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

"Still trying to talk your way out of this?" Ye Shuli slammed the alloy hairpin into Jiang Ye's collar, and the countdown on her wrist suddenly stopped at 11:59:03.

Blue blood in the form of data seeped from the crack in the guardian's chest, intertwining with the black data stream overflowing from the server's cracks to form a spiderweb.

Jiang Ye flicked the hot key totem on his collarbone, and the restrictive chains that had bound the veteran powerhouses suddenly disintegrated and reassembled, forming a cold-glowing staircase beneath Ye Shuli's feet.

The bronze halberd raised by the cultivator leader crashed into the suddenly erected semi-transparent barrier, causing his tiger's mouth to split open.

"Three o'clock on the left!" Jiang Ye suddenly stopped joking, his blood-stained fingertips tracing golden lines in the air. "Its core code is in the second ribcage on the right!"

Ye Shuli leaped into the air on the data ladder, her toes barely touching the ground, and the modern nanobots sealed inside her earring burst forth.

The moment the guardian of the spirit shattered the barrier with her giant axe, she saw clearly that what was flashing in the other's eye sockets was the mirror image of Jiang Ye's key totem.

"break!"

The nanobots transformed into a silver hurricane that enveloped the axe blade, while the psionic beam condensed in Ye Shuli's palm precisely pierced the guardian's right rib.

The shockwave generated by the collision of the two forces sent rubble flying over a hundred meters, and the wise man barely managed to stand firm by carving scorched grooves into the ground with his cane.

When Ye Shuli's figure, kneeling on one knee, appeared from the smoke and dust, the cultivators collectively gasped – Ye Shuli's right hand was gripping half a blue crystal spine, while her left hand was clutching a storage ring she had snatched from a veteran powerhouse.

The broken body of the Spirit Guardian is disintegrating in the data stream, while the black cracks begin to frantically devour the dissipating blue light.

"It actually is..." The crystal ball at the top of the wise man's cane cracked with spiderweb-like fine lines.

The rumor-mongers behind him had just reached the edge of the ruins when they were suddenly bound by restrictive chains that shot up from the ground—the very same ones Jiang Ye had previously disassembled and reassembled.

Ye Shuli wiped the blood from the corner of her mouth and walked toward the core of the ruins, each step shattering the hidden defensive formations on the ground.

Jiang Ye whistled as he tossed and caught the alloy hairpin. The blue blood remaining on the tip of the hairpin suddenly lit up, resonating with the star map on the dome of the ruins.

“My dear, guess,” he said, shaking his left wrist where the key totem had appeared, “when the countdown reaches zero…”

Before he could finish speaking, the entire ruins suddenly erupted in a screeching sound of gears jamming.

The red countdown on Ye Shuli's collarbone began to flow in reverse, and the blue light that had been swallowed by the black cracks gathered behind her into an illusory crown shape.

The cultivator leader's bronze halberd suddenly flew uncontrollably toward the center of the crown, shattering into metallic dust shimmering with runes in mid-air.

"Stop her!" The veteran powerhouse roared from inside the protective cocoon, but choked on the data crystal that Jiang Ye flicked into his mouth.

As the wise man gazed at the collapsing star chart, he suddenly snapped the crystal pendant hanging from his neck and smashed it to the ground.

Ye Shuli squinted through the bursting purple smoke. Her modern knowledge allowed her to instantly analyze the smoke's composition—it was ancient Soul-Devouring Sand, capable of interfering with nerve signals.

As the nanobots automatically assembled the filter mask, she heard Jiang Ye's chuckled reminder: "Look up at the dome!"

As the countdown reversed to zero, the torrent of data bound by the star chart suddenly poured down on her.

Ye Shuli instinctively raised the blue crystal spine in her hand and saw her shadow split into millions of silhouettes holding swords in the data stream.

The final scene shows the ancient mechanical sounds emanating from the depths of the ruins as Jiang Ye's key totem is fully illuminated.

(Continued from above)

Seven silver rings suddenly lit up from within the purple smoke.

A golden code chain appeared around Ye Shuli's neck, and the nanobots broke the Soul-Devouring Sand into tiny specks of light.

The moment the wise man's crystal pendant exploded on the ground, the veteran powerhouse's hand, which had broken three restrictive chains, suddenly froze—divine blood floated within those fragments.

"Three thousand years have passed." The wise man slammed his cane heavily on the ground, and the crystal ball, riddled with cracks, suddenly reflected a countdown from Ye Shuli's collarbone. "The one destined to break the deadlock in the prophecy must withstand the dual test of divine blood and a torrent of data."

The black mist condensed at the fingertips of a veteran powerhouse collided with the barrier formed by the crystal ball, and was scorched by the rebounding blue light.

Ye Shuli had now reached the core of the ruins, and the blue crystal spine automatically inserted into the missing slot in the dome star map.

A torrent of data formed a spiraling column of light around her, and the nanobots on her wrists suddenly transformed into phantoms of modern surgical instruments.

"I see!" Jiang Ye suddenly shattered the protective cocoon, and a holographic keyboard was projected from his palm by the key totem. "Those black cracks are incomplete data loops, they need..."

Before she could finish speaking, Ye Shuli suddenly threw the ancient Soul-Devouring Sand from her storage ring at the pillar of light.

The blue crystal spine and the nanorobot simultaneously emitted high-frequency vibrations, forcibly stitching together the black crack.

A twelve-faceted crystal rose from where the guardian spirit had vanished, precisely landing in the rune groove between her brows.

"A transformation of the spirits!" The wise man suddenly cut his palm, and the blood transformed into golden butterflies that flew towards the pillar of light.

Ye Shuli's hair was tinged with a starlight-like silver-blue, and the phantom images of modern surgical instruments and ancient runes intertwined behind her.

As the seventh silver ring pierced her heart, she raised her hand and lightly tapped the void, instantly restoring the barrier that had been damaged by the veteran powerhouse to its original state.

Jiang Ye's key totem suddenly heated up. He stared at the figure that gradually appeared in the pillar of light, and the fluorescence of the data stream swept across the depths of his pupils.

For the first time, those lips that always carried a playful smile tightened into a straight line, and the knuckles of his fingers holding the alloy hairpin turned white—until he saw the blue crystal earring on Ye Shuli's earlobe light up again.

"Have you seen enough?" As Ye Shuli landed, her combat boots crushed the last defensive array stone, and her silver-blue cloak, materialized from divine power, swept past Jiang Ye's nose. "Put back the monitoring nanobots you hid in your sleeve."

The cultivators' bronze halberds all fell to the ground.

A screen of light suddenly rose beneath the feet of the rumor-monger, and the altered message jade slip was playing in a loop in the air—it was footage of him sneaking into the library at night to fabricate evidence.

In the data stream of truth manifested by the power of the spirits, the secret conversation between a veteran powerhouse and a rumor spreader is clearly visible.

"The truth behind the depletion of the spiritual veins in Donglin County two months ago." Ye Shuli lightly traced a line with her finger, and a holographic projection appeared in the air: irrefutable evidence of veteran powerhouses secretly extracting energy from the spiritual veins. "As for the claim that we stole the power of the Spirit God..."

Golden rain suddenly fell from the dome of the ruins, and every cultivator who was touched by the raindrops saw their compatibility with the power of the spirit god—Ye Shuli's data bar soared into the sky, while the values ​​of the veteran powerhouses showed negative numbers.

The leader of the cultivators suddenly knelt on one knee, and the fragments of the bronze halberd automatically pieced together a letter of apology.

The crowd receded like a tidal wave, leaving only the wise man smiling, leaning on his cracked cane: "When the prophecy is fulfilled, the star paths will naturally..."

The deafening roar of machinery interrupted him.

Jiang Ye suddenly grabbed Ye Shuli and pulled her back three steps, causing the ground where they had been standing to crack open into a deep abyss.

The phantom of the Spirit Crown spun three times above Ye Shuli's head before suddenly turning into a point of light and disappearing into Jiang Ye's key totem.

"It seems..." Jiang Ye toyed with the suddenly materialized star map key, the key totem leaving a dark pattern on his neck, "...someone added a little surprise to the completion reward."

Ye Shuli frowned and pressed her hand to her chest. Suddenly, the crystal formed by the power of the spirit reflected Jiang Ye's key totem—the pattern perfectly matched the groove on a hidden door deep within the ruins.

The moment their eyes met, the wise man suddenly smashed the cracked crystal ball to the ground.

"Hurry!" The old man's white beard flew wildly in the strong wind. "The blood of the spirit god has begun..."

The entire site suddenly tilted at a 45-degree angle.

The cultivators frantically grabbed onto the protruding array stones, only to see Ye Shuli and Jiang Ye rushing towards the dome on the automatically reorganizing data staircase.

Their clasped hands shimmered with gold and silver light, and wherever they passed, the collapsed star map automatically repaired itself into new patterns.

As the last ray of light was swallowed up by the closing ruins, Jiang Ye suddenly threw the star map key behind him.

The trajectory of the falling key lit up with a ghostly blue flame, vaguely illuminating a writhing starstone in the dome—its shape was exactly the same as the spirit crystal that Ye Shuli had obtained.

“We’ve got our next vacation spot.” Jiang Ye’s voice dissipated in the spatial turbulence.

Ye Shuli looked back at the closing crack in the ruins and vaguely heard the sound of mechanical operation mixed with the ticking of an ancient clock—perfectly synchronized with the countdown that had started flowing again at her collarbone.