The Lord Demon King is Unfathomable!

Chapter 1399 - 406: The Apprentices' Choice (Part 3)

"Too many! We can't get through!" a newly joined female apprentice shouted in panic, the fireball in her hand flickering uncertainly due to fear.

"Tsk, what a hassle." Meichuan Qiu Kuo smacked his lips.

He glanced at the trembling young men and women beside him, then at his own bone frame that could fall apart at any moment.

Honestly—

Even though he knew he was playing a game, these flesh-and-blood NPCs really made it hard for him to treat them as cold data.

Perhaps, this is also part of the "closed beta."

Dog planner, you win.

He sighed inwardly, and simultaneously a clear thought formed in his mind, which made the Soul Fire burning within his skull glow even more brightly.

Whether to choose to be a hero for one minute or return to the cold grave with the few rewards he had... this choice seemed not to require any hesitation whatsoever.

After all, it's just a temporary body.

He wanted to experience a different kind of life, one he hadn't considered for even a second in reality.

"Hey, you guys!" He shouted with a raspy sound from the friction of bones, "I'll lure them away, you take the opportunity to rush through!"

Leo was stunned.

"What...did you say?"

Meichuan Qiu Kuo did not respond, only left behind a sentence.

"The name's Meichuan Qiu Kuo!"

He picked up a thick rib, let out a nonsensical cry, and charged into the gray ocean of monsters.

Like a wild horse unbridled, he used his body to open up a path, startling those Wailings that surrounded him.

They couldn't understand why a Soul Fire, weak as a firefly, would suddenly burst with unimaginable ripples at this moment.

All the magic apprentices who witnessed this scene were stunned.

They couldn't fathom why an Undead, defined by the Church Court as "Evil" and "Chaos," would make such a decisive sacrifice to protect strangers.

"Don't just stand there!" Wang Chuan Neiku's shout snapped them back to reality from their shock, "Don't let Qiu Kuo's sacrifice go to waste!"

Leo clenched his teeth, a trace of complex emotion flashed in his eyes.

He hesitated no more, led the apprentices behind him, and dashed through the passage paved by a skeleton's "Life."

On the retreat, the heroic sacrifices continued unabated.

The players spared no expense with their temporary bodies.

Whenever they encountered an insurmountable roadblock, they showed no mercy sacrificing the fleeting Soul Fire, using the most direct and barbaric methods to carve out a path for the fragile Mages behind them, buying time for casting.

Withering white bones paved this bloody road, trying to consume them; the Chaos Maze was briefly "indigestible."

Of course, this also related to Arist needing to divert a considerable amount of strength to suppress Prince Colin.

After all, if he weakened for even a moment, Diamond-level Colin would break through and kill up to the maze's core floor.

Besieged on all sides, he could only command the lowest level of Wailings to hunt the apprentices and had no time to corrupt new "fanatics."

By the time the last batch of survivors finally reached the East District's refuge point, none of the original accompanying Undead were left standing.

Inside the refuge point, the apprentices gathered in silence, their hearts a mix of emotions, the atmosphere oppressive and heavy.

Had it been ordinary Undead, even rescuing them in such dire straits, they wouldn't have felt so conflicted.

But ironically, those Undead didn't seem like Undead, but rather like living people...

A female apprentice finally couldn't help but speak, her voice trembling slightly.

"Why...did they save us?"

Leo gripped the Magic Wand Chuanli Yifu returned to him and answered softly, "I don't know... but the way they fought didn't seem like mindless demons."

He paused, then lifted his head, attempting to explain this phenomenon with his still underdeveloped knowledge.

"Perhaps... they're also a form of life, just one we can't understand yet?"

Another rescued Mage nodded, his voice hoarse as he said, "Indeed, they even joked... though I completely didn't get what was supposed to be funny."

The female apprentice watched a skeleton that had just reassembled its body, charging toward the battlefield again, her complex gaze filled with confusion.

Whether it's the Church's Priests or Magic Apprentices from the Academic State, they all told her Undead were evil beings, enemies of every Saint Sis's citizens.

But...

Is that truly the case?

A thousand years of history, for Saint Sis's faithful, is a deep taboo, but even the most extremist believers can't deny one thing.

Whether due to being insufficiently pious to ascend to Heaven, or tempted by Undead Mages or deceived by hell's slanders, these Undead didn't emerge from nowhere.

They were people once.

They certainly had their own sins too.

But this didn't mean Saint Sis was immaculate.

...

Under the players' cover, most magic apprentices retreated to the maze's first layer exit point, gaining temporary safety under the assistants' protection.

However—

Not everyone managed to escape.

A small portion of apprentices still lingered in the maze, neither shielded by players nor finding patrolling assistants, isolated in fear.

Kurs, for example, was among them.

He never imagined that someone as wise and promising as himself would be so miserably trapped, not only losing trial qualifications on the maze's first layer but even survival became a luxury.