When Ye You stored the bone fragment, Su He finally dared to speak normally. "Do you have a plan?"
Ye You looked at the stone tablet. "What is the reason for this stone tablet's continuous existence?"
Su He took out the Spirit-Gathering Tree sapling from his storage ring. "The Spirit-Gathering Tree was planted next to it, and it has the orders of two 'immortals' like us."
"In that case, couldn't we find another hidden location and designate it as a forbidden zone?"
"Ah, that makes sense."
Su He had already started digging a hole next to the stone tablet, but Ye You stopped him. "This Spirit-Gathering Tree sapling is still too small. Let's wait a while."
Su He was puzzled. "How long do we have to wait? Will we come back here again? Chixiao has nothing to offer, and coming here once is hard enough."
Distance was an issue, but it wasn't the main one.
The route required passing through many cultivation realms, most of which were worlds dominated by Dao cultivators. As members of the demon clan, especially ones with the supreme dragon and phoenix bloodlines, they were often hunted down.
Even when they joined forces, they barely escaped with injuries. Traveling alone was unthinkable.
"It is indeed challenging. So..." Ye You flipped through the Compendium of Small Star Realms. "The nearest realm to Chixiao is the Taizhen Realm. I plan to establish a teleportation array there."
"Absurd! There are dozens of realms between Taizhen and the Four Constellations. No teleportation array can bridge such a distance."
"If one array won't do, I'll set up linked arrays in five intermediate realms. The formation seals will be known only to us, so there's no fear of it being broken."
"That's possible, but first, you'd need to buy a residence in top-tier immortal cities in those realms and pay substantial protection fees," Su He frowned, calculating. "And to ensure the arrays run continuously, you'd need an enormous amount of star crystals..."
After a rough estimate, his eyelid twitched violently. "Forget it, you scoundrel dragon. Selling you wouldn't cover the costs."
Ye You patted his shoulder. "Don't you still have me?"
Su He pried Ye You's fingers off one by one. "Always eyeing my pockets—have you no shame?"
"You were the one who said, 'Don't you still have me?'"
"That was just to comfort you—don't take it seriously!"
"I see... It was just my wishful thinking." Feigning hurt, Ye You glanced at him and walked west into the forest, looking for a suitable spot to bury the star crystals. "Consider it a loan. I'll pay you back when I have the money. Add Xiaolou's share to my tab too."
Su He had genuinely felt a pang of loss, but hearing Ye You's words made him feel guilty instead.
Star crystals could always be replenished by raiding a few secret realms.
Su He came from a prestigious family. His father was a dominator of a region, but his mother was a low-grade bird demon. Though Su He had good talent, he held little status in the family. His mother had taught him from a young age to keep his head down and act dumb, making him adept at reading his brothers' moods. As he put it himself, "A true man knows when to yield and when to rise."
When Ye You captured his soul during his Nirvana and humiliated him repeatedly, any other phoenix would have killed themselves, but not Su He. While harboring thoughts of eventual revenge, he discovered something intriguing: this despicable dragon lived the kind of life he secretly yearned for.
During the time when both the Demon Kingdom and Golden Plume pursued them, he sneaked back to visit his mother and shared his experiences. His mother, deeply worried, urged him to stay away from Ye You, fearing the dragon would corrupt him.
Su He had found it amusing.
Wasn't he older, more experienced, and stronger than Ye You? How could he possibly be "corrupted" by him?
In truth, he wasn't "corrupted." Deep down, he was always meant to be this way.
From the very core, he and Ye You were cut from the same cloth.
In the vast demon seas, finding a like-minded soulmate was rare.
Grinning, Su He chased after Ye You. "Alright, alright. No need to make it sound so pitiful, as if I'm that stingy."
The two searched the forest far from the Spirit-Gathering Tree until they found a low cave. They set up a formation outside the cave and told the Seer Tribe to guard the entire area without causing damage.
Su He took out a jade box and squatted to count the star crystals.
Meanwhile, Ye You contacted Jian Xiaolou to retrieve the star crystals, instructing her on how to enter the array.
—"Why are there star crystals in the cave?"
—"We were here before. Su He buried them."
—"Why would he bury star crystals?"
—"He has too much money."
...
Ye You waited until Jian Xiaolou entered the cave and disappeared from sight before retrieving the bone fragment.
He sat in a daze for a moment before deciding to leave Chixiao and head to the Taizhen Realm to establish a teleportation array. Staying here served no purpose, and the longer he delayed, the more likely Jian Xiaolou might get suspicious if she emerged from the gourd in a rage.
There were many reasons he didn't want her to know, though he couldn't quite sort them out.
For now, finding Hai Yazi and clarifying matters was his priority.
Despite having established a link between his bone-communication bell and Hai Yazi's scale communicator, he hadn't been able to reach Hai Yazi for some time.
With no cultivators left in Chixiao, Su He summoned the Heaven-Piercing Gold Shuttle, and the two departed for the Taizhen Realm.