Watching Ye Qingyan’s blushing face, Ye Ling’s smile deepened. He suddenly released her.
Ye Ling chuckled, "So, the dignified Azure Leaf Sword Vener can also be so shy and charming. I thought you would always maintain that aloof and proud demeanor."
"You! Shameless!"
Ye Qingyan was furious, but she knew that getting angry was meaningless. She coughed lightly, stared at Ye Ling, and retorted, "I am not an ungrateful person. This body is like a rebirth to me. By rights, it's fine for me to be with you, but seeing as you don't have such intentions, I suppose you lack the ability. So, never mind."
"Besides carnal relations, what do you want me to do?"
"I have plenty of intentions in that regard, but now is not the time," Ye Ling teased again. "If we have time in the future, we can find a place to spar and let you experience ascension."
Ye Qingyan: "..."
Hearing Ye Ling's brazen words, Ye Qingyan finally realized that engaging in verbal sparring with him was futile.
After a few more teasing remarks, Ye Ling didn't press the issue. He turned to the main topic and said seriously, "I want to find Ye Feng. Since you've had contact with him, do you know where he is now?"
Ye Qingyan shook her head, "I'm afraid I'll have to disappoint you. After Ye Feng brought me into the Red Dust Pavilion platform last time, I haven't seen him again. My cultivation resources are exchanged with the Red Dust Pavilion's official channels through mission rewards, and they are delivered by Red Dust Pavilion staff. Ye Feng won't show up."
"I was a spiritual body before, and I was kept in the dark by the Red Dust Pavilion and Ye Feng. I suspect those so-called cultivation resources were also illusions created by the Red Dust Pavilion, and I've been working for them for free."
Ye Ling frowned slightly, "This is a bit troublesome... But have the Red Dust Pavilion discovered that you know the truth?"
With that, Ye Ling tossed Ye Qingyan's Qiankun bag back to her, "Try logging into the Red Dust Pavilion platform again."
Taking the Qiankun bag, Ye Qingyan didn't hesitate. She took out her mobile phone from the bag and was about to log into the Red Dust Pavilion.
"Wait!"
Ye Ling called out to Ye Qingyan again. He infused his spiritual energy into her, transforming her back into the appearance of his aunt.
"I just remembered that after your reincarnation as a dragon, your appearance and aura have changed drastically. Logging into the Red Dust Pavilion rashly might invalidate your membership. It's better to be careful."
"Unnecessary..."
Ye Qingyan rolled her eyes at Ye Ling and muttered. Then, she used her phone to log into the Red Dust Pavilion.
The familiar female voice of the Red Dust Pavilion sounded from the phone. After a series of complex verifications, the simple webpage appeared on Ye Qingyan's phone screen.
Ye Ling leaned over to look. He noticed that Ye Qingyan's interface was different from those of Jiang Xingye and Su Chen. She had an additional backend, which displayed "Orders in Progress."
Below the backend was a list of tasks Ye Qingyan had completed.
In six years, Ye Qingyan had only accepted less than twenty orders, most of which were assassination missions, targeting either foreign dignitaries or sect leaders.
Although the number of orders was small, the names in Ye Qingyan's backend death list were each worth over ten billion US dollars.
At the very bottom was Jiang Xingye's recent order. The target was a question mark, and the result was marked as failed, which was clear at a glance.
"Let me see."
Ye Ling asked Ye Qingyan for her phone and sat down on the stone platform. While browsing Ye Qingyan's backend, he asked, "After you abandoned Jiang Xingye's mission and returned to Azure Leaf Town, did you leave my aunt's body directly?"
Ye Qingyan nodded, "Yes, after abandoning the mission, my primordial spirit departed and returned to what I believed was my 'original body'."
After realizing she had been deceived all along, Ye Qingyan lost all goodwill towards the Red Dust Pavilion. Now, she was happy to cooperate with Ye Ling to retaliate against them.
Ye Ling asked again, "Have the people from the Red Dust Pavilion contacted you?"
"No, but the website backend sent me an internal message. You can click on it to see," Ye Qingyan said, sitting next to Ye Ling and poking the smartphone screen with her slender finger.
Although Ye Qingyan was from the Ming Dynasty, she had been active in modern society for several years.
Ye Qingyan's familiarity with these electronic devices was likely even greater than Ye Ling's, an ancient relic who had lived in feudal society for sixty thousand years.
System Message (9:21): "Dear user, due to your abandonment of customer Jiang Xingye's mission, the system will automatically deduct your security deposit."
System Message (11:30): "Dear user, employer Jiang Xingye has been confirmed deceased. Due to your mission failure, which has caused serious damage to the platform's credibility, your level points will be deducted. Staff will contact you shortly to confirm the specific situation. Please remain available."
System Message (13:03): "Dear user, customer Su Chen has placed an order. Please confirm the order as soon as possible and contact the employer."
Ye Ling looked at the internal messages on the phone screen. The last one stopped at the moment he hired Ye Qingyan using Su Chen's identity.
Ye Ling exited the backend and asked Ye Qingyan, "Those so-called staff, have they contacted you?"
Ye Qingyan replied, "No. I suppose someone else hired me, so they put aside contacting me."
"So, I've cut off the clue myself?" Ye Ling was quite vexed. "Is there any way to get that staff member to contact me?"
"I'm afraid I'll have to wait until this mission is over," Ye Qingyan said, standing up and stretching.
"However, I am no longer in a spiritual body form. Even after this mission is over, the Red Dust Pavilion probably won't be able to reclaim my spiritual body. They will discover something is wrong sooner or later."
"Their staff will likely come to kill me proactively. That's when my fugitive life will probably begin."
"Come to kill me proactively..."
Hearing Ye Qingyan's words, Ye Ling fell into silence.
Seeing Ye Ling's current state, Ye Qingyan thought he was worried about her and couldn't help but smile and comfort him, "Actually, you don't need to worry. I'm an eighth-grade cultivator now. Forget China; throughout the world, there aren't many who can defeat me."
"No matter how powerful the Red Dust Pavilion is, it won't be easy for them to capture me."
Just as Ye Qingyan felt a warmth in her heart, believing Ye Ling was not just using her to investigate the Red Dust Pavilion but also cared about her, thinking he was outwardly cold but inwardly warm...
She then saw Ye Ling unhesitatingly reopen her Red Dust Pavilion backend and click the "Complete Mission" button.
"You said that as long as they can't reclaim your spiritual body, they'll come to kill you, right?" Ye Ling looked at Ye Qingyan and smiled innocently.
Ye Qingyan: "Huh?"