Liu Rufeng's face immediately turned grim as he frantically thought of a way to resolve the situation. Although he did not entirely fear Mu Qinlian's strength, making her angry and flatly refusing her request would definitively break the fragile relationship between them. And that was something a sycophant like him was not willing to do in a million years.
Mu Qinlian's face grew even colder as her killing intent surged. Liu understood that hesitating any longer would only lead him to a dead end; though, in reality, there was never a way out for him in the first place.
"Wait! Alright, alright!" Liu Rufeng exclaimed, raising his hands in surrender as he turned pale. "There is no need to go to extremes, Junior Sister Mu. Like I said, this is all a misunderstanding. I have no interest in making an enemy out of you over a simple ring."
Gritting his teeth with a silent fury he did not dare to show, Liu Rufeng slid the ring off his finger. The pain of losing the treasures he had just savored was immense, but the fear of Mu Qinlian completely severing ties with him right then and there was far greater.
"Take it," he said, tossing the ring toward her. "But I warn you, you shouldn't be looking for trouble over a mere servant."
Mu Qinlian caught the ring mid-air with a graceful movement. She completely ignored Liu Rufeng's warning and subtle threat.
"Master, is everything there?" she asked mentally, while pretending to inspect the ring.
[Checking... Yes, that brat's spiritual seal was brutally forced open, but the storage space is intact. That fool Liu didn't have time to transfer anything,] the voice in her mind replied with a tone of satisfaction. [That brat... is not poor at all. Although I can't see the materials or the specific quantity due to the block, I can determine that everything is top-tier. Even an average inner disciple wouldn't have this much.]
"It's normal for my brother; he always has things someone of his rank wouldn't have," she said with a touch of pride.
However, if she knew that more than half of those resources had been given to him by an elder as an advance payment for the care of Hong Jiu'er, her attitude might have changed completely.
Once she verified that everything was in order, she withdrew her gaze from the ring and locked her eyes on Liu Rufeng.
"Who kidnapped Senior Brother Wu?" she asked directly.
Liu Rufeng's already somber face distorted even further upon hearing the affection in Mu Qinlian's voice when referring to the servant disciple. Jealousy and frustration almost made him lose his composure.
"I already gave you the ring, why do you want to keep escalating things?" he asked, trying to intimidate her into taking a step back.
However, as a true daughter of destiny, the last thing Mu Qinlian feared was offending others. Seeing the man's resistance, her killing intent increased drastically, making the air around them turn unbearably heavy.
"Don't try to protect them. The fact that I am not retaliating against you is already enough benevolence on my part. Now tell me their names," she sentenced, giving him no avenue of escape.
"Benevolence? How dare yo—?!"
Liu Rufeng's sentence was cut short in his throat. Mu Qinlian's sword appeared in an instantaneous flash, stopping millimeters from his neck. The man froze completely, the reflection of the steel gleaming in his fear-filled eyes.
Mu Qinlian's strength was less than his when they first met; however, now she had not only equaled him, but surpassed him completely. It was a bitter reality that his pride refused to accept, but with the cold edge of the sword threatening to slit his jugular at the slightest movement, he had no choice but to yield.
Gritting his teeth, Liu Rufeng spat out the names of the disciples who had kidnapped Wu Huang.
After all, they were just a group of disciples hired by a third party; Liu Rufeng had not sent them directly. He was sure that, no matter what those pawns said under interrogation, Mu Qinlian would not be able to attack him directly using their testimonies.
And even if they managed to find a way to incriminate him, it would be enough for Liu Rufeng to flatly deny everything. In the worst-case scenario, the sect would barely give him a minor punishment. Using his influence and his spotless public reputation, the matter would be overlooked very easily.
Mu Qinlian was also fully aware of that reality. Therefore, she sheathed her sword without another word and withdrew from the place to look for the pair of disciples who had attacked Wu Huang.
First, she had to take care of those idiots and wrench valuable resources from them as compensation for her senior brother; only after stripping them of everything would she deign to spare their miserable lives.
It didn't take her long to find those disciples and, using a bit of "persuasion," strip them of a very good amount of resources.
"Do you think this is enough for Brother Wu?" Mu Qinlian asked in her mind.
[He will be a bit surprised. It is definitely enough for him to advance from the mid-stage of Qi Refinement to the advanced stage,] her master replied in an amused tone at her disciple's efficiency in persuasion. [That pair of disciples won't even be able to afford the clothes on their backs with the amount of resources you took from them, but considering what they did, they had it well-deserved.]
Mu Qinlian nodded in agreement and, with her spirits over the moon, immediately headed to the servant residential area. The servants who were used to her presence greeted her lightly. Some others, who being new did not know her, were astonished by her beauty and looked at her with a bit of insolence.
Without caring about those looks at all, she arrived at Wu Huang's humble abode.
"Brother Wu," she said in a soft voice as she knocked on the door.
The door opened immediately, and Mu Qinlian's smile froze on her face when a small figure received her.