The familiar white space.

The familiar Audience Ladder.

The only difference was that this time, no eyes stared back from the ladder. Instead, it was formed from a pile of grotesque skulls stacked one upon another. Hair-raising wails seemed to pour from their mouths, a sound of suffering that transcended even death.

It wasn’t a ladder at all.

It was a Skull Throne.

A peculiar expression crossed Wu Wang’s face as he stared at the woman sitting on the throne.

She was a being draped in gray, gossamer gauze. The color seemed to have bled into her very being, tinting even her lips and pupils a muted gray.

Her presence drained all color from the world, leaving only that single shade to fill the void.

Though she smiled, her expression was full of suffering and sorrow.

An uncanny sense of dissonance washed over him.

“I can feel…”

Her voice spoke slowly, echoing throughout the white space.

“That you have caused great Suffering to others…”

“And, you took pleasure in it…”

Wu Wang, however, did not answer.

He just silently looked at his own panel.

【Side Quest 3: Audience with the Divine Envoy of Suffering】

【Incomplete】

Holy shit! She isn’t the Divine Envoy of Suffering!

Hold on, sister, who the hell are you then?

“What? You wish to offer me Suffering, but you are not sure who I am?”

The woman’s expression seemed a little disappointed.

“Time to punish a hypocritical believer.”

She waved a hand casually toward Wu Wang.

Instantly, an intense despair burst forth from the depths of his heart.

Almost subconsciously, Wu Wang clasped his own neck, squeezing as if he wanted to end his own life right then and there.

Within just a few seconds, his vision began to blacken from suffocation.

Just as he was about to choke himself to death, the woman snapped her fingers.

Snap.

Wu Wang immediately returned to normal.

He raised his head and began to gasp for air, the expression he gave her growing even more strange.

“Now, I will give you a chance.”

The woman’s expression was somewhat playful as she narrowed her eyes at Wu Wang.

“Speak my venerable name, and I will grant you the miracle you desire.”

She seemed to be anticipating the answer that would come from his lips.

Her small, crystal-like feet rested on the Skull Throne, her toes as smooth and perfect as jade. She crossed her legs, revealing even more skin from beneath the gray gauze.

Even as the oppressive aura emanating from her made one tremble uncontrollably, a conflicting desire arose. A desire to destroy and torture her.

The thought swirled ceaselessly in Wu Wang’s mind.

It was as if he would do anything just to bring Suffering upon her.

She was the source of all Suffering.

She would also bear all Suffering.

Everything she had revealed since her appearance proved one thing.

She was the 【Suffering】 the nun believed in.

However, Wu Wang did not speak immediately.

He just frowned in deep thought.

After a full half-minute, a glint of madness flashed in his eyes. He licked his slightly chapped lips.

Wu Wang said, word by word, “You are not the representative of 【Suffering】.”

“You are the incarnation of 【Desire】.”

“Your venerable name is the 【Spirit Venerable of the Sea of Desire】!”

Whoosh!

The moment his voice fell, the Skull Throne beneath the woman began to collapse.

In the blink of an eye, it turned into a filthy, viscous black liquid. The liquid began to grow continuously, and in an instant, it filled the entire white space like a great sea.

Wu Wang’s figure was immediately submerged in the black, viscous substance.

Submerged deep within, he felt no suffocation. Instead, a sense of ease and pleasure spread through his body and mind, making him feel light and airy. He wanted to sink forever into this black filth.

But this feeling only lasted for a moment.

The Red Vertical Pupil on his wrist seemed to blink in dissatisfaction.

Wu Wang instantly regained his clarity.

He immediately began to swim, breaking the surface of the sea.

“Hahaha… Interesting…”

The woman’s voice appeared again.

“You mortal, you truly are a delight.”

“Why did you think I was the Spirit Venerable of the Sea of Desire, and not the Lord of Suffering?”

Having finally managed to surface, Wu Wang saw her treading upon the black filth. Every surge of the ocean’s waves was a great change triggered by her every move.

Wu Wang was now certain. She was definitely the target of William’s faith, the source of the Mary‘s power, the being the Calamity Cult wanted to usurp. The Spirit Venerable of the Sea of Desire.

He smiled and said, “Because the punishment you bestowed just now contained no Suffering. It was filled with Desire. The desire to yearn for death.”

No one understood the desire to die better than he did.

The moment he started choking himself, he had sensed the incongruity. He hadn’t felt suffering from the act. He had even felt a hint of anticipation.

Wasn’t this familiar feeling the exact same as that period right after he gained 【Undying】, when his mind was filled with nothing but suicide?

And then there was the appearance of 【Mary’s Call】.

It had been simply too abrupt.

In Wu Wang’s speculation, the Lord of Suffering or the power of The Twisted in Aiguyi Town had to be at least at the level of a Divine Envoy. The Mary, however, had merely received power granted by the 【Spirit Venerable of the Sea of Desire】.

It couldn’t have arrived here smoothly, not in a place where the powers of two different faiths clashed. That’s why Wu Wang had planned to first understand the 【Miracle of Suffering】 and use its methods to allow the Mary to arrive.

What’s more, the Spiritual Calamity Game had stated from the very beginning that it would seal the players’ items. The 【Fake Smile Mask】 was something the Abyss God had forcefully allowed him to keep.

Then what about 【Mary’s Call】? How did it appear in his pocket?

If it could enter here directly, why didn’t it appear back in Aiguyi Town? It didn’t even appear during his first experience of the Day of Extinction.

There was only one possibility.

It was sent in midway by some being on the same level as the Lord of Suffering and the power of The Twisted.

The Spirit Venerable of the Sea of Desire smiled sweetly at Wu Wang’s explanation.

“Indeed, you are an interesting mortal. You eliminated Little William, yet you have no desire for my power.”

“You tried to communicate with Suffering in various ways, yet there isn’t a shred of faith in you.”

“You carry the aura of those two bird-men with different-sized eyes, yet you have not become their Representative.”

“And you have the mark of that Little Penguin on you. How can a weak being like you have the ability to offend him?”

“You sank into the Sea of Desire for only a moment, and your only desire was to seek death?”

“Tell me, what do you truly want?”

Pat.

The moment her voice fell, the Sea of Filth beneath Wu Wang’s feet seemed to solidify. He, too, was now able to stand on the surface of the sea.

Faced with her question, he was also thinking about what she wanted.

A being like this knew so many of his secrets. Had she been watching them since the moment William died?

The bird-men with different-sized eyes she mentioned… couldn’t be the Cherub and the Wheel within a Wheel Alien Angel, could they?

Holy shit! Such a mocking name!

The 【Spirit Venerable of the Sea of Desire】 was a being at least on equal footing with a Divine Envoy.

According to the information he had tortured out of Ms. Black Cat, William had said that among the countless Instance Worlds, there were a total of five Venerables.

Did that mean all five were at the Divine Envoy level?

Wait…

As he thought of this, an imperceptible smile lifted the corners of Wu Wang’s mouth. He thought he’d figured out why she had appeared on her own, even before he had contacted Mary.

He made a bolder guess. What if 【Suffering】 and 【The Twisted】 were also two of these five Venerables?

Although he didn’t know the specifics of the situation between the Five Great Venerables, judging from how 【The Twisted】 was influencing the believers of 【Suffering】 in Aiguyi Town, there had to be at least a competitive, hostile relationship between them.

This meant the 【Spirit Venerable of the Sea of Desire】 before him had clearly come to stir up trouble. Or rather, as long as she could make things difficult for the other two Venerables, she would be quite pleased.

It was time to gamble.

Wu Wang believed in his own judgment.

The contemplation in his eyes vanished, replaced by determination and madness. He looked at the Spirit Venerable of the Sea of Desire in the distance.

“I want to have some fun.”

“And the greatest fun right now is messing up 【The Twisted】’s arrangements here. If I can drag 【Suffering】 into the mess too, that would be even better!”

“Oh, great Spirit Venerable of the Sea of Desire!”

“Are you willing to let me spread your faith here? To let your power intervene in this place?”

“I will make the believers of 【Suffering】 bow at your feet! I will quell the influence of 【The Twisted】!”

Using the power of the 【Spirit Venerable of the Sea of Desire】 to achieve a 【Miracle of Suffering】.

Wasn’t this just a divine form of NTR?

Now it all depended on what her tastes were.