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

Jiang Ye coughed up blood and fell into the pile of rubble. Blood mixed with stardust was gushing out of the wound on his left shoulder where the Time-Space Chain had pierced through.

Thirty paces away, Ye Shuli's moon-white robes were already soaked with dark red, and the bronze fragment in her palm was resonating strangely with the cracks in the scales of the Devouring Abyss Lord.

"It actually managed to damage my Stardust Armor." The Abyss Lord stroked the cracks in the scales, a thick laugh emanating from beneath his dark gold mask.

The stardust that had seeped out suddenly flowed back into the cracks, causing even the bronze fragment in Ye Shuli's hand to groan under the strain.

Ye Shuli spun around to avoid the three intersecting chains that came at her, her boot heels crushing the remaining Big Dipper star map on the ground.

She caught a glimpse of Jiang Ye struggling to prop himself up with his broken sword; two ribs were clearly caved into the young man's chest—the shockwave he had just blocked for her had shattered his protective aura.

"It's not too late to beg for mercy." The Abyss Lord raised his hand and summoned seven chains wreathed in black flames. The weapons that had once imprisoned the Guardians of Time and Space had now transformed into tornadoes. "I can grant you the honor of being vessels for stardust."

Jiang Ye wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth and suddenly sneered, "Did you learn your villainous lines from third-rate storybooks?" He deliberately made the broken sword slicing through the gravel, "What's all this talk of honor? Why don't you tell me if you have eight eyes under your mask?"

The chain attack suddenly froze for half a second.

Seizing the fleeting opportunity, Ye Shuli flicked the remaining droplets of blood from her fingertips toward the bronze fragment.

The blood-stained fragments suddenly reflected the phantom of the other person's back—she finally saw clearly that in the depths of those churning stardust, a subtle energy fault would occur every nine breaths.

The Maw Lord was clearly enraged.

In an instant, countless chains split and reformed, transforming into a dark iron cage that blotted out the sky.

Jiang Ye's broken sword suddenly emitted its last glimmer of spiritual light, and he staggered towards Ye Shuli: "I'll bet on the seventh star level!"

The moment their backs touched, the bronze fragments and stardust cracks trembled simultaneously.

Ye Shuli stared at the starlight leaking through the cracks in the cage and suddenly remembered a detail circled in red in the mural of the ruins—when the projection of the seven stars shifted by three inches, the stardust resonance would produce a one-thousandth of stagnation.

"Jiang Ye!" She suddenly pressed the fragment into the young man's palm. "Use this fragment of your natal sword to activate the Tian Shu star position!"

The Maw Lord's cold laughter pressed down from all directions: "A dying struggle." The spacetime rift behind him suddenly expanded, and more chains swarmed out like venomous snakes.

However, just as the weapons were about to pierce through the two men, the bronze fragments suddenly merged with the blood bead in Jiang Ye's palm, bursting forth with a silver light that pierced through the black mist.

Ye Shuli saw the fatal flaw clearly in the silver light.

Whenever the chains are pulled away from the spacetime rift, the third scale on the back of the Maw Lord briefly turns transparent—that is the energy core of the Stardust Armor.

"Now!" She spun around and leaped up, stepping on Jiang Ye's broken sword, the remaining guardian blood flames in her hair suddenly surging.

Just as the Abyss Lord was about to raise his hand to suppress it, he discovered that Jiang Ye, who should have been exhausted of spiritual energy, was using his broken sword to cut open his wrist—blood mixed with stardust was flowing wildly along the Big Dipper constellation.

"How dare you..." The dark gold mask cracked for the first time, and the spacetime rift behind the Abyss Lord suddenly twisted and trembled.

Ye Shuli's fingertips had already touched the transparent scale. The moment the cracks on the bronze fragment perfectly overlapped with the stardust trajectory, she heard Jiang Ye's natal sword spirit emit a clear and melodious sword cry in the void.

The young man's blood-stained figure flashed a smiling white tooth below, and the fragments of his natal sword, burning with the last of his spiritual power, suddenly transformed into seven shooting stars.

The Abyss Lord raised its hand to grab the chain on Ye Shuli's back, but was suddenly pulled off course by a force from the end of time and space—

The moment the bronze fragment pierced the transparent scales, the Maw Lord let out a shrill roar.

The chains binding the spacetime rifts suddenly snapped, and the seven meteors Jiang Ye flung accurately pierced the major acupoints on his body. The power of the stars exploded in a series of bursts of light inside the shattered holy armor.

"Insects!" The Abyss Lord's furious roar shook the spatial folds, and the dark gold mask shattered completely.

Ye Shuli's pupils contracted slightly—the other person's face was actually made of flowing stardust, with each feature constantly recombining.

But at this moment, the stardust was becoming murky at a visible speed, and cracks were rapidly creeping up from the neck to the head.

Jiang Ye knelt on one knee, clutching his bleeding ribs, when the broken sword in his hand suddenly emitted a clear hum.

Countless golden cracks appeared in the void, and the silver robe of the Time Guardian floated out from the cracks. Twelve chains of light, engraved with runes, instantly wrapped around the limbs of the Maw Lord.

"The old man arrived just in time." Jiang Ye grinned, his mouth stained with blood, and used his broken sword to prop himself up.

His back, still bleeding from the scratches inflicted by the chains, didn't forget to wink at Ye Shuli: "Wasn't that Seven Star Positioning move cool?"

Ye Shuli shook off the stray hairs stuck to her forehead with blood, and the bronze fragment pulsated warmly in her palm.

She suddenly grabbed Jiang Ye by the collar and pulled him back. The spot where the two had been standing suddenly collapsed into a black hole—the Devourer Lord had severed his left arm to break free of the light chains, and the shattered Stardust Armor transformed into thousands of sharp blades that shot towards them.

The Guardian of Time and Space raised his hand and conjured a shield of light, his voice like the clinking of bronze chimes: "The sinner shall be punished." The Big Dipper pattern appeared between his brows, and the blades that were aimed at Ye Shuli suddenly changed direction, pinning the Devourer Lord to the distorted barrier of time and space.

"Now!" Jiang Ye suddenly grabbed Ye Shuli's wrist, and blood from both of their palms seeped into the bronze fragment at the same time.

The Abyss Lord struggled to tear through space to escape, only to discover that the stardust fragments shattered by Ye Shuli were forming an inverted Big Dipper formation—the very sealing technique they had previously broken from the murals in the ruins.

The blue light emitted from the bronze fragments engulfed the entire star field.

Ye Shuli heard the sound of countless gears meshing echoing in the void, and the spacetime folds that had been distorted by the Devouring Abyss Lord began to correct themselves automatically.

When the light faded, only half of the dark gold arm armor remained floating in the void, where it was crushed into dust by the Time Guardian.

“Repairing the array core requires stardust resonance.” Ye Shuli wiped away the blood seeping from the corner of her eye, gazing at the still trembling spacetime turbulence.

Her back wound began to bleed again due to the depletion of her spiritual energy, but she stubbornly clung to the bronze fragment and walked toward the center of the most chaotic energy vortex.

Jiang Ye tore off a tattered piece of his robe to wrap around his wrist, and followed with a grin: "Remember to give me half of the array core crystal as a betrothal gift." A faint light suddenly shone from his fingertips, and fragments of his natal sword pieced together in his palm to form a makeshift compass. "Let me make this clear from the start: if I see any memories of your past life's lover, I'll cause trouble."

The Time Guardian silently threw out seven bronze arrows, which pierced the void to form stable anchor points.

Ye Shuli bit her fingertip and drew a talisman on the fragment, suddenly discovering that the stardust that should have been flowing was strangely stagnant—a force was interfering with the repair process in the opposite direction.

"Jiang Ye!" She turned around abruptly and saw the young man pressing his blood-stained hand against the crack in the array's core.

The black aura belonging to the Abyss Lord climbed up his meridians, but was dispelled by a sudden burst of starlight before it reached his heart.

Jiang Ye's face was ashen, but a triumphant smile played on his lips: "I knew this bastard had a backup plan."

Ye Shuli suddenly pressed the bronze fragment against his bleeding palm, and sparks flew as the two opposing energies met.

Jiang Ye groaned and knelt on one knee, but used his other hand to steadily support her as she drew the array patterns: "Move it three inches to the Zhen position... and the handle of the Big Dipper you drew is crooked, like a spoon..."

When the last array pattern lit up, the boiling spacetime turbulence suddenly stopped.

Countless fragments of memories surged in from all directions—Ye Shuli saw Jiang Ye shield her from a poisoned arrow in the secret realm, while Jiang Ye glimpsed her repairing the array eye alone until she vomited blood.

The memories stripped away by the Abyss Lord transformed into a shower of stars, gently falling back into their sea of ​​consciousness.

"Ouch, ouch, ouch..." Jiang Ye suddenly cried out and fell backward, pulling Ye Shuli into his arms.

The young man's chest heaved with laughter, warm bloodstains smearing half her cheek: "Now, shouldn't you finally give me a proper status?"

Before the guardians of time and space vanished into specks of light, they threw bronze lotus flowers at their feet.

Just as Ye Shuli was about to get up to check, Jiang Ye suddenly pressed her head down and pressed it against her chest.

Amidst the young man's strong, powerful heartbeat, she heard her own hoarse sobs mingling with his gasps.

As the last wisp of turbulence dissipated, Jiang Ye suddenly stared at the back of her ear and exclaimed, "Here..." He ran his fingertips over a spot on her skin, "Why is there a bronze-like mark glowing?"

Ye Shuli touched the burning sensation behind her ear and discovered that the bronze fragment that should have disappeared had actually merged into her blood.

Just as she was about to speak, the entire space suddenly trembled violently, and the stardust that had calmed down began to rotate in reverse without warning.

(End of this chapter)