"Brother Da Ming, what are you doing? I didn't lie to you, it's this smelly woman who's been sowing discord between us." Ye Yao was stunned by this turn of events, cursing Ma Mingguang as an idiot in her heart.
"Yes, I did lie to you. It was Yao Yao who told me your plan, so let her go quickly!" As Xiao Wenqiang spoke, she snapped the other wrist of Ma Mingliang, who had pulled out a small knife to secretly retaliate.
"Ahhh!" Ma Mingliang's screams filled the air. He desperately wanted to escape, but Xiao Wenqiang had him pinned to the ground by his back, unable to move.
Ma Mingliang's cries startled An Xin, who had only taken a sip of her doctored mineral water. She struggled to open her eyes and was immediately shocked by the scene before her.
An Xin hastily scrambled up on all fours, rushing forward to shield Xiao Wenqiang, and then asked, "What's going on?"
Ye Yao glared hatefully at Xiao Wenqiang and continued to beg Ma Mingguang. "Brother Da Ming, I came to you voluntarily. How could I be cutting off my own nose to spite my face? Everything I told you last night was sincere. I swear it wasn't me who leaked it!"
"If it wasn't you, then who was it? Maybe you all colluded to lure us into a trap. It's laughable that we kindly took you in. Truly, a woman's heart is the most venomous!" Ma Mingliang, who had recovered somewhat and could only move his mouth, said angrily.
Ma Mingguang looked at his suffering brother and felt a pang of guilt. He then glanced down at Ye Yao in his hands, momentarily unable to discern who was right and who was wrong.
Ye Yao truly hated Ma Mingliang's foul mouth for constantly slinging mud at her. However, she knew her situation was dire and could only dart her eyes around for help, finally settling on Zhao Yong.
Zhao Yong, held at knifepoint by Yang Ning, was quite subdued. Fearing that vibrating his vocal cords might cut his throat, he didn't dare utter a word. He held up his hands to show he was unarmed and posed no threat.
Ye Yao suddenly pointed at Zhao Yong. "I know, Brother Da Ming. It must have been Zhao Yong who leaked our plan. Look at him, he hasn't said a word. He must be guilty."
Zhao Yong first looked at Ye Yao blankly. When he saw Ma Mingguang and Ma Mingliang looking at him with dawning realization, he became enraged.
Ignoring the potential harm to his vocal cords, Zhao Yong cursed, "You bitch, stop spewing lies! Do you think everyone is as heartless as you, betraying their companions for a small profit? No matter what happens, I, Zhao Yong, would never betray Brother Da Ming or Little Brother Ming!"
As he spoke passionately, Zhao Yong wanted to rush forward and rip Ye Yao's mouth apart.
Unexpectedly, Yang Ning's dagger was too sharp. This slight impact actually severed his carotid artery.
Zhao Yong's blood spurted out instantly, scaring Yang Ning into retracting the dagger and stammering, "It... it wasn't me, he... he ran into it himself."
This incident stunned everyone else present, leaving them frozen in place.
Zhao Yong desperately clutched his neck, but still couldn't stop the blood from gushing out. The force of the spray was like a high-pressure fountainhead.
In the end, Zhao Yong couldn't utter another word. He completely lost too much blood and lay motionless on the ground, still within three minutes.
In those short three minutes, Ma Mingguang, who had lost a brother, involuntarily tightened his grip on Ye Yao's neck and said to Miss Xiao, "Miss Xiao, how about this! We both take a step back. You let my brother go, and I'll return this woman to you?"
Xiao Wenqiang didn't answer immediately. Instead, she beckoned to Yang Ning. "Little Five, come here!"
Yang Ning came back to his senses, walked over, and tacitly returned Xiao Wenqiang's dagger to her.
The woman weighed the soul artifact dagger in her hand and bared her teeth, smiling at Ma Mingguang and Ye Yao. Then, with lightning speed, she bent down and swiftly slit Ma Mingliang's throat, sending him to his maker before he could even struggle.
She then moved her foot away, shrugged at Ma Mingguang, and spread her hands. "Oh dear, my hostage is dead, so I can't exchange her with you!"
Everything happened too quickly. The situation changed drastically in an instant. Ma Mingguang couldn't immediately react afterwards; he even wondered if he was hallucinating.
Ye Yao was the first to understand her predicament and spat out, "Xiao Wenqiang, you bitch, I curse your entire family! How could you be so vicious..."
"Oh? How am I vicious?" Xiao Wenqiang asked nonchalantly while wiping the blood from Ma Mingliang's clothes onto her soul artifact dagger.
"You..." Ye Yao was startled by the other woman's disregard for human life. She swallowed and continued, "You're deliberately trying to kill me! I even considered you my best friend!"
"Best friend?" Xiao Wenqiang retorted sarcastically. "The kind who calls others to take my life? Or the kind who steals so-called space treasures so you can act on behalf of heaven?"
"You... what are you talking about? I don't understand. Do you have some misunderstanding about me?" Ye Yao's eyes flickered, avoiding her gaze.
"Didn't you tell them I have a space treasure? And that you wanted to snatch it and offer it to the man behind you so you could contribute to humanity together?" Xiao Wenqiang directly exposed her.
Ma Mingguang, who was still immersed in the grief of losing two brothers, one of whom was his own younger sibling, couldn't help but show a look of concern upon hearing about the space treasure.
"Ye Yao, you didn't expect this, did you! Big Sister doesn't have a space treasure, it's her awakened spatial ability." Yang Ning had also largely recovered and, along with An Xin, woke up Fourth Brother.
Ye Yao first looked at Xiao Wenqiang in disbelief, then suddenly seemed to realize. "So you've discovered the secret of the spatial ring."
"I told you it's an ability, why can't you understand?" Yang Ning was speechless.
"Impossible! You don't have spatial abilities. You must have discovered the secret of the spatial ring, the gold ring your mother gave you." Ye Yao could no longer keep the secret of the spatial treasure being a gold ring.
Xiao Wenqiang took off the gold ring from her neck, which she wore as a pendant, and tossed it to An Xin, Yang Ning, and Lu Feiguang to examine. "Are you talking about this one? My mother gave it to me, I remember telling you. But as for a space treasure, I don't know."
Yang Ning and the others examined it back and forth for a long time but couldn't figure anything out. They returned the gold ring to Xiao Wenqiang, and their disdain for Ye Yao grew.
"See, everyone has looked at it. There's no spatial ring at all. I don't know why you have such unrealistic ideas?" Xiao Wenqiang asked feigning confusion.
"There must be a spatial ring, because I have memories of my past life!" Ye Yao dropped a bombshell.