The old things I repaired have become fine

Chapter 640 Porcelain Demon: Leave it to me, you can rest assured!

Upon seeing the person standing beneath the porcelain tower, Shen Le quickly stepped forward. While walking briskly, he simultaneously suppressed his spiritual energy.

Previously, it was about sensing the layout of the entire park; now that people are visible, it's impolite to probe them directly. Besides, there's no need to probe the person in front of you:

The spiritual energy emanating from him was almost so strong it was practically glowing!

Moreover, even someone who isn't a cultivator could tell this person was extraordinary just by looking at him. He was slender and tall, and standing among a group of top models on the catwalk, he wouldn't be outshone by any of them;

Her face was fair, but not the kind of white that Chinese people usually praise, nor the kind of white that Scandinavians have, but a kind of cold, hard white that also has a shimmering luster.

As Shen Le approached, he saw the sunlight shining on his face and hands, creating a faint halo, and seemingly a rainbow appeared to float by.

The translucent white porcelain cup that Shen Le saw in the museum, reflecting strong light, was not exactly similar, but rather identical.

Getting a little closer, the view became even clearer. The long, open-fronted white robe she wore was so delicate and thin, like smoke and mist, that it looked like it was made of the finest gauze.

However, the wind was quite strong in the park today, and Shen Le's hair was blown wildly, while the other person's long robe remained motionless in the air.

Without a doubt, this is the thousand-year-old porcelain demon, a local resident of Jingdezhen. Any porcelain kiln that wants to fire something good has to pay tribute to him, otherwise they really won't be able to fire anything...

"Is this Mr. Zhao?"

Shen Le stepped forward quickly and reached out to shake hands. As she did so, words of gratitude flowed freely:

"Last time I consulted you about the origins of those porcelain pieces, and I was very grateful for your guidance. You even gave me a batch of porcelain as a reference. I haven't had a chance to thank you in person yet, which is truly impolite—"

"Ah, it's nothing." The porcelain fairy smiled and reached out to shake his hand. Shen Le felt that the touch on his hand was both cold and warm, as if it were smooth and hard, yet also as if it were soft and warm. He didn't dare to touch it for long and quickly let go.

The porcelain demon, Mr. Zhao, said:
"Did you repair those porcelain boxes later?"

"It's fixed, all fixed." Shen Le quickly took out his phone and showed him the photos:

"These porcelain pieces were part of a dressing box. After the entire dressing box was repaired, it became a magical artifact called Lan Zhuang."

Lan Zhuang is skilled in projecting light and shadow and releasing talismans. It's just that she's currently on a mission at sea; otherwise, I would have brought her along to show you.”

"That's it..."

Mr. Zhao didn't touch the screen; he merely glanced at Shen Le's hand and nodded. He then turned and gestured towards the porcelain tower:
"Being able to serve your country is a good thing. Come, please!"

Is this porcelain tower your secret sanctuary?

Or is it your real body?

Filled with curiosity, Shen Le followed him forward. As they walked, she kept looking up at the sky:
There used to be a blue and white porcelain tower in Jingdezhen, located on the shore of Changnan Lake. The tower was 59 meters high and had 11 floors.

The main structure of the porcelain tower is made of reinforced concrete. The blue and white porcelain pieces inlaid on the exterior are purely for decoration. The tower body is snow-white, and the eaves and top are blue and green, making it rigid and steep.

However, this porcelain tower in the park, at first glance, appears to be made of white porcelain, its entire body pure white and without any decoration. But upon closer inspection, it seems to change color with each step closer.
The light blue color that appears where the sky clears after the rain and the clouds break;
The secret-color porcelain described as "opening the Yue kiln in the autumn wind and dew, capturing the emerald green of a thousand peaks";
"The white porcelain, white as snow and fragrant with mist, is just like the nectar of the immortals."

The black porcelain Jian ware tea bowl with "partridge-spotted surface with cloud-like characters, and rabbit-brown bowl with snow-like pool in the center";

Even the vibrant crimson of a sunset, the clear blue glaze, and the incomparably noble bright yellow…

I feel that if I stood here and looked up for half an hour, I could see all the colors and glazes that have ever appeared in China!
"Mr. Shen?"

The porcelain demon stood at the entrance, calling out. Shen Le jolted awake and rushed into the porcelain tower, taking three steps at a time. The moment he stepped through the tower's doors, the world before him instantly transformed:
A wave of heat rolled in, hitting him in the face. Shen Le subconsciously took a step back, summoned a wall of wind to surround himself, paused, and then unleashed a curtain of water.

Then, he watched helplessly as the wind wall twisted and turned, and the lines of the scenery opposite him swayed back and forth, changing from straight lines to curves, from bending to the left to bending to the right.

In an instant, the water curtain began to steam violently, bubbling and rising, quickly obscuring everything in front of them. Then, Mr. Zhao, the porcelain demon, laughed heartily:
"Oh dear, I forgot to adjust the orientation. Sorry, so sorry—everyone in here is one of my kind, so I'm used to having the kiln entrance here..."

Shen Le staggered back several steps, dispersing the water curtain and wind wall. Regaining his composure, he saw that the area in front of him had transformed into a pond, or rather, a series of man-made pools.

Each pool has a layer of mud at the bottom, covered with a soft, slowly flowing layer of clear water that overflows from the edge and flows into the next pool.

Upon closer inspection, the water wasn't particularly clear; it seemed to carry something with it.
As you descend from high to low, the mud at the bottom of the pool becomes finer with each layer you go down.

Descending to the lowest level of the pool, Shen Le stood motionless, her mental energy slightly expanding. She scooped up a handful of mud from the bottom of the pool and focused her mind:

"Extremely fine kaolin clay. This is already fine enough to be used directly to make porcelain blanks, right?"

Mr. Zhao smiled and nodded. Suddenly, a small earthenware bowl rolled over, turned in front of Shen Le, and stood up.

Shen Le was surprised. He used his spiritual energy to wrap the mud and put it into the pottery bowl. He saw the pottery bowl tilt forward slightly, as if bowing to him, and then roll back...

Shen Le felt as if he saw a pair of bright, sparkling eyes on the outer wall of the pottery bowl, blinking and full of life...

The next moment, a pestle leaped high into the air, jumped into the pottery bowl, and began to pound the mud with each stroke.

Further away, some were filtering mud with gauze, some were lying on flat surfaces vigorously kicking and spinning, and some were raising their little arms to scrape mud scraps off the clay blanks...

One by one, some were somewhat human-shaped, while others looked exactly like earthenware jars, bottles, buildings, bowls, plates, or vats...

Shen Le was lost in thought for a moment, then asked in a low voice:

"Are they all porcelain creatures?"

"Yes." Mr. Zhao, hands behind his back, smiled as he watched the little ones running around on the ground, as if they were his own children and descendants.

"Their spirituality is not yet strong enough; it needs to be nurtured and developed slowly. Some of them can truly become spirits, and the vast majority..."

He slowly shook his head and continued forward. Shen Le followed him, speaking softly:

"It's nothing. Whether it's clay or porcelain, they're both immortal, lasting for thousands of years. There will be enough time for them to mature and stay by your side." "Heh... I appreciate your kind words." Mr. Zhao chuckled, seemingly unmoved by such blessings, perhaps because he had heard them enough.

They continued walking forward, where lively and adorable porcelain children were rolling around in the glaze;

There is a beautiful vase with shoulders like those carved by a master craftsman and a waist as slender as a fairy, holding a brush and concentrating on painting on the porcelain blank;

Two muscular Tang tri-colored pottery figurines carried porcelain blanks, already painted with glaze, and fed them into the kiln with a "hanging" sound. As they were carried, the porcelain blanks in the saggars chattered away.
"I feel the lines on the shoulder of my bottle aren't smooth enough; I should go back and redo them..."

"The glaze on my body seems to have faded a little..."

"I'll wake up, right? I'm sure I'll wake up, right?"

Shen Le gazed at the porcelain kiln, which stretched like a long dragon across the hillside and spewed out enormous amounts of heat, and was secretly alarmed.

If the entire park is the dojo of the porcelain demon Mr. Zhao, then the porcelain tower is the hub of the dojo and the entrance to the secret realm.
Therefore, the world inside the Porcelain Tower is a very special world dedicated to firing, nurturing, and transforming the spirits of porcelain.

Just standing here, you can feel the vibrant thoughts of countless people who design, make, research, and use porcelain throughout the park, drawn in by the porcelain tower and drawn into this secret realm.

After being sorted and settled, along with the spiritual energy of this land, it slowly flows from the park along the entire porcelain production line, and finally gathers together and is poured into the kiln.

Inside the kiln, together with the porcelain to be fired, and with the very spirit of these porcelain blanks, a perilous leap is made!
It may become a spirit, or it may not;
Strong spirituality, or weak spirituality;
Whether one's spirit is lively, pure, delicate, or fierce, whether it has potential for growth or not, all sorts of changes occur within the furnace fire, undergoing a momentary transformation!
"Is this how you nurtured the personalities of your children?" Shen Le said softly in admiration.

From inanimate porcelain clay and glaze to living spirits, this porcelain demon has actually mastered the method of mass-producing spirits!

This is truly... this is truly...

He wanted to find a better way to express his surprise, but no matter how hard he racked his brains, he couldn't find one. Left with no other option, he resorted to a completely unoriginal idiom:
"His skill rivals the creation of nature..."

"It's not that strong." The porcelain demon smiled slightly, shook her head, and seemed somewhat disappointed.

"I'm better than..."

His lips moved, as if he wanted to utter someone's name, but ultimately swallowed it back. He paused, then looked at Shen Le:

"I'm far inferior to you. You've repaired over a dozen items and already conjured over a dozen spirits. If I had your abilities, I would never have to worry about not having any of my kind by my side again."

"Not at all, not at all, it was just a coincidence. The artifacts I can conjure are all already very powerful," Shen Le quickly declined. The porcelain demon waved her hand, stopping him from speaking:

"If we keep praising each other like this, it won't get any more interesting even after ten thousand years. Where's that porcelain tower you wanted me to see? Did you bring it?"

"I brought it, I brought it," Shen Le replied repeatedly, looking around to find a flat, open place where the porcelain tower could stand steadily.

Upon seeing this, the porcelain demon slightly raised her hand, and the world before them had changed completely:

The area we were in before was the porcelain production area; this area is roughly the exhibition area.

A spacious and elegant courtyard, surrounded by a covered corridor, with a smooth and clean ground in the center.

At first glance, the ground looked like it was made of polished bluestone, but when you squatted down to take a closer look, it looked like it was made of fired ceramic tiles, except that each tile was particularly large and had a matte finish.

In the corridor stood a group of handsome men and beautiful women, smiling and ready to serve. Shen Le could easily spot the characteristics of various types of porcelain in them with just a glance:
Is this Langyao red?

Is this Dehua white porcelain?
Is the pattern on this garment the gold and iron wire of Ge ware?
If that teacher who has dedicated his life to studying ancient porcelain were to arrive here, he would probably be willing to immerse himself in this secret realm for the rest of his life, never to awaken from his reverie.

Shen Le only stared at it for a moment before gently taking off the beaded bracelet from her wrist and placing it on the ground.

In a short while, a small courtyard with only one house rose from the ground. The doors and courtyard gates opened one after another, and a 2.4-meter-tall porcelain pagoda was slowly carried out in a sedan chair carried by eight bearers and placed in the courtyard.

"Oh!"

As soon as the porcelain tower appeared, Shen Le felt the entire world around him tremble slightly.

Perhaps it is because the porcelain tower, which serves as the hub of the secret realm, and the incomplete version of the porcelain tower brought by Shen Le, resonate with each other.
Perhaps it was the porcelain demon's own emotions that were violently shaken;
Perhaps it was the porcelain tower that Shen Le brought that disturbed the vital energy of this world...

In short, everything from the courtyard to the tiled floor and the porcelain tower trembled slightly, instantly becoming dazzling with light.

Mr. Zhao, the porcelain demon, let out a soft inhale and strode forward to stand beside the tower.
"you……"

Without any apparent change, his entire body suddenly grew taller and longer until he could look straight up at the top of the porcelain tower.

Then, he stretched out his arms as if to embrace the porcelain tower tightly, but stopped at the last centimeter, just staring greedily at it:
"I've seen you again... If only... back then..."

He stopped speaking and slowly walked around the porcelain pagoda, tracing every inch of the pagoda's structure, every upturned eave, and every crack in the pagoda with his gaze.

Shen Le held her breath and stood beside him, watching him intently, secretly delighted:
There is a door!

Judging from Mr. Zhao's appearance, he may have known about the porcelain pagoda when it was first fired, or even before it was fired, when its spiritual essence was just beginning to take shape, and he may know the story of the porcelain pagoda from back then!

Perhaps we can show him a way and tell him how to repair the tower!

"Sigh, life's twists and turns are truly wondrous." After a long while, Mr. Zhao came to his senses, shrunk back to normal height, and stood in front of Shen Le:
"I never imagined that seeing it again would be like this. If it had been back then... I..."

He hesitated, as if he wanted to say something. After a long pause, he patted Shen Le's shoulder heavily:

"Don't worry. Now that you've come to me, I will do everything in my power to awaken its spirit!"

As he spoke, Mr. Zhao turned halfway around and waved his hand towards the courtyard. Instantly, the handsome men and beautiful women at the back of the corridor swarmed forward, quietly awaiting his orders.

"Remove the glue off it, reapply porcelain powder and glaze, and fire it again. I'll personally oversee the fire; I'm determined to bring this old fellow back!"

(End of this chapter)