“Put on this collar…”
“Then what?” Lily asked warily.
“You won’t be able to use your divine power for defense,” Furaku whispered at Lily’s ear.
Lily stayed constantly on guard. If her bottom line was truly crossed, she would imdiately retaliate. After all, if she couldn’t even protect herself, how could she hope to save Bishamonten?
But if it was only this much, then there was no need to strike back yet. She could endure.
After all, Lily’s body itself was extrely strong. Even if she couldn’t use divine power to defend herself, Furaku wouldn’t be able to kill her. Moreover, it was clear Furaku had no killing intent. She only sought to interrogate her.
**Click!** Lily allowed Furaku to fasten the collar around her neck.
“Well now! How beautiful… you’ve such a long, fair neck, it suits this thing perfectly,” Furaku chuckled.
“Pathetic. Your taste as demoness is truly awful. No wonder you would follow soone like Lord Shikikai,” Lily said coldly. “Tell , Madam Furaku, you were originally human, weren’t you? To advance to this level is no easy feat. With your talent, I had assud you to be a proud woman. Yet you married a creature that can hardly even be called a man. What about him attracted you? I honestly… cannot comprehend it.” Lily deliberately provoked her.
“Silence! Look at your own situation, and you still dare speak to like that? Are you mocking my feelings?”
“Feelings? With that grotesque, monstrous being, you call that feelings?” Lily’s face brimd with scorn. “If you said he coerced you, that might make sense, it would only an you’re a cowardly woman clinging to life. But to call it love? Truly beyond belief.”
“You little girl will never understand.” Furaku leaned closer to Lily’s ear. “Let see just how many years you’ve trained!”
With a sweep of her hand, Furaku summoned an ancient wooden artifact that floated in the air. Its structure was archaic and strange, composed of many suspended pieces, with one large smooth, dark segnt shaped like a horse’s back.
“Get on.”
As she spoke, a black leather cord appeared in Furaku’s hand. She clipped it directly to Lily’s collar and yanked, pulling her toward the artifact.
Although Lily hadn’t planned to resist, she was far too noble to allow herself to be led like livestock. Rage flared instinctively, and she tried to circulate her divine power. Yet nothing responded.
She staggered as Furaku dragged her close to the device.
“Hmph. So what if I can’t use divine power? My body’s strength…”
Among those with the Supre God Physique, Lily’s strength ranked among the highest. Relying on her physical power alone, she should have been able to break free…
“What!?” She struggled, but Furaku pulled her back again. “What is this?”
Lily realized she could not even muster a fraction of her strength, barely one percent of her true ability.
“Hehehehe… Do you understand now the power of the Maiden’s Ensnaring Collar?” Furaku felt the pulses running along the leather cord and sneered. “Little girl, you’re still quite spirited, aren’t you?”
“Wh-what is this?”
“Get up there.” Furaku gave a harsh tug. With Lily’s strength sealed away, she was dragged effortlessly before the wooden saddle. Furaku shoved her down, forcing Lily to straddle it to keep balance, her hands still bound behind her back, her long legs the only thing holding her in place.
“You lied to ! What did you put on ?”
“I didn’t lie. You can only bla yourself. The primary function of the Maiden’s Ensnaring Collar is indeed to seal divine power. But like many artifacts of this kind, it carries a secondary ability. One that might seem trivial… and if it were placed on a woman like Bishamonten, it might be completely useless.”
“I don’t understand what you an.” A flicker of unease crossed Lily’s heart. With all her power sealed, she felt utterly like a defenseless woman before Furaku.
“Let explain. The secondary ability of the Maiden’s Ensnaring Collar depends entirely on the innermost inclinations of the wearer.”
“What?” Lily’s cheeks flushed red, confusion etched across her face.
“Hehehe, you Celestial Maidens ought to understand this best.”
“Sorry, I don’t understand a single word.”
“Mind your attitude!” Furaku slapped Lily’s buttocks. With her body now weakened and no divine defense, the strike stung painfully, nearly forcing a cry from her lips.
Watching Lily almost yelp, Furaku’s pride swelled. She had steadily gained control, exactly as her vast experience predicted.
“You’re even easier to handle than I expected. So long as I guard against your Maiden’s Command Technique, you’re nothing but a useless woman.”
“Nonsense! I don’t understand a word of your delusions!”
“Hehe, then let show you what kind of woman you really are.”
As she toyed with strands of Lily’s hair falling loose from her bun, Furaku explained, “You Celestial Maidens, in order to preserve the purity of your lineage, to maintain your inborn gifts—the power to repel evil, to exorcise demons, to even slay gods—must keep your bodies pure, your bloodlines unsullied, isn’t that so?”
“So… so what?” Lily answered evasively. It wasn’t fear of Furaku’s blow that made her hesitate, but rather because this claim unsettled her. It was the first ti she had heard such an explanation, and though it sounded disturbingly plausible, she couldn’t deny it outright.
Furaku mistook her hesitation for fear and grew more smug. Sohow, making such a great beauty quail before her gave her a deep sense of accomplishnt.
She continued, “That’s why, among you Celestial Maidens, to maintain the purity of the bloodline, you advocate marriage between maidens, yes? Using special thods to conceive children. When I was still an ordinary woman, I thought it unbelievable when Lord Shikikai told this. But as a female divine race, it makes sense. With a Spirit Jade, won can indeed bear children with won, aided by special rituals, treasures, herbs, and secret arts. The stronger the woman, the greater the chance she can help another woman conceive.”
“Conversely, the stronger the woman, the harder it is for her to conceive. Of course, the offspring of two powerful Celestial Maidens possess purer bloodlines and far greater talent.”
Furaku laid it all out for Lily. Despite her humiliating position, Lily had to admit she was learning sothing she never knew. She had never heard of this before, yet it rang with a strange logic.
Still, she couldn’t see how this knowledge aided Furaku’s interrogation. It didn’t seem fabricated, but neither could she guess its true purpose.
Furaku continued, “Thus, among the Celestial Maidens, as the girls grow, they gradually divide into two types. Certain traits within them develop toward one extre or the other. This benefits their future marriages. So won beco increasingly dominant, while others increasingly submissive. Only when paired together can harmony be achieved. It is another form of balance, is it not? And this collar can draw out a woman’s innate inclination toward weakness. The stronger that tendency, the more this collar suppresses her powers, sealing not only her divine power, but even her physical strength!”
“And ordinary girls are naturally inclined toward weakness. When a completely normal woman wears this collar, her strength is reduced by half.”
Furaku scrutinized Lily thoughtfully. “Judging by how your strength rivals that of Hirotake, and from what I’ve heard about your imnse penetration force, your physical ability should rank in the upper tier of the Celestial Stage. That’s an extraordinary gift, even among female adepts. No wonder you carry yourself so proudly. Yet… hehe, how humiliating. Just now, when you resisted, your strength felt less than one-tenth of your usual physical power. Tell , do you not feel ashad?”
As she spoke, Furaku caressed Lily’s cheek with satisfaction.
“Let go. Don’t touch my face with those filthy hands of yours reeking of demoness stench.”
“Hmph, you still dare insult ? Look at yourself, how disgraceful you are! For most won, this collar only suppresses twenty or thirty percent of their power. But you? It sealed ninety percent! What does that say? It ans your inclination toward weakness—or rather, the degree to which, deep inside, you long to be dominated—is ten tis stronger than that of an ordinary girl!”
Furaku shook her head in disbelief. “My heavens… I can hardly believe it. To think that such a noble young lady, so lofty, full-bodied, healthy, and proud, harbors such a submissive core? Truly, even as a woman, I feel ashad for you!”
“Shut up…” Lily’s cheeks burned red at those words. Of course, she hoped Furaku was spouting nonsense, but how else could she explain why her power had been bound so tightly? Worse still, by concealing her true strength, she had allowed Furaku to draw such conclusions. It filled Lily with mortifying sha, leaving her wishing the ground would swallow her whole.
“Nonsense! I know you’ve studied countless thods of interrogation from that so-called Lord. These are but deceitful words ant to shake my resolve! I won’t believe you! What I do wonder, however, is how you learned them from him. Could it be you… personally experienced them yourself?” Lily shot back, desperate to wound her enemy with words and reclaim her dignity.
“Silence.” With a flick of her hand, Furaku summoned a floating device upon which rested a rare asuring tool forged from a Blood Spirit Magatama. She forced it into Lily’s mouth.
“Mmmph…” Lily suddenly found her lips pried open, the device shoved between them. She couldn’t speak a word.
Monts later, Furaku withdrew the asuring tool. She stared in shock, the magatama radiated a gentle, translucent glow brimming with youthful vitality.
“What!?” Furaku was startled. “You truly are only in your early twenties? How… how is this possible? Then how many years have you studied? Could it be you’ve only practiced for little more than a decade, yet reached the upper-mid tier of the Celestial Stage?”
Unconsciously, Furaku raised the asuring tool to her own mouth and placed it inside.
“You…what are you doing? Are you deranged? Why would you put in your mouth the very tool you just used to asure ?” Lily asked in disbelief.
“Hah…” Furaku withdrew the tool with a dazed look, staring at Lily as though in a trance. “How can such a prodigious girl exist in this world? If only I could take even a fraction of your talent for myself…”
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