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

The ginkgo-shaped dust between Jiang Ye's fingers suddenly exploded into a purple mist of light, and the buzzing sound of the medical gloves suddenly rose three notes.

Ye Shuli grabbed his wrist with her other hand, her fingertips going numb from the erratic temporal frequency in his pulse.

The overlapping reflections of the two people on the bronze ground were slowly separating, and Jiang Ye in the reflection had even turned around.

"Look at me!" Ye Shuli ripped off the ice crystal hairpin from her hair and plunged the tip into Jiang Ye's tiger's mouth.

The spirit-patterned liquid nitrogen instantly froze the spreading purple light mist. Under the moonlight, the frozen particles revealed the outlines of fragments of memories—the steaming heat from the hot pot restaurant when they first met, and the three-delicacy bean curd sheets that were swept away by the spacetime turbulence last month.

Jiang Ye stumbled and bumped into a bronze pillar, dark gold chain patterns appearing on the back of his neck: "Those peppercorns... hot pot base..." He fumbled incoherently for his medical kit, but pulled out half a hardened glutinous rice cake.

Ye Shuli's medical gloves popped up a holographic star map with sixty-four sides, each star corresponding to a fragment of Jiang Ye's memory.

“Constructing a memory anchor requires specific coordinates.” She inserted the ice crystal hairpin into the center of the star map, and the sparks of psionic energy that flew up wove a fine electric net between the two of them.

Jiang Ye suddenly grabbed her wrist, his pupils shimmering with the indigo light characteristic of spatial turbulence: "Shuli, didn't we eat roasted pig brains in Qingyan Town?"

Time and space dust condensed into a ring-shaped vortex beneath their feet, and Ye Shuli's sheepskin boots were being assimilated by the bronze ground.

She tore open Jiang Ye's leather wristband and inserted three silver needles into the star-shaped acupoint on his forearm: "That happened last week!"

You were choked by the demonized chili pepper and started breathing fire...

The excruciating pain briefly brought Jiang Ye back to consciousness. He drew his sword and plunged it into the ground.

The reflection of the sword suddenly blinked three times in a strange way, and the alarm of the medical glove resonated with the sword's sound, creating a sharp whistling sound.

Ye Shuli suddenly pressed down on the chain pattern on the back of his neck, where a black liquid with a sulfurous smell was seeping out.

Twelve holographic projections formed a memory restoration array in the air, with the illusion of the copper hot pot from their first encounter appearing at the array's core.

Jiang Ye suddenly curled up in pain, and the memories he had suppressed deep within his spiritual veins surged forth—the disappearing proprietress behind the hot pot restaurant counter, the black-robed figure who always appeared on rainy days, and the seven fragments of divine artifacts they had never been able to collect.

"Energy overload!" Ye Shuli ripped off the silver chain around her neck that held the Ice Soul Stone, and the gem fell into the ripples caused by the illusion of the copper hot pot.

Dark red light spots suddenly exploded at the edge of the array, and the "peppers" at the bottom turned into countless wriggling black shadows.

The medical glove's display showed a 99% repair progress, but the blue spot in Jiang Ye's eyes suddenly turned blood red.

The silver patterns that had healed the spacetime rift twisted into a spiderweb shape in the sky, and the dark red light that had originally dissipated was condensing into claw marks on the surface of the bronze pillar.

Suddenly, Ye Shuli was tackled to the ground by Jiang Ye, and three poisoned bone arrows grazed her ears and embedded themselves in the ground.

The writhing shadows had coalesced into seven humanoid puppets, their empty eye sockets filled with dark red "peppercorns," and their decaying armor stained with solidified hot pot broth.

“The residual energy materializes.” Ye Shuli rolled to dodge the second wave of bone arrows, and the freezing rays fired from her medical gloves froze the nearest shadow puppet into an ice sculpture.

Jiang Ye, panting heavily, held his sword horizontally across his chest; the spirit stone inlaid in the hilt was flashing wildly. "These puppets... are wearing the same soft armor worn by the assassins who attacked the Ye family three years ago..."

The frozen puppet suddenly exploded into dark red mist, and the repair progress displayed on the medical gloves began to rapidly regress.

Ye Shuli suddenly pulled Jiang Ye onto the bronze pillar, where the residual spacetime dust at the top of the pillar coalesced into a temporary barrier beneath their feet.

The moment the seventh bone arrow pierced the barrier, the blood red in Jiang Ye's eyes suddenly faded: "Shu Li!"

The back of your neck!

Dark red mist condensed above their heads into the outline of a giant claw, and the ice crystal compass that Ye Shuli had clipped to her waist suddenly burst out with blue light.

From the depths of those closing spacetime silver patterns, came the ear-piercing sound of chains dragging across the bronze ground.

Fragments of the barrier atop the bronze pillar fell in a flurry, and Jiang Ye's sword drew a winding line of blood in his palm.

The dark red giant claw, hovering three inches above the two people's heads, suddenly froze, and the "peppercorns" in the puppet's eye sockets emitted a high-frequency vibration sound.

The ice crystal compass on the back of Ye Shuli's neck rose into the air, its blue light illuminating the hot pot broth residue flowing through the gaps in the puppet's armor.

"Crouch down!" Jiang Ye suddenly grabbed Ye Shuli and rolled her to the left, the bronze floor where they had been standing was corroded with honeycomb-like holes.

Dark red mist simultaneously spewed from the joints of the seven puppets, condensing into spiderweb-like energy chains.

Ye Shuli's medical gloves popped up a molecular analysis interface, and the spectrum of the dark red mist overlapped with the components of the beef tallow residue from the hot pot three days ago.

She ripped off Jiang Ye's blood-stained leather wristband and flung the blood-soaked fabric at the nearest puppet: "Energy resonance requires a medium!"

The moment the blood touched the mist, the seven puppets suddenly leaned back in unison.

Taking advantage of the opportunity, Jiang Ye swung his sword and severed three energy chains. The sparks from the sword cutting through the bronze pillar ignited the butter particles in the air, and the burst of flames temporarily blocked the puppet's attack.

"They're afraid of high temperatures!" Ye Shuli's ice crystal hairpin pierced the ground, and the liquid nitrogen with spiritual patterns froze the spacetime dust around the two of them.

She quickly disassembled the ultraviolet sterilizer in her medical kit, modifying it into a makeshift heat ray emitter: "Give me thirty seconds!"

Jiang Ye wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, and his sword spun in his palm, creating an ice-blue sword flower.

The dizziness from the fragmented memories made him unsteady on his feet, but muscle memory drove the sword to pierce the puppet's throat with precision.

As the third puppet dissipated into mist, his back slammed heavily against the bronze pillar, tearing half of his sleeve from an old, unhealed wound.

Ye Shuli held the modified transmitter against her shoulder, and ultraviolet rays and liquid nitrogen cold light intertwined to form a spiral beam.

The beam of light piercing through the puppet's chest evaporated the dark red mist into a foul-smelling liquid, which dripped onto the ground and corroded charred marks.

The remaining four puppets suddenly merged into a giant shadow three meters tall, with solidified chili oil seeping from the gaps in their armor.

Cracks appeared in the spirit stone on Jiang Ye's sword hilt. He then thrust his sword into the bronze ground at Ye Shuli's feet, saying, "I'll lend you thirty percent of the spirit vein!"

Ye Shuli's sheepskin boots lit up with teleportation array patterns, and she leaped into the air, stepping on the sword.

The holographic star map that popped out of the medical glove overlapped with the ultraviolet rays and accurately hit the core peppercorn in the giant shadow's heart.

The blast wave blew away Jiang Ye's leather wristband, revealing the star-patterned acupoint seal on his forearm, which was bleeding.

The dissipating mist from the giant shadow suddenly coalesced into a sharp cone, shooting towards Jiang Ye, who had staggered and fallen to the ground.

Ye Shuli forcibly twisted her body in mid-air, and the protective shield drawn by the ice crystal hairpin was a beat too slow—three mist cones pierced through her left shoulder, and bloody ice crystal fragments splashed onto Jiang Ye's eyelids.

The alarm of the medical gloves pierced through the smoke, and the bloodshot in Jiang Ye's pupils suddenly faded.

When he caught Ye Shuli as she fell, the dark gold chain pattern on the back of her neck spread to her ears, and those fragmented memories flooded in like a tide—the sky lanterns they released side by side on the Lantern Festival, the traps they solved together in the underground palace, and the half of the jade pendant he secretly hid on the night the Ye family was massacred.

“Shuli… Ye family…” Jiang Ye’s voice was rough, like sandpaper being polished, and dark gold runes that had never been seen before lit up his palm.

Spacetime dust formed a hurricane around him, swallowing up all the remaining fog.

Ye Shuli pressed her blood-stained fingers against his brow: "Don't force your way out of the memory seal!"

Suddenly, spiderweb-like cracks appeared in the bronze ground, and the remains of the defeated puppets reformed.

The twelve shadowy figures that appeared this time had twin peppercorns floating in their eye sockets, and the surface of their armor displayed the gilded patterns of a hot pot restaurant sign.

Jiang Ye's dark gold runes suddenly dimmed, and the blood he coughed up stained Ye Shuli's medical gloves.

The modified launcher began emitting black smoke due to overload, and the remaining liquid nitrogen was only enough to launch one more attack.

The twelve puppets were arranged in the hot pot banquet formation from when they first met, and the vanished phantom of the proprietress emerged from the boiling dark red mist.

“The materialization of energy has given rise to self-awareness.” Ye Shuli tore open her blood-stained sleeve and used silver needles to seal Jiang Ye’s vital acupoints.

She embedded the ice crystal compass into the groove of the bronze pillar, and a nine-square grid of spiritual patterns resembling a Chongqing hotpot appeared on the ground: "Help me calibrate the star positions!"

Jiang Ye's blood-stained fingers traced coordinates on the compass surface, and twelve beams of starlight pierced through the dust of time and space, shining down.

When the third puppet was frozen by the starlight, Ye Shuli suddenly noticed that the concentration of butter in the spirit pattern array was abnormal—the grid in the southwest corner could not be lit up.

The puppets' attacks suddenly focused on the gap in the spirit pattern array, and Jiang Ye flipped over to block three mist blades with his back.

As Ye Shuli's silver chain tightened around the neck of the nearest puppet, the ultraviolet rays pierced its core, and she saw the imprint of the Ye family crest on the inside of the puppet's armor.

"They can replicate enemies from memory!" The warning was drowned out by the sound of explosions.

The final five puppets merged into a shadowy figure resembling Jiang Ye, and the trajectory of their swords perfectly replicated Jiang Ye's ultimate move.

The real Jiang Ye was slow to move due to the shock of the memory, and his shoulder was torn open by the sword energy, leaving a deep, bone-revealing gash.

Ye Shuli's medical gloves popped out the last two doses of adrenaline, and she plunged the drug into Jiang Ye's neck.

As Shadow raised the copied sword, Jiang Ye suddenly revealed the same roguish grin he had shown during their first encounter: "Hey, do you remember the proper way to eat a hot pot with two broths?"

The shadow's sword tip froze for half a second, and Ye Shuli's ice crystal hairpin seized the opportunity to pierce his throat.

The liquid nitrogen sealed inside the hairpin reacted violently with the remaining butter, freezing the shadow into an ice sculpture.

With his last bit of strength, Jiang Ye swung his sword and shattered the ice sculpture. The flying ice shards left fine, bloody scratches on the two of them.

As the last piece of puppet remains dissipated, dark red liquid suddenly seeped from the claw marks on the surface of the bronze pillar.

The spacetime silver pattern began to distort again, and the dragging sounds of chains that had been masked by the battle became clearly audible.

Ye Shuli helped Jiang Ye back to the ice crystal compass and found that the compass needle was pointing to the spacetime coordinates from where they came from.

“No…” She stared at the blood beads that had congealed on the compass surface. “The arrangement of the bronze pillars has changed.” The seven giant pillars that were originally arranged in the shape of the Big Dipper are now forming a nine-square grid, a common formation in hot pot restaurants.

Jiang Ye suddenly trembled violently, and the memories he had forcibly suppressed surged forth.

His bloodied fingers traced the incomplete Ye family crest on the ground, perfectly aligning with the imprint on the puppet armor: "Three years ago... the inside of those assassins' armor... had the same..."

The intense light exploded without warning, and the undried bloodstains on the surface of the bronze pillar instantly vaporized.

The twelve puppet remains turned into scattered peppercorn powder in the bright light, and the distorted silver patterns of spacetime were forcibly smoothed out.

Ye Shuli's medical gloves detected an unknown energy spectrum, and its fluctuation pattern was completely synchronized with the dark gold chain pattern on the back of Jiang Ye's neck.

The intense light lasted for thirteen breaths, and when it dissipated, the bronze floor had returned to its original state.

The traces of battle and bloodstains seemed to have never existed; only the unhealed wound on Jiang Ye's palm proved the ferocity of what had just transpired.

The pointer of the ice crystal compass spun wildly, finally settling in the northwest direction—where a bronze bell, stained with the red oil from a hot pot, lay quietly.

As Ye Shuli picked up the bell, Jiang Ye suddenly pressed his throbbing temples: "This light... and the protective barrier of the Ye family ancestral hall in my memory..." His unfinished words were cut off by the sudden sound of the bell, and a rumbling sound of chains breaking came from the depths of the bronze pillars.