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

The lapis lazuli pillar cracked with spiderweb patterns amidst a humming sound, and the outline of the planetarium on Jiang Ye's back suddenly emitted a blinding red light.

Ye Shuli turned her head to the side, scorched by the bright light, and felt the scalding heat of the talisman in her palm.

The ground was tilting! Jiang Ye grabbed her waist with his backhand, and the bronze veins along her spine lit up with flickering light.

The surging black mist outside the defensive array suddenly condensed into ice shards, which rained down on the light screen.

Twelve bronze lamps fell from the dome, only to be caught by a pale golden current just before they hit the ground.

An old man with a white beard reaching the ground walked out of the light screen, leaning on a star-patterned cane. With each step he took, star shadows flowed across the blue bricks.

The purification master coughed up blood froth mixed with icy shards: "You've finally arrived."

The wise man of the Divine Temple raised his hand and lightly touched the ice mist, instantly freezing the bronze giant gate struggling in the black mist.

He turned to look at the jade pendant at Ye Shuli's waist—the jade ornament engraved with the Ye family crest was emitting a purple halo.

Three days ago, when the demonic dragon struck the eastern barrier, it shattered the eight celestial pillars supporting the palace roof. A fragmented image of the ruined palace appeared at the top of the Sage's Star-Patterned Staff. These fragments were scattered across the southwestern desert, each containing the stellar power left behind when the Twelve Star Lords sealed the earth's veins.

Ye Shuli wiped away the frost on her eyelashes and discovered that the prism pattern reflected in the light screen of the defensive array completely overlapped with the halo of the jade pendant.

Jiang Ye suddenly groaned and knelt on one knee, the star chart on his back stretching the three bronze veins into a bowstring-like arc.

"Feed him the Crimson Sun Pill!" "When the Purification Master threw the jade bottle over, Ye Shuli had already crushed three pills."

Jiang Ye swallowed the medicine with his Adam's apple bobbing, and the bronze-colored veins that had been throbbing under his skin gradually calmed down.

Thirty-six hours. The wise man unfurled a star chart, revealing seven twinkling points of light in the southwest. When the seventh star, Sirius, reached its zenith, the palace roof, deprived of stellar power, would collapse.

The scorching sun baked the sand and gravel until it smelled burnt. Jiang Ye used a fine net formed from bronze blood vessels to catch the sixth fragment.

Ye Shuli suddenly grabbed him and threw him towards the scorching rock wall, where three poisoned silver shuttles brushed against his hair and embedded themselves into the sand.

Seven masked men leaped out of the quicksand, the silver bell on the leader's wrist vibrating with a seductive rhythm.

Jiang Ye's back veins suddenly twisted into a shield shape, reflecting all the sound waves: "Even when you're picking up bargains, there are basic rules. Can't you see our clothes are covered in salt crystals from the heat?"

Ye Shuli flicked her jade pendant, slashing her fingertip, and the blood droplet drew a miniature defensive array on the sand.

As the third attacker was repelled by the formation, she suddenly realized that the jade pendant was absorbing the starlight overflowing from the fragments.

The purple light spread along the patterns of the blood array, drawing the last two fragments hidden under the quicksand directly into the array's core.

"Fifty miles southwest!" Jiang Ye suddenly ripped open his shirt, and the astronomical instrument on his back projected a beam of light towards the oasis.

Three bronze blood vessels shot out from the body, binding the gray-robed man lurking behind the palm tree like a dumpling.

As the seventh fragment was embedded in the center of the oasis altar, a torrential downpour began without warning.

Ye Shuli wiped the rainwater from her eyes and discovered that the jade pendant was twisting the light from the seven fragments into a purple vortex.

Jiang Ye suddenly curled up in pain, and the planetarium on his back began to rotate in reverse.

Twenty-three cultivators emerged from the rain. The woman in red, who was in the lead, poked Jiang Ye's bronze veins with her fingertips: "Young master, would you like to borrow this treasure for a couple of days?" The burly man behind her raised his poisoned curved blade, the blade only half an inch away from Ye Shuli's throat.

Ye Shuli suddenly grasped the purple vortex that was about to take shape, and the phantom of the Star Lord vaguely appeared in the bright light that erupted from the jade pendant.

The woman in red screamed and retreated, as if the bronze veins in her hand had suddenly come to life and wrapped around her neck.

The rain evaporated automatically three feet away from Ye Shuli, and she didn't even realize that her pupils had turned into a silvery-purple hue of starlight.

Ye Shuli suddenly clenched her five fingers, and the phantom of the Star Lord transformed into a stream of light that pierced through the rain curtain.

The bronze veins around the woman in red's neck suddenly tightened, and she was flung towards a rock wall more than ten feet away.

The other cultivators hurriedly activated their escape techniques, but were pulled along by the purple vortex and stumbled into a chaotic mess.

"Why are you running?" Ye Shuli approached the group, stepping on her poisoned curved blade. Her silver-purple pupils reflected their terrified faces. "Didn't you just say you wanted to borrow something?" The jade pendant spun in her palm, leaving afterimages. Suddenly, twenty-three bronze veins emerged from the ground, hanging the attackers upside down in the torrential rain.

Jiang Ye coughed up blood and propped himself up: "My wife is so cool!" The planetarium on his back started rotating clockwise again, the bronze veins gleaming in the rain.

He was about to take out a healing pill when his pupils suddenly contracted: "Watch out for the array's core!"

The gray-robed old man suddenly rose from the group of people hanging upside down, and bone spikes wrapped in black mist from his sleeves pierced straight at Jiang Ye's throat.

The moment Ye Shuli turned around, the bone spur pierced Jiang Ye's right shoulder, pinning him to the charred palm tree trunk.

"You're asking for it!" The starlight erupting from the jade pendant evaporated the torrential rain into white mist.

Ye Shuli grabbed the old man by the back of his neck in mid-air, and the phantom of the Star Lord transformed into a three-zhang-long blade of light that cleaved through the bone spurs.

The old man was terrified and tried to flee, only to find that his feet were somehow entangled in the core of the formation by bronze blood vessels.

The purple vortex exploded with a roar, and the old man, along with his bone spurs, turned into crystal dust and scattered.

Ye Shuli trembled as she supported Jiang Ye, noticing that the blood beads seeping from his wound had a bronze luster: "What happened?"

"The planetarium... automatically activated its defense mechanism." Jiang Ye forced a weak smile, lightly touching the silver-purple spot between her brows with his finger. "This new skin is pretty cool, but it looks like it'll take a lot of my wife's time."

As the downpour subsided, the last two fragments finally embedded themselves into the star map.

The jade pendant floated above the array's core, twisting the seven rays of starlight into a beam that shot towards the southwestern desert.

The scorched earth cracked open into bottomless ravines, and the eighth fragment, wrapped in quicksand, shot into the sky.

The protective array in the heart of the desert was ten times more complex than expected.

Ye Shuli squatted on the scorching basalt, using her dagger to draw array patterns and calculate: The Kan position corresponds to the water unicorn totem, but where would the water element come from in the desert?

"Use this." Jiang Ye tore open his blood-soaked clothes, and the star chart on his back projected the Twenty-Eight Mansions. "At three quarters past Chen hour, the Moon will pass directly above the array's eye." Bronze veins moved across the ground like counting rods, overlapping the star chart and array patterns to create pale blue spots of light.

The moment the seventh star lit up, Ye Shuli suddenly pressed the jade pendant onto the center of the formation.

The quicksand collapsed into a vortex, revealing a bronze altar buried deep underground.

The last fragment floated in the center of the altar, its surface covered with spiderweb-like sealing patterns.

Three hours remain. Jiang Ye used bronze veins to form a rope and slowly pulled the fragment out of the seal.

The jade pendant suddenly trembled violently, and the sealing patterns on the surface of the fragments crawled along the starlight toward his arm.

Ye Shuli slashed her palm with her backhand, and the formation-breaking talisman she drew with her blood perished along with the sealing pattern.

The temple dome burst forth with a rainbow of light the instant the fragments were put back in place.

The wise man lightly tapped the ground with his star-patterned staff, and the twelve bronze lamps rose back to their original positions.

The purification master stroked the restored lapis lazuli pillar: "Six hours faster than expected."

Jiang Ye slumped on the stone steps, munching on a spirit fruit: "Grandpa, could you please tell me in advance next time that the sealing runes will be transferred?" The astronomical instrument on his back had returned to normal operation, and the bronze blood vessels hung lazily at his sides.

Ye Shuli was examining the scabbed wound on his shoulder when she heard this and pinched the soft flesh on his side: "Shut up and eat."

As the last wisp of black mist was purified by the starlight, the jade pendant suddenly flew automatically towards the dome.

As the purple halo enveloped the entire temple, Ye Shuli felt something warm wrap around her little finger.

She looked down and saw Jiang Ye's bronze veins hooking around her little finger, glowing a faint golden-red under the starlight.

Thirty li to the northwest. Jiang Ye suddenly stopped laughing, and the astronomical instrument cast a blurry shadow on the palace roof.

Ye Shuli pressed down on the jade pendant, which was inexplicably hot, and felt a strange fluctuation coming from the depths of the earth's veins.

It sounded like the buzzing of millions of strings vibrating simultaneously, or like a ferocious beast that had been sleeping for thousands of years turning over.

The wise man gazed at their intertwined starlight and bronze veins, his white beard fluttering without wind: "It's time to set off."