Chapter 18: She Touched Him
The air carried the sweet scent of fermentation, tangled with the damp, green sharpness of a forest after rain. The fragrance wasn’t overpowering, yet it was irresistibly seductive.
Su Cheng drew in a breath and immediately felt dizzy, as though she might get drunk on the spot.
She forced herself to stay conscious, dragging every sorrowful and joyful memory she could think of through her mind.
Only then did she barely recover her voice.
“Your Highness…”
The man had already stepped closer.
Warm fingers brushed against her lips, stopping the words that followed.
His skin was so hot it nearly burned away her reason.
And the touch of his fingertips carried that same cloying sweetness, like candy held near her mouth, making her instinctively want to lick it.
“Do you want to become my favored one?” the man murmured softly. “From this day on, no one will ever be able to refuse you again.”
Su Cheng froze.
His index finger stroked lightly across her lower lip, gentle as a musician plucking the strings of an instrument.
The skin of his fingertips was smooth and delicate, without the slightest trace of the warrior he had once been.
Through that touch alone, Su Cheng could even make out the fine lines of his fingerprints.
“Mhm…”
His burning fingers tilted up her chin. The neatly trimmed nails pressed into the soft flesh behind her ear.
“You know who I am, don’t you?”
His palm rested against the pulse at her throat, while his little finger idly curled around the loose strands of hair at her temple.
“Mm,” Su Cheng answered softly. “Right now you’re the God of Lust and Corruption, one of the Dark God’s lackeys. Before that, you were the Grand Cantor of the Eternal Night Cult, the one who presided over the sacred hymns and rituals. And before that, you were a musician in some guild hall somewhere. Singing, dancing, playing instruments, entertaining crowds. Good at everything.”
The man: “…”
He went silent for two seconds before saying faintly, “I couldn’t do acrobatics.”
“I know,” Su Cheng said seriously. “I just wanted the sentence to sound balanced.”
He looked at her, amused. “That’s it?”
Su Cheng cleared her throat. “Then later you killed a nobleman, became a wanted criminal, and ran off to the Dark God’s territory to play music.”
She paused to think.
“And during the great purge, the Church captured you. They sealed your battle aura, tortured you, carved out your vocal cords, cut off your tongue, severed your fingers, and executed you by dismemberment. They chained you to the platform and had four wyverns pull at you, but even then they couldn’t tear your limbs apart. In the end they had to use dragons to destroy your body. And until the moment you died, you never begged for mercy.”
The god looked at her thoughtfully.
Some strange emotion flickered in those eyes, hot and dark as forged obsidian, though it vanished almost immediately.
“Ah.” He smiled again, his tone turning lazy and unruly. “You really like me, don’t you? Could you recite anyone else’s story like that?”
Su Cheng: “?”
I can’t recite anyone else’s because I skipped chapters and only paid for selective unlocks. It’s not because I like you.
Still, that particular storyline had left a strong impression on her.
She had originally assumed he was the sort of person who bent with the wind, clever enough to survive anything. She hadn’t expected him to have that kind of side.
At least for now, it seemed the God of Lust and Corruption’s past hadn’t changed just because of the gender shift.
Of course…
In the original novel, the God of Lust and Corruption had always appeared female in front of Lin Yun. By the setting’s logic, she had likely appeared as a man before others as well.
These gods might once have been human, but after ascending, they had long since stepped outside the biological definition of humanity.
Strictly speaking, gender meant very little to them.
Aside from deities like the God of Lust and Corruption, who delighted in manipulating desire itself, most gods didn’t bother changing forms often. Many simply retained the appearance they’d worn in life out of habit.
Though some abandoned it entirely.
Like that one god in the original story who slept with the male protagonist in a female form, despite apparently having been male before ascension.
Su Cheng: “…”
Still, objectively speaking, she admired people who would rather die than surrender.
But she definitely wasn’t about to express respect for the God of Lust and Corruption here.
This was still Church territory.
Besides, if she showed even a hint of admiration, he’d absolutely become smug about it.
That could not be allowed.
“I also know that out of the seven of you, you’re the weakest,” Su Cheng declared. “All six of your colleagues are stronger than you. They never got caught.”
“Hahahahahaha!”
Not only was he not offended, he burst out laughing.
“At least I can sing and play instruments,” he said cheerfully. “They can’t.”
Su Cheng stared at him flatly.
“And besides, they weren’t captured because they died on the battlefield.” The god gave a soft snort. “You said it yourself. Those people couldn’t kill me. That’s why they had to capture me instead.”
“That’s completely twisted logic. Everyone knows capturing someone alive is harder than killing them!”
She rolled her eyes at him.
“Fine then. Tell me honestly. In terms of pure combat ability, which one of your colleagues do you think is weaker than you?”
That shut him up instantly.
Su Cheng lifted her chin slightly. “See?”
“Fine.” The man slowly brushed the back of his hand against her burning ear. “I admit defeat. Any other questions, darling?”
His fingertips skimmed over the raised vein beneath her skin.
“Or perhaps more ways to stall for time.”
Su Cheng opened her mouth to answer.
Then suddenly, his thumb slipped between her lips.
His fingertip pushed past her teeth, pressing down against the tongue trying to retreat.
His fingers were hot and soft, carrying a dizzying sweetness, like they’d been coated in melted honey or sugar-glazed almonds.
…So sweet.
Her mind went hazy.
At some point, her teeth had already sunk into the warm flesh.
Instinctively, she wanted to bite harder, as though one more bite would split open veins overflowing with syrup.
Her throat swallowed uncontrollably. The flavor rolled across her lips, teeth, and gums, relentlessly stimulating every taste bud on her tongue.
Her canines ached to pierce deeper. Even her molars twitched with anticipation. Her jaw muscles trembled, while the emptiness in her stomach slowly tightened.
Every cell in her body seemed to scream for a taste of the god.
His flesh. His blood. His breath. Everything that belonged to him.
She wanted all of it.
Wanted to lick him, touch him, press herself tightly against him, absorb him into her bones and blood until they became one.
The desperate instinct for survival she’d awakened before, the thing that had driven her to kill for the first time, had been powerful, but it hadn’t destroyed her reason.
Back then, she still had to think about covering her tracks afterward. Killing hadn’t been the end of it.
But now, Su Cheng felt utterly dazed.
Her ability to think had been stripped away. Her consciousness felt torn apart and stirred into fragments.
Only one thing remained crystal clear.
Holding the god’s hand tightly, she bit down hard.
Just as expected, she tasted the exquisite sweetness of divine blood.
Like powdered sugar on a pastry. Pure sweetness. Like concentrated fruit nectar carrying a rich, intoxicating fragrance.
Su Cheng had no time to wonder why she was even capable of breaking a god’s skin.
She tugged open the crimson robe hanging from his body. The cloth slipped from one shoulder, and then she shoved him backward.
The black-haired man smiled as he fell, offering no resistance at all, simply reclining against the steps behind him.
Dark red light flowed down through the hall, gathering in the hollow of his collarbones like a pool of blood.
His glossy black curls spilled across the jade steps like a waterfall of silk. A few strands curled against his chest, making his skin appear even paler.
His sharply defined torso was fully exposed, every inch of it glowing with seductive softness.
The sculpted muscles looked like marble carved beneath moonlight, sleek and powerful all at once.
The god remained sprawled there with his long arms spread slightly apart, presenting himself in seeming vulnerability, though strength coiled beneath every line of that body.
Like a predator lying still before the strike, pretending harmlessness.
Su Cheng lunged after him.
She settled astride his waist, pressing one hand against his chest as she stared down into those eyes, black and burning like tempered jade.
His long lashes trembled like butterfly wings, shadows sweeping across his eyelids.
Unable to resist, she leaned closer.
Her fingers traced his beautiful cheekbones, the sharp ridge of his brow, the deep hollows around his eyes—
And suddenly, absurdly, she thought about every relationship she’d ever had before transmigrating.
Passionate ones. Gentle ones. Brief affairs. Longer attachments.
None of them had ever felt like this.
She had never wanted to touch someone so badly.
Even the tiny scrap of reason returning to her told her this desire wasn’t natural emotion at all, but the influence of divine authority.
And yet she still enjoyed it immensely.
…Because she had touched him.
That overwhelming, indescribable hunger—
The moment she lay against his chest, it was completely, utterly satisfied.
A god’s manifested body was much larger than an ordinary human’s, and the difference in their size left her surrounded by pale, luminous skin and muscle.
Her fingertips brushed over his lean chest, slid through the silk-soft black hair, then traced the hard lines of his abdomen as the muscles gradually tightened beneath her touch.
The god watched her silently, still wearing that masklike smile.
She bent down to kiss his chin, tracing the severe line of his jaw before moving lower, to the elegant throat bared by his tilted head.
Then she bit lightly against his protruding Adam’s apple.
The god’s body trembled faintly.
One hand rose to grip the back of her neck, almost like silent permission.
But she could no longer think about such things.
She thought instead of rosebuds swaying in morning mist. Of soft, warm petals brushing against her cheeks. Of crimson stamens blooming like fresh blood beneath the wind.
It almost felt as though she could taste nectar itself.
Sweet as honey bursting over her tongue. Lingering like the aftertaste of fruit wine.
When she lifted her head, a shining thread of moisture stretched from her lips to that vivid red rose before disappearing beneath scattered black hair.
The god sighed softly. A satisfied sound slipped from his throat as he tangled one hand in her curls while the other undid the clasp of her clothing.
And already she could trace the shape of his hips beneath the thin fabric, feel the aggressive heat pressing insistently against her knee.
Dangerous.
Tempting.
“So,” he murmured.
Those beautiful eyes fixed on her, forever burning with desire. Thin strands of gold split through his irises like bait-stars glittering in the abyss.
“Are you happy?”
Su Cheng looked at him dazedly.
Acting on instinct alone, she grabbed his arm and lifted herself slightly before sinking back down again.
And suddenly she thought of wine-making.
Of rollers crushing grapes, dark purple juice streaming through carved grooves into oak barrels.
Except now, they seemed to be measuring depth and direction in an entirely different way.
She had expected this to be difficult.
Painful, even.
Instead, she felt indescribably happy.
Like sinking into a steaming hot spring, warmth flooding every pore until her whole body overflowed with heat.
Breathing unevenly, she tilted her head back and caught sight of the pegasus statue high above them.
It gazed silently down upon everything below, gemstone eyes seemingly ablaze with furious fire.
Soft laughter brushed against her ear.
“And besides…”
The god never received her answer, though he didn’t seem to care much.
He merely toyed with the strands of hair beside her face, fingertips sliding to the back of her neck.
Then lower.
Along her spine.
“There seems to be something interesting attached to you…”
Su Cheng jolted awake.
The place he had touched was exactly where the cursed mark lay.
