Book 7: Chapter 43: Whereabouts of The Captured Women
Book 7: Chapter 43: Whereabouts of The Captured Women
Kameyama Castle?
She virtually never knew that there were two large castles in Tanba. The settlement in front of her was pretty small when compared to the ones in other lands, such as Takeda’s Tsutsujigasaki Castle, but Kameyama Castle was undoubtedly the one and only large settlement in Tanba.
Lily had never expected that the place that she painstakingly tried to find but couldn’t, Kameyama Castle, was now before her. She initially followed these demons in an attempt to find Mount Ooe.
Why would these demons bring the captured women to Kameyama Castle? Perhaps Shuten Doji was currently living in Kameyama Castle?
Yet, when Lily checked using the Racoon vision, the large demon settlement had no lights on at night, was incredibly ruined, and looked like it had been deserted for many years. It definitely looked like Shuten wasn’t living here.
Yet, Lily still showed utmost caution. She stopped moving and concealed herself, prepared to run at any moment. She only used the raccoon to follow the group of demons. Based on the formation she learned, she could transfer it to multiple raccoons and continue following them for dozens of miles more. But since that would exceed the distance of Kameyama Castle, Lily didn’t keep going forward. It would be awful if she accidentally stumbled upon Shuten Doji.
However, what Lily did not expect was that the group didn’t enter that ruined and tattered Kameyama Castle. Instead, they went around the ruined castle gate and traveled to the large mountain close to Kameyama Castle.
“Not entering the castle?” Lily was puzzled.
She made the raccoon take a few glances through the ruined castle gate. The interior was completely ruined and infested with weeds, looking like only stray ghosts would live in such a place and as if it had been truly abandoned. It would be virtually impossible for Shuten Doji to live in this place.
The raccoon continued to follow them. Since it was far away and it was a small raccoon, no demon noticed it.
This group of demons escorted the women up the mountain where Kameyama Castle was erected and traversed layers of fog within the mountain forests. Suddenly, they came to an unnaturally steep and tall mountain incline. This steep incline was over 100 meters tall and reached the top of the mountain. It had a nearly straight incline but there was a flat road under it. Further along the road, there was a large patch of grass. Boulders were scattered along the flat mountain terrain. All the surrounding mountains were undulating and curvy. Yet, half of this mountain seemed to have been shaved off artificially.
And on this flat land, there were only a few small trees and tents that were set up temporarily.
This place was different from Kameyama Castle. There were campfires everywhere, and lots of powerful demons were on guard. Some Martial Monks could also be seen guarding the place.
“Why is this place under security?” Lily was confused. “Also, why are human Martial Monks together with demons?”
Although she already knew where Kameyama Castle was located, she still planned to continue scouting this place to uncover more secrets.
So many demons were here guarding this odd looking mountain wall, instead of the city. Something was definitely amiss.
The group of demons came to the outer camp, which was composed of tents. A few demons approached, and that gold-horned demon said, “Lord Shuten sent these women over to comfort the masters from Honganji Temple.”
“Sure, go in.”
Lily let one of the small raccoons strip its clothing and act like an ordinary wild raccoon. It entered the campsite and wasn’t discovered. Even if it was, they would assume it to be a typical mountain raccoon and ignore it.
The gold-horned demon took the captured woman and walked up to the camp, along with two Martial Monks.
The monk said, “The masters are performing rituals in the mineshaft ahead. These women can wait in the tent first. Let them clean themselves, so they can satisfy the masters when they return.”
The gold-horned demon said, “yes. I’ve brought them here, now they’ll be in your care. Lord Ibaraki ordered us to remain here and increase the security.”
Why would these Martial Monks chat with demons as if they were allies? Lily was perplexed. And what did ‘performing rituals’ actually mean?
The gold-horned demon took his group of demons and stood guard by the campsite’s exterior. Meanwhile, the Martial Monks carried buckets of water into the camp and ordered the women to bathe themselves. Cries could be heard from within.
There was nothing else to see here. Lily made the raccoon investigate the campsite to figure out what the rituals were about.
Using the darkness of night, the raccoon avoided the patrolling demons and traversed the camp, only to see a semi-circular arcane formation on the slope in front of it. There were 18 Dharma Masters, 6 in the inner circle and 12 in the outer circle. They surrounded the cave entrance and were seemingly chanting spells.
That cave entrance was located right below the steep incline. It was obviously artificially made. The entrance had no door, and she couldn’t tell what was inside since it was pitch black. The only thing she saw was a rope installed between two rocks close to the entrance and a talisman pasted on it.
Lily noticed that there were several other talismans that were mostly burnt away, with only one small fragment stuck on the side of this talisman. This was the only one that was left intact.
She couldn’t properly sense that cave relying on the racoon alone. Yet, she just had a hunch that there was an ancient and extraordinary presence inside this dark cave.
“Just one rope and one talisman, but all these demons and Martial Monks didn’t enter. It looks like they can’t enter this cave unless they dispel the talisman. Just one talisman alone is enough to stop all of them. What kind of power is this really? And what’s in this cave?”
At this time, Lily noticed the runes inscribed on that talisman looked very ancient. Lily obviously couldn’t identify them, but… It seemed very familiar to the runes on the stone walls in her Mirror Dimension.
They were Divine Runes!
Why were there Divine Runes on this talisman?
At this moment, Lily noticed that those Masters had stopped chanting and were now taking a break.
A Demon Monk with greyish-green skin approached and asked the Dharma Master sitting in the middle of this arcane formation, who was middle-aged, obese but strong, and wore golden monk robes.
“Masters from Honganji Temple, Lord Shuten has sent you fine wine and maidservants to show his gratitude. Please take a break for now and enjoy them.
Yet, that Master said, “we’re in a critical moment. We will most likely break the seal within these two days. Once we take a small break, we will continue. If we stop now, we might have to waste a lot more effort.”
Hearing that, the Demon Monk also nodded. “I see. This is great. I’ll relay the message right away. Thank you for your hard work, Masters!”
“Hehe, please tell Lord Shuten Doji to honor his word and give our Honganji Temple ten percent of minerals or equivalent amounts in treasures.” He said.
“Be rest assured, Master.” The Demon Monk turned around and left.
At this moment, Lily, who was spying on them quietly, naturally learned of this information. “The seal will be broken in two days? Minerals?”
This cave seemed to be an ancient mining site. What kind of mining site would compel Shuten Doji to hire Dharma Masters from Honganji Temple to break the seal? Shuten Doji had great arcane powers. Why wouldn’t he break it himself? Why would he hire human Dharma Masters to do the deed, and even prepared so many beauties to satisfy them?
Shuten Doji was a high and mighty Archdemon. Why would he go to such lengths for these Dharma Masters?
Also, this was Shuten’s territory. Hence, it was very likely that he couldn’t break this seal.
A seal that couldn’t even be broken by Shuten? These Dharma Masters probably had a unique formation and that could break it after spending a lot of effort.
And there were even Divine Runes on the talismans on this cave entrance…
That thing inside this cave was definitely unusual!
What to do?
Lily hesitated. She had already discovered Kameyama Castle’s location by now. Should she return to the main army camp, or remain here? Would she wait until these Masters had broken the seal and go inside, to see what kind of great treasure was contained within?
If she returned right now, it would take at least half a month or so before she could lead the Army to this place again. That seal would have been broken long ago and the contents inside would have been plundered by the demons already.
However, if she didn’t return and spent more time here, the army’s safety would be affected. After all, there were tens of thousands of lives in her hands. This was no easy decision.
Lily used a Voice Transmission Orb that was connected to another one in her camp. She tried to communicate but realized that she couldn’t, it all ended up in vain. After all, Lily had no ability to amplify the strength of her Voice Transmission Orb. Meanwhile, her camp probably hadn’t set up the formation to amplify theirs.
Wham! Lily waved her hand and summoned her Demon Hound.
She took out the map to Kameyama Castle that she drew along the way and handed it to the Demon Hound.
“Hand over this map to Madam Ashikaga. Also, try your best to remember the path as you travel. Then, if Madam Ashikaga orders the army to march, you will be leading the way to Kameyama Castle1.”
The Demon Hound wagged its tail, accepting the order.
The Demon Hound was composed of Resentment Energy. It was no different than a demon if it traveled through the wilderness, so it wouldn’t be attacked by them. Also, canine creatures had an excellent sense of direction. With the map, it would be just as capable as Lily when it came to leading the way. Hence, she wasn’t worried about sending the Demon Hound for this task.
Lily repeatedly showed the drafted map to the Demon Hound in detail, then rolled it up and placed it in the bag. She tied it around the hound’s neck and patted it.
The Demon Hound whimpered and leapt up, running through the path that she came from at breakneck speed.
“It should be fine.” Lily thought as she watched the Demon Hound leave without hesitation. As far as she could tell, this Demon Hound was traveling in the right direction.
After that, Lily quietly approached the mountain where Kameyama Castle stood. She had to stay within range but not too far away from that seal. She would be discovered if she was too close, and she would miss her chance if she was too far.
Lily concealed herself behind an ancient tree on a mountain slope opposite the steep incline, which was several miles away from that seal. She retrieved the rest of the raccoons except for two. These two raccoons would ‘coincidentally’ pass by the cave at random as if they were wild raccoons. They would investigate the seal and its progress to being broken every time.
Meanwhile, Lily herself had nothing to do. After concealing her presence, she looked at the moon and studied Lunar True Intent.
By now, Lily had just about 20% of Purple Lunar Force left.
“This won’t do.”
Shuten would most definitely dispatch experts to this important cave. Once the seal was broken and she snuck inside to steal the treasure inside, it was likely that she would be involved in intense fights. Yet, her Purple Lunar Force was almost exhausted.
She had to restore her Purple Lunar Force as soon as possible.
Facing such a critical moment, Lily no longer hesitated. With flustered breathing, she took out Sakura Parasol.
“Sakura, are you here?”
“Master? What do you need?” The treasure spirit known as Sakura said.
“Um, well, please… Please… Help me out2!”
- Robinxen: That’s pretty smart.
- Robinxen: So bold!