Lin Qingzhu's words were still echoing through the secret chamber when Zhou Xuan began planning his next move.
The trade route had to open, and the goods had to be shipped out, but the most crucial link remained unresolved: the passage.
The one-way stone gate in the Extreme Bone Ruins was an old relic discarded by the Grand Hua Immortal Vein. The Void Earth-Traveling Formation Disk the alliance leader had promised to send could turn it into a two-way passage, but when it would arrive, and whether it would work, were still unknown.
Zhou Xuan did not have to wait long.
Three days later, a fist-sized Jade Disk shot out of the underground stone gate in the Extreme Bone Ruins and landed on the receiving formation Ye Changqing had prepared in advance.
The Jade Disk was dark gold throughout, its surface densely covered with miniature formation patterns. Law power flowed slowly through every line.
When Ye Changqing picked it up, he froze for a full three breaths.
"This thing... is more than ten times as intricate as I imagined."
He turned it over and over for a long while, then pressed the Jade Disk to his forehead and scanned it with his divine sense. When he lowered it, his expression was complicated.
"Well?"
"It works, and it works better than expected."
Ye Changqing set the Jade Disk on the table and pointed at several of its core formation patterns.
"The Spatial Folding principle behind this formation disk is completely different from anything I've encountered before. It doesn't forcibly tear through the World Barrier. Instead, it uses the natural folds between two Spatial Nodes and slides along them."
Zhou Xuan understood.
"So it consumes very little energy."
"Extremely little."
Ye Changqing nodded.
"Under normal circumstances, opening a spatial passage from the