Chapter 243: The Cruelest Trial for Jiang Che
Humans only feel fear towards the unknown.
Ding Ning trusted Jiang Che completely, because after learning about evil spirits, Jiang Che no longer feared other unknown evil spirits.
In the Evil Spirit Realm, most dungeons are of the escape type; as long as you find the exit and escape, you’ve cleared the level. The obstacles along the way are the various evil spirits or the Lord of that dungeon.
Kill them, or avoid them and make it to the exit—that’s considered a win.
"Isn’t killing a Lord totally unrealistic?" Jiang Che leaned into Ding Ning’s embrace, his eyes fixing on the trial’s entrance not far away, a trace of doubt rising within them.
Lords are almost impossible to kill, and ordinary people simply can’t deal with them. If a Lord takes action, there’s basically no chance for any Survivor in there to make it out alive.
"Yeah, it’s unrealistic. So, have you ever seen a Lord personally take action to kill a Survivor inside a dungeon?" Ding Ning let out a soft sigh. Since dungeons help Lords grow stronger, naturally, there are also drawbacks.
"The drawback is: unless it’s a Lord-level challenger, or a Survivor actively seeks out the Lord of this dungeon for a duel, otherwise—no matter who comes to challenge the dungeon—the only killing moves that can be used are the ones set up inside the dungeon."
This is also why everyone keeps a group of powerful subordinates.
When facing Survivors, Lords can choose to use every killing move in the dungeon to punish them, or choose to disable all those killing moves entirely.
Unless Jiang Che takes the initiative to attack them, they simply have no way to personally deal with him inside their own dungeons.
Jiang Che nodded, finally giving Ding Ning’s shoulder a tight hug.
"I’m going." He didn’t linger in nostalgia; time was tight, and he didn’t have much left.
"Mm. Whatever you need..." Ding Ning paused at this point and didn’t say more. Even as a Lord, she couldn’t pour every bit of knowledge about dungeon clearing directly into Jiang Che’s mind.
Most Lords’ dungeons are of the escape type. These dungeons are different from the repetitive checkpoints Jiang Che is used to. The evil spirits in a Lord’s domain are all sorts of weird creatures, and the tricks they use also differ greatly.
She had no way of knowing exactly what kind of enemies Jiang Che would face.
Ding Ning was also afraid she’d give Jiang Che incorrect dungeon info. The concept of humans documenting dungeons and writing walkthroughs was something she’d never really approved of.
It might work for clearing small dungeons, but for some top-tier ones, too much info just becomes a mental burden instead.
For the top experts, they’d never expose their trump cards.
If their dungeon information leaked out, then it must be a trap.
So, except for the rule dungeons, she wouldn’t tell Jiang Che any rules of any dungeon, nor tell him what to do or how to deal with the checkpoints.
She knew that if Jiang Che met something in another dungeon that was different from what she had told him, he’d most likely still trust what she said.
In deadly situations, the thing you ought to trust most is your own instincts.
So, she wouldn’t tell Jiang Che any information. This special training was to make him sense all danger himself, and figure out his own solutions.
Of course, the content of Dungeon No.1—the rule dungeon—never changes; some things could still be reminded.
Previously, Ding Ning sent in various controlled evil spirits or clones, but until now, none of them had cleared it even once.
In a rule dungeon, a single misstep could lead to step after step of mistakes.
"Remember, I’ll always be waiting for you." Ding Ning was as tall as Jiang Che; she only needed to look at him eye-to-eye, lips-to-lips.
Her lips brushed against his—light as a dragonfly skimming water.
Jiang Che only felt a cold snowflake land on his lips, instantly melting and slipping between his teeth.
He took one last lingering look at Ding Ning, then turned and walked straight into the passage without looking back.
The passage was formless; even with each step, it never felt as if his feet truly touched the ground.
Darkness filled his view, but Jiang Che knew it wouldn’t last long.
Once light returned, his trial would begin.
Jiang Che had no idea how long he’d been in the darkness. The passage behind was already closed, and there was no exit ahead, either.
"Is this trial really a good idea?" Hua reappeared next to Ding Ning, looking at Jiang Che inside the passage with evident sympathy.
Before the two of them, another flat scene appeared.
Inside, Jiang Che looked like a headless fly—no idea where to go, no idea how much time had passed.
In the dark, any living thing will lose its sense of time.
Not to mention, the trial had already begun. She’d tampered with the challenger’s perception of time, so right now, Jiang Che could only feel like he’d been in the dark for an endlessly long time.
"This trial’s a bit cruel," Hua sighed.
Neither of them, not Ding Ning nor Hua, worried about Jiang Che running into other evil spirits.
For the two of them, any problem that could be solved by fighting wasn’t really a problem at all.
Combat skills can always be honed, and Jiang Che’s strength was already at SS level—within his rank, he virtually had no match.
But there are always things that can’t be solved by violence.
"But that’s what makes it the best trial," Ding Ning pursed her lips, looking at Jiang Che in the darkness, her throat tight, her voice trembling a little.
Jiang Che didn’t know how much time had passed; he only remembered that Ding Ning sent him into the trial, only remembered waiting for ages in the darkness, only remembered calling Ding Ning’s name over and over with no response.
Lost in the darkness without direction, he had no idea where to go.
He could only pick a random direction, not sure if his path was even straight ahead.
After a very, very long time, he almost forgot what he was supposed to do in this darkness.
A trial?
But what kind of trial is one set in complete darkness?
"Ning, where are you...?"
"How much time has passed...?"
"What am I doing here?"
"Did I go blind?"
"Who am I?"
...
He kept asking himself these sorts of questions in the dark, but never got any answers.
In the darkness, when he got tired, he’d lie down and sleep. Upon waking, it was still all black; he had no idea how long he’d slept.
Did he fail the trial?
Haunted by this question, Jiang Che drifted back into a heavy sleep.
"Hey! Jiang Che, wake up!" A familiar voice sounded in his dream, and Jiang Che struggled to open his eyes.
Having not seen light for so long, even opening his eyes was hard.
"Jiang Che! You’re going to be late! Hurry up and wake up!"
Blinding light poured into his vision; everything before him was blurry, and inside the white glow, only a faint gray silhouette was waving at him again and again.