The old things I repaired have become fine

Chapter 630 This is... a broken Demon-Sealing Tower?!

Shen Le entered the Taoist temple—no, from the moment he stepped into the temple and was within eye range, he felt like a mouse had fallen into a rice jar.

This Taoist temple, with its halls, pavilions, and residences of all sizes, is built according to the terrain and the natural features, not bound by traditional architectural patterns. The roofs are varied in height and are extremely diverse.

The various crouching ridge beasts on the eaves are unique in shape, and he had never seen many of them before.
Even walking past an ordinary door, a turn of the head could reveal a big surprise: behind the two wooden doors, there was a painting of a pair of Nezha figures with three heads and six arms.

It's a painting from who knows how many years ago, and it's even faded a bit, but the lines are smooth and full, the colors are bright and bold, and the whole thing exudes a vibrant and lively feel.

Just looking at these two portraits, Shen Le stopped and took seven or eight photos from top to bottom, wishing he could take the whole door panel off the ground and scan it...

And this door was just a small highlight among a series of surprises. In addition, Shen Le also saw a lotus leaf-shaped water basin under the eaves, carved from a single piece of bluestone;
The little lions on the railings around the main hall are all different; some tilt their heads, some squint their eyes, some stick out their tongues, and each one is mischievous in its own way.

The roof tiles and eaves tiles all look similar at first glance, but upon closer inspection, each one is different, clearly showing that the builders put a lot of thought into them;
The backyard behind the main hall is paved with pebbles, the black and white pebbles arranged in the shape of the Bagua (Eight Trigrams), with a pair of yin-yang fish chasing each other in the center...

Just for these ancient buildings from different eras and with different styles, but all very interesting, Shen Le was even willing to bring his own food and stay in the Taoist temple for a year—and then draw and record all the details.

So when those unlucky spine beasts were shattered by the sword light and tumbled down, Shen Le immediately raised his hand to create a vortex of wind to prevent them from being smashed to pieces on the ground.
The second reaction was to shout:
"I'll fix it! I'll fix it!"

"Mr. Shen, there's no need for that. These components were destroyed by the flying swords I sent..."

The abbot, Master Qingyi, who rushed out to greet him, quickly bowed and declined. He was halfway through his sentence when his junior brother forcefully tugged at his sleeve, pulling him back to where he left off:
Oh right, Shen Le majored in cultural relic restoration, specializing in ancient architecture restoration. For others, restoring old objects is a task, a livelihood; for him, it's a hobby…

Didn't you see his eyes were shining?

"Mr. Shen, there's no need to rush to repair these." After being tugged twice, Master Qingyi quickly changed his tune:

"If you are interested, we might as well discuss how to control a sword together. Over the years, the spiritual energy of heaven and earth has declined, and far too many of our sect's sword control techniques have been lost. The ones we have now are the ones that have been discovered and organized in recent years."

Therefore, some flying swords with higher spirituality are not very willing to obey our commands and often act on their own..."

The roof tiles, the ridge beasts, the railings, and even the little lions on the railings would occasionally bump into each other. This made all their decorations mismatched; buying more wouldn't help, as they would all eventually fall apart...

"Ah this..."

Shen Le hesitated for a moment, then turned to look at Li Xingtang. He did know some sword control techniques, and he hadn't forgotten the incantations and methods used in the illusion, but—

Is this something he can just say casually?
Is it that Ah Li, the secret of the sect to which that flying sword belongs?

Are there any survivors in this lineage? Even if it's been lost forever, would Feijian himself be willing to reveal it?

Li Xingtang lowered his head and remained silent. Shen Le didn't know if he was thinking, recalling, or doing something else. After a while, the white light chasing and thrusting in the sky trembled slightly and returned to its sheath, while Li Xingtang raised his hand to grasp the hilt of his sword and tilted his head slightly.

Finally, he raised his helmet, and the dark interior stared at Master Qingyi, while the mouth beside him spoke up for Mr. Lu in time:
"Mr. Li asked, 'Where do you fight using flying swords?'"

"That's too many!" Master Qingyi's spirits lifted. As if the question had scratched an itch, he answered with a radiant face and animated expression:

"The most common task is to slay demons and monsters—but this is less common now, as there are too many alternative combat forces available, so we are rarely used."
Then it's used for exploration, such as underground caves, snow-capped mountains, and especially tropical jungles. Our flying swords are more efficient at exploration than drones.

Of course, the best use is for cutting down airplanes! Don't underestimate our flying swords just because they're slow; they have a small radar cross-section! Our recently improved technique allows us to reduce our radar cross-section to 1 square centimeter!

To be honest, compared to an airplane the size of a printer with a radar cross-section of 0.4 square meters, and a flying sword with a radar cross-section of 1 square centimeter, it doesn't seem like something to be very proud of...

Shen Le silently complained. Even so, the fact that they could mention something like radar reflectivity meant they were genuinely cooperating with the authorities and trying to improve their techniques. Shen Le couldn't help but ask:
"So, you guys can go and cut down the early warning aircraft?"

"Who says otherwise!" Master Qingyue slapped his thigh forcefully.
"It's a pity we can't participate this time! They said we can't get involved for the time being and have to let the neighboring country fight it out! Otherwise, we'd lose at least two aircraft. What's the point of just fighting fighters? Early warning aircraft and electronic warfare aircraft are much more expensive!"

So your principle for choosing targets is simply to see who is the most expensive?

Shen Le was too exhausted to even complain. He nodded vigorously to Li Xingtang, who responded by raising his hand and slamming it against his breastplate. Then, the armored figure raised its gloves and began gesturing in the air:

"Sword control is like this...like this...like this..."

Mr. Lu Zicheng acted as his mouthpiece. Hmm, indeed, in the spirit's mind, or perhaps, the flying sword thought the same way? Sectarian differences didn't matter; as long as we protected our homeland together, we could share resources!
However, Shen Le stared at Li Xingtang for a long time, and the more she looked, the more she wanted to sigh:

Well, this spirit doesn't seem to have much memory of sword control after all. After all that talk, it was basically about controlling the sword for a hundred steps, fighting the opponent, adjusting hand seals to control the flying sword, how to make the sword strike and deflect the opponent's force, and then striking again…

It seems that Master Qingyue and the others didn't want to hear these things!

What people want to know is how to regulate breathing, how to circulate internal energy, and how to combine internal energy with the combat power of a flying sword...

Never mind, I'll do it after he finishes...

He listened patiently to Li Xingtang finish speaking, then went up himself and gave a lesson. He started by explaining how to practice swordsmanship, first demonstrating the swordsmanship he had learned from the white ape, how to raise his qi and lighten his body, and how to climb and thrust.
Next, I'll explain how to take seven steps in mid-air, how to make turns and twists in mid-air, and how to ride a sword.

Finally, there's the question of how to calm the mind, achieve a state of complete absorption, and how to select materials to forge the flying sword—as for the names of various materials in the Tang Dynasty, which may differ from modern ones, Shen Le stated that he is not responsible for this matter…

The Taoist priests' faces grew increasingly stiff as they listened, and they seemed on the verge of collapse. Shen Le guessed that they had probably confirmed from this knowledge that his flying sword didn't belong to their sect and had absolutely no connection to it... Their basic logic didn't even match?
"So, how was it? Was it useful to you?"

He asked cautiously. The old Taoist priests exchanged glances and forced smiles.

"The stones from other mountains can be used to polish jade. When you reach a certain level in swordsmanship, you must learn from the strengths of many schools to make progress!"

Since they were willing to listen, Shen Le tried his best to explain. He talked about forging the flying sword, maintaining it, and coordinating breathing and sword control during the hundred-step sword flight:
"That's the gist of it. As for the flying swords flying over a hundred miles away on their own to slay demons and monsters, I currently have no way to control them—"

By the way, based on your experience, would attaching a camera or radar to the hilt of a flying sword to provide the pilot with a field of vision enhance their sword-controlling ability?

In an instant, you could see Daoist Qingyi, Daoist Qingyue, and several other Daoists carrying long swords, their faces changing from red to white, from white to green, from green to purple, a colorful display, with gurgling sounds coming from their throats.

After a long while, Master Qingyi struggled to catch his breath and forced a smile:
"Well... Mr. Shen... Generally speaking, we still prefer the method of controlling the sword with divine sense... Of course, the method you mentioned isn't impossible. We've published a paper on it within the Special Affairs Bureau. If you have the necessary permissions, you can apply to read it..."

Why would anyone do this kind of research?

Why would anyone publish a paper on this topic?

What are you Taoist priests trying to achieve by publishing papers in this field? Is it for promotion?!
Shen Le roared inwardly, but still had to force a smile onto her face.
"I see, I understand now. I also have some insights into spiritual sense, especially in using spiritual artifacts to amplify it for greater distances..."

He had a pleasant and thorough exchange of experiences with the Taoist priests. Although Shen Le didn't quite understand most of the methods the priests used to control the sword—his method was simply "transmitting power and then letting the flying sword do the work itself";
However, judging from the expressions on these Taoist priests' faces, it is probably, perhaps, very likely, that they have gained great insight and can be of great help.
In short, the communication between the two sides went very smoothly. So much so that when the exchange ended and Shen Le was eager to repair the spine beasts, the Taoist priests strongly objected:
"No need! Really, no need!"

"It was our flying swords that did it!"

“We’re used to it! ...Really, look, come and see the back mountain, it’s all stuff our flying swords have chopped up…”

Shen Le followed them through the winding path towards the back of the mountain. After crossing the hilltop and looking down, she immediately took a deep breath:

The front of the mountain was lush with vegetation, but once you crossed it, you immediately saw a rugged, rocky mountain. There were trees on the mountain, but they had all been cut down and were lying crookedly, with most of them just stumps and a few still having some branches and leaves.
Looking again at the stone wall and in the mountain stream, on the rocks of all sizes, there were crisscrossing deep and shallow cuts. It seemed that many young disciples must have practiced their swordsmanship here, lost control, practiced again, lost control again…

The discarded, broken tiles, stone carvings, roof tiles, and ridge beasts were piled up into small mountains. Indeed, the ridge beasts slashed by the flying swords were beyond repair; too many had been damaged…

Shen Le walked forward step by step, looking left and right. Most of the broken items were industrial products, mass-produced goods from small brick kilns, tile factories, glass factories, and stone tool factories, and did not have much artistic value.

However, he always had a feeling that something here was subtly attracting his attention, or in other words, something that was connected to him.

He zigzagged to the left and then to the right, suddenly stopping and bending down to dig. The young Taoist priest accompanying him called out from behind:

"Watch your hands—"

Shen Le turned around and smiled at him before continuing to work. With a casual wave of his hand, pieces of broken tile and small stones rolled and parted in front of him;

As he took a small step forward, the earth quietly rose up, and the larger stone carvings and roof beast fragments silently retreated to the sides. The glass shards reflected the sunlight, drawing rainbows in his vision.

Further inside, the ground was littered with broken bricks and tiles, slightly raised, unmoving and unresponsive to Shen Le's commands. After several unsuccessful attempts to urge them on, Shen Le finally used his mental power to begin moving them piece by piece:
"left!"

"right!"

"You go to the left too!"

"You go to the right too!"

"What exactly is down there...? It feels like something quite large?"

He became genuinely interested, bent down, rolled up his sleeves, and got to work. After about half an hour of work, all the fragments were moved aside, forming a circle about three meters in diameter;
Within the circle, a ceramic roof rises, a hexagonal pyramidal roof with flying eaves and brackets. On the roof, green ridges rise like tiles or bamboo poles, their glaze a deep, vibrant green, giving a sense of coolness.
Shen Le brushed aside some soil and looked down. He walked around the area, observing and counting as he went:
"The raised-beam structure, flying eaves and brackets, glazed tiles, hexagonal pyramidal roof, surrounding corridor, double balustrades... the structure of this roof is very meticulous! Although it's made of porcelain, every single component is there..."

He stood upright, closed his eyes, and gently stomped his foot on the ground. Instantly, the clay covering the ceramic roof flowed away like mud, revealing the components beneath. Shen Le screamed in pain:
"Do not!!!"

The entire roof is tilting downwards! It's about to fall to the ground. If this thing hits, it will at least shatter into pieces, and it will take so much more work to repair it!

He rushed forward, grabbed the edge of the roof with both hands, lowered his stance, and tried to lift himself up.

With a loud "crack," a large section of the roof was ripped off, separating it entirely from the wall below.

Shen Le held his breath, held it tightly in his hands, turned around and placed it on the soft soil. When he looked back, thankfully, it was alright; it wasn't his fault that it was so badly damaged.
The entire porcelain house has an unusually straight and smooth cut between the roof and the walls, running diagonally through it. If it weren't for the surrounding mud, the roof would probably have crashed down somewhere long ago, instead of remaining so peacefully.

At this moment, the roof was raised, and looking down from the open space, one could see winding paths inside the house, giant pillars, human figures, various birds, beasts, snakes and insects, and even tiny swords, all radiating subtle spiritual energy fluctuations.

Shen Le looked at it again and again, feeling that this look was somewhat familiar:

"Taoist Master, come and take a look... this porcelain tower... could it be the Demon-Locking Tower of your temple?!"

(End of this chapter)