Who let him join the Sword Sect?!

After reaching the Nascent Soul stage, a cultivator's outward appearance can be altered at will, reflecting any age they desire.

Losing weight is as easy as sipping broth; unless under special circumstances, even severed limbs can regrow, so shedding a couple of pounds is a breeze.

Female cultivators, regardless of their cultivation level or stature, always appear eighteen.

At most twenty-five.

But stereotypes are stereotypes, and Zhang Ze still believes Elders should all be old men, a group of distinctively different old men, all floating around in the sky with their white beards.

This is why Zhang Ze couldn't accept Elder Wang suddenly becoming handsome and young, so he ran off.

He immediately ran back to the Sword Pavilion to find his master.

Upon seeing the white-haired yet vigorous Li, Zhang Ze finally felt at ease.

"What's wrong with you now?" Li Guanqi saw his troublesome disciple's changing facial expressions, assuming he had caused trouble again.

Why say again?

"Nothing. I just wanted to ask about how Elder Wang turned into that." Zhang Ze casually found a place to sit down, drank the tea on the table in one gulp, and then asked.

"He just got a bit younger, why make such a big deal? Haven't you seen the Sect Leader?" Li looked at his hapless disciple and sighed.

What's all the fuss about?

Being chided by Li, Zhang Ze felt his reaction was indeed over the top.

He thought it over for a moment before realizing the key point.

Those youthful bigshots seem to all have partners.

So when couples are together, they look perfectly matched.

It seems Elder Wang met Ling Liu again and rejuvenated into a second spring, acting all carefree.

And since Aunt Niao wasn't by Elder Wang, it seemed so abrupt.

"I get it; only those with wives become younger, but you and most other Elders are all single..."

Zhang Ze didn't finish his sentence, swallowing the word "dog" back. But Li still flicked a Sword Qi at him, sending him downhill.

Noisy.

Having kicked out his unlucky disciple, Li tugged at his beard, feeling somewhat agitated.

He read for a while but became increasingly annoyed, eventually tossing the book aside, gathering some Spiritual Qi at his fingertip, and conjuring a mirror from mist before him.

Li transformed himself back to his younger self, gazing at the thick-browed, bright-eyed youth in the mirror he mumbled, "Too young, can't seem to intimidate that little brat."

"Perhaps a bit older..."

Due to one agitating comment from Zhang Ze, the Seventh Sword Pavilion often saw unfamiliar 'disciples' appearing in the subsequent months.

These 'disciples' started from the Divinity Transformation level, spoke with an air of old-world charm, and chatting with them required utmost caution.

For instance, a senior brother mistook one such unfamiliar face as a fellow new junior brother.

He ranted about his master for ages, promising an alliance and planning to show this junior brother some fun on their next training mission.

Then, for slandering the master face-to-face, he joyfully received a half-month of solitary confinement.

After this incident, the inner sect's seniors and juniors decided not to let this continue. They jointly drafted a statement to present to the Pavilion Master.

The statement noted that the Elders' behaviors seriously disrupted the friendly, helpful, and rigorously lively cultivation atmosphere among Sword Sect disciples.

Moreover, it caused an indelible adverse effect on the Sword Sect's excellent tradition of older training the newer.

They demanded the Elders revert to their original appearances, for every day like this made it hard to speak with anyone unfamiliar.

The Pavilion Master felt the disciples made some valid points.

So, he summoned those Elders and instructed them to appear no younger than fifty, while those with families had free rein.

However, even when becoming younger, they mustn't act like the Third Elder, who would show up at breakfast at age eighteen, lunchtime at thirty, and evening at forty-five pretending as a kitchen worker.

But that's for later.

Currently, Zhang Ze, who had been kicked down the mountain by Li, was administering medicine to Tang.

Tang was quite the genius; he got lost again.

Moments ago, Zhang Ze was standing beside a pavilion at the foot of the mountain when Tang suddenly popped out from the nearby woods, covered in leaves and with some scratches, limping as he walked.

The lone peak housing the Pavilion Master's abode only had one path in and out. Zhang Ze couldn't fathom how Tang managed to get lost navigating these mountain paths.

"Elder, which path did you take to get here?" Zhang Ze asked.

"You ask me where the road is, I say the road is beneath my feet..." Tang enigmatically replied.

Zhang Ze didn't reply, sensing Tang hadn't yet exited his contrarian mindset.

But frequently getting lost was becoming a hassle, especially since Tang's cultivation was now exhausted, making it harder to find him if he wandered off.

And appointing someone to follow Tang wasn't a solution; first, Tang wouldn't be comfortable, and secondly, that person might not keep up.

Zhang Ze thought for a moment, deciding to equip Tang with something.

A directional listening gadget? Zhang Ze pondered, feeling this wouldn't work.

Tang did have pathfinding artifacts, yet he still got lost.

Scrolling through a few Thousand Mechanism Tools in his mind, Zhang Ze finally thought of something practically useless but perhaps suitable for Tang.

He handed Tang a closed metal lotus.

This was a distress artifact Lily made a long time ago, but it was so idiotic and embarrassing that only three were sold, and two returned.

The remaining one hadn't been used before the user perished.

While embarrassing, Zhang Ze felt Tang might find it useful.

"Next time you get lost and can't find anyone, nor explain where you are, use this, this thing..."

Zhang Ze didn't finish before Tang, with an itchy hand, activated it.

The lotus bloomed, a beam of golden light shot into the sky, forming three large characters: "Help Me."

Simultaneously, an array within the lotus activated, with a voice incessantly echoing around Zhang Ze and Tang.

"I'm here, I'm here, I'm here..."

It was Lily's extremely annoying babbling voice, reportedly transmitted far with the array's amplification.

"Ridiculous," even Tang gave it a very apt evaluation.

"How do I turn this off?" Tang tampered with the lotus petals, flipping it over but could find no switch to mute the sound.

The lotus continues transmitting Lily's mental pollution, accompanied by a tick-tock soundtrack.

And Zhang Ze genuinely didn't know how to turn it off, as he hadn't used it before.

In a moment of thought, Zhang Ze snatched the case from Tang, forcibly tearing it in half.

Yet Lily's voice didn't cease, still persistently echoing around Zhang Ze and Li's ears, growing harsher due to some structural damage.

"I'm here, I'm... buzz, this..."

Zhang Ze slashed at the device with his sword, but it was ineffective. Only after smashing this junk into pieces did Lily's nerve-wracking voice finally stop.

Zhang Ze felt embarrassed, not expecting this thing to be such a nuisance.

But Tang found some merits in the thing, staring at the pieces for a while, an idea sparked.

"Admit it, it's idiotic, but not completely useless."

"Lead the way; let's return to the Thousand Mechanism Pavilion." Squatting, Tang stood, ready to proceed with his first invention as the Supreme Supreme Grand Elder.

Zhang Ze, however, fell a step behind.

Because the system started buzzing again moments ago.

When Tang instructed him to lead the way, the Thousand Mechanism City task abruptly branched out.

[Path of the Six Sects]or[Explosive Path]

[Choose one, the result will influence Thousand Mechanism City's future direction]

Zhang Ze didn't hesitate even a second, immediately choosing the Six Sects.

If he hesitated for even one second, it would be disrespecting Lily.

After choosing, the task interface for [Thousand Mechanism City] also changed.

The emblems of Dragon Tiger Mountain, Sword Sect, and Beast Taming Sect appeared below the progress bar of the Thousand Mechanism City task.

Below these three sect logos were three additional progress bars.

Yet annoyingly, the system still offered no explanations.

Zhang Ze sighed, ignored the system, and proceeded to lead Tang towards the Teleportation Array.