I sighed and sat down. It’s true—I can only suppress my desires for now. The moment I try to do anything, those urges come crashing back. Heading in the opposite direction, I glanced at my chest. The wound there was starting to itch again.
Although Isabelle Frost was right, at this point I can’t even control my desires—just suppress them. Still, I decided to look around and see if anything stood out. The first place I went was that expanse filled with the petrified victims.
After walking slowly for about ten minutes, I arrived at the place with the human stone statues and looked around.
This is one of the more peculiar areas within the Forest of Desire. These stone statues are extremely fragile—just a light tap with your hand and they shatter, scattering into pieces that sink into the ground. Even a slight breeze can cause this to happen.
I planned to walk straight in and take a look. By now, the wound on my chest had calmed down, though it still throbbed faintly. I stepped into the area filled with statues and ventured deeper inside.
I’d been walking for ages and still couldn’t see the end. Looking back, the forest was already far behind me. I decided to turn back—after all, I was starving, and I didn’t want to miss another meal.
By the time I returned to the Forest of Desire, dusk had fallen. I hurried over to the stone table where food had appeared once again. Isabelle Frost was already about to sit down and eat.
"Miss Isabelle, let me eat first."
I said this, and Isabelle Frost nodded, then reminded me of something.
"Do you still need to go over and confirm?"
I nodded. When the plain rice appeared, I ate slowly, chewing each bite. After I finished, feeling satisfied, I walked to the riverbank, drank some water, crossed the river, and entered the woods on the other side. I was close to the area where we ate, and sure enough, as the wind blew, I caught a whiff of rot—the stench of a corpse.
It was the same woman again—Yvonne Yang was still eating the corpse of the woman from this morning. I couldn’t help but feel nauseated, quickly turning away and walking off. This was one of the stranger things in the Forest of Desire.
I clearly remembered that last time, I truly defeated her. After I beat her, the Desire Fiend didn’t appear again. But now, why does she still exist here? By the rules of the Forest of Desire, she should have long since turned to stone, becoming part of the forest. Yet here she was, wandering blankly in the woods across the river.
What exactly happened to make Yvonne Yang like this, to lose her heart? That glaring black hole in her chest—when I got close today and saw her eating human flesh, I felt sick. But thinking back, it was just like the last time I saw her in the Forest of Desire: a deep, bottomless darkness in her heart.
I returned to my small shelter beside the octagonal building and waited for sunset. Life here was dull, but I had to stay constantly on guard; if I slipped up, even a simple, low-level desire could swallow me whole.
I had to find a way to control my desires, not just suppress them. There were still many things waiting for me outside, but for now, I had to set them aside and focus on mastering my current power.
I reached out and gripped the Soulreaver Blade on my back. Ever since entering these woods, I’d noticed that the blade was eerily silent, and the five ghost souls inside me seemed to have vanished—they were completely out of contact.
"Tonight, I’ll try it out and see."
I said this, quietly sitting on the ground, planning to see if I could enter my instinctual space and take a look.
"I advise you not to do that, Ethan Zhang. You’ll die."
Upstairs, on the second floor, Isabelle Frost’s cold voice rang out. I gave up immediately—this wasn’t something I could solve by acting recklessly. I started to think hard about what desire really was.
Ultimately, desire is born from wanting to achieve a certain goal. In the world, everything people do can be called desire. But in the Forest of Desire, it’s different—drinking water, eating, even the slightest emotional fluctuation can bring deadly consequences.
It’s as if desire gets infinitely magnified here. For example, if I want to drink water, that thought gets magnified until I’d drink the whole river. If I don’t suppress it, my body can’t handle it, and I’d become part of the river itself.
Control is especially important here. Suddenly, I seemed to understand something, recalling my previous fight with John Chou—I felt as if I’d had a breakthrough.
Thinking carefully, John Chou wasn’t really fighting me. He knew well that with his weakened body and me just having turned into a fiend, he stood no chance. Yet he still used up his ghost energy, fighting me with instinct.
A smile crept onto my face—control, that’s what I lack most right now. Just as Hugh Thompson said, power is strong, but fighting without technique is pointless.
Technique is honed little by little. That’s what I need to do now—refine my control. John Chou used his last bit of ghost energy to make me suffer at the start. Every time he used it, it was meaningful—meant to make me suffer. In reality, he succeeded.
Looking back, in my fight with him, after I destroyed his power with a single blow, the baleful energy in my body was instantly depleted. If the Yin ghosts hadn’t helped me recover, I would have lost. Before, I’d recklessly used my power for one thing only—to defeat John Chou.
"That was a mistake."
I muttered. Hugh Thompson had said before that the ghost souls in my body were powerful, but they didn’t really cooperate at all. My strength was scattered, like loose sand, because all I knew was how to fight with brute force.
Once, maybe twice, my strength and my enemy’s might be on the same level—or slightly weaker—and I’d have a chance to win. But luck won’t favor me forever. My heart began to ache faintly. Suddenly, warm arms wrapped around my neck from behind, and a sweet fragrance filled the air.
"Qingyuan..."
I let out a muffled sound. Behind me, the one embracing me was the phantom of Rachel Lan. Desire had struck again. The moment I thought of Rachel Lan, I smiled—kept smiling—and then placed a hand over hers.
"Sorry, Rachel, I’m still so useless. But don’t worry, even if I’m a bit slow, I’ll put in more effort than anyone else to truly master everything."
As I spoke, Rachel Lan’s phantom faded away. I managed to suppress my desire and then stepped out of my shelter.
"It’s already night, Ethan Zhang. What do you plan to do?"
Isabelle Frost asked.
"I can’t wait any longer. I want to truly master how to control desire."
"The Forest of Desire at night isn’t like the daytime—it’s filled with murderous intent. If daytime is human, then nighttime is ghost."
Isabelle Frost said. I nodded. Sure enough, as soon as I stepped out of my shelter, I felt the cold wind biting. I couldn’t help but shiver—I planned to head to the riverbank.
I was exhausted—waves of sleepiness kept washing over me. I rubbed my sore eyes and kept walking. Under the moonlight, the woods around me felt even more dangerous than during the day.
Suddenly, a road covered in thorns appeared before me. It was because I wanted to go to the riverbank. Looking at the ground, thorns sprang up—each one sharp and menacing. I smiled.
"So that’s how it is? At night, desire is even stronger and more dangerous than during the day."
During the day, I could successfully suppress all kinds of desires, but at night, it seemed impossible. I kept moving forward. By now, thorns surrounded me on all sides, as if determined not to let me pass.
I did my best to restrain my desires, calming my heart completely. Otherwise, even the slightest thought of reaching the riverbank would trigger them. I walked forward slowly.
I emptied my mind, just walking forward. Gradually, the black thorns blocking my path disappeared. I’d succeeded, but I was still wandering aimlessly in the woods.
Gradually, I seemed to figure out how to suppress desire while walking at night. My eyes were still dry. I reached the riverbank and stared at the rushing, turbulent water, its surface glowing with a blackish-green light and giving off a pungent stench.
It was a poisonous river, swift and deep. I stepped slowly to the edge, and things started to make sense.
"I’m thirsty. I’ll drink a little."
As I spoke, I reached into the river. The water sizzled against my skin—I grimaced as my flesh dissolved, exposing bone. Still, I scooped up the black-green water and drank it.
It was like swallowing fire—the water burned my throat all the way down to my stomach. My hands had been corroded to bone by the water. I planned to cross the river, standing up and constantly suppressing the pain that felt like burning. Black blood kept flowing from the corner of my mouth.