Who let him join the Sword Sect?!

Thousand Mechanism Pavilion.

Pei Zhen yawned, holding a book in his hand, reading by the moonlight as he walked toward the back mountain.

Since he applied to join the Thousand Mechanism Pavilion as an Artifact Refiner under the big poplar tree that day, his life of pain mixed with joy has continued to this day.

He put away the book, checked the time, and realized that it would be daylight soon, but it would still take some time to walk back to his residence.

Pei Zhen thought about it and decided to go straight to find Meng. After all, missing a day's sleep wouldn't really matter.

As an Artifact Refiner who hasn't yet reached Foundation Establishment, Pei Zhen was handpicked by the Great Emperor Dandan and assigned to the Divine Pill Gang's special sprint class.

All other senior brothers in this class started from Golden Core, and the class monitor Lu Sheng, Old Man Lu, was even a Nascent Soul Cultivator.

In all respects, Pei Zhen felt a lot of pressure, both mentally and physically.

Although those seniors seemed to have no airs and took good care of him, pressure remained as pressure.

He had to cultivate during the day and attend classes at night, with almost no time to relax throughout the day, which was truly exhausting.

Moreover, due to several minor incidents recently happening at the Thousand Mechanism Pavilion, the place required expansion and renovation, making many arrangements a bit chaotic.

It would still take some time to get back on track.

The two things were the Dharma Ring Sect Leader joining the Thousand Mechanism Pavilion with all his belongings.

And the structure of the Thousand Mechanism Pavilion underwent changes.

The Thousand Mechanism Pavilion now had three sub-groups: Heaven-Blasting Gang, Divine Egg Gang, and Dharma Ring Gang.

The Heaven-Blasting Gang, led by Lily, marked a large area in the back mountain to specifically research all kinds of explosives and the Thousand Mechanism Tools centered around the Thousand Machine Cannon.

The Divine Egg Gang, under the command of the Great Emperor Dandan, specialized in the Artifact Refining Technique known as "Shangding Refining Technique." Moreover, for convenience, the Divine Egg Gang would soon relocate entirely to the Sword Casting Peak of the Sword Pavilion.

As for the Dharma Ring Sect, they were responsible for executing various tasks for the Thousand Mechanism Pavilion outside, while also testing the Pavilion's new equipment.

In addition, Pei Zhen heard from the elders of the Thousand Mechanism Pavilion that this kind of thing was called a righteous cut.

Pei Zhen didn't quite understand, just like many of the new terms that spread from the Thousand Mechanism Pavilion, he couldn't comprehend.

Of course, the Thousand Mechanism Pavilion was a free and friendly place, and nobody laughed at you for not understanding.

Even if you wanted to change where you stayed, it was simple; you just needed to submit an application.

One of Pei Zhen's friends, unable to grasp the basics of the Shangding Refining Technique, applied to transfer to the Dharma Ring Gang a few days ago and was now happily practicing throwing Thousand Mechanism Thunder every day.

Thinking about these things, Pei Zhen walked toward a courtyard.

This courtyard had recently been assigned temporarily to the Divine Egg Gang. Previously, it functioned as a control room for the Underground City of the Thousand Mechanism Pavilion.

From a distance, Pei Zhen heard noises; it was noisy inside the courtyard, and it seemed that Meng was still arguing with Old Man Lu.

He sighed, thinking to himself how energetic those two were.

"Sigh, when will I reach Golden Core? Golden Core is really great, reaching Golden Core means no more need for rest."

Pei Zhen dreamed of the future, but before he could step into the courtyard, out of the corner of his eye, he saw a black shadow flip over the wall and disappear, carrying something that seemed familiar.

It looked like one of the magical artifacts they had recently refined!

"Thief!" Pei Zhen shouted as he immediately pursued, a cold light flashing in his hand as he threw a silver ring toward the shadow.

However, the silver ring missed and clanked against the ground, while the shadow melted into the darkness, disappearing instantly.

Upon hearing Pei Zhen's shout, Meng Jiang and Lu Sheng immediately flew out of the courtyard, with Meng Jiang standing on his drum, scanning the surroundings with his Divine Sense.

But after circling in the air a few times, they detected nothing unusual.

"Did you really see it, little Pei?" Old Man Lu walked over to ask Pei Zhen.

Pei Zhen was also somewhat unsure. Recently, the rumors of ghosts causing trouble at the Thousand Mechanism Pavilion circulated fiercely among the cultivators with low cultivation like them.

It was said that at the Pavilion, you could always see ghostly shadows near the storeroom and cultivators' residences after the ugly hour at night.

Someone even said that while he was sleeping in the middle of the night, he groggily noticed someone tucking him in.

But when he opened his eyes, nobody was there, not only was there no one in the room, but even his shorts were missing.

Anyway, it was chaotic, with some true events and some false ones.

Pei Zhen stammered, "I saw a shadow carrying the samples we refined yesterday, flipping over from the wall..."

Meng Jiang frowned, disappearing and reappearing with an empty box in hand.

"The items are really gone?"

Seeing this, Old Man Lu also became serious. He summoned his gourd, chanted spells, and in the sound of incantation, the gourd floating in mid-air enlarged by a circle.

"Open." Old Man Lu flicked his finger, sending a white light to hit the gourd. Several strands of Clear Qi flew out from the gourd, transforming into several entirely white, dust-light and faceless petite maidservants.

The maidservants saluted Old Man Lu and then scattered, searching the distance for the shadow that stole the items.

Old Man Lu put away the gourd, boasting to Pei Zhen.

"Little Pei, this Magical Artifact of mine draws from Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi and is secretly passed down by the West Barbarian Witch Ancestor. These Ghost Flames are..."

However, before he finished his bragging, all those maidservants hurriedly returned, with the leading one snatching the gourd from Old Man Lu's waist, unscrewing the lid.

She then signaled her sisters to hurry back inside. As soon as all the sisters transformed into Clear Qi and entered the gourd, the one who grabbed the gourd also slipped inside and tightened the gourd lid from within, screwing it tightly.

Clearly, they were frightened by something.

"Your Ghost Flames, are they homesick?" Although it was strange, Meng Jiang wouldn't miss any opportunity to mock an old friend.

"This..."

Having failed to boast and instead revealing his weakness, Old Man Lu was left speechless. Just as he was about to summon the maidservants again to inquire about the situation, he saw someone approaching with a sword from afar.

Old Man Lu didn't recognize the man, but he knew the girl.

She was the one who controlled seventeen Flying Swords on stage during the Divine Egg Gang's recruitment the other day.

Seeing the weapons in their hands, Old Man Lu understood why his Ghost Flames were so scared.

There was no need to be unafraid: even though the Ghost Flames weren't ghosts, they were still gathered from Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi using witchcraft, tinged with Nether Qi.

Being slashed by those two swords once would at least result in severe injury.

Zhang Ze put away the Spirit Sword Witch Priest, looking at the people before him, he asked, "What's going on? Where's the ghost?"

"Yeah, yeah, where are those white shadows from just now?" Chen Qin also retracted the Forget Sorrow Flying Sword back into her ring.

"Those weren't ghosts; they were my Ghost Flames." Old Man Lu wanted to release those maidservants again, yet no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't open the gourd lid.

"Hah, disgrace. You've spoiled them too much, treating them like granddaughters," Meng Jiang taunted.

"Tch, you're so great. If you're that good, why doesn't your ragged drum sound? Reluctant to beat it, huh," Old Man Lu retorted.

As the two old men were about to argue again, Zhang Ze thought that if ever one day his Thousand Mechanism Pavilion were to close down, it might as well switch careers to perform cross talks.

All talented individuals.

Zhang Ze cleared his throat, took out his Thousand Mechanism Pavilion Elder's waist badge, which finally stopped the old pair from quarrelling.

"We didn't see anything either; ask little Pei," Old Man Lu pointed at Pei Zhen.

Pei Zhen, feeling a bit shy, still recounted the incident as it happened, finishing by adding, "It could be that I saw it wrong."

After listening, Zhang Ze looked thoughtfully at the spot Pei Zhen indicated where the shadow disappeared.

"Be confident. You didn't see it wrong." Zhang Ze patted Pei Zhen's shoulder.

Zhang Ze stepped forward. Without any apparent action, yet a clicking sound was heard, the rockery in the flowerbed before him cracked open into a gap.

A dark tunnel entrance appeared in front of them.

Zhang Ze turned back to the group, who were staring in bewilderment.

"Didn't you know there's a hidden passageway here?"