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

The bronze bell hummed in Ye Shuli's palm, and the bronze pillars in the northwest corner slowly rotated as if they were alive.

Jiang Ye staggered and braced himself against the stone wall. The dark gold chain pattern on the back of his neck was getting hot, resonating with the frequency of the bell's vibration.

“Energy resonance peak detected.” Ye Shuli’s medical gloves popped up with holographic data. “The arrangement of these bronze pillars… resembles some kind of energy conversion array.” She placed the ice crystal compass on the surface of the nearest pillar, and the ice-blue scale line suddenly surged to a dangerous threshold.

The twelve bronze pillars simultaneously lit up with dark red blood grooves, and the pepper powder transformed from the puppet's remains re-condensed in the blood grooves.

Jiang Ye suddenly grabbed Ye Shuli's wrist: "Don't touch those blood lines!"

Three years ago, the Ye Family Ancestral Hall—"

The chains snapped with a deafening roar, and the powder in the blood tank solidified into a semi-transparent human figure.

The figure was draped in a cloak woven with starlight, with three spinning memory crystals floating at its fingertips. Beneath the cloak, its wrist was wrapped with a dark gold chain of the same origin as the one on the back of Jiang Ye's neck.

"The spacetime anchor point has finally been calibrated." The voice seemed to come from another dimension. The bronze bell suddenly broke free from Ye Shuli's control and hovered between the two of them and the mysterious figure. "Young friend Jiang Ye, the dark gold chain on the back of your neck is not a curse, but a memory safety latch."

Ye Shuli stepped half a step forward to block Jiang Ye, switching her medical gloves to combat mode: "The energy that can manipulate spacetime turbulence, yet you need to use the remnants of a puppet to manifest?" She deliberately crushed a piece of blood crystal on the ground with her toe, and sure enough, she saw the outline of the figure fluctuate.

The figure let out a hoarse laugh, and the star map on the cloak lit up: "As expected of the last direct descendant of the Ye family."

Three years ago, when your clan was wiped out, I was supposed to be the one to close the net, until I discovered that these dark gold chains concealed an even more terrifying secret. "Three memory crystals suddenly shot towards Jiang Ye, but were intercepted by the force field of the medical gloves the instant they touched his brow."

Jiang Ye pressed his throbbing temples as the fragments of memory began to reassemble: "The bronze pillar array of the Ye family ancestral hall... the imprints inside those assassin armors... what you're looking for isn't a divine artifact at all!"

The dark gold chain pattern suddenly burst forth with intense light, and the blood grooves on the twelve bronze pillars began to flow in reverse.

The mysterious man raised his right hand, which was bound with chains, and the turbulent flow of time and space suddenly collapsed into a black hole in his palm: "Take a good look at the altered reality!" The torrent of memories surging out of the black hole instantly engulfed the two of them.

Ye Shuli clung tightly to Jiang Ye's clothes amidst the turbulent energy flow.

Countless images flashed before their eyes: three years ago, on a rainy night, thirty-seven assassins wearing the Ye family crest knelt at the bronze array's core, the imprints on the inside of their armor absorbing some kind of scarlet energy; Jiang Ye, covered in blood, lay prostrate on the ancestral hall's beam, the blood spurting from the dark gold chains branding the back of his neck activating the star map beneath the hall...

"This is the function of the memory safety latch." The mysterious man's voice came and went in the torrent of memories. "Back then, someone wanted to completely erase the truth about the Ye family's massacre, but they accidentally triggered the spacetime protection mechanism on Jiang Ye."

Those dark gold chains were both a seal and evidence.

The ice crystal compass suddenly emitted a piercing shriek, and the bronze pillars in the real world began to crumble.

Ye Shuli tossed three silver needles through the turbulent flow of time, their tips piercing the weakest points in the torrent of memories: "If it's evidence, why is it only appearing now?"

The mysterious man's cloak was torn open by the turbulent currents, revealing a face covered with star-like scars: "Because there is a traitor among the guardians of the spacetime order."

Those beings that should have maintained balance are now using dark gold chains to nurture disordered spacetime spirits... His words were interrupted by a sudden ringing of a bell, and the last three missing stars of the star map appeared on the surface of the bronze bell.

Jiang Ye suddenly grabbed Ye Shuli's silver needle and, without hesitation, pierced the chain pattern on the back of his neck.

The moment the dark golden light surged, all the bronze pillars collapsed with a crash, revealing the bronze door in the center of the pillar group—the groove in the center of the door fit perfectly with the bell in Ye Shuli's hand.

"Looks like we'll have to find a different place to hear the story." Ye Shuli wiped the blood from the corner of her mouth, and new data popped up from her medical gloves. "The energy reading behind the door... is exactly the same as the fluctuations in the ancestral hall's underground that Jiang Ye remembers."

The mysterious figure began to dissipate, its last voice mingling with the clanging of chains: "When you see the full picture of the star map, you will understand the true cause of the spacetime turbulence..." Before the words were finished, the bronze door opened a crack, and the starlight leaking from the crack projected a distorted Ye family crest.

The bell suddenly flew toward the door, and the moment Ye Shuli reached out to grab it, the chain pattern on the back of Jiang Ye's neck spread to his entire right arm.

When those dark gold patterns came into contact with the starlight through the cracks in the door, they actually burned out the layout of the ancestral hall from three years ago.

The starlight inside the bronze door gathered into a vortex at their feet, and Ye Shuli's medical gloves suddenly emitted a piercing alarm.

Three overlapping Ye family crests appeared in the holographic energy spectrum, each with a phantom image of dark gold chains wrapped around its edge.

"Spacetime turbulence is not a natural phenomenon." The lingering voice of the mysterious figure echoed within the bronze gate. Starlight condensed into a sand table model at the spot where he vanished—countless dark gold chains were eroding the boundaries of the star map. "Someone is raising disordered spacetime spirits by altering major historical moments. When the energy accumulates to a critical point..."

The sand table model suddenly shattered, and Jiang Ye instinctively raised his hand to block the flying stardust.

The shimmering fragments reassembled in mid-air, reflecting the scene of the destruction of the Ye family ancestral hall three years ago: the bodies of the assassins who should have died were melting, and the imprints on the inside of the armor were injecting scarlet energy into the earth's veins.

“Elemental fusion is just the trigger.” Ye Shuli suddenly pricked her fingertip with a silver needle, and the drop of blood dripped precisely onto the sensor on the medical glove.

The hologram magnified three hundred times in an instant, revealing energy threads entangled in dark gold chains at the bottom of the spacetime turbulence. "This energy is devouring the repair mechanism of the spacetime rift!"

The chain-like markings on the back of Jiang Ye's neck suddenly spread to his collarbone, a dark golden light illuminating his pale face: "So, it was these time-space parasites that slaughtered the Ye family three years ago?" He abruptly grasped a floating piece of stardust, the light scorching his palm. "What talk of reshaping the world? They just wanted to turn everyone into puppets!"

A red warning box suddenly popped up on the medical glove. Ye Shuli stared at the writhing dark gold threads on the energy graph: "The energy composition of these chains... is the materialized product of compressed memories." She suddenly turned and pressed down on Jiang Ye's shoulder, the scanning beam released by the glove enveloping the lines on his neck. "Every piece of history that has been tampered with will form an energy knot within your chains."

The bronze door emitted a rumbling sound as gears turned, and the starlight pouring out from the cracks in the door suddenly became viscous.

The chain patterns on Jiang Ye's right arm automatically connected to the ground star map, burning out a three-dimensional energy channel model in the air—countless dark gold chains were penetrating outward from the depths of the channel.

"The source of memories." Ye Shuli's ice crystal compass suddenly hovered in the center of the model, a blood-red mark lighting up where the pointer was spinning wildly. "The initial codes for these chains all originated from there." She suddenly pricked Jiang Ye's finger with a silver needle, flicking the blood droplet deeper into the model. "But there are at least three layers of Soul-Devouring Arrays in the passage."

The holographic screen on the medical glove simultaneously displayed the analysis data: the first layer of the array strips away the five senses, the second layer distorts the perception of time, and the third layer is actually of the same origin as the bronze pillar array they just deciphered.

Jiang Ye suddenly laughed out loud, his blood-stained fingertip poking at an energy node in the model: "Isn't this a coincidence?"

The 'safety latch' on the back of my neck is just right to lock the switching valve of the Soul Devouring Array.

The spacetime turbulence suddenly trembled violently, and the star map inside the bronze gate began to distort.

Ye Shuli swiftly threw out three silver needles to pin down the dissipating model, and the icy blue energy net released from her medical gloves temporarily stabilized the space: "The Soul Devouring Array's core needs a living decoy—"

“I’ll be the bait.” Jiang Ye pulled open his collar, revealing the complete chain pattern, dark gold light swirling in his pupils. “Since these chains can hold altered memories, they can naturally interfere with the formation.” He suddenly grasped Ye Shuli’s wrist, pressing the scanning beam from her glove against his chest. “But I need you to help me adjust the energy output frequency.”

The bronze door suddenly opened completely, and the viscous starlight transformed into solid steps.

Ye Shuli gripped Jiang Ye's pulse with her other hand, and seventeen synchronizers popped out from her medical gloves: "Report your heart rate every three seconds after entering the formation." She embedded an ice crystal compass into the chain pattern of Jiang Ye's armor, and a dark golden light immediately enveloped the compass's surface. "If you encounter energy backlash, crush this."

Jiang Ye took the transparent capsule she handed him and found that it contained fragments of a bronze bell: "You're really willing to spend so much?"

This is something you spent three months fixing..."

"Shut up." Ye Shuli suddenly sealed his speech acupoint with silver needles, and two breathing masks woven from starlight popped out from her medical gloves. "The first important point of the Soul Devouring Array has been activated. Follow my landing point closely." She took the lead and leaped into the distorted starlight steps, each time her toes touched the ground, precisely landing in the blind spot of the array's eye shown on the model.

The spatial turbulence transformed into a crimson swamp the moment they stepped in, and countless fragments of memory formed sharp teeth that bit at the two of them.

The chain pattern on the back of Jiang Ye's neck suddenly materialized, and as the dark gold chain swept across, the sharp teeth emitted a sound similar to a human scream.

Ye Shuli's medical gloves simultaneously released an analytical beam: "As expected, it's an attack mode that materializes memories!"

When the second layer of the formation was activated, Jiang Ye suddenly discovered that his left hand was disappearing.

He instinctively looked at Ye Shuli, only to find that her figure had split into seven afterimages with different time flow speeds: "Frequency regulator, third gear!" Seven voices rang out at the same time, and Jiang Ye immediately used chains to bind the ice crystal compass.

The moment the dark golden light surged, all the afterimages recombine.

Ye Shuli's silver needles wove a net of light between the two, forcibly correcting the distorted flow of time: "Count!"

One hundred and twenty!

One hundred and fifty!

Two hundred! Jiang Ye's voice was bloodshot, and the chain patterns had spread to his chest.

The bronze bell fragment in his hand suddenly became hot and automatically flew towards the array eye when the third layer of the array was activated.

The viscous starlight suddenly solidified into a mirror, reflecting the two people's completely different memories.

Ye Shuli saw the image of herself from Jiang Ye's memory, covered in blood, standing in the bronze pillar array, while Jiang Ye saw Ye Shuli driving dark gold chains into her own heart.

"Don't look me in the eye!" Ye Shuli's medical gloves suddenly shot out traction cables that wrapped around Jiang Ye's waist. "These were all created by the Soul Devouring Array..." Her voice stopped abruptly, because the real killing intent was only revealed at this moment—what appeared at the array's core was not the source of memories, but the nest of the chaotic spacetime elves.

Countless translucent spacetime sprites emerged from the mirror, their bodies wrapped in energy threads of dark gold chains.

Jiang Ye suddenly broke free of the traction cable, letting the chain patterns cover his entire body: "So that's how the safety bolt is used!"

The moment the dark gold chains materialized, the energy flow of the entire Soul Devouring Array suddenly reversed.

Taking advantage of the opportunity, Ye Shuli hurled the Ice Crystal Compass towards the center of the nest, causing fragments of the bronze bell to trigger a chain reaction of explosions among the elves: "Now!"

Amidst the intense light of the explosion, the two rushed toward the entrance to the true source of memory, when suddenly the chain pattern on the back of Jiang Ye's neck cracked.

At this moment, the spacetime turbulence underwent a violent distortion, and the entire space began to fold...