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The eldritch energy shooting off the golden Hannya masked demon kunoichi was the strongest that Lily had ever encountered in battle and much stronger than the demon hound that had despaired Lily once!
Naturally, if the current Lily were to meet that severely wounded demon hound again, even if she weren’t its match, she at least possessed the strength to put up a fight.
“Be careful, little sister. This demon kunoichi… is pretty strong,” sweat had formed on Shimizu’s forehead as well and a solemn expression appeared on it.
Yuki Mayumi observed Shimizu and Lily through the eye slits of the malevolent golden Hannya mask and assumed a stance while performing hand seals with her two hands, following which sparks of bizarre violet spirit power gathered within her hand.
Parting her legs suddenly, Yuki Mayumi stooped down low, her torso almost running parallel to the ground as she pressed the violet lightning clad palm to the ground.
“Psychic Ninja Art — Lightning Fang!1”
The ground fissured rapidly and sharp 3-foot long violet fangs clad in lightning sparks emerged from within and charged towards Shimizu and Lily with astonishing speed!
“What?!” Lily was shocked as she had never witnessed such a powerful offensive ninja art and just leaped aside instinctively because of the danger she felt.
Shimizu also didn’t dare to face the attack head-on after witnessing its fearsome might and dodged sideways similarly.
“Hmph! Let’s deal with the weaker one first!” Yuki Mayumi shot a blue steel hook at Lily that was attached to a thin rope clad in spirit power.
“It’s so fast!” Lily was unable to dodge it as she was midair, so she swung her blade to block the attack.
Although Lily swung her blade pretty quickly, the blue steel hook changed directions strangely the moment it was about to get chopped by Lily’s blade. This resulted in her blade striking down on the pliable rope clad in spirit power which her blade failed to cut through!
That blue rope coiled around Lily’s blade while the other end of the rope rested within Yuki Mayumi’s hand.
“Ninja Art — Violet Lightning!”
A spark of violet lightning shot out from Yuki Mayumi’s index finger and reached Lily’s blade by traveling across the rope clad in spirit power.
“Bzzt!”
A powerful current passed through the blade to Lily’s body and wreaked havoc inside her.
“ARGH—!” Lily cried out as she was sent flying by the powerful lighting attack, her body still emitting lightning sparks from time to time.
Yuki Mayumi tugged onto the rope and recovered the steel hook back with a whoosh.
“Lil’ Sis!” Shimizu’s eyes flickered as she shot towards Yuki Mayumi while leaving behind an afterimage.
A similar steel hook and rope appeared in Yuki Mayumi’s other hand, the two pretty and illusionary ropes were clad in spirit power flickering with a rhythmic beat, seeming just like mercury dissolving into ink.
Yuki Mayumi stood on one foot and leaped back lithely.
The Tranquil Bamboo in Shimizu’s hand struck out yet failed to hit anything.
The ropes in Yuki Mayumi’s hands shot out towards Shimizu with a whoosh.
Shimizu fixed her gaze on the ropes and determined their loci and shot forward narrowly between the two shuttling ropes at the right moment.
“You seem to have some strength. You’re indeed worthy of being called the former first sword of the East’s Six Swords,” Yuki Mayumi stated while placing deliberate emphasis on the word ‘former’.
Shimizu’s speed shot up suddenly as she jumped towards the cave wall and sprung towards Yuki Mayumi by borrowing the momentum of the jump and spun on the ground once she landed to strike at her opponent.
“Take your words back! You demon ninja!” Shimizu glowered and struck Mayumi with her blade clad in resplendent spirit power.
Yuki Mayumi pulled out a glistening straight sword from her back and chopped down towards Shimizu’s blade directly.
“Wham—!” The powerful strike sent Shimizu flying momentarily and made her crash into a stalactite.
On the other hand, Yuki Mayumi landed on the ground gracefully and two ropes that floated in the air under the control of spirit power retracted into the bracers on her wrists that they were connected to.
Lily and Shimizu also stood up miserably.
At the same time, the golden Hannya mask on Yuki Mayumi’s face split into two halves with a cracking sound and an extremely beautiful woman’s face made its appearance.
“Hmph! It seems like you still have tricks up your sleeve, Minamoto no Shimizu,” Yuki Mayumi stated icily.
“This demon kunoichi is so strong… and she’s also quite pretty!” Lily trembled in shock after seeing Yuki Mayumi’s face.
Shimizu’s gaze turned solemn as she stated, “A powerhouse beyond the sword saint rank… This woman is one of those people or a creature who are rumored to possess strength beyond the sword saint rank. Lil’ Sister Lily, you must be very careful. She’s as strong as the Furinkazan of our Land of East!”
After practicing the seventh stage of the mystic swordplay to perfection, it could be said that Shimizu’s strength had reached the limits of the sword saint rank. Although she had already excelled the peak powerhouses among the ordinary late-stage sword saints in many domains, the golden masked demon kunoichi before her was an existence who had truly crossed the limits of sword saint!
“What? Beyond the sword saint rank, Furinkazan…” In fact, just a casual attack from Yuki Mayumi had incapacitated Lily for a while and even Shimizu had been sent flying in a frontal confrontation.
There was a huge gap between their strengths!
Lily never imagined she would cross blows with a powerhouse on the same level as the members of the Furinkazan who Sakiko has sung praises of.
“W-Who are you?! You’re human, right? Why have you become a tool of the Hundred Demons?!” Lily yelled.
“Hmph! You have a lot of questions, little girl, but is there any meaning for a person who’s about to die to know the answers to these?” Yuki Mayumi chuckled.
“Y-You’re obviously a human woman! I… clearly picked up the scent of a human woman from you on that day. As a human, why do you wish for our deaths even though we’re fellow humans?” Lily questioned aggressively.
“Scent…” Yuki Mayumi’s body quivered a little as she stated, “Hmph! I have heard rumors of you, Kagami Lily. You didn’t even blink when killing four human sword masters, so on what basis are you questioning me?”
“T-That’s different! I was forced to do that to protect myself, but you’ve betrayed humanity and joined the Hundred Demons!”
“Hehehe! Betrayed humanity and joined the Hundred Demons? So what? How are you so assured that I’m the one who betrayed humanity and it wasn’t humanity that betrayed me?!2”
Yuki Mayumi’s eyes filled with resentment and her limpid violet pupils seemed to have lit up in chilly flames as she formed arcane hand seals with her hands and slammed her palm onto the ground again!
A blue circular formation of light made up of ancient mystic glyphs appeared on the ground suddenly.
“Arise! Hidden Ninja Art — Glacial Thunder Spider!” Yuki Mayumi cried out.
“Bam—!” A cloud of mist filled the cavern suddenly and this caused Lily and Shimizu to lose sight of their surroundings momentarily.
When the mist dissipated away… an aura which was stronger than the demon hound on the brink of death that Lily had faced in the past emerged from within.
A giant blue eight-legged phantom spider that was 3-4 meters tall and almost the size of the passageway of the cavern appeared before Lily and Shimizu’s eyes.
The phantom spider was shrouded in a cold energy and seemed to have formed entirely of ice while the sharp tips of its icy blade-like legs crackled with lightning sparks.
Lily was bewitched by those crystalline ice legs for a moment and felt like the beauty they possessed was actually a deadly beauty.
“Watch out!” Shimizu yelled out.
The ice spider raised its leg up high and suddenly jabbed it towards Lily, leaving only an afterimage behind. Lily quivered all over and rolled backward to dodge its attack.
“Boom!” The spider’s leg pulverized the ground it struck at and even sent sparks of lightning crashing around in all directions.
Lily and Shimizu evaded the lightning sparks that traveled on the ground prudently.
Lily suddenly realized that the opponent she was facing right now was on a completely different level than those she had faced until now!
Lily had never heard of a ninja art that allowed the user to summon a phantom spider that was stronger than the wounded demon hound she had encountered previously with just a few hand seals!
However, it wasn’t the time to remain shocked right now. Lily was shrouded in crimson spirit power as she struck at the huge phantom spider’s leg.
“Clang—!” A clanking sound echoed out in the cavern!
An all-out attack from Lily had only managed to open up a tiny nick on the one-foot thick leg of the ice spider.
The malevolent yet beautiful ice spider’s four-fanged jaw opened up widely as it spouted out a stream of cold air.
Lily and Shimizu retreated back quickly as a layer of frost appeared wherever the stream of cold air passed by; even the edges of Lily’s sleeves had frozen a little.
Shimizu slid across the frozen ground with a sprint and attacked the spider from the front, “Iai!”
The blade of Tranquil Bamboo left its sheath, followed by crystals of ice splattering everywhere. However, the attack had only managed to produce a scar on the spider’s humongous head.
But, as this wasn’t a living spider and was just a construct made of spirit power, it didn’t bleed or feel any pain when its vitals were attacked and was thus indestructible unless destroyed thoroughly!
It was difficult to defeat such an opponent with the sword unless the user’s strength far surpassed the opponent’s!
Yuki Mayumi smiled proudly behind the spider, almost as if she were saying someone who couldn’t even defeat her summon wasn’t even qualified to face her directly.
The huge spider’s legs jabbed into the walls of the cave and caused the broken stalactites to drop towards Lily and Shimizu. It was quite difficult to dodge the attacks of the spider that was clogging up the already narrow cavern, but Lily and Shimizu managed to do so with their exceptional deftness and cool-headedness. They dodged the jabs, mists and sparks launched by the spider and countered back with their all each time, but their all-out attacks only managed to bring about minor damage to the opponent. Furthermore, as it wasn’t made of real ice, the spider recovered from its injuries after a short while by absorbing the spirit power that flowed into it from the surroundings.
“This doesn’t look good! We cannot bring out our all in such a narrow space, so it’s quite difficult for us to destroy it!” Shimizu stated worriedly.
“We won’t be able to attack the demon kunoichi behind it unless we destroy it,” Lily reasoned while gasping for breaths of air, unaware that her bountiful bosom was already drenched in sweat.
After a brief moment of silence, Shimizu and Lily gazed at each other helplessly.
“Even though we cannot attack the demon kunoichi because of the huge spider that is blocking the cavern’s passageway, she also cannot attack us!” Lily and Shimizu arrived at the same conclusion.
“Run!”
Shimizu and Lily turned around and ran at almost the same time!
“Hmph! You wish to run?” A serene smile appeared on Yuki Mayumi’s face as she passed down a casual order to the spider.
The huge ice spider’s legs sliced through the walls of the cavern and chased after Lily and Shimizu with its swift eight legs.3 4