"It's just average, not as nice as the ones I drew back in the day."

With that, he gently patted Tang and advised, "Even if you're talented, don't play all the time. Learn more from your nephew Wang Qing and be more diligent."

As he was rambling on in his lecture to his grandson, Old Tang felt a vibration from his pocket, taking out a small walnut to see it was a message from Zhu Luo.

[Come to the southwest of Chang State, to Fengshi Mountain. The village is lost, I'm waiting for you here.]

Old Tang furrowed his brow slightly. After a moment, he said to Tang, "Stay here and don't wander around. I'll be back soon."

"Grandpa, are you going to buy oranges?" Tang interjected with a question.

"Buy my foot, I'm going to watch the fun." Old Tang flicked Tang's forehead lightly.

Tang replied, "Then I'll go too."

"What excitement is there for kids to join in? You stay here and keep an eye on your apprentices and younger brothers."

With that, Old Tang took out the Celestial Calculation Disc from his pocket, breathed on it, and wiped it with his clothes before handing it over to Tang for self-defense.

After giving another reminder, Old Tang stomped lightly and disappeared in an instant.

After Old Tang left, a little apprentice tugged at Tang's sleeve, "Uncle Tang, do we really have to stay here?"

He looked like he was eager to go over there and have a look.

"It's wise to listen to grandpa. He must have his reasons for telling me not to wander around, but..."

Tang pondered for a while, then pointed at two people, "Chen Bo, Ma Hang, didn't you both minor in Thousand Mechanism Technique? Please use earth and wood techniques to build a farmhouse here."

Finally, Tang added, "Material costs will be reimbursed."

"Uncle Tang, what's this..."

"Since we're just idling anyway, why not start a livestream here for some pocket money?"

.....

Spirit Deer Valley in Chang State.

Zhu Luo tilted his head, silently looking at the message in the small walnut.

[Old Tang: Come to the northwest of Chang State, to Jingtian Plain, I have news about the village.]

...

At this time in Chang State, similar messages appeared in many people's small walnuts, most of them related to the village.

Either telling them to stay put or to meet at a certain place.

In theory, there were not only one form of communication; these conflicting messages would raise suspicion if someone questioned them slightly.

But strangely, no one is questioning it.

At least at the moment.

It wasn't just Chang State and the Thousand Mechanism Pavilion; the Beast Taming Sect also experienced a flood of fake messages at the same time.

...

Li had already left the Beast Taming Sect and arrived at Wolong Marsh.

Once a self-imprisonment place of the village, although the village had left, the area remains lush and charmingly scenic.

Due to its commemorative significance to the Beast Taming Sect, it had become an unspoken forbidden place among the Cang Mountain Loose Cultivators.

Strangers should not come here.

To keep the place peaceful, aside from spreading verbal messages, the Beast Taming Sect employed other tactics.

They relocated the spirit plants and beasts from the area and set up a barrier to keep spirit beasts away.

With nothing to gain, strangers naturally stay away.

As for Li, it of course wasn't a stranger and had serious business being there.

Zhang Ze sent a message via a small walnut, asking it to wait here, claiming there was something important to discuss.

[Zhang Ze: I have something to ask you about the village.]

No suspicion seemed to arise from Li regarding the message.

While waiting for Zhang Ze, Li was staring blankly at a tree stump.

It was studying the Beast Taming Sect's so-called barrier.

The barrier was simple, neither flaunting fancy arrays nor hidden traps or whiskered old caretakers roaming about.

Only wooden posts spaced every ten meters, with urine stains and engraved text on them. 𝐟𝐫𝕖𝗲𝘄𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝕧𝐞𝚕.𝕔𝕠𝐦

[This is pissed by me. Dare to build a nest here, I will eat you alive.]

This primitive barrier was highly effective. Those lacking intelligence flee by smell, and those with smarts turn back at the sight of the text.

Li had no idea which tiger king left this 'masterpiece', nor how to evaluate it, only that the vast-covered barrier was truly economical.

"A real genius, but this tiger king is something else. How much water did it drink?"

"To soak a whole area like this, its bladder must be an ancestral gift."

Pinching its nose at the wooden post, Li seemed completely oblivious to 'Zhang Ze' standing in the bushes behind.

...

Back at the Thousand Mechanism Pavilion.

[Bring me a pancake.]

[Don't ask, come to the storeroom at the back mountain, I have something to tell you.]

[Bro, please help substitute for my class in the afternoon.]

These seemingly mundane fake messages spread among the Thousand Mechanism Cultivators using the small walnut as a medium.

As if an invisible hand sensed opportunity, it started manipulating this network of walnuts.

Within these orchestrated coincidences, an opening appeared in the otherwise airtight Thousand Mechanism Pavilion.

Someone slipped in.