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

The shattered crystal fragments of the protective shield were still floating in mid-air when Ye Shuli's tactical boots stepped onto the solidified star map.

Platinum gold patterns rippled beneath their feet, and Jiang Ye's shadow suddenly twisted into a teleportation array, enveloping the two of them and disappearing from the spot.

The feeling of weightlessness lasted for three seconds.

Ye Shuli smelled the scent of disinfectant mixed with sandalwood, a unique aroma of the Void Organization headquarters.

Her temples throbbed—the coordinate model projected by the jade pendant perfectly overlapped with the scene before her.

Thirty-six bronze pillars engraved with runes support the floating palace, with a different colored crystal coffin floating atop each pillar. The star map fragments inlaid on the coffin lids are exactly the same as the skull icons on the holographic map.

"Welcome to the Void Arena." A mechanical voice came from the crystal chandelier overhead, and seventy-two prisms simultaneously refracted the image of a silver-haired man.

The leader's black robe was adorned with flowing starlight. When he raised his hand, Ye Shuli discovered that those stars were actually flowing code: "Courage, Wisdom, and Power"—three key fragments hidden in the mechanism area.

The countdown has now begun—&34;

Jiang Ye suddenly squeezed Ye Shuli's wrist; the lingering coolness of the inhibitor remained on his fingertips.

A thin layer of sweat seeped from their clasped palms, casting oval spots of light on the bronze floor.

Ye Shuli drew a coordinate with her thumb on the web between his thumb and forefinger. This was a code they invented when cracking the ancient tomb's mechanisms: be ready to use a feint at any time.

"The third bronze pillar from the left." She lowered her voice, the jade pendant burning hot at her waist.

Within the shadows cast by those floating coffins, at least five greedy eyes were fixed on them.

As the bronze gate at the entrance to the administrative area swung open with a roar, Jiang Ye suddenly unzipped his tactical uniform.

The fluorescent blue vial jingled at his waist as he deliberately raised his voice: "I've heard that the Void Organization's nutrient solution can increase the purity of spiritual energy?" The three explorers were immediately drawn to his attention, with the man in scale armor already reaching for the explosive talisman at his waist.

Ye Shuli seized the opportunity to slip into the hidden door.

Her tactical goggles scanned the gear structure of the rotating staircase—clearly a modified version of the Rube Goldberg mechanism.

When one of the explorers stepped onto the seventh step, she dragged Jiang Ye toward the raised animal head relief on the right.

The massive gate overhead slammed down on his back, blocking the pursuers at the other end of the passage.

34; A sixty-degree slope, the principle of Newton's pendulum. 34; Ye Shuli used her sword sheath to push aside the inverted bronze bell array.

As the twelfth pendulum began to swing, she inserted the jade pendant into a groove in the wall.

The modern positioning system resonated with the mechanical arts of the cultivation world, and all the pendulums suddenly froze into arrows pointing southeast.

Jiang Ye whistled.

He was using his tactical dagger to trap the pursuer's flail when he heard this. Suddenly, he flipped the blade and used the momentum of the opponent pulling back the flail to throw the man into the trap area.

As his screams were swallowed by the grinding of gears, he bared his fangs at the few lurking observers in the shadows: "Thanks for your mercy. Remember to study physics in your next life."

When Ye Shuli modified the third hydraulic trap into a zipline device, the explorers' whispers could no longer contain their envy.

The female cultivator in purple gauze crushed the communication jade slip, and the poisonous insects she had been raising were swarming from her sleeves toward where the two were staying.

Without turning her head, Ye Shuli threw out a tube of cooling agent, and ice flowers instantly formed on the ground. The sight of the insect swarm frozen into crystal specimens made Jiang Ye laugh until tears streamed down his face.

"The third fragment is in the gravity reversal zone!" The jade pendant suddenly emitted a buzzing sound.

Ye Shuli dragged Jiang Ye into the circular hall, where twenty-eight bronze cauldrons floated in mid-air, and the star map on the cauldrons was being reassembled.

When an explorer touches the wrong symbol, he is suddenly thrown upside down and crashes into the ceiling, his blood droplets congealing into bizarre coral shapes in the weightless state.

Jiang Ye suddenly turned his tactical uniform inside out, revealing the magnetic runes on the lining: "Remember the spinning swing at the amusement park?" He pulled Ye Shuli and leaped toward the bronze cauldron in the southeast corner. The two used the magnetic field to trace a spiral trajectory in the weightless space.

The moment Ye Shuli locked onto the core cauldron's ear with her tactical goggles, Jiang Ye suddenly unlocked the spirit-sealing lock—the surging spiritual power shattered the bronze cauldron, and the jade pendant containing fragments of power landed steadily in his palm.

Inside the monitoring room, a female cultivator from the Void Organization crushed a corner of the crystal screen.

Her nail-painted fingers traced a hidden rune, and the gears inside the bronze pillar subtly changed their meshing frequency.

When Ye Shuli and Jiang Ye returned to the main hall with the three fragments, no one noticed a flash of purple light through the hidden door behind the leader's throne.

Ye Shuli's palms, holding the two key fragments, were slightly warm, and the remains of the bronze cauldron were emitting wisps of smoke at her feet.

When the third star map appeared in the jade pendant's projection, the bronze pillar in the northeast corner suddenly emitted a strange, rattling sound—the rune ring, which should have been rotating at a constant speed, was vibrating with a bizarre rhythm of three short and one long beats.

&34; The airflow speed in the southeast (巽) position increased threefold. &34; Jiang Ye used his dagger to deflect the magnetized hidden weapon, and his tactical goggles scanned the redirected spiritual energy channels inside the bronze pillar. &34; Someone was tampering with the core parameters of the mechanism. &34;

Ye Shuli's tactical boots rolled over the ice crystals on the ground, and she suddenly pulled Jiang Ye towards the right pillar.

Three poisoned crossbow bolts grazed her flowing ponytail and embedded themselves in the ground. Instead of triggering the fire trap, the mechanism spewed out a thick purple mist—the perfect environment for the illusory poison butterflies kept by the female cultivator.

"There are still two tubes of coolant left." She tossed the ice-blue potion into the air, a dagger flashed, and the exploding liquid instantly froze the mist.

The phantasmal butterfly scales sealed within the ice crystals refracted a rainbow of light, illuminating the astonished faces of the three explorers who pounced upon them.

Jiang Ye whistled, and magnetic runes lit up on the back of his tactical uniform.

As the explorer, frozen into an ice sculpture, turned around, he crashed into the female cultivator operating the mechanism in the shadows like a bowling ball.

As the sound of tearing purple gauze and cursing rang out simultaneously, Ye Shuli gave the shadow a modern-day middle finger.

The jade pendant suddenly emitted a piercing shriek, and the coordinates of the last key fragment flashed in the center of the circular hall.

A mecha puppet rose from beneath the cracked bronze slab in the ground, the sound of its black iron joints turning causing the air to tremble—this was a weapon of war created by a master mechanic of the transcendent realm.

"Step back!" Jiang Ye's magnetic chains were repelled by an invisible barrier as soon as he threw them out. The Void Organization's rule runes lit up on the dome of the hall. "Damn it, this is the single-player trial area!"

Sparks flew as Ye Shuli's sword slashed against the puppet's arm armor.

When the seventh attack was deflected by the Xuan Tie breastplate, she suddenly noticed the rotation frequency of the puppet's left knee gear—a 0.3-second energy gap was created before each punch.

The tactical goggles projected a stream of combat data onto the retina, while the frost and magnetic runes of the first two key fragments flickered alternately in the palm of the hand.

"Now!" She rolled to the side the instant the puppet threw a punch, freezing the drive shaft of its right leg with the power of frost.

As the puppet lost its balance and leaned forward, the magnetic rune detonated against the energy bar on its left knee.

The resonant waves generated by the fusion of the two forces penetrated the black iron, and the precision gear set poured down like a torrential rain.

Ye Shuli wiped the blood from the corner of her mouth and took out the last fragment from the puppet's chest cavity.

In the intense light that erupted as the three keys converged, the thirty-six bronze pillars were illuminated.

As the light faded, the fifteen Transcendent Realm explorers had formed an encirclement.

The explosive talisman in the scaly man's palm glowed with blood, and the buzzing of poisonous insects came from beneath the purple-veiled female cultivator's newly repaired veil.

The Void Leader's phantom was faintly visible high above, while Jiang Ye was quietly switching his tactical uniform to combat mode.

&34; The rules of the game didn't say you couldn't steal loot. &34; The scaled man shattered the floor tiles, and the encirclement suddenly shrank by three meters.

Ye Shuli's three key fragments floated in her palm, forming a triangular array, and the projected star map resonated with the hidden door behind the leader's throne.

Jiang Ye's tiger teeth gleamed coldly behind his tactical goggles, and magnetic chains wrapped around the rune grooves of the nearest bronze pillar: "Darling, do you still remember the recipe for the first time we blew up the ancient tomb's corpse puppet?"

Ye Shuli's index finger brushed against the medicine packet at her waist, and the seven colored test tubes collided with a crisp sound.

As the first explorer unleashed her natal magic weapon, three key fragments suddenly spun rapidly in her palm, illuminating the entire void arena's spiritual energy pathways with crystal clarity—