Chapter 216: Can You Help Me Recruit a Group of Humans?
Among all the countless seeds Dark Star has planted, Leng Feng is definitely the most mature one.
You could say he’s the foundation, the main pillar of Dark Star.
Maybe at first, what Dark Star gave Leng Feng was the same as what was given to the other seeds, but afterwards, Leng Feng undoubtedly received more, and perhaps had the best talent.
Children with talent will always get a little more favor, even if it’s an evil spirit raising their seeds.
At first, she actually wanted Jiang Che to swallow up Leng Feng.
Given Jiang Che’s strength, and with her help, it would be easy to devour Dark Star’s power.
Besides, since he’d already devoured part of Dark Star’s power before, the chance of backlash would be very low.
And with it done this way, she could make sure that the most important asset of Dark Star would die by her own hand.
Then, when dealing with Dark Star, there’d be no need to worry about any hidden threats.
Dark Star’s chess pieces are hidden well; he never told anyone who his pieces were.
The reason Dark Star dares to act so recklessly is because he’s sure that, once the passage is open, the Lords can’t destroy all his seeds in a flash.
Especially not those few strongest ones.
Leng Feng’s power is not weak; ending him takes some real effort—he’s not just an ant you can casually crush on the roadside.
As long as he’s able to sense things in time and takes his seed back, targeting him is meaningless for the other Lords.
What she never expected was that Leng Feng would blow his own cover right in front of Jiang Che, telling Jiang Che he was Dark Star’s seed.
Given his power, it was easy to deduce that he was the strongest seed in Dark Star’s hand.
There definitely wouldn’t be too many seeds like him—no matter where they are on the food chain, there’s always a pyramid shape.
The ones at the top are always a minority.
Maybe Dark Star would have another seed at Leng Feng’s level, but never too many.
So if Leng Feng dies, it’s absolutely the most crucial blow to ruining Dark Star’s plan.
Leng Feng’s intent to rebel wasn’t hard to guess—there’s just no way to control a person absolutely in heart and mind.
If you erase all consciousness and make someone a puppet, that puppet will never amount to much.
Having a mindless puppet go train and having a split-off part of yourself grow—what’s the difference?
But if this puppet has his own will to challenge dungeons, to grow, to get stronger—
And with hatred as motivation, his growth rate will be unimaginable.
The first time Ding Ning learned about Leng Feng, she wanted to kill him.
But she didn’t, because Jiang Che seemed to get along well with Leng Feng, and Leng Feng was kind to Jiang Che too.
She didn’t want to do anything that would make Jiang Che sad.
She hates when others act on their own, doing things she doesn’t understand under the pretense of being "for her own good."
And she won’t use "for someone else’s good" as a reason to hurt the people close to her, either.
Killing Leng Feng is the best way to get rid of Dark Star, but there’s never only one way to accomplish something.
A math problem can be solved in many ways, but teachers always teach the simplest, most efficient solution.
But sometimes, she doesn’t mind playing the fool and taking the long way around.
As long as the end result is good, that’s all that matters.
What’s the harm in a few extra steps.
"So, what do you think? Do I sound pretty harsh?" After saying this, she lowered her voice and asked Jiang Che, as if realizing she’d been a bit too harsh just now.
"How could I think that!" Jiang Che shook his head immediately, even though Ding Ning couldn’t see it now.
He understood Ding Ning’s strength better than anyone; if she wanted Leng Feng dead, it’d be simple.
If she wanted to kill him, there’d have been no need to wait until now.
If, in the future, Ding Ning ever did want to kill Leng Feng, it’d only be because Leng Feng had to die.
If that day ever comes, Jiang Che won’t let Ding Ning handle it herself.
He and Leng Feng know each other, but they’re hardly friends—at best, they’re just familiar strangers.
"Ning, what if those landscapes really disappear when you come over?" Jiang Che hesitated for a moment, sitting on the hospital bed by the window.
Outside the window are striped railings.
The sun has set; maybe because of the Dark Forest, tonight feels way darker than usual, even though the night’s only just begun.
There was no moon, and when he holds his hand up against the white-hazed sky, all he can see is a still darker shadow.
The night grows even darker.
"If they’re gone, they’re gone. The old views are gone, but now we have new things to see." Ding Ning sat in her chair, tilting her head.
She didn’t really know what Jiang Che was talking about.
Jiang Che could still see pictures on his phone, but she’d never even seen the images.
All she could do was imagine—she couldn’t picture lofty peaks blanketed in snow, or waterfalls pouring down from a height.
The things Jiang Che talked about, she couldn’t even form images of them in her mind.
She sat on her throne, hugging her knees, nibbling at her fingers in little bites.
She counted on her fingers, "I heard in Feihu’s dad’s dungeon there are lots of eyeballs. I can also take you to the Rabbit-man’s Dark Rabbit Cave, or to Six-Star Pond to see a real rules dungeon..."
"When I used to sneak in to play, trying to guess the rules was really exciting. I lost quite a few of my controlled servants that way."
She started telling Jiang Che about things from her side.
"Emmm..." Jiang Che was stunned for a moment. "Can you still sneak in these days?"
"Of course! What’s so fun about those free dungeons?"
"Sounds a bit like those script murder games I used to hear about," Jiang Che said, lowering his head and thinking. The way Ding Ning talked about cracking rules really reminded him of how the nurses chatted about script games before all the weirdness started.
"Sounds pretty fun, actually."
"Yeah, even if we can’t go to those places, we’ll have more and more things to do together in the future."
Ding Ning counted on her fingers, trying to comfort Jiang Che.
Her half-closed eyes held a little hint of disappointment too.
It was because she’d never seen those things, and couldn’t imagine them, that she longed for them even more.
An eyeball-filled dungeon at least sounded more interesting to her.
As a Lord, she’d seen all kinds of strange things anyway.
"Alright!" As Jiang Che spoke to Ding Ning, he went back into his own asylum.
Following Ding Ning’s instructions, he used his Spiritual Power to start making a living area, separate from the place where the dungeon challengers would come through.
That way, the humans living in his dungeon wouldn’t be disturbed by challengers.
After chatting with Ding Ning a little longer, Jiang Che reluctantly cut off the connection.
He went to look for Feihu, who seemed to be in the hall video chatting with her father.
When Feihu saw Jiang Che coming, she nodded at her phone and hung up.
"Sorry to bother you so late, but I have a question..."
"Could you help me recruit a group of humans to live in my dungeon?"