Chapter 202: Chapter 202: Clean
A pawn of the evil spirits.
Leng Feng’s lips curled into a self-deprecating smile. After saying this, he gave up completely and sprawled out on the hospital bed without a care.
The bedboard beneath him was very hard, a stark contrast to the mattress he used to sleep on. Honestly, it had been a long time since he’d slept on such a hard surface.
In Jiang Che’s hospital room, even the sheet created by Spiritual Power felt stiff, but he found the firmness oddly comforting.
No rights, and no responsibilities.
He lay on the bed, eyes closed. His consciousness began to blur, and within moments of shutting his eyes, he drifted off to sleep.
The moment he closed his eyes, he suddenly snapped them open again.
Leng Feng shot upright in bed. He felt his forehead with his fingers, sensing the dampness there.
Cold sweat had already soaked through the shirt on his back.
He was shocked that he could fall asleep so easily in such a strange place.
Jiang Che was still beside him, seemingly unaware that Leng Feng had just nodded off.
Leng Feng could tell, this wasn’t an illusion from the Dungeon that made him sleep for a few seconds.
It was because, after revealing his secret, he’d allowed himself to relax naturally.
This feeling was like dozing off in high school class—though the nap was filled with anxiety and fleeting, those few minutes of rest were sweeter than any full night’s sleep.
Yeah, he’s a pawn.
That’s why, when telling someone like Jiang Che—also a pawn—he felt no psychological burden.
He propped himself up, sitting on the hospital bed, and pulled out a slightly flattened pack of cigarettes from his pocket.
There was only one left in the pack. With a snap of his fingers, a faint spark glimmered at the tip.
It had been a long time since he felt this relaxed.
He’d just taken a drag, smoke still in his mouth, when he caught the puzzled gaze Jiang Che was giving him.
"What do you mean by pawn?"
Jiang Che frowned, turning over the word in his mind. He’d heard it before, but didn’t understand the other meanings it might have.
He wasn’t stupid, he just needed real-world experience to understand a lot of things.
He’d never heard of this, nor learned about it before.
"A pawn..." Leng Feng pressed his temple, remembering Jiang Che’s background as a psychiatric patient—little formal knowledge, even less social experience.
"You know how to play chess, right? The chess pieces in the player’s hand are just like you and me. We have our own consciousness, but can’t decide our own moves."
"Wherever the player moves us, that’s where we go."
"I am."
"I know you are too... right?" His voice was somewhat heavy, eyes fixed unwaveringly on the burning cigarette.
As he spoke, he took a long, deep inhale, and the cigarette in his hand shortened by half instantly.
Gray-white ash drooped from the end, still clinging on, and then Jiang Che’s voice came from beside him.
"A pawn of the evil spirits? No, I’m not."
Jiang Che’s answer was so direct and self-assured that Leng Feng swallowed back what he was about to say.
"No, you must have some evil spirit you’re in contact with, right?" Leng Feng assumed Jiang Che just didn’t understand what pawn meant—like how psychiatric patients never admit they’re ill.
They never think there’s anything wrong with them, and Jiang Che didn’t think of himself as a pawn either.
He could only try to guide Jiang Che by helping him realize it.
Jiang Che nodded; he did, in fact, have an evil spirit he was in regular contact with.
"When you came out this time, they must have given you commands and a mission." Leng Feng wasn’t probing for secrets—he just wanted Jiang Che to know they were in this together, and also to let him know that he had a way to temporarily escape their control.
"Having everyone create Dungeons must be a task the evil spirit gave you."
He took another drag, the burning tip hot and almost gone.
"I have a way to briefly break free from the evil spirit’s control, but it doesn’t last long. I know creating Dungeons is the only way for humans to grow stronger, but if there are any traps or loopholes in it, I hope you’ll let me know."
His expression grew complicated. He knew the evil spirits weren’t monitoring them every second, even though pawns were always under their sway.
But a few little tricks here and there were still possible.
The evil spirits didn’t care about their pawns’ petty schemes—they were too confident to fear any plots or tricks.
These little tricks couldn’t change anything in the big picture anyway.
That’s why he dared to come to Jiang Che and ask, but if it was anything crucial, the moment Jiang Che spoke, the evil spirits would sense it.
He was making it clear to Jiang Che: if it’s something important, I have a skill to help you temporarily break free from their control.
The window is short, but long enough to explain things.
"There’s no trap!" Jiang Che looked at him in confusion, completely lost by what he was talking about.
"There’s absolutely nothing wrong with what I’m saying."
"This isn’t Ning’s mission. Telling you all about creating Dungeons is my own idea."
After Jiang Che spoke, Leng Feng just sighed. Mind if I check?
He walked to Jiang Che’s side and reached out his hand.
As long as he touched Jiang Che, he could detect related information.
It wasn’t any remarkable ability—he bore a mark left by Dark Star.
As long as he made contact and sensed the same evil spirit’s aura from someone, even if the sources differed, he’d know that person was also a pawn controlled by evil spirits.
He never determined if someone was under the evil spirits’ control just by asking ’Are you being controlled?’
If someone’s denial counted as proof, that would be absurd.
Jiang Che didn’t refuse his inspection. He always felt people misunderstood him and Ding Ning.
"Ning?" Leng Feng reached out and grasped Jiang Che’s hand.
"Is that the Lord who controls you?" No sooner had he spoken than his body froze in place.
Over the years, he’d examined too many people, and knew just how many pawns of evil spirits had infiltrated the upper echelons of humankind.
When humans cleared Dungeons, their inner powers were like a bowl of clear water, but once a mark was planted, it was like a drop of colored ink in the water.
The ink’s color varied depending on which Lord left it.
One drop of ink didn’t affect a bowl of water much, hardly noticeable without close inspection.
But next to clear water, you could see it wasn’t clean.
Power from the Evil Spirit Realm carried a resonance: once in the body, the energy stirred on its own.
He’d thought he’d sense the same from Jiang Che, and wanted to check which Lord controlled him.
He’d spent these years working in secret.
Growing stronger while investigating information about the Evil Spirit Realm.
The moment he touched Jiang Che, he sensed a completely pure energy.
Just like most ordinary people, his power was utterly pure, with not a trace of impurity.
This bowl of water was crystal clear.
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