Watch out! Something's wrong with this guard.

Upon hearing the boss's statement, Lu Yunshi frowned immediately, and Lin Min and the others also looked rather grim.

At this point, Lu Yunshi asked again, "If possible, could the boss explain to us what you saw at the time? This is very important to us."

"Of course," the masked man readily agreed, but then his tone carried a hint of hesitation. "But I mainly run this shop to do business. It would be a loss for me to sit here chatting with you customers!"

“Uh…” Lu Yunshi looked at the two-story shop where only a few of them were. “What loss could you possibly have?”

Despite inwardly grumbling, Lu Yunshi went along with the other party's suggestion and continued, "Don't worry, boss. Your drinks are so wonderful that we don't know when we'll have the chance again. We'll definitely buy a lot before we leave."

Compared to Lu Yunshi's tactful approach, Li Hu was much more direct. "Speaking of which, boss, with your level of understanding and the location of your shop, you don't seem like someone who likes making money."

"Haha, money isn't important, but making money is a lot of fun." The masked man chuckled twice, then pulled up a stool and sat down in front of everyone.

“It’s been almost three years now. When I went there, I had only walked about 200 meters outside Lijia Village when I noticed something strange. There were animal carcasses all over the ground. As I walked further, I saw the villagers. Their faces were unrecognizable, and their deaths were gruesome. The strong smell of blood could be smelled from 100 meters away.”

"I quickly entered the village, but unfortunately I couldn't find a single living person. They were all corpses, lying everywhere in the village."

"At that time, I found it strange. There shouldn't be any cultivators going on a killing spree within this area of ​​several hundred miles, because there is an Iron Mountain Sect fifty miles away from Li Family Village. The sect leader of the Iron Mountain Sect is a very righteous person and protects the mortals and kind cultivators in the vicinity. Whether it is a bandit or a mad beast, as long as he knows about it, he will send his disciples to deal with it."

"So I'm going to go to the Iron Mountain Sect, which is a hundred miles away, to ask about the situation."

At this point, the masked man paused, his expression turning somewhat strange.

"How is it?" Lin Min asked quickly when she saw the other person pause.

"I didn't see it. It seems that the Iron Mountain Sect has set up some kind of barrier. There was no way to enter. I had no choice but to retreat. After that, I told the city lord of the nearest city about it. After that, I didn't know what happened. After all, whether or not to send someone to investigate is not up to me, but I think it probably wasn't."

The masked man glanced at the clothes on the group of people as he spoke.

"You're students from the academy who came here on a mission, right? I advise you not to go any further. No matter what the mission is, if it's related to Li Family Village, there's no point in going. You should go back quickly. There's no one there anymore; it's all deserted now."

Having said that, the masked man looked at Lu Yunshi with a shrewd and mercenary gaze. "Esteemed guest, is there anything you need before you leave? I'll prepare it for you now, so you won't be caught off guard later."

Lu Yunshi didn't answer immediately, but stared at the mask on the masked man's face and suddenly asked, "Excuse me, boss, why are you wearing only half a mask?"

"..." The masked man glared at Lu Yunshi with a hint of hurt. "So you know this question is offensive, sir. I wear a mask because my face is injured and can't recover."

"Haha, just curious. But what I really wanted to ask was, if your face is injured, wouldn't it be better to wear the whole mask? Half a mask... looks weird." Lu Yunshi said with an embarrassed smile.

"What's so strange about that?" The masked man touched his mask and said nonchalantly. "It's just half of my face that's ruined. The other half is still fine. Just cover up the bad half. Why should we cover up the good half just because it's the bad half?"

After speaking, the masked man suddenly paused, as if he had realized something. "Eh? This guest, please don't change the subject. I am, after all, a cultivator who moves mountains; I still have this much memory."

"...Give me one of everything on your list." Lu Yunshi said with a hint of helplessness; this time, he genuinely had no ill intentions.

However, I did ask them two questions, so let's just let this misunderstanding go.

"Alright!" the masked man replied, then happily retreated.

The group sat at the table, looking at each other, each lost in thought. They remained silent for a while until the shopkeeper brought all the items over, Lu Yunshi paid the bill, and the group walked a hundred meters out of the shop before Lu Yunshi finally spoke up and asked a question.

"Senior Sister Lin, when was the task you accepted announced?"

"When was it released?" Lin Min recalled for a moment before answering. "About four months ago. They gave us a five-month deadline to deliver the medicinal herbs we had collected to Guo Yutian in Lijia Village."

"This mission seems a bit strange." Tang Busan scratched his head, completely baffled.

"A village that disappeared almost three years ago, yet they issued a mission four months ago, and the reward is so good." Li Hu clicked his tongue. "There's definitely something fishy going on."

"Do you think we might have been scammed by that boss?" Zhao Han suddenly asked.

"What reason would he have to lie to us?" Lin Min asked in return, and Zhao Han couldn't come up with an answer even after listening for a long time.

"Instead of talking about all that, let's talk about what we should do next. Continue? Then we'll have no goal," Tang Busan said.

After a moment of contemplation, Lu Yunshi suggested, "I think, to be on the safe side, we should go back. This mission seems to have some issues; we don't want to get involved."

Lin Min remained silent for a moment after hearing this, and Li Hu and the others also had strange expressions, as if they were unwilling.

Just as Lu Yunshi was about to say something, Lu Yunxi spoke up.

"The tasks you accept require a deposit. If you complete the task successfully, the deposit will be fully refunded. If you fail to complete the task, the deposit will be reduced by half. If I remember correctly, the deposit for a Class C task is five thousand gold coins."

After Lu Yunxi finished speaking, Lin Min gave an awkward smile. "Alchemists have quite a lot of expenses. The four of us don't actually have much money. We scraped together the five thousand. Not to mention the three thousand gold coins, we can still make a good profit by selling the eight bottles of Spirit Gathering Pills, each of us taking a share."

"Alright." Lu Yunshi sighed inwardly. He didn't know about the deposit. It seemed that Lin Min and the others had already paid the deposit.

In that case, I won't be able to back down.

“Let’s go take a look.” Lin Min nodded slightly, then added, “I think everything should be fine. Didn’t they say everyone was dead? If there really isn’t anyone left in Li Family Village, then we’ll go back.”

Hearing this, everyone had no objections and continued walking towards Li Family Village.