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

Before the seven-colored light of the teleportation array had even dissipated, Ye Shuli's combat boots had already stepped onto the ancestral hall square paved with jade.

The twelve Vermilion Bird bronze lamps sensed the power of the void and ignited simultaneously, their flames intertwining in the sunset to form a phoenix totem.

As Jiang Ye's tactical cloak swept past the lamppost, three crumbs of spirit wheat cakes fell into the lamp oil, splattering blue sparks.

&34; Welcome back to the clan, young master! &34;

Three hundred clansmen knelt on one knee in unison, the sound of their black iron wrist guards striking the ground startling the messenger sparrows in the bronze bells on the eaves.

Ye Shuli looked at her half-sister, who was kneeling in the front row—that girl had thrown a phantom spider into her cultivation room last year—and was now holding the dragon-patterned sword box, a symbol of the family head's succession, with trembling hands.

&34; The fluctuations in the Void Authentication occurred seventeen days earlier than expected. &34; The Grand Elder's mechanical eye flashed with data streams, and the spirit-testing crystal embedded at the top of his sandalwood staff suddenly burst forth with intense light, &34; A Spirit King-level pressure! &34;

Amidst the gasps of breath, Jiang Ye suddenly pulled open the hidden compartment of his tactical belt.

The moment the bronze badge popped out, the twelve defensive barriers automatically dissipated, revealing the star compass that had been sealed away for centuries deep within the ancestral hall.

The red light on Ye Shuli's nano gloves suddenly turned emerald green, and the materialized text of the Void Contract appeared in the center of the compass. The moment it resonated with the genealogy, the projection of the Twenty-Eight Mansions enveloped the entire ancestral hall.

As the aroma of the celebratory fruit wine wafted into the training ground, Ye Shuli was wedging the holographic projector into the groove of the sword-testing stone.

Jiang Ye squatted on the eaves, chewing on the crystal pork knuckle he had picked up, watching the stubborn elders go from disdain to shock in their eyes—modern 3D modeling technology had clearly marked the loopholes in the family's sword technique, and a certain collateral descendant who had practiced the technique for a while broke through the bottleneck on the spot.

&34; Should we switch to practicing Yin-attribute cultivation methods during the spiritual tide on the seventh day of each month? &34; The head of the Discipline Hall stared at the graph on the tablet, his goatee trembling like a reed in the wind, &34; This...this is against the ancestral precepts! &34;

&34; The ancestral precepts didn't mention using statistics to analyze cases of qi deviation over the past three hundred years. &34; Ye Shuli's fingertip swept across the holographic screen, and the seven hundred and twenty light points instantly reassembled into a three-dimensional meridian diagram. &34; Jiang Ye's secretly hidden monitoring crystal showed that the error in the qi circulation route you gave the beginner exceeded 2.7 millimeters. &34;

Someone who was digging for a bird's nest on the roof beam almost fell: "We agreed not to mention the security camera!"

When the spirit boat carrying congratulatory gifts from Xuan Yin Pavilion obscured the moonlight, Ye Shuli frowned deeply on the top floor of the library.

Jiang Ye's modified defense system had just intercepted the seventh wave of detection fluctuations, but the alarm on the side of his tactical belt was still vibrating—those forces that claimed to have come to offer congratulations had secretly scattered too much spirit-devouring powder around the family territory.

&34; The price of hemostatic herbs at the Southeast Market has tripled. &34; She tossed twenty-eight intelligence scrolls into the air, her nano-gloves drawing red threads that wove into a web of conspiracy. &34; Three weapon-refining workshops simultaneously received anonymous orders for custom-made array-breaking cones capable of dispelling void barriers. &34;

Jiang Ye suddenly dangled upside down from the window frame, twelve eavesdropping talismans falling from his tactical cloak: "A-Fu, who was tending the fire in the kitchen, said that masked men have been feeding his spirit dog Drunken Immortal Chicken on the back mountain lately—no wonder the guard beast has gotten so fat these past few days that it can't even fit through the dog hole."

As the clapper sounded at midnight, Ye Shuli stood on the observatory and snapped the third cinnabar pen.

Jiang Ye conjured a sizzling, oily spirit wheat cake from somewhere, and a sauce bottle popped out of a hidden compartment in his tactical belt, tracing an arc in the moonlight: "Your improved cultivation program has increased the efficiency of young disciples by 40%, but some people are advancing too quickly..."

&34; she would become a sitting duck. &34; when she bit into the crust, she tasted the sweet fragrance of osmanthus honey, which was Jiang Ye's specially made calming sauce.

A holographic projection of the family's defense system hovered between the two, with three hundred flashing red dots forming an encirclement around it.

As the first rays of dawn touched the plaque of the ancestral hall, Jiang Ye's tactical cloak covered Ye Shuli's shoulders.

His fingertips brushed against the dark red mark on her collarbone, where the energy fluctuations of a shattered black hole lingered: "The spiderweb pattern left by the madwoman; it climbed to the third node of the defensive array last night."

Ye Shuli suddenly grabbed his wrist, and the nano-glove read the remaining encrypted instructions—the very code that Jiang Ye had rubbed against the bronze floor while pretending to be drunk that night at the celebration banquet.

The progress bar that popped up on the holographic screen glowed with an ominous purple light, exactly the same color as the crystal in the interlayer of the Xuan Yin Pavilion's gift box.

&34; It's time to teach those old fogies in the Elders' Council a lesson. &34; Jiang Ye suddenly blew the alarm whistle in his tactical belt, startling the monitoring sparrows on the treetops into a frenzy. &34; How long do you think it will take for the surprise gift package we buried in the training ground to be triggered? &34;

In the morning mist, Ye Shuli stuffed the blueprint for the Breaking Formation Cone into the lining of his cloak.

The loopholes in those improved defensive formations are currently lying quietly under the pillow of a collateral disciple bribed by the opposing forces.

The Vermilion Bird bronze lamp illuminated the cold glint in her eyes. Jiang Ye's tactical boot heel crushed the newly sprouted Soul-Devouring Grass buds growing in the cracks of the blue bricks. Three hundred meters behind them, a listening device disguised as a gift box suddenly emitted green smoke.

The morning mist condensed into frost above the Vermilion Bird Bronze Lamp, and Ye Shuli crushed the last monitoring crystal.

Purple powder was sprinkled between the fingers onto the blue bricks, outlining the movement of people at the celebration banquet three days ago.

&34; The seventh one. &34; Jiang Ye squatted on the eaves of the ancestral hall, shaking his tactical gloves. The gravitational magnet he had just swiped from the weapon-refining workshop attracted the listening device hidden in the eaves compartment, &34; The third vent in the southeast corner perfectly coincided with the coordinates of the defensive array's vulnerability. &34;

Ye Shuli's nano gloves swept through the air, and the 720 light points rearranged into a three-dimensional map.

The location of the gift box sent by Xuan Yin Pavilion happened to cover three spiritual energy transmission nodes. She suddenly grabbed the sauce bottle from Jiang Ye's tactical belt and splashed the dark brown liquid on a certain spot on the map—the growth trajectory of the Soul-Eating Grass intersected with the route of the gift delivery.

&34; The kitchen's spirit wheat reserves have decreased by 30%. &34; Jiang Ye was hanging upside down from the roof beam gnawing on a crystal pork knuckle when half a fruit pit with a dark pattern fell out of his tactical cloak. &34; The seasoning components of Drunken Immortal Chicken were detected in the gatekeeper beast's droppings, and they would produce... &34;

34; Chronic neurotoxin. 34; Ye Shuli's nano-gloves suddenly beeped, and the holographic projection displayed the recent spiritual energy fluctuation curves of the young disciples; 34; They were cutting off the family's supply lines. 34;

Both of them looked towards the warehouse at the same time.

Thirty-six floating cargo boxes were loading and unloading hemostatic herbs, and dark purple spider patterns were faintly visible on the back of the porters' necks—exactly the same as the energy mark on Ye Shuli's collarbone.

At three-quarters past midnight, Jiang Ye kicked open the hidden compartment of his tactical belt.

Twelve modified monitoring crystals were embedded in the pillars of the training ground, and Ye Shuli inserted the holographic projector into the base of the sword-testing stone.

Modern modeling technology transforms the entire family territory into a transparent structural diagram, with 360 nodes of spiritual energy flow clearly visible.

"They want to destroy the central spiritual vein." Ye Shuli's fingertip touched the core of the three-dimensional map, where a bright blue light representing the energy of the defensive array shimmered. "The spiritual energy tide will be weakest during the lunar eclipse tomorrow night."

Jiang Ye suddenly pulled out a sizzling wheat cake, and his tactical cloak shook out twenty-eight defensive talismans: "I modified the barrier generator with a black hole fragment I found three months ago, and the error rate is controlled within 0.3%."

As the first ray of moonlight was swallowed by shadows, Ye Shuli stood in front of the control panel of the spiritual vein central hub.

Jiang Ye's modified thirty-six decoy devices began to operate, and false spiritual energy fluctuations flowed in all directions along the defensive array lines.

On the holographic monitoring screen, seventy-three red dots are breaking through the outer barrier from three directions.

34; Twelve people in the southeast are carrying formation-breaking cones. 34; Jiang Ye reports indistinctly, chewing on a wheat cake, his tactical gloves leaving afterimages on the virtual keyboard. 34; There is a cargo spirit ship in the northwest, the temperature inside is abnormal—it is carrying at least three hundred catties of spirit-devouring powder. 34;

Ye Shuli suddenly activated the backup bracelet, and the modern programming algorithm instantly rewrote the code for transmitting spiritual energy.

The twenty-eight defense nodes suddenly reversed the energy flow, and the intruders who were destroying the barrier were suddenly stuck to the suddenly gelled surface of the barrier.

"Close the net." She pressed the confirmation button on the nanoglove.

A blinding white light erupted from the spiritual vein's central core, and the gravitational magnet that Jiang Ye had buried beneath the cultivation ground three months prior was simultaneously activated.

The enemy carrying the Breaking Formation Cone was astonished to find that the weapon automatically flew into the air, and the Soul-Devouring Powder condensed into a spherical object in the magnetic field.

Thirty-six decoy devices projected three hundred illusory images of Ye Shuli, and the spiritual energy fluctuations generated by modern holographic technology caused the detection artifacts to collectively overload.

"The data model of going mad is indeed useful." Jiang Ye squatted behind the control panel, munching on his seventh wheat cake, watching the chaotic enemy on the monitor screen. "The spiritual backlash they're experiencing is exactly the same as the symptoms caused by the flaws in their ancestral cultivation technique."

Ye Shuli suddenly grabbed his tactical cloak to wipe her hands, and the nano gloves drew a final command in the air.

All the captured formation-breaking cones suddenly changed direction, and the energy balls carrying spirit-devouring powder accurately smashed into the enemy camp.

The moment the screams were absorbed by the defensive array, Jiang Ye's pre-recorded taunting voice was amplified through each barrier node: "Thanks for the strategic supplies, bro!"

At dawn, three hundred floating cargo containers were neatly stacked in the ancestral hall square.

Ye Shuli tore open a hidden compartment in a gift box and took out an assassination artifact that had not yet been activated.

A black hole-modified shredder popped out of Jiang Ye's tactical belt, and the dark purple spider pattern turned into dust amidst the mechanical hum.

"These hemostatic herbs are enough to last for half a year." She was counting the supplies they had recovered when she suddenly noticed fresh mud on the soles of Jiang Ye's tactical boots. "You went to the forbidden area in the back mountain?"

&34; He made an automatic feeder for the guard beast. &34; Jiang Ye shook the modified Drunken Immortal Chicken feeder, and three positioning chips fell out of his tactical cloak, &34; He also left a little gift on the enemy's retreat route. &34;

As the celebratory bells rang through the sky, Ye Shuli stood alone on the observatory.

The nano-gloves read the latest monitoring data, and the enemies who were killed all bore the insignia of different factions.

Jiang Ye suddenly slid upside down from the eaves, and the wheat cake that popped out of her tactical belt landed accurately in her palm.

Two of the gift boxes sent by Xuan Yin Pavilion were missing. He licked the sauce from the corner of his mouth, his mechanical eye flashing with data streams; the Third Elder's spiritual energy fluctuations disappeared for seventeen minutes during the lunar eclipse.

Ye Shuli's hand, which had just bitten into the wheat cake, suddenly stopped.

A faint sound of gears turning could be heard in the morning breeze; it was the defensive array that Jiang Ye had modified automatically repairing its damage.

An area marked as safe on the holographic map is now glowing with an ominous dark red aura.