While Su Mu was frantically conflicted in her heart, Chen Qing also noticed this Silly Shizun’s uneasy little movements.
She knew at a glance that this Silly Shizun was hiding some bad little scheme from her again.
However, regarding this Silly Shizun always trying to harm her with such clumsy little schemes, Chen Qing was already used to it.
Rather, this Silly Shizun really didn’t learn her lesson at all. It seemed the punishments she gave her each time weren’t enough.
Su Mu, who was agonizing, saw Chen Qing’s gaze fixed on her, and her already somewhat panicked heart grew even more panicked.
“You, aren’t you going to interrogate that White Lotus Cultist?”
Su Mu planned to change the topic to ease her tense mood.
“The White Lotus Cultist will confess; no need to rush. But right in front of me, there’s someone who never learns her lesson and needs a good interrogation. Don’t you think so, Venerable Master~?”
As she spoke, Chen Qing drew closer and closer to Su Mu.
The moment she heard the words “Venerable Master,” Su Mu turned around without hesitation and ran toward the room where Wu Ran and Ye Qinglian were.
Ever since her last failed sneak attack on Chen Qing, those four words had become Su Mu’s nightmare.
Whenever those four words came out of Chen Qing’s mouth, it meant punishment was imminent.
But this time, she was determined to break this unsolvable cycle. As long as she reached Wu Ran and Ye Qinglian, the Villain definitely wouldn’t dare bully her right in front of them.
However, while Su Mu’s idea was good, she had overestimated her own speed. She hadn’t even taken two steps before Chen Qing grabbed her from behind and hoisted her up.
“I! Mmph!”
The hoisted-up Su Mu wanted to shout loudly to draw the attention of the other people in the inn.
But Chen Qing had anticipated this trick and immediately covered her mouth with a hand.
Su Mu struggled fiercely, trying to break free from Chen Qing’s control. But then Chen Qing heavily kneaded her chest.
The thrashing Su Mu instantly went limp in Chen Qing’s arms.
Though her body was under Chen Qing’s control, Su Mu glared fiercely with her eyes, protesting Chen Qing’s rogue behavior.
“Why is Shizun running? I won’t eat you.”
Chen Qing looked playfully at the indignant Su Mu, who was glaring at her.
“Wu wu wu!”
Though Su Mu’s mouth was covered by Chen Qing’s hand, making her words muffled, her expression and eyes made it clear she was cursing viciously.
Halfway through her muffled tirade, Chen Qing suddenly lifted her hand from Su Mu’s soft lips.
“You wait for me!”
Su Mu, mid-rant, froze the instant she realized Chen Qing had removed her hand.
“Wait for what?”
“Wait… wait until later to get some good sleep. You’ve worked hard searching for the White Lotus Cult.”
Su Mu forced a smile she thought was amiable and looked at Chen Qing ingratiatingly.
Seeing the Silly Shizun spout such insincere words without so much as blushing or her heart skipping a beat, Chen Qing pinched her slender waist hard.
Not a single honest word ever came out of this Silly Shizun’s little mouth—her mind was craftier than the stars in the sky.
Pinched on her sensitive soft waist by Chen Qing, a seductive blush colored Su Mu’s pretty face.
Though dissatisfied with Chen Qing’s action, she could only curse viciously in her heart.
Chen Qing was just about to give her a proper interrogation and find out what this Silly Shizun had been up to behind her back when Wu Ran emerged from the room.
“Senior, this White Lotus Cultist has confessed.”
Wu Ran’s words caught Chen Qing off guard. She had thought someone dispatched by the White Lotus Cult would hold out for an afternoon, but the confession had come so quickly.
From Chen Qing’s gaze, Wu Ran could tell what she was thinking. Somewhat depressed, she explained,
“This White Lotus Cultist’s confession was faster than any prisoner I’ve interrogated before. I only tempted her a little and hadn’t even started threatening her when she spilled everything.”
The thought that her own mistake had allowed such a person to hurt Highness filled Wu Ran with even greater depression.
Wu Ran’s expression didn’t look like she was joking, so Chen Qing released the Silly Shizun in her arms and headed into the room to see for herself.
Ever since Su Mu had bashed Ye Qinglian’s head with a stool and given her a bump, she always felt a bit guilty facing Wu Ran, this loyal guard.
Thus, after politely greeting her, Su Mu followed Chen Qing into the room.
In the room, the White Lotus Cultist Su Mu had captured was bowed over a sheet of paper, writing intently. Half the page was already filled.
When she glanced up and spotted Su Mu entering, her eyes flickered, but she said nothing and kept her head down, continuing to write.
Truth be told, Su Mu had felt an inexplicable twinge of nervousness when the woman looked up.
After all, their first encounter had been a bit forward on the woman’s part, but her actions afterward showed she truly hadn’t meant to harm Su Mu.
Instead, Su Mu had sneak-attacked her from behind, knocking her out and causing her to bleed profusely.
In no time, the entire sheet was filled, and she set down the brush.
“I’m just a peripheral cultist. This is everything I know. My one hundred taels of silver.”
“Don’t worry—as long as the information checks out, you won’t be shortchanged.”
With that, Wu Ran pulled several hefty Silver Ingots from her bosom and handed them over.
Su Mu, whose mood had been somewhat tense, went wide-eyed at the Silver Ingots in Wu Ran’s hand.
A full one hundred taels—enough to buy so many hidden weapons and poisons to deal with that detestable Villain.
So this woman was actually so wealthy. Su Mu’s gaze toward Wu Ran lost its former evasiveness.
The White Lotus Cultist calmly pocketed the Silver Ingots Wu Ran handed her.
“Female heroes, when do you plan to wipe out our White Lotus Cult? I’m thinking of using these one hundred taels to buy a few mu of farmland as dowry and get married. As long as they’re around, I can’t even farm in peace.”
Su Mu had never seen anyone switch sides so fast—and the very first thing after being bought off was to hope her former employer crumbled quickly, lest it disrupt her farming.
Evidently, the White Lotus Cult’s pay and benefits were abysmal; even the rank-and-file cultists despised it.
The full sheet she had written yielded some solid intelligence.
As a mere low-level cultist, she didn’t know the White Lotus Cult’s true headquarters.
But from the tasks handed down to her, she could roughly surmise their recent movements.
The White Lotus Cult’s biggest recent operation was abducting young maidens from all over.
According to higher-ranking cultists, it was for some major ritual that was short on participants, so they had started grabbing outsiders to make up the numbers.
After reading the paper’s contents, Su Mu felt her hands and feet grow ice-cold.
The “important ritual” mentioned surely couldn’t be a living human sacrifice, could it? Why else abduct people?
The thought of the bloody, cruel scenes described in history books and tales of the strange turned Su Mu’s face ashen.
Reading about such things in books before hadn’t affected her much, but now that she was up against such an evil cult firsthand, the oppressive weight was entirely different.
