A fermented sweet fragrance floated in the air, mixed with the fresh, earthy scent of a forest after the rain. The smell didn't seem overpowering, yet it was incredibly enticing.
Su Cheng took a breath and felt her head spin, almost passing out from intoxication on the spot.
She forced herself to stay alert, running through all sorts of sad and happy memories in her mind.
Only then did she barely manage to find her voice. "Your Highness—"
The man had already approached her.
His warm fingers landed on her lips, stopping her from speaking further.
His skin was so hot it almost burned away her reason.
The touch of his fingertips carried that cloying sweetness, like a piece of candy placed right at her lips, making one irresistibly want to lick it.
"Do you want to become my favored?" the man murmured softly. "From now on, no one will be able to refuse you—"
Su Cheng froze.
The pressure of his index finger stroking her lower lip was very light, as if a musician were gently plucking a string.
The skin on the pad of his finger was soft and smooth, completely devoid of any traces of his past as a warrior.
Su Cheng could even make out the ridges of his fingerprints through the touch.
"Mhm..."
His scorching fingers cupped her jaw, his neatly trimmed, rounded nails pressing into the tender flesh behind her ear.
"You know who I am, right?"
The man's palm rested against the pulse at the side of her neck, his little finger seemingly unintentionally twirling the girl's loose hair at her temples.
"Yes," Su Cheng also said softly. "Right now, you are the God of Carnal Lust, one of the Dark God's lackeys. Once, you were the Grand Ritual Chanter of the Secret Cult of Eternal Night, responsible for hosting the Holy Chant ceremonies. Before that, you were a musician in some club, proficient in playing stringed and wind instruments, singing, dancing, and even acrobatics."
The man: "..."
He fell silent for two seconds before saying faintly, "I don't do acrobatics."
Su Cheng: "I know, I just said it to make it rhyme."
"Oh," he looked at her in amusement. "Alright, is that it?"
Su Cheng cleared her throat. "Well, later you killed a noble and became a wanted criminal, and then you went to play instruments in the Dark God's territory."
She thought for a moment. "Oh, in the great encirclement campaign that followed, you were caught by the people from the Holy Church. They sealed your battle aura, tortured you, gouged out your vocal cords, cut off your tongue, sliced off your fingers, and then subjected you to dismemberment. You were tied to a platform, and four wyverns pulled at the chains, but they couldn't tear off your limbs. Later, they had to switch to a giant dragon to destroy your physical body. You never begged for mercy until your death."
The deity looked at her thoughtfully.
A strange emotion surged in those blazing eyes, which were like tempered black stones, but it vanished in a flash.
"Ah," he started laughing again, his tone becoming frivolous and unrestrained. "You really like me, don't you? Can you tell the stories of others like this too?"
Su Cheng: "?"
The reason I can't tell them is because I skipped chapters when I bought the book, not because I like you!
And that part of the plot did leave a rather deep impression on her.
She originally thought this guy was the type to bend with the wind and adapt to the circumstances, but she didn't expect "her" to have such a side.
But at least for now, it seemed the past experiences of the God of Carnal Lust hadn't changed because of a gender swap.
Of course—
In the original novel, the God of Carnal Lust always appeared as a female in front of Lin Yun. But according to the setting, she must have turned into a man in front of others too.
It was true that these deities were once human, but after ascending to godhood, they had transcended the biological concept of humanity.
So strictly speaking, they didn't really have a gender.
Except for a deity like the God of Carnal Lust, who toyed with the desires of others, the other deities didn't need to constantly change their appearance, so many of them just habitually kept the form they had when they were alive.
But there were also some who completely abandoned that image.
For example, a certain guy in the original novel who "had relations with the male lead in a female form, but was suspected to be a man before ascending to godhood."
Su Cheng: "..."
Then again, objectively speaking, she felt that people who would rather die than surrender were quite remarkable.
But she didn't want to pay her respects to the God of Carnal Lust right here and now.
After all, this was still the Church's territory.
Besides, if she showed any hint of that, the other party would definitely get smug again.
That wouldn't do.
Su Cheng: "I also know that among the seven of you, you are the weakest. All six of your colleagues are better fighters than you, and none of them got caught!"
"Hahahahaha," he wasn't angry at all; instead, he laughed happily. "At least I can play instruments and sing. They can't do that."
Su Cheng looked at him speechlessly.
"Besides, the reason they weren't caught is because they died on the battlefield—"
The deity snorted softly. "You said it yourself, those people couldn't do anything to me. They couldn't kill me back then, so they could only capture me."
"That sounds like complete sophistry. Everyone knows that for a capable target, capturing them alive is harder than killing them!"
Su Cheng couldn't help but roll her eyes at him. "Then why don't you tell me, purely in terms of combat power, which of your colleagues do you think is worse than you?"
Sure enough, he choked on his words.
Su Cheng slightly raised her chin. "See!"
"Alright," the man slowly rubbed her burning earlobe with the back of his hand. "I'll admit it. Do you have any other questions, my dear?"
His fingertips scraped over the bulging veins beneath her thin skin. "Or rather, any other stalling tactics."
Su Cheng was just about to speak.
The deity's thumb suddenly slipped between her lips, his fingertip pushing her teeth apart and pressing down on her tongue, which was trying to hide.
His fingers were scalding and soft, carrying an intoxicating sweet taste, like they were coated in melted royal jelly or candied almonds.
...So sweet.
She felt her mind growing hazy.
Without realizing it, her teeth had sunk into the warm flesh.
She subconsciously wanted to gnaw on it, as if taking a bite would let her taste blood vessels flowing with syrup.
Her throat swallowed uncontrollably, the taste lingering between her lips, teeth, and gums, constantly stimulating the taste buds on her tongue.
Her canines wanted to bite down, her molars were restless, her jaw muscles twitched, and her empty stomach slowly tightened.
Every cell in her body seemed to be screaming, wanting to taste the deity.
His muscles, bones, flesh, blood, breath—everything that came from him.
She wanted it all. She wanted to lick, to touch, to press tightly against him, to merge it all into her own flesh and blood, to completely become one.
—The survival instinct that had once been awakened caused her to kill someone for the first time. That was the strongest desire, yet it hadn't destroyed her reason.
After all, she still had to think about getting away with it afterward; it wasn't over just because the killing was done.
But at this very moment, Su Cheng only felt her head spinning. Her ability to think seemed to have been drained away, and her entire consciousness felt like it had been shredded.
Only one thing remained incredibly clear.
She grabbed the deity's hand and bit down hard. Sure enough, she tasted the sweet, luscious flavor of divine blood.
It was like the frosting on a donut, exuding a pure sweetness, and also like concentrated fruit syrup and honeydew, giving off a rich, mellow aroma.
Su Cheng had no time to ponder how she was able to bite through a deity's skin.
She tore open his draping crimson robes, the fabric hanging off one shoulder slipping down, and then forcefully pushed him down.
The dark-haired man smiled as he fell backward, offering absolutely no resistance, and simply leaned back against the steps.
The dim red light in the hall flowed down, pooling like blood in the hollows of his collarbones.
His bright, smooth, satin-like curly hair fell like a waterfall, spreading across the jade steps. A few curled strands rested on his chest, making his skin appear even more pristine and pale.
His well-defined chest was completely exposed, every inch of his flesh glowing with a seductive, soft light.
Those sculpted muscles were like marble carved by moonlight, their lines lean and graceful.
The deity remained in a seated, leaning posture, his long arms spread to the sides. He looked vulnerable, as if waiting to be taken, yet his body was brimming with power.
He was like a beast lying in wait, ready to devour its prey at any moment, yet deliberately displaying a harmless facade.
Su Cheng threw herself at him.
Straddling the man's waist, she pressed her hands against his chest and looked down into those eyes, which resembled tempered black jade.
His long eyelashes fluttered like the scaly wings of a butterfly, thick and trembling, casting sweeping shadows over his eyelids.
She couldn't help but lean in closer.
Tracing his beautiful cheekbones, the prominent ridge of his brows, his deep-set eyes—
Su Cheng inappropriately thought of many things, like the relationships she had before crossing over to this world: passionate ones, gentle ones, fleeting ones, and relatively long-lasting ones.
No matter which kind it was, none compared to what she was experiencing now.
She had never wanted to touch someone this badly.
Even though a momentary return of reason told her this wasn't a natural choice born of her own emotions, but the consequence of the deity's power affecting her.
She still found it incredibly enjoyable.
...Because she touched him.
That intense, indescribable hunger—
At this moment, as she lay against his chest, it was completely and utterly satisfied.
The deity's manifested form was not of a normal human's size. Their height difference was vast, so all that filled her vision was his snow-white, glowing skin and bone.
Her fingertips brushed over his lean chest, touched his silky black hair, and reached his hard, tight waist and abdomen, feeling the muscles gradually tense.
The deity watched her quietly, still wearing that mask-like smile on his face.
She leaned down to kiss his chin, tracing his sharp jawline and the beautiful neck exposed as he tilted his head back, before biting down on his prominent Adam's apple.
The deity's body trembled slightly, and then he raised a hand to grasp the back of her neck, like some sort of silent permission.
But she could no longer care about any of that.
She thought of rosebuds swaying in the morning mist, the soft and warm petals brushing against her cheek, the pistils standing against the wind as crimson as dripping blood.
Su Cheng seemed to taste the sweet flavor of the flower's nectar.
It was like honey blooming on the tip of her tongue, or the lingering aftertaste of fruit wine exploding.
As she lifted her head, a silver thread of moisture stretched from her lips, connecting to that bright red rose, before being covered by scattered black hair.
The deity sighed softly, a breath of satisfaction spilling from his throat. He reached out to entwine his fingers in the girl's hanging curls, while his other hand undid her buckles.
And she could already trace the shape of his hip bones, pressing her knees against him through the thin fabric. That aggressive heat was both dangerous and enticing.
"So—"
He stared at her with those beautiful eyes that seemed to constantly burn with lust, the golden threads fracturing across his irises like bait stars twinkling in an abyss.
"Are you enjoying this?"
Su Cheng looked at him in a daze, instinctively grabbing his arms to push herself up, then falling back down.
Then she thought of the wine-making process: when the roller crushes the grapes, the deep purple juice flows along the grooves into the oak barrels.
And they seemed to be measuring size and direction in a completely different way.
She thought it would be difficult, even painful.
But in reality, she felt an extraordinary amount of pleasure.
It was like sinking into a warm hot spring; every inch of her pores was filled, and her entire being was flooded with heat.
Panting, she threw her head back and saw the pegasus statue high above.
It silently looked down at everything below, the fiery light of anger seemingly burning in its jeweled eyes.
A soft chuckle rang in her ear.
"And—"
The deity didn't wait for her answer, but he didn't seem to care much either. He simply reached out to toy with the hair by her cheek, his fingertips trailing back to the nape of her neck.
And then caressed her spine.
"You seem to be carrying something interesting on you—"
Su Cheng jolted awake.
The spot he was touching was exactly where her curse mark lay.
