A magical journey of a sharp-tongued woman and a goofy man

The salty sea breeze brushed against the stray hairs on Ye Shuli's forehead as she placed her palm on the huge crack that ran across the coastline.

A deep blue light emanated from the ground, and spiderweb-like patterns spread along the rock layers to the horizon, like a deep, bone-revealing wound tearing open the entire continent.

“Three times more exaggerated than the murals on the altar.” Jiang Ye poked at the falling crystal fragments at the edge of the crack with his sword sheath, the bandage peeking out from his sleeve still stained with dark red. “Remember to leave me a good spot to carve a merit tablet.”

Ye Shuli flicked out a silver thread from her sleeve and wrapped it around his ankle: "If you talk nonsense again, I'll fill you into the crack as a stone to suppress it." When her fingertips touched the warm surface of the spirit pearl, the bitterness that had been suppressed for three days suddenly surged up in her throat—the blood mist from the self-destruction of Elder Yuejian Valley, the wounds Jiang Ye suffered from being corroded by the poison crystal, and the emblem in the pendant that overlapped with the family totem.

Jiang Ye crouched down and poked her taut shoulder line: "I bet ten mermaid tears that when the repair progress bar reaches 99%, something strange is definitely going to happen." The jade pendant that slipped out from his clothes shimmered with blue light through the cracks, and the edges of the broken emblem were tinged with eerie blood streaks.

The moment the spirit pearl hovered in the center of the crack, twelve beams of stardust shot into the sky.

Ye Shuli suddenly staggered half a step. The golden spiritual energy that should have flowed along the stardust pattern seemed to crash into the transparent barrier, scattering into tiny specks of light above the crack.

The compass needle, which monitors spiritual energy fluctuations, trembled violently, with the value approaching the peak value three days ago when the poison crystal exploded.

"A reverse spiritual pressure vortex." Ye Shuli tore off three strands of hair and threw them into the rift. The hairs shattered into dust the moment they touched the blue light. "The rift is repelling repair energy, just like..."

"Tear off the scab when the wound has scabbed over?" Jiang Ye suddenly parted his palm with his fingers, and the blood dripped onto the surface of the spirit pearl a beat slower than usual. "How about trying to use living spiritual energy as a buffer?"

Ye Shuli gripped his wrist so tightly it almost crushed his bones: "Your spiritual veins were only 30% restored yesterday!"

"Therefore, it's necessary to precisely control the output during the early stages of a Spiritualist's training." Jiang Ye flipped his wrist, breaking free from the restraints, and ice-blue threads of spiritual energy had already wrapped around the edge of the crack. "Miss, you should trust your partner's acting skills—you promised to use only 30% of your spiritual energy, and you won't use even half a strand more."

The moment the ice silk disappeared into the crack, the compass at Ye Shuli's waist emitted a piercing sound.

The originally violent spiritual pressure suddenly paused for 0.3 seconds, and she immediately pushed the spiritual orb into this fleeting balance point.

The bulging veins on Jiang Ye's forehead were particularly clear in the moonlight, and the joints of his right hand, which was maintaining the stability of the ice silk, made a cracking sound as if it could no longer bear the weight.

When the seventh layer of star sand array pattern lit up, a silvery-white gelatinous substance began to seep out from the edges of the crack.

Ye Shuli suddenly noticed Jiang Ye's drooping left hand—the newly formed flesh between the bandages was cracking at a visible speed, while the spiritual energy transfer that should have been out of control remained terrifyingly stable.

"You tampered with the spiritual vein circuit!" She waved her silver thread to sever the ice thread connection, but was bounced back three zhang by the surging blue light.

Blood welled up in Jiang Ye's throat, staining his last sarcastic syllable: "The monument of merit...must be edged with gold..."

The silvery-white substance in the crack suddenly condensed into a film, and the out-of-control spiritual pressure vortex was like a wild horse that had been put on a leash.

Ye Shuli bit her tongue to push her spiritual power to its limit, and the stagnant spiritual energy circulation at the birthmark broke through the shackles under high pressure.

The moment the Spirit Pearl sank completely into the earth's veins, the golden light bursting from the coastline startled owls a hundred miles away.

Jiang Ye felt three times lighter than usual as he fell into her arms, and the chill emanating from his back soaked through three layers of clothing.

Ye Shuli felt a faint pulse on the side of his neck and was about to examine the condition of his spiritual veins when her fingertips suddenly touched a newly formed black crystal cluster on the back of the reef—it was of the same origin as the poisonous crystal that appeared on the seabed three hours ago.

The sound of the tide masked the faint bubbling beneath the surface, and the seven eerie green lights quietly disappeared as the tide receded.

Half a blood-red totem flashed from the core of the spirit pearl in his arms, perfectly overlapping with the crack in the jade pendant to form a complete emblem.

Jiang Ye's icy blue spiritual energy threads formed a net-like barrier on the surface of the crack, cutting the chaotic spiritual energy storm into tiny vortices.

Ye Shuli formed hand seals, and the golden light erupting from the core of the spirit pearl flowed into the earth's veins along the trajectory of the stardust.

Crystalline skins are growing at a visible rate along the edges of the jagged cracks, and the pungent smell of sulfur in the sea breeze is gradually replaced by the fresh scent of grass and trees.

"The third star on the left has shifted." Jiang Ye suddenly coughed up a few drops of blood, and the ice silk wrapped around his wrist suddenly dimmed. "There's a spiritual energy gap in the southwest."

Ye Shuli immediately threw out twelve silver needles and drove them into the ground. The spiritual threads drawn out by the needles wove a warp and weft net under the moonlight.

When she detected the spiritual energy void in the southwest corner, she did not hesitate to cut her fingertip, and the blood droplets condensed into three crimson talismans in the air.

The moment the talisman exploded, the previously stalled repair process suddenly accelerated, and a faint crystallization sound echoed throughout the entire coastline.

Just as the last half-foot crack was about to close, the spirit pearl suddenly trembled violently.

Ye Shuli felt a burning pain in her palm, and the originally gentle spiritual energy flow suddenly turned into a reverse vortex.

The sea surface churned up a ten-zhang-high wall of waves, and countless dark blue light spots surged out from the depths of the cracks, condensing into materialized spiritual tendrils that entangled the spirit pearl.

"It's the earth's self-protection mechanism!" Jiang Ye leaped up, supporting himself with one hand, the blood-stained bandages fluttering in the wind.

The ice silk in his palm suddenly turned crimson gold, forcefully inserting itself into the weak point of the spiritual energy vortex. "Reverse the direction of the spiritual energy infusion by forty-five degrees!"

Ye Shuli spun around and took a few steps, her boot heels carving a semi-circular path on the ground.

The spirit pearl spun three times in her palm before suddenly hovering, its golden light intersecting with Jiang Ye's crimson-gold spiritual power to form a cross-chain.

The rocks beneath their feet shattered into powder in the clash of spiritual pressure, and the glass of the monitoring compass dial exploded with a bang.

"Southeast, Xun position!" Jiang Ye's reminder came, tinged with the stench of blood.

Ye Shuli immediately stomped her foot on the ground, and the water veins hidden under the rock strata gushed out in response.

The water, carrying the power of the spirit pearl, dispersed three spiritual tendrils, but more tendrils emerged from the depths of the crack.

She suddenly realized that the movement of these tentacles corresponded to the positions of the Twenty-Eight Mansions.

"Give me three seconds!" Ye Shuli bit her tongue and drew a blood symbol on her palm.

Upon hearing this, Jiang Ye suddenly ripped open his shirt, and the icy blue totem that appeared on his chest tripled his spiritual power output.

The surge of spiritual light temporarily suppressed the tentacles' attack, but at the cost of his back wound reopening, with blood spreading dark patterns on the reef.

The moment the blood talisman struck the surface of the spirit orb, the previously rampaging spiritual energy tendrils suddenly stiffened.

Ye Shuli seized this fleeting opportunity and guided the energy of the spirit pearl to flow in reverse along the twenty-eight constellations.

The stardust-like pillars of light rising from the sea echoed the stars in the sky, forcibly twisting the direction of the out-of-control vortex of spiritual energy.

As the final wave of psionic energy surged, Jiang Ye suddenly embraced Ye Shuli from behind.

The two people's spiritual energy circuits resonated under high pressure, and the scorching spiritual energy at the birthmarks formed a closed loop along their touching skin.

The golden light emanating from the spirit pearl was like the dawn breaking, completely dissolving the remaining tentacles.

When the sea breeze became gentle again, the coastline under the moonlight had been restored to its original state.

The surface of the newly formed crystal rock shimmers with a pearly luster, and translucent fluorescent moss grows in the cracks.

Ye Shuli knelt on the damp sand. Jiang Ye's body temperature was frighteningly low, but the fingertips resting on her wrist were still trembling slightly.

"A monument of merit..." Jiang Ye's pale lips moved, and beads of blood rolled down his eyelashes with each blink. "It needs to be engraved... a couple's package deal..."

Ye Shuli tore off some fabric from her sleeve to bandage him, and discovered that the newly formed poison crystals had already spread to his collarbone.

Just as she was about to investigate, she suddenly noticed an unusual vibration coming from the sand beneath her feet.

Deep within the repaired crystal rock layer, faint frequency fluctuations similar to those experienced during the poison crystal explosion could be heard.

Seven eerie green phosphorescent lights rose from the distant sea surface, arranged in the exact same pattern as the lights that appeared on the seabed three days ago.

Ye Shuli pretended to tidy her hair, and the silver threads that flicked from her fingertips quietly wrapped around the black crystal chip in the crevice of the reef.

The moment the chip fell into his palm, the jade pendant that had slipped out of Jiang Ye's clothes suddenly became hot, and the phantom image projected by the complete emblem enveloped the poison crystal.

The sound of the tide masked the faint cracking of the chip, but Ye Shuli clearly saw half a human face flash by in the afterimage.

She helped the unconscious Jiang Ye to a sheltered spot and turned to look at the now calm coastline.

The moonlight stretched her shadow long, perfectly covering the newly formed clusters of poisonous crystals on the back of the reef.

As the fluorescent moss unfurled its leaves in the night breeze, Ye Shuli noticed that a certain frequency of vibration would stop the growth of the poison crystals.

She put the jade slip recording the vibration frequency into her bosom, her fingertips unconsciously stroking the surface of the spirit pearl—there was a dent that perfectly matched the crack in the pendant.

Seven miles away, deep in the trench, severed spiritual tendrils were clinging to the eyelids of a gigantic creature.

As the last glimmer of golden light faded, the same totem as the pendant emblem on the surface of the seaweed-covered bronze pillar suddenly glowed with a blood-red light.