Free Web NovelChapter 144: Chapter 144: What Do You Want?
The noisy voices in the dungeon all vanished, leaving only Jiang Che and the others standing in place.
A large bulge rose up in the ground ahead, and bright red blood kept seeping out of the black soil.
The black land turned scarlet, the bulge on the surface slowly sank down, and then gradually returned to its original state.
Jiang Che frowned. He could control the land within a certain range, and sense the changes inside it.
With both Earth Escape and Gravity Field, he could feel the subtle shifts within his area of control.
He sensed that all the people underground had vanished.
Over a thousand corpses had now completely disappeared.
The blood-soaked earth instantly returning to normal wasn’t his doing either.
Jiang Che stared silently at that patch of ground, feeling at the very bottom of the earth, something was ravenously devouring the bones and flesh of these humans.
He was the one who had slaughtered them, yes, but the disappearance of the remains wasn’t his work.
Seeing Jiang Che spacing out, Hua poked his arm, subtly increasing the pressure.
Only when she confirmed Jiang Che still didn’t waver, did she become certain: Jiang Che now was no longer that pushover who’d topple over with a tap.
Now he had the power to casually wipe out over a thousand Survivors—and not just ordinary ones; to Hua, even Tier Ten was nothing worth mentioning.
But that only proved Jiang Che’s strength was now extraordinary.
Because even Tier Ten Survivors were now trivial to Jiang Che.
"What are you looking at?" Hua asked in confusion, following his gaze.
Isn’t it just a killing field?
"He might just be uncomfortable," Zhou Ang spoke up to explain for Jiang Che. "We humans are like this; killing people for the first time always makes you feel a bit unsettled."
He himself had never killed anyone before—even if these people had wanted them dead, killing them in return made sense.
But when he saw the endless red blood bubbling up from the black soil, a chill crept over his heart.
Especially seeing the black earth stained red, the blood then vanishing—there was something unspeakably eerie about the scene.
"The bodies are gone," Jiang Che frowned.
Hua was startled; she hadn’t noticed before, but when she tried to sense it now, it was true—not a trace of blood remained in that spot.
In the void, the nine Lords burst out laughing.
"We were trying to set it up so those humans would die in despair and terror, didn’t expect it all to end so quickly." The Lord of Dungeon 2 laughed shrilly.
Beneath the black shadowy mists, a bird’s head lifted high, cawing with delight and pride.
The Lord Black Crow of Dungeon 2 reveled in the surging energy, the portal rapidly taking shape, solidified by blood and flesh.
This time, they used human blood and flesh to strengthen the portal—without lifting a finger, counting on humans to slaughter each other.
Because to link both worlds, the portal needed elements from each; they provided the energy, human flesh and blood served as reinforcement.
But if they did the killing themselves, human flesh would be tainted by evil spirit energy.
Corrupted, no longer pure, the portal would be unstable.
They’d thought it would take all kinds of schemes to make humans turn on each other and die off bit by bit; they’d even designed those team-representing bracelets for this purpose.
They expected it would take a long time. Who would have thought, after Jiang Che’s intervention, every one of them would be wiped out so quickly.
Black Crow couldn’t help but screech. Opening the portal came with pros and cons; for him, the benefits far outweighed the drawbacks.
"Looks like we wronged Ding Ning before. He’s a human, yet he’s siding with us." He chuckled, turning his gaze toward Ding Ning.
Ding Ning closed her eyes. Jiang Che killed too fast—even before she could finish manipulating the portal.
With human flesh as an expansion, the portal was stabilizing faster than she imagined.
But she didn’t blame Jiang Che. She merely sighed.
The merging of the two worlds wouldn’t happen instantly—it would still take some time.
She only hoped Jiang Che could use this brief period to see whatever sights he wished to see.
Once the two worlds fused, both humans and evil spirits would plunge into madness.
She herself had no idea what that world would become.
"He’s only doing what he thinks is right." Ding Ning’s expression didn’t change. She neither blamed Jiang Che for ruining her plan nor tried to tell him what he should or shouldn’t do.
If he’d really been wronged by those people, he had every right to kill them.
"In any case, we have him to thank for this—keh keh keh..." Black Crow didn’t care. He’d already started spreading his territory’s aura along the portal.
The first evil spirit to invade the Human Realm was bound to face the fiercest resistance from mankind.
That was the downside, but the upside was even more obvious—he got to expand his turf ahead of the other Lords.
Their strengths didn’t differ much. Once territory was claimed, few Lords would risk tearing things apart to snatch it by force.
And besides, the human world was huge. He hadn’t seen anything particularly worth fighting over yet; there was no competition for now.
"Fine, then open the exit for him and let him leave," Ding Ning said, her tone half-smiling as she looked at Black Crow.
Black Crow’s crooked grin froze on his face. "Unless I’m mistaken, that man of yours has already reached S-rank Lord level, hasn’t he?"
"He can come and go from any dungeon at will—whether rampaging through the Dark Forest or riding the bus."
"And you want me to open the exit for him?" Black Crow was displeased.
Every Lord’s territory had an exit to the human world. If humans wanted to get stronger, to obtain power, they had to use that exit.
If Jiang Che left via the Dark Forest or the bus, he still remained in the Evil Spirit Realm. He’d need to leave through a dungeon exit eventually.
"So, what’s in it for me?" He looked at Ding Ning—not rejecting her demand, but not accepting it either.
When humans clear a dungeon, they’re really siphoning some of a Lord’s territory’s essence, which takes a long time to recover. Especially first completions—they might only get Tier Five Peak experience, but the Lords lose even more than that.
Still, it’s not enough to cause lasting harm.
But in this world, anything can be traded.
Some recoverable essence, nothing vital, in exchange for something useful or advantageous—it’s a pretty good deal whichever way you look at it.
"What do you want?" Ding Ning asked, watching him as Black Crow’s head became clearer beneath the haze.
Ding Ning suddenly heard a telepathic message, Black Crow’s voice in her mind,
"I’ve guessed your intentions. You want him to clear ten dungeons and collect the source power from each one."
