The old things I repaired have become fine

Chapter 805 Fight with the cultural relics, and only by winning can you repair them!

Shen Le casually grabbed a cushion, sat cross-legged in front of the pottery urn, thought for a moment, then stood up and kicked the cushion away.

Take two steps back, assume a stance, and place your hands in front and behind, one forward and one backward:
This encounter with Jin Guang might not be something that can be resolved using only mental power; physical intervention might also be necessary.

If you're going to practice swordsmanship, that slight delay in jumping off the cushion is practically suicide!

Shen Le recalled the martial arts techniques he learned on the gold-plated board, especially the true meaning of that line that was restrained to the extreme and then exploded with extreme sharpness.

Gradually, his aura began to change, from being incomparably sharp to becoming just another face in the crowd, and then to seemingly not existing at all.

Gradually, a wisp of spiritual energy quietly emerged, carrying the composure and restraint it had just grasped, cautiously probing into the storage box, into the earthenware urn, and touching the golden light within:

Approaching, falling into the trap. One foot, half a foot, three inches, one inch—

A golden light suddenly rose up!

It was indeed much later than last time. Clearly, after being tempered by the gold-plated tablet and comprehending its essence, he was able to get closer before disturbing the golden light.

However, there is a limit to how close one can get. When he got within an inch of the target, the golden light suddenly appeared, much sharper and even more ferocious than when it had blocked him before!
Golden light condensed and slashed down; that inch of light brought Shen Le far more pressure than a foot-long dagger.

Shen Le felt a jolt, and all the pores on her body instantly closed, each one standing on end, and the hair on the top of her head seemed to point towards the sky.

However, despite his shock, he remained calm and focused his mental energy to the extreme. He moved, turned, and fought against that inch of golden light in the void!
The battles between assassins are different from the life-or-death attacks of warriors with their spears and halberds; they are much closer and more intimate, where every inch of distance brings danger.

Two golden beams, each about an inch long, transformed into invisible blades, constantly shifting their positions. Like two assassins wielding daggers, their bodies almost touching, silently battling in the darkness:

No one can see anyone else, and no one even knows anyone else. They can only listen with their ears, smell with their noses, and even feel the subtle heat and wind pressure with their skin.

The movements must be swift and discreet, without making a sound, so as not to alert any unrelated third parties.

The situation was fraught with danger, narrowly avoiding a fatal blow. He dodged, circled behind, engaged in a fierce struggle, parried, seized the opportunity, and suddenly thrust out his dagger!
This process was extremely mentally taxing. Shen Le initially stood in front of the safe, completely still, with only her muscles trembling slightly;

After a short while, he began to move his feet in very small steps, and his arms also moved within a very small range.

Although the movements were very subtle, each swing produced a sharp, whistling sound that echoed throughout the small room.

Gradually, a fine bead of sweat appeared on his forehead, then another, and another…

As beads of sweat gradually covered her forehead, gathering and threatening to roll down, several flowing skirts fluttered in the distance. She hesitated, wondering whether to go up and help wipe the sweat away.

Will this bother him?

"Probably... no way? But look at that golden light, listen to the wind... when we get close, we really won't be cut in two?"

【Let's wait until the sweat really bothers him before I go over... It doesn't matter if his hair is a little long, I'll just chop it off!】

The women in their flowing skirts fluttered together, their spiritual energy resonating silently within a small area as they engaged in quiet discussions.

Suddenly, all communication froze, and even all the light silks and loose hair were pulled back and squeezed together tightly!
A sword's cry rang out from the earthenware jar. It was extremely short, extremely sharp, and extremely violent.

With just that one sound, the storage box covering the lacquer box and the earthenware urn cracked three times.

The golden light that had been battling Shen Le's spiritual power suddenly receded, completely shrinking back into the depths of the pottery urn, as if it had never existed in any of the artifacts.

"Phew..." Shen Le let out a long sigh. Halfway through the sigh, he immediately jumped up and shouted:
"Safety box! Safe box!!! Quick, bring a new safety box over here and help me move my things there!!!"

Fortunately, he reacted quickly; fortunately, he quickly used his mental power to control the airflow; fortunately, he used magic to plug the damage to the safe.

But that's not enough. We need to change the box and move it to a safe place as soon as possible!
The girls in their skirts swarmed forward, some pushing boxes, some connecting wires, some connecting pipes, keeping Shen Le extremely busy.

There are only two things I can't do for him: one is to push the broken safe out and hand it over to the relevant department for disposal; the other is to get scolded by the professor.
"You eat boxes, huh?"

"In all this time, you've broken more boxes in the lab than you've broken in the last few days!"

"That's tempered glass! Tempered glass! Are you trying to hack at the box with a knife?!"

"Please be careful about your own safety!"

The professor was concerned for his safety, so Shen Le had no choice but to obediently lower his head and accept the scolding. After scolding him about the box, the professor continued to pursue the matter of the gold-plated tablet:

"You mean, this martial art was learned from the gold-plated tablet?"

"Yes……"

"Can you write this as a thesis?"

"Uh... I absolutely have to write it, and I could probably manage, but it'll be a bit of a stretch..." Shen Le gestured unconsciously.

"Maybe someone can write it for me? After all, there are many things I don't see entirely from the pictures; I sense them through spiritual guidance..."

It just requires someone to write out the content between the pattern and the result... Professor Hu waved his hand helplessly:

"Fine, write if you want, don't write if you don't want to. Anyway, this content won't get published in an archaeology journal—nobody cares what martial arts are."

As for the order of these gold-plated tablets, if you can come up with a suitable reason, write a paper about it and publish it; if you can't..."

"If I can't make one up, I'll at least make a copy, so the museum will have something to display!" Shen Le raised his hand in assurance.
"Don't worry, teacher, I'm good at this. I've fired so many porcelain and pottery pieces!"

"Get out of here! Do your job! There are plenty of teachers in the school who can make copies. You'd better think about not getting killed by this paint box!"

"Understood!"

Shen Le quickly rolled away. He returned to the old-fashioned lab, stood before the new storage box, and used his mental energy to probe into the ceramic urn, enveloping the now-ceramic artifact:
First wrap it up, then position it, then turn your head to look at the large screen next to you.

A camera constantly hovered above the earthenware urn, filming its interior and projecting the image onto a screen. Based on my mental senses and perception, it should be a…

dagger?

No, strictly speaking, it was half a broken dagger. Shen Le wrapped the broken dagger in his hand, gently lifting it, intending to move it out of the pottery urn so he could examine and repair it more easily. However, as soon as he exerted force, a sharp pain surged in his mind, as if he had been slashed hard:

"……Well!"

He stumbled, reached out and pressed his hand against the edge of the safe, and closed his eyes briefly.

Upon closer inspection, the golden light on the broken dagger had already receded into its interior; only a wisp of dark swirl remained at the edge of the blade, emanating an unusually dangerous aura.

In fact, it was this very aura that "cut" him, causing his mental energy to feel excruciating pain.

"Then... as long as I don't touch it, I should be able to move the things out normally?"

Shen Le pondered, then transformed and extended his mental energy into a tray, which he placed beneath the broken dagger and lifted it upwards.

Unfortunately, the dagger was too thin and sharp, and it got stuck inside a roll of silk. In order to pry it out, Shen Le had to get even closer to it.

He moved even slightly closer, and felt another cut, a sharp pain shooting through his forehead. He shifted again, the broken dagger tilting slightly on the silk, and another cut…

and many more!

The silk and the broken dagger are connected by their energy, as if they must be moved together; if they are even slightly separated, they will rebel!
Shen Le sighed and had no choice but to surrender obediently, re-expanding his spiritual power to wrap the silk beneath the broken dagger.

The silk was so fragile that it would break at the slightest touch. Shen Le could only concentrate his spiritual energy to its most stable and tranquil state, carefully immersing it in the silk.

Like the most precise surgical instrument, and like the gentlest flow of water, it supports the silk beneath the broken dagger, covering and reinforcing every line...

"Please don't crack, please don't crack... please don't break in my hands... I've already done ninety-nine prostrations, please don't tremble now..."

He muttered to himself as he focused his mental energy, not daring to tremble in the slightest. He regarded the broken dagger and the silk as a whole and slowly lifted them from the depths of the pottery urn.

This process was so slow it was almost as slow as the docking of Shenzhou 21 with the space station—not moving centimeters by centimeter, but millimeters by millimeter and micrometers by micrometer.

With every slight movement, he could feel the dark aura pulsating from the edge of the broken dagger, its sharpness sweeping in all directions.
Even without focusing on its spiritual power, this aura is like a lurking ferocious beast, seemingly dozing with its eyes half-closed, yet still keeping strangers at bay.

Shen Le manipulated his mental power to its extreme, and after an unknown amount of time, finally, the broken dagger and the silk completely detached from the pottery jar, drifting outwards a short distance—

“Huh… all right!”

Shen Le breathed a sigh of relief. He reached into the control panel next to the safe, grabbed a tray through his gloves, placed it under the silk, and then relaxed his mental energy.

Hold the tray firmly with both hands, move it smoothly to the side, and place it safely in the long empty space at the other end of the storage box.

Raise the partition, connect it to another storage box, deflate, inflate, move the tray, deflate and inflate again...

All the work had to be done in the dark, and the more light this ancient silk was exposed to, the more damage it would suffer.

Cultural relic restorers cannot see objects in the dark; they can only dim the lights and apply ultraviolet-blocking films.
Shen Le can use his mental powers to see in the dark, so of course he wants to minimize the damage to the cultural relics!

Finally, the broken dagger and silk were carefully and steadily moved into a brand-new storage box.

Only after the door closed and the internal environmental parameters stabilized did Shen Le dare to relax his tense nerves slightly. He wiped his forehead and immediately gave a wry smile:

I can never get used to such a dangerous maneuver! And now, my hands are sweating again…

Moving the broken dagger and silk was just the beginning of the work. Fortunately, he wouldn't need to use his mental energy for the rest of the task.

The box he brought this time already contained a robotic arm. Now, Shen Le was operating it from the outside, and the robotic arm moved inch by inch, descending inch by inch, and firmly gripped the broken dagger.

Just as he has done many times before, treating these spiritual artifacts with the methods of ordinary people will not touch their spirit, nor will it cause them to fight back desperately and damage the instruments and operating equipment.

In fact, the half-dagger was picked up quietly and steadily, moved to another tray, and then to another storage box.

The silk, still attached to the box, was placed into the storage cabinet. The cabinet door was closed, and the light was turned on!
Finally, only the metal dagger that was not afraid of light was left outside!

Shen Le busied himself with the dagger for a while. He measured dimensions, using calipers to measure length, width, and thickness, filling out forms one by one;

Set up the scanner again, adjust it to macro mode, and perform a 3D scan, making sure to scan every shape and detail clearly.

It is weighed on a precision balance and examined under a microscope for details, especially the fractured area, which is placed under a specialized metallographic microscope to carefully observe its crystal arrangement...

"Sigh, I'm not good at this, and I have to check the book." Shen Le frantically flipped through the book while exporting the observation results from the metallurgical microscope:
"If this were a master of alloys, he'd know what to do after just one taste... No, forget it, we can't let him taste such a precious artifact. Besides, something with such strong spirituality, if he swallowed it whole, wouldn't it puncture his intestines?"

Shen Le reminisced about the person she used to be able to ask for help (×) and slack off (), meticulously recording each piece of data.

The observation results show that the dagger body is made of high-carbon steel of excellent quality. Despite the long years, apart from the broken edges, the overall preservation condition is surprisingly good, with no rust on it.

The ominous black layer at the blade edge, based on preliminary analysis of multispectral scanning and Raman spectroscopy, is a complex organic compound.

As for what it is, Shen Le couldn't guess. Perhaps only when we reach the stage of sampling analysis can we make a further judgment.
As for how to repair this broken dagger, or even whether to repair it at all, these are things that need to be carefully studied before a decision can be made.

Shen Le put it aside for the time being, turned off the light, and respectfully took out the roll of silk.

Instead of immediately repairing it, he used his mental power to unfold it little by little in complete darkness, and then took pictures with a high-sensitivity infrared camera to obtain preliminary image data.

Return the silk, close the cabinet door, turn on the light, and look at the photos—

"what is this?"

Shen Le stared blankly at the far right of the photo. Beyond the lines representing mountains and rivers and the circles representing cities, there were four large characters, somewhat resembling pictographs and somewhat like seal script. Even though he'd never seen them before, he felt as if he could guess their meaning—

An unbelievable thought made his head buzz, and all the blood in his body rushed to his head.

"What is this?!" Shen Le sent the picture to her phone, then rushed out holding the phone.
"Professor, please take a look. What are these characters? What is this scroll of silk?"

(End of this chapter)