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

The ear-piercing sound of metal scraping came from beneath the misty dome.

Ye Shuli's right fingernails dug deep into the ice, while the fiery essence in her left palm was devouring the reverse-rotating gear relief on her wrist.

The backlash from the sudden interruption of the frost element caused a metallic taste to rise in her throat, and the frozen ice crystals in her meridians were being burned into scalding steam by the flames.

"Let go!" Jiang Ye was hanging upside down in the gear phantom beneath the ice, his black iron wrist guard being corroded by some kind of silver fluid.

He tried to sever the fiery whip binding his ankle, only to find that the ice crystals condensed at the whip's tip had already fused with his skin. "This thing is devouring spiritual energy!"

A blue-white flame ignited in Ye Shuli's pupils, and the four elemental essences she had previously collected formed a violent vortex in her dantian.

As the second stream of frost spiritual energy was forcefully injected into her heart meridian, she heard a crisp sound, like glass shattering, emanating from her ribs.

The phantom gear beneath the ice suddenly burst forth with purple light, and Jiang Ye's exclamation was distorted into intermittent electronic noise.

"Let's take a gamble." She bit her tongue and flicked the blood droplet at the flaming whip, and the wind and thunder elements surged into the ice layer along the whip.

The shockwave generated by the collision of the three elements blew away the ice surface within a radius of ten feet, revealing a bronze ground covered with gear grooves underneath.

Taking advantage of the opportunity, Jiang Ye inserted the fragments of black iron into the gaps between the gears, but the flying sparks ignited the ice crystal particles floating in the air.

The excruciating pain caused a flash of colorful light to appear before Ye Shuli's eyes.

The elemental vortex in his dantian began to expand uncontrollably, and root-like cracks appeared on the surface of his skin.

When the fourth earth element was forcibly awakened, her entire right arm suddenly turned to stone, and ice spikes shot from her fingertips froze the fire whip into crystalline chains.

Jiang Ye suddenly stopped struggling.

He flipped his wrist to reveal a black iron bracer covered in a silver fluid, with dark red blood vessels spreading backward along the fluid's patterns.

When the chains vibrated for the fifth time, he suddenly pressed his wrist guards against his heart—a danger signal they had agreed upon when they were ambushed.

The blood and tears that flowed from Ye Shuli's left eye froze into ice beads on her cheek.

She poured the last of her wind element into her petrified right arm, and as she forcibly reversed the direction of the elemental fusion, her back suddenly slammed into some kind of warm barrier.

Twelve icicles hovered three inches away from her, reflecting the flame totem that Jiang Ye was carving on the bronze gear.

"Keep acting." Jiang Ye's blood-stained lips curled into his usual mocking smile, and the fragment of black iron at his fingertips suddenly burst forth with black-gold light.

The moment the silver fluid touched the black light, the gear rotating in reverse on Ye Shuli's wrist suddenly jammed at a certain mark.

A hurricane formed by the four elements simultaneously lifted the two people into the air.

As Ye Shuli shattered the seventh ice pillar, she finally regained her balance, and the rampaging elements in her dantian suddenly formed a perfect four-element array.

As her blood-stained fingertips traced the void, the bronze gears beneath the ice emitted a roar unseen for millennia.

Taking advantage of the opportunity, Jiang Ye broke free of his restraints and lunged towards the array's core. The Xuan Tie wrist guard turned to dust the moment it touched the array diagram.

The moment the four-colored beams of light shot into the sky, Ye Shuli saw an identical brand on his back, just like the bronze gear, and the silver fluid was seeping into his heart meridian along the brand.

"You've been..." The blood she coughed up froth froth condensed into ice crystals in mid-air, and the pressure generated by the fusion of elements pressed the two of them firmly to opposite ends of the array.

As the flame totem on Jiang Ye's chest began to devour the silver fluid, Ye Shuli suddenly discovered that her petrified right arm could touch the core gear of the array's eye.

The bronze ground beneath the ice began to crack, and a kind of pressure beyond elemental power seeped out from the ground.

Just as the Four Symbols Formation was about to collapse, Ye Shuli's petrified fingertips suddenly touched the groove in the center of the gear—there remained a spiritual energy fluctuation that originated from the same source as the brand on the back of Jiang Ye's neck.

The instant the gear relief stopped rotating in reverse, the moonlight falling from the ice cave dome suddenly twisted into a ring of light.

Amidst the excruciating pain, Ye Shuli vaguely saw Jiang Ye's lips moving; he was reciting the ancient proverb she had discovered three days prior on the rafters of the inn:

When the four elements converge at the heart of the gear, the Keeper of Order will descend from the crack in the moonlight.

Amidst the deafening roar of the ice shattering, Ye Shuli's petrified arm emitted a cracking sound, like porcelain shattering.

The vortex of spiritual energy, enveloped by the four-colored beams of light, tore open the fabric of her clothes, revealing bronze-colored patterns spreading beneath her skin—the spiritual energy of the same origin as the brand on the back of Jiang Ye's neck was frantically draining her life force.

"Get your focus back on your studies!"

An aged voice pierced through the roar of the elemental upheaval, and Ye Shuli's pupils, which were on the verge of collapse, suddenly reflected three spinning bronze coins.

The triangular array of coins hovered three inches between her eyebrows, forcibly freezing the collapsing Four Symbols Array in its final moments before disintegration.

The old man in black robes descended from the sky, stepping on a floating bronze compass, and his withered fingertips touched the back of Ye Shuli's neck.

The raging torrent of elements suddenly became docile, and the cracks on her skin healed at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Jiang Ye struggled to lift his head from the pile of rubble and saw the nine-star beaded pendant swaying at the old man's waist—the very same counterfeit magic artifact they had pawned three days ago.

"Southeast, Xun position!" the old man suddenly shouted.

Ye Shuli instinctively slammed her petrified right arm toward the southeast corner of the array.

The four elements, which were originally in disarray, suddenly returned to their proper places, and the phantom images of the Azure Dragon, White Tiger, Vermilion Bird, and Black Tortoise appeared at the four corners of the array.

The old man produced twelve yellow talismans from his sleeve, which were precisely affixed to each node where the elements intersected.

Jiang Ye suddenly let out a muffled groan.

The gear-shaped mark on his back oozed a silvery-white liquid. The moment this fluid touched the Four Symbols Array, it transformed into pure water elements and flowed into the array's core.

Suddenly, the ice crystal tear in Ye Shuli's left eye shattered, and the broken ice fragments condensed into a miniature array in mid-air.

“Now!”

The old man clasped his hands together, and the floating bronze coins simultaneously embedded themselves into the array's core.

Ye Shuli felt a scalding heat burst forth in her dantian, and the essence of the four elements transformed into physical chains that wrapped around her body.

Her clear whistle, emanating from her head tilted back, shattered the entire ice cave dome. Moonlight mixed with ice crystals poured down, condensing into a yin-yang symbol ten feet in diameter beneath her feet.

The flame totem on Jiang Ye's chest suddenly detached from his skin.

The crimson phoenix phantom spread its wings and incinerated all the remaining silver fluid.

When the Four Symbols Formation completely dissipated, the oppressive aura emanating from Ye Shuli crushed the ice crystals within a hundred feet radius into dust.

"Thank you very much, senior..."

"Save your thanks for the next life!" The old man suddenly threw a bronze compass at Jiang Ye's back.

On the previously empty ice surface, a transparent figure illuminated by the moonlight suddenly appeared—it was the waiter who had served them tea at the inn three days ago.

Ye Shuli dodged and caught the falling Jiang Ye, the residual elemental power at her fingertips automatically forming a protective barrier.

Only now did she realize that the speed of her spiritual energy circulation had increased more than tenfold, and she could even clearly hear the pulse of Jiang Ye's carotid artery.

"Does it hurt?" She wiped the blood from Jiang Ye's lips and found that her tears had frozen into ice beads as they fell.

Jiang Ye pulled open his collar to reveal the flame pattern on his chest: "Do you think this looks like the dual cultivation mark of the Hehuan Sect?" His bloodstained fingers suddenly pressed on Ye Shuli's lower back, where a blue totem of the same origin as the Four Symbols Array had appeared at some point.

A series of whooshing sounds came from outside the ice cave.

A dozen figures hovered above the broken dome. The woman in red at the head stared at the undisturbed Tai Chi diagram beneath Ye Shuli's feet, her compass needle spinning wildly.

Jiang Ye suddenly pulled Ye Shuli behind him, and the fragments of Xuan Tie condensed into a short blade in his palm: "Looks like someone's caught wind of this."

Ye Shuli shattered the ice beneath her feet and leaped into the air, where the four elements automatically condensed into wings of light behind her.

Without any incantation, the water elements within a radius of a hundred miles condensed into an array of ice swords as she raised her hand.

The woman in red, who was about to speak, was forced back three steps by the chilling sword energy, and the compass in her hand cracked in two.

"roll."

The cold, aloof words, carrying the oppressive aura of a Spirit King, swept across the entire arena.

The weaker cultivators fell directly onto the ice. The woman in red barely managed to steady herself, but the moment she met Ye Shuli's eyes, she was struck by lightning—four colors of elemental light were flowing in those eyes at the same time.

As the crowd receded like a tide, Jiang Ye toyed with the jade pendant he had taken from the waiter's corpse and brought it closer: "The patterns on this..." He traced the serrated edges of the jade pendant with his fingertips, "...perfectly match the grooves of the bronze gear."

The moment Ye Shuli received the jade tablet, the lingering power of the Four Symbols within her body suddenly stirred.

She abruptly turned her head to look at the northern horizon, where a cloud of gray mist was swallowing the moonlight.

Jiang Ye followed her gaze and the fragment of black iron at his waist suddenly emitted a buzzing sound—a reaction that only occurs when encountering spiritual energy of the same origin.

The roar of bronze gears restarting echoed from the depths of the ice cave.

The Tai Chi diagram suspended in the air suddenly transformed into a stream of light and entered Ye Shuli's brow, leaving a faint yin-yang mark on her forehead.

Just as the old man was about to speak, he suddenly coughed violently, and blood froth mixed with ice crystals seeped out from under his black robe.

"Senior's injury..."

"Mind your own business." The old man tossed a blood-stained mustard seed pouch into Jiang Ye's arms. "Open the contents only after you see the ninth gear mark."

Ye Shuli wanted to ask more questions, but the old man stepped on the bronze compass and crashed into the suddenly appearing spatial rift.

Jiang Ye weighed the mustard seed bag in his hand and suddenly laughed, "This old man's voice... doesn't it sound like the masked shopkeeper behind the pawnshop counter?"

A crimson thunderclap exploded in the gray fog of the north.

Ye Shuli pressed the suddenly burning mark between her eyebrows and saw that a thin bronze line had appeared in the lines on her palm.

When the gear mark on Jiang Ye's back became hot again, the two of them looked at the source of the distorted moonlight—where the faint phantom of nine gears meshing could be seen.

The moment the waning moon disappeared into the clouds, a strange scene appeared on the ice beneath Ye Shuli's feet: nine phantom gears were slowly rotating around the gray fog in the north, and a black shadow resembling a cultivator appeared at the center of each gear.

Jiang Ye's hand, which was wiping the fragments of black iron, suddenly stopped. The brand on the back of his neck resonated and vibrated with the black gear-like shadow that had been there recently.