Making Up the Shortcomings

To put it bluntly, it is a product of its time, not a necessity for combat power.

However, if we set aside the filter of the times and focus purely on team combat strength, system complementarity, and potential ceiling.

He Caitou's position could be completely replaced by a more suitable Soul Master who could better enhance the team's overall combat strength.

After all, there are only seven spots for the Seven Monsters, and each one is extremely precious. Wasting one of them on a replaceable position would be a disservice to a genius.

So, what kind of Soul Master would be the optimal solution to complement the Shrek Seven Monsters system?

To answer this question, we must first understand where the "hidden weaknesses" of the existing six-person system lie.

Even without He Caitou, Huo Yuhao's team still boasts a perfect top-tier team battle lineup, covering all six roles.

However, "perfection" is not the same as "ultimate", and "no fatal flaws" does not mean "no room for optimization".

The current six-player system excels in explosiveness, fast breaks, control of the game, and surprise attacks, but it has a very subtle weakness.

It lacks sustained combat capability and has no endurance recovery system whatsoever.

A comparison with the original Shrek Seven Monsters makes the difference immediately clear.

Why were Tang San's generation of the Seven Monsters able to fight countless tough battles, challenge opponents of higher levels, and turn the tide in desperate situations?

Besides each individual's talent, the core source of confidence lies in the Dual-Support System.

Ning Rongrong is responsible for attribute enhancement, speed boost, and defense enhancement; she is a "combat power amplifier."

Oscar is responsible for food replenishment, Soul Power restoration, and injury healing; he is a "perpetual motion machine" of endurance.

One element sets the upper limit, while the other ensures a lower limit. The combination of the two allows the team to wage both blitzkrieg and attrition warfare, both head-on confrontation and a protracted war to wear down the opponent, resulting in an extremely rich tactical range.

Of the Seven Monsters of Huo Yuhao's generation, only Xiao Xiao played the support role.

Xiao Xiao's Twin Martial Souls: the Three-Life Soul-Suppressing Cauldron is mainly for control and defense, while the Nine-Phoenix Ceremonial Flute is mainly for buffs and slowing down enemies.

She single-handedly took on the roles of "controller and semi-support," which is already quite remarkable.

But no matter how strong she is, she can't manage to recover at the same time.

No one on the entire team possesses the ability to provide group healing, continuous health regeneration, or batch recovery of Soul Power.

In normal short and quick team fights, it's fine; the battle is ended in one burst, and the recovery problem doesn't become apparent.

However, this weakness will be magnified immediately when faced with a war of attrition, a war of attrition, a series of battles, or an opponent capable of waging a protracted war.

For example, when facing a team of Black Tortoise Soul Master with extremely strong defense, the opponent will retreat to a defensive position and wear them down. If you can't kill them with a burst of damage, once your Soul Power is exhausted and your injuries accumulate, you will be at their mercy.

For example, when Soul Hunting deep in the core area of Star Dou Forest, he was besieged by multiple waves of high-level Soul Beast. Without continuous recovery, his condition worsened with each battle, and in the end, even when Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast was right in front of him, he had no strength to catch it.

For example, when facing the Soul Engineer Legion of the Sun Moon Empire, they can wear you down from a distance and bombard you with attacks in waves. You can't break through and can only passively take hits. Your injuries will get worse and worse, and you will eventually collapse without a fight.

These scenarios represent the tough battles that the Shrek Seven Monsters will inevitably face in the future, and their lack of recovery ability is their most vulnerable weakness.

In addition, the existing system has a hidden problem: its state resistance and purification capabilities are zero.

When encountering poison- Soul Master, curse- Soul Master, or Mental Interference -type Soul Master, once someone is afflicted with a debuff, the entire team has no means of purification and can only tough it out or rely on Huo Yuhao's Spirit Power to barely suppress it, which cannot solve the fundamental problem at all.

A cloud of poisonous mist swept over, poisoning everyone and instantly halving their combat strength.

One curse reduces movement speed, rendering the aggro strategy useless.

These are all blind spots that the existing six-person system cannot cover.

And these blind spots are precisely the gaps that can be filled by the He Caitou.

Gu Yuena paused slightly upon seeing this.

Battery life and air purification?

She had to admit that Lin Ye's judgment was indeed sharp.

Most human Soul Master, when watching team battles, only look at how high the output is, how thick the defense is, and how strong the control is, and few people pay attention to the hidden core indicator of "endurance".

But in truly top-level battles, in the end, it's never about who has the highest burst of energy, but about who can hold out until the very end.

Oscar's sausages played a crucial role in the First-Generation Seven Monsters ' remarkable comeback.

Without continuous health and mana regeneration, even the strongest burst damage is just a flash in the pan; you'll be exhausted after one wave of attacks.

The side that ultimately wins a war is often not the one that starts the strongest, but rather the one with the strongest endurance and the ability to maintain combat power throughout.

After all, you can only contribute if you're alive.

Huo Yuhao's team has excelled in both explosive power and crowd control, but they lack the most basic foundation for sustained power. They're like a sharp sword.

The blade was sharpened to an unparalleled edge, but the hilt was so brittle that it would break at the slightest touch. It looked frightening, but in reality, it couldn't withstand prolonged wear and tear.

"I see."

Gu Yuena murmured to herself, a hint of understanding flashing in her cool eyes.

She had been thinking, since He Caitou was useless, why not just turn him into one of the Six Monsters instead of leaving a seventh spot?

Now I understand, it's not that seven positions are redundant, it's that He Caitou is occupying those positions without doing his job, wasting a golden opportunity to complete the system.

Replacing ranged damage dealers with sustain-oriented support units may seem like it reduces damage output, but it actually raises the team's overall survivability and potential significantly.

This is a fair calculation.

Therefore, the optimal replacement answer is already obvious.

A top-tier life-type food-support Soul Master, or rather, Support System Soul Master specializing in recovery and purification.

In short, it's modeled after Oscar from the First-Generation Seven Monsters, following a path of "group healing + Soul Power recovery + status purification + minor buffs," forming a "Dual-Support System" with Xiao Xiao.

One function controls the field gain, while the other controls the battery recovery; the two complement each other to form a complete auxiliary closed loop.

Why is this type considered the optimal solution?

First, it perfectly fills the team's only gap in knowledge, achieving a true closed loop in the system.

The existing team has everything, except for the ability to sustain recovery.

After adding a life-type support, the team's ability tree changes from "control, attack, defense, breakthrough, burst" to "control, attack, defense, breakthrough, burst, healing".

It covers all six core capabilities without any blind spots.

In short-duration battles, he can buff everyone to full health beforehand, allowing them to charge forward without any worries.

In protracted battles and attrition warfare, he can continuously heal the entire team, restoring health and Soul Power, keeping the team at full strength and gaining an advantage as the battle progresses.

When facing opponents with poison or curse abilities, he can directly remove the debuffs, thus disabling the opponent's core tactics.

Even if someone is seriously injured, he can instantly heal them and save their life, greatly improving the team's survival rate.

The original Seven Monsters were a "one-shot" powerhouse, unable to handle tough battles or protracted engagements. After adding a healing support, they transformed into an all-around team capable of both fast and slow attacks, both aggressive and attrition-based strategies, able to fight in any scenario and unafraid of any opponent.

This is truly comprehensive and without any weaknesses.