Stop Lying to Yourself
Yun Jingheng stood there, watching the Greed's retreating back.
The dark gray hem of the robe hung on the gravelly ground, its dark patterns lying quietly in the dim light, like a lurking snake finally at rest.
His mind was buzzing; the word "Greed" was like a pebble thrown into a hole, and the ripples were still spreading.
Humans are never satisfied with the status quo; human Greed is limitless.
When those words reached his ears, his first reaction was—what about yourself?
Your name is Greed, and you tell me that Greed is limitless. So now you're standing here, saying these things to me, extending that hand, and then pulling it back—what are you really after?
The moment that thought popped into his head, the chill on the back of his neck hadn't completely dissipated when a second chill crept up his spine, vertebra by vertebra.
He stood there, his lips slightly parted, his gaze fixed on the Greed back.
Beneath that short, grayish-white hair, the deep purple lines on the side of her neck throbbed slowly and steadily, one beat after another, like a distant drum beating from the depths of the earth.
etc.
The fragments in his mind suddenly started moving on their own.
Greed painted such a huge pie for him.
The Creator God, the coexistence of Destruction and life, the first person in nearly a thousand years to touch upon these two laws, standing there is the highest mountain.
He laid out the items one by one in front of him, like a row of plates on a dining table, each plate filled with the most tempting dishes. Then he squatted down and said to him in a tone like that of someone coaxing a child, "Come on, I'll take you there."
He reached out his hand.
Then he withdrew his hand.
He said those words as he withdrew his hand.
Your father has arranged everything for you, even foreseen your hesitation. He's living for you.
Those few words were far more powerful than the temptations that came before.
Those words were like knives, each one stabbing into the softest spot in his heart.
Then he withdrew.
After stepping back, he stood three steps away, like a teacher who had finished teaching and stepped back to the side of the podium, waiting for the students to answer the question themselves.
Yun Jingheng's lips twitched slightly.
The movement was very small, just a very shallow arc that rose and fell from the left corner of the lip, as fast as a ripple on the surface of water that hadn't even had time to spread before it disappeared.
He remembered.
Greed did only two things from beginning to end.
The first thing he did was to take out a bag full of Desire and lay them out in front of Yun Jingheng, letting him see those glittering things—power, status, and the possibility of surpassing his father.
Everything that Yun Jingheng wanted most.
The second thing he did was kick open the door to the locked room in Yun Jingheng's heart, and unpacked all the things that had been carefully hidden away: grievances, resentment, the thorn of being called the Crown Prince, and the words he had swallowed.
I picked them up one by one and showed them to him.
Then he stretched out his hand.
Then he withdrew his hand.
Then he stood three steps away, waiting for Yun Jingheng to make his own choice.
If Greed truly wanted him to take those fragments, he wouldn't have needed to bring up his father's affair at all.
All he had to do was keep that outstretched palm and use seductive words to feed the beast in Yun Jingheng's heart.
But he didn't.
He scattered all the bait that could lure Yun Jingheng over, placing it in the most precise spots, and then withdrew his hand the moment Yun Jingheng reached out.
Every word he uttered after he took it back pushed Yun Jingheng in the opposite direction.
Your father has arranged everything for you; he's living for you. Those words were like four wedges, pinning Yun Jingheng to the spot.
So what he really wanted wasn't to take those things away.
He wanted to see if he would reach out.
A very soft sound escaped Yun Jingheng's throat, as if something was choking him.
The sound was short and indistinct, with a rough edge, like the sound of air being squeezed through the vocal cords, as if someone had bitten their tongue halfway through speaking.
Greed has turned around.
His movements were neither fast nor slow; the hem of his dark gray robe spun in a semi-circle on the gravel ground, the dark patterns on the edge of the robe flashing briefly in the dim light.
Beneath his short, gray hair, a very faint light floated in his deep, well-like eyes, like moonlight falling on water—thin and cold.
He saw the expression on Yun Jingheng's face.
He had seen that expression many times over the years, on many faces, but the final reaction on each face was different.
Some people flew into a rage after realizing what had happened, some turned pale, and some stood there speechless for a long time.
Yun Jingheng stood in front of him, his lips still twitching.
The twitching started from the left corner of the lip; the first time it jumped, the amplitude was very small, like a string that had been plucked.
Then the curve of his mouth began to stretch uncontrollably to both sides, forming an extremely strange shape somewhere between a laugh and a twitch.
His brows were furrowed, the crease between them deeper than ever before, and his eyes bulged out unnaturally.
"You..."
He said one word.
The word was so short it was like a pebble thrown out, landing on the ground two steps away with a crisp clang.
"Are you fucking testing me?"
When those words came out of his mouth, the first half carried a hint of anger at being mocked, but the second half slid off on its own, like a wall that had been built halfway and suddenly collapsed, the falling bricks hitting the ground with a dull thud.
His lips were still twitching.
He stared at him Greed, the light in his deep black eyes freezing at the bottom of the well. Then, the thin layer of coolness receded from his eyes like the receding tide, revealing a smile that could no longer be hidden.
"Um."
You've gone too far.
Yun Jingheng was taken aback.
"What happened?"
"The Trial of Greed."
Greed spoke those three words in a low voice, but he enunciated each word clearly, as if he were reciting a name.
"I'm not testing whether you'll take those things; I'm testing whether you can see what I'm doing."
Yun Jingheng opened his mouth, but after a long while, he managed to squeeze out a sentence: "... What if I hadn't noticed?"
"Then you're just a puddle on the ground now."
"..."
"I'm just one of them; you still have to deal with several others."
"... several?"
"Sloth, Ruin, Abomination, Demon, devouring, plus the Desire I and you have seen, seven in total."
Yun Jingheng's temple throbbed.
"You seven will each be in charge of a checkpoint?"
"Each person is responsible for one question."
The voice of Greed drifted from ahead, a little farther away than before, but still clear in the quiet valley. "The seven of us are the embodiment of seven different facets of human nature; I'm in charge of Greed."
"The questions and test content are different at each stage. Just because you pass mine doesn't mean you can pass others'."
"Let's go to Sloth's place, there seems to be a blonde girl there."
Yun Jingheng's pupils contracted sharply.
"Xing Lan?"
"I don't know the name, but the aura of stars is very obvious."
Yun Jingheng's heart skipped a beat.
"How long has she been here? Is she in danger?"
Hmm... it might be very tiring?
What is the threshold of Sloth?
Greed looked at him, "Sloth and taciturn. He does more than he talks; you'll see when you get there."
"How do I get there?"
"Go east out of the valley, and there's a passage leading down to the end. You'll see a coastline at the end; that's where it is."
After saying this, Greed was silent for a moment, then he tilted his head slightly, and the purple stripes under his short, gray hair gleamed in the dim light.
"What? Are you going to find one of your little girls?"
"Should we go see the silver-haired girl from the Ruin? Or should we go back to find the blue-haired girl who was dragged into the Nightmare Realm?"
"What did you say?" Yun Jingheng's leg, which was about to take a step, froze.
He looked at him with a Greed, amused expression.
"Oh? Really? Don't you know that the underlying logic of the Trial of Desire is based on your deepest desires? It's one thing to fool outsiders, but don't fool yourself~"
"You..."
"Forget it, I'm too lazy to argue with you."
Yun Jingheng ran off down the path Greed had pointed out without looking back.