The old things I repaired have become fine

Chapter 638 Shen Le: Lonely and destitute elderly people living alone are in dire need of care!

"This sword is wonderful!"

"This sword is so useful!"

"In close combat, no fish demon can get close within a one-meter radius!"

"Flying swords are even stronger! Although their endurance is a bit weak, only one sword can be fired per hour, that's just a matter of energy! The ship has a nuclear reactor! With some practice, these flying swords can even be used to repair navigation routes!"

"Mr. Li, are you really willing to go to sea with us? Come, come over here, let's talk about wages, benefits and allowances... Mr. Shen! Mr. Shen, come here!"

As the owner and guardian of a spirit that had been repaired less than six months ago and whose socialization was not yet complete, Shen Le had to sit at the conference table and negotiate on behalf of Li Xingtang.

Money, rank, all sorts of spiritual materials for maintaining armor, a dedicated maintenance specialist—everything is needed. There must also be combat benefits; for example, if you use a flying sword to cut down coral reefs, there should be an attendance allowance for cutting down coral reefs…

Of course, besides combat capabilities, various other items were tested at the base. The results showed that Li Xingtang performed well, and the flying sword was also excellent; however, the porcelain sword still needed repair…

"Look at this flying sword! This flying sword! The moment it appeared, the sonar signal was incredibly strong!"

The expert pointed to the flashing signal on the screen, and with great distress, told Shen Le:

"It's much bigger than its actual size! So much bigger! The signal emitted by this three-foot-long flying sword is almost as powerful as that of a torpedo several meters long! What exactly is this flying sword, uh, its energy reaction? Could you modify it a little?"

That's really impossible. Whether it's Shen Le or Li Xingtang, their control over the flying sword comes 30% from memories and illusory experience, and 70% from the flying sword's own subjective initiative.
Regardless of the method, modifying the energy reaction of a flying sword requires altering its sword control technique. Shen Le couldn't do it, and neither could Li Xingtang. Flying swords have their own comfort zones; they absolutely refuse to change!

Even when Shen Le and Li Xingtang took turns holding the flying sword and communicating with it, pleading with it to be quiet and not be discovered, they still couldn't get it to cooperate.

Feijian did try to make changes several times, but he didn't quite understand what sonar was or what sonar detection was...

Then, Shen Le tried out his newly acquired porcelain sword. To be honest, the porcelain sword was far inferior to the flying sword that Li Xingtang had nurtured for thousands of years in terms of flight speed and altitude, and its destructive power was negligible.

However, the porcelain sword slid into the seawater like a fish, and the experts in charge of the test adjusted the sonar repeatedly, their eyes growing increasingly bright:

"Ceramic flying swords are still the best!"

The reason is simple: ceramics react much less to sonar underwater than metals. The flying sword is indeed excellent, but even a single deployment can trigger a startling signal on the sonar.
Unlike that porcelain sword, which slips into the water like a stealthy intrusion, never once fired, especially when used to cut through coral reefs and clear a path for one's own big blackfish...

After a flurry of activity, Porcelain Sword finally managed to find a faint signal. Before it could even confirm, it vanished in a flash…

"Mr. Shen, please put in extra effort! Repair more flying swords!"

The base leader held Shen Le's hands as if he wanted to enshrine Shen Le on a pedestal, or, if he could, simply put him in a bowl and have him swallow water directly into his stomach...

"Okay then... I'll try my best..."

"We plan to test it for half a month, and then set sail. Mr. Shen, can you complete the restoration of this porcelain sword set in half a month?"

With time running out and the task being so demanding, Shen Le felt that even if he worked day and night, he could probably only manage to finish about ten tasks.

However, looking at the huge dark circles under the eyes of the base manager, and at the staff whose hair was either white or bald, who were still constantly doing various tests around Yun Kun, Shen Le couldn't bring himself to say, "I don't want to do this, I want to slack off."

Sigh, he wouldn't do anything like going to the battlefield; he couldn't endure that kind of hardship. He also wouldn't do anything like spending half a year underwater with Yun Kun, never seeing the light of day and unable to chat online—it was just too incredibly boring.

Since that's the case, let's do our part in terms of logistics...

He plunged into the workshop, meticulously organizing the flying swords and working diligently. And you know what? When you really don't read novels, play games, chat, or browse the web, and focus all your energy on repairing them, your efficiency increases rapidly.

Shen Le could only repair one porcelain sword a day before. It would take two to three days to nurture, communicate with, and make it fly again.
With complete focus, I was able to repair three porcelain swords in a single day, and reactivation only took a day—24 hours to be precise. What? Rest? Sleep?
No, meditation can't replace rest, can it?
Despite rushing so hard, by the time Yun Kun was ready to set sail, he had only managed to repair seven porcelain swords.

What's more troublesome is that although the seven swords come from the same level, each one needs to be controlled independently when it flies up. They cannot work together or be controlled by the main sword.

Shen Le tried to control it; one attempt was easy, two were barely manageable, three were a struggle, and four were a chaotic mess...

By the seventh one, there was no way to control them anymore; you could only watch them fly around in all directions and then try to recall them one by one.

After several attempts, the result was the same each time. It felt like it wasn't something that could be solved by improving mental strength or relearning the sword control technique...

"I reckon we'll have to fix this porcelain tower first," Shen Le said helplessly after the nth failure.

"Yun Kun, I'm sorry, I'm afraid I really can't go out with you... To repair this porcelain tower, I need to stay on land to have enough equipment and technical support..."

"Alright then, I'll go myself." Yun Kun waved the sail, seemingly unconcerned. The bow veered slightly to the left, then slightly to the right.
Anyway, you haven't spent time with me in a long time... You were always busy with research, training before that, and missions before that, and you weren't there for me at all...

Her voice sounded so pitiful and aggrieved that it made Shen Le's heart ache. He touched the ship's railing, then walked to the bridge and touched the helm—though heaven knows how much use that helm still has now:

"Alright, alright, I'm really too busy. Staying on the ship all the time, I can't repair the porcelain sword or get you any more weapons, can I?"

"Don't worry, if you need me, if there's anything you can't handle and you need my help, I'll be there in a heartbeat!"

He coaxed and coaxed the little guy, even using heat to maintain the core compartment of the Yun Kun—the compartment containing the nuclear reactor—before he finally got the little guy to let go.

Returning to his own laboratory, looking around, he suddenly felt desolate:
Of the dozen or so little ones in the entire mansion, more than half had left in a flurry. The compass and the scroll were Yun Kun's usual pairing, so we won't go into that; Xiao Ling and Zheng Mo also followed him onto the boat without hesitation. In Xiao Mo Dou's words, "I did a better job than anyone else in helping Yun Kun repair the cabin."
Even Lan Zhuang and Hong Jia Yi boarded the boat and ran away, completely disregarding whether someone needed to stay at home. Only the women in the Buddhist shrines, grateful for Shen Le's efforts in repairing them, kept half of them to serve tea and water and assist Shen Le.
Huang Yutong considered that Shen Le needed to travel to remote areas and take the laboratory with him, so he did not go to sea with Yun Kun, in order to improve the living conditions of the staff...

"Sigh... There are so few people in my family..."

Shen Le lay on the bed, groaning and holding her head. Even though most of the family kept quiet, there was always a constant murmur of chatter, hushed laughter, and even arguments and fights.

But now, the entire mansion is empty, with only the sound of the wind rustling through the tops of the large camphor tree...

It was exactly the same as when he first arrived at this mansion and began repairing Xiao Ling, before the little one could speak.

Even Mr. Lu has left!
He went with the team to Yun Kun's place to continue teaching Li Xingtang!

[You only have time to complain because you're too idle.] With a crackling sound, the loyal little oil lamp, which considered itself Shen Le's number one bodyguard, released a silver ball of light:
Get to work! Get busy! Hurry up and fix the porcelain tower! When you're busy, there'll be no time for sentimentality!

"Qingdeng, what's wrong with you too..."

Shen Le grumbled, slowly got up, and swayed towards the lab. This is unbearable!

The little ones who stayed at home either buried themselves in work like a doll cabinet, or kept quiet and acted as tools like Zhong Xiaomei and Huang Yutong, or, like Qingdeng, only knew how to annoy him!

"Alright, I'll go get to work..."

He wandered into the laboratory, took out a fragment of a porcelain pagoda about a foot in size, and continued working. First, he took a porcelain sword, placed it flat on the cut, and silently began to practice his sword control technique;
Gradually, the smooth cut on the fragment revealed a wisp of sword energy that slowly seeped into the porcelain sword and disappeared. Next, earth elemental power was added, and fire and lightning were used to purify and burn away all the dark energy.

After processing everything, it was fitted onto the partially assembled porcelain tower base. After some thought, instead of using the firing and filling methods employed for assembling the porcelain sword, an ancient method was used: fish glue was used to piece the fragments together bit by bit.
The advantage of this method is that it is reversible. If there is a mistake in the assembly, the fish glue can be melted by heating, and the ceramic piece can be removed at any time.
The downside is...

"Sigh, cooking fish maw is such a hassle... Why did I agree to let Zheng Mo go in the first place? If he were here, I wouldn't be all alone, watching over the stove without blinking an eye..."

Shen Le sighed. Beside her, two flowing robes billowed in the breeze, their long, black hair billowing.
"Shall I come to help?"

"Forget it, I'll do it myself." Shen Le sullenly waved them away.

"You guys have no experience, and your clothes and hair are easy to burn. Even if they don't burn, they'll easily stick. Fish glue! Once it sticks a little bit, you can't pull it off!"

"Then... shall I?"

Zhong Xiaomei gently vibrated, and one, two, three, four… four clay figurines jumped out in succession. Zhong Xiaomei was very meticulous in this regard; the clay figurines she sent out were two of the young lady's dowry maids and two of high-ranking servants—

They were clearly skillful and adept at fine work. Shen Le glanced at them, then shook her head helplessly.

"Forget it, you're already covered in mud and grime from all this work. — If you really can't handle it, could you keep an eye on the fire and call me when the timer I set goes off?"

He brought out the water bath, adjusted the temperature, and put the fish maw directly in to cook. The power of modern technology is quite impressive; having someone watch the fire saved Shen Le at least two-thirds of his energy.

Piece by piece, day and night, they cleaned, filled, and glued the pieces together, working for nearly a month, and finally completed the basic assembly of a 2.4-meter-high porcelain tower.

Then, I placed my hands on the tower, trying to channel heat into it and feel the energy pathways within. After countless repetitions, I gradually frowned.
"I feel... this still isn't quite right..."

The good news is that the fish maw glue is quite receptive to supernatural forces, and the heat output from Shen Le can pass through it without hindrance.

The bad news is that the porcelain tower that was glued together did not "wake up," did not respond to the power Shen Le inputted, did not absorb it, did not resonate with it, and did not grow naturally.

When I was repairing the porcelain pagoda on Mount Shu, I failed to forcibly glue it back together. I felt it was because the sword energy on the cut surface was too strong and the malevolent energy inside was too strong.
This time, Shen Le felt that it simply hadn't awakened, or rather, this level of bonding could only be considered a restoration in the sense of an artifact, not a restoration in the sense of a ritual object...

So how exactly do we deal with it?

Shen Le was conflicted. He had already purified all the porcelain sculptures in the tower, including the animal and demon statues, ensuring that no evil or gloomy energy remained on them.

All the porcelain swords have been returned to their positions, formed a formation, and absorbed enough sword energy;
He had tried his best to clear and fill the energy channels inside the porcelain tower, striving to reconnect the mottled and broken veins...

Are we really going to fill it in, burn it, and forcibly fuse it into one piece to complete the repair? That method is irreversible...

Shen Le struggled with this decision for a long time. Ultimately, what he had restored could all be considered cultural relics; they had not become magical artifacts before being restored.

This porcelain tower is clearly the last rays of light from that era of cultivation, the era when sword immortals roamed freely...

"...So, that's about it." Helpless, Shen Le invited the proprietress of Tianxiang Restaurant over and begged her to take a look at the porcelain tower.

The proprietress circled the porcelain pagoda three times, then meditated at its base for half an hour. She stood up and hesitated, saying:
"I am not skilled in repairing magical artifacts either. I can only introduce you to a few practitioners in this field, or tell you some stories that I have heard."

"This is a porcelain tower. Perhaps it needs to be sent back to its place of origin and fired again before it can truly come back to life? Or, why don't you ask the old master of that porcelain kiln?"

Shen Le: "..."

That makes sense!

Now, can anyone tell me which kiln produced this porcelain tower?!

(End of this chapter)