Who let him join the Sword Sect?!

Li's remark brought both Old Tang and Lily over.

After crafting the [Thousand Dragon Mountain Demon Extermination Set] with Zhang Ze, Old Tang didn't just rest; he wandered around the Thousand Mechanism Pavilion and picked out all the Thousand Mechanism Cultivators he found agreeable.

And then, every three days, he taught them talisman arrays.

Once the resources, which Old Tang had half-commanded and half-deceived from Dragon Tiger Mountain, arrived, he began teaching those few young Daoists who followed what the Thousand Mechanism Technique meant.

Meanwhile, the Purple-robed Heavenly Master, who had accompanied them under the guise of escorting those books and initially intending to persuade Old Tang to return home, was on the verge of tears.

He had been studying for nearly a thousand years at Dragon Tiger Mountain and had never seen the Sect Leader behave so normally.

As for Lily, she seemed a bit unwell lately. After Xiaoxuan and Big Head helped her research past a bottleneck, she had been keeping to herself.

It seemed she had fallen into another bottleneck.

Although Lily usually resembled a husky, in reality, the operation of the Thousand Mechanism Pavilion, apart from the initial period under Mei'Er's care, had been managed by Lily and a few old Golden Core Stage Thousand Mechanism Cultivators until now.

The Pavilion's wealth was rolling in now, and her contribution was indispensable.

Recently, or rather since the incident in Cold City, Lily's life had been quite routine.

Half the day was spent researching her project, while the remaining smaller half was spent studying arrays and the Immortal Cultivation version of a mobile phone related to Stone Elixirs.

In her spare time, she tried to find ways to make money for the Thousand Mechanism Pavilion or discussed matters with the elders.

Finally, every three to four days, she would take a day off to let loose.

Coincidentally enough, every time Zhang Ze went out and returned home, it was always on Lily's day to let loose.

The main mode of letting loose involved creating mindless and meaningless Thousand Mechanism Tools.

Or going to the back mountain to launch various explosives to release emotions.

And sitting idly in a room made of gold that held no value for cultivators.

Additionally, building wonders such as the Black Tower of the Thousand Mechanism Pavilion and Fried Shide.

However, Zhang Ze felt that constructing wonders didn't truly count as letting loose because he liked building wonders too.

The reason Zhang Ze indulged Lily's antics was, firstly, because he was always acting as a hands-off shopkeeper, and secondly, he couldn't help with Lily's research.

It was something akin to an array, but Zhang Ze couldn't make any sense of it, even with his system.

Just like advanced mathematics, where he recognized all the symbols but couldn't understand them no matter how much he tried to enumerate it.

When asked, Lily simply said to wait, and she'd tell him once it was finished.

Zhang Ze had Old Tang take a look once, and when he came back, Old Tang told Zhang Ze.

"Your Sword Sect really isn't much; how did this precious seedling end up with you? If the Celestial Sect found out, they'd probably go mad."

"Even if it ended up at Dragon Tiger Mountain, it'd be better than having your Sword Sect brutes pick it up, how troublesome."

In short, Old Tang was quite regretful.

And when Zhang Ze asked Old Tang what it actually was, Old Tang pointed at the plaque with the uppercase Thousand Mechanism Pavilion and lowercase Heaven-Blasting Gang inscribed on it.

"Auspicious and prosperous."

So, at this point, Zhang Ze looked at the somewhat dazed Lily and asked, "Are you okay?"

Lily shook her head, indicating she was fine, "If you're worried about me, boss, just send me some money."

She picked up the Stone Elixir and glanced at it, "If this thing is real, then Grandma Li's guess might be right."

Grandma Li was one of the elders who went to Cold City to rescue the trapped demon race, and after returning, she had been studying arrays related to the Stone Elixir.

They speculated that the formation process of a complete Stone Elixir begins with this peculiar stone shell, and only then does the divine soul enter it.

But the specific process was something they couldn't verify.

Now that Zhang Ze coincidentally acquired this empty Stone Elixir, they could conduct more tests.

Zhang Ze looked towards Old Tang.

Old Tang glanced at Li, and then the two of them together cast a divination.

The divination showed positive results.

After obtaining Zhang Ze's consent, Lily took the Stone Elixir and sent it over to the Black Tower.

And Zhang Ze, watching Old Tang sitting on a chair and picking his feet, suddenly asked, "Taoist, do you know the Divine Pill Gang?"

"What's that? Never heard of it." Old Tang shook his head.

Zhang Ze recounted the events that had occurred in Ivory Mountain Village to Old Tang in detail.

After listening, Old Tang tugged at his beard and thought for a moment, then teamed up with Li to cast divination once again.

This time, the divination was a bit unclear, and after Old Tang summarized it, it resulted in four words.

Something interesting.

Since it was something interesting, Old Tang got serious.

"I've only been to the north once, must have been seven or eight hundred years ago, haven't heard of any Divine Pill Gang, but I can help you ask around."

Old Tang took out a magic mirror and tidied his hair with the same hand he used to pick his feet.

The magic mirror lit up, and a chubby Celestial Master appeared on the other side.

"Master, are you asking us to bring you back?" the chubby Celestial Master asked.

"No, no, this place is quite interesting, I'm not going back to Dragon Tiger Mountain." Old Tang gestured dismissively.

The chubby Celestial Master cast a resentful glance at Zhang Ze, who stood next to Old Tang, and then continued to ask, "Then what are your orders for the disciple?"

"Hmm, any of our disciples from Dragon Tiger Mountain been to the north recently?" Old Tang inquired.

"Not many, Dragon Tiger Mountain is quite far from the north, but there have been a few disciples who stayed there for some time." The chubby Celestial Master thought for a while before responding.

"Alright, then compile the travel notes and sect mission records of those disciples who ventured north of Cold City in the last hundred, no two hundred years, and send them over to me," Old Tang instructed.

The chubby Celestial Master nodded, indicating that there was no problem with this request, "So when will you..."

"No, no, I said I'm not returning," Old Tang cut him off and placed the magic mirror down on the table.

With Old Tang's reminder, Zhang Ze remembered that the Seventh Pavilion of the Sword Sect wasn't far from there and that the Mission Hall and Library Pavilion probably had plenty of records.

Upon arriving at the Library Pavilion, Zhang Ze found that Elder Wang had gained weight again, and he immediately blurted out.

"Breakup?"

Then Zhang Ze was hit by lightning.

"All for you guys. After this old man became handsome, you little brats looked at me like you had swallowed flies, all uncomfortable. Seeing you uncomfortable makes me uncomfortable too," Wang said grumpily.

"So, do you need something again?" Elder Wang asked, annoyed by Zhang Ze.

Zhang Ze once more recounted the story of the Divine Pill Gang.

After listening, Elder Wang shook his head, "You could post a mission to investigate the Divine Pill Gang in the Mission Hall or ask those loose cultivators from the Sword Hall to help."

"I don't have any records related to the Divine Pill Gang in my Library Pavilion, and as for the Mission Hall... don't get your hopes up too high," Elder Wang said and directly teleported Zhang Ze to a storeroom.

This room was filled with jade scrolls, printed silks, and books.

"These are all the previous mission records; you can look through them yourself," Elder Wang waved his hand, indicating that Zhang Ze should browse through them.

Zhang Ze walked up, randomly picked up a book, and began to laugh awkwardly.

"Heh, as expected of my Sword Sect."

Almost all the mission records in this book were written in a three-paragraph style.

Where to go?

What to do?

How many slayed? Or, what was found?

Expecting our senior brothers and sisters to record local customs and detailed tasks, that would be too much hopeing for," Wang said, nodding as he guided Zhang Ze to look himself.

After going through some of it, Zhang Ze hung the sign for closed-door cultivation on the entrance and went inside.

He planned to focus on inferring more about the Heart Method, which he never really put down, even during the time he was getting beaten up in the Main Pavilion, every day finding time to attempt to infer in secret.

Just now, having some free time again, he decided to dedicate a few more days to intense inference.

After all, if he was lucky, he might just crack it.

"""