Chapter 129: Transforming Nuwa into a Healer

Repairing data is not a quick process, and Yu Qian’s bad luck wasn't limited to the Spring Grass quest—she had been striking out on everything else, too.

Zhou Jingchen spent a long time coaxing her before she felt a bit better.

Next up was the weekly instance, White Deer’s Clear Mirror. This was a dungeon accessible only to players at level 129; those capped at 109, 89, or 69 couldn't enter. Players usually referred to it simply as "Charms," as it dropped level 125 charms. It was a weekly staple because these charms could not have their stats rerolled—what you got was what you kept—and players were always hoping to pull something better than what they were currently wearing. If you were lucky enough to pull an item with great stats that happened to be unbound, you could sell it for a significant amount of gold. That was why so many people made it a mandatory weekly run.

White Deer’s Clear Mirror was quite straightforward. In the first stage, when the boss’s health dropped to one and a half bars, healing circles would appear under its feet. The Knight or Tank had to pull the boss out of these circles. If there wasn't a Knight or Tank in the party, whoever the boss was targeting had to lead it away as quickly as possible.

In the second stage, some mobs required physical damage while others required magic damage; as long as the team composition was balanced, it was fine. As for the boss, you just had to keep an eye on the combat log—if your name was called, you had to run away immediately, or the explosion would kill everyone.

In the third stage, the boss would randomly place circles under players' feet. Initially, these circles dealt proportional damage, which a healer could easily manage. Later, the circles would cause a stun effect, rendering players unable to move or use skills. When the boss was near death, a yellow circle would appear; players had to stand inside it, or they would be instantly killed.

Feeling that she wasn't cut out for opening loot today, Yu Qian urged the group to move on to the Painted Wall instance as soon as they finished.

The Painted Wall was an elite weekly dungeon with high difficulty and strict requirements. It required players to be at least level 105, and the party leader had to be a female character. Since the only women in their group were Nüwa, Wenxiu, and Yu Qian, and Yu Qian was the healer (who couldn't lead because she needed to focus on saving lives) and Wenxiu was a Summoner (whose pets were a hassle to re-summon if she died), the role of leader fell to Nüwa, the Spirit Channeler.

The first stage was Yellow Springs and Azure Skies. Once inside, they cleared the mobs and focused all fire on the boss, while being careful to dodge the poisonous blue circles on the ground. When the boss reached one and a half bars of health, it would stop attacking, and four pillars would sprout around the room. Everyone except Nüwa and the Monk had to take one pillar each and focus their attacks.

The four pillars required two hits for the one next to the boss and three hits for the others. The third hit on the pillar near the boss had to wait until the mobs were cleared. If more pillars spawned later, they had to be left alone because the boss would immediately go berserk if a pillar fell prematurely. Once everyone was ready, they would take down the pillars; once they fell, the healer had to immediately cast their ultimate healing skill, the Tank had to use their invulnerability skill, and the Knight had to use their party buff.

The second stage was Entering the Painted Chang'an. Nüwa, as the leader, just had to walk toward Pingkang Ward; if she died, Yu Qian would resurrect her, while the others cleared the way. They had to wait for everyone to regroup before approaching the ward, or the Golden Guards would sprint away, making them impossible to catch and kill. Once the Golden Guards were dead, they spoke to the painter Yiru Huan, and the quest was complete.

The third stage was Returning to Paradise. This stage required at least 180 wind resistance. The leader would wait at the back until the mobs were cleared before moving forward. The Tank would soak up the damage while the others attacked. However, wind attacks reduced the players’ maximum health, so the healer had to constantly restore their caps, which was exhausting.

After clearing the mobs, they reached the end of the road where the mini-boss, the Mighty Arhat, awaited. He had a damage-reflection buff that alternated between magic and physical types; they had to be careful to split their attacks, or they would end up killing themselves.

Next were seven platforms, each with two teleporters; choosing the wrong one would leave you completely lost. When the Painted Wall first launched, many players wandered aimlessly, relying on luck to reach the final platform. Eventually, as more people played, the route became known: Down, Up, Up, Up, Down, Up, Up, Up.

There were four types of mini-bosses on the platforms: the Mighty Arhat (damage reflection), the Dragon-Subduing and Tiger-Taming Arhats (who had to be killed at roughly the same time, similar to the Black and White Impermanence), the Pagoda-Bearing Arhat (who could randomly stun players), and the Meditative Arhat (who dealt massive damage).

The final platform was the boss, the Maitreya Buddha. He had two hands; they had to defeat the left one first, then the right. During this time, golden hands would drop from the sky at random. These were extremely painful—anyone with less than 40,000 health would be killed instantly. Once both hands were gone, the golden hands would stop dropping.

With the hands out of the way, they could focus on the boss. However, when his health hit the red zone, he would randomly grab two people and send them to a lower platform to fight a mini-boss. Those two had to defeat the mini-boss as quickly as possible to return to the main stage. But! If they didn't finish in time, they would be teleported to another platform until the end, all while the boss continued to snatch other players away. Also, in the red-health phase, one of the four mini-bosses would randomly appear to help, so they had to watch for the reflection buff.

Once the boss was dead, they simply walked to the portal marked "Dunhuang" to exit.

Because Yu Qian was the only healer in the party—and she had been coasting through the first two dungeons—she was now tapping her keyboard until her hands cramped, never stopping for a second to restore health caps, heal, or resurrect.

"Honestly, I suggest you guys find a second healer for Painted Wall. One for healing and one for restoring health caps. It's not just that it's tiring for one healer; it's impossible to keep up. It's only because healers in this game don't have cooldowns that we survived—if they did, you'd all be dead."

She stretched her hand out toward Zhou Jingchen, signaling for a massage, and spoke into her microphone to those still on the voice chat. Being the sole healer was truly exhausting. Zhou Jingchen, feeling for her, rubbed her hands without a single complaint.

After logging off, the two teleported to their homestead and sat on the swing, idling.

"Since there's only one healer in the party but two Spirit Channelers, the composition is a bit off. Should we ask Nüwa to switch to a healer?" Zhou Jingchen asked while they sat quietly together watching TV.

"Hmm... okay. I'll ask her what she thinks tomorrow." She thought about it, and he was right. Generally, a perfect party consisted of one Spirit Channeler, two healers, and three damage dealers, with a mix of magic and physical types. Currently, their team had her (healer), Zhou Jingchen (Spirit Channeler), Wenxiu (Summoner), Tiandao (Elementalist), Fuxi (Blade Master), and Nüwa (Spirit Channeler). They were definitely missing a second healer.

Previously, she and Zhou Jingchen hadn't taken the game too seriously, so it didn't matter how the party was set up. But since they were committed to playing properly now, they needed a perfect configuration for future weekly instances, the Ningyuan and Juehua battlefields, martial arts tournaments, and league matches.

Having made up her mind to lure Nüwa into switching classes, she hurried back to her room to discuss the plan with Wenxiu. As for Zhou Jingchen, who was still lingering, she naturally had to chase him home. Besides, it was so late; what was he still doing at a girl's house?

"You should go home!"

He was left speechless, unsure whether to laugh or cry. Was this "kicking the donkey after it's finished the work" or "tearing down the bridge after crossing"? She was really something. But he didn't say much else; it was indeed late, and he should get home to sleep.

"Goodnight, cutie."

"Goodnight."

After seeing him off and watching the lights in his house turn on, Yu Qian returned to the living room, grabbed her computer, and dashed into Wenxiu’s room.

"Xiuxiu, Xiuxiu, let's convince Nüwa to switch to a healer. It’ll make clearing instances and everything else so much easier."

Wenxiu glanced at her. "My mic is on."

"Huh?"

"My mic is on. Nüwa heard everything you just said."

"Ah! Damn it!"

"The Ancestral God told you not to curse."

Yu Qian choked, slowly shuffling over to sit next to Wenxiu, and took off one side of her headset.