Free Web NovelChapter 256: Li Sushang of Lust
"Fu Hua, do you know this Palace Ruler?"
Ren gazed at the brunette in traditional robes, who made absolutely no effort to conceal her razor-sharp sword intent, and softly posed the question to the martial artist beside him.
Having trained in the Edge of Taixu, Ren easily recognized that the girl’s aura shared the exact same origin as his own martial arts. Coupled with the title she had just used to address Fu Hua, the connection between them was self-evident.
"Yes. Her name is Li Sushang," Fu Hua replied, her tone heavy as she shared what she knew. "As you can see, she practices the Edge of Taixu I passed down. Though I did not instruct her personally, her mastery over the art is phenomenally high. Even in a one-on-one duel, I don’t have the absolute certainty that I could defeat her."
Of course, lacking the certainty of victory didn’t mean Fu Hua was easy to kill. If it simply came down to surviving a clash with Sushang, she could manage that without too much difficulty.
"However, after our duel five hundred years ago, her fate was unknown. I assumed she had died. I never expected to see her again here."
Even if one cultivated the Edge of Taixu to its absolute pinnacle, Li Sushang was still a mortal. She wasn’t a MANTIS, nor was she a newly awakened Herrscher.
Regardless of whether she survived that duel or not, five centuries had passed. By all logic, she should have long since withered into a pile of bones.
Yet here she was, standing alive and well before them, cheerfully saying hello.
"The aura radiating from her is highly unusual," Fu Hua observed. "She is simultaneously a Shadow and her actual self. The two states are merged in a chaotic yet perfectly unified manner. But broadly speaking, her self-awareness still belongs to the Li Sushang I know."
Compared to the mortal girl from five centuries ago, the Li Sushang manifesting as this Palace Ruler possessed a vastly different aura. But after careful scrutiny, Fu Hua could still pinpoint the core consciousness piloting the vessel.
Unlike her master, Cheng Lingshuang, Li Sushang wasn’t a natural-born Stigmata Awakened, but she did possess a Stigma.
As her mastery over the Edge of Taixu deepened, the latent power of her Stigma was gradually unlocked, the two forces compounding to push her martial prowess to terrifying heights.
And now? Trapped in a dream spanning five hundred years, Li Sushang had completely maximized her Stigma’s potential. She had assimilated the conceptual power of her Stigma Space, becoming its absolute master. Her current strength had likely eclipsed the version of herself that lived in Fu Hua’s memories by miles.
Though Hare’s sensory and reconnaissance capabilities were inferior to Fu Hua’s Fenghuang Down, her unique existence as a crystallized Stigma entity allowed her to glean information from Sushang that even Fu Hua missed.
To Li Sushang, this place was simultaneously her Stigma Space and an endless, looping dream of the first half of her life.
Had Ren, an uninvited guest, not intruded, Sushang would have likely remained blissfully trapped in that looping dream forever.
It was precisely because she sensed the familiar aura of Fu Hua—who had been added to the Phantom Thieves’ roster—that Sushang’s consciousness was jolted awake, prompting her to immediately intercept them.
Another case of the Palace Ruler and their Shadow integrating, Ren mused. Except this time, the Palace Ruler’s actual consciousness is the one in the driver’s seat.
Ren was only momentarily surprised by the connection between the two martial artists before dismissing it.
Perhaps it was specifically because of Fu Hua that Ai-chan had pushed Li Sushang’s coordinates to the Metaverse Navigator app in the first place. With Fu Hua officially on the team, infiltrating this Palace was going to be exponentially easier.
"Why do I get the feeling that rather than Grandmaster Jingwei, you are the leader of this group?"
Maintaining her flawless Golden Rooster stance atop the hilt of her giant golden sword, Li Sushang realized Fu Hua wasn’t going to respond to her immediately. Seeing the two of them whispering instead, she shifted her attention entirely to Ren.
Staring at the raven-haired boy, she noted how his white bird-mask only obscured the upper half of his face. The sharp contours of his jawline and the deep, alluring magnetism in his visible eye drew her in.
Sushang’s eyes widened slightly. Instantly, all her attention shifted from Fu Hua to Ren.
"I am the leader of the Phantom Thieves of Hearts," Ren replied with an even tone. "You can just call me Joker."
Behind his mask, however, a strange glimmer flashed in his obsidian eyes.
It wasn’t his imagination. The absolute second Li Sushang laid eyes on him, her expression practically lit up. The brown eyes locked onto him carried an unmistakable, fiery heat.
Don’t tell me... Could it be?
Yae Sakura’s Wrath.
Raiden Mei’s Sloth.
Seele’s Envy.
The Herrscher of the Void’s Melancholy.
The Pride supplemented by Ren himself.
Wendy’s Greed.
Mobius’s Gluttony.
And the Vanity represented by the true master of the Elysian Realm, whose Palace he had a lead on but hadn’t infiltrated yet.
Ren originally thought that if he could just scrape together seven of the deadly sins’ Will Seeds to forge the Sinful Shell, it would be a massive success. Managing to find eight would be a stroke of unbelievable luck.
But now? An opportunity infinitely better than mere luck was practically being hand-delivered to him.
The desire driving this Palace Ruler named Li Sushang... It seemed to be the exact, elusive sin he previously had zero leads on: the Sin of Lust!
If he could harvest the Lust Will Seeds from this Palace and combine them with the Vanity Will Seeds from the Elysian Realm’s mysterious master, he could push the destructive power of the Sinful Shell to its absolute, theoretical peak.
With one shot, the False God wouldn’t just die—it would owe him two extra health bars in the afterlife.
"Jo... ker? What a bizarre name."
Sushang hopped down lightly from the giant sword’s hilt. Her delicate brows knit tightly together as she visibly strained to force out the twisted, horribly off-pitch English syllables.
"You clearly look like a local with your black hair and dark eyes. Why are you using a weird, Rakshasa-sounding name?"
From his conversation with Fu Hua, Ren already knew Sushang was someone from five centuries ago. Her inability to speak English was completely logical. Still, looking at this archaic girl in her traditional robes, he felt a profound wave of naive simplicity washing over him.
Honestly... she didn’t seem very highly educated.
If she had hit the books even a little bit, she wouldn’t be butchering a simple two-syllable word this badly.
"...If you’re having trouble pronouncing the English word ’Joker’, calling me ’Zhou Ke’ is fine," Ren sighed softly, offering her an out before she had a stroke trying to invent a nickname like "Mask-Bro."
"Ah, Zhou Ke! So you’re Young Master Zhou Ke! I knew ’Jo-ker’ sounded too strange to be a proper name. Even Peking opera singers don’t have stage names that difficult to pronounce!"
Sushang wiped a bead of sweat from her forehead, flashing a relieved, radiant smile.
"Earlier, Young Master Zhou Ke claimed to be the leader of the ’Phantom Thieves of Hearts’. Seeing your eccentric attire and masked faces, I assume you operate as chivalrous thieves. Might I ask what connection your noble troupe has with my Grandmaster Jingwei?"
She cupped her fists in a traditional martial greeting. Her intensely curious gaze bounced between Ren and Fu Hua—though, naturally, it lingered on Ren about ninety percent of the time.
Sushang was unabashedly a bit of a face-con. Furthermore, being relatively sheltered, she possessed an ingrained, favorable bias toward exceptionally handsome men.
Even with half his face covered, Ren exuded a mysterious, undeniable charm. In Sushang’s eyes, a young hero this good-looking calling himself a "thief" obviously meant he was a Phantom Thief—the kind who stole from the corrupt rich to give to the poor, acting for the country and its people!
Besides, she knew Fu Hua’s temperament. The immortal, world-saving Celestial would never associate with actual criminal scum.
Since Fu Hua hadn’t drawn her sword against Ren and was peacefully standing by his side, it was rock-solid proof that this handsome young man was a good guy.
"It’s purely a cooperative relationship," Ren replied, not bothering to correct her assumptions.
He found it incredibly surreal that Sushang could seamlessly converse with him using five-hundred-year-old ancient vernacular thanks to Metaverse cognitive translation, but was somehow perfectly hard-blocked from replicating a basic English phonetic sound.
But Ren wasn’t a scholar of cognitive psience—he was a pragmatist Persona User. Knowing the phenomenon existed was enough for him.
"Hmm, a cooperative relationship, you say? Then what business brings Young Master Zhou Ke here? If you’re chivalrous thieves, you must have your eyes set on a specific treasure in this domain. Or... are you here on behalf of Grandmaster Jingwei?"
Sushang adopted a thoughtful expression, crossing her arms under her chest. freewebnoveℓ.com
The motion made her prominent bust press firmly against the white fabric of her inner robes, creating a razor-sharp, frankly tragic contrast with the perfectly flat Grandmaster Jingwei standing next to Ren. freeweɓnovel.cѳm
While she didn’t fully grasp the modern concept of "Phantom Thieves," she definitely understood the implications of a group of thieves organizing an operation.
They were either here to steal a heavily guarded artifact, or they were here to settle a five-hundred-year-old karmic debt for her Grandmaster.
"This has nothing to do with Fu Hua’s past," Ren declared, stepping forward to smoothly shield Fu Hua behind his back. "We came to this Palace to fulfill our duty as Phantom Thieves: to steal the Treasure hidden within this space and correct the distorted desires sustaining it. Of course... Fu Hua is our companion now. If you intend to draw your blade against her, we will not sit idly by."
Staring at Ren’s broad back as he took the initiative to protect her, a rare look of dazed vulnerability flickered in Fu Hua’s eyes. A long-forgotten warmth bloomed in her chest.
Having walked a solitary path for millennia, Fu Hua had long forgotten what the word "companion" truly meant, let alone the sensation of someone standing between her and danger.
Her historically frozen heart beat with a fresh, vibrant rhythm. It was as if a new soul had been breathed into her; her stagnant, endlessly repeating life was finally moving forward again.
"The Treasure of this space? What might that be? If there truly is a Treasure, I’d like to see it myself. If Young Master Zhou Ke can find it, you’re more than welcome to take it," Sushang said, completely unbothered by Ren’s declaration of thievery. Her gentle smile never wavered.
It was only when the topic shifted back to Fu Hua that a trace of melancholy surfaced on the archaic girl’s lovely face.
"As for the history between me and Grandmaster Jingwei... that grudge was settled five centuries ago. She emerged unharmed, while I fell into a barren dream, lost for hundreds of years. As the defeated party—someone who should logically be a ghost—I have no face to shamelessly cling to her. Now, I am merely curious about the life my Grandmaster leads. I have no lingering obsession to fight her to the death."
She genuinely doesn’t care that her Treasure is about to be stolen. As expected of a Palace Ruler whose true consciousness is in control, Ren thought.
He stared at Sushang for a long moment. It wasn’t until her open, curious gaze slowly morphed into flustered bashfulness, her cheeks dusting pink as she shyly averted her eyes, that Ren finally deemed she was telling the truth.
"If you don’t mind, then we’ll proceed. Hare, I leave the navigation to the Will Seeds to you," Ren commanded.
Hare hadn’t stopped scanning for the Will Seeds since they arrived. "I have locked onto the coordinates of two Will Seeds. The location of the final one remains obscured," she reported.
"Will Seeds?" Sushang blinked, her head tilting in curiosity. "What a strange name. Yu Shi—Jade of Desire? Are these Will Seeds the Treasure you spoke of, Young Master Zhou Ke? Don’t tell me... are you actually a jade enthusiast?"
Despite being the Palace Ruler, her dominant true consciousness meant she was blissfully ignorant of Metaverse mechanics. She stared at Ren with wide, innocent eyes.
"A Will Seed is a crystallization of—"
Ren fully intended to explain the concept to this surprisingly friendly Palace Ruler. But the moment he opened his mouth, he clamped it shut.
Wait a minute.
If Sushang’s Palace was truly the Palace of Lust...
Didn’t that mean the memories sealed within those Will Seeds were going to be replays of Li Sushang’s deepest, most intensely lustful desires?!
