Volume 5, Chapter 163 – Desperate Straits

Volume 5, Chapter 163 - Desperate Straits

Translator: Aoi Fiind updated novels on no/v/elbin(.)co/m

“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 Yosh*tsune 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.

“BÌ2iÌ2tÌ2cÌ2hÌ2!” 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!

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 Yosh*tsune’s memorial. The samurai of Genji won’t have any face left to meet Lord Yosh*tsune’s soul in the afterlife if we can’t even shoulder an arena for Ms. Kagami!”

Yosh*tada 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!” Yosh*tada thundered with veins popping out of his forehead.

“Become my slave, Kagami Lily! Concede and become my slave! Become my personal b?i?t?c?h?!” Shenzu’s blade slashed at Lily’s hand.

“F?u?c?k? 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 blades.

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 blades.

“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.

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.