The Ladder of Delight
A promising student, indeed.
[Desire's essential nature is that it can never be satisfied. Once it comes alive, it will stop at nothing to multiply, until cognition shatters completely into chaos.
Most of the time, that ecstasy is even mistaken for the true self.]
That was the assessment of the invitation in the mission summary for the task of killing the Ecstasy Servant.
And as one would expect of an elite student who had made it onto the academy's top research team, Ji Liushuang had already grasped the idea after only a little guidance.
She had even used that insight to explain the chain of events from beginning to end—a genuine combination of theory and practice.
As mentioned earlier, Fu Qian didn't deny the value of hope.
But in serious academic discussions, he always did his best to shed the bad habit of optimism.
As someone with a vivid imagination, the brief exchange with the Ecstasy Servants at the ball had been enough for Fu Qian to envision their inner worlds, let alone the special case of Honma.
As for his conclusion, Fu Qian's assessment of them had been pessimistic from the start.
And now, that pessimism had only grown firmer: the craving for pleasure could never be erased, and aside from that, nothing else was unchangeable.
The concrete manifestation was pleasure distorted and exalted without end, such as—
Fleshly desire...
Restraint of fleshly desire...
Restraint of restraint of fleshly desire...
Restraint of restraint of restraint of fleshly desire...
They weren't simply swinging back and forth. They were an endless accumulation of depravity.
Come to think of it, the phrasing felt rather familiar. After he crushed the reward, Carnival of Evil Desire, and Internal Organ Critical Hit was upgraded, its description had been something like "the