Book 7: Chapter 50: The Missing Celestial Maiden
Book 7: Chapter 50: The Missing Celestial Maiden
Lily turned the paper fan upside down. It was white on one side, but there was a black character, bi (毘), written in the corner. This small black character emitted a fierce and extraordinary aura, and Lily could sense a high level of sword intent from the strokes.
‘Bi (毘)’ was an ancient character that Lily had read in an ancient book.
“Isn’t this ‘bi1’ character the representation of Bishamonten?”
After a moment, Lily remembered what was recorded in the ancient book.
“This encircled celestial maiden was actually Bishamonten?!”
It suddenly dawned on her.
It’s just that the portrait of the celestial maiden in the mine was so incredibly old that it was difficult to distinguish its age even with Lily’s insight, but this terrible battle only happened a decade or two ago.
Did this celestial battle maiden called Bishamonten stay in the Heian Dynasty for so many years? With her superior strength, why was she hunted down?
In ancient books such as the Records of Ancient Events2, there were various accounts of Bishamonten, but most of them were ugly images of Buddha. Some said he was the God of Fortune, others said he was the God of War. The folklore surrounding him varied, and was often vague and fragmented.
Could it be that the real Bishamonten is this beautiful celestial maiden?
Lily turned over the fan, wondering who the little girl painted on it was.
It bore some resemblance to the mural portrait of Bishamonten. Since Bishamonten carried this fan with her at such a dangerous time, it must be someone very important to her.
Moreover, everything in this jewelry box was very old, but this fan was made by the noble craftsmanship of the modern Heian Dynasty.
“Has this celestial maiden really been in this word all this time?”
“Why was such a god-like existence never recorded in history?”
Lily put the fan back into the jewelry box and closed it.
Looking at the box that used to belong to that beautiful celestial maiden, Lily couldn’t help but feel a sense of sadness— a sadness that seemed to come from a long, long time ago— a time when she was far from this world…
“Why do I feel so sad?”
She clasped her hands in reverence, “Your Highness, although I don’t know where you went, if you leave such an important thing here and it is discovered by monsters and got desecrated, Lily would feel that it is a pity, so Lily will temporarily take care of this jewelry box on behalf of Your Highness until the day I have the predestined fate to meet you and return it.”
After saying that, Lily stored away the jewelry box.
…
Although Ibaraki Doji was powerful and his domain had reached a very high level, he couldn’t use it endlessly. For three full days, Ibaraki used the vengeful spirits to carefully search within the range of his domain, but none of them found a hint of Lily’s whereabouts.
It seemed that Lily must have used some means to escape from this place.
“That s̲l̲u̲t̲, I let her get away again.” Ibaraki was irritated and helpless. Even he felt tired after using the full strength of his domain for three straight days, “Perhaps it’s because she had some means of escape that she dared to break into the mine without fear! Hateful! It’s really hateful!”
Ibaraki Doji stomped his foot, causing the hillside under his feet to collapse.
After all, except for that special mine, other mountains were not so tough.
After this, Ibaraki guessed that he would have to bear Shuten Doji’s wrath.
…
“Ibaraki!!!”
In the demon cave of Mount Ooe, Shuten Doji was so furious that even the voice transmission orb trembled.
He got up violently with a ‘boom’! A terrifying rage erupted, blasting the dozen or so unfortunate women who were serving him into a bloody mess. The entire demon cave was dyed red in blood, causing even the group of demons below to shiver.
“Ibaraki, I always thought you were a prudent person, but you allowed that girl to break into the celestial maiden mine right under my nose? You fool!!!”
Shuten rarely insulted Ibaraki Doji, but at this time, he couldn’t hold back.
“Tell me! How much Dragon Tamahagane ore is still left in the mine??!”
“Your Highness…I carefully searched every corner of the mine, but there is not a single ore left. However, there are still some ore veins.” The forehead of Ibaraki’s phantom image in the voice transmission orb was covered in sweat.
“What’s the use of that! Who else in the world can mine the Dragon Tamahagane ore veins?! Even if I go there personally, I won’t be able to do it without a special excavation treasure tool! Have you found any treasure tools to excavate the mine?”
“No…”
Shuten Doji also looked helpless, “Kagami Lily! It must have all been taken away by her!”
“Your Highness, that mine extends in all directions. It is extremely complex and spiritual probes cannot penetrate the walls of the cave. I don’t think Kagami Lily had enough time to take away all the treasures in the mine. Maybe whatever was in that mine was taken away by the celestial battle maidens back in ancient times3.”
“Shut up!!!”
Shuten Doji scolded, “You still dare to underestimate that woman even now? I have a feeling this Kagami Lily must have taken away the treasure inside4!”
As soon as he said Lily’s name, Shuten’s eyes changed from being furious to devilish, “Hmph…well, let her keep it safe for me first. Before long, even she herself will become my treasure… Hahahahaha!
“Ibaraki! Your failure this time has disappointed me, but this also proves that Lily is an extraordinary woman. She may be the only person in the world who is truly worthy of being my, Shuten Doji’s, woman! I heard that the imperial army is attacking Kameyama Castle, and since Lily has escaped, the location of Kameyama Castle will definitely be known by the imperial army. But now, Kameyama Castle has no meaning to me. Lay a trap at Kameyama Castle and destroy the imperial army there! This time, I definitely don’t want to hear about failure again, understand?”
“Yes, Your Highness…” Ibaraki replied, drenched in cold sweat.
…
Lily hid in that pit for several days until she found that there was not a single vengeful spirit remaining outside, meaning that Ibaraki Doji had given up searching for her.
But she didn’t dare to be careless. When she came out of the pit and headed in the direction of the imperial army, she released the six raccoons who vigilantly scouted in a radius of 50 meters around her. Meanwhile, she concealed her aura and moved forward cautiously.
Four days later, one of Lily’s raccoons discovered the leading army of the imperial court.
It was Minamoto no Hiromasa’s army.
Lily felt relieved and increased her speed, rushing towards the army.
“Lord Hiromasa!” Lily felt especially happy when she saw Minamoto no Hiromasa at this time.
“Miss Kagami?” Hiromasa’s face turned red. Lily kept rushing all the way here and she was wearing a loose kimono with a short skirt. She looked flushed and was panting, causing people’s thoughts to stray.
“Lord Hiromasa, where is the chief commander now?”
“The army is marching towards Kameyama City according to the information sent by you, Miss Kagami, and the chief commander is in the central army a few miles away. Although, at that time, many commanders expressed their opposition to following a scribbled map sent by a demon hound…”
“Thank you, Lord Hiromasa.” Lily hurried towards the central army.
“Kagami, Kagami Lily…” Hiromasa wanted to say a few more words to Lily, but she had already run far away5.
- 毘 is a character in the Japanese spelling of Bishamonten’s name.
- 古事记. Also called the Kojiki, is the earliest history book in Japan.
- Robinxen: There’s actually some common sense among them!
- Robinxen: And more common sense, despite them being in conflict!
- Robinxen: Uh oh.