The blood-red sun hung high in the sky, casting a gloomy haze over the entire land.
Ahead lay a village reduced to ruins, overrun by mutated demon rats scurrying about in search of edible flesh.
Human bones stripped bare of flesh littered the ground.
A scene straight out of a living hell.
“Squeak squeak.”
Suddenly, one of the demon rats seemed to sense something, pausing its search for food and lifting its head to sniff the air.
Its eyes immediately flashed with a bloody red glow.
“SQUEEAAAK!!!”
With a piercing shriek, the silent village was instantly filled with the cries of rats.
At the same time—
From all directions, a dense swarm of mutated rats poured out.
“So many…”
Chongchong stared at the vast sea of black rats on the ground ahead, her heart nearly pounding out of her throat as she edged closer to Chen Xiaoyan.
[Mutated Rat, Level 2]
Seeing the monster’s level prompt above its head, Chen Xiaoyan pulled out her Spring Breeze Umbrella.
Though these creatures were low-level—the lowest she had encountered so far—their sheer numbers were overwhelming.
Just a glance revealed at least a thousand.
Even if they wore her down slowly, they could eventually take her out.
“Shence Mansion, take the rooftop. Xiaoyue, handle ranged attacks. Mu Qingxue and the rest, move around and attack. After each combo, fall back immediately.”
Without hesitation, Chen Xiaoyan quickly rearranged the team’s formation.
The goddess-class Shence warrior with the ID “Hongchen Rumeng” excitedly pulled out her long spear from her backpack and leapt into the air.
“Break!”
With an outrageously dramatic battle cry, she transformed into a meteor, crashing into the swarm of mutated rats.
“Boom~” The earth shook, dirt flying everywhere as over a hundred demon rats were violently sent flying into the air, entering a floating state.
“Slash Across Eight Directions!”
Hongchen Rumeng gripped the spear’s end and executed a 360-degree flawless horizontal sweep.
The golden spear light sent every floating rat flying further away.
After that combo, the hundred rats were left with barely a sliver of health.
“Sis Hongchen is awesome! So fierce!”
Chongchong watched the stunning scene with sparkling eyes, itching to step forward and unleash a flurry of punches herself.
“Aren’t you scared anymore?”
“Eh?”
Chongchong blinked, a bit confused by the question.
Chen Xiaoyan smiled with a hint of displeasure in her gaze.
“You were really scared just now, weren’t you? What’s going on now?”
“Sister Xiaoyan, don’t you think Sis Hongchen is really cool?”
Chongchong blinked her big watery eyes, looking completely innocent.
“So, who do you think is cooler, her or me?”
Seeing Chen Xiaoyan’s expression grow colder, Chongchong suddenly understood.
She stuck out her pink tongue and weakly muttered, “My bad.”
But inside, she was thrilled.
Is Sister Xiaoyan jealous of me?
“Hehehe, this is so fun.”
“What are you giggling about now?”
“Guess.”
Chongchong’s face was practically glowing with sweetness, as if she’d just eaten honey.
“Stop laughing and heal your Sis Hongchen already.”
“Okay okay.”
At this moment, Hongchen Rumeng’s skills had run out, and she had to rely on physical defense.
Activating her super armor, a golden aura strengthened her body, allowing her to withstand hundreds of rat attacks.
Less than half a minute passed, and her health was down to a quarter.
The Shence Mansion’s super armor reduced damage somewhat, but even with 3200 HP, it couldn’t hold out for half a minute.
That showed just how absurd the damage from the mutated rats was.
“Ouch ouch ouch… Milk mage, heal me fast!”
Hongchen Rumeng gritted her teeth in pain.
She hadn’t expected the pain threshold in this dungeon to be even higher than in the Demon Suppression Tower.
“Spring Breeze Draw”
“Healing Spell”
Chen Xiaoyan and Chongchong quickly unleashed their skills, boosting Hongchen’s health back to half.
Meanwhile, the other half of the rat swarm bypassed Hongchen Rumeng and instead targeted Liu Yue and Mu Qingxue.
“Chongchong, I’ve got Hongchen covered. Watch over Xiaoyue and Mu Qingxue. If you can’t keep up with healing, shout.”
“Got it.”
Chen Xiaoyan stepped forward, opened her Spring Breeze Umbrella, and tossed it behind Hongchen Rumeng, activating Umbrella Dance Healing.
The healing range was small, so she had to stay close.
Since only Hongchen was tanking at the front, the umbrella automatically targeted her for continuous healing.
[+450]
[+450]
Hongchen Rumeng watched her HP bar rapidly fill—fully healed in just four or five seconds.
She was so shocked she forgot to attack.
She turned back with all her might and roared, “Milk mage, you’re unstoppable!!!”
Mu Qingxue and Liu Yue were stunned by the constant healing prompts above the Shence warrior’s head.
Are Tianxiang healers really this powerful now?
They’d heard about Tianxiang players before, but at this stage, the highest healing was only around 100 HP per second—even combining all skills.
But a single skill healing 450?
Was she cheating?
The two immediately shook their heads, dismissing the thought.
This wasn’t a traditional MMORPG—no idea where the server was located—how could anyone hack?
If not cheating, then…
Their eyes grew resolute.
“Xiaoyue, Mu Qingxue, what are you doing? Stop spacing out!”
Chen Xiaoyan shouted anxiously.
Startled, the two snapped back to reality and were horrified.
Nearly a hundred mutated rats had slipped past them, charging straight for the backline—Chongchong and Chen Xiaoyan.
“Trouble!”
Liu Yue shouted, spinning around to block the rats.
But someone was faster.
Mu Qingxue left a lingering afterimage and instantly teleported into the rat swarm with a flash of her sword.
“Sword Light, Cold Shadow.”
The white-clad sword immortal’s face was as cold as still water as she vanished.
“Whoosh whoosh whoosh!”
Four sword illusions slashed through the air, cutting down every rat within ten meters into sparkling fragments.
A third of the hundred charging rats were wiped out instantly.
“Squeak squeak!”
The remaining rats, enraged by the attack, focused their hate on Mu Qingxue and lunged at her.
But her teleport was still on cooldown.
She had no choice but to face them head-on.
“Trace-Free Sword Qi.”
Mu Qingxue swung her sword, sending a crescent-shaped white sword energy downwards, carving a trench in the earth.
But the sword qi’s range was small, inflicting minimal casualties on the rats.
Within moments, the tens of rats closed in.
Unlike Shence Mansion, Shu Mountain had almost no defense, and Mu Qingxue’s health bar was vanishing much faster.
In less than ten seconds, more than half her HP was gone.
“Spring Breeze Draw, Drizzle Embracing Light.”
At that moment, a pink spiritual cord connected to the tightly biting Mu Qingxue’s palm.
“What’s this?”
Mu Qingxue tried to touch the cord but felt nothing, as if it didn’t exist.
Moreover, since the cord appeared, the pain from rat bites had noticeably lessened.
“This is my recovery skill—Leash… cough, Drizzle Embracing Light.”
“You said ‘Leash’ just now, right?”
“Did I? Maybe you misheard?”
“Stare…”
“Ah! Mu Qingxue, forget that! Move! Your HP’s almost gone!”
Chen Xiaoyan anxiously urged as she watched Mu Qingxue’s health drop dangerously low.
“Milk mage!!! Heal! Please heal!”
Hearing the cry, Chen Xiaoyan glanced forward to see Hongchen Rumeng surrounded and beaten by hundreds of rats, her Shence warrior outfit torn, a brief glimpse of skin showing.
Under normal circumstances, she might have appreciated the view, but now was clearly no time.
“Hongchen Rumeng, take a few steps toward me.”
“Ok!”
Hongchen Rumeng swept her spear in a wide arc, clearing space around her before spinning and breaking into a run.