Who let him join the Sword Sect?!

What Old Tang mentioned about verification naturally had to do with Xiaoxuan.

And when it comes to conducting experiments, the Thousand Mechanism Pavilion is professional at it now.

Various venues and equipment are all fully available, and safety is well guaranteed, too.

After all, half of the things developed by the Thousand Mechanism Pavilion tend to explode.

After rigorous repeated comparative experiments, Zhang Ze and the others discovered several characteristics.

First, activating Xiaoxuan's intelligence only requires two Big Heads.

Second, the Big Head's intelligence only increases after Xiaoxuan becomes smarter.

Third, the Big Head doesn't need to be too close to Xiaoxuan; they just need to be within a 500-meter radius centered on Xiaoxuan for the effect to occur, but it can't be blocked by a spatial magical artifact.

Fourth, after Xiaoxuan and the Big Heads revert to their innocent states, they still retain the memories from when they became smarter.

Fifth, Zhang Ze gave Xiaoxuan a new nickname: Mind Core.

The remaining characteristics cannot be measured for now, and the reason why Xiaoxuan and the others experience such a boost in intelligence is also unknown for now.

After the experiment, Old Tang taught the Big Heads the Taoist Technique for changing their size, and the Big Heads learned it quickly, soon mastering its use.

Seeing the Big Head, who had turned into the size of a normal human, holding a few Thousand Mechanism Tools and discussing them with Xiaoxuan, Lily slyly approached.

"Say, do you guys like the Thousand Mechanism Technique? Want me to find something for you to do?" Lily rubbed her hands expectantly.

Lily's own project had recently hit a bottleneck, and the newly intelligent Xiaoxuan and the Big Heads were the best and most suitable helpers.

The sharp-witted Xiaoxuan saw through Lily's trick at a glance, "You want us to participate in your experiment, right?"

Lily, who originally planned on building up more, gave a sheepish smile, but before she could explain, Xiaoxuan continued.

"I don't mind, and I really do like the Thousand Mechanism Technique quite a bit, plus I have some ideas for improving the set of Thousand Mechanism Armor on me."

Lily scratched her face, finding it hard to adjust to the rational and intelligent Xiaoxuan.

And the Big Heads also nodded in agreement, "Staying here for the moment, and since our host has something to ask of us, we wouldn't refuse. Please, friend, lead the way."

"This way, this way." Seeing that things were settled, Lily returned to her cheerful, playful demeanor.

After Lily and the others left, Old Tang finally said, "You know about the Stone Pill, but do you know where it comes from?"

This question indeed stumped Zhang Ze, as no one could say for certain where the Stone Pill came from.

The current information known was only those few riddles related to the Stone Pill. Zhang Ze looked at Old Tang, "You know."

Old Tang met Zhang Ze's expectant eyes and shrugged, "I don't know."

Zhang Ze, "..."

"But I, the Taoist, know other things." Old Tang continued to keep him in suspense.

He waited for a while, and since Zhang Ze didn't take the bait, he continued.

"The Stone Pill is a heritage item of the Dongqi Royal Family, and they have always been trying to crack its secret."

Old Tang took out a palm-sized array, engraved with mysterious array talismans, looking quite similar to the few that Zhang Ze had obtained before.

This miniature array was likely something Old Tang had found in that grand tomb.

"How do you know?" Though Zhang Ze also had this suspicion, he had no evidence.

"Kid, don't underestimate the heritage of the Six Sects. Although Dongqi was annihilated, some heritages have not been cut off. The Tao Scripture collections at Dragon Tiger Mountain are not just for show." At this time, a gentle breeze came out of nowhere, making Old Tang appear ethereal.

"What does it say on there?" Zhang Ze pursued.

"I forgot." Old Tang shrugged again.

"No, didn't you just say those things aren't just for decoration?" Watching Old Tang flip between being sage-like and nonsensical, Zhang Ze suddenly felt a bit weary.

"The vibe was right, so I just said whatever. I never actually read those old annals." Old Tang's response was unworried and unconcerned.

Zhang Ze found talking this nonsense comedy with Old Tang quite uninteresting, but before he could say anything, Old Tang patted Zhang Ze's shoulder like good buddies and said, "I just forgot what's written on there; it's not like those books are lost."

"This is an easy fix; one of us is the Sect Leader, and one is the Grand Elder. That Panzi is now acting as the Supreme Emperor at Dragon Tiger Mountain, and my grandson is the next Sect Leader.

The four of us can do whatever we want; who dares to go against us at Dragon Tiger Mountain? When the time comes, I'll write to my grandson to have those old books shipped over here.

The Sect Leader orders it; they wouldn't dare disobey.

Oh, I heard from that girl Lily that our Thousand Mechanism Pavilion seems to be lacking people with deep expertise in array talismans.

There are plenty of such people at Dragon Tiger Mountain; I'll trick a few of them over here too.

Your Fire Qilin, I find interesting as well; maybe we can do as Tang suggested, bring more to Dragon Tiger Mountain to be used as magical artifacts for the newly admitted disciples. We can also make some money out of it."

At last, Old Tang had completely merged into our Thousand Mechanism Pavilion and their Dragon Tiger Mountain with no pain in selling his grandson's fields.

"Isn't this a bit much?" Even with Zhang Ze's thickness of skin, he found it a bit too much.

"Good, good, good, no problem at all, very much so!" Old Tang was patting Zhang Ze's shoulder noisily.

At the end of the talk, Old Tang cooked up a title for himself as the Supreme Supreme Grand Elder of the Thousand Mechanism Pavilion, and judging by his demeanor, he did not plan to leave.

"Lead the way up front." Old Tang was in high spirits, stretching his body contentedly.

"To where?" Zhang Ze asked.

"Take me to Zhongyi, I must have a good chat with him again." Old Tang said boldly.

...

Inside the Inner Sect of the Seventh Sword Pavilion, in the Pavilion Master's residence.

Old Tang was having a chat with Zhengyi.

The conversation lacked any substance; although it sounded mystical, Zhang Ze felt that they were merely engaging in a war of words.

One can only say that Old Tang truly lives up to his reputation; his experience in pulling others down to his level is exceedingly rich.

Zhang Ze crouched in the courtyard, folding a piece of white paper into the shape of a paper sword, flicking and retracting it, waiting for Old Tang to come out in boredom.

The last time he squatted here was before leaving for Cold City. He remembered having his junior sister beside him, but now, the junior sister had been locked at home by Old Ascender, and who knows when she will be released.

Ali was not kind enough to stay by his side; just now, it felt the timing was about right, so it tidied up its appearance and went to set up a stall at the night market.

Zhang Ze glanced at the sun about to set behind the mountain, and then listened to the movements inside the room. He reckoned the two old folks had a few more hours of verbal sparring to go.

This Inner Sect of the Sword Sect, with the Pavilion Master's mountain peak, had only one path up and down, and not any extra forks, so Old Tang shouldn't get lost.

Therefore, Zhang Ze quietly left the courtyard, ran down the mountain, and directly took the teleportation array back to the Thousand Mechanism Pavilion. He planned to have a good stroll at the night market, missing the pancakes there since he hadn't been home for a long time.

Zhang Ze strolled along the pedestrian street with a pancake in one hand and a skewer in the other, having a momentary illusion that he had returned to a past life, only to be quickly drawn back to reality by the cheerful laughter of the Demon Race around him.

As he sighed about the impermanence of the world, with large intestine wrapped in small intestine, someone suddenly tapped him from behind.

Turning around, he found a middle-aged handsome uncle in blue clothes, someone Zhang Ze had never seen before.

Until that person spoke.

Hearing the voice, Zhang Ze stepped back in shock, dropping the pancake in his hand to the ground.

"No, handsome, who are you? How'd you get so slim? Where's your jowly chin of three layers?" I won't admit you're my Grandpa Wang."

The suddenly handsome and slimmed-down Wang Buyu sighed, conjuring a purple thunderbolt near Zhang Ze's feet.

Feeling the familiar aura, Zhang Ze still shook his head, "I refuse to accept this. Please change back, I'm begging you."