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

The runes shimmered with an eerie light, like some kind of ancient script, twisting and hovering around them.

"What the hell is this?" Jiang Ye complained, reaching out to touch it, but Ye Shuli grabbed him.

"Don't move! This thing doesn't look like a friendly freak."

Ye Shuli squinted, carefully observing the runes.

They seemed to contain some kind of powerful energy, which made her feel uneasy.

"Let's see if I can continue absorbing spiritual energy." She took a deep breath and tried to mobilize the surrounding spiritual energy again.

The vortex of spiritual energy formed again, but before she could begin to absorb it, the runes seemed to sense something, their light blazing brightly, and a powerful rebound force sent her staggering backward.

"Holy crap! This thing can even defend itself!" Jiang Ye quickly helped her up, his face full of shock.

Ye Shuli rubbed her chest, feeling a bit uncomfortable as her internal organs were shaken.

The power of this rune was greater than she had imagined; it seemed that a direct confrontation was not going to work.

As time went on, the runes shone brighter and brighter, and the surrounding air grew increasingly heavy.

Sweat beaded on Jiang Ye's forehead, and his breathing became rapid.

"Lili, I feel... a little breathless."

Ye Shuli also felt immense pressure, as if a mountain was pressing down on her, making it almost impossible for her to move.

These runes are like a giant cage, trapping them inside and constantly squeezing their living space.

She gritted her teeth, enduring the physical discomfort, her mind racing as she tried to find a solution.

“This won’t do,” Ye Shuli said gravely. “We must find the weak points of these runes…” Before she could finish speaking, a sudden change occurred.

The runes' light suddenly receded, and then a powerful suction force erupted from the center of the runes, pulling them violently towards the center.

"Holy crap!" Jiang Ye exclaimed, instinctively hugging Ye Shuli tightly.

Suddenly, the scene before their eyes changed abruptly.

They were no longer in the cave they had been in, but had come to a...

A vast expanse of white space.

"Wait," Ye Shuli grabbed Jiang Ye's hand, "this feeling..."

"This feels...like my mom forcing me to go on blind dates!" Ye Shuli complained, looking around at the vast expanse of white, feeling even more suffocated than the bizarre blind dates her mom arranged.

Jiang Ye didn't respond to her words. Instead, he plopped down on the ground, closed his eyes, and became like an old monk in meditation.

"What are you doing? Trying to comprehend the Dao?" Ye Shuli asked with a look of disdain.

"Shh! Don't make a sound, I'm sensing the spiritual energy fluctuations of this thing." Jiang Ye frowned, looking unfathomable.

Ye Shuli rolled her eyes, but still obediently shut her mouth.

Although this guy doesn't seem very reliable most of the time, he can be quite useful in a pinch, at least he's much more reliable than those blind date partners.

Time ticked by, and the surrounding air was eerily still.

Just as Ye Shuli was about to lose patience, Jiang Ye suddenly opened his eyes, a glint of shrewdness flashing in them.

"I know! This thing isn't an ordinary rune, but an ancient sealing formation!"

"A sealing formation? What are you sealing? We're not some kind of invincible demon!" Ye Shuli was completely bewildered.

"Lili, you're being narrow-minded! Think about it, such a powerful formation must be sealing something extraordinary!" Jiang Ye explained excitedly, gesturing wildly. "Look at the arrangement of these runes and the spiritual energy fluctuations they emit; they're very similar to an ancient sealing formation recorded in ancient books!"

"So? How do we get out?" Although Ye Shuli wasn't interested in his long-winded explanation, she was still concerned about the final outcome.

"Hehe, I have a brilliant plan!" Jiang Ye rubbed his hands together, a sly glint in his eyes. "I just studied it carefully and found that this formation actually has a loophole..." He pointed to one of the runes, "See this tadpole-like rune? That's the key to the formation! As long as we destroy it, we can break the entire formation!"

"That simple?" Ye Shuli expressed her doubt.

“Of course it’s not that simple,” Jiang Ye paused, his tone becoming serious. “This array’s core is protected by special spiritual energy, and we need to find a way to break it…” He pulled out a tattered ancient book from his robes, flipped to a page, and pointed to the pattern on it. “This is it! As long as we follow this pattern and guide it with spiritual energy…”

Just as Jiang Ye was about to decipher the runes, the runes seemed to sense his intentions...

Just as Jiang Ye was about to decipher the runes, they suddenly bristled, their light blazing, and they shot out beams of spiritual energy like a rain of lasers.

"Holy crap! This thing's become sentient?!" Jiang Ye exclaimed, pulling Ye Shuli behind a boulder.

"Hide? You think you're the champion of hide-and-seek!" Ye Shuli complained, but her hands didn't stop. She quickly pulled out a bunch of random things from her spatial ring.

"What is this?" Jiang Ye asked curiously, peering over.

"Secret weapon!" Ye Shuli smiled mysteriously, took out a super glue from the modern world, manipulated it on the boulder, and then took out some metal fragments, glass shards and other things from her spatial ring, sticking them all onto the super glue to make a simple reflective surface.

"Lili, you're a genius!" Jiang Ye instantly understood her intention and gave her a thumbs up.

The spiritual energy rays struck again, but were reflected back by these mirrors, striking other runes and causing waves of energy fluctuations.

"Hehe, it's just a trivial skill, not worth mentioning." Ye Shuli appeared calm on the surface, but secretly rejoiced. Fortunately, she liked to collect some strange and unusual things, which could come in handy at a crucial moment.

Taking advantage of the lull in the runes' attacks, Jiang Ye quickly began to break the array's core according to the records in the ancient book.

He took a deep breath and channeled his spiritual energy into the tadpole-shaped rune.

The runes began to tremble violently, their light flickering as if they were about to explode at any moment.

"Quick! Just a little bit more!" Jiang Ye's forehead veins bulged as he gritted his teeth and continued to increase his spiritual power output.

At this moment, something strange happened...

The runes suddenly stopped trembling, and the light stabilized, but...

It turned into a QR code!

"Wait, what the heck is this?!" Jiang Ye was completely dumbfounded.

"Scan it and see what it is?" Ye Shuli said seriously, reaching into her pocket.

"Lili, stop messing around! This is an ancient sealing formation!" Jiang Ye said, both amused and exasperated.

Ye Shuli shrugged. "Why not give it a try? What if I can scan out a 'Dedication' card?"

Jiang Ye sighed and rubbed his forehead. "You really are..." Before he could finish speaking, he saw a message appear on Ye Shuli's phone screen: "Congratulations! You have obtained an 'Ancient Divine Beast'! Please click to claim!"

"Holy crap..." Jiang Ye's eyes widened. "What kind of crazy move is this?!"

Ye Shuli's lips curled up slightly, revealing a wicked smile. "It seems the designer of this formation is a veteran anime fan..." Just as she was about to click to claim the reward, her phone screen suddenly went black.

"Is the power out?" Jiang Ye asked cautiously.

Ye Shuli: "..."

Just then, the surrounding runes began to flicker again, the light growing stronger and stronger, and a powerful pressure descended, as if something was about to break free from its seal...

"Wait," Ye Shuli grabbed Jiang Ye's hand, "this feeling..."

Jiang Ye took a deep breath and fixed his gaze on the tadpole-shaped rune.

"It's you!" he shouted, and a pure spiritual energy condensed at his fingertips, tracing a peculiar path across the runes according to the ancient texts.

The tadpole rune trembled violently, emitting a piercing buzz, like a gecko whose tail had been stepped on, twisting its body wildly.

"Stay calm!" Ye Shuli reminded nervously from the side, clutching a handful of sunflower seeds she had pulled out from somewhere, as if eating sunflower seeds could give her strength.

As Jiang Ye's movements became faster and faster, the light of the tadpole runes dimmed more and more, and finally, with a bang, they turned into specks of starlight and dissipated in the air.

"It's done!" Jiang Ye clenched his fist excitedly. Before he could even celebrate, he felt the pressure around him suddenly lessen, and the invisible force that had been binding them disappeared.

"Holy crap, I finally escaped!" He breathed a sigh of relief, plopped down on the ground, and felt completely drained.

Ye Shuli breathed a sigh of relief and clapped the sunflower seed crumbs off her hands. "Not bad, young man, you've got some skills."

Just as the two were about to take a good rest, a melodious flute melody drifted from afar, ethereal and otherworldly, yet carrying an indescribable eeriness.

"What's that sound?" Jiang Ye suddenly stood up and looked around warily.

Ye Shuli also frowned, listening carefully to the flute music. She felt that there was some hidden intention in the music, but she couldn't quite put her finger on it.

"This flute music... sounds familiar..."

"That sounds familiar? Do you know someone who plays the flute?" Jiang Ye asked, puzzled.

Ye Shuli shook her head. "No, it's just that I feel like I've heard a similar melody somewhere before..." She tried hard to recall, but she couldn't remember where.

The sound of the flute grew closer and clearer, as if it were echoing right next to their ears.

Ye Shuli and Jiang Ye looked in the direction of the flute sound...