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A crimson haze covered Lily’s sight instantly and her vision turned fuzzy, all except for the wound on Mizue’s chest that still remained clear.
Lily had just given Mizue a speech about finding the right direction in life and so on, but she now wondered whether she even had the right to give such a speech when she couldn’t even protect those beside her!
It was impossible for someone to find their raison d’être if they couldn’t even survive.
Lily had a dream to fulfill, but so did Mizue.
However, Mizue’s life was now coming close to an end before she had even set out on the journey of self-discovery, depriving her of all hope.
Lily wasn’t a philanthropic hypocrite, but it was impossible for her to treat an acquaintance as a stranger.
Although Mizue had acquainted Lily just days ago and provided little to no help to Lily because she lacked courage, she had still accompanied Lily through the dangers they experienced in the treasure hunt.
Mizue knew she was weak, yet she had still yelled out the enemy’s position. Lily asked herself whether she possessed the same courage as her.
No! I won’t let her die! I absolutely won’t!
It just took Lily an instant to reflect on everything. She sprinted towards Mizue and opened the Sakura Parasol to cut off the silver thread. As the thread was made from water and spirit power, it was possible to ward off the spirit power and the water with her parasol.
“Sakura Blizzard—Coffin of Wild Blossoms!”
The world turned dark as millions of sakura petal blades shot towards the killing intent’s direction.
The tree’s branches ruptured immediately and forced the enemy girl’s faint silhouette to retreat into the forest while defending herself. Lily knew it was impossible to kill an expert at this level with just her domain, but it still allowed her to restrain the enemy’s movements and prevent the assassin from remaining hidden.
“Protect us, Sister Shimizu!” Lily yelled.
“Leave it to me!” Shimizu arrived in front of Lily, who held the fallen Mizue in her embrace.
Lily tore open Mizue’s kimono and pressed her hand against the small wound on the latter’s chest while paying no mind to her exposed breasts.
Lily’s hand shuddered constantly as she checked Mizue’s condition.
You mustn’t die, Mizue! I won’t let you die!
Lily sighed in relief a few moments later.
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“Fortunately, the attack missed her heart by a finger’s breadth cleanly…”
Lily took out the sole emerald-colored magatama she had obtained from Amanojaku and placed it on Mizue’s chest before infusing it with spirit power to activate it. The magatama possessed the ability to replenish an early-stage Permanence level powerhouse’s spirit reserves fully. Lily didn’t need it since she could achieve the same by assimilating the souls of those she vanquished, but it was a pretty precious magatama for those who needed it.
However, Lily still used the emerald magatama.
The cool and gentle energy from the life magatama suffused into Mizue’s body. The treasure would’ve been useless if Mizue were an ordinary human without spirit power, but she was a late-stage swordswoman at the 3rd-stage Awakened level, so it was more than enough to save Mizue as long as the wound wasn’t fatal.
Besides, the spirit palace of a female practitioner was situated in the lower abdomen. It was thus feasible for them to recover their spirit power via the life magatama as long as their spirit palace was safe.
It was actually too much of a waste to spend a perfect magatama to cure someone at Mizue’s level, but Lily couldn’t be bothered about it right now as there was no time to waste.
It was hard for others to obtain such a chance.
Mizue’s expression eased down a little after the perfect magatama’s nourishment healed her fully and the remaining energy even strengthened her body to some extent.
“Ngh…” Mizue’s skin flushed as her expression twisted in agony.
Lily finally felt relieved after saving Mizue.
“Switch with me, Sister Shimuzu!”
Lily switched tasks with Shimizu and got up after leaving Mizue’s protection to her.
“You little b̲i̲t̲c̲h̲! How dare you hurt my sister?!”
Lily summoned Crescent Moon and Yasutsuna at the same time, and an eldritch crimson flame enveloped the cursed katanas immediately.
Even Ui, who was hidden in the forest, was shocked by Lily’s ferocity, “Oh, this woman’s so fierce!”
Lily brandished her blades forward and unleashed a double crescent moon towards the killing intent, causing it to slice through tens of branches and leaves as it moved with an unstoppable momentum!
The double crescent moon carried a force equivalent to an all-out attack from a middle- to late-stage Permanence level archdemon, so Ui didn’t dare to clash with it and shuttled through the forest to dodge it. However, the double crescent moon actually changed directions and chased after her as she was still within the range of Lily’s domain. It wasn’t that hard for Lily to accomplish this feat because she just needed to apply some external force to it with her domain to change its direction and didn’t need to boost its momentum.
This took Ui aback and made her dodge the attack in panic.
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However, Lily mustered her spirit power and unleashed dozens of sword beams at the same level as the previous attack and made them fly across the forest under her domain’s control.
This made Ui panic even further as each one of them could change directions. Although she possessed supreme skills, she was just at the peak-stage Spirit Jade level and was bound to incur heavy wounds were she to take one of these attacks. Her style also didn’t place much importance into defense, so she was really disadvantaged in this situation.
However, she was unwilling to give up and risked her life to create an opening and shoot the ball from her kendama towards Lily. The swift ball moved strangely and also enabled Ui to entangle her enemy with it even if they managed to dodge it. Although shooting the ball at the enemy wasn’t really an attack, the force behind it was still equivalent to a blow from a late-stage Spirit Jade level powerhouse.
“Bam!” The ball struck Lily’s shoulder, but it just produced a spark of spirit power before being warded off incredulously by Lily’s spirit defense and just made her shake her shoulder slightly.
“What?!” Ui was stunned when she saw this, “What in the world did she do?! The attack was strong as a late-stage Spirit Jade powerhouse’s all-out attack and can even break grade 6 armor. How did she block it with just her spirit defense when she’s dressed so lightly? Isn’t she just at the early-stage Spirit Jade level?”
“Ah!” Ui then recalled a certain matter, “Is this the power of the celestial maiden’s undergarment that she obtained from Biwa Palace? Dammit! A defensive treasure as awesome as this should belong to—Kyah!”
A series of sword beams shot towards Ui, interrupting her soliloquy.
Ui managed to dodge it by a hair’s breadth, but one of the sword beams ended up leaving a wound on her leg.
“It hurts!” Ui screamed in fury and pain, almost breaking out in tears, “The woman’s gone nuts after I almost killed her companion. Now’s not the best time to incite her… Just wait for me, Kagami Lily. I definitely won’t let you reach Heian-kyo alive! You’ll either die under Lord Tamurakonoe’s blade or become my slave once I collar you! Just wait and see!”
Ui cursed grudgingly and fled while dodging the sword beams as she wasn’t Lily’s match inside the latter’s domain.
However, Ui actually wasn’t aware that although Lily looked unharmed, her attack just now had sent an intense pang of pain through Lily’s shoulder. Although Lily wished to cry from the pain, she held it in while gritting her teeth.
The spirit defense boost provided by the treasure wasn’t like the defense provided by actual metal armor. It just allowed the spirit defense to rebound attacks and couldn’t reduce the pain and feeling of the blow itself.
Lily even had a feeling that wearing the undergarment had actually raised her body’s sensitivity and made her fear pain more than ever now.
It was possible that this was the work of the enchantment inside the treasure, but Lily’s current level prevented her from understanding it. However, there was one thing she was certain about—the world was fair.
This pain was the price for her to have a defense higher than her level while still maintaining her speed.
Lily sensed Ui leave her domain’s range at this moment and concluded that she wouldn’t injure her or her sisters anytime soon again.
“Mizue?” Lily steadied her breathing to prevent the pain from showing up on her face and sprinted back to Mizue’s side while still maintaining the domain.
Mizue opened her eyes slowly and said weakly, “I-I feel like I saw my husband and son…”
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Lily noticed that the wound on Mizue’s chest had vanished without a trace now. The life magatama was really incredible, but it was only effective when assimilated into the whole body of a practitioner.
“How do you feel, Mizue?” Lily held Mizue’s hand worriedly. Although she didn’t understand medicine well, she could still feel that Mizue’s pulse was weak right now. Although the wound had closed, it hadn’t made up for the blood Mizue had lost. However, as long as a practitioner didn’t lose too much blood, it was still possible for them to keep their vital organs functioning by using spirit power in exchange of blood. A practitioner’s spirit power gained a huge advantage once they attained the Spirit Jade level by forming the spirit jade.
“I… I really thought I was going to die when that thing pierced through my chest. I felt so much pain, coldness and fear. I feared that I would be unable to see the different world that you had just mentioned to me even though I had begun to regain my true self a little after hearing your words.”
“Although the wound has healed, the weakness you feel won’t go away that soon. Just stop talking and hold on to me for now,” Lily then carried Mizue in a bridal hold.
Although piggybacking Mizue would’ve been easier on Lily, Mizue was as light as a feather for her considering Yasutsuna’s weight.
Mizue breathed faintly while blushing and wished she could hug Lily’s neck with her hands, but she felt so weak that she couldn’t even move her arms.
Shimizu stood in front of the duo to protect them, wary of running into the enemy again.
However, Lily’s still active domain informed her that there was no threat within a kilometer of her at present since she was able to clearly sense even the movement of insects if she focused.
“I found a cave ahead of us, Sister Shimizu. Let’s head there first so that Mizue can recover,” Lily suggested.
“Alright,” Shimizu nodded.
The faint warmth from Mizue in Lily’s embrace, while they made for the cave, made Lily realize the mercilessness of the world once again.
Although she had escaped danger time and time again, death was bound to come knocking when it was time. Life was that fragile in this world.
“I must become strong enough to protect my kind and innocent sisters! I absolutely cannot let them face the danger of death again!”
Lily’s destination was the most dangerous region in the Heian Empire and even if she were to make it there successfully, she was nothing more than a weak, fledgling samurai woman in comparison to the real powerhouses.
Shuten Doji, Sugawara no Michizane as well as the other ancient existences whose name she didn’t know and even the Jinmu Eight. Any one of them possessed the means to take Lily’s life with ease and she was bound to end up in a state worse than death if she were to fall into the hands of a pervert like Shuten Doji.
“I’m still weak and powerless against the apex existences of the Heian Empire!”
“However, I must still sail these stormy seas on my rocky boat and seek the light of hope that’ll guide me to unravel the enigma behind my senior sister’s dormant soul.”
An ordinary woman like Mizue almost losing her life right before Lily’s eyes had given a huge shock to her and instilled her with awe towards this vast and dark Heian world. It also made her realize that she needed to be stauncher and stronger in order to preserve her honor while traveling this dark and guideless path!