Book 5: Chapter 60: The Way Of The Moon

Book 5: Chapter 60: The Way Of The Moon

Lily sat on the copper platform while guiding it with her mind and avoiding the black spheres as much as possible. Usually, she could feel the power of the moon just by looking at it, but she couldn’t sense any moon power in this huge moon phase instrument.

Lily deduced that charm intent naturally appeared in women and wasn’t limited to any particular woman, so it was understandable for the Himemiya Sen-no-hana Painting to exude seductive meaning. However, this moon phase instrument wasn’t the moon so how would it emit the power of the moon?

Could it be that… Lily’s eyes lit up, This Twelve Moon Phase Instrument isn’t an artifact that contains the power of the moon, but it is an ancient astronomical instrument that can analyze the moon’s rotation?

The Heian world was completely different from Lily’s original world. As far as she knew, this Heian world was a huge continent that stretched tens of thousands of kilometers from east to west, but was narrower from north to south. The continent was surrounded by an endless ocean, but it is said that Ezo and the mainland were separated by a strait so it was unknown whether there were other continents1. Lily didn’t know about the structure of other worlds but it was apparent that this world was not a round planet like Earth2.

So how did the moon in this world work? Why didn’t the sun rise sometimes?

Although most educated people knew that this cycle was controlled by Amaterasu-Ōmikami and Tsukuyomi-no-Mikoto, how exactly was it done?

Was it that Amaterasu-Ōmikami and Tsukuyomi-no-Mikoto were both incomparable giants who used strings to pull the sun and moon around? Obviously not. As the rulers of the sun and the moon, they naturally had their own unique laws of operation.

That being said, it wasn’t appropriate to understand the sun and moon here using knowledge of her original world. This was a world built on the basis of spiritual energy while her original world was centered around the force of gravity.

Then where did the power of the moon come from? Any spiritual attribute could be divided into the power of spiritual energy itself and the perception of the truth of spiritual energy.

Perhaps one could understand the source of the moon’s power by comprehending this moon phase instrument whereas observing the moon itself gave one understanding of the true meaning of the moon’s power!

“Maybe the laws of the moon’s rotation are the basis for the generation of the moon’s power. On the other hand, the truth boosts the moon’s power several times higher. This is a heavenly way countless times greater than the basic power!” Lily blurted out excitedly.

“It’s just like the complementary relationship between physical strength and spiritual perception!”

“It’s also similar to how most men can’t perceive seductive intent because their body structure doesn’t have feminine appeal, but because I am a woman, I am able to sense that my female body is the foundation while the seductive intent is a way of perception.”

“But I am not the moon so how can I know the nature of the moon? How can I draw a reference to it? When I look at the moon, it feels so distant and abstruse to the point where I feel lost. This moon phase instrument must have been created by a certain powerful individual to simulate the rotation of this world’s moon for future generations to understand!” Lily’s chest rose and fell, and an excited smile appeared on her face!

So that’s how it is! I see…

One needed to observe the moon phase instrument to understand the origin and law of the moon’s power while one needed to observe the moon to perceive the truth of the moon and then act on this foundational moon power!

This was the clear and solid path of the power of the moon! Lily’s eyes suddenly lit up!

According to the description in the Lunar Blossom, the Permanence Stage had the essence of the Permanence spirit. When breaking through to the Permanence Stage, one would have to choose a truth.

If one trained according to the Lunar Blossom Secret Manual, practiced the Tsukuyomi Sworstyle every month, and perceived the power of the moon, their best path would be to follow the heavenly way of the moon and choose the truth of the moon as their Permanence spirit essence!

Although Lily was compatible with seductive intent and it had greatly improved her body, simply put, she didn’t want to take it as her main path; not to mention that the power of the moon should surpass seductive intent at the peak. Moreover, if she completely relied on seductive intent, she would become more coquettish as her training progressed which made her boy self feel shameful.

However, she had to choose a path to follow. If there was no other choice, Lily would of course be willing to follow the path of seductive intent, but since she had the choice of walking the lofty heavenly moon path while practicing the seductive intent as support, why not go with the stronger method?

Lily had a lot of magatama, but she hadn’t used them recently. She was worried about breaking through to the Permanence Stage as this was a big hurdle for blade maidens, and at the same time, she didn’t have a deep perception of spiritual truth nor a solid foundation. Adepts who had a deeper comprehension of spiritual truth were stronger than their peers of the same realm and the gap only grew as they progressed.

Therefore, a greedy woman such as Lily naturally wanted to achieve the best results at every step of her training. Only by progressing steadily could she go further.

After all, looking at the Heian Dynasty’s history, the only ones who had managed to pass through the heavenly gate were characters in ancient legends. At present, there were no records of similar accomplishments— not a single one!

The further one went, the more difficult it was to practice. The difficulty would only increase when one passed through the heavenly gate!

Lily had to be prudent at every step!

Now that she had a clear idea in mind, Lily began to comprehend the moon phase instrument better. She didn’t think about things such as the truth of the moon, but instead concentrated on observing the moon phase instrument and deducing the law of the moon’s operation.

Slowly, Lily was able to predict the trajectory of some black spheres that might hit her and avoid them in advance. She felt that the copper platform got harder to move every time she adjusted its direction and a time would come where she would be unable to move it any longer.

Before tonight, Lily already had a general understanding of the principles and laws behind the power of the moon, but the laws were too complex and difficult to accurately understand. Just missing an inch felt like a thousand miles. Lily currently only understood a very vague outline and there were still some mysterious laws and principles of operation that were veiled in fog.

She needed time to continue to observe and deduce slowly!

The moon— the existence that ruled the night. Lily felt that this was a true path to heaven.

It may also be the most suitable way for her to reach Takamagahara. After all, the first time she practiced spiritual energy, she was just a little girl who could be subdued by any random ruffian, but in a short time, she became a quasi samurai with a slashing force comparable to Taro. Her journey had begun under a baptism of moonlight!

Although Lily was naturally beautiful and seemingly full of sunshine, youth, and vitality, her character was still relatively withdrawn and introverted. Her appearance and strength caused the people of the Heian Dynasty to view her like the stars and moon in the sky, but her senior sister was still asleep and the heavenly order was chaotic, which made her feel melancholic.

She was like the bright and lonely moon— the sole light in the dark night sky…

Seven hours soon passed…

“Crap, I can’t avoid it!” Cold sweat broke out on Lily’s forehead and the black sphere hit the copper platform with a moderate but irresistible force.

Lily felt her surroundings shake and the stars shift before she was forcibly thrown out of the space.

“Ah—!” Lily let out a delicate cry as her plump buttocks fell on the grassy hillside. Although the grass cushioned the impact, it still hurt a little.

Lily was hit by the black sphere and was forcibly kicked out of the space instead of running out of time. According to the rules set by the Fujiwara Clan, the so-called one night was equal to eight hours so she still had one hour left.

Lily felt very embarrassed that she was kicked out ahead of time which showed that her comprehension and calculations were not good enough.

However, the fat old man looked at Lily with astonishment.

“What are you looking at!” Lily chided. Because she fell to the ground, her thighs were exposed and the space between her legs could be seen. She hurriedly closed her legs and pulled on her skirt to cover her sensual areas.

However, the fat old man didn’t seem to care about the spring scenery under Lily’s skirt at all, but instead looked at her face and said, “Unbelievable… it’s your first enlightenment, but it took you so long to get kicked out and you almost used up all your time. How incredible! This old man has been guarding this sacred relic for more than a hundred years, but I had never met a talented person like Miss Kagami! Even when Ayaka tried for the first time when she was young, she only lasted for three hours before she was kicked out! That’s already the best record in a hundred years!”

“Eh?” Though surprised, Lily was still ashamed that she was kicked out halfway.

“Why…why is there someone in the world who can deduce such a thorough understanding of the power of the moon on their first enlightenment? You should know that many onmyojis of the Fujiwara Clan have never been able to persevere as long as Miss Kagami in their lives!” The old man was astonished beyond words.

“Eh? Is it…really that hard? It only gets more complex later on…” If Lily had known the essential concepts from the very beginning and hadn’t wasted her most crucial changes in trajectory, which made it difficult for her to recover in the later stage, it wouldn’t have been a problem for her to persist for eight hours.

“Elder, the one hour I have left…” Lily was concerned about this.

“According to the rules of the Fujiwara Clan, if you are kicked out with less than an hour left, your remaining time will be directly ignored. If your remaining time exceeds one hour, one hour will be deducted from your remaining time and the rest is returned to you. Because of this, most people choose to enter enlightenment an hour at a time in case they are kicked out.” The old man said.

“I see… Thank you, old man,” Lily politely replied but complained in her heart, Why didn’t you explain this rule earlier!

However, these rules posed a big problem for Lily. If she only took one hour of enlightenment every time, how could she observe a more complete operation of the law? The longer the observation time, the more laws and patterns she could naturally see. Since she was fully determined to follow this path, it was necessary to observe the full rotation of the cycle.

How long would that take? Lily couldn’t be sure yet.

“Then, old man, I will come again next time.”

Next time, Lily still intended to use up her time all at once.

The fat old man got up and watched as Lily left. Even when she was far away, he couldn’t settle his mood for a long time.

“There is a woman like the moon! There is actually a woman in the world who is good at the way of the moon… Even in the Fujiwara Clan’s thousands of years of records, this is unheard of…”

1. Robinxen: Author attempting to retcon their insane measurements into making sense? Are we also just going to ignore the existence of the foreign merchants that provided gunpowder knowledge?
2. Silva: The Flat Earth believer would be happy
3. Robinxen: Personally I just think they played bullet hells a lot.