31: Other ways to approach this task!

The Apothecary urged him on impatiently, walking straight into the Blacksmith Shop across the street before Lin Yue could even speak.

Lin Yue shook his head and followed behind him.

Pushing open the wooden door of the Blacksmith Shop, the Blacksmith and his wife came into view.

Both of them were glowing with a purple light, clearly suffering from severe poisoning.

“Eye of Insight!”

Novice Village Blacksmith: Level 10 BOSS

health: 100,000 / 1,000,000.

Attack Power: 180 / 1,800

Skills: Chaotic Wind Hammer, Advanced Smelting, Tempered a Thousand Times.

Status: Poisoned (All attributes reduced by 90%)

The effect of this poison is quite impressive; they really all fell for it.

The Eye of Insight could only be used once every ten minutes, so Lin Yue could only see the Blacksmith's attributes; his wife's stats were still question marks.

“What are you standing there for? Do it.”

Before Lin Yue could react, the Apothecary had already struck first, pulling a dagger glowing with black light from his waist and stabbing it ruthlessly into the Blacksmith's neck.

“You...”

The Blacksmith was already extremely weak and was no match for the Apothecary at all; he died after just one strike.

In fact, the Apothecary quickly killed both of them without Lin Yue having to lift a finger.

However, Lin Yue still symbolically added one or two Chain Fireballs to burn the corpses; otherwise, it wouldn't count as assisting.

After clearing out the Blacksmith's home, the two continued toward the Pawnshop.

Two minutes later, Lin Yue and the Apothecary reappeared, with three corpses now lying inside the building.

In the quiet night, the lights inside the houses of the originally brightly lit Novice Village were being extinguished one by one.

Every time a house went dark, it meant that everyone inside that room was dead.

A life extinguished like a lamp!

Under the shroud of night, a faint blood-red mist seemed to drift through the air. In less than half an hour, eighty percent of the forty NPC households in the entire Novice Village had gone dark.

As Lin Yue walked along, his heart was in turmoil.

This Apothecary was too ruthless; even children couldn't escape his murderous hands.

He even went as far as to stab the chickens in their coops.

He was truly wiping out entire families to the last, not even sparing a single chicken!

If Lin Yue hadn't experienced the Invasion of Ten Thousand Races and become numb to life and death long ago, he might not have felt very good about this.

Almost all the damage throughout the process was dealt by the Apothecary; Lin Yue was only responsible for incinerating the bodies.

After all, the quest requirement only said to assist the Apothecary, and burning corpses counted as a form of assistance—no problem there.

Seeing his great revenge about to be fulfilled, the Apothecary didn't say much. He asked for the Adventurer's assistance but never actually expected the Adventurer to do the killing; only by killing them with his own hands could he satisfy the hatred in his heart.

The Adventurer was merely a card he used to deal with unexpected situations.

Drenched in blood and looking completely crazed, the Apothecary led Lin Yue to the last house—the Village Chief's home.

They didn't encounter any players along the way; this was a dungeon world created in advance by the System to prevent players from being unable to play the game normally.

At the entrance of the Village Chief's house, the Apothecary licked the blood from the corner of his mouth, his eyes filled with excitement.

Finally, he was finally going to avenge his wife!

With a heavy kick, he burst open the door. The Village Chief and his wife sat in chairs, their faces a dark purple.

“You've come, Mo Li!”

The white-bearded old Village Chief spoke slowly, struggling to prop up his decaying body, looking like a candle flickering in the wind.

“Of course I've come. Ten years! I've waited ten whole years for this moment!”

The Apothecary's expression was crazed, and his whole body trembled as he looked at the old Village Chief.

“I have good news for you. Because of you, everyone is dead! Haha, they'll all be buried with you, you old geezer!”

“I already guessed as much.”

The old Village Chief closed his eyes, his hands trembling as they gripped the table, and two lines of clear tears flowed down.

“The old woman and I have been waiting for you. It's time for all of this to end. Back then...”

“Shut up! You're not worthy of mentioning 'back then' to me.”

The Apothecary suddenly pulled out his dagger, which had been stained dark black by blood, and lunged it fiercely toward the old Village Chief's forehead.

“Back then, Xier was a good girl. She took the initiative to place the Treasure Trove in the Apothecary shop; we couldn't stop her even if we tried.”

The old Village Chief closed his eyes and didn't resist at all, allowing the Apothecary to deliver the final blow.

The poison-laced dagger instantly stopped in mid-air. The Apothecary's face, full of rage, stared fixedly at the old Village Chief.

“Old man, what nonsense are you talking about? How could Xier have possibly asked to hide the Treasure Trove? It was clearly you and the people of the village who conspired to frame her.”

“You cowardly old geezer, you're still trying to lie to me.”

The old Village Chief gave a smile of relief and took his wife's hand.

“We aren't afraid of death. On the contrary, you were the only person in the village who fled. You truly aren't worthy of Lady Xier.”

“Old man, I was going to the main city to bring reinforcements! Say one more word of nonsense and I'll cut out your tongue!”

The Apothecary was now on the verge of exploding, as if the poison blade would pierce the other's mouth at any second.

“Cough, cough... even if you kill us today, I will say it. Back then, you didn't go to the main city. The Hunter saw you fleeing deep into the Gloomy Forest.”

“Instead, it was Lady Xier who stayed behind without hesitation to help us resist the invasion of the Demon God's Messengers. It was she who protected the Treasure Trove by her own strength until reinforcements from the main city arrived, saving the village.”

“And you are nothing but a maggot clinging to life.”

“The only reason we let you stay in the village was out of respect for Xier's contribution. Otherwise, a coward like you would have been driven out long ago!”

The old Village Chief's words were like daggers to the heart, causing the Apothecary to stumble back two steps, his eyes filled with disbelief.

“Impossible... how could you have found out? Impossible! This is all fake! Xier couldn't have done that...”

“What do you mean impossible? I have proof.”

After the old Village Chief spoke, he reached into his clothes to pull something out, but a sudden change occurred—the Apothecary lunged forward, his dagger already stabbing toward the old Village Chief's chest.

“Chain Fireball!”

Boom!

Just as the old Village Chief was about to be killed, Lin Yue, who had been listening to the story for a long time, timely interrupted the Apothecary's fatal strike.

Lin Yue flashed forward to the Village Chief, using his body to shield the old man and his wife behind him.

“Damn it, White Emperor! What the hell are you doing?”

Seeing his 'accomplice' turn to help the enemy, the Apothecary trembled with rage, his bloodshot eyes staring viciously at Lin Yue.

“Nothing much. I just wanted to hear the full story.”

Lin Yue looked at the Apothecary indifferently, his face calm.

“Bastard, don't you want the Treasure Trove of the Gods anymore? Get out of my way, or I'll kill you too.”

The Apothecary had now completely lost his mind; his head was filled with nothing but killing the Village Chief to satisfy his revenge.

Lin Yue's brow furrowed. He did indeed want the Treasure Trove of the Gods, but he had no intention of tolerating threats from an NPC.

“Adventurer, I know where he hid the Treasure Trove.”

This one sentence from the old Village Chief brought a smile to Lin Yue's face.

As expected, there was another way to complete this quest.