Cheng Shi wasn't wrong. He truly had never t the "real" Aph Ros.
The Aph Ros that Scorpio had brought back from the future had been beaten to death in the library by his own past-self's father before ever eting Cheng Shi. So Cheng Shi genuinely didn't know him.
Or to be more precise: Cheng Shi had no idea whether the Aph Ros standing before him was the one who'd been the father, or the one birthed by Turadin.
Either way, he had zero desire to befriend an Aph Ros who kept yanking his emotions around.
Seeing Cheng Shi's attitude, Aph Ros looked a little hurt.
His eye-corners drooped slightly. In an instant, he shifted from gleeful welco to the verge of tears.
And when his mood changed, a wave of inexplicable sorrow and grievance surged through Cheng Shi's chest.
"You... forgot ?"
The sudden flood of grievance crashed over Cheng Shi like a tidal wave, making him empathize so viscerally that his nose stung and tears threatened to spill.
But he caught himself imdiately, grabbed his scalpel, and drove it straight into his own thigh. While the violent pain commandeered his senses, he seized the fleeting window of clarity and snarled:
"I have never had a friend who'd lay hands on his own friends!"
Perhaps the word "friends" registered. Aph Ros halted his grief, studied Cheng Shi with keen interest, and gradually withdrew his emotion-influencing power. A delighted smile spread across his face:
"You... consider
a friend?"
The question only deepened Cheng Shi's dread.
Whatever this Aph Ros was, he was definitely no longer the helpless Turadin from the Theocracy of Growth.
If anyone was helpless here, it was Cheng Shi himself.
The other party was terrifyingly powerful. Cheng Shi couldn't even be sure whether this "he" might actually be a "Him"!
'Is He Corruption?'
'...Probably not?'
Cheng Shi had never heard of Corruption taking a male form.
At that mont, Aph Ros seed to read his confusion. He offered a playful smile, spread his arms, and casually spun in place.
The gilded black robe flared out into a moon-drenched parasol. Moonlight flashed before Cheng Shi's eyes, and in the span of a single revolution, the handso youth transford into a girl of staggering beauty.
Turadin!
The real Turadin had appeared — as breathtaking as when Cheng Shi had first laid eyes on her. Only tonight, bathed in moonlight, she looked even more perfect.
"Better? Recognize
now?"
"..."
Cheng Shi's gaze sharpened as he watched her laugh happily from within the doorway. His nerves wound tighter still.
Honestly — not only didn't she look more familiar, she now seed even more of a stranger.
After all, the real Turadin had needed to visit a prayer room to switch genders. And now...
One twirl and she could swap from male to female?
Ha — was that supposed to be funny?
It was not funny!
Because it ant the Aph Ros before him was indisputably an existence possessing power beyond mortal ken!
'Who is He?'
Cheng Shi's brow furrowed. A flash of inspiration struck, and he thought of a way to test the waters. He imdiately feigned an expression of sudden realization, lowered his head in devout prayer, and intoned:
"Praise Corruption!"
Aph Ros, who had just finished spinning and was eagerly anticipating shock on Cheng Shi's face, heard the unexpected praise for Corruption. She raised an eyebrow, smiled deeply and aningfully, bowed her head, and echoed with equal reverence:
"Praise... Corruption!"
!!!
That single sentence told Cheng Shi everything he needed to know: this Aph Ros was not Corruption — not the supre deity of the Descent path!
'As long as it's not a true god, things are manageable.'
A stone lifted from his heart. But countless more still weighed upon him.
Though she kept smiling, the silent, mounting pressure was even more terrifying. He didn't dare speak carelessly.
'This isn't a player. This isn't a "familiar god." And I'm afraid my reckless mouth could bring unforeseen disaster.'
He decided to temporarily convert to Silence.
Aph Ros appeared to be a master of human nature. Seeing Cheng Shi scrutinize her without a word, she laughed so hard she shook like a branch in the wind:
"People shouldn't suppress their desires. Curiosity is one of them.
My brother — you're the one who told
to embrace desire. So why are you abandoning that philosophy now?"
Cheng Shi scoffed and replied with feigned indifference:
"My desire to suppress my desires is itself a desire!
So I'm still embracing desire!"
"?"
Aph Ros blinked — then threw her head back in peals of laughter:
"Ha? Hahahaha!
Fascinating — absolutely fascinating!
Every ti I hear your interpretation of His will, I feel myself drowning in admiration, then suddenly enlightened.
You should have been Corruption's darling.
What a pity you're a fake.
Leave Them. Co back to Corruption's embrace. Then we'll be true siblings, my... brother!"
'I knew it — sothing's off about her!'
'Then she's...?!'
But just as Cheng Shi was about to dig deeper into her identity, his eyes flew wide.
Aph Ros casually waved a hand. Before Cheng Shi's stupefied gaze, the black robe on her body dissolved into smoke and vanished.
A flawless body appeared uncovered beneath the moonlight, enveloped in lunar mist like a luminous jade stone impossible to look away from.
"Whether it's spiritual agony or carnal pleasure;
or power and control, or beauty and fa —
I can give you all of it, my brother.
Just take one step forward. Grasp my hand. After that, you won't need to think about anything. And you'll beco like
— the freest, happiest, most carefree person in this Sea of Desire.
Trust . I would never deceive you."
Aph Ros hadn't moved a step. She rely extended that jade-white arm. In her telling, it seed all Cheng Shi needed to do was raise a hand — and infinite power and endless joy would be his.
But staring at that hand hovering within reach, Cheng Shi suddenly laughed.
"Ha, hahaha, hahahahaha!"
The abrupt laughter genuinely caught Aph Ros off guard. She startled for a heartbeat, then quickly arranged an enchanting smile and fixed her gaze on Cheng Shi's eyes:
"What are you laughing at?"
Cheng Shi's laughter faded, and his expression gradually turned sly. He stabbed himself in the thigh again. Using the searing pain to clear his head, he slowly rose to his feet, looked at the immaculate beauty before him with undisguised mockery, and sneered:
"I'm laughing because no matter how you preen and pose, you can't step one foot out of that invisible cage.
What's the matter — so desperate for
to plunge into the Sea of Desire and dance the waltz of Descent with you?
Then why not leap out and seize my hand yourself, Ms. Aph Ros?
Is your desire to dance not strong enough?
No — I can see it. Your emotions are plenty saturated. Frighteningly so, to be frank.
But... since you've already stripped down, why not be more direct?
Could it be that this door is trapping you in another world — and I have to co willingly before you can 'embrace' , madam?!"
With that, Cheng Shi's eyes blazed as he took one step forward — so close his nose nearly touched hers.
Yet Aph Ros showed no delight at his approach. Instead, her expression gradually darkened.
Worse — that jade-white arm she'd extended had passed straight through Cheng Shi's body, protruding from his chest!
An illusion!
The arm was a phantom!
It had no physical form at all!
As for its owner — Cheng Shi believed she probably did have a physical body. But that body existed inside the door — on the other side of a gate that was emphatically not the Evil Infant Inquisition's!
What had made Cheng Shi suspicious of Aph Ros's situation — beyond noticing she'd never once crossed the threshold — was rembering a certain item received after the trial cleared:
The token of the Gate of Joyous Lust!
Gate! Another gate!
It was that word "gate," combined with his observation that Aph Ros couldn't step over the threshold, that made him suspect this "door" was the real problem!
"Just as I thought — you can't get out." Cheng Shi sneered, confidence flooding back.
Aph Ros stared at him in silence for a long mont, her expression layered and complex. Wordlessly, she dressed herself again. Then, with a wistful sigh, she said:
"My brother, you're perfect in every way. Except...
you're too smart."
...
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