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

The blue light of the defensive array dissipated into tiny stars in the sky. Ye Shuli pressed the last flashing coordinates on the holographic map and put the laser blade back into her tactical belt.

Jiang Ye tilted his head back and drank the fruit wine in the gourd. As his Adam's apple bobbed, it pulled at the unhealed scratch on his collarbone—a wound torn open by the Void Beast three days ago.

"The explosion in the southwest corner occurred 0.3 seconds earlier." Ye Shuli's fingertip traced the waveform on the floating screen; the meteorite sample number remained as a pale green spot on her retina. "Someone is synchronously interfering with the defense array's frequency."

Jiang Ye suddenly grabbed her wrist, his calloused thumb rubbing heavily against the web of her hand.

Just as Ye Shuli was about to shake him off, she discovered that the other person had used blood to draw rose gold threads on her palm.

Those lines perfectly coincided with the coordinate axes of the holographic map, and the final point of intersection was the void rift recorded in the ice crystal jade slip.

"Madam, would you like to bet ten spirit stones?" Jiang Ye asked, the magnetic chains on his sleeve rattling softly as he released his grip. "Once we reach the rift entrance, those cowards will send at least three groups to steal the capsule."

Ye Shuli shook off the bloodstains on her palm and activated the levitation device on her tactical boots.

The night wind lifted the gold hairpin in her hair, and the meteorite fragments inlaid in the hairpin and the bronze fragment in Jiang Ye's hand simultaneously glowed.

This is a special connection they developed over the past three months; whenever they approach the spacetime turbulence, the two artifacts from different civilizations resonate with each other.

The purple mist at the edge of the void was five times thicker than last time, and the smell of humus was mixed with the smoky smell of some kind of synthetic metal burning.

Jiang Ye suddenly blew a whistle carved from animal bone, and the sharp sound waves shattered three listening spiders lurking in the moss.

The sparks from the exploding electronic components illuminated his profile, and as the intoxication faded from the boy's eyes, a chilling look appeared that was incongruous with his age.

“Twenty steps to the southeast, breathing interval of 0.5 seconds.” Ye Shuli suddenly pressed down on Jiang Ye’s back, and a laser blade flew past his ear.

The instant the metallic clang rang out, seven figures clad in optical camouflage tumbled out from the distorted spatial ripples.

The one-eyed man at the head of the group stepped on the still-smoking remains of the listening spider, his prosthetic arm extending a serrated blade: "Hand over the time capsule, and we'll leave you with your corpses intact."

Ye Shuli chuckled and turned her wristwatch, instantly creating a defensive barrier that enveloped the two of them.

The greedy gazes projected onto the transparent light shield reminded her of the various factions vying for meteorite samples in the laboratory before her transmigration.

Jiang Ye suddenly inserted a phantom rose into her hair, the thorny stem cleverly securing the loose hairpin.

"How about we make a bet?" he raised his voice, lightly flicking the surface of the barrier with his fingertips. "We'll bet on whether they break through the defense first, or whether we activate it first..." Before he finished speaking, twelve magnetic chains suddenly shot up from the ground—the very traps Jiang Ye had set up while pretending to be drunk.

The explorers hurriedly activated the anti-gravity device, only to find that Ye Shuli had already embedded the Azure Capsule into the holographic map.

The interstellar coordinates projected a three-dimensional star map onto the barrier, and the chains that were supposed to attack them suddenly changed direction, precisely piercing the seven energy nodes marked on the star map.

"Impossible!" The one-eyed man stared at the second barrier gradually materializing. "How did you know our jump coordinates...?"

"The resonant frequency of the chips in your necks." Ye Shuli pressed the third hidden buckle on her tactical belt, and all the explorers' prosthetic limbs suddenly went out of control. "They're from the same batch as the puppet beasts that attacked Jiang Ye three days ago."

Jiang Ye suddenly pulled Ye Shuli back three steps, and seven high-explosive bombs exploded where they had been standing.

Amidst the smoke, the clicking sound of metal disintegrating could be heard; the explorers had actually removed their locked prosthetics.

Just as Ye Shuli was about to activate the sonic weapon, the ground beneath her feet suddenly trembled—the starry sky outside the second barrier began to distort, and countless dark shadows were tearing apart the spacetime membrane at the edge of the rift.

Seven laser beams grazed the tactical barrier and exploded, while Ye Shuli's pupils reflected the pulsating energy frequency on the holographic screen.

Jiang Ye leaned back to dodge the claws of the mechanical prosthetic limbs, and magnetic chains that lashed out from his sleeves wrapped around the ankles of the two explorers.

"The energy peak is at the third joint on the left side!" Ye Shuli's tactical goggles automatically marked the blue weak point on the enemy's armor. "Use the crystal core bomb you secretly hid yesterday!"

As Jiang Ye flipped over and leaped up, he kicked away the one-eyed man who was lunging at him, and reached for the hidden pocket in his belt with his right hand.

Three crimson crystal cores traced parabolas in the air and precisely embedded themselves in the heat dissipation vents of three explorer armors—these were spoils they had obtained three days earlier when hunting fire salamanders.

The shockwave from the explosion knocked over five explorers, and Ye Shuli took the opportunity to activate the thrusters on her tactical boots.

She traced a zigzag path in mid-air, her laser blades severing the energy lines of three floating turrets in succession.

Her knowledge of modern fluid dynamics allowed her to predict all the ballistic trajectories, and the particle beams that should have hit her instead struck the explorers themselves.

"Northwest 30 degrees!" Jiang Ye suddenly swung out a magnetic chain that wrapped around her waist, using the force to swing to the position Ye Shuli specified.

The bronze fragment in his hand collided with the Void Rose, and the burst of purple light interfered with the explorer's thermal imaging system.

The three explorers staggered into view, Ye Shuli's sonic grenade already rolling at their feet.

The shockwaves of a special frequency caused their mechanical prosthetics to short-circuit instantly, and Jiang Ye took the opportunity to use his beast bone dagger to knock away their energy cores.

These combat data were recorded by Ye Shuli's tactical goggles and are generating a real-time updated weakness distribution map.

The one-eyed man suddenly removed his mechanical eyeball and smashed it to the ground, instantly engulfing the battlefield in dark red smoke.

Twelve floating cannons rose from the smoke, their muzzles glowing with a dangerous blue light.

"Crossfire network." Ye Shuli ripped off her golden hairpin and flung it into the air. The meteorite fragments resonated with the energy core of the floating cannon. "Electromagnetic pulse preparation!"

Jiang Ye pulled out a palm-sized iron box from his tactical bag; it was an ancient magical artifact they had modified using modern circuitry.

As the seventh floating cannon completed its charging, Ye Shuli suddenly ripped open the magnetic clasp on her collar—the meteorite sample hidden inside the necklace burst forth with a blinding white light.

All the floating cannons simultaneously turned their muzzles, but all went out of service just before they were about to fire.

The electromagnetic pulse device that Jiang Ye threw out exploded in mid-air. The interference wave, a fusion of ancient runes and modern technology, caused the explorers' armor to stiffen like a school of frozen fish.

"Go!" Ye Shuli grabbed Jiang Ye's wrist and rushed towards the rift, her tactical boots creating ripples on the void membrane.

An angry roar came from behind, and more than twenty explorers activated their jet engines to give chase.

Jiang Ye suddenly pulled her behind him, the bronze fragment cutting a line of blood in his palm.

Blood droplets imbued with spiritual power were sprinkled onto the Void Rose, and an eerie purple light formed a barrier, blocking the pursuers' laser beams.

This defensive technique, which uses blood as a medium, was something he created himself last month by secretly learning modern chemical knowledge from Ye Shuli.

The pursuers split into three teams and came to encircle him. Ye Shuli suddenly pressed the holographic map into Jiang Ye's chest: "Do you still remember the double helix tactic in the swamp?" She quickly drew coordinates on the young man's palm with her fingertips, simplifying the encirclement and breaking method of modern special forces into ancient formation symbols.

As the five explorers pounced on Jiang Ye, Ye Shuli suddenly activated her sonic weapon.

The unusual frequency of the vibrations disrupted the pursuers' balance, and Jiang Ye seized the opportunity to throw out magnetic chains that wrapped around their ankles, using their forward momentum to fling them toward his teammates on the left.

Amidst the sparks from the colliding metal, Ye Shuli had already calculated the weak point of the encirclement.

She adjusted the laser blade to a high-frequency vibration mode, and her knowledge of modern materials science allowed her to accurately locate the resonant frequency of the armor coating.

As the seventh explorer's breastplate cracked, Jiang Ye suddenly grabbed her from behind and rolled away to avoid it, with three high-explosive shells grazing her hair.

The void membrane suddenly trembled violently, and the previously set star map coordinates lit up at the same time.

Ye Shuli tore off Jiang Ye's beast bone whistle and blew it, causing the energy nodes pierced by the magnetic chains to explode.

The spacetime structure beneath the pursuers' feet collapsed instantly, forming a black hole vortex that devoured light.

"Hold on tight!" Jiang Ye used chains to bind the two men's wrists and used the shockwave from the explosion to leap into the depths of the crevice.

As Ye Shuli rolled, she saw her pursuers struggling and falling, and the grappling hook that popped out from the one-eyed man's mechanical arm was only half an inch away from the sole of her boot.

The purple mist was suddenly torn apart by a silvery-white light, and the spatial-temporal turbulence swept them into an unknown area.

When Jiang Ye's back struck a crystalline surface, Ye Shuli's tactical goggles detected a familiar energy reading—the same fluctuation frequency left behind by the Void Beast attack three days prior.

The pursuers 300 meters away were blocked by the suddenly expanding rift. The one-eyed man smashed the last half of the mechanical arm, and his electronic eye stared intently at the direction where the two disappeared.

Suddenly, a blood-red badge was projected from the chip on his neck, and the faint rumble of mechanical operation could be heard in the void.

Ye Shuli's hairpin suddenly turned automatically, and the meteorite fragment pointed to a glowing point deep in the void.

There, one could vaguely see a metallic structure resembling that of a modern spacecraft, its surface covered with dark patterns that were the same as those found on the Explorer armor.

"It seems the bet will continue." Jiang Ye wiped the blood from the corner of her mouth and pinned the newly plucked Void Rose to her tactical belt.

The bronze fragment in his hidden pocket was radiating heat, creating a strange resonance with the distant light.