Volume 8 - Higanbana: Chapter 26 – Thrice is the Limit

Volume 8 - Higanbana: Chapter 26 – Thrice is the Limit

Lily stood idle on the lake’s shore and watched the two men rise with the golden fish in their clutches. A strange force then pulled the fish towards a small pavilion on the shore.

Lily approached the pavilion quietly and witnessed a curious scene after nearing it. She saw the ancient soul of a handsome emperor dressed in imperial robes place the massive golden fish on the stone table within the pavilion and take out a spirit blade emitting icy energies. The man then sliced off the fish’s belly fat, cheek meat, and the juicy red meat from the fish’s most flexible part, its tail, with his incredible knife skills. The fish then turned into a golden beam of light and returned inside the lake, assimilating with the energy inside it, leaving behind three appetizing sashimi on the tray above the stone table.

The emperor’s soul then left the pavilion.

Lily entered the pavilion secretly when she saw the imperial soul move near the lake to enjoy its view, but the emperor’s soul turned around to her surprise when she tried to take the sashimi.

“Are you here to take the sashimi to the master, girl? Remember to use thousand-year-old ice to keep it fresh. The meat will degrade unless you use it. You don’t want the master to flay you to death now, do you?” The emperor’s soul said.

Lily bowed to the emperor and confessed the truth, “I’m not here to take this sashimi to your master and am from the mortal world. I came here to train and hope to consume this sashimi since it’s quite beneficial to my body.”

There were no guards on this island and even though the emperor’s soul possessed incredible skills, he possessed no strength at all. Besides, the imperials were just slaves here, and there was no imperial who was willing to perform such menial farmwork for an unknown master eternally.

“I see. We are under the master’s eternal curse. Although we cultivate the land, fish, and prepare Yomi’s delicacies for the master, we don’t do it under our own will. We don’t have any other skills except for those related to these matters, so we’re powerless to stop you if you want to eat the sashimi. The master probably wouldn’t blame us for it, too.”

“That aside, I am Emperor Kaika, and have been here since time immemorial. I hope you can tell me which empire is in power now and who’s the ruling emperor?” The emperor said with a distant, lonely gaze.

Lily said sympathetically, “The empire in power is known as the Heian Empire and Emperor Go-Toba rules over it.”

“I see...” Lily could tell from Emperor Kaika’s expression that he had no idea who Emperor Go-Toba was. In fact, he did not care much about who the ruling emperor was and just wanted to know who it was.

“I don’t intend to take the sashimi without recompensing you. Is there anything that I can do for you?” Lily asked.

Emperor Kaika shook his head and said, “We’re all long dead, girl, so there’s nothing we require help with. Since you can enter this place freely, you must have incredible strength. If possible, I hope that you can protect the descendants of the imperial family. That alone is enough for me.”

“All right. I’ll protect them if it’s under my ability.”

Lily had, in fact, saved Prince Narinaga twice until now.

“I must warn you about one thing, though. Did you have any other food before arriving here? The master of these fields and lake once told us that a traveler from the mortal world cannot eat more than three items from here.”

Lily recalled that she had already had two rice balls.

“What will happen if I eat more than three items?”

“The master didn’t tell us that.” The emperor’s soul said.

“I see.”

“Well, then. I’ll be taking my leave now, girl. Please take care of my descendants...”

The emperor’s soul turned around to leave and vanished near the lake’s shore after taking a few steps, turning transparent gradually.

Lily attempted to use her domain to create a ladder and step across the sky, but the gravity in this world was a hundred times more than the gravity of the outside world. She was falling so fast that the stream of cherry blossoms formed by her domain simply couldn’t withstand the force she carried and scattered, unable to stop her fall.

Oh no! I’ll fall into Yomi’s depths if I keep falling like this!

Lily’s hair danced wildly upwards from the hot winds as she fell down.

“I’m afraid I’ll suffer severe injuries if I crash down under such gravitational force!”

Lily opened her sakura parasol so that she could slow her descent to some extent. However, she still plummeted with incredible force even then.

Lily’s eyes turned listless.

“Why did the stone slab which has been floating for an unknown amount of time shatter so suddenly? Don’t tell me this is the consequence of eating more than three items of Yomi?!”

What do I do now? Is there anything I can do to prevent myself from falling into Yomi’s depths?

Lily racked her mind for a solution to her predicament but failed to come up with anything till the end.

Bam! Lily crashed into Yomi’s depths after falling from a high altitude.

Even though the rocky surface of Yomi was pretty hard, it still cracked under the impact it suffered from Lily’s fall.

Lily felt as if her body had split into several pieces when she crashed to the ground, and the sharp pain from the spirit armor of the celestial maiden’s undergarment made her break out in a cold sweat.

The Sakura Parasol fell to the side, and Lily could not even raise her hand for a while. If it weren’t for improving her physique and slowing her descent using her parasol, Lily feared that the fall would have killed her instantly.

Lady Shizuka’s armor had also cracked in many places, making the already revealing armor even more revealing.

Lily had no time to mind this at the moment, though, as her current location was hotter than above, and had a gravity that was at least one hundred and ten times more than that of the outside world.

Her fall had also created a huge noise and had attracted the attention of the nearby demons.

A pack of muscular, ox-like, four-meter-tall demon hounds which lurked nearby rushed towards Lily after catching the scent of her feminine odor.

The demons of Yomi cared little about whether Lily was a beautiful woman or an ugly monster, though, as they did not see her as a woman.

The only desire that they had was to devour her whole.

That was their sole instinct and reason for being.

The more they devoured, the more power they gained, and that was the only way these demons could survive in these depths for long.

The mouths of these giant demon hounds glowed with a reddish, magmatic glow which made them look quite eerie. The pack climbed onto the rocks and high ground, surrounding Lily who was still immobile from the impact of the fall.

The demon hounds had two pairs of eyes and exuded auras that were at least at the peak Throned Monarch stage, and a few particularly powerful ones among them exuded auras that were at the level of an ordinary Throned Saint.

References