Who let him join the Sword Sect?!-Chapter 496 - 304: Kneel and Apologize to Me!

"Isn’t it just a hundred and thirty years of salary? I’ll cover it for you, Master."

"Our Thousand Mechanism Pavilion is wealthy, just take the money directly if you need it. If it’s not enough, I’ll borrow some from Lily."

"By the way, next time I do something bad, I won’t mention your name at all, I’ll blame everything on Wang."

After being turned over, Zhang Ze pleaded with his master.

Looking at his mischievous apprentice, Li Guanqi suddenly lost his temper. He snorted coldly, "You, hmph, I’m nowhere near old enough to need you to support me."

"Yes, yes, as the saying goes, ’Fly to the sky and catch the moon, a pear blossom crushes a begonia, at the ripe age of three hundred and eighty-one, it’s time to venture out.’ You..."

Before Zhang Ze could finish, he got whacked again.

"Stop using cheeky words to tease your master. Is your hearing better now?" Li Guanqi placed Zhang Ze on the ground, making him stand properly.

"All better, all better, Master Li from the Beast Taming Sect is truly skillful." Zhang Ze showed off his newly acquired bracelet.

"Then what serious matter do you have?" Li was curious about Zhang Ze’s previous hurried monkey-like behavior.

"It’s about Jade Book Tower..." Upon his master’s inquiry, Zhang Ze explained the matter of Jade Book Tower to him.

"You should know about this, right?" Zhang Ze asked, seeing his master’s unsurprised expression.

"Of course, after Bai Tao and the others passed the fiftieth floor, Jade Book Tower informed us of this matter."

Li picked Zhang Ze up again, "Specifically, how, you go ask yourself... never mind, I’ll go with you."

Li Guanqi pondered a bit and felt it was better to supervise this kid so he wouldn’t cause more trouble.

...

Over at Jade Book Tower.

Zhang Ze hadn’t been here for a long time, and it had changed now.

Surrounding the tower were lush plants, the first-layer tower base was covered in moss, some yellow-brown umbrella mushrooms grew beside the stone steps, creating an atmosphere of ancient charm.

Zhang Ze, being restless, went forward and touched the mushrooms, marveling at Jade Book Tower’s change of appearance.

"Don’t touch." A cold male voice came from beside Zhang Ze.

Zhang Ze looked back and saw a Thousand Mechanism Puppet dressed in a red suit from Jade Book Tower walking out.

"Jade Book Tower?" Zhang Ze asked uncertainly.

"Yes, it’s me." Jade Book Tower nodded to Li first in greeting, and then looked at Zhang Ze.

"What kind of outfit is this?" Zhang Ze pointed at the red suit on Jade Book Tower’s face and asked.

"I found it in the Thousand Mechanism Pavilion’s warehouse; Lily said it’s called roleplay, something like a Divine Mask. I thought it was interesting, so I borrowed them all."

After speaking, Jade Book Tower waved its hand, and the red suit on its face turned into a nine-dot, the red clothes dissipated, replaced by a black jacket.

After changing outfits again, Jade Book Tower pointed at the place Zhang Ze had been touching and said, "Don’t touch that?"

"Did you plant this?" Zhang Ze stood up, removed his hand from the mushroom.

Jade Book Tower said, "No, I’m telling you not to touch it because it’s from Maomao’s urine; that thing is called dog urine moss."

Zhang Ze, "..."

Pretending that nothing had happened, Zhang Ze and Li Guanqi were allowed to enter the tower.

In the empty hall on the first floor, a lot of chairs and furniture were added. In the southeastern corner of the hall, several rows of Thousand Mechanism Puppets for Jade Book Tower’s cosplay were arranged, resembling funeral figurines.

In the center of the hall, surrounding the pillar that reached the top, was a circle of magical artifacts and a pile of things resembling teleportation arrays.

Not sure if it was set up by Jade Book Tower or dreamed up by someone with a big headache.

Now the first-floor hall of Jade Book Tower looked like the main burial chamber.

"My place is usually unvisited, there’s only some weak tea, I’m sorry for the poor hospitality, please forgive me."

Jade Book Tower (bandit version) invited Zhang Ze and Li to sit, then looked at Zhang Ze, "I roughly know your intention, the matter with Dongqi and the Hundred Demons Sect, I’ve heard from Sect Leader Tang, but I’m sorry, I can’t help you."

"Regarding the matter of the Human Emperor Banner, I truly have no knowledge, nor do I have any memories regarding the Human Emperor Banner.

"Why I was buried in the mountains of Jing State after the great battle in the East, I also have no impression whatsoever.

"As for the secret of the hundred floors, take a look at this."

As soon as Jade Book Tower finished speaking, the walls around the hall lit up.

Then, spiritual qi gathered, presenting complex blueprints, along with a large pile of very professional-looking arrays and text related to artifact refining, surrounding Zhang Ze and Li.

"Oh~"

Master and disciple both emitted an exaggerated admiration, pretending to carefully look around.

Of course, they didn’t understand a thing.

Although both were hopeless illiterates when it came to the Path of Artifact Refining, with Jade Book Tower’s explanation, the matter was actually not difficult to understand.

As a very special magical artifact, Jade Book Tower held an extremely important political significance during the Dongqi era.

It was the final test of the Dongqi imperial examination, testing the emperor’s protégé, representing the royal family’s authority.

Hence, the most crucial aspect of Jade Book Tower as a magical artifact was not its combat prowess, but its sufficient safety and reliability.

After all, if one or two of the empire’s future promising geniuses and royal nobles died on such a joyous occasion like the palace examination, it wouldn’t just bring embarrassment to the emperor, the related people might also face the equivalent of sweeping nine families to oblivion.

To prevent repeated embarrassment for the emperor, and the imperial high-ups from facing the situation of the entire family being at the mercy of the market every few decades, Jade Book Tower adopted a special design.

Its hardware and software are separated, with multiple safety measures.

The hardware is Jade Book Tower, and the software is the large pillar in the middle.

That large pillar, which is the core part of the Illusion Realm, can only be controlled by the emperor, and no one else has the right to change or operate it.