<h4>Volume 4, Chapter 3 - The Owari Wastnd</h4>


    Trantor: Aoi


    The soldiers weed Lily as if she were their very lord and requested her to sit on the portable wooden bench meant for themander, which left even her speechless.


    “I-Is it fine for me to sit on this bench?” Lily fiddled with her hair as she squirmed on the bench at a height higher than all the soldiers.


    “It’spletely fine!” Answered one of the generals, “Even the Commander would present this seat to you if he were to return now, Lady Lyn-hime.”


    “Eh?” Lily was utterly oblivious about what they meant.


    “Hold on. Who exactly are you and do you mean Kiyoshi isn’t in the camp right now?” Lily inquired.


    “I am Takashi Oka! Greetings to you, Madam,” the general greeted her immediately with a kneel.


    “Madam?”


    “Ah! N-No, it was just a slip of the tongue. Greetings to you, Lady Lyn-hime. Hehe…”


    The Ashikaga army’s odd treatment of her left even Lily overwhelmed.


    “Lord Kiyoshi went to investigate the inside of Owari in casual clothes.”


    “He went to investigate the inside of Owari in casual clothes?”


    The Ashikaga troops revealed all they knew without reserve to Lily regardless of whether it was a military secret, like how Takashi Oka did. Although Lily didn’t know him, he had actually seen her previously when she visited the Ashikaga Hall.


    “About half a month has passed ever since the lord advanced his troops, but he felt that it wasn’t good to advance the troops too deep blindly because of Owari’s strange movementstely. Hence, he took a few samurai along with him and went into Owari in the casual clothes of a wandering samurai to investigate the situation. We don’t know when he’ll be returning, so please reside within the camp until then. We’ll do our best to serve you,” Takashi Oka exined.


    “I won’t bother you since Lord Kiyoshi is absent. I also have an important matter to deal with, so I’ll bid farewell for now. By the way, do you have brush and ink? I will leave a letter behind for him.”


    “Well, we do have brush and ink… but the lord will definitely me us for the poor reception if he learns that we allowed you to leave just like that,” Takashi Oka stated embarrassedly.


    “Worry not. I will exin it properly within the letter. I really have something to deal with and can’t stopover at this camp,” Lily smiled warmly.


    “Understood—Bring brush and ink for me!”


    Lily left the Ashikaga camp after leaving a letter behind, feeling that the people in the camp were too respectful to her. Even though she found this to be odd, she failed to discern the reason behind it.


    The samurai were even determined to escort Lily to her destination, but Lily declined them tactfully. The samurai also didn’t insist on it as all of them had heard of Lily’s rumors. The proposition to escort her was just for formality, and the escort would be meaningless unless they dispatched the main force with the strength Lily possessed.


    Lily traversed through the deste, rustling wastnd in a snug blue short-sleeved kimono patterned with white and orange blossoms and watched the setting sun give out a weak and transient golden glow at the distant horizon.


    The distant mountains formed a series of rippling shadows against the golden glow and shrouded the nearby slopes and withered trees inside the shadows as well,ying their viciousness out bare.


    It seemed as if thermal energy was rising up from under the dried fields even though it was winter, which was likely the reason the fertilends of Owari had dried up like this.


    Lily had also sweated out a little, which was quite unbelievable since it was winter now, but she chalked it to the chaotic weather of this region. However, she felt quite uneasy about this as even she, the strongest samurai in the East, was utterly clueless about the weather changes and as powerless as a little girl in front of it.


    Lily checked her surroundings first to confirm whether there were any monsters present in the wastnd and arrived at the wayside’s lond after that. She then lifted her kimono’s bottom to expose her fair legs outside and squatted down to relieve herself…


    “Hmm? An eldritch aura?! How could it show up at such a terrible time?!”


    Lily was prettybative and decisive, so she decided to let her kimono descend downwards immediately when she sensed the sudden danger in spite of the wet sensationing from her thighs and drew out Crescent Moon instantly before turning back, catching sight of horsemen making for her from about 100 m away.


    The ones riding at the front were demon samurai who hoisted damaged banners behind them on their horses.


    “B?a?s?t?a?r?d?s?!” Lily felt quite enraged by the embarrassing situation she was ced in so suddenly because of them and went forward to face them immediately with a sharp glint in her eyes!


    “Yah!” Lily came to a sliding stop with her lean thigh along with a cry, exposing the wet marks left behind on her calf as she shed Crescent Moon horizontally towards the iing horsemen.


    Lily had stopped at the gap right in between the two horsemen at the front, so the long sword light that beamed out of her de bisected the horsemen and the demon warhorses right in the middle bizarrely, causing the horsemen’s legs to fall down.


    The two legless horsemen tumbled onto the ground subsequently.


    “Die!” Lily took a few steps forward and executed a spinning sh, killing yet another demon horseman.


    The sound of a cannon resounded from the distance suddenly at this moment!


    However, Lily dodged the cannon shot easily with elusive movements that were faster than the cannon’s projectile and unleashed a series of sword beams towards the crouching demon soldiers manning the steel cannon from 50 meters away as if in a dance, killing them immediately!


    The power of Lily’s katana was too strong, so even if the strikes failed to hit them, just the residual energy contained within the spiritual aftershocks was enough to shatter and dissipate these low-leveled wraith apparitions.


    Lily advanced forward to investigate the scene and discovered that all the demon soldiers lying on the ground were equipped with grade 1 steel cannons. Even though they were ineffective towards Lily, this made her realize that the further she went west, the more weapons from Kansai she would see, like this steel cannon. No family except the Saionji employed steel cannons in the East, but even wandering demon soldiers possessed them in the Owari wastnd.


    Lily employed a spirit probe once again, but she didn’t find any monsters nearby.


    As such, she received her de back and hunched forward to lift her kimono’s bottom again, fetching a white cloth to clean her calf and the inside of her thighs embarrassedly…


    “These demon soldiers are really troublesome! How could theye at such an inappropriate time!” Lily grumbled internally.


    A samurai woman had a lot of problems to deal with no matter how strong she was when exploring the outside world alone, and it was highly likely that it would be a daunting task to find a bathing spot in this dried-up wastnd.


    As such, Lily could only move on forward.


    However, a pack of rotten hounds showed up nearby, but they just followed her instead of getting closer.


    “It’s a woman! I caught the scent of a woman!”


    “It’s a nice woman indeed, I bet she tastes luscious!”


    “I can feel that the woman is aroused! Awoooo!”


    The hounds increased by the number and actually spoke the humannguage.


    “Scram, you annoying hounds!” Lily unleashed the grudge hound and sent the massive 3 m tall white hound into the pack of hounds, who then bit one of the hounds and tossed it up high into the air, tearing it into pieces of rotten flesh.


    The demon hound bit those hounds into pieces continuously by circling around them and half the hounds had been bitten to death within a few exchanges while the rest dispersed.


    Lily dispelled the grudge embodiment before the demon hound could even return and withdrew the grudge back into the de.


    Lily continued to advance forward in the wastnd and sensed the ground quake along with the manifestation of powerful eldritch auras from the front.


    The opponents consisted of five massive demon soldiers who were 3-4 m tall and wielded heavy spears and swords.


    “4th- and 5th-stage Awakened soldiers,” whose strength was equivalent to the early- and middle-stage sword saint level roamed this wastnd however they wished, which caused Lily’s brows to furrow up slightly. They weren’t a threat to her, but their presence made it impossible for normal samurai and caravans to pass through this wastnd.


    No wonder they say that transcendent strength is the minimum requirement for crossing the Endless Wastnds safely and reaching Kansai. I’ve just left Mikawa and run into such monsters who are a powerful opponent for ordinary samurai.


    “It’s a pity that the one you ran across is me, Kagami Lily, and I’m in a bad mood right now on top of—Urgh!”


    Lily transformed into a blue shadow and rushed towards the massive demon soldiers, shuttling past their spear and sword attacks with her elusive footwork and the asional jumps before giving a heavy blow to them!


    All that was left of the massive demon soldiers after a few exchanges were their flesh pieces.


    Lily also collected their animas in passing.


    “Hehehehe. It’s been a long time since I’vee across such a fearsome samurai in thesends,” stated an ancient and powerful aura.


    The dried-up ground nearby cracked suddenly and a massive, shriveled yet powerfully robust arm stretched out from underground before clinging on the ground.


    An ashen demon samurai dressed in a oncevish yet now damaged armor and hair styled into a bun with a hairpin climbed out from underground.


    “An early-stage Spirit Jade powerhouse!” Lily felt stunned.


    Lily had just entered Owari and came across an early-stage Spirit Jade powerhouse, which didn’t match the rumors. It was known that it was feasible to cross the Endless Wastnds safely as long as one possessed transcendent strength, but it was impossible for someone who had just transcended the Sword Saint Stage to cross it safely if a Spirit Jade powerhouse like this demon samurai popped up so easily.


    Lily wondered why she hade across such a powerful monster after just entering these wastnds.


    The demon samurai was 5 m tall and wielded a tachi shrouded in amethyst eldritch energy, his eyes lit with ghastly blue mes as he peered towards Lily while speaking in a hushed voice brimming with intense grudge, “The mirror girl… prevent the mirror girl… from journeying west… kill… kill…”


    “Why do you know I’m the mirror girl and that I’m heading west?” Lily questioned loudly.


    “Kill the mirror girl… journeying west!”


    Lily realized that this demon samurai was just repeating his words like a grudge and had long lost the ability tomunicate and think like a human.


    Although an early-stage Spirit Jade opponent was quite unexpected, he wasn’t much of a threat for the current Lily.


    Lily unleashed her spirit power and let it bloom out beautifully from within her in waves like crimson amaryllis, causing the nearbynd to quake and the pebbles and sand to float up.


    Lily possessed early-stage Spirit Jade strength at the moment, but also had the boost from Tsukuyomi Swordstyle’s First Pathway, the Human Path, which provided her with tenfold strength.


    Her base physique also boosted her strength by triple and the de maiden attribute doubled her spirit power density.


    Therefore, Lily’s current strength was sixty times that of an average early-stage Spirit Jade powerhouse.


    The massive samurai, however, rushed towards Lily fearlessly with heavy strides.


    “Yah!” Lilyunched forward instantly to meet the opponent along with a battle cry.


    The massive samurai shed his sword shrouded in amethyst eldritch energy, which was the size of a tree trunk, down towards Lily heavily, but Lily dodged it instantly with no difficulty as she was able to see the attack clearly, almost as if it were moving in slow motion, and jumped up tond on the handguard of the demon samurai’s tachi, putting her in the same height as the demon samurai’s head. A crimson sword light beamed out from Crescent Moon in the next moment and beheaded the demon samurai.


    Lily then proceeded to kick the demon samurai’s chest with her lean foot.


    “Bam!” The grade 9 wooden sandals plus the power packed within Lily’s lean and curvy thighs allowed her to execute a powerful kick, the raw spirit power piercing a hole through the massive demon samurai’s torso and causing the crystal clear spirit jade which formed a bright contrast to the filthy and tattered demon samurai to fly out from behind.


    Lily stepped on the demon samurai’s shoulder and glided forward after he fell down with a loud thud and grabbed the spirit jade with her slender fingers, storing it within the mirror space via the Art of No-Thought.