Upon hearing these words, Master Wei and Cao Meng exchanged a glance.

"Alright! Since you’ve already seen through us, we won’t hide it anymore!" Master Wei finally dropped his naive facade and seriously spoke to Ye Liuyun.

The villagers were visibly disappointed and discouraged seeing how easily Ye Liuyun saw through their act.

Master Wei then explained to Ye Liuyun, "The minor powers here are desperately expanding because the major powers give us tasks every few months, which we must send people to complete.

The task this time is to send ten people to explore the Goldragon Hill. But the place’s extremely dangerous, most people who go in can’t come back out. Especially because our realm is low, going there is like suicide mission.

So, we thought that if you could lead us through this buffer zone, maybe we won’t need to risk our own people! Or you could lead us on the exploratory trip, and there’ll be more chances for us to survive!"

"Just because of this reason?" Ye Liuyun questioned Master Wei while looking at the other mercenaries.

This time, they all nodded in affirmation.

"I can help you! But you lied to me once, I dare not trust you again! Unless..." Ye Liuyun said, pausing briefly.

"We didn’t intend to lie to you, we just withheld some info. Here’s what, go ahead and state your condition! As long as we can agree to it, we won’t refuse! Even if it costs me my life, I won’t even hesitate!" Master Wei added.

"Unless you let me search your souls to verify the truth!" Ye Liuyun continued.

"Huh?"

"That’s impossible!"

At this. Master Wei was taken aback, and the others started opposing it.

"What’s wrong? You’re not even afraid of death, but you’re afraid of me searching your soul?" Ye Liuyun stared at Master Wei and asked.

"That’s not the same! Once we go through soul search, we’ll become dumb!" Someone shouted.

Master Wei waved his hand, stopping the others from objecting. Then, he said to Ye Liuyun, "If we let you do a soul search, would you sincerely lead them? If you agree to sign a Divine Soul contract, I’m willing to take that risk."

But Ye Liuyun laughed and said, "Right now, it’s you who needs my help, not the other way around. You’re in no position to set conditions with me!"

Upon hearing this, Master Wei began to ponder.

"Master Wei, don’t. It’s too risky!" Cao Meng advised from the side.

"Yeah! If it won’t work, let’s just forget it. At worst, we’ll just lose some men!" Someone else emotionally stated.

However, after a moment of consideration, Master Wei agreed to Ye Liuyun’s terms.

"Alright, I agree! Hope that once you’ve confirmed the info, you’ll lead them out of here!"

"Master Wei!" A commotion stirred up among the mercenary group.

"If you need to search a soul, search mine!" That teenage boy told Ye Liuyun at this time.

"Bucktooth, it’s none of your business here!" Master Wei rebuked him.

"I’m the least powerful and the least useful! If someone needs to sacrifice, it should be me! In case he abandons us after the soul search, we’ll still need to rely on you!" The boy named Bucktooth insisted.

"Search mine!" Cao Meng suddenly stood up and said, "He’s just a kid, he knows nothing. There’s no use searching his soul!"

"Search mine! I know everything, too!"

"Search mine!"

"Search my soul!"

These people showed solidarity as they stepped forward without hesitation, even the women among them.

"Search my soul!" Seeing everyone else shouting, the little girl also chimed in, clueless about what the soul search actually entailed.

However, Ye Liuyun shook his head and insisted, "I only need to search Master Wei’s soul. Searching others is pointless. I can assure you, once I’ve confirmed the info after the soul search, I’ll stay and help y’all."

Master Wei slapped Cao Meng’s shoulder, fixed him with a firm gaze and then told everyone, "Guys, it’s okay! Y’all continue to live on well!"

"Sooner or later, we all die! What’s the point of living such a miserable existence?" a man yelled emotionally at this time.

"That’s right! Master Wei, take us to the south. We might stand a chance to live better!" others echoed.

Yet Master Wei sternly retorted, "Stop talking nonsense! With no strength, no backing, we can’t even survive here, and it’d be even worse elsewhere! Only by living can we see hope."

Having said that, he stood firmly before Ye Liuyun, without further prodding Ye Liuyun to honor his promise.

Ye Liuyun was much more powerful than them, capable of annihilating them all single-handedly. Even if he reneged on his promise later, there was nothing they could do about it.

He was staking his life on this gamble. If he didn’t risk it, there would be no other way. Rather than helplessly watching his companions being taken away, it was better for him to leave first.

Struggling to bear the sight, some women turned away, secretly shedding tears.

Seeing the situation, Ye Liuyun didn’t delay any longer, directly unleashing his own Divine Soul to infiltrate into Master Wei’s Ocean of Consciousness.

Indeed, what Master Wei had said was the truth, and he had always treated these mercenaries like family.

It was just that he was not originally their leader. The original leader had already died in a previous exploration mission.

Most of these individuals were martial practitioners from the mortal realm, with only a few exceptions, such as Master Wei, who hailed from the southern region and had been mingling around this area.

The little girl who spoke earlier had been picked up by the previous leader during one of his missions. However, being young, she only knew her given name, Orchid, and was unaware of her full name. She had been under their care ever since.

As for another kid, Bucktooth, he was the son of the previous leader, and his full name was Li Pingchuan.

Their mercenary group, identified as Tiger Mercenary, originally consisted of more than seventy individuals. But with the demise of the past leader and a few strong members, they were unable to compete with other forces, leading to a decline in their numbers.

What would follow next was a known destiny, either they all die embarked on their missions, or they surrender to other forces and become their victim.

In particular, Bucktooth and Orchid were burdensome to any power as they could not fight yet consumed resources. They were such that even if handed for free, no force would take them in.

Master Wei and Cao Meng had discreetly observed Ye Liuyun for a few days, thinking that his character was decent, and his strength was fierce, so they decided to give up the leader’s position.

However, they didn’t have anything substantial to offer as a gift. Seeing that Ye Liuyun had two females by his side, they tried to cater to his liking.

There were also two women willing to make sacrifices for the survival of all, hoping to gain the help of Ye Liuyun.

Ye Liuyun then started to comb through much information about local forces before retrieving his Divine Soul.

Master Wei was stunned when he found himself unaffected, let alone experiencing headaches. He found it somewhat unbelievable and was on the spot.

Everyone was silently watching Master Wei, speculating that he had become an idiot.

"If you don’t say anything, they’ll think you’ve become an idiot!" Ye Liuyun also reminded Master Wei with a laugh.

"I... I’m completely fine!" Master Wei finally snapped back to reality, saying in wonder.

"What?"

"Nothing’s wrong? That’s great!"

There were those with tear-filled eyes who, upon hearing Master Wei’s claim of being okay, couldn’t help but express their shock and joy.