Originally, Chen Xiaoyan thought that her damage mitigation with the Divine Strategy Mansion was sufficient, but now it seemed a bit insufficient.
Once the number of monsters increased, the formation completely collapsed.
Chen Xiaoyan had an inexplicable confidence in her own healing abilities, which was why she hadn’t bothered to inquire about the dungeon before entering.
Her single-target healing was strong, but for group healing, she only had one skill: the Huifeng Umbrella. However, its cooldown was too long, so it could only be used as a last resort.
Because of this, when facing group attacks from monsters, she became completely at a loss.
Ultimately, her lack of group healing skills—or if only the Huifeng Umbrella’s cooldown was shorter—would have easily solved this problem.
“Inchong, you focus on healing Hongchen. If you can’t keep up, take the damage for her a few seconds. Xiaoyue, same for you—alternate pulling monster aggro and tanking damage. Remember, don’t keep going if you’re low on health. Fall back and wait for healing.”
“Got it.”
Inchong and Liu Yue nodded, maneuvering around the mutated rats to assist Hongchen.
Then, Chen Xiaoyan turned to Mu Qingxue’s bodyguard, Sanxue, her expression grave.
“You guys go help as well. Do as I said—frontline can’t collapse.”
Sanxue looked at Mu Qingxue, as if to ask her opinion.
At this moment, Mu Qingxue was dodging attacks from the mutated rats.
Noticing that the three of them hadn’t moved, she turned back with slight anger.
“Chen Xiaoyan is the team leader. Why are you looking at me?”
Sanxue and the other two were female bodyguards assigned by Mu Qingxue’s parents to protect her.
When purchasing their Game Helmets, they had casually bought some for the bodyguards too, for convenience in playing together.
Chen Xiaoyan glanced at Sanxue.
It was clear these three female players were not recruited by Mu Qingxue in-game.
Ordinary players wouldn’t be this obedient.
This only confirmed that Mu Qingxue’s real identity was not ordinary.
Come to think of it, who else could afford to spend two hundred thousand for one dungeon run?
“Umbrella Dance Heal, Spring Breeze Draw”
Once the cooldown ended, Chen Xiaoyan immediately cast her strongest single-target healing skill, ending the ‘pull dog’ mode.
[+675]
[+675]
With such terrifying instant recovery, as long as she wasn’t one-shot, she wouldn’t die within a few seconds.
Seeing this, Chen Xiaoyan immediately sat down to restore Xiangyi Art.
Umbrella Dance Heal and Mu Yu Hanguang both required fifty Xiangyi Art to cast.
Having used so many skills, she now had only one hundred forty-five Xiangyi left. If she didn’t find an opportunity to recover soon, she would have to resort to ‘dry nursing’—a humiliating situation.
Ten seconds passed and the healing effect faded. Meanwhile, more than a dozen mutated rats were laid to rest beneath Mu Qingxue’s sword.
She seemed to understand Chen Xiaoyan couldn’t heal her at the moment, so she began some slippery dodging.
It took over twenty seconds before her health bar finally hit the bottom.
“Heal!” Mu Qingxue gritted her teeth and spat out the word.
With her drastically reduced stats, if she didn’t speak up now, she would really be done for.
Forty seconds!
Chen Xiaoyan opened her eyes and instantly cast Spring Breeze Draw and Umbrella Dance Heal, bringing Mu Qingxue’s health bar back up.
The timing was perfect—her Xiangyi Art was fully restored.
With healing, Mu Qingxue’s health and stats returned to full, and she quickly swept away those dozens of mutated rats.
At the same time, the front line’s wheel-like damage mitigation was perfectly executed.
Thanks to Inchong’s healing, although all six were at low health, no one died.
When Umbrella Dance Heal’s effect ended, the Huifeng Umbrella returned to Chen Xiaoyan’s hands.
Then she heard Inchong’s anxious voice.
“Xiaoyan, come quick! I’m out of Xiangyi Art!”
Chen Xiaoyan and Mu Qingxue exchanged a smile and quickly rushed over.
“Here I come.”
“Inchong, fall back and restore Xiangyi. Watch me now.”
Within this minute, the hundreds of mutated rats were reduced by more than half by the six players, plus the hundred or so Mu Qingxue had slain.
Only a couple hundred were left struggling to survive.
“Li Yuan Sword Formation,” Liu Yue’s feet hovered above a huge Bagua diagram that appeared out of thin air, enveloping all the mutated rats.
The mutated rat swarm instantly slowed.
“Azure Dragon Break,” Hongchen Rumen wielded her spear, like a fierce dragon diving into the sea, plunging into the mutated rat horde.
“Sword Light Cold Shadow” ×4
“Sweep Across Eight Directions”
“Spring Breeze Draw”
[Mutated Rats: 57]
[Mutated Rats: 21]
[Mutated Rats: 1]
Until the last mutated rat was slain by Liu Yue’s sword, the mutated rat crisis was finally over.
The group breathed a sigh of relief.
“This is my first dungeon run. Is this considered clearing it?”
Hongchen Rumen asked with a puzzled look, still holding her spear.
“I don’t know. It’s our first time too,” Mu Qingxue replied expressionlessly.
“What a coincidence, the three of us are also first-timers,” Chen Xiaoyan shrugged while casting Spring Breeze Draw to heal them.
She felt something was off.
If the dungeon only had a thousand mutated rats, it shouldn’t still be uncleared by any team now.
“Umbrella Dance Heal,” Chen Xiaoyan cast another healing skill.
Regardless of whether the dungeon was cleared, her teammates’ health had to be topped up just in case.
“Xiaoyan, I’ll do two Spring Breeze Draws as well.”
“Team leader, should we check out the village?”
Hongchen Rumen pointed to the dilapidated village ahead.
They had been attacked by mutated rats before even entering the village.
There could be unexpected discoveries inside.
Since the dungeon was called Monster Village, there should be more than just one type of monster.
“Alright,” Chen Xiaoyan hesitated briefly, then nodded in agreement.
She was somewhat reluctant about the gloomy, hellish village.
It wasn’t fear exactly, but the oppressive atmosphere caused a physical discomfort after prolonged exposure.
“Should we ask other players in the world chat?”
Liu Yue felt a chill from the hyper-realistic game environment.
“No team has cleared this dungeon yet. Others probably don’t know either.”
“That’s true.”
Hearing Chen Xiaoyan’s explanation, Liu Yue abandoned the idea.
“Let’s go. It’s just a game.”
Chen Xiaoyan mustered her courage and led the way into the village.
As the only man in the team, she couldn’t act like a scared girl and refuse to fight the dungeon.
“Xiaoyan, wait for me!” Inchong rushed up, tightly holding Chen Xiaoyan’s hand while carefully scanning the surroundings.
She was afraid some terrifying monster would suddenly jump out.
“Let’s go. The atmosphere is so creepy, might as well treat it like a horror game,” Hongchen Rumen laughed casually, shouldering her spear and following.
Mu Qingxue sighed and brought Sanxue with her inside.
The village houses had been abandoned for a long time.
Although cobwebs hung between eaves and windows, no weeds grew around.
Not a single green plant was in sight.
On the broken walls and shattered beams, human upper-body skeletons without lower halves swayed, as if severed at the waist and deliberately hung there.
“Why isn’t there a single blade of grass here?”
Inchong muttered, teeth chattering.
“Under the corruption of demonic energy, all plants wither,” Mu Qingxue recalled reading about Monster Village and explained.
“I guess, besides mutated rats, Monster Village might have demonic beasts.”
“Demonic beasts?”
Everyone was shocked by the words.
They knew what those two words meant; their sect’s NPCs had mentioned them before.
“Yes. Before I left the mountain for this quest, I checked the sect’s library for the origin of Monster Village. The book said there are not only monsters but also low-level demonic beasts.”
“Can we beat them?”
Hongchen Rumen asked worriedly.
Mu Qingxue didn’t answer but instead looked at Chen Xiaoyan.
Chen Xiaoyan felt awkward under her gaze.
“Uh… I haven’t faced demonic beasts either. We’ll just have to see if we can when we encounter them.”