The old things I repaired have become fine

Chapter 668 No! This is a celestial artifact I finally found!
Shen Le held his breath and forcefully extended his spiritual power to communicate with the surrounding stone walls, and with the rocks, soil, and the entire mountain range beyond them.

Don't let it collapse!
Whatever you do, don't let it collapse!
Even if it collapses, at least give me some cushioning, like a few stones arranged in a triangle so I can hide and then escape into the mountains, so I don't get crushed and bloodied!
The stone walls and caves answered his call. Although the tremors were violent and dust was falling everywhere, they held firm and no large chunks of stone crashed down.

After shaking for a while, with a bang, a sword-shaped stalactite fell down. After a pause, another one appeared, and another...

Each piece struck precisely at the position of the Big Dipper, where the white lines intersected, drawn by the porcelain sword, embedding itself deeply within it.

Shen Le struggled to set up a defensive barrier around himself, watching with a mixture of tension and curiosity as he saw the stone swords, half inserted into the ground and half standing upright on the surface.

With each piece that fell, a grinding sound echoed deep within the passageway, as if some mechanism had been triggered; with each piece that fell, the furry clumps in the corner of the stone hall huddled together even tighter, squeaking and screaming…

Alas, perhaps staying in this place is really not a good thing for them—sometimes, when two giants fight, even a slight gust of wind from their punches can kill the little creatures around them, whether they are grazed or touched.

Shen Le patiently waited until all seven stone swords had fallen to the ground, and then waited until the porcelain sword flew back to him, poking him with its hilt to urge him forward. He grabbed the hilt and asked gently:
"So, are you going to wait here? Or perhaps you'd like to go out and hide for a while? If you're going to go out, I'll stay here and wait until you've all left before we set off?"

"Thank you, sir! Thank you, sir!!!"

The fluffy creatures stood up on their hind legs, arched their front paws in front of their bodies, and bowed repeatedly, then stood up and lay down several times, bowing vigorously. Shen Le smiled and waved to them.
"Go on, go on. Be careful out there! Jackals, eagles, falcons—they're all dangerous. Don't get eaten!"

"Oh, and remember to abide by human laws. If you really can't make ends meet, go to the police station and line up to beg for food, but don't steal or rob!"

"As you command, sir!"

The lead red smudged fox bowed twice earnestly, while the smaller foxes behind it, some of whom couldn't speak yet, lined up and nodded in greeting.

Shen Le watched them file out and disappear beyond the passageway. In the distance, a sharp, piercing cry, rising higher and higher, drifted in, lingering long after:
"We've made it out!!!"

Okay, I understand. You've reached the safe zone. No matter how chaotic things get inside the cave, it won't trap you underneath. Shen Le smiled slightly, gripped the porcelain sword, and took a step forward:

Starting from the position of the Big Dipper where the stone sword was inserted, the handle of the dipper extends forward and disappears into the stone wall.

The seven stone swords fell, and the once smooth and flat stone wall now had a gaping hole, deep and dark, with no idea where it led.

Shen Le took a few steps, then suddenly turned back and, starting from Tianquan Star where the handle and ladle of the Big Dipper meet, counted his steps and walked forward one by one:

"One, two, three, four... seven..."

He took seven steps, then stepped forward, landing precisely at the end of the handle of the Big Dipper. Shen Le smiled:
"Hey, this is good!"

This length was carefully designed; it's a mechanism with an array!
It's not that I'm afraid you have formations or mechanisms; I'm afraid you haven't designed anything at all, or that your previous designs have rusted, jammed, or lost energy over time, making them impossible to open...

He continued counting his steps, moving forward along the handle of the Big Dipper. Stepping into the stone wall, he found himself in another long passageway, much narrower and lower than the previous entrance.

At first, it was more than a meter tall and a meter and a half wide, but gradually you had to duck to walk. After a while, you were surprised to find that you had to crawl on all fours to get through.

Shen Le climbed a few steps, growing increasingly anxious:
There's no way to walk here!
This design is not meant for human use!

If he goes any further, what if he gets stuck in the middle, unable to go forward or backward? Wouldn't that be the death of him?
He pressed his palm against the stone wall, his eyes slightly closed, and a powerful current of heat flowed into the tunnel. There was nothing else, just one thought:
Either find me a path that a person can walk on, or make way for me!
I'm not begging you to come looking for anything; you're the one who came to me, okay?

The stone wall beneath his palm softened slightly, as if it had elasticity, and he sank in, then hardened a little more. Shen Le channeled heat into it with one hand to communicate with it, while his other hand gripped the porcelain sword tightly, determined not to let it go.

After a prolonged struggle, the porcelain sword suddenly shone brightly, enveloping Shen Le completely before charging forward!
With this surge, the passageway, which was originally very narrow and impossible for him to crawl through, suddenly seemed extremely spacious.

The porcelain sword moved through the passageway like a small boat on a wide river, sometimes soaring upwards, sometimes plummeting downwards, and sometimes accelerating as it swiftly rounded bends.

After several twists and turns, it suddenly sank, and the sword light dispersed:

"Ouch!"

Shen Le stumbled and took two steps forward before regaining his footing.

Turning her head, Shen Le saw that the porcelain sword seemed completely oblivious to what it had done wrong, floating around her like a fish, its movements quite cheerful. Shen Le: "..."

What does it feel like to be thrown off your vehicle halfway by a flying sword while using a sword-flying technique...?

He reached out and once again accurately caught the flying sword, holding it firmly to his side. Looking around, his eyes lit up:
This stone chamber was much smaller than the previous one, but much brighter. The light seemed to come from nowhere, perhaps from the ceiling, perhaps from the walls, or perhaps it was simply meant to be this bright.

The stone chamber is rectangular, eight steps in front and back, and six steps in the left and right. At the very front is a stone couch, about five feet long and three feet wide, and three feet high, large enough for one person to sit comfortably cross-legged.

The stone looks like ordinary bluestone from the mountains, but it is smooth and shiny. When you touch it, it feels like it is covered with a layer of oil, or like it has been polished to a shine by countless tourists.

To the left and right of the stone bed were three stone stools, each about two feet in diameter and one and a half feet high. Judging from the layout of the hall, it was probably where the teacher gave lectures and the disciples listened to them.

These stone pillars are unique; the three on the left are pure white, while the three on the right are jet black. I wonder what the meaning of this difference is…

Oh, is this some kind of treasure hunt led to a sect's important location?

I'm cosplaying the game's protagonist, rummaging through every room, from bookshelves to sauerkraut jars, leaving no stone unturned?
This……

Shen Le looked around, sniffed hard, and then used his mental energy to scan the surrounding area.

The surroundings were completely quiet. From the passageway through which the porcelain sword led him, all the way to this sealed stone chamber without any doors or windows, there was no trace of anyone in sight.

Perhaps this place was once the headquarters of some sect, but... who knows how many years have passed... five hundred years? Or a thousand years? Or even longer?

This place has been abandoned, or perhaps its owner has died out... If we're talking about fate, perhaps the porcelain sword and it have a stronger connection... Shen Le composed himself, first bowing to the central stone bed, then bowing to the surrounding stone stools. Only then did he circle the stone chamber, searching inch by inch:
The walls had no suspicious dents, gaps, scratches, or areas of different colors.

The ceiling and the floor were not suspicious.
They shook each of the stone blocks one by one, lifted them up to look underneath, but still found nothing worth chiseling open the stone wall or digging up the stone blocks for a thorough investigation.

It seems that if there's anything in this stone chamber worth Porcelain Sword bringing him here, it's probably only the stone bed. Shen Le strode forward, placed his hands on the stone bed, and quickly infused his power into it:
The entry of the heat flow was initially very difficult, like inserting a rusty sword into iron filings, making a creaking sound with every inch it went in.

The energy seeped in for more than a foot, and suddenly the area in front of him felt lighter. Something, like a vortex, greedily sucked up the power transmitted by Shen Le, gulping it down as if it had been starving for hundreds or thousands of years.

Shen Le lunged forward, his arms bracing themselves firmly on the stone bed. He felt his wrists, elbows, and shoulders cracking as he instantly endured pressure more than ten times his body weight.

He desperately circulated the golden bead in his abdomen, squeezing out its power to supply the stone bed.

In an instant, a small whirlwind arose around him, surging in and drawing in all the spiritual energy of the entire stone chamber, the entire passageway, and even the entire mountain.

The stone bed beneath his palm became increasingly smooth, resembling jade in texture; its color also changed from dark to light, and from light to bright.

It was as if something, having consumed the energy Shen Le had given it, finally opened its eyes and began to declare its existence:

With a "crack," a small crack appeared at the top of the stone bed. Then, a whole stone slab slid outward, revealing a perfectly fitted rectangle inside the stone bed.

Immediately afterwards, the rectangle slowly rose up, and a jade pillow, emitting a soft, shimmering light, appeared before Shen Le. Before Shen Le could even reach out to touch it, the porcelain sword had already impatiently rushed forward and thrust it at the jade pillow!
The jade pillow silently split into two pieces. Between the two hollow pieces of mutton-fat jade, a roll of bright red silk was revealed.

Most of the silk was rolled up, with only a small section at the end unfolding as the jade pillow was separated. On it lay characters the size of soybeans, and without touching them, one could tell at a glance that they were embroidered with silk thread.

The silk was dazzling, and the characters were clearly written, stroke by stroke. In terms of both texture and embroidery, it was exquisite to the extreme...

"Don't!!!"

Shen Le screamed, lifting her hands from the stone bed and striking the two separated pieces of the jade pillow with her hands facing each other. But it was only for a moment, just a fleeting instant—the jade pillow splitting open and then closing again…

The vibrant silk, the words painstakingly embroidered by the skilled embroiderer, faded and withered before his very eyes.

Shen Le felt a sudden realization; a corner of her heart seemed to have dimmed along with the silk and the words.

Oxygen, oxygen, the number one killer of fabrics, and even the number one killer of a large number of cultural relics.

Countless cultural relics, sleeping peacefully underground for hundreds or thousands of years, undisturbed in ancient tombs, are destroyed in the instant they are exposed to the light of day.

Just like when the Dingling Mausoleum was opened back then, all those exquisite robes, satins, and delicate kesi dragon robes were carbonized, shattered, and turned into dust under the eyes of experts.
Those boxes of precious paintings and calligraphy instantly dimmed, oxidized, and became brittle, curling up in the hands of the experts and crumbling into dust.
Pieces of the phoenix crown lay scattered on the ground, gemstones missing, gold threads broken, and the remains curled up in a moldy brocade quilt.

Even the jade and porcelain pieces that were barely considered well-preserved were actually quite fragmented after the first wave of oxidation...

The painful lessons learned from the excavation of Dingling were repeatedly discussed in archaeology and cultural relic restoration programs, and every student was familiar with them.

Even in the neighboring history department, professors can't help but comment on a certain famous historian:
"He made great contributions to the study of history in our country...but..."

However, however... When Shen Le went on his exploration, investigation, and adventure alone, he forgot these historical anecdotes and the essential principles and procedures of archaeological excavation.

As the porcelain sword flew up and slashed at the jade pillow, he never expected that the jade pillow was hollow!

Of course, I never expected there would be any collectibles inside, and I never expected that when I found the jade pillow, I would have to grab it and send it into the laboratory and into a special low-temperature and humidity-controlled restoration cabinet!

Alright, this is it... The jade pillow was opened once and was exposed to oxygen, the silk inside... Oh well, let's quickly put it in the repair cabinet and see how much can be salvaged!

"Huang Yutong!"

Shen Le gave a soft shout and raised his wrist. A bead flew up and landed in the center of the stone chamber, quickly growing larger.

Before it could rise to a person's height, Shen Le hugged the jade pillow and stepped inside. The porcelain sword charged after him, but Shen Le didn't turn around and shouted:
"Stop it!"

With a thud, something hit the door, a dull thud. Immediately following, a crackling sound, and the little oil lamp leaped out with boundless energy:

It still won't listen! Watch me! I'm going to spank it!

...No way! Porcelain doesn't conduct electricity. Trying to extract it is completely unrelated to your expertise. You'll work yourself to death and still not get any results!

Fortunately, the porcelain sword couldn't cause any damage to the lightning driven by the small oil lamp. Shen Le let the two of them do their thing, then, carrying the jade pillow, hurried into the laboratory.

Open the repair cabinet, insert the jade pillow, inflate it, and adjust the temperature and humidity...

Only after all the displays were lit up and the temperature, oxygen level, and humidity were adjusted to the appropriate range did he carefully manipulate the glove box on the other side of the cabinet to retrieve the jade pillow.
Embarrassed.

It can't be pried open.

The jade pillow fit perfectly, completely still, as if it had always been a single piece of jade. Shen Le rubbed it, pulled it, wrapped it in a towel and tugged at it, and even gently scratched it with a fine needle…

The jade pillow remained motionless. Forced into a corner, he even retrieved a porcelain sword from the porcelain tower, placed it against the surface of the jade pillow, and gently stabbed and gestured, but to no avail.

"Do we really have to open the door, put the original porcelain sword in, and let it open the lock with the same key?"

Shen Le paced around the lab, fuming.
"I refuse to believe it! Without Butcher Zhang, we'll really have to eat hairy pork?!"

(End of this chapter)