"System Announcement: Quest 4 completed. One hour of preparation time has passed.
"System Announcement: Main quest updated.
Quest 5: The Dark Dragon King Xiunaida's troops have begun attacking the mountain. The first wave of troops will attack in 20 minutes. Players, please organize your forces to defend. If more than 400 survivors die before Yanjing City's reinforcements arrive, the quest will be declared a failure, and the dungeon will end immediately. "
On the forum, there were many different ways to defend against Yuan Kou's attack for four hours.
The Trap Method involved digging all sorts of traps at the top of Mount Wudang. The Four Symbols Method involved arranging four teams of True Martial's Seven-sectioned Formation at four key locations. The Door Blocking Method involved the swordbearers not even staying at the top of the mountain and directly running to the place where Yuan Kou was spawning at the foot of the mountain to block the door. The Snake Luring Method involved using survivors as bait to lure a portion of Yuan Kou to the other side, and then going all out to eliminate the remaining Yuan Kou.
In short, there were all sorts of strange methods, and their effects varied. If one was lucky and strong enough, they could get an SSS rating. If one was unlucky and weak enough, it would be difficult to even get a B rating.
However, Guhan, who had gathered three Ancient Sword Tier NPC swordbearers, did not have to spend so much effort. He gathered all the villagers into the Palace of Heaven and closed the gate.
Then, he had the three Ancient Sword Tier swordbearers guard the large open space in front of the gate. Everything would be fine. Guhan only needed to deal with the more difficult Yuan Kou Boss during the last two waves of attacks. It would be enough for him to break through the defense circle and rush into the Palace of Heaven to kill.
What Guhan had asked the old Taoist priest to do was to persuade all the survivors to hide in the Palace of Heaven and wait for Yanjing City's reinforcements.
The Refinement Realm old Taoist had completed his mission very well. When the hour was up, almost all the survivors had appeared in Chaotian Palace. The reason why the word "almost" was used was because there were still three survivors who hadn't appeared in Chaotian Palace. No one knew where they were hiding.
If Guhan did not find them and bring them to Skyward Palace, according to the previous players' experience, these three people would definitely die.
For the players who didn't expect to get an SS rating or above, the three of them didn't matter. Three people didn't matter much to a total of 400 players. It wasn't a big deal. If they died, they died.
However, for someone like Guhan who was determined to obtain an SSS-rank evaluation, this was probably the most troublesome aspect of the entire instance dungeon.
The lowest death count for an SSS rating was three people, so he had to find these three people. There was no other way.
At the start of the game, the five missing people would randomly appear in 25 locations. Players only needed to search one by one, and sooner or later, they would find the three missing survivors.
Later on, perhaps because it didn't feel that it was difficult, the shameful system directly expanded the 25 locations to 750 locations. Among them, there were places that sounded very difficult, such as under the cliff, the top of the Golden Peak, and in the bushes. If they were to search one by one, even ten hours wouldn't be enough. By then, it would be too late.
However, the system didn't completely block the players' way. The system would use the NPCs' mouths to provide Guhan with three random clues. By analyzing these clues, Guhan could find the location of the three missing NPCs and bring them to Skyward Palace.
Logically speaking, analyzing the location of the three missing survivors was something that was recognized by the players on the forum as having a difficulty of 200 (out of 100).
In the instance dungeon, it was impossible for players to connect to the forum and search for information about the 750 locations.
Players had to be completely familiar with the terrain of Mount Wudang and memorize all the 750 locations in their heads before entering the instance dungeon. Only then would they be able to analyze the answer.
It was like having your teacher draw 750 key points in your textbook before an exam and then have you memorize them all … In any case, most players had given up on searching for the three people. At the very most, they would just have to spend more effort on other areas. There was still a chance of getting an SS rating.
Even for a genius like Guhan, memorizing 750 locations consumed a lot of brain cells. It took him about four hours to memorize all 750 locations …
…
[System prompt: Side quest has been triggered: Search for the three missing survivors. There is no penalty for failing the quest. After the quest is completed, a random instance dungeon reward will be increased by one level.
[System prompt: Player Military Governor can go to the NPC and ask for clues about the first missing person.]
Randomly increasing a certain instance dungeon reward by one level was something that depended on luck. If one's luck was bad, it would only increase a 1 yuan RMB reward to 2 yuan RMB reward.
However, if one's luck exploded and it was used on the capsule machine … the white capsule turned blue, the blue became purple, the purple became gold, the gold became … sorry, so far, no one knew what was on the golden capsule.
There was no need to say anything else. This side quest must be completed.
Guhan obtained the first clue from the old Taoist priest who was in the Refinement Realm.
Clue 1: Missing survivor Li Dachui was a bald bachelor. The last person who saw him said that he was running near the Cloud Platform with a red cloth strip in his hand yesterday.
With a cursory look at this clue, one would be at a loss as to what to do. A red cloth strip running in the direction of the Cloud Platform. What the hell could this kind of useless clue be analyzed?
However, in less than ten seconds, Guhan said to King Yue, "Stay here and protect Skyward Palace with Yuan Kong and the others. If there's any news, contact me through the sword mark. I'll be back soon!"
After saying that, Guhan ran out. Five minutes later, he returned to Skyward Palace with Wang Dachui, who had a broken thigh. He threw him to the old Taoist priest who was in charge of maintaining order in Skyward Palace. The old Taoist priest was shocked.
The old Taoist priest could not wait to ask, "How did you find Li Dachui, Military Governor?"
"My three disciples searched for a long time, but to no avail!"
"There's a lack of dye on the top of Mount Wudang, so the cloth is usually gray, white, and black. Red cloth is very rare. On the top of Mount Wudang, there's only one place where red cloth can be found, and that is an Acacia Tree on the top of Mount Wudang. There's a red scarf tied to the top of the tree."
"The red scarf on the Acacia Tree symbolizes love, so I rushed to the Acacia Tree first and found a comb that Li Dachui had lost on the ground. Li Dachui was a bald man and a bachelor, so why would he need a comb? This comb must be his woman's comb.
This means that he stole the red cloth strip while he was running for his life and went to his mistress's house to please her. "
"The houses near the Yuntai are very good, and there are even fewer women. There are only three households. I looked around the three women's houses, and in the end, I found a half-burnt red scarf in a pile of firewood in one of the households."
"I looked around the house and found this guy in a pit. His leg was broken by someone. According to him, when he was meeting his mistress yesterday, he was discovered by her man. He broke his leg and threw him into the pit, leaving him to fend for himself."
Sure enough, as soon as Li Dachui entered Chaotian Palace, he immediately dragged his broken leg and went to find trouble with his mistress and her man. For a moment, Chaotian Palace was in chaos.
"Military Governor, you're very meticulous. This old Taoist admires you!
Respect!
This old Taoist watched Dachui grow up. I didn't expect him to be in the mood to flirt when he was about to run for his life. He deserved to have a broken leg. "The old Taoist priest sighed.
"What's so strange about that? Who knows, he might not be able to survive today. Before he dies, he wants to have some fun!" The two survivors beside the old Taoist priest laughed and told the truth.
"All of you, shut up!"
He kicked the two fellows who didn't know their place. "There are still two missing people. I'll have to trouble Military Governor to find them.
The second missing person is called Chen Xiaochui. She lives near the Rising Sun Pavilion. She's a seven-year-old girl. This morning, she told her mother that she was going to watch the sunrise, but there's still no news of her. "
"There are many places on Mount Wudang where you can see the sunrise. Among the 750 locations, there are more than 60 places where you can see the sunrise!"
Guhan pondered. "But with the girl's physique, it's impossible for her to go too far. She should be near the Rising Sun Pavilion, so the number of locations has been reduced from 60 to 20."
"Out of these 20 locations, 17 of them are too dangerous. It's too dangerous for a seven-year-old girl. Therefore, the remaining three locations are the most likely!"
Guhan quickly ran to the three locations he had thought of. However, he couldn't find a single girl.
"She's not in a safe place. That means the girl must have gone to those dangerous places to watch the sunrise out of curiosity!
Maybe she's trapped there! "
Guhan spent another 10 minutes searching through the 17 dangerous locations. However, he still couldn't find anything!
"Could my analysis be wrong?
Chen Xiaochui isn't near the Rising Sun Pavilion to watch the sunrise? "
Just as Guhan was about to leave the Rising Sun Pavilion, he suddenly noticed that the soil and rocks around his feet were very wet!
A moment of carelessness and he would slip and fall down the cliff.
"Not good! Could it be that the girl accidentally slipped down the cliff?"
The moment this thought popped up, Guhan quickly overturned it. If the girl had fallen down, she would undoubtedly die. The system would never allow him to find a dead person!
However, what if the girl did not die after falling down?
The protagonist falls down the cliff, gets caught by the bushes, and survives. Isn't that a standard plot?
With that thought in mind, Guhan walked to the edge of the cliff and looked down. Sure enough, a little girl with tattered clothes was lying on a branch that extended out from the cliff. The rising and falling of her body proved that this lucky NPC was still alive.