Volume 8 - Higanbana: Chapter 35 – Throne Realm

Volume 8 - Higanbana: Chapter 35 – Throne Realm

The throne realm stood as the pinnacle of mortal and ordinary life forms’ achievements, without any divisions into early, middle, or late stages. It brought about a fundamental change in the life source of those who attained it.

Big Dipper experts were often revered as demi-gods due to their immense power and abilities. It was believed that even if their hearts were pierced, they could still survive due to their incredibly strong life force.

Throne realm was the utmost level of improvement that normal life forms could aspire to. Breaking through to the throne realm determined their future path: either the path of the High Heavens or the path of Yomi. However, both paths were far more difficult to walk than the journey to reach the throne realm.

Lily would contemplate those things in the future. Once the throne palace was formed, it reached its perfected form, regardless of its appearance. The throne palace was the ultimate form of a mortal’s existence, and no improvements could be made unless one broke through to a higher realm. The strength difference between throne realms was not related to the palace or the practice, but rather to the understanding of the path of heaven, secret techniques, martial arts, and other factors.

Throned generals, sovereigns, monarchs, and saints were not distinct stages of advancement, but rather pure differences in strength.

While a peerless genius could become a throned monarch immediately upon breakthrough, a normal genius may train for a hundred years and only achieve throned general status.

The terms early stage, mid stage, late stage, and peak stage of the throne realm were merely a convention among adepts, despite their acknowledged inaccuracy. Despite this, adepts had used these terms for thousands of years and continued to do so.

The throne palace could no longer be improved through further training, although subsequent advancement still required step-by-step progression. Improvement now came from the adept’s understanding of the ways of heaven, secret methods, martial arts, treasure acquisition, spirit reservoir, purity of spirit energy, and so on.

Lily’s spirit reservoir had already reached an incomparable amount at the permanence realm, spanning easily ten thousand miles. This was why she trained in the Lunar Blossom and was so compatible with the spirit power secret method created by the great god Tsukuyomi.

The realm that the great god Tsukuyomi had reached was unknown, but her secret method was extremely difficult to learn. However, once mastered, it surpassed all secular methods.

Permanence experts typically had spirit seas ranging from ten to a hundred miles, but some enormous creatures had much larger ones. In this vast world, there were also demon beasts who defied the heavens and possessed tremendous spirit reservoirs, such as Tamamo-no-Mae. She could transform into a thousand-mile-long demon fox, requiring a colossal spirit reservoir to sustain that massive form.

However, Tamamo-no-Mae had cultivated for over a thousand years to attain such power. The larger the spirit reservoir, the more challenging it was to advance to the throne realm. With Lily’s spirit reservoir, it would be nearly impossible to reach that level without the aid of a secret method.

Fortunately, Lily possessed the Lunar Blossom secret method, which was the most suitable and powerful method for breaking through to the throne realm. However, it required a fortuitous opportunity. The nature of opportunities varied for each adept, and some might wait a hundred years without any sign, while others could have a sudden realization in a single night. For some, the trigger could be as simple as watching a leaf fall or witnessing the rupture of the sky and earth. The opportunity could only be encountered, not actively sought. Lily never expected that her opportunity would come from her senior sister Rinne. In the final moment, Rinne’s teardrop triggered the last qualitative change in Lily’s spirit sea, allowing her to achieve the throne realm using the most suitable and powerful breakthrough method.

After some time, Lily felt a force pulling her body upward. She didn’t resist and was lifted into the air. A golden beam of light descended into Yomi Hirazaka, surrounding her. Despite the blinding brightness, Lily opened her Sakura Parasol and soared into the sky. Below her, thousands of demons lay prostrate, their fierce and grotesque faces showing a longing gaze towards the light. They knew that this light was their only way out of the abyss of slaughter.

As Lily soared higher, her hair fluttered in the air, and her heart filled with emotions. Gradually, the golden light became infused with a power that originated from ancient times, an irresistible force that stripped her of her consciousness. Despite commanding the worship of thousands of demons, she felt powerless before this ancient power.

......

Lily gradually regained consciousness and found herself lying on a vast mountain cliff overlooking an endless abyss. Below her, the darkness was illuminated by a golden mist, casting a reflective glow.

Lily felt a strange sense of emotion as she whispered to herself, “Life is like a dream...”. As she looked around, she realized that there was no bright light around her, so she closed her Sakura Parasol and started walking towards a giant torii gate that she spotted in the distance. The gate was exactly like the Rashomon in Nara-kyo, standing alone and imposing. As she approached the gate, she couldn’t resist stopping to gaze at the abyss on the other side of the mountain cliff. The abyss seemed to be calling out to her, tempting her to explore its depths.

Lily’s soul defenses proved to be powerful enough to resist the attraction, but she couldn’t ignore the sheer strength of the lure. It was more potent than the combined attacks of the Izumo soul monsters, and it took a great deal of her concentration to resist it. Lily knew she couldn’t afford to be manipulated by this force; after all, her sister Ayaka was still waiting for her rescue.

Determined not to be distracted, Lily averted her gaze and continued walking toward the torii gate. As she progressed, she realized why there were no higher tier big dipper archdemons in Yomi Hirazaka. The golden light, which held an ancient power, would take anyone above a certain level of strength away from the abyss.

Approaching the gate, Lily gazed up at the inscription on it that read “Heijo-Kyo Gate.” Memories of the books she had read in Ayaka’s study flooded her mind. She distinctly remembered one book that described the ancient capital of Nara as Heijo-kyo, and it was clear that this gate was a match for the Rashomon gate in Ancient Nara.

The existence of these two torii gates might have facilitated the travel between the two realms. As Lily walked into the gate, the world spun and stars moved. When she took a step forward, the scenery before her eyes transformed, and she found herself once again in the abandoned ancient capital of Nara.

“I returned?” Lily was slightly taken aback, unable to believe that she had truly returned. It was as if life had become a dream to her. She had managed to return from the Path of Yomi, and on top of that, her strength had exceeded her previous limits.

“Kagami Lily!!!” A powerful eldritch aura suddenly caught Lily’s attention in the dark and shadowed city courtyard. A golden horn emerged from a billowing eldritch cloud, followed by a ten-meter-tall gray-blue body of a brutal evil spirit.

Lily stared blankly at the evil spirit before her and asked, “And you are...”

“Ahahahaha! Kagami Lily, I have searched for you all over the world! I finally found out that you were hiding in Nara-kyo through the news of my old friend Sakanoue no Tamuramaro! I am Amanosaku, the father of Amanojaku! You dared to kill my son! Your death anniversary is one year from today! Ahahahahaha!”

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