The old things I repaired have become fine

Chapter 573: We promised not to dig ahead of time, but it ran out by itself. What should we do? !

The helmet remained silent, just shining brightly on the map.

Tongpian didn't say anything, just unfolded the map. Shen Le calmed down and looked at the map carefully:

Well, the place where I stand is in Dunhuang, which has left behind Jiayuguan and Qinghai Lake, and has walked out of the Hexi Corridor and the Qilian Mountains;
Further ahead is the Tianshan Mountains. To the north of the Tianshan Mountains is the former Beiting Protectorate, while to the south of the Tianshan Mountains are the former Anxi Four Towns:

Qiuci, Khotan, Shule, Yanqi...

Close to the Tianshan Mountains, on the edge of the Tarim Basin, a string of cities are like green pearls inlaid on the edge of the Tarim Desert.

In line with the helmets, the light spots on the map lit up, some at the edge of the desert, and some...

"It seems to be in the desert... Tsk..."

So I have to go in there? Go look for something? Look for a piece of armor, or a bunch of scattered armor pieces, or some assorted parts?

Shen Le stared at the map, trying hard to memorize the location of the light spot.

To be honest, it is quite difficult to remember these things without city names, road lines, administrative boundary markers, and only mountains and rivers.

For those who don’t believe this, just take a satellite map, click on a few points at random, and then try to remember them and you will know.

Fortunately, when he got near the light spot, he was able to meditate repeatedly and correct his direction repeatedly. Otherwise, Shen Le was really not sure that he could find these armor fragments...

Cough, someone was even less sure than him. Although he was unsure, he still clung to him:

"You're leaving? What for? Are you going to find the rest of this armor? Take me with you!"

The bearded man followed him closely, almost grabbing his arm to keep the distance between them constant. Shen Le looked embarrassed:
"Teacher Zhang..."

This time we go out, we have to climb the Gobi Desert, drill into the desert, and maybe even turn over the sand, which is very risky!

Of course, this risk is nothing to me. As a practitioner, I am fully capable of protecting myself. However, just because I can protect myself, it doesn’t mean you can too!
Can you just stay quietly in the research institute and I will come to see you next time I find something?
"You don't have to call me Teacher Zhang! Just call me Old Zhang!" The bearded guest waved his hand proudly:

"You are not my student, and I have never taught you a class. There is no need to call me teacher! - You are going to look for this armor, right? Please take me with you! If you don't take me...if you don't take me..."

He was stunned for a moment, stuck here, not knowing what to use to threaten Shen Le.

They are not his students, nor are they staff members of his unit, and they don’t even publish papers in the journals where he is a reviewer—they simply don’t publish papers;

It seemed that the only thing he could do was "I won't help you with your armor repair next time", but Professor Zhang thought about it and realized that he would never do such a thing.

When he heard that some Tang Dynasty armor had been unearthed somewhere, he would crawl over there even if his legs were broken. He begged Shen Le to let him take a look!
Wait, there it is!
"If you don't take me with you, I'll call your instructor!"

Shen Le smiled bitterly. Teacher Zhang, it's not that I don't want to take you. In fact, you didn't want anything, but you came here in a hurry to help me check whether the helmet was repaired correctly. I really miss your kindness——

The problem is, going out this time is very risky, and I may not be able to protect you!
"It's like this, Mr. Zhang... My goal this time..." He simply opened the map, drew a circle around the bottom of the Tarim Basin, and his fingers invaded the Taklamakan Desert several times:
"I might go to the center of the desert. It's very dangerous there. Anyway, you're doing armor restoration, not archaeology. Can't you wait at the institute until I take out the stuff before you look at it?"

"How can they be the same?" The bearded guest waved his arms menacingly:
"The best chance to restore the armor is to start from the time it is unearthed! Sometimes, the damage caused by improper handling during the unearth process is irreversible! Oh, you reminded me..."

He let go of Shen Le, took out his phone, and swiped through the contact list. He pressed his finger on the screen and suddenly looked up and asked:

"By the way, do you mind if an archaeological team follows you? Let's see where the thing you're looking for was unearthed, and check if there's anything else around?"

"...Is it useful if I say I mind..."

Shen Le muttered and rolled his eyes.

Obviously, it was useless. Just like when Shen Le entered the desert, the Special Affairs Bureau tried hard to dissuade him, but couldn't stop him at all. They could only send him an off-road vehicle and a support vehicle;
The archaeological team also found a vehicle and followed behind, following from a distance, making it clear that they wanted to take advantage of Shen Le's excavation site, and Shen Le couldn't stop them.

For some old professors who have worked in this field for their entire lives, their greatest wish in life is to discover some ancient monument of sufficient value so that a piece of dusty history can see the light of day again.

If they get any possible clues, they will crawl over there even if it means dying in the desert, not to mention following a large group of troops and having security…

"Hey, you guys should pay more attention to the archaeological team behind you, and don't let them run around." In the end, Shen Le could only tell the guy from the Special Affairs Bureau beside him:

"Don't worry about me, I'll be fine. I can fly, cast spells, and teleport - but they can't! Make sure you protect them!"

"knew……"

In the back seat, the guy with a buzz cut who was checking the equipment answered in a drawn-out voice. There were satellite phones, drones, long and short guns, and even a shoulder-fired rocket in the car.

If it is not enough, there is still equipment on the supporting vehicle. If it is really not enough, you can call for support from the rear.

As long as there are no big monsters around, this combination can hold out until rescue arrives. What? You said there is a thousand-year-old monster that the Special Affairs Bureau can't deal with?
Shen Le, and the small oil lamp beside Shen Le, aren’t they still in the car?

These days, Shen Le was fully focused on repairing his helmet in Dunhuang. Xiao Youdeng, through the help of the Special Affairs Bureau, went to the molten salt tower solar thermal power station in Dunhuang and ate a lot of electricity...

According to the small oil lamp, this electricity condensed from solar energy has extremely strong power to destroy evil, and it is invincible and has success in everything.

Basically, a monster that has existed for 1,500 years can be destroyed by just one thunderbolt. It can come but cannot go away!

The vehicle sped along the highway, passing the foot of the Tianshan Mountains, and the first stop was Hotan. The largest and brightest light spot that Shen Le sensed was in Hotan:

Hotan, also known as Khotan among the four towns of Anxi, is famous for its abundant production of beautiful jade.

As the saying goes, "Jade comes from Kunlun Mountain", Lantian jade has long been mined out and disappeared in the wind and smoke of history. After that, the beautiful jade from Kunlun Mountain is Hetian jade:
The so-called "mutton-fat soft jade" is warm, firm, translucent, pure, white and flawless, like solidified fat. It is not just dead white, but moist warm white, like mutton fat, and also like the delicate skin of a young girl.

Shen Le also had a few pieces of nephrite jade in his hand. When Lao You was his sales agent, he exchanged them with the local monsters for the wooden couch for meditation produced by Xiao Modou:
When the vehicle arrived in Hotan, a fat old man stood at the highway intersection holding a sign:
"Mr. Shen! I heard that you came to Hotan to look for something? Do you need me to be your guide? I know this area well! I know every mountain and every mine!"

Shen Le squinted his eyes and stared at him. The old man was wearing a sandy yellow leather robe, short and fat, and the width gradually increased from the shoulders downwards.

His short, messy hair stuck out in uneven patches, and his small moustache kept moving.

Coupled with those two big nostrils and a pair of big front teeth, Shen Le wanted to jump out of the car very much. He pointed a finger at his forehead:

"I'm here to take you in!"

Just kidding, I can't accept it, after all, he came here with good intentions to recommend himself. The car stopped suddenly, and the guy from the Special Affairs Bureau jumped out and greeted him with a smile on his face:

"Mr. Huang, you are so quick to get the news! It's rare that you are willing to come out. We usually look for you to exchange some jade, but we can't find you even after searching several hills!"

"Of course, Mr. Shen is my big client." The old man looked up proudly, and when he saw Shen Le coming, he quickly moved over:
"Mr. Shen, the couch you sold us is amazing. I originally couldn't transform, but after sitting on it and meditating for a year, I immediately got the hang of it. Do you think... hehe... can you..."

As he spoke, he reached into his pockets. He reached into his thick fur coat with his short hands, opened a crack from somewhere, and took out two pebble-sized stones.

It is crystal clear and shiny, with a caramel-colored crust on the surface, which naturally winds into patterns:
"Could you please help make a few more? You know... we have a big family, with a large number of descendants, but there is only one couch, and we can't even keep up with the daily queue!"

Shen Le was a little tempted, and turned to look at the boy next to him. Does the Special Affairs Bureau have any management and control over these monsters?
Is there any limit on their number?
If we give them a few more seats and allow them to have a bunch of transformed monsters, will it cause irreversible impacts on the local power balance, ecological balance, etc.?

"If Mr. Shen wants to do business with them, just do your best." The young man stared at the two pieces of mutton-fat jade with eyes full of envy. He almost wanted to extend a pair of hands from his eyes to grab the jade and take it back.

While staring at him, he still smiled gently:
"They are relatively gentle and friendly to humans. As long as the number does not exceed a certain level, such as dozens of them successfully transforming in a short period of time, there will be no problem!"

Shen Le instantly breathed a sigh of relief. Then, Xiao Modou took out a lead weight from his backpack and shook it twice:

[Then leave it to me! I can make two couches a day that are 80 meters long and centimeters wide! ]

"Wait! Wait!" Old Huang quickly raised his hand to stop them:

"Can I provide some wood? We have some very good poplar wood in our collection... This kind of wood is more in tune with the atmosphere of our home!"

Shen Le silently glanced at the young man from the Special Affairs Bureau. The young man from the Special Affairs Bureau had no expression on his face and pretended not to hear:
Populus euphratica is a protected plant, okay!

It’s the second grade!
You said in front of me that you wanted to carve a couch out of poplar wood. Do you want me to agree or to stop you? Shen Le smiled awkwardly and made a "hush" gesture. He closed his eyes slightly, felt the direction of the light spot, and pointed to the right front:
"Go that way!"

"okay!"

Old Huang jumped into the car automatically and consciously:
"That's the direction of the mine trench! I'll show you the way and tell you how to drive! Don't worry, I will definitely find the shortest way for you and won't lead you into the trench!"

Shen Le smiled and nodded. His meditation map could only indicate the direction, but could not tell him how to get there—especially how to drive on the road and how to find his location through twists and turns.

If there were no locals, cough, or local monsters to lead the way, he would probably have to go in a straight line, either flying, burrowing, or flying for a while and burrowing for a while...

"Go forward." The car turned around a ridge, Shen Le closed his eyes and felt it for a while, then continued to point the direction. Old Huang quickly followed up:

"Okay, sir, go right. There's a road on the right..."

The car twisted and turned like this. In addition to giving directions at every turn, Shen Le would lean over the car window and watch:
“The greenery here is pretty good.”

"Of course, at the foot of Kunlun Mountain." Old Huang proudly puffed out his chest and pointed at the mountains:

"If we melt a little bit of the snow water on the mountain and flow down, it will be enough for us. Without such good snow mountain water, we can't moisturize the beautiful jade—"

Shen Le looked sideways. Mutton-fat jade is found in the mountain veins, what does it have to do with snow water? I'm not from the geology department, but I have common sense, don't lie to me!
"Of course, the greening around HT City has been getting better and better over the years, mainly due to the government." Seeing that Shen Le's eyes were not right, Lao Huang immediately changed the subject:
"There were 00 days of sandstorms in this area a year in the past few years, around 120, but in the past two years it has dropped to days.

Drip irrigation brings water, windbreaks and sand fixation, large tracts of grassland and forests grow, and even we monsters living in the mountains feel that life is much better now!"

Shen Le looked in the direction of his finger, and his mental power also extended slowly, brushing towards the distant horizon.

The sand dunes were undulating, and the wind blowing in my face was extremely dry. When it hit my face, I could almost hear the skin creaking. However, when my mental power spread over, I could already feel the thriving vitality:

At the edge of the desert, a long green dragon winds for thousands of miles, clinging to the ground. It is a grid of grass laid on the sand. I heard recently that it has been closed, locking the edge of the Taklimakan Desert.

In the area close to the city, which is also relatively southward, large clumps of shrubs and small trees are interwoven into forest belts, holding hands to keep the wind and sand out.

Red willow, saxaul, and angustifolia, one piece after another, one clump after another, dotted with rich green. Below them, there are farmers crawling in the trees, bending over to work:

"This is where we grow Cistanche deserticola," Old Huang pointed and explained to the visitors:

"Cistanche deserticola can be inoculated on the roots of Haloxylon ammodendron trees and grow very well. The yield per mu can reach more than 200 kilograms. My family has also leased several hundred mu of land, and we can earn several million yuan a year!"

He puffed out his chest proudly:

"Humans are big and have to bend their backs to crawl under trees to work. We don't have to! We are small!"

He stretched out his hands, and with a flash of light, they turned back into two fat, short claws, with the tips of the claws gleaming coldly:
"It's much easier for us to do this than for them! Fortunately, the local experts treat everyone equally, and humans are willing to teach us, so we are also willing to teach, and our lives are getting better and better!"

"We put a lot of effort into begging them! We provided guarantees and protection!" The guy from the Special Affairs Bureau who was serving as the tour guide couldn't help but interrupt:
"What do you think? A bunch of groundhogs came rushing in and sat there listening to the class. Even if the teacher wasn't scared to death, he would be afraid of the plague!"

"We...we really don't have the plague..." Old Huang's momentum suddenly dropped:
"Well, the children who have opened their minds and can understand the teacher's teachings really won't be infected with the plague! Besides, didn't we all take a bath before coming in for class?"

Shen Le turned his face to the window and pursed his lips tightly to prevent himself from laughing out loud. Well, the groundhog monster family helped plant trees, which was very good;
They can participate in human labor and earn money through productive labor. Their lives are much happier than digging holes in the mountains, eating grass seeds, and celebrating the New Year by touching a few pieces of jade.

Of course, for human beings, such a society is much more stable, isn't it?

For a moment, his eyes turned much gentler when he looked at Lao Huang. While pointing out the direction, he chatted leisurely:
"How many years has your family lived here?"

"Well... not that many years... maybe only five or six hundred years." Old Huang suddenly shrank back, perhaps because his family history was too short and he felt embarrassed:
"Mr. Shen, what do you want to ask?"

"I want to ask, are there any remains of Tang Dynasty soldiers' activities and garrisons around here?"

"Ah... I really don't know." Old Huang's face was instantly tangled. After thinking for a while, he answered hesitantly:
"That's all our family history is. Besides, even if we dig caves, we usually do it on wild hillsides, not in places where humans are active. If you really want to know, why not ask the old leopard?"

"leopard?"

Shen Le was puzzled. Are there leopards here? Are they leopards? Leopards wouldn't come to such a dry and cold place, right?
"Snow leopard! It's a snow leopard!" Old Huang quickly corrected:

“He has practiced for a thousand years, he should know something… or he should have heard about it from his elders.

However, if you want to find him, you have to send someone else. I can’t do that… If he encounters someone like me, he will kill me in one swoop!”

Shen Le agreed with a smile. Marmots live in a litter throughout their lives. Compared to mountain goats, they move quite slowly, and their meat is very tender. For snow leopards, this is undoubtedly a special spring and summer meal:
Although they have become monsters and are theoretically protected by national laws, who knows what will happen if you really encounter them in the wild?
"I understand. When the time comes for consultation, I will send someone else to find him." Then I will send Lao You...

Snow leopards have a very wide range of activities, with their daily territory averaging 200 square kilometers, and it is not uncommon for them to run long distances of thousands of kilometers.

Not to mention the fur, which serves as a natural protective color above and below the snow line and among the rocks. Ordinary people can't find it even if they stare their eyes out of the window when looking at the photo.

If you want to find it, you should go with a sharp-eyed bird like Lao You, who is more professional...

As he chatted, he kept sensing the direction and pointing out the direction. The car went around in the mountains, passed several ravines, and finally had to stop:
"There is really no road ahead." Old Huang looked embarrassed:
"Either we have to rely on the skills of an off-road vehicle and climb through the wild, or we have to walk. You see..."

"Thank you, that's enough, I'll find it myself." Shen Le jumped down readily, tightened his backpack, and walked up the hillside.

There were several brake sounds behind me. Before the car came to a complete stop, a hurried shout came over:

"Shen Le! Shen Le, wait a minute! We'll go with you!"

"Goodbye..." Shen Le stopped helplessly. He took two quick steps and met the bearded guest and the teacher from the archaeological team who came with him:

"I don't know what's ahead yet. I'm walking fast. I'll go take a look first. Once I find the target and confirm it's valuable, you guys can come back?"

"...Then don't start digging! Call us when you get there! Send a video! Live broadcast!" When the bearded guest saw the few steps he took towards him, he knew that his group could not keep up.

There was no way to compare, there was no way to catch up, if I had to follow behind, I would only be a burden. I had no choice but to grab him and tell him desperately:
"Please wait for us!"

"Don't worry, I will! I definitely will!"

Shen Le readily agreed. He promised five or six teachers one by one, and then left quickly, heading towards the hillside:
The hillside, which was at least 30 degrees in angle, was as flat as the ground under his feet. He didn't need to climb hard, take a detour, or even use a trekking pole to support himself, and he easily reached the top of the ridge.

Old Huang's short, fat and agile body jumped up and down, following him closely:
"How far is it?"

"There are still two or three hills..."

Shen Le turned his body, like a Yagi antenna, 30 degrees to the left and 30 degrees to the right. He chose a direction and jumped up:

"Hey, hey, hey! Slow down! Wait for me! There is a path down here!!!"

Damn, how did he fly... I didn't even see him wearing a wing suit, how could he glide so skillfully...

Shen Le's eyes were half open and half closed, feeling the breeze lifting him up, and the earth under his feet was like waves, pushing him forward.

Closer and closer, the helmet in the backpack made a joyful humming sound, blowing across the entire valley with the breeze. It seemed to be singing, and it seemed to be shouting:
wake up!

stand up!

I am coming!
Wake up, come together!
From a distance, across the mountain ridge, Shen Le could already sense a force responding. Flying in the direction of the sense, he could soon feel the responding fluctuations:
It is not a whole piece, but scattered and fragmented. The largest piece is beside the mountain ridge, and another piece is in the valley.

There are a lot of them, along the road on the ridge, along the bottom of the hillside, covering a large area...

"Now we have to dig a larger area... Did they bring metal detectors?"

Shen Le murmured. Before he finished speaking, the soil beneath his feet surged, and pieces of things rose up automatically and emerged from the ground:

"Hey! Hey! Don't be so anxious! I promised not to dig the soil first. What if they run out by themselves?!"

(End of this chapter)