“Are you surprised that I have my own cards? I told you, I can fulfill all your desires, including playing cards, of course.”
The woman, whose head was above the water, said with a smile, still pushing the deck of cards towards Xia De with one hand, and Xia De still couldn't see her shoulders.
“Do you want to come over and check? I don’t have special cards.”
“No, I don’t think so, but I do have special cards.”
Xia De shook his head. He would never approach that pool before winning the card game.
“It doesn’t matter, add your all things are impermanent card, that will be more interesting.”
The woman chuckled, Xia De looked at her in surprise, reached into his pocket, and put 【Genesis · Balance】 and Origin · Silver Moon into the deck. This meant that Xia De's 54-card deck now had eight special rule cards.
This woman actually knew about all things are impermanent, and even knew that he had all things are impermanent cards on him. Her danger level was higher than Xia De had imagined.
Even now, the Outsider still didn't know what he was facing. The only thing he could be sure of was that the other party was a relic, but he knew nothing about its danger level, characteristics, or even its most basic external appearance.
There was no record in the book snatched from the merman, and Xia De could only vaguely guess that the other party was related to desire. Wealth, power, flesh, this woman could stir the most primitive desires and emotions in people's hearts, but fortunately, Xia De's goal was clear, and the other party could not satisfy his desire to become a god.
The woman asked:
“So, how do you want to play cards?”
Her fingertips gently stroked the top of the deck, and then, because only one hand was out of the water, she simply pulled out cards from the middle of the deck and placed them on top, repeating this a few times before stopping the shuffling action.
Xia De also stopped shuffling with both hands, thought for a moment, leaned against the door frame and sat down, placing his stack of cards in front of him, and then looked at the pretty woman's head:
“We play by the most basic rules, three rounds, best two out of three. If there’s a tie, the tie doesn’t count.”
“Okay.”
The woman smiled, she drew a card first, but she didn't use the arm without a sleeve to draw the card, but bit the first card on top of the deck with her mouth. She lightly shook her head, and as her wet long hair splashed a few drops of water out of the pool, the card in her mouth flew in front of Xia De.
Moon Three, the card face was of course not a pattern representing a number, but a special pattern. It was a magnificent lady's evening dress worn on a puppet. Even though Xia De was a man, he still appreciated the design style, color matching, and small decorations on the cuffs and hem of this dress.
Xia De also drew a card, Moon 5.
Both sides continued to draw cards. The woman's second card was star 13, the card face was a ruby placed on a velvet cushion in a wooden box. Xia De's was Flower 7, which was 【Genesis · Balance】. Holding this card, if he busted this round, he could discard all cards and start over.
“Oh, all things are impermanent.”
The woman exclaimed softly, the smile on her face becoming more pronounced:
“The emotion you are bursting with right now is very interesting. This card is related to your ultimate desire. I can feel it, this desire is truly wonderful.”
Xia De didn't respond. Then the two drew cards again. The woman had Sun 6, and unfortunately busted. Xia De had Flower 5, a total of 17 points for three cards, and he won the first round.
Neither side cheated; it was purely a gamble of luck. Xia De didn't understand why he won, yet the other party could still smile so happily. It wasn't a feigned smile, but a genuine one from the heart.
“What do you get by playing cards with me?”
He couldn't help but ask.
“I can see through your heart and see your desire.”
This answer was as expected. Xia De didn't start the second round directly, but asked again:
“Then how do you view my desire?”
“You are the most greedy person I have ever seen.”
Since it was best two out of three, if Xia De won again, he would truly win. When drawing cards, he felt that even without the good luck brought by the two Founding cards, the woman still wouldn't be able to beat him this time.
As expected, the first card Xia De drew was actually a King.
The woman smiled in the face of such a result. Although she could try to draw 21 points to beat the King, she directly gave up:
“You won, you can leave.”
The iron door on the opposite side of the pool creaked open automatically, allowing more sea breeze to rush in. The sound of waves could be vaguely heard, indicating that the exit was very close behind that door.
“You can open the door yourself? Are you really imprisoned here? What exactly do you want to do?”
Xia De put away his cards and asked with a puzzled frown.
“I originally wanted to lure you to gain a new soul and leave this place. But it’s enough now, I tasted your desire, and that’s enough for me.”
“You can also leave?”
Xia De subconsciously took a step back:
“It still needs a little more time, but the seals of those stinky mermen are no longer working. Speaking of which, even they don’t know what I really am.”
“Then what exactly are you?”
“You can come and see for yourself.”
The woman's deck of cards turned into a puddle of water, and that hand also retracted into the pool, leaving only her head watching Xia De from the edge of the pool.
“No, I’m sorry, my curiosity isn’t that strong.”
The pool was about six or seven meters long, and the maximum distance of Raglai's Leap was ten meters. As long as he calculated the distance correctly, he could directly move to the other side of the pool and then rush out the door, trying to avoid getting too close to the woman.
“I feel you regretting, you are afraid. No, even if you don't appear, the seal is about to fail. They don't know my power, they just happened to use the power of a god to imprison me. If that thing had stayed here, I definitely wouldn't be able to leave, but that golden pearl has already returned to the old temple in the deep sea abyss.”
The woman said softly, her pretty eyes looking at Xia De's face:
“Do you want to know how to get it?”
Xia De's entire face was trembling, and he tried his best to control himself from saying “yes.” The woman accurately detected his desire this time.
“I still want to merge with you, but watching you gradually walk towards the end of your desire, and seeing your desire grow stronger, is also an interesting thing. Promise me one request, and I will tell you how to get that pearl, and I can also give you a gift. Of course, you can also leave directly.”
“What request?”
Xia De asked softly. He knew he shouldn't have asked at all, and should have left immediately.
“Approach the pool, look at me carefully, and then tell me what exactly you see.”
Xia De knew perfectly well that now was not the time to let the darkness of greed occupy his mind. He should have ignored the woman's words and left immediately. But when it came to him facing the situation himself, his feet simply had no intention of moving.
“Look~”
That head, like a work of art, chuckled softly:
“No one is without desire. And I am desire.”
The voice in his ear said nothing, she wouldn't interfere with Xia De's own thoughts. And Xia De also repeatedly weighed the current situation in his mind, and finally, he did not leave, but took a step forward.
With a drop of divinity still on him, he had to take this chance no matter what. A few weeks ago, he even dared to face the gods in the Blood Feast for a drop of divinity. At this moment, it was just a relic. He did not lack the courage to face it, he was just thinking about whether it was necessary.
“Courage, arrogance, caution, greed, yearning, fear, hesitation, determination. Your emotions right now are truly so rich.”
The thing in the pool smiled, and its head retracted beneath the water. Without the alluring woman's voice, the dark room returned to a moment of silence.
The pool water gurgled, and blue and white light shone from the bottom of the pool.
Amidst the whistle and bell, Xia De's Destiny Ring slowly emerged behind him. In his heart, he told “her” to be ready to ignite the divinity at any time. The Outsider took another step forward.
At this moment, he actually heard the sound of his own heartbeat. One must know that even when he first met Miss Felianna, rushing to the charity banquet in the blood mist, he had never been so nervous.
“So, what exactly is that woman?”
The answer was immediately revealed, because Xia De took another step, and he clearly saw the entire pool.
Unlike the illusion that the pool led to a bottomless abyss, the depth of the pool was roughly the same as its length. The water quality was still clear enough for Xia De to see the flat ground at the bottom of the pool directly.
He saw the pretty woman's head, he saw hands, he saw feet. But what he saw was not a person, what he saw was a lump of flesh, a huge mass of flesh made up of a head and dozens of hands and dozens of feet.
Completely against human aesthetics, completely against the laws of nature, completely against the most basic rules.
If one were to describe what it looked like, it could barely be called a Mermaid. A human upper body, and a fish lower body. Except the upper body was made of constantly swaying hands, and the lower body was made of densely packed legs.
Just one glance, and a strong sense of dizziness almost made Xia De fall into the water.
He clutched his forehead, his body swaying a few times. Even with his eyes closed, the image of the “Mermaid,” enough to induce primal fear, still flickered before his eyes.
There was no spring at the bottom of the pool at all; the gurgling sound was the head exhaling upwards.
The pretty face looked at Xia De from under the water, and the eerie hands and feet slapped the water, not regretting that he hadn't fallen in:
“Please look at me carefully, what exactly do you see?”
There was no need to leave at this point. Stabilizing his mind, Xia De opened his eyes and looked at the thing again. He didn't even notice that on the Destiny Ring behind him, gluttony and greed were glowing simultaneously.
If the initial impact on Xia De when he entered the dark room was merely to induce the dark desires within his heart, then at this moment, gazing at that strange flesh creature directly affected his physical body. Regardless of who created this terrifying thing, the combination of strange beauty and complete chaos meant that a mortal, merely by gazing, would have the Balance and self-consistency of their own physical body affected.
Even if the soul remained clear, a mortal body was still a mortal body.
“So, what exactly do you see?”
The head asked, as if humming.
Xia De noticed that the back of his exposed hand was already showing signs of skin dissolving and blood about to seep out. He also realized that by looking at it up close, the dark illusions in his mind were starting to emerge again.
The Outsider stood there, gritting his teeth, blood flowing from his eyes, nose, mouth, and ears simultaneously:
“I see...”
He originally wanted to describe the monster's appearance, but as the halo of the pool swayed, the scene he saw actually changed. The monster disappeared in the pool, and the pool water became increasingly turbid, then, like an oil painting, another scene was revealed.
“What do you see?”
The voice was still asking, but it seemed to be no longer in the pool, but all around him. Xia De looked at the scene displayed in the pool in shock, even the physical and mental pain were ignored at this moment:
“Is this my desire?”
“What do you see?”
The voice was still asking, this time the source of the voice was behind Xia De:
“Behold me, if a mortal does not collapse, then they can see their truest desire. This will make you completely understand what you truly want. The truest...”
Pairs of women's hands, dripping with water and painted with red nails, climbed onto the rotating Destiny Ring behind Xia De, gluttony and greed radiating extreme spiritual light.
What Xia De saw was not himself becoming a god, not possessing endless wealth, not being surrounded by girls, not rhode cards and cats, and not even the gradually abandoned idea of returning home.
What he saw was himself standing in the restroom on the second floor of Saint Delan Square, facing a mirror. Outside the mirror was Xia De Hamilton, but inside the mirror, surprisingly, was a faint, silver-haired woman.
He held his breath:
“I see another me?”
The Outsider stood there stunned, as if struck by lightning, not expecting such a scene.
“Interesting, the truth corresponding to your infinite desire is actually a craving for yourself. Your desire, is it yourself?”
That seductive voice echoed in Xia De's ear. But unlike usual, this time there was really something behind him. He could even feel a sweet-smelling breath wafting past his ear.
“What I want to get, is myself?”
Xia De's eyes widened, staring intently at the image in the pool, wanting to clearly see what the woman reflected in the mirror looked like.
When the Outsider first arrived in this world, his initial question was “Who is she?” At this moment, he vaguely understood that perhaps his greatest craving was to become a god, but his deepest craving was actually that he felt incredibly ridiculous.
“I know the Ring術士 system of the sixth epoch. Although your ‘other me’ is a bit strange, she is you, and you are her. You actually have desire for yourself?”
The woman’s voice was still whispering, with a smile in her tone:
“So that’s it, that’s why there’s such a terrifying intensity of desire. Id and ego and superego, me and another me, the front of the soul and the back of the soul. Narcissism, self-love, a mad, pathological pursuit, desire for oneself, desire for one’s desire, and desire for the desire of desire...”
Xia De's ears were a little itchy from the woman's breath.
The Outsider stood by the pool, and at some unknown point, the “Mermaid” had left the pool, its terrifying fleshy body wrapped around him like a python. Its many legs were tightly clasped together, its many hands clung to his Destiny Ring, and that beautiful head was right behind him, its slender eyes now incredibly eerie.
The “Mermaid” was preying, but the prey by the pool remained motionless.
In the dark room, only the bottom of the pool glowed blue. It clung to Xia De's body, sighing softly, and also seemed to be humming in a low voice:
“gluttony, indulging in oneself, unable to extricate oneself.
greed, never satisfied, craving oneself.
If you could have been born in the First Epoch, you would have been qualified to contend for the Mark of Sin;
If you could have been born in the Second Epoch, you might have...
If you could have been born in the third epoch, you would surely become an Evil Spirit demon after death;
If you could have been born in the fourth epoch, the chaotic dark ages would have been even more interesting;
If you could have been born in the fifth epoch, even witches would lament how terrifying you, a man, are.
It's truly too interesting, yet you just had to be born in the sixth epoch.”
Dangerous and slender arms wrapped around his neck:
“Man, please tell me, why are you in the story of the sixth epoch?”
