Ayun looked in the direction where Ye Ling was, but found that she could no longer sense Ye Ling's aura, and her whole body was stunned.
"Illusion?"
Ayun muttered to herself, then shook her head and said firmly, "No... this can't be an illusion. Although this independent space-time is very hidden, Shang Qing Palace is one of Ye Ling's goals in the Origin Upper Realm, so he might find it here."
"We can't be careless and let Ye Ling ruin things!"
With that, Ayun spread her palm, and a white paper crane materialized in her hand.
"Go, find Ye Ling."
Ayun said softly, blew lightly on the paper crane, and then the paper crane seemed to come alive, flapped its wings twice in the air, turned into a white light, and disappeared from its original spot.
After releasing the paper crane, Ayun looked at the trial participants moving in the Sacred Spring. After a moment of silence, she said, "There's an unforeseen situation, the selection is temporarily interrupted."
As Ayun's voice fell, the Sacred Spring churned, and the trial participants still in the Sacred Spring were instantly swallowed by the spring water and disappeared.
"Damn it, kid! Why did Ayun suddenly interrupt the trial? Were we discovered?" The voice from the depths of the World-Destroying Spirit Fire Sacred Spring exclaimed in surprise, asking Ye Ling.
"Perhaps she sensed our aura just now, which made her vigilant," Ye Ling said in a low voice, further concealing his aura and stopping his steps.
Just now, when he was taking the World-Destroying Spirit Fire to the depths of the Sacred Spring, a strange energy fluctuation suddenly erupted from the Sacred Spring, instantly dissolving a lot of his talismans.
He was also caught off guard by the energy fluctuation, and his aura leaked out slightly.
Although he only exposed his aura for a fraction of a second, and only a tiny bit leaked out, his aura was unfortunately captured by Ayun.
Everything Ye Ling was doing now was just to make up for the mistake he had made earlier.
"Kid, look quickly! There's a paper crane, is it coming towards you?" While Ye Ling was concealing his aura with talismans, the World-Destroying Spirit Fire noticed a paper crane flying towards them and quickly reminded Ye Ling in surprise.
Seeing the paper crane appear, Ye Ling also felt a bad premonition and immediately used the talismans to quietly teleport to the other side of the Sacred Spring.
However, after the paper crane stayed at Ye Ling's location for a moment, it circled in the air, then turned around and chased towards Ye Ling's direction again.
"Kid, that paper crane seems to be chasing you! We're really exposed!" The World-Destroying Spirit Fire exclaimed again, seeing the paper crane flying towards them again.
Ye Ling, however, remained quite calm. He carefully observed the paper crane and then looked at the depths of the Sacred Spring, shaking his head and saying, "With my current level of talisman concealment, even a Heavenly Mandate wouldn't be able to sense my aura. Ayun only captured my aura for a moment, it's unlikely she knows where I am."
"That paper crane might be tracking me through other means."
"Other means?" The World-Destroying Spirit Fire was stunned, "What other means could there be?"
Ye Ling said solemnly, "I got drunk on Tianyun Island before and lost a period of memory after getting drunk. Perhaps it was during that time that something was done to me."
"However, I met Evil before. If there was a problem with my soul... Evil should have helped me solve it, or at least pointed it out. But Evil showed no reaction, which means there should be no problem with my soul."
"Therefore, the trick Ayun could have played on me should be to imprint some information from my soul."
As Ye Ling spoke, to verify his thoughts, he immediately used Ink Between to change his soul into text, and changed his original name and identity to Wang Liren.
After Ye Ling changed some information in his soul, the paper crane that was tracking Ye Ling seemed to have lost its target and began to flutter randomly in mid-air.
"It really is like this!"
Ye Ling rejoiced upon seeing the paper crane suddenly lose its direction in the air.
The World-Destroying Spirit Fire also exclaimed, "Well done, kid! I didn't expect you to have this move... But to modify your soul with Ink Between, you're truly a ruthless person."
"Aren't you afraid of messing up and not being able to change it back?"
"It's fine... I'm too familiar with the identity of Wang Liren, so there won't be any mistakes. Moreover, I've specifically set a time limit for the effect of Ink Between. Once the time is up, the effect will end, and my soul will be restored. Otherwise, I wouldn't dare to casually use Ink Between to modify my soul information."
"Now that Ayun has lost the means to track me, we should take this opportunity to go to the depths of the Sacred Spring and confront Ayun!"
With no worries, Ye Ling accelerated his pace and soon passed through the dense white mist, arriving at the depths of the Sacred Spring.
Ye Ling hid in the white mist, observing the situation in the deepest part of the Sacred Spring.
Here, the water surface was as calm as a mirror, without the slightest ripple.
Dense white mist surrounded the area, and Ayun, wearing only a thin garment, sat cross-legged above the water surface, her brows slightly furrowed.
"How can this be? The Soul Spirit Crane, which imprinted Ye Ling's soul information, cannot find Ye Ling. Could it be that I was really mistaken just now?"
Ayun muttered to herself. She was very sure that she had sensed Ye Ling's aura, but the feedback from the Soul Spirit Crane made her have to doubt... whether she had made a mistake.
"The Soul Spirit Crane will not make mistakes... then it must be that I made a mistake just now, am I missing him too much?"
Ayun muttered to herself, then shook her head and denied it, "No... my relationship with him is purely physical, and our union was only to complete the mission. Logically, I shouldn't be attracted to him... But if I'm not attracted, how could I have an illusion?"
The more Ayun thought about it, the more confused she became. She felt that everything happening now was unreasonable, and something must have gone wrong.
But no matter how many times she sorted through the matter, she couldn't find the root of the problem.
"Ugh! My head... it hurts so much!"
"No... what went wrong? Is it me... or the Soul Spirit Crane? Or did I not successfully imprint Ye Ling's aura in the first place?"
"Ahhhh!"
Ayun fell into deep self-doubt. She suddenly felt an unbearable headache, and the energy within her body became extremely unstable.
The spring water in the Sacred Spring began to boil, and a large amount of energy escaped from it, condensing into mist in the surroundings.
The Sacred Spring here suddenly went berserk!
Seeing Ayun, who had gone mad from not finding him, in the center of the dense fog, the World-Destroying Spirit Fire complained to Ye Ling, "She's gone crazy just because she couldn't find you? It's not that serious, is it? Kid, do you really have that much charm?"
However, as the World-Destroying Spirit Fire was complaining, a sinister and icy aura suddenly descended from the sky, filling the surroundings of the Sacred Spring and instantly polluting the sacred energy within the Sacred Spring!
At this moment, Ye Ling trembled, feeling his soul tremble.
Without thinking further, Ye Ling added several more layers of talismans around himself, concealing his aura to the extreme, making himself seem like mist floating in the air.
After hiding himself and confirming that he would not be discovered, Ye Ling looked up and saw a pair of pitch-black eyes suddenly open above Ayun!