Chapter 324: The Guardian Monsters (2)

Big Buddhist Nun eyed the monsters around them. They were trapped, but the monsters refused to attack. Instead, they chose to slowly tighten the noose around them with joy in their eyes. "Pui, do these monsters think we're a bunch of lambs?" She softly cursed.

Little Monk cast a worried glance around them. Through the small gaps in the encirclement, he found that there were several other areas on the battlefield where players were more or less trapped too. But, it was clear that there were far fewer monsters than before. He turned his attention to Shen Jingbin and the other two Lead Disciples and said, "If possible, the three of you should conserve your energy. I'm not sure what's going to happen in the third stage, but you guys will probably be the main offensive force in the large face off against the founder of the Shinra Sect. It won't be good for us if you end up exhausting all your strength now."

"Then, what should we do now," Eternal Rest asked.

Long Life thought for a moment and said, "We might be able to brute force our way through, but our losses would be too great. Our only choice is to outwit them."

As someone who'd only focused on increasing his strength and not his brains, The Winds Of Ximen couldn't understand a thing they were saying. While alertly watching his surroundings, he said, "How do we outwit them? Everyone, please hurry up and think of something! I'm under a lot of pressure here, f*ck! Why do I have to endure something like this in a game?! I'm going to lodge a complaint with Yiju; they're ruining my poor, fragile heart!"

Shen contemplated the matter for a little while before she suddenly said, "Look at that monster that's covered in white fur to the northeast, do you think it looks weird?"

The Winds Of Ximen howled with grief. "My goodness, girl, stop screwing around! Haven't you noticed that the monster's eyes are becoming even more ravenous? No one's in the mood to pay attention to these things! And, if you ask me, I think that every single one of them looks weird!"

Unexpectedly, after hearing what Shen Jingbin said, Qi Mu happened to look in the direction of the white monster. Something in her head clicked, and she glanced over to the other encirclements. Sure enough, another white-furred monster was present as well. "The groups of monsters that utilize this encirclement tactic all have this type of white monster within their ranks."

The Guardian Monsters surrounding them were forcing them closer and closer towards one another. At this point, even if Shen Jingbin wasn't speaking loudly, the rest of the group would still be able to make out what she said clearly.

"I don't think Yiju would be able to pull off something as big as making each of the Guardian Monsters able to think on their own. So, their ability to display such intelligence means that there's definitely a monster amongst them that acts as a think tank. It's just like in the case of the wolf and the bei.¹ Here, the white-furred monster is the 'bei'. And, my guess is that this monster is actually the demonized version of the White Marsh.²"

"So, our target's that monster?" Qi Mu asked.

Shen Jingbin's expression grew stern, and she nodded her head. "Put bluntly, these bunch of blockheads are just monsters with slightly higher levels. I'm confident we'll be able to do something about them once we eliminate the brains behind their operation."

Eternal Rest had long since gotten sick of these monsters. When she heard Shen Jingbin's suggestion, her eyes immediately lit up, and she hoisted up her broadsword. "Since that's the case, what are we waiting for? Let's get going! I can't stand the fact that we've been backed into a corner by these bunch of idiots!"

"Count me in too; it doesn't sit right with me," The Winds Of Ximen chimed in.

"Me three! I'll take good care of that white-furred monster later on!" Added Big Buddhist Nun.

The group pumped themselves up and reactivated all their buffs. The White Marsh who'd been targeted by them might have sensed something because while it had previously commanded the group of monsters to tighten the encirclement slowly, it now suddenly gave the order to launch an all-out attack instead!

The Winds Of Ximen started swearing. "Screw you! It looks like Yiju's artificial intelligence is quite the genius! If the world ever gets taken over by machines, it'll definitely be Yiju's fault, no doubt about it!"

Shen Jingbin and company acted just a step faster than the demonized White Marsh, so by the time the group of monsters launched their attack, they'd already arrived in front of the White Marsh. Seeing this, it hastily commanded a robust monster beside it to defend it from the attack of Eternal Rest, who was boiling over with rage.

However, even though the Guardian Monster managed to block Eternal Rest's attack, it wasn't able to block the attacks of the rest of the group who were hot on her heels.

Speaking of Yiju, they were actually quite fair when it came to designing their characters. While the demonized White Marsh possessed high intelligence and had the ability to control a group of monsters, it lacked in both attack and defence. Having been surrounded by them with no way out, the demonized White Marsh was split in half on the spot, and its reddish-black blood stained its fur that had remained white even after its demonization.

After the demonized White Marsh died, the monsters surrounding Shen Jingbin and company acted like a pack of wolves that had lost their leader and fell into chaos. The group took advantage of this opportunity and attacked. A short while later, all of the monsters lay dead on the ground.

After cleansing the area of monsters, Shen Jingbin looked around and saw that the other areas weren't doing so well. "Let's help the others!" Shen Jingbin exclaimed, and the group took off in the direction of the closest encirclement.

"Attack the white-furred monster first, he's the one who's holding them together!" As the Guardian Monsters over here were mainly of the larger variant, she wasn't able to clearly make out the players trapped within. All she could do was shout at them while running and hope that they'd be able to hear her.

1. A bei is a legendary wolf whose forelegs are too short for it to walk on its own. To get around, it has to ride on the back of another wolf. ↩
2. A creature that the Yellow Emperor ran into in the past. This creature went on to dictate a guide that covered the forms and habits of all 11,520 supernatural creatures in the world, and how to overcome their hauntings and attacks. ↩