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

The fluorescent moss at the top of the cave rustled and shed tiny blue lights. Just as Ye Shuli's fingertips touched Jiang Ye's bleeding shoulder, the suspended blood droplets suddenly exploded into dust.

Seven lotus lamps automatically arranged themselves into the shape of the Big Dipper in the center of the underground river, and the acrid smell of burning mutated vines was mixed with a faint smell of blood.

“There’s something at the bottom of the river.” Jiang Ye tore off a piece of cloth from his sleeve to hastily bandage his wound, and his blood-stained fingertips suddenly pointed to the third lamp.

The sparks from the exploding lamp wick reflected the distorted bronze patterns beneath the river's surface, perfectly matching the pattern on the broken sundial in the sage's study.

Ye Shuli took out a tungsten steel dagger hidden in her boot, a modern alloy modified from an alchemy furnace.

The moment the blade cut his index finger, the underground river suddenly surged with a wave three zhang high, and bronze chains covered in silt wrapped around Jiang Ye's ankle.

Twenty-three fluorescent water snakes emerged from the cracks in the rocks, their tails swaying in perfect sync with the flickering flames of the lotus lanterns.

"Don't let go!" Jiang Ye grabbed Ye Shuli's wrist with his back, his back slamming heavily against the slippery cave wall.

The raised spikes on the surface of the bronze chain cut his calf, and as the blood seeped into the chain links, it suddenly emitted a dark purple aura.

The moment the two were dragged toward the center of the river, all seven lotus lanterns went out.

The darkness lasted for five seconds.

When the fluorescent moss lit up again, they were standing on a cracked bronze altar.

Ye Shuli's tungsten steel dagger was inserted into the groove in the center of the altar, and star pattern light spots similar to those of a parachute appeared on the blade.

The bandage on Jiang Ye's shoulder wound was torn off by some force, and blood droplets floated, forming a fragmented image of the Twenty-Eight Mansions.

"The southeast corner is the 'earthquake' position." Ye Shuli suddenly grabbed Jiang Ye and lurched him to the right.

The spot where they had stood exploded in dark green flames, and the wise man's voice came from within: "Mix his blood with the ashes of the mutated vines..."

Before he could finish speaking, he was interrupted by a shriek as twelve red-eyed bats, their spiritual energy out of balance, broke through the altar's barrier.

Jiang Ye tossed out three spirit-infused copper coins, which formed a triangular sealing array in the air.

The moment the red-eyed bat crashed into the formation, Ye Shuli had already smeared the ashes of the lotus lantern onto Jiang Ye's bleeding wound.

"Ouch! Ouch! Ouch!"

"You're murdering your husband..." Jiang Ye's wailing stopped abruptly.

Blood droplets mixed with ash flew automatically toward the twelve animal head statues at the edge of the altar, each drop of blood landing precisely in the mouths of the beasts.

Amidst the violent tremors of the ground, a milky-white spiritual spring gushed forth from the cracks in the altar.

Ye Shuli suddenly clutched her chest and staggered two steps, the silver threads that had reformed on her wrist trembling wildly.

Jiang Ye put his arm around her waist and leaped onto the highest beast head. Below, the spiritual spring was swallowing the shattered bronze pieces of the altar.

Seven lotus lanterns rose again from the riverbed, but the wicks burned with eerie blue ghost flames.

"Hold on!" Jiang Ye cut his other palm and smeared the blood on the bronze eyes of the beast's head.

The shockwave from the beast's mouth overturned the pursuing red-eyed bats, and the two used the recoil to fall into the whirlpool of the spiritual spring.

During her fall, Ye Shuli broke three silver threads, which then twisted into a compass shape, pointing towards the center of the vortex.

A crisp sound like shattering glass came from the depths of the spiritual spring. The moment Jiang Ye's back hit some kind of transparent barrier, Ye Shuli's tungsten steel dagger suddenly emitted a high-frequency vibration.

The moment the blade sliced ​​through the barrier, the two fell into a narrow tunnel filled with glowing crystal clusters.

“This is…” Jiang Ye wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, his pupils reflecting the dark golden runes flowing on the tunnel wall.

The arrangement of the runes was exactly the same as the tattered ancient book in the secret compartment of the Sage's Study. Ye Shuli's silver threads were automatically weaving into the missing third chapter of the ancient book.

The sound of tides came from the end of the tunnel, and the fluctuations of spiritual energy caused the crystal clusters to fall off one after another.

Jiang Ye suddenly groaned and knelt on one knee, the wound from the bronze chains earlier beginning to ooze black blood.

Ye Shuli tore open his trouser leg and found that the veins around the wound had emerged with the vine patterns of a burning lotus lantern.

“There are still two quarters of an hour left.” She stared at the silver thread on her wrist, calculating the cycle of spiritual energy tides, and carved a six-pointed star array on the crystal cluster ground with her tungsten steel dagger.

When Jiang Ye's black blood dripped into the array's eye, the tunnel suddenly twisted into the shape of a Möbius strip.

The illusory image of the wise man flickered in the circular space, and the astrolabe he held in his hand was missing the three jade stones in the northeast corner.

Ye Shuli grabbed Jiang Ye's hand and pressed it onto the illusory image of the star chart. Suddenly, a pattern of burning lotus lantern ash appeared at the missing jade stone position.

The entire tunnel began to rotate in reverse, and the sound of the spring tide turned into a sharp buzzing.

Just as the black blood was about to erode Jiang Ye's heart meridian, his wound was suddenly enveloped by a surge of milky white spiritual spring water.

"Thirty steps to the southwest!" Ye Shuli dragged the weakened Jiang Ye and slammed him against the tunnel wall.

The crystal clusters, which should have been solid, were pierced through like a curtain of water, and the two fell into an underground palace filled with stalactites.

In the center of the palace, a bronze cauldron is steaming mutated vines, and the cracks on the cauldron's body connect end to end with the patterns on the altar.

Jiang Ye suddenly coughed violently, and the blood foam he coughed up condensed into arrows in the air, pointing directly at the stone door behind the bronze cauldron that was sealed by iron chains.

The seven brass locks hanging on the iron chain have keyholes that perfectly match the wick of the lotus lamp.

As Ye Shuli's silver thread probed into the keyhole, eighteen bronze pillars suddenly crashed down from the palace dome.

"Get out of the way!" Jiang Ye used his last bit of strength to push Ye Shuli away.

The bronze pillar grazed his back and plunged into the ground, the cursed runes on its surface resonating with the vine patterns on the wound on his calf.

Ye Shuli's tungsten steel dagger struck the copper pillar, sparks flying, and the star map on the dagger's surface was suddenly projected onto the stone gate.

(Continuing from the previous scene of the bronze pillar falling)

Ye Shuli's silver thread suddenly taut inside the copper keyhole, and the bronze pillar falling from the dome resonated with the curse runes on the ground, forming a protective barrier.

Twelve puppets clad in bronze armor emerged from the ground, their joints wrapped in fluorescent vines of the same origin as the lotus lanterns.

"Southwest Kun position!" Jiang Ye coughed up blood and threw out the spirit-infused copper coins, which exploded into golden dust in mid-air.

The vines that sprouted from the gaps in the puppet's armor suddenly convulsed upon touching the gold powder, and Ye Shuli took the opportunity to cut off the third vine that was wrapped around her ankle.

The sparks from the tungsten steel dagger as it sliced ​​through the bronze pillar ignited the mutated vines steaming in the cauldron, and blue-purple smoke instantly enveloped the entire palace.

Jiang Ye froze the moment his back hit the bronze cauldron; the vine-like patterns from the wound on his calf had spread to his neck.

Ye Shuli pulled open his collar and discovered that the curse runes were crawling along his collarbone toward his heart.

The silver threads on her wrist sensed danger and automatically twisted into a protective net, but they couldn't stop the cracks slashed by the puppets with their bronze swords.

“Three minutes left.” Ye Shuli stared at the spiritual energy ripples reflected in the silver threads, then suddenly plunged the tip of her dagger into the curse pattern below Jiang Ye’s collarbone.

Black blood splattered on the cracks in the bronze cauldron, and suddenly the same Twenty-Eight Mansions diagram as the altar appeared on the cauldron.

Jiang Ye craned his neck in pain, his Adam's apple brushing against her blood-stained forehead.

The seven copper locks simultaneously emitted the sound of gears turning, and the puppets' attack stopped the moment the stone door opened.

Ye Shuli helped Jiang Ye fall into the passageway behind the stone gate, and behind them came the booming sound of a bronze cauldron exploding.

The fluorescent vines followed the scent of blood and crawled into the crevices, only to turn to ashes the moment they touched the tunnel wall.

“Thirty steps to the southwest…” Jiang Ye’s breath was hot against her ear, and his blood-stained fingers drew crooked marks on the wall.

Ye Shuli suddenly remembered the missing chapter of the ancient book in the secret compartment of the sage's study—the trough of the spiritual energy tide is the moment when the seal core is most vulnerable.

The surging light at the end of the passageway confirmed her guess.

When the two fell into the cave filled with glowing mycelium, eighteen rock spiders with unbalanced spiritual energy were weaving webs around the central spring.

The corpses of fluorescent insects stuck to the spider silk had the same composition as the ash of the lotus lantern, and the silver thread on Ye Shuli's wrist suddenly decomposed into fine needles.

With his last bit of strength, Jiang Ye bit his tongue and sprayed the blood mixed with spiritual energy onto the compound eyes of the rock spider leader.

Taking advantage of the opportunity, Ye Shuli shot a silver needle into the spider web node, and dark gold runes identical to those in the tunnel suddenly appeared on the mycelial ground.

The out-of-control rock spiders tore at each other, and their webs ignited with bluish-white flames amidst the clash of spiritual energy.

"Hold on!" Ye Shuli grabbed Jiang Ye and leaped toward the spring.

The out-of-control turbulent flow of spiritual energy overturned three attacking rock spiders. The moment Jiang Ye's back hit the edge of the spring, the curse patterns suddenly resonated with the ancient seals around the spring.

The spiritual light that burst forth from where their fingers were clasped tore open a crack, and the boiling spiritual spring carried them down into the depths of the light source.

Countless fluorescent jellyfish-like creatures emerged from the cracks, their tentacles carrying high-voltage currents.

Jiang Ye's hand began to tremble as he swung his sword, and the gap created by the blade was quickly filled by the newly surging creatures.

Ye Shuli suddenly spun around and pressed herself against his back, the protective net woven from silver threads perfectly overlapping with his sword energy.

"Southeast corner!" She leaned back to avoid the poisonous thorn that grazed her neck, her hair brushing against Jiang Ye's bleeding lips.

The boy swallowed a painful cry as his Adam's apple bobbed, and suddenly his sword energy surged three times, cleaving through the encirclement.

Their intermittent breathing created a white mist in the cramped space, and Ye Shuli's neck was scratched red by Jiang Ye's arm protecting her head.

As the seventh wave of creatures emerged from the crack in the dome, Jiang Ye's sword finally slipped from his grasp and fell into the spiritual spring.

Ye Shuli suddenly grabbed his trembling wrist: "Remember what the wise man said about needing two opposing spiritual energies to seal the core?" Her fingertips traced the lingering curse marks below his collarbone, "Your black blood and the purified spiritual spring..."

Jiang Ye's dark eyes lit up instantly, and he slashed open his right arm, which had not yet been corrupted by the curse.

The moment the blood came into contact with the spiritual spring, it burst into a blinding light, and the pursuing creature screamed in agony amidst the intense light.

Ye Shuli pulled him towards the brightest light source, and the silver threads on her wrist automatically absorbed the overflowing energy and wove them into a buffer net.

As they broke through the last fluorescent barrier, a deafening roar echoed behind them.

Thousands of unbalanced creatures crashed into the suddenly closed spiritual barrier, their frantically flapping tentacles illuminating the entire cave.

Ye Shuli sensed a familiar fluctuation in her silver threads and suddenly pointed to the right front—the core of the spiritual energy source was pulsating there.

At the end of the passageway, where gravel was flying everywhere, a young man in white stood blocking the way with a folding fan in his hand.

The lotus pattern engraved on the jade pendant at his waist was exactly the same as the bronze chain of the altar. His eyes were filled with honey-like tenderness as he looked at Ye Shuli: "Ali has finally come to take back what I have guarded for three hundred years?" The star map revealed when the folding fan was unfolded was the missing northeast corner seal on the bronze cauldron.