Chapter 140: Saved, but not entirely saved

"A sand table? You understand military strategy?" Ye Lin looked at the model Xie Xiaoxiao had built, feeling somewhat surprised.

"My grandfather taught me a little."

Xie Xiaoxiao nodded earnestly, and as her fingers slid gently over the soil, her entire temperament became sharp and piercing.

She had drawn the terrain of Secret Realm No. 79 in detail, marking every road, every mountain peak, every river, and even the location of every tree.

Even Ye Lin had to admire Xie Xiaoxiao's powerful memory for terrain.

Staring at the model of Secret Realm No. 79, shrunk countless times before her, Xie Xiaoxiao would occasionally frown in deep thought, and occasionally her eyes would light up.

"I've got it! Everyone, come over!"

Xie Xiaoxiao spoke, and the many class-changers who had long been curious gathered around.

"Look here, this is our starting point," Xie Xiaoxiao said, pointing to a plain on the model.

"And here is the exit. There will be at least fifteen demons guarding the exit, and now there will only be more!"

Her finger traced an arc in the air and landed on the exit position.

"We still need to split into two groups, but this time, it is not to sacrifice the severely wounded to buy a chance for others to survive, but to let those with combat capability buy a chance for the severely wounded to survive!"

"For the sake of clarity, I will call the two teams Team A and Team B. Team A will take this route and be responsible for attracting the demons' attention."

"So Team A doesn't need many people; one hundred is enough. But the people in Team A must be warriors or assassins—no mages! Mages are too slow!"

Hearing Xie Xiaoxiao's words, many mages breathed a sigh of relief; the danger of going to Team A was clearly much greater than going to Team B.

Xie Xiaoxiao ignored their petty schemes and continued.

"Mages and the severely wounded will all be assigned to Team B. After the people in Team A draw away a portion of the demons, you will go from here and circle around to the side of the exit!"

Xie Xiaoxiao's finger traced a winding route on the model, as if an invisible combat team were crossing through layers of danger under her command.

"After reaching this position, the mages should make use of your advantage of stationary output! Your task is not light either; you need to eliminate the remaining demons at the exit, then meet up with Team A at the exit, and both teams will leave together."

"Do you understand?"

Xie Xiaoxiao took a deep breath; her heart was also incredibly tense at this moment.

Because this was the first time she had applied what she had learned to an actual battlefield; if something went wrong here, the price to be paid would be human lives!

The many class-changers nodded, indicating they understood.

Xie Xiaoxiao's method was actually similar to Wu Hao's, except it didn't use the severely wounded as tools, and it had many more details, making it more feasible to execute.

"Alright, so now who is willing to join Team A? Team A is indeed more dangerous, so I won't force you; I will serve as the captain of Team A myself," Xie Xiaoxiao said earnestly.

Unexpectedly, as soon as Xie Xiaoxiao finished speaking, the many class-changers looked at one another, and no one had any intention of stepping forward, a complete reversal of their earlier enthusiastic attitude.

After all, once in Team A, one's life would be in someone else's hands. If the people in Team B solved the demons at the exit and fled on their own, then the people in Team A would have no one to meet them and would be dead for sure.

"I'll do it!" Ye Lin was the first to walk toward Xie Xiaoxiao.

"No! You are still injured! You go to Team B!" Xie Xiaoxiao was immediately anxious.

"So what if I'm injured? Being injured doesn't mean I can't fight! I'll join too!"

"Take me with you!"

"And me, as long as my husband can live!"

"Fool, if we're going to die, we die together; how could a husband live on alone?"

Four figures stumbled toward Xie Xiaoxiao; they were the very class-changers whose tendons had just been severed by Wu Hao.

After simple treatment, they were barely able to stand, and at this moment, they joined Team A without hesitation.

"You..." Xie Xiaoxiao was astonished.

At this moment, Team A only had six people; besides Xie Xiaoxiao, the other five were all severely wounded.

This scene moved many people, and soon more class-changers gritted their teeth and joined Team A.

However, in the end, the number of people in Team A was only fifty-something, a full half short of the one hundred Xie Xiaoxiao had envisioned.

One must know that the class-changers here, even excluding the severely wounded, numbered seven or eight hundred, yet now they couldn't even scrape together one hundred.

Xie Xiaoxiao could not help but feel disappointed; she had tried her best to let as many people as possible live, but most people seemed to only care about whether they themselves could survive.

"Forget it."

Xie Xiaoxiao shook her head, her gaze becoming firm once again; the books all said, do good deeds, and do not ask about the future!

Fifty-something people were actually enough.

"Since no one else wants to join Team A, I won't force it. We will proceed according to the original plan!"

Having said that, Xie Xiaoxiao led Team A along the original route, preparing to attract the demons' attention.

The class-changers who remained behind all breathed a sigh of relief; they were terrified that Xie Xiaoxiao would forcibly pull people into Team A.

Seeing Xie Xiaoxiao leave just like that, they couldn't help but become excited.

"Great, we ran into a silly girl!"

"Yeah, hahahahaha, this silly girl is too easy to fool; we flattered her a bit and she actually took it seriously?"

"We owe it to this silly girl, otherwise how would we have a chance to escape this hellhole?"

"So what do we do next? Are we really going to listen to that girl and bring these burdens along?" Someone pointed to those who were so severely wounded they couldn't move.

"Bring them, my ass! Just leave these people here to fend for themselves. We'll follow the route she said, and once they draw the demons away, we'll break out directly! Who cares if they live or die! Such a silly girl, she deserves to die!"

"Brother, your words make sense, hahahahaha!"

The class-changers who remained behind abandoned all the severely wounded, then traveled light, and began to move quickly toward the exit following the route Xie Xiaoxiao had just pointed out.

Those severely wounded could only watch this scene helplessly.

Without others to protect them, these severely wounded could only stay where they were, waiting in despair for death. Soon, a demon found them by following the scent of blood; it was a scavenger, emitting a foul stench of rotting corpses.

It ate carrion, and it also ate prey that couldn't move.

Clearly, the severely wounded before it would all become its main course.

It crawled in front of a severely wounded person, then opened its bloody maw, about to swallow them in one bite.

That severely wounded person was scared pale, and just when he thought he was about to be chewed up and swallowed, a cold voice rang out.

"Forbidden Spell—Karma Fire Burning the Heavens!"

A cluster of purple-red, eerie flames burned fiercely, and in the blink of an eye, the scavenger was burned to fly ash.

A man appeared before everyone; his face looked as if it had been carved by a knife and axe, covered in scars, making it impossible to see his true features.

Under normal circumstances, seeing such a person, everyone's first reaction would surely be terror, but at this moment, there was only gratitude in their eyes.

They were saved!

Just as they were secretly rejoicing with this thought, they failed to notice that this man with the scarred face was looking at all of them with a pair of incredibly affectionate eyes.

"Forbidden Spell—Eye of Eternal Frost!"