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

In the passageway where rubble was flying everywhere, the blue light emanating from the core of the spiritual energy source illuminated the white-robed youth's temples until they were almost transparent.

Ye Shuli's silver thread on her wrist suddenly straightened, its tip pointing at the lotus jade pendant at the other party's waist and emitting a sharp ringing sound—this was a reaction that only occurred when encountering a magical artifact of the same origin.

“Young Master Pei, there should be a limit to your jokes.” Ye Shuli’s fingertips gripped three poisoned silver needles, hidden weapons soaked in Jiang Ye’s black blood. “Three hundred years ago, when my ancestors sealed the Spirit Spring, you probably hadn’t even formed a spirit core yet.”

Pei Qing slightly turned his wrist, and the star map brought up by the folding fan was suddenly projected onto the rock wall.

The image clearly showed Ye Shuli breaking the seal on the bronze cauldron eight days ago, with the crescent-shaped birthmark behind her ear coinciding with the totem on the inner wall of the bronze cauldron.

"Even after a hundred reincarnations, you still carry this mark. Don't you understand, Ah Li?" Pei Qing took a half step forward, the silver chain hanging from his sleeve and the silver thread on Ye Shuli's wrist both shimmering with light. "Back then, you personally promised that if you could break the seal after reincarnation..."

Jiang Ye suddenly chuckled, casually placing his blood-stained right hand on Ye Shuli's shoulder: "Even when making up stories, there are basic rules. My Shuli was still researching how to roast sweet potatoes with spirit fire last month—you expect her to have pledged her life to you three hundred years ago?"

A cold glint suddenly appeared in Pei Qing's eyes, and the air currents generated by the sweeping motion of his folding fan shaved off half an inch of Jiang Ye's bangs.

Seven stars shot out from the fan ribs, blasting craters of varying depths at Jiang Ye's feet, forming the prototype of the Big Dipper sealing array.

"How dare a piece of trash with an unstable spirit core touch her?" The starlight that Pei Qing gathered at his fingertips suddenly transformed into chains that wrapped around Ye Shuli's waist. "Does A-Li know that the Black Blood Curse on his body won't last more than three days?"

Ye Shuli suddenly grabbed the starlight chain and pulled it back, the poisoned silver needle following the flow of spiritual energy straight to Pei Qing's brow: "His life or death is not for outsiders to judge!" The silver needle exploded into black mist the moment it touched the opponent's protective spiritual energy, and Jiang Ye took the opportunity to swing his sword energy to accurately sever the connection point of the chain.

As Pei Qing staggered backward, he shattered the star map projection. Jiang Ye wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth and laughed arrogantly: "I saw Ah Li break your Star Lock technique last month. How come this 300-year-old antique still can't update his tactical database?"

The rampaging spiritual energy shook the cave ceiling, causing dust to fall in a flurry, and nine layers of star wheels appeared behind Pei Qing.

Jiang Ye pushed Ye Shuli into the radiation range of the spiritual energy core, then stepped into the center of the star array himself, braving the immense pressure: "Perfect timing to test my newly learned technique on you—" Suddenly, bronze cauldron patterns appeared on his bloodied palm, "Watch closely, this is the orthodox sealing technique!"

The black blood flowed wildly along the grooves of the cauldron, forming a swirling vortex of spiritual energy around Jiang Ye.

The starlight controlled by Pei Qing was distorted by the vortex, and the killing move that was supposed to hit Jiang Ye's heart was deflected to the rock wall, and spider web-like cracks began to appear on the entire passage.

"Impossible!" A corner of the star map on Pei Qing's folding fan suddenly appeared missing. "When did you make a rubbing of the bronze cauldron...?"

"Why do you think we've been deliberately targeting places with volatile spiritual energy for the past two weeks?" Jiang Ye coughed up blood and laughed heartily, twelve short swords condensing from the black mist around him. "Ah Li discovered long ago that each point of volatility contained fragments of cauldron patterns—"

Twelve black swords pierced through the star wheel node simultaneously, and Pei Qing's jade crown, which bound her hair, shattered in response.

Taking advantage of the opportunity, Jiang Ye grabbed the silver chain of the jade pendant at the other party's waist, and Ye Shuli's silver threads suddenly emerged from the ground and wrapped around Pei Qing's ankle.

The sealing formation formed by the two forced Pei to kneel on the ground, and the star map on the folding fan completely dimmed.

“I can’t remember what happened three hundred years ago.” Ye Shuli tied the other end of the silver thread to the spiritual energy core. “But if you truly have a past with me—” She touched Pei Qing’s brow with her fingertip, infusing him with purified spiritual spring water, “you should know that I hate being threatened the most.”

In the sudden burst of intense light from the spiritual energy core, Pei Qing's figure dissipated into stardust.

Jiang Ye leaned against the rock wall, panting heavily. Blood was seeping from the skin on his back that had not yet been eroded by the curse.

Just as Ye Shuli was about to check his injuries, an ominous tremor suddenly came from the ground beneath her feet.

The shattered starlight fragments were spontaneously reassembling, and Pei Qing's cold laugh before he disappeared echoed in the passageway: "You think reversing the sealing array doesn't come at a price?"

Look at the color of the spiritual energy core—"

Ye Shuli turned her head sharply, and the originally azure spiritual core was now emitting an eerie purple light.

The sound of surging tides came from the direction where Jiang Ye's sword fell into the spiritual spring, and spiritual energy carrying starlight began to seep out from the cracks in the entire cave.

Ye Shuli's silver hair trembled violently in the purple light, and the knowledge of electromagnetic induction from her modern physics class suddenly rushed into her mind.

She inserted the silver thread into the spiritual spring, guiding the chaotic spiritual energy to form a closed circuit by adjusting the frequency.

The moment the purple light subsided, the shattered stardust suddenly coalesced into a semi-transparent phantom of Pei Qing.

"How dare you tamper with the trajectory of the spiritual source!" The star chain swung by the phantom grazed Ye Shuli's ear, leaving a trail of blood.

Jiang Ye's pupils contracted sharply, and black blood gushed from his unhealed wound, condensing in the air into three pyramids with bronze patterns.

"You're courting death!" The moment the Black Blood Prism tore through the Star Chain, twelve talismans flew out from Jiang Ye's sleeve—the ancient sealing talismans that he had copied from the fragments of the cauldron pattern half a month ago.

The azure flames from the burning talisman scorched the stardust phantoms, leaving burn marks. Before Pei Qing's cry of pain could even finish, Jiang Ye had already leaped into the air, stepping on the collapsed rubble.

Ye Shuli suddenly flung out silver threads that wrapped around Jiang Ye's ankle: "Southwest corner crack!" Jiang Ye understood and turned over, the black blood-formed prism precisely piercing the crack in the rock wall.

The sealed starlight energy surged out from the crack, colliding with the azure flame talisman paper and creating a blinding explosion.

Pei Qing's illusory figure twisted and deformed in the bright light, yet he still stubbornly lunged toward the core of the spiritual spring.

When Jiang Ye landed, the black blood curse pattern on his right arm had already spread to his collarbone. He tore open his clothes to reveal the seal on his heart: "Want to see the real power of devouring?" The black blood curse pattern suddenly detached from his skin and intertwined in the air to form a miniature bronze cauldron.

The miniature cauldron was placed upside down above the spiritual spring, frantically absorbing the dissipating purple spiritual energy.

Pei Qing let out an inhuman roar, and his illusory figure gradually disintegrated as it was pulled along by the cauldron.

Taking advantage of the opportunity, Ye Shuli poured the purifying spiritual spring into the silver threads, and the spiderweb-like silver light crawled along the rock crevices and filled the entire cave.

"No—!" Pei Qing's last condensed star hammer slammed into Jiang Ye's back, but was bounced back by the suddenly reversed silver net.

The Black Blood Cauldron emitted a humming sound of satiation, devouring all the spiritual power of the Star Hammer.

Jiang Ye wiped away the blood from his nose and grinned, "Thank you for the treat."

Suddenly, the spiritual energy core emitted a crisp sound like shattering glass, and Ye Shuli's expression changed drastically.

The not-yet-fully-stabilized silver wire mesh trembled violently, and the roar of collapsing rocks echoed from deep within the cave.

Jiang Ye pulled her back three steps quickly, and the spot where they had been standing had collapsed into a bottomless crack.

"Three hundred paces to the southeast!" Ye Shuli threw out a silver thread to probe the way, and the poisoned silver needles flicked from her fingertips struck the rock wall, leaving fluorescent marks.

The two dodged and weaved through the collapsing cave, while the swirling starlight chasing them shattered all the stalactites and stalagmites in their path.

Jiang Ye suddenly groaned and knelt down, black blood seeping from the seal on his chest.

Ye Shuli poured the spiritual spring into his mouth with her other hand, and the purifying power collided with the cursed black blood, producing a hissing white smoke.

The pursuing star streams were disrupted by this sudden event, and they collided and were annihilated in the darkness.

"You anticipated this all along?" Jiang Ye gasped as he propped himself up.

Ye Shuli tore off a piece of her skirt to bandage him, the birthmark behind his ear gleaming faintly in the aftershocks of spiritual energy: "Last time you secretly drank from the spiritual spring and got a fever, I discovered that black blood would repel and explode when it encountered pure spiritual energy."

The tremors suddenly stopped, and a spherical space with a diameter of ten meters appeared in front of the two.

The core of the spiritual spring suspended in the center has lost its purple color, and its surface is now covered with interwoven silver and blue ripples.

Ye Shuli's silver threads automatically wrapped around the core, but were repelled the moment they touched it.

“It seems we need dual authentication.” Jiang Ye pressed his bloodied hand onto the core, and the bronze cauldron pattern emerged from the wound.

The core emitted a pleasant ringing sound, and the projected light screen showed the sealing scene from three hundred years ago—a woman who looked similar to Ye Shuli was pressing a jade pendant to the bottom of the cauldron.

Ye Shuli suddenly pressed the birthmark behind her ear: "So this is the real key..." The moment she got close to the core, the ancient cauldron in the light screen overlapped with the phantom of the existing bronze cauldron, and the surging spiritual power swept over the scarred cave like a spring breeze.

Suddenly, a new crack appeared in the rock wall under repair, and a kind of dark spiritual energy that did not belong to the Starshine system seeped out.

Jiang Ye's sword trembled as if issuing a warning, and Ye Shuli quickly put away the spiritual spring core: "It smells of war fog."