserves of spirit energy was beyond massive. If she relied upon magatamas, she would not be able to afford it, so the only remaining option was to rely upon the anima of demons at and above the permanence realm.

Afterall, the anima of a mid-staged spirit jade demon was already equal to a magatama. A permanence realmed anima could be compared to a dozen magatamas. As for the anima of a throne realm arch-demon? Even the weakest would be equivalent to hundreds of magatamas.

Of course, would there be that many throned arch-demon animas in the world? Also, how could it be easy to get the anima of a throned arch-demon?

Therefore, Lily was taking the opportunity to harvest anima4. It was much safer to use the army as a cover than travel deep into Tanba solo.

Lily scythed through the insides of the enemy army, specifically slaughtering any arch-demon she could find. As for the permanence realmed arch-demons crushed by the army, she also accepted their anima without hesitation.

References

Robinxen: Lunch is an important meal of the day.Yuki: Girl… deceiving the army should be a death penalty…
Silva: Guess she was willing to risk that if it meant rescuing UesugiRobinxen: Sound fishy.Robinxen: I like how she’s basically using a raid to farm exp.