The old things I repaired have become fine

Chapter 794 What the hell did I find in the box?

Shen Le carefully—almost cautiously—raised himself up, wrapped in the clods of earth.

He had no choice but to be careful. The surface of the soil was dry, but the section he had cracked, down to six feet, began to get wet, and the rest was completely submerged in water.

Even the clod of earth he raised was covered with a layer of cool, clear water, which dripped down as the clod rose...

Shen Le used his mental power to wrap the outermost layer to prevent the surrounding air from seeping in and changing the properties of the water inside.

Then communicate with the water control rune to ensure that the water around the soil block is firmly encased, preventing the soil block inside from being exposed to air and oxidizing.

Then connect with the earth again, let those clods of soil firmly bind together, don't let them fall apart as you rise... The outermost layer is still mud! Soft! Soft!
At the same time, he flipped his hand and swung his arm backward. Huang Yutong understood immediately and flew out from his wrist, landing on the ground and rolling twice, turning into a miniature house that was one meter in diameter and half a meter high;
Shen Le opened his arms, loosely hugged the clod of earth, and stepped into it:

"Quick! Prepare the storage box! Temperature control! Humidity control! Fill it with nitrogen! The contents must not oxidize at all! Not even a little bit!!!"

With a series of swishes, the women in their flowing skirts emerged and fluttered toward the side of the old house, where they quickly dragged out appropriately sized storage boxes from the laboratory that Shen Le had specially built.

Adjust the temperature and humidity, turn on the air pump, and begin preparations for air extraction.

Shen Le rushed into the lab, put the soil along with the water from outside into the storage box, closed the lid, and started pumping air out and then pumping air in...

"Oh, thank you so much! I really don't know what I would have done without you..." Shen Le breathed a sigh of relief. Before she could even finish relaxing, she jumped up again:
"Fuck!!!"

From within that clod of earth, from within the contents that were firmly sealed by soft mud and whose layers of seal were unknown, a beam of golden light suddenly shot out!
The golden light fell on the safe, and the extremely hard tempered glass box was instantly pierced with a small hole. Then, it was ripped apart and shattered into pieces on the ground!
"Don't move!!!"

Shen Le almost screamed in agony. He had just relaxed! He had just loosened his grip a little, failing to tightly control the water and the clods of earth!
He wouldn't care if the storage box broke, or even if ten or eight more broke. But he absolutely mustn't let the water spill everywhere, or the mud and clods of earth crack, and he absolutely mustn't let the contents of the box see the light of day!

This thing is at least from the Han Dynasty, maybe even from the Spring and Autumn or Warring States periods. If it sees the light of day and oxidizes and is destroyed, he will never be able to atone for it!
Shen Le was in a flurry of activity, quickly mobilizing his mental energy and magic to wrap the area layer by layer.

In an instant, the entire scene seemed to have had its time reversed, as if someone had put the camera in reverse for a moment:

The rectangular block of soil, which had begun to deform and collapse, straightened up once again.

The outermost layer of mud, which was thickly wrapped around the cuboid, flowed out from all sides and spread out in the clear water, then kept receding and tightly adhering to the clod of earth.
The flowing, dripping, and splashing water was collected drop by drop, sealing back tightly and enveloping the outermost layer of the soil...

"Quickly, bring me the immortal jade, the one used to seal the spell!" Shen Le, looking relieved, ordered urgently, his speech almost twice as fast as usual.

A fragrant breeze wafted around her, her skirts swayed, and she moved from room to room, bringing him large chunks of celestial jade that had been processed with arrays in the Dragon Palace to seal away its golden light.

Shen Le first chose a larger storage box, stacked the immortal jade in a layer at the bottom of the box, and then stacked it around the edge of the box, trying to make it as tight as possible.

Only then did I put the soil, which I had been holding tightly, along with the water in, cover it, and slightly loosen the control on the bottom layer:
They're out again!

Another beam of golden light cascaded out, but fortunately it crashed into the immortal jade and was bound inside by the array that was already in full preparation.

Shen Le waited anxiously for a long time, and finally breathed a sigh of relief when five golden lights appeared, all of which were successfully blocked by the immortal jade.
"Start the pumping... pumping out the air, filling with nitrogen... oh my god, that really scared me to death..."

The air pump emitted a soft hum. Shen Le steadied himself, then took out a blank piece of immortal jade and quickly inscribed the array:

Using immortal jade to build up the bottom and four walls of this safe is not a long-term solution. There are still a lot of operations to be done in the future, requiring observation windows and operational space.

Inscribe a formation and set up a control circle at the four corners of the bottom and the four corners of the top of the safe to intercept that golden light.

In any case, we can't just shred the safe and spill its contents all over the floor!

He can't possibly watch over them 24 hours a day!

Shen Le multitasked, speeding up the recording process, and finally succeeded in completing the formation just as his mind started throbbing and he felt his mental energy was about to run out.

Release your mental control, wait patiently for an hour, and nothing serious happens; the golden light emanating from inside is absorbed by the formation.
One by one, remove the immortal jade pieces that are unrelated to the formation, and continue to wait patiently.

Good, nothing serious happened. The golden light that occasionally escaped from the clod of earth continued to meander and collide back and forth, being controlled and absorbed by the formation.

Shen Le breathed a long sigh of relief and began to patiently dismantle the clod of earth, step by step, following the steps of cultural relic restoration. First, he inserted a pipe to pump out the water.
Even if this water has coexisted with the soil and its contents for thousands of years, now that the environment has changed, it has to be pumped out as soon as possible!
Even if the contents have been soaking in water for an unknown amount of time, even if they are 200% saturated, the water still needs to be drained before anything else can be done!

Yes, during the pumping process, the water pump, pipes, and water container must be kept clean. After filling the container, seal it immediately and transfer it to another storage box.
We need to measure temperature, weight, density, pH value, and the content of various elements in the water.

Oh right, we also need to do a bacterial culture to see what kind of bacteria are in it. Shen Le is really not good at this, so we need to think about who to ask to do it, or who to trick into doing it...

The water outside the clod of earth was drained completely, and what followed was all sorts of mud.

While instructing the women to turn on all the available instruments and measure all the possible items, Shen Le simultaneously unleashed her mental energy:
Feeling the different textures of the soil, like peeling away layers of silk, you peel them away one by one.

Yes, first, the outermost layer of gravel. Grayish-white, finely broken, with a bit of slurry on the surface. Judging from the surrounding rocks, it should be fragments of limestone from a cave.
Then, there was a layer of white, greasy, bluish-green, fine-textured, and tightly packed soil, which, even though it had a muddy appearance due to its high water content, was still firmly stuck to the surface...

Shen Le felt this thing looked familiar, but couldn't quite place it. Then, she touched it between her fingertips:
Isn't this kaolin?
It's standard microcrystalline kaolin!
Even if it's not sieved fine enough, and needs to be sieved two more times and washed two more times before being used to fire porcelain, he would never be wrong; this is kaolin!
—Why would kaolin be found here? Is it not enough for them to fire kilns outside, so they also need to store things here?

Recalling the memories evoked by these two artifacts, Shen Le, who had burned countless porcelain pieces, was momentarily lost in a jumble of thoughts…

Wait, wait, this is...

The smooth, slippery feel of the kaolin clay still lingered on his fingertips, but an even more ancient name, renowned in the archaeological world, was already exploding in Shen Le's mind:
Green clay!
Yes!

that's it!
The books I read in school, the courses my teachers taught, the papers I studied—one by one, line by line, they quickly surfaced in my mind. Blue clay—that was a commonly used sealing and protective material in the tombs of kings and nobles during the Warring States, Qin, and Han dynasties!
This mud, made from microcrystalline kaolin, has a fine texture, high viscosity, and extremely low permeability, which can effectively isolate air and protect the tomb and coffin from decay for thousands of years.

The Mawangdui Han Tombs, the Shuihudi Qin Bamboo Slips, and the Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor—all important tombs—have their bottoms and the area around the coffins filled with thick layers of blue clay.

Even after the Han Dynasty, when brick and stone tombs replaced earthen tombs and blue clay disappeared from the historical stage, this highly waterproof material continued to be used in other places.

A large amount of burnt blue clay was also found at the bottom of the Luoyang granary during the Sui Dynasty!
"Oh My God……"

Shen Le gasped softly, her scalp tingling, and a layer of cold sweat instantly seeped out on her back.

The map given by the Dragon Lord, that sharp golden light just now, combined with this protective blue clay...

What's buried in here is absolutely incredible!
Even if he had already searched the area before going down and found no tomb, the contents of this box must be extremely valuable!

Moreover, judging from the use of this blue clay, its age can be traced back to at least the Han Dynasty, or even earlier...

This is……

This is a discovery of national treasure value!

From this moment forward, any negligence in his operation, any damage to the cultural relics, will be a crime against history!

Shen Le forcibly suppressed the turmoil in his heart. He no longer dared to operate the glove box or the various devices in the safe, and only dared to gradually unleash his mental power.

Like peeling away layers of silk, he used his mental energy as the most precise scalpel to carefully peel away the layers of blue clay.

Sure enough, after the thick and dense layer of blue clay was completely removed, a breathtaking vermilion color appeared inside!
Shen Le's eyes lit up instantly. The red was an extremely bright and vivid vermilion, set off against the deep and solemn black, as if it had just been painted yesterday.

Through the safe and the hard tempered glass, Shen Le could clearly see that the vermilion and black surfaces were moistened with water, radiating a warm and mysterious luster.

"It's lacquerware..."

Shen Le murmured. Having repaired more than one piece of lacquerware, he could tell at a glance that the craftsmanship of this lacquer box was extremely exquisite. The brilliant lacquer color would require him to try many times to recreate it now.

The cloud and bird patterns on the box are smooth and vivid, and although the metal ornaments on the edges are rusted, their shapes are still preserved.

Shen Le's heart was pounding like a drum. Such an exquisite, perfectly preserved, and brightly colored lacquer box—it would be a national treasure in a museum!

"Turn off the lights!" he commanded immediately. "Turn off all the lights!"

【But……】

"It's alright, I can see. You don't rely on visible light for observation, do you? Quickly turn off the lights and switch the camera to night vision mode. We can't take any risks right now—"

Light can damage these kinds of cultural relics!

It's fine if things like clay are durable, but lacquerware and its potentially more precious contents should be exposed to as little light as possible!

The skirts fluttered in the air as they hurried off to work. Shen Le continued to ponder the lacquer box.

He didn't dare to open it directly. Instead, he used his mental power to scan the entire inside and outside of the lacquer box several times to confirm that the structure was stable and would not suddenly collapse.

Then, with the help of the women in their skirts, they quickly created another set of formations and fixed it inside a larger storage box.

Then, using his mental power, he firmly wrapped the lacquer box and carefully and steadily "invited" it out from the scattered blue clay on the ground, placing it into a storage box that had been prepared nearby, lined with soft cushioning material and supported by a frame.

Next, we unpacked the box. The joint between the lid and the body was already soaked with mud and water, but it still fit tightly.

Shen Le didn't dare to force it open; instead, he used seventy or eighty Cleaning spells to clean the gaps little by little. Once he was sure the cleaning was complete, he used his mental energy to probe the keyhole and selectively unlock it.
"Thank goodness this thing isn't rusted... This lock isn't rusted at all! Well then, I can look forward to the contents being well preserved as well..."

The power of the mind is truly omnipotent. Covering the lid of the box, it was slowly lifted, and finally, the magnificent box revealed its contents to the world:
The first thing that caught Shen Le's eye was a silk painting covering the very top.

Equally astonishing is its color; the patterns and characters painted with mineral pigments such as cinnabar, azurite, and malachite remain dazzling even after thousands of years.

However, Shen Le didn't even need to rely on his mental power to touch it; his mastery of water-based powers already told him that the silk had absorbed enough moisture, becoming exceptionally soft and fragile.

Even the slightest touch could turn its fibers, strand by strand, into dust.

Shen Le held her breath, no longer daring to lift the silk painting, and could only explore it little by little with her mental power.

Beneath the silk painting lies a dense force of water, mixed with the force of wood—perhaps a finely woven reed mat, roll after roll, covering and separating what lies beneath.
Further down lies the heavy force of the earth element. It's blue clay, again blue clay, but this time it's much denser and harder—

They were crafted into gilded plates, their surfaces seemingly bearing engravings or paintings, though Shen Le wasn't entirely sure. At the center of each gilded plate was a chilling aura of gold—

Extremely familiar, extremely powerful. Even though it had been drawn out many times, and its wisps slumbered within the immortal jade, the remaining portion still made Shen Le dare not touch it:

What exactly did I find?

(End of this chapter)