The old things I repaired have become fine

Chapter 645 The little guy is well-fed, and he's really getting to work!

The porcelain bottle swayed.

The porcelain bottle rolled around.

The porcelain vase refused to get up.

Shen Le sighed and tried everything – poking, shaking, coaxing – but nothing worked. It wouldn't guide him to other, undiscovered kiln sites, refusing to cooperate and instead burrowing desperately into the ground.
It's a pity that such a round porcelain bottle with a flared mouth, wrapped in thick shockproof material, couldn't fit even one step inside.

After spinning around for a while, it only created a shallow crater in the yellow earth, less than two centimeters deep. Even trying to use it to stand upside down, it couldn't maintain its balance and simply collapsed onto the muddy ground with a thud…

"Alright, alright, this is a kiln site that has already been excavated and studied. There's really nothing left inside. There's no point in you rolling around like this anymore."

Having no other option, Shen Le took it to the stone tablet that read "National Key Cultural Relics Protection Unit" and pointed to the inscription, explaining it to it:

"The contents of these discovered porcelain kilns are all counted, each piece has been counted and registered. We cannot touch these kilns!"

"How about this, you come with me to the porcelain shop in town, and I'll buy you a whole bunch of porcelain so you can eat your fill?"

The porcelain bottle paused its spinning motion briefly, as if listening intently, before resuming its writhing struggle in Shen Le's palm. Shen Le had no choice but to grip the bottle tightly with one hand and pull out his phone with the other.

“If you don’t behave, I’ll call Mr. Zhao! I’ll have him take you back! I don’t care what he does to you then! I’d rather find someone myself!”

The porcelain vase finally quieted down. After a moment, it rubbed against Shen Le's palm, as if to say, "Don't be angry, I'll be good, I'll be obedient."

Shen Le sighed, finally putting it into her backpack and taking a taxi to the county town. The first thing she did was find the local supermarket and buy a huge pile of porcelain, spreading it out so much in her hotel room that there was no room to move.

"Come on, eat!"

The porcelain bottle rolled into the pile of porcelain, touching this and that, like a kitten cautiously exploring with its paws outstretched.

It rolled around twice before finally standing still in the center of the pile of porcelain. There was no halo or aura around it, and no specks of light flew out from the porcelain and landed on the vase.

Shen Le set up his phone and took pictures for a long time, and he also patiently watched from the side for a long time, but he still couldn't figure it out.

After the porcelain vase rolled out of the pile of porcelain and settled into his backpack, he picked up several pieces of porcelain in succession, poked them, weighed them, shook them, and then examined them against the light:
Nothing has changed!
Nothing has changed!

Does Mr. Zhao's statement about "absorbing the thoughts and ideas that humanity has accumulated during the research, design, firing, and use of these porcelains" not manifest any physical changes?

He had to call Mr. Zhao for advice. On the other end of the line, Mr. Zhao laughed heartily:
“You really can’t see any changes with the naked eye. We’ve even used instruments, and apart from the Special Affairs Bureau’s spiritual measuring instrument, ordinary instruments can’t detect any changes either—so you can rest assured and take it to the porcelain kiln, it’ll be fine!”

Well, at most, it just cuts off the possibility of those porcelain kilns or those porcelain pieces evolving into demons, right?
"By the way, you don't need to spend money on porcelain next time. Just carry your bag and walk around, into shops or next to museum display cases, it can eat by itself!"

Ah, that's great! If the porcelain bottle were to suck up all the porcelain and shatter it, or even collapse the kiln, who would he be to blame?
Starting the next day, Shen Le asked Gu Yulin to help contact the local Special Affairs Bureau and find someone to drive him around the surrounding counties under the pretext of "understanding the protection of the Xingyao site". He visited all the kiln sites that had been discovered.

Some are located in the city, such as the Neiqiu Chengguan Ruins, which has been protected by a museum built by the local government. The only requirement to enter is to make an online reservation.
For example, there are those kiln sites located in strange and unusual places, such as Xishuangjing, Qicun, Gangtou, Chengdi, Shanxia, ​​Ciyaogou...

Just from the names, you can tell these kilns are definitely in the countryside, and not necessarily in villages, but most likely outside them. They searched for seven or eight days, and the kilns were all the same:

Shen Le found the specific locations of the relevant kiln sites on the map;
Get in the car, turn on the navigation, and head straight to your destination;

The young man who was driving him drove the car into the wilderness, getting as close to the target as possible, and then Shen Le waded over, sometimes stepping deep into the mud, sometimes shallowly...

"I'm so sorry to have troubled you." Shen Le thanked him while handing him a bright green, fist-sized fruit, then jumped out of the car.

"I've been walking around in the middle of nowhere these past few days, I hope it hasn't interfered with your work?"

"No, no!" The driver held the fruit up to his face, took a deep sniff, and then carefully put it away.
As expected of a big shot specially introduced by the Shanghai Special Affairs Bureau, his generosity is truly astounding. Just from smelling this fruit, he felt his inner energy surging and churning, as if it were about to increase:
Even with his monthly allowance, he might not be able to afford just one of these spiritual fruits! Even if he could afford it, he wouldn't be willing to buy it!

This spiritual fruit must be hidden until after get off work, then go to the quiet room, close the door, eat the fruit, and meditate!

This wave will allow him to advance his energy level by one level. He'll go back to get certified and increase his allowance!
"Do as you please! Don't worry, accompanying you is work anyway. Let's take a walk in this desolate wilderness, and none of the monsters or demons will dare to show their faces!"

Shen Le could only chuckle. In Zhuxi Town, Gu Yulin and his group were busy from morning till night—of course, they later learned it was mainly because the feng shui was good; several groups of... well, you know, lived there anyway...

Zhuxi Town is still considered part of the alluvial plain at the mouth of the Yangtze River, a newly formed area. Located in the heart of the North China Plain, near the Taihang Mountains, how could it be without all sorts of monsters and spirits?

[Don't worry, nothing will show up anytime soon!] The little oil lamp suddenly appeared, condensing into a silvery-white bead of light that swirled around Shen Le's shoulder:
With me around, who would dare to cause trouble?

...Very good, very good. Is this the meaning of "If I don't speak first when spring comes, which insect dares to make a sound?"

Little oil lamp, we really don't need to do this, we don't need to be so vicious. Even though you suffered some lightning strikes, you don't have to steal the thunder department's job!

He patted his backpack with his back hand, without saying a word. The Special Affairs Bureau guy stepped on the gas, parked the car on level ground behind it, and leaned out to wave to Shen Le:
"Take your time looking! No rush! I'll fly the drone around and keep watch for you. I'll alert you if anyone comes!"

Shen Le waved to him, then stumbled up the hill. This was the advantage of bringing Special Affairs Bureau employees along; it made them easy to bribe—a few spirit fruits were all it took to satisfy them.

Furthermore, if I do anything supernatural, people won't be surprised; they'll even try to cover it up for me!

He slung his backpack over his shoulder, one hand reaching inside to clutch the bottle, intently feeling its pulse. Earlier in the car, the Xing kiln white porcelain bottle had been perfectly still; but the moment his feet touched the ground, it jerked, as if suddenly waking up.
As he climbed higher and higher, reaching the hilltop, the porcelain bottle grew increasingly agitated, spinning and leaping frantically in Shen Le's hands, as if trying to break free from his grasp.

By the time Shen Le reached the top of the hill, the bottle's struggle had reached its peak. He bent down and put the porcelain bottle down, and saw it spin and grind against the ground, desperately trying to burrow downwards.

"Alright, alright, I'll take you down." Shen Le grabbed the bottle and sat cross-legged on the ground. A toy-sized drone buzzed overhead, swooping down and circling in front of him.
"Nothing unusual is happening around here!"

Shen Le nodded to the drone and slowly sank below the hillside. One meter, two meters, three meters, five meters… The earth around him slowly responded to his call, embracing him and supporting him. After sinking about ten meters, suddenly something clicked beside him:
"Huh? Have we arrived yet?"

Shen Le unleashed his spiritual power underground. At this depth, the soil around him no longer felt soft and heavy; instead, it felt like it was digging into him.

He focused his mental energy with exceptional delicacy, carefully "stroking" it little by little. Soon, he sensed what had "bumped him":
It's a layer of compacted soil. It's the remaining holes from wooden posts. It's pebbles, broken shells, and stones of various sizes left after the soil has been washed away.

The road was paved with stones and rubble, filled with baskets of dumped ash and a jumble of garbage...

To be precise, what made him feel "isolated" was the soil layer formed by human activities between the flowing water and the silt, a layer imbued with the scent of human life.

"Cultural layer..."

Shen Le murmured softly. The cultural layer is different from the silt layer; it will not respond to Shen Le's call without reservation or completeness. It has its own temperament and its own characteristics.

Shen Le had to communicate with it patiently to get it to make way for him and guide him to the place he wanted to find...

Uh……

Before Shen Le could finish his investigation, the Xing kiln porcelain bottle leaped out and headed straight for the left rear. Shen Le quickly grabbed it and immediately felt countless tiny, fragmented points of light rushing towards the bottle from all directions.

And that rear left side is the direction the porcelain vase is trying to rush towards, where the light spots are particularly dense:

Porcelain kiln!

A porcelain kiln has been discovered!
Shen Le gave himself a thumbs up. He urged the heat current, trying his best to communicate with the earth, turning and moving forward little by little.

As countless points of light surrounded him, symmetrically converging from all directions, he slightly expanded his spiritual power and saw what he was looking for:
Although it had collapsed and broken, he still saw the refractory bricks that had been carefully selected, washed, shaped and fired.
I saw one saggar after another that had been fired and then smashed.
I saw porcelain shards of various glazes, including blue, yellow, and white, piled together haphazardly.
I even saw pieces of porcelain, already fired and still in their saggars, lying dormant underground...

"found it!!!"

Shen Le was genuinely happy. Next, he sat quietly underground, expanding his mental energy to sense the kiln and the porcelain pieces:
The porcelain kiln has already been excavated, and a large number of important cultural relics have already been taken away. It's definitely not something Shen Le can figure out from which era a kiln site is just by looking at a bunch of porcelain shards.

However, now that the answer is known and the inscriptions are clearly written, remembering their essence and comparing them carefully should still be possible...

As for how long you need to sit?

Seeing the porcelain bottle constantly spinning and leaping, desperately absorbing the light spots, Shen Le knew that he probably wouldn't be able to leave until it finished absorbing them...

He immersed himself in meditation, using threads of spiritual energy to caress the firebricks in the kiln one by one, the saggars one by one, and the porcelain pieces, whether whole or broken, inch by inch.

Feeling the warmth of human life above, witnessing its rise and fall, finally settling beneath the soil, slowly falling asleep, slowly passing through hundreds and thousands of years...

As my spiritual energy swept over those refractory bricks, I could almost see the kiln workers carefully washing the clay, shaping it, glazing it, firing it, and then waiting outside, holding their breath after sealing the kiln door. All their hopes and anxieties were condensed on the porcelain inside the kiln.
As his mental energy swept over the porcelain shards again, he seemed to see the kiln worker's rough, calloused hands lifting the porcelain vase, examining it from left to right, finally letting out a long sigh, and then smashing it to the ground, shattering it into pieces...

The success rate of firing porcelain is not high, especially for large pieces, uniquely shaped vessels, or those requiring special glazes.

Shen Le had read the records and found that a porcelain kiln had been ordered to fire a dragon jar, but failed to fire it even after hundreds of attempts. The government officials in charge of them were pressing them hard.

In despair, the kiln worker threw himself into the fire, sacrificing himself for the kiln. Only then was the dragon vat successfully fired, and the kiln worker was revered as a master of wind and fire, with a shrine erected in his honor and sacrifices offered annually…

Of course, ordinary folk kilns generally wouldn't engage in such nerve-wracking tricks as one kiln producing poverty, another rich, and yet another leaving them saddled with rags. Even so, the success rate of firing was still something every kiln worker could pray for.

Shen Le silently sensed the surging, solidified hope, anxiety, worry, and joy within the porcelain kiln, until the surrounding light spots transformed from a galaxy into a swarm of fireflies, and then from fireflies into stars polluting the environment. Only then did he pick up the porcelain bottle and slowly emerge from the ground.

Under the daylight, this small Xing kiln white porcelain bottle had changed dramatically:

The glaze on the surface is becoming increasingly lustrous and thick. What used to look like only a thin layer now feels at least twice as thick.

The ice cracks in the glaze are fine and dense, as if they have grown out of thin air. When you rotate it slightly, the halo around the ice cracks has a colorful feel.

The most amazing thing is that before, after eating, it would just lie down and wait for Shen Le to take it to the next porcelain bottle. This time, it actually jumped around and even started to communicate on its own initiative.
[Over there! Take me there! And more!]

Wait, I've already taken you through all the discovered porcelain kilns; this is the last one.

You said there are more over there? Could they be new, undiscovered kiln sites?

Should I go directly there, or call in an archaeological team?
Most importantly, this is how I infiltrated underground—

Will it cause underground items to shift?
(End of this chapter)