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

The honeycomb-like holes on the surface of the bronze gate emitted a piercing buzz, and the silvery-white turbulent flow surged like the red oil in a boiling hot pot.

Ye Shuli's medical gloves popped out a three-dimensional projection, and twelve runes wrapped around the ankles of the two like chains, forming a light blue protective circle thirty feet away from the giant gate.

"The activity level of these spacetime dust particles is four hundred times higher than the standard." Ye Shuli stared at the glove's display screen, her fingertips quickly tracing the pulsating data stream.

Jiang Ye's sword suddenly appeared in front of the two of them, and the frost that had condensed on the blade was shattered into dust by some invisible force—three chaotic spacetime spirits emerged from the holes in the bronze door, their bodies composed of constantly collapsing hexagonal light spots.

As the fifth spirit appeared, Ye Shuli suddenly stopped Jiang Ye's hand, which was about to form a hand seal: "The interval between each of their attacks is a multiple of pi (π)." The medical glove projected a pale golden waveform, converting the distorted light surrounding the spirit into a Fourier transform graph.

As the seventh wave of attack arrived, she ripped off the silver chain around her neck and threw it into the air: "Now! Attack in the direction of 3 times pi (3π)!"

Jiang Ye's sword energy pierced the core of the Time-Space Elf with precision, and the originally indestructible energy body suddenly became as soft as damp hot pot broth.

He leaped up, stepping on the fallen elven remains, his sword drawing seven concentric circles in the air: "The weakness of these things is actually mathematical formulas?"

“It’s the fluctuation frequency.” Ye Shuli pulled back rapidly while holding onto the protective rune chain. Her medical gloves were converting the attack patterns of the last two elves into a three-dimensional Cartesian coordinate system.

When the X-axis value exceeded the critical point, she suddenly switched the protective shield to mirror mode: "Refraction angle 47.3 degrees—"

The deflected attack beam exploded in mid-air with firework-like cracks, and the remaining spacetime sprites emitted a shriek similar to electromagnetic interference.

Taking advantage of the opportunity, Jiang Ye channeled his spiritual power into the ice crystal embedded in the sword hilt, instantly freezing the dust within a ten-zhang radius: "What else can that iron box of yours possibly calculate?"

“This is called a portable spiritual energy analyzer.” Ye Shuli tore off two strands of hair to wrap around the cracked protective shield, her hair ends covered with ice crystal fragments. “The energy reading of the smiley face in the lower right corner of the door matches the data we encountered when we encountered the space-time rift at the hot pot restaurant perfectly.”

As the two approached the bronze gate, stepping on the still-smoldering ice steps, scalding turbulent currents of spacetime suddenly spewed out from the honeycomb-shaped holes.

Jiang Ye used his sword energy to flatten the protruding bronze prism as a shield, and a nine-square grid pattern similar to that of a hot pot induction cooker immediately appeared on the metal surface: "Is this thing something that requires a membership card to open?"

Ye Shuli's medical gloves suddenly emitted a rapid beeping sound, and twelve detection runes simultaneously pointed to the beast-head keyhole.

As she lightly touched the edge of the keyhole with an ice pick, a holographic projection suddenly appeared on the surface of the bronze door—it was the surveillance footage from the hot pot restaurant where the two first met and fought over the last plate of tripe.

"Verification successful." A mechanical voice accompanied the bubbling sound of boiling hot pot broth. The moment the bronze gate swung open, tens of thousands of specks of spacetime condensed into golden steps.

Jiang Ye used the tip of his sword to catch Ye Shuli, who was about to fall into the crevice, and leaped onto the platform on the suddenly materialized dust: "Could you use a safer verification method next time?"

A semi-transparent energy barrier suddenly appeared in front of them, and the dark patterns flowing on its surface were actually magnified ten thousand times the molecular structure of hot pot oil.

The moment Ye Shuli's medical gloves touched the barrier, a warning popped up: Unable to analyze the material composition.

Jiang Ye's sword energy drew fleeting ice flowers on the barrier, and the hexagonal crack patterns were exactly the same as the patterns on the hot pot restaurant's floor tiles.

"It seems someone has cooked the entire spacetime order into a hot pot." Jiang Ye suddenly smiled and pointed to the slightly glowing dot in the center of the barrier, where the shape of a divider for a hot pot was vaguely visible.

Ye Shuli took out half a piece of ice crystal from her storage ring and pressed it onto the dot. Suddenly, the barrier began to absorb the scattered spacetime dust around it—like hot pot broth absorbing rolling beef balls.

The moment the barrier shattered, countless golden points of light surged out like boiling hot pot broth.

Jiang Ye wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, using the tip of his sword to pick up a clump of condensed temporal dust as a stepping stone: "This is much more exciting than the last time we ate the super spicy hot pot."

The core of the spacetime order is suspended in the center of nine bronze chains, each chain engraved with a relief of hot pot ingredients.

Ye Shuli's medical gloves suddenly made a loud bang, and a bright red energy overload warning popped up on the display screen.

She grabbed Jiang Ye by the back of his collar and pulled him back three steps. Suddenly, a spacetime vortex shaped like a hot pot exploded where they had been standing.

"The energy flow trajectory conforms to the Fibonacci spiral." Ye Shuli attached the analyzer to the nearest bronze chain, and a holographic hot pot menu suddenly projected from the keyhole. "We need to activate the spiritual energy nodes of the nine elements simultaneously—you're in charge of the five tripe reliefs on the left, and I'll handle the rest."

When Jiang Ye's sword energy pierced the third piece of the tripe relief, the entire chain suddenly oozed scalding red oil.

He swung his scalded wrist and jumped back, his boots creating four ice lotuses in the air: "Is this the last stand of the clear soup pot?" The sword suddenly turned and pierced the floating chili seeds, the bursting spiritual energy instantly staining the five chains red.

As Ye Shuli was embedding the ice crystal into the last mushroom relief, her medical gloves suddenly detected an abnormal energy fluctuation.

She flicked three silver needles with her backhand, pinning them to Jiang Ye's hem: "Lie down!" Dark purple light blades grazed the backs of the two of them, scorching the bronze floor with scorch marks shaped like a mandarin duck pot.

The afterimage of the leader of the mysterious force emerged from the vortex of red oil, with half a piece of ice crystal embedded at the top of the scepter in his hand.

When Jiang Ye's sword clashed with the scepter, sparks flew everywhere, each flash reflecting the scene of their first encounter at the hot pot restaurant. "You actually used sesame paste as the core of the formation?" the leader suddenly sneered, the shockwave from his scepter overturning seven bronze chains.

Taking advantage of the moment, Ye Shuli aimed the analyzer at the scepter, the display screen rapidly scrolling through binary code: "The ice crystal on his scepter resonates with my storage ring!" She flicked out a medical glove wrapped with a silver chain, precisely slipping it onto the gem at the top of the scepter, "Jiang Ye!"

Seven consecutive slashes with tripe!

Sword energy, carrying ice crystal fragments, pierced through the leader's phantom, and the ice crystal at the top of the scepter suddenly burst forth with blue light.

Ye Shuli flipped in mid-air, pulling on the silver chain, and eighteen silver needles flew out of her storage ring, forming a six-pointed star array: "Now!" The moment their spiritual powers converged, the scepter and its phantom suddenly shattered into red powder like chili flakes.

Suddenly, the spacetime core emitted a bubbling sound like a boiling hotpot, and the nine chains automatically reassembled into a Bagua (Eight Trigrams) array.

Jiang Ye tapped the central floating ice crystal pillar with the hilt of his sword: "Why does this thing look like frozen sesame paste?" He suddenly noticed the golden patterns flowing inside the pillar, "Wait!"

These patterns and symbols on the barrier...

"It's a three-dimensional topological structure." Ye Shuli joined the two ice crystal stones together and embedded them into the groove. Her medical gloves were converting spiritual energy fluctuations into a sound wave spectrum. "It requires the simultaneous injection of spiritual energy of both ice and fire attributes—you on the left, I on the right, with a three-second interval."

When the seventh ripple of spiritual energy entered the ice crystal pillar, the entire space suddenly froze.

Floating dust from time and space coalesced into hundreds of mini hot pots, with fragments of memories churning in the boiling broth.

Jiang Ye reached out and caught the tripe-shaped crystal that shimmered with golden light: "This isn't our first time..."

A deafening metallic scraping sound interrupted his words as nine chains plunged into the ground like the ribs of a closed umbrella.

Ye Shuli's medical gloves popped out a holographic projection, and the originally disordered spacetime curve was returning to a sine wave.

She suddenly staggered and grabbed Jiang Ye's shoulder, shards of ice crystals falling from her hair: "The energy backlash happened twelve seconds earlier than expected..."

Amidst a shower of golden light, the reflections of two figures appeared on the bronze ground.

As Jiang Ye in the reflection suddenly blinked his left eye, the real Jiang Ye was stuffing the last half of a brown sugar glutinous rice cake into his mouth: "Finally, I can go back and have a proper hot pot." He reached out and caught a swirling ginkgo-shaped piece of spacetime dust, and a slight stinging sensation suddenly came from his fingertips.

Ye Shuli's medical gloves suddenly emitted a short beep, and an unknown energy fluctuation flashed in the corner of the display screen.

Just as she was about to retrieve the data records, Jiang Ye suddenly wrapped his arms around her from behind, his icy fingers covering her eyes: "Look up."

The healing traces of the spacetime rift spread out silver patterns across the sky, like the rising steam from a scalding hot pot.

Deep within those winding lines, a fleeting dark red dot of light appeared, much like a peppercorn that suddenly sank to the bottom of a hot pot.