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 looked at the sashimi and hesitated.
“The supreme possesses incredible skills. I’m afraid there must be some meaning behind his warning. I’ve already had two rice balls, and if I have this sashimi, that will make it the third item. I wonder what will happen after I eat it.”
Lily wished to leave but felt reluctant to do so. Training the body was an arduous process. Although Lily had long obtained the celestial maiden’s physique, she had no idea how to improve it further and was at a complete loss about what to do next.
She felt that she might be missing out on a huge chance if she left without consuming the sashimi.
Although Lily’s strength had improved, she was still too weak, and the increase in power was pretty much useless against the terrifying existence that had knocked Ayaka unconscious.
The supreme seemed to be aware that travelers visited this place to eat the food here. Although it was certain that the supreme’s skills far surpassed that of Lily’s, she failed to understand why he had left such an unclear warning, saying that a traveler must not eat more than three items from this place. He had said nothing about what would happen if one were to eat more than three times. If the outcome of that was death, Lily wondered why he had not made that clear, and wondered if his words implied that eating more than three items was incredibly dangerous.
Lily’s heart palpitated from the power she felt from the sashimi, which was greater than the energy contained within the rice balls that she had consumed previously.
Consuming the sashimi was bound to improve her physique, but there was also a chance of facing incredible danger as well. That said, Lily knew that she would be missing out on a huge chance if she did not eat it.
Danger has always been an accompaniment to fortuitous encounters since time immemorial.
“Sister Ayaka is in much greater danger than me! I would be placing her in greater danger if I don’t take this risk. Since the supreme didn’t clearly say one would die, there must be some hope left even if danger exists! There are definitely more such foods around here. If I can really improve my strength greatly… I might have a chance of putting up a fight against my powerful enemies!”
Lily was willing to undertake this risk. She picked up the sashimi with a flushed face and swallowed it.
The fish meat was incredibly delicious and melted in her mouth immediately, the energy contained within it increasing her physique’s strength by twenty percent. Lily looked around warily after that, but nothing happened, so she decided to continue with the matter since she had already had three items.
Lily consumed the remaining two sashimi pieces as well, but nothing happened even then. Lily’s base strength had doubled when compared to her strength prior to arriving in this boundary world after consuming the sashimi.
Her full strength had already reached the level of an elite saint even without using the purple moon’s power and was close to reaching the ultimate saint level. However, her strength was still within the limits of the ultimate saint level even if she used the purple moon’s power as there was a huge gap between the Ultimate Throned Saint stage and the Big Dipper stage.
The gap in strength between the two stages was just that huge.
That said, even though Lily was not the match of an opponent in the Big Dipper stage, she was still strong enough to survive an encounter with such an opponent. Since this was the case, Lily decided to find other food that could improve her physique. She also wished to see how much she could improve her strength.
Even though Lily’s base strength had doubled, her appearance had changed little. She was still as beautiful as ever and her body soft, brimming with charm.
Lily arrived at the edge of the island and noticed a massive floating land not far away which seemed to have an orchard on it. Lily jumped onto one of the floating slabs and intended to use it as a springboard to jump onto the floating orchard.
She could feel that her weight had become lighter from the increase in strength.
However, the tens of meters wide slab stopped levitating the moment she landed on its center and shattered, plummeting down immediately.
Although Lily felt shocked about this, she reacted quickly and climbed up by jumping on the falling rocks. However, by the time she reached the highest rock, she discovered that there was nothing she could do to prevent the shattered rocks from falling.
The next floating slab was already several hundred meters above Lily now.
Lily used the purple moon’s power and jumped with all her might, but the rock underneath her feet also shattered into countless pieces immediately, leaving her with no support to exert strength, and she then fell towards the deep chasm along with the shattered rock.
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
This 𝓬ontent is taken from f(r)eeweb(n)ovel.𝒄𝒐𝙢