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

Frost flowers reflected tiny golden rays in the morning light. Ye Shuli was about to speak, clutching the blood-stained rag, when a fierce gust of wind suddenly tore through the ice crystals on the ground.

Jiang Ye pulled her into a whirlwind and crashed into the broken wall, with pebbles falling between their overlapping clothes.

"No one has ventured into the Elemental Forge in twenty years." A man in dark boots crushed the golden runes scattered on the ground and stepped out of the void, seven elemental crystals at his waist jingling with each step.

His sinister gaze swept over the lingering golden markings on Jiang Ye's neck. "King's blood mixed with dark element is a good match for your stolen ice spirit root."

Ye Shuli pressed down on Jiang Ye's hand, which was bulging with veins, her palm condensing into fine needles of dark element: "The Netherworld Pavilion's Catalyst Powder, it seems it was a special gift left for me?" She held up the dark red medicine stains on the tattered cloth, watching as his pupils contracted sharply. "When the elemental furnace exploded, the python pattern on your cuff was stained with phosphorus powder, wasn't it?"

The leader of the elemental controllers sneered and waved his hand, three wind blades slicing through a bronze lamppost ten feet away: "Words are no substitute for action." A five-colored magic array rose beneath his feet. "If you can withstand three blows from the elemental beasts, you may take the Ice Soul."

Jiang Ye suddenly chuckled, "Grandpa, is the Fire Spirit Orb in the southeast corner of your magic array cracked?" He flicked an ice shard from his fingertip, striking the array's core, instantly covering the entire array in an eerie blue frost. "We took the Ice Soul three days ago; now it's time to ask for your hidden royal medicine, isn't it?"

A deafening roar from a beast cut off the conversation.

The six-winged phantom beast broke through the formation, its lion head covered with dragon scales, its leopard tail burning with ghostly flames, and its four claws alternately condensing frost and lightning.

Ye Shuli tore off the ribbon binding her hair and wrapped it around their wrists. Dark elemental energy seeped into Jiang Ye's meridians through the silk: "Southwest Xun position, seven steps."

Jiang Ye leaped into the air with his toes touching the ground, and ice shards wove into a cage to trap the left wing of the phantom beast.

The phantom beast tilted its head back and spewed out lightning and fire, but the moment it touched the ice shards, the dark elements corroded them, creating gaps.

Taking advantage of the opportunity, Ye Shuli leaped onto the beast's back, her fingertips piercing the gaps between the scales with precise golden needles. However, she abruptly withdrew her hand when she touched the dragon scales—the patterns on them were exactly the same as the golden talisman that Jiang Ye coughed up.

"Watch out!" Jiang Ye spun around and cleaved the fireball that was heading towards Ye Shuli, his left arm instantly covered with spiderweb-like burn marks.

The phantom beast suddenly stood upright, its four claws simultaneously gathering different elements, causing the ground to crack open in a spiderweb-like pattern.

Ye Shuli was thrown to the ground, and as her lower back hit the broken wall, she touched a warm jade pendant—the very "gift" that the old man in the dark market had given her three days ago.

The crystal core on the beast's forehead began to spin wildly, and seven-colored light gathered into a ball of light between its fangs.

Ye Shuli suddenly discovered that there was a 0.3-second time difference between the elemental fluctuations; when the lightning element was at its brightest, the fire element would suddenly dim.

She tugged at the ribbon on her wrist to give a signal, and Jiang Ye immediately channeled his icy spiritual energy into his meridians.

The moment the ball of light exploded, Ye Shuli threw out her jade pendant to shield herself.

The jade stone, which should have shattered, suddenly absorbed most of the shockwave, and the Netherworld Pavilion totem appeared on its back.

The phantom beast let out a painful roar, and the same pattern as the jade tablet appeared on the surface of the crystal core.

"The second strike." The leader stood with his hands behind his back in mid-air, but the magic array beneath his feet quietly shifted half an inch to the east.

The Fire Spirit Orb at his waist suddenly burst open, and the flying fragments tore his sleeve, revealing the blue phosphorus powder stained with his inner lining.

Jiang Ye wiped the bloodstains from the corner of his mouth and chuckled softly. His blood-stained fingertips secretly drew half a golden talisman behind him.

Ye Shuli gripped the scalding hot jade tablet after absorbing energy, her gaze sweeping over the third tailbone of the magical beast, which had begun to tremble rhythmically.

When the bone covered in lightning patterns trembles for the tenth time, all elemental attacks will experience a brief vacuum of spiritual energy—like the three preparatory bells that inevitably precede the morning bell.

When Ye Shuli was overturned, the jade pendant at her waist hurt painfully. This detail suddenly pierced through the chaos—three days ago, when the old man in the dark market handed her the jade pendant, his cuffs were clearly stained with the indigo color unique to phosphorus powder.

She rolled along the broken wall to avoid the lightning, and the vibration frequency of the third tailbone of the phantom beast completely overlapped with the noise Jiang Ye made when he was adjusting the elemental furnace yesterday.

"After ten tremors, the Thunder Pattern Joints will press down three inches!" Ye Shuli flung out a ribbon that wrapped around Jiang Ye's wrist, using the impact of the elemental storm to swing to his side.

Fine needles formed from condensed dark element arranged themselves into the scales of a modern clock between her fingers. "Look at the collapsing trajectory of the elemental particles at their tails!"

Jiang Ye grabbed her wrist with his other hand, and icy spiritual energy spread from where their hands were clasped, forming a transparent circular shield.

When the phantom beast's tailbone trembled for the tenth time, the shield suddenly refracted a seven-colored light spot—this was the principle of light dispersion using a prism that Ye Shuli had taught him.

The spot of light landed on the remaining phosphorus powder on the ground, instantly igniting a ghostly blue flame.

"Now!" Ye Shuli slammed the jade tablet into the center of the flames.

The Netherworld Pavilion totem manifested upon contact with fire, and the crystal core on the forehead of the phantom beast suddenly appeared in a suspended state for 0.3 seconds.

Jiang Ye used his toes to lift a piece of ice and draw a rune in mid-air. The parabola formed by the ice shards precisely passed through the suspended point of the crystal core, and the modern parabola and the rune trajectory perfectly overlapped.

The crisp sound of the crystal core shattering startled the leader, who took a half-step back. Just as his left hand, hidden in his sleeve, was about to form a hand seal, Ye Shuli suddenly flung out a piece of cloth soaked in catalytic powder.

The dark red medicine stains turned into fluorescent powder when exposed to the wind, making the phosphorescent powder on his cuffs clearly visible—this was a revealing technique she had modified based on the principle of acid-base indicators.

"Using a royal secret medicine to catalyze the elemental beasts, then using phosphorus powder to create an explosion." Jiang Ye conjured an ice mirror at his fingertips, reflecting the evidence from the leader's mouth to the thirty-six sect elders watching. "The old man played a clever trick, a thief crying 'stop thief!'"

The crowd erupted in commotion, and the silver bracelet of the Southern Frontier Gu witch rang out with a piercing sound: "The elemental furnace explosion case from twenty years ago also found phosphorus powder at the scene!" The cold light of the swords drawn by the disciples of various factions formed a bright silver river, and the magic array under the leader's feet shattered inch by inch amidst the sound waves.

The sky suddenly burst with the smell of sulfur, but it was not a remnant of battle.

Ye Shuli looked up and saw a rainbow-colored gap appear in the clouds, which was clearly a sign that a large spatial teleportation array was about to be activated.

She subconsciously reached for her brocade pouch, where the rhombus-shaped crystal she had taken from the core of the Ice Soul three days ago was now burning hot—at the exact same resonant frequency as the pocket watch she had worn on the day she traveled through time.

Jiang Ye's blood-stained fingers brushed against her earlobe as he stuffed a piece of chilled candied fruit into her mouth: "A celebration gift." As the sweet and sour taste melted on her tongue, Ye Shuli realized that he was hiding half a broken blade behind his back—when he had just blocked a fatal blow for her, this man had secretly broken off the enemy's weapon and made a candied hawthorn skewer.

"Next time, use elemental crystal cores to string candied hawthorns," she mumbled, chewing on a piece of candied fruit. A flash of golden light appeared at her fingertips, and the remaining six elemental crystal cores from the leader's waist fell into her palm.

The onlookers regarded it as a trophy, but Jiang Ye noticed that her left hand, hidden behind her back, was arranging the crystal core into an equilateral triangle—a gesture for unlocking a modern combination lock.

The afterglow suddenly painted half the sky red, but it wasn't the warm hue that dusk should have.

Ye Shuli stared at the faintly visible gear-like silhouette in the blood-red clouds, a chill running down her spine—it was clearly the outline of London's Big Ben, yet it was now suspended in the sky above the fantasy world.