The old things I repaired have become fine

Chapter 588 Thief! He broke into my house and stole my things! These are mine!!!
The off-road vehicle cut through the wind, heading towards the sunlight. To the left of the road, the Hotan River flowed mightily, its waters surging…

Shen Le leaned against the car window, curiously gazing at the scenery. The two sides of the road were like two completely different worlds:

To the left is a vast desert, with undulating sand dunes stretching as far as the eye can see. Only the fierce winds close to the ground whip up the sand and gravel, which dance on the surface of the dunes like clouds and mist, or ribbons in the hands of fairies.
To the right is a lush green expanse, with plants of varying heights extending all the way to the roadside. There are creeping reeds, clumps of saxaul trees, and tall, straight poplar trees…

Through the gaps in the poplar tree trunks, one can occasionally see a glimpse of clear water, which is the sunlight reflecting off the surface of the Hotan River.

"By the way... why is this highway so far from the Hotan River?"

Shen Le craned his neck and strained to see, managing to catch glimpses of the water's surface from time to time. Occasionally, vehicles would stop along the side of the road and walk to the riverbank, whether to draw water or take pictures, it was unclear.

Watching the passengers stumble and tread carefully, some even falling flat on their faces, Shen Le felt as if she were seeing herself a few days later:
"It must be about a kilometer long, right? If we want to get off to see the scenery, or if the truck runs out of water and needs some cooling water, it takes half an hour to walk back and forth!"

If the road were straight, it would be understandable, but the problem is that the road is also winding and twisting... What's the point?

The driver focused intently on driving, remaining silent. In the back seat, another young man, acting as both local guide and bodyguard (it was unclear who was protecting whom), leaned forward and earnestly answered:

"Building a highway requires considering the roadbed. In a desert like this, finding a solid roadbed to build a highway is extremely difficult."

Besides, look at the Hotan River; it's only a narrow strip, but it widens considerably during the flood season. If you don't leave some clearance and build a road right next to the river, it'll flood the road!

Oh, really?

Shen Le tried hard to search for his high school geography knowledge, but unfortunately found that although the textbook had indeed covered these topics, he had forgotten them all after so many years of not using them and needed to think carefully to recall them.

The Hotan River originates from the Karakoram and Kunlun Mountains and is supplied by high-altitude precipitation and meltwater from high-altitude glaciers and snow. Indeed, only during the flood season can one see its surging waters...

"Fine..." he sighed helplessly.
"Hopefully, when we find the location of the object, it will be close to the road, and we won't end up hundreds of miles away..."

"Several hundred?" The driver's hands trembled slightly as he gripped the steering wheel.
"Dozens of kilometers is terrifying! If we didn't have satellite phones to call for backup at any time, we would definitely have brought several support vehicles with us this time!"

Of course, that won't be necessary this time. Even if the off-road vehicle breaks down in the desert, gets stuck, and can't move, they can call for helicopter rescue—

what?
You're saying the helicopter can't find anyone?
Please, Huang Yutong can be unfolded to its maximum size. If you put a three-courtyard mansion on the desert, how could a pilot not see it unless he is blind!

Shen Le smiled without saying a word. He chatted with the two special affairs bureau guys for a few minutes, took a few photos, then closed his eyes, held the copper plate, and began to meditate.

The helmet on his head swayed, reflecting sunlight incessantly. He cradled two shoulder-sized arms in his embrace, slowly sinking into stillness. His spiritual energy expanded outwards in concentric circles.

"Not here...not here...not in this direction either...Found it! It's nearby! Get ready to get off the highway and turn left!"

The driver narrowly escaped with a slam on the brakes. He steadied himself, followed Shen Le's instructions, moved the vehicle, and found a spot to veer off the road.

The SUV roared, charging up the sand dunes and then down again. Shen Le swayed from side to side, crashing headfirst into the car window.

"Ouch!"

He covered his forehead with his hand and grumbled in complaint:
"Could you drive a little more carefully... If I hadn't been wearing a helmet, I would have almost smashed my head!"

"I'm sorry, Mr. Shen, the sand dunes are too undulating, and our off-road vehicle has limited stability."

The guy in the back seat was gripping the handle behind the front seat with one hand and the overhead handrail with the other. He braced himself in a horse stance, but still couldn't stop his body from swaying from side to side.
"It's much better now. Before, we didn't even have these handles. The first time I went into the desert, they welded a bunch of steel pipes onto the vehicle, and tied woven straps to the pipes. We just held onto the straps..."

Shen Le hurriedly took off his helmet and stuffed it into the pen holder. He figured it wouldn't matter if his head bumped once; he was tough as nails, he wasn't afraid of anything.

He really did get hit; one healing spell and the bruises subsided instantly. This helmet, these shoulder guards—they're antiques, all repaired by his own hands. He'd be the one heartbroken if they were damaged!

"The suspension system on this car is terrible!" the driver couldn't help but complain.
"They just won't give us a better car—my classmate once went to Egypt for tourism and rode a Land Cruiser into the desert. He was sitting sideways in the cabin and it didn't shake at all. It could stay steady as soon as you stepped on the ground!"

When the topic turned to car models, Shen Le couldn't get a word in edgewise. Before he got the copper piece, he was a poor student who couldn't afford a car at all, so he had no interest in such things.

After obtaining the copper sheet... wouldn't it be better to repair cultural relics?
Isn't superpower appealing?
It can fly, it can teleport along the earth's veins, it can get help from cloud kun, and it can teleport via water veins, isn't that great?

If he really needs to travel long distances, he can rent a car and have someone from the Special Affairs Bureau drive him. He won't have to worry about car maintenance, repairs, or parking. Isn't that great?
But now, he really felt that driving this off-road vehicle in the desert wasn't so appealing anymore. He wanted to travel by car for convenience, not to be a walking, talking bumper ball inside!

Shen Le patted the car window:

"Let's find a convenient place to park. I'll get out and walk around, and you guys follow in your cars?"

"This..." The young man in the back seat hesitated for a moment. The driver had already stepped on the gas, and the SUV made a graceful turn, stopping in a slightly flat depression.

Shen Le jumped out of the car happily:
"Alright, do as you please. You can follow me if you want, or you can use a drone to keep an eye on things, stopping and starting intermittently. I'm more comfortable looking for things on foot!"

Sensing the direction of his target, he took a deep breath and stepped forward. A gentle breeze surrounded him, and his steps on the ground were light and airy, leaving almost no footprints on the sand.

I climbed a sand dune, meditated for a moment, determined my direction, and then simply took flight:

They're not far apart now; the shortest distance between two points is a straight line!
The two secret service agents exchanged a wry smile. The one in the back seat took out a drone and set it up on the spot; the one in the front seat closed the car door, moved into the back seat, and watched the screen with him.

Watching Shen Le float gracefully forward, reaching the top of the sand dune, her toes lightly touching the ground like a dragonfly skimming the water, effortless and exuding carefree elegance:

"That's wonderful... It's so great to be able to fly... If only we could fly too..."

"What are you thinking! We cultivators are all raised to our current state by drugs from the Special Affairs Bureau. We're lucky if we can even stand on the ground and fight monsters! As for flying, we'd better look forward to jetpacks!"

"I might as well look forward to exoskeletons... Exoskeletons aren't rare anymore, but they still need improvement in terms of lightweight design and battery life..."

The two looked at the screen and chatted quietly, both feeling a bit relaxed: since Shen Le wasn't flying very fast and would stop every now and then to check his surroundings, they figured they could catch up in time by starting their car.

On the contrary, getting too close might interfere with Shen Le's work; what if he needs to dig sand by hand...?

They chatted for a while, then drove a bit further, then chatted again, then drove a bit more. They drove on and off for nearly an hour when Shen Le suddenly landed on the ground, placing her hands on the sand:
"It's here...it's here! Come out! Get up—"

With a shout, the yellow sand around him swirled up and began to dance rapidly around Shen Le. It spun higher and higher, larger and larger. The first circle was still at Shen Le's feet, but by the third circle, it was already above his head.

Two Secret Service agents gasped. One quickly steered the drone to level flight, while the other raised his phone, intently recording a video.
"He can control sand tornadoes now? How much power does such a tornado generate? Roughly how many horsepower is that?"

This is a new ability Shen Le has demonstrated! A new strength! We must record this immediately and report it to the Special Affairs Bureau for archiving—

The Special Affairs Bureau may not necessarily use this information for anything, but the information gathering work must be done well!
The sand roll grew taller and taller. It rose to the height of three people, five people, and ten people.

Shen Le stared intently at the bottom of the pit and reached his hand into it:

Coming!
I'll get it soon!
His mental perception became increasingly clear; it was just below—the last section was best dug out by hand. Controlling the sand tortoise might cause too much damage to what he was looking for…

With a "whoosh," the sand tornado suddenly stopped, and sand and gravel rained down, instantly burying Shen Le into a sandman.

Behind the two sand dunes, the special agent exclaimed in surprise and slammed on the gas pedal:

"Shen Le has been buried! Hurry!"

Shen Le himself felt nothing. The earth loved him and was willing to obey his commands.

Even if it were solid soil, let alone sand, they wouldn't bury him alive. They would definitely make way for him, or even lift him out.

He calmly squatted in the sandpit, frowning as he pressed down on the sand, and changed his approach to command it:
"Move aside, move aside... move a little to the side..."

The golden sand, scorching hot from the sun, flowed outwards in a way that defied the laws of physics, layer upon layer, piling up into small sand walls.

The sand beneath Shen Le's feet gradually receded, from his waist to his knees, from his knees to his ankles, and then, carrying him, little by little, downwards:
"Alright! Stop right here!"

He mentally commanded the sand, took out a small shovel and brush, and carefully brushed the sand surface. A rumbling sound came from behind as the off-road vehicle sped to the top of the dune, and the two young men simultaneously breathed a sigh of relief.

Thankfully, the object of their protection (or perhaps not) has already pulled itself out of the sand...

It wouldn't be appropriate to disturb them now. The two young men craned their necks, watching from afar as Shen Le squatted on the sand dune, slowly brushing the sand.

After glancing at them for a few moments, they each took out their instruments and began working:
Record the local latitude and longitude!

Scan the spiritual energy index in your vicinity!
Record your surroundings!
This place might yield what Shen Le wants; what if there's something the Special Affairs Bureau would be interested in?
Shen Le squatted in the sand dune, shoveling and scraping, using both physical and mental strength. In a short while, a small dark patch appeared on the ground.

"Found it." Shen Le breathed a sigh of relief. The thing in front of him was rough, broken, and pitted. It was the kind of thing that even if you took it to sell as scrap metal, the recycling station would haggle over the price and take it away by a penny.

However, under Shen Le's fingertips, it pulsated gently, emitting an extremely bright vibration.

At the same time, the shoulder guard and helmet resonated together, as if greeting something half-buried in the sand:
Old friend!
You're here!
haven't seen you for a long time!

But I've met you~~~
Shen Le's lips curled slightly, his smile gradually brightening. He quickened his pace, digging and pulling until he had completely unpacked the object from the sand.

He lay sprawled on the surface of the sand dune, looked it over from head to toe, and sighed deeply.

"Sigh..." The good news is that it's a suit of armor, not a completely scattered, rusty, and stuck-together piece of armor.

Bad news, this armor is only half a piece... or a quarter of a piece?
Judging from its shape, the pile in front of me should be a suit of body armor, or more specifically, a two-piece suit of armor. I slipped it over my head, covering my chest and back, and then... that was it...

Gone……

Gone……

The skirt armor was almost completely gone, the binding leather straps were broken off, and the armor plates were nowhere to be found.
The arm guards aren't here either; I don't know if they were thrown somewhere else or if they were simply torn or ripped apart.

Judging from the shape of the metal pieces, the belt should have some fragments, but most of them are missing.

I don't know if it's nearby, or if it was lost somewhere far away, or if it will never be found again...

"Hey, where's your partner? Where are your other parts?"

Shen Le squatted on the sand dune, fastened his helmet, put on his shoulder guards, and pressed his hands against the armor. His spiritual energy spread out, extending far and wide thanks to the resonance of several objects:
There are none around, none within ten meters, none within one hundred meters, and none within one kilometer.

There was no reaction on the surface of the dunes, and at least ten or twenty meters below them, there was no reaction either. On the contrary, in a very, very far place, there were bright spots that flickered gently.

That's right, some parts of this armor are scattered in the desert. His initial location was correct; he just needs to continue searching along the marked areas!

"I found it!"

He retrieved the armor into its special storage bag, held it close to his chest, and flew towards the top of the sand dune:
"Let's go, let's head to the next stop! According to the previously marked location, it's about 50 kilometers away. Let's keep going, and maybe we can find another location today!"

"We have to go into the desert again..."

The two secret service agents sighed in unison.

Sighing won't help. I turned the steering wheel, stepped on the gas, and sped off towards the highway.

Shen Le sat cross-legged on the roof of the trunk, holding onto a rope extending from inside the car, and calmly floated along with it:
Anyway, he would never go into the carriage to play bumper balls until the road was visible to the naked eye and people on the road could see him with their own eyes!
Going back and forth like this, entering the desert, leaving the desert, then entering the desert again, and leaving the desert again, we found seven or eight locations in a week.

Finally, Shen Le stood with his arms crossed beside a dry section of riverbed, his brows furrowed deeply:
"Do you think... if I were to dig up this river and go to the bottom to look for something, would that violate some policies and regulations?"

The two young men looked at each other, completely bewildered. They didn't know anything about this either!

They are the ones who are responsible for following orders!

Policies and regulations, procedures and such—whether it's severing a gas pipe or cutting off a national defense fiber optic cable, those aren't their responsibilities…

All they care about is reporting and doing their jobs!

As for this section of the riverbed... what impact digging up this dried-up riverbed would have on the natural environment, if there were underground rivers beneath it, was not something he needed to consider...

"Never mind, I'll try not to dig it open." Shen Le looked at their expressions and sighed.

He could clearly feel a certain force pulsating underground, both deep and vibrant, resonating with what he had found—

Even that same piece of armor, the center point of resonance for all the remaining fragments.

We can't let it lie dormant underground; we must retrieve it!

"I'll go down and check on them. You all stay up here, don't worry. I'll leave the little ones up there; they'll alert the police if anything happens—"

He took off his backpack and put it on the SUV, only putting the pen holder in his inner pocket.

Forget about the small oil lamp; there's an underground current here. If the small oil lamp were to launch an attack, whether it would hit anyone else is another matter, but water conducts electricity, so it would likely get hit itself...

Waving to the two young men, Shen Le glanced back at the road and then walked forward under the cover of the SUV.

We crossed a low sand dune, squatted down, and went lower and lower...

"He sank into the sand..."

"Is this Earth Escape Technique?"

"Can ley line teleportation also be used for short-range searches?"

Shen Le was completely submerged in the gravel, slowly sinking. The earth gently embraced him; he had no difficulty breathing underground and felt no danger whatsoever.

Feet on the ground, torso on the ground, head submerged, everything was dark, I relied solely on my mental strength to orient myself. I sank another two meters or so, then felt a slight coolness in my feet; I was already submerged in water.

We've reached the underground current!
What he was looking for was beneath the surface, whether in the mud or among the rocks, he didn't know...

Shen Le's heart had barely stirred when, with a loud crash, he was knocked sideways.

The underground current was flowing quite fast, and it seemed to be carrying something unknown, which slammed hard into his waist!
More importantly, he's currently half in water and half in mud, so controlling the soil and repelling the water simultaneously is quite difficult...

"Ouch!"

Shen Le cried out reflexively. He quickly sank down, immersing himself in the water, and rubbed his lower back.

It hurt to the touch. I didn't know what it was; it was hard, sharp, and very heavy. Luckily, it hit my hip bone; it only hurt, not seriously injured me. If it had hit me head-on…

That would be the end of us!

Shen Le hissed as he inhaled deeply, his mental energy stimulating the golden bead in his dantian, causing a series of spells to rapidly light up: Healing Spell, Water Repelling Spell, Stone Shaping Spell, Light Spell…

First, heal the pain, then clear a space so you can move freely and breathe steadily in the water, then change the shape of the underground waterway, add a handle to hold onto, and then light up the area around you...

I looked around, but there was nothing there. It was probably a rock, or something like that, that the current had swept away?
After guessing for a moment, Shen Le put the attack on her mind, used the water current to protect herself, and quickly sank downwards.

He reached the bottom of the water, pressed down, and the sand and gravel parted automatically. The item he was looking for, encased in layers of rocks, rose directly to the surface and landed in his hand.
"got it!"

Shen Le weighed the item in his hand and felt quite satisfied. It wasn't very big, shaped somewhat like a plate, about half a foot thick, and he didn't know how many layers of rock it was covered in.

This packaging is just right. Any smaller and it probably wouldn't be able to protect the contents. Any larger and it would be a bit troublesome to transport or move.

Okay, I'm leaving!

He casually stuffed the stone plate into his clothes, and when he touched the inner pocket of his clothes, Zhong Xiaomei naturally took it and put the item into the pen holder.

The sand and gravel at the bottom of the underground current converged again, and the water flow lifted Shen Le upwards—

Wow!

A heavy, sharp sensation returned. The water was churning, and the circle formed by the water-repelling spell was sounding an alarm. Shen Le suddenly turned around:
"what!"

【mine!】

A sharp scream pierced Shen Le's mind like a nail. Shen Le's mental energy automatically condensed, surrounded, and protected it, preventing the scream from invading, but it still made his head buzz.

"who are you?"

He asked a question. There was no answer; instead, the other side spun around and charged again.

【mine!!!】

The ball of light swayed, illuminating the entire underground current. This time, Shen Le could see it clearly:

That dark, spindle-shaped thing that rushed over, constantly shaking its head and wagging its tail, was a big fish!
It was nearly as long as a person, covered in thick armor, with sharp, hard teeth that gleamed white under the light—it was clearly a large, carnivorous fish!

"Who said this is yours? These are relics of the Tang army, collected and searched for bit by bit by me!"

As Shen Le answered, he floated upwards. In the underground currents of this desert, something that could grow to such a length, emit mental energy, and possess self-awareness was undoubtedly a fish demon.
Heaven cherishes life, and Shen Le didn't want to kill without a reason. He pushed off with his legs, the water lifting him up and propelling him swiftly towards the top of the current.

It surged to the top of the cave, disappeared into the soil, and rose rapidly through the earth. A thud echoed beneath its feet; the large fish was clearly enraged, constantly banging its head against the cave ceiling.
Unfortunately, the fish demon couldn't use earth magic, and no matter how much it rammed into him, it couldn't stop Shen Le from escaping. A moment later, he emerged from the ground and strode towards the SUV:
"All done. Let's go—"

A deafening explosion shook the heavens and the earth.

Gravel shot up more than ten feet high, then drifted and scattered around, settling in a thin layer on the roof of the vehicle. From within the sand, crystal-clear river water gushed upwards like a fountain—

The fish demon emerged from the water, leaping high into the air, then swept across the room, accompanied by a column of water:

【Mine! Mine! Mine!!!】

(End of this chapter)