Damn, I've been spotted. The person hiding outside the window immediately retreated to the right.
Ye Lanshan had always possessed sharp senses. Even if that person ran as fast as they could, they would inevitably leave behind a trace of their presence and a disturbance in the air. And since that person didn't have a heaven-defying artifact like the Chaos Pearl like Ye Lanshan did, they were quickly caught by Ye Lanshan and the others and brought back to Wo Ju.
"Who sent you?" Mu Ziming cut straight to the most critical question without wasting a single word.
"Hey, big brothers, you've got the wrong person, haven't you? No one sent me, and I don't even know you."
Ye Lanshan pulled out a dagger and said coldly, "If you don't tell the truth, don't blame me for being rude."
The man's eyes darted around, and he immediately started throwing a tantrum. "You grab me out of nowhere without even knowing right from wrong, and you treat me so roughly. I'm telling you, if you don't give me ten million taels of gold today, this isn't over."
Ye Lanshan completely ignored his outburst, and Mu Ziming just watched him with a faint, knowing smile, making the man's skin crawl.
"Since you won't tell the truth, we'll have to help you do it. Where should we start cutting?" Ye Lanshan's eyes swept over the man's body, as if genuinely choosing a spot to slice.
Though fear gripped the man's heart, he had undergone special training. Facing such a scene, he could still barely keep his composure.
"I-I'm telling you, if you dare hurt me today, you're finished tomorrow." His demeanor didn't seem like that of someone trained by a major family.
Anyone else might have doubted whether they'd caught the wrong person, but unfortunately, he was up against Ye Lanshan—the number one genius of the cultivation world. In her long years of cultivation, she had seen it all. How could she be fooled by such a simple trick?
"In that case, let's start here." Ye Lanshan's dagger pointed at his ear.
"I'm warning you, if you dare touch me, I'll have someone rape you tomorrow!" The man's panic grew as he realized Ye Lanshan was serious.
At this point, Mu Ziming began to wonder if they had indeed grabbed the wrong person. He grabbed Ye Lanshan's arm and said, "Are we sure we've got the right guy? He doesn't seem like someone who'd be eavesdropping outside the door."
Seeing his doubtful gaze, Ye Lanshan explained, "I never catch the wrong person. This act of his is just a performance."
Realizing he had been exposed, the man stopped wasting his efforts and asked directly, "How did you know I was acting?"
Ye Lanshan's eyes swept over a chair, and she walked over to sit down gracefully. "If you were just a passerby, you wouldn't have bolted the moment I called out to someone, and run so fast at that."
Mu Ziming casually pulled up a chair and sat down, listening with interest.
"Is that so? I suppose I was too hasty this time." The man let out a self-deprecating laugh, then said, "The victor is king, the loser a bandit. Since you've caught me, do with me as you please. But don't expect a single useful word from my mouth."
Ye Lanshan didn't get up. She just stared into his eyes and said, "It doesn't matter if you don't talk. I already know who sent you. Dou Jingtong will stop at nothing to help the Sun family."
"You must be the best spy Dou Jingtong has ever trained, right?" Though it was a question, her tone was utterly certain.
The man's pupils widened slightly in disbelief. *My clothes, my moves, my words—none of them have anything to do with the Dou family. How did she know I'm Dou Jingtong's finest spy?*
Seeing his shocked eyes, Ye Lanshan confirmed her suspicions were correct. In truth, everything she had just said was a guess, meant to pry out all his information.
"How did you know?" The man's voice was filled with terror.
"Only Dou Jingtong met with me today." One sentence explained why she thought he was Dou Jingtong's man.
*Too terrifying. This is too terrifying. This person's mind and cunning are no ordinary depth. Can my master really defeat him in a fight?*
A flicker of worry crossed the man's mind, but now there was nothing he could do. The only thing he could do for his master was to die, preventing Ye Lanshan from extracting more secrets.
Ye Lanshan gently wiped her dagger in silence. She knew that the longer the quiet stretched, the more uneasy the prisoner would become, and the easier it would be to break his resolve.
Mu Ziming grew curious about Ye Lanshan, wondering what move she would make next, so he stayed still.
In that stillness, the man suddenly bit his tongue and killed himself—something neither of them had anticipated.
Ye Lanshan paused her wiping motion, as if she hadn't expected him to take his own life.
"He's really dead. How boring." Mu Ziming walked over to check his breath and shook his head with a dull expression.
"This man was a truly qualified spy." Ye Lanshan actually felt a hint of respect for people like him. They had their own dignity and understood their mission and its cost.
"Since he's dead, if Brother Shan Luo has nothing else, I'll take my leave. If you need anything in the future, just use this to find me." Mu Ziming handed Ye Lanshan a token.
After Mu Ziming left, Ye Lanshan condensed a fireball and cremated the man.
On the other side, Dou Jingtong was anxiously waiting for news about Shan Luo and Mu Ziming, unaware that his most trusted subordinate had already turned to ashes.
"It's already dawn. Why hasn't he returned?" Dou Jingtong could no longer sit still. He straightened his clothes slightly and headed out.
"What... is this?" Dou Jingtong arrived at Wo Ju and stared at a glint of light in the ashes on the floor, stunned.
The innkeeper hadn't expected to find a pile of ashes in the room and quickly apologized, "My sincerest apologies. The last guest just left, and I haven't had time to clean up. I'll sweep this away right now."
Dou Jingtong suddenly roared, "Did I tell you to sweep it? Get out!"
Startled by the now-ferocious-looking young master, the innkeeper hurriedly retreated.
Dou Jingtong walked toward the ashes step by step, moving painfully slowly, as if terrified that they truly belonged to that person.
Finally, he reached the ashes and reached out to pick up the glint of light within—a gift he had given to Yi Shui.
"Yi Shui, this isn't you, right? You're still alive, aren't you? Yes, you're my most trusted subordinate, the strongest person I've trained. How could you die so easily? This can't be you."
That day, Dou Jingtong muttered to himself for a long time. In the end, he threw his head back and roared at the sky, "Shan Luo, I will make you wish you were dead. I will make you regret killing Yi Shui."