While Malcolm was suffering at Ashton's hand, Aatrox was already at home. He knew something like this would happen to the man, but he still asked Malcolm to say false information about the business to get more dirt on Ashton, and fortunately, their idea was successful.
Aatrox had placed a tracking and recording magic in Malcolm to record everything that was said in that room. It was a very rare magic used for espionage, so Aatrox was sure that this kind of thing would not exist in this world, at least not among the weakest cultivators.