The old things I repaired have become fine

Chapter 589 The Special Affairs Bureau has arrived with help... This is so unconventional! (Seeking the last monthly vote of March)
"This isn't yours!"

This isn't yours!

"These are relics of the Tang army!"

"Fill the hole properly, and don't spray water upwards—don't spray water onto the road! Don't enlarge the hole! Don't damage the roadbed!!!"

Two special agents stood side-by-side by the roadside, one operating a drone, the other holding up binoculars, watching Shen Le leap around the water column. As he jumped, he shouted:
"If you keep attacking, I'll fight back!!!"

The two looked at each other, exchanging glances. They were recording the video while whispering to each other.
"It looks like a monster over there."

"That should be it... It's water-based, but the burrow is too small to see clearly. It should be a fish?"

"Why isn't Shen Le attacking? There's no reason why Shen Le can't beat it!"

"Do you need us to drive over and help?"

"No need, didn't you hear him say that monster can damage the roadbed? Parking the car here makes it easier to record video... Damn!"

In an attempt to get a clearer view of the monster's details, the drone, flying too low, was hit by a jet of water and tumbled to the ground...

Fortunately, Shen Le leaped up and caught the drone. He examined it in his hands, then floated back as if his feet weren't touching the ground and handed it back to them.
"It seems to be a bit broken?"

"Thank you so much, we'll fix it when we get back." The guy in the back seat retrieved the drone and bent down to put it in the back seat. The driver asked curiously:
Why don't you hit it?

"They're not entirely without reason," Shen Le complained with a bitter face.
"The stone shell that I dug out had the same aura as the one it was wrapped in, layer upon layer. It must have been something it had been working on for many years."

Imagine you're peacefully at home, and suddenly someone bursts in and takes away your treasured possessions that you've kept for decades, even centuries. Wouldn't you be furious?

If you were reading a novel, and a mere monster dared to be so persistent, the protagonist could easily kill it, and the reader would probably shout, "That's satisfying!"

However, from the Special Affairs Bureau's perspective, humans belong to the country, and demons belong to the country. Even if one party commits a crime, it is best for the state to handle it...

Fighting and killing is really bad. Even demons who haven't fully cultivated or awakened their intelligence are potential citizens and potential forces!

Seeking personal remedies, or resorting to violence at the slightest provocation, is at least illegal and a major headache for the Special Affairs Bureau! On the contrary, everyone admires Shen Le's gentle and restrained approach…

The two Secret Service agents exchanged a glance and nodded simultaneously.

"Then... how about we just leave?"

"Wouldn't it be bad to let it go? It's already very angry. If we leave it here, I'm afraid it will damage the roadbed or attack pedestrians..." Shen Le scratched his head:

"Is there any way to communicate with the Special Affairs Bureau? I'm really at my wit's end. I've called them dozens of times, but they won't listen..."

"...There really is. Don't worry, let's get out some equipment and try it out?"

One of the daily tasks of members of the Special Affairs Bureau, especially those at the lower levels, is to communicate with all sorts of demons and monsters.

Over time, those who can speak human language can of course have a good chat, but those who cannot speak human language or even understand human language should not give up on communication, right?
Over time, the Special Affairs Bureau developed a set of effective communication methods and trained each member on them...

Shen Le watched as they took a suitcase out of the trunk. It wasn't very big, about the size of a 20-inch suitcase, with casters at the bottom and a handle at the top.

He opened the case, pressed a few buttons, turned a few knobs, and took out a microphone and a megaphone, plugging them into the case. Then he grabbed the microphone and shouted:
"This isn't yours..."

Once you shout something, the loudspeaker emits a series of high and low sounds, neither like birdsong nor animal roars, probably an automatic translation.

The young man repeated Shen Le's words several times, but to no avail. The monster crashed into the ground with a series of thuds, and the edges of the cave collapsed one by one.
"It seems like it doesn't understand?"

"It's possible he's shouting into the air, and the fish in the water can't hear him..." The guy in the back seat rummaged through the box, took out a dark, pea-sized object, and handed it to Shen Le:

"Mr. Shen, could you please drop this mini Bluetooth speaker into the water? Let's try communicating again..."

Another attempt at communication was useless. The fish demon remained agitated and continued its angry attacks. The two young men shook their heads helplessly.
“We can’t do it ourselves, we need to find professionals. Mr. Shen, are you in a hurry? If not, could you wait here for a little while?”

Shen Le wasn't in a hurry at all—and he was also very curious about what kind of "professionals" the Special Affairs Bureau would bring over.

This fish demon doesn't seem to have fully developed its intelligence yet; at least it can't understand human speech... How can we communicate with it?
He patiently waited by the roadside for a day and a half, and sure enough, the "professionals" arrived.

A tall, imposing, boxy seven-seater SUV sped up, screeching to a halt next to the Special Affairs Bureau's off-road vehicle.
As the car door opened, Shen Le didn't see anyone, but first smelled a fragrant breeze that wafted towards him.

Stop for a moment, and a dazzling, golden-red tulle dress floats out of the car door. Before the person even shows their face, the fluttering skirt already covers half of the car body.

Shen Le stared at the dress in disbelief, completely unable to understand why anyone would wear such an outfit to the desert.

Doesn't he need professionals?
How did this enormous Baroque-style gown, which covers an area of ​​more than two square meters, come about?
How did she manage to squeeze out of the car in that outfit?!

On the huge, golden-red tutu, was a voluptuous figure, with snow-white, soft breasts and rounded arms.

Then, a face slowly lifted, its hair piled high, adorned with jewels and ornaments, a large red peony neatly placed in the center of the high bun. And beneath this magnificent hair ornament was…

Yes……

It was a face with sharp, angular features, which could be described as "a leopard's head with piercing eyes," and even covered with a layer of bluish stubble...

Shen Le nearly choked. "Boss, we...we mean...we mean..."

There's nothing wrong with liking women's clothing; everyone has their own hobbies. But, could you perhaps... I mean, perhaps...

In society, when interacting with others, should you exercise a little restraint?

Beside him, two secret service agents simultaneously made gurgling sounds, clearly on the verge of fainting.

They staggered, and it took them a while to struggle to their feet before stepping forward to greet them:

"gold……"

Mr. Jin?
Miss Jin?
According to previous communications, a Mr. Jin was coming, but now, should we call him "Mr" or "Miss"?
Perhaps her exaggerated women's clothing reflects a rather unconventional gender identity?

"Stop with the pleasantries, hurry up and change cars." The man waved his hand forcefully, his voice rough, bold, and decisive.

"Hurry up, take me there so I can leave as soon as I'm done. Ugh, it's so dry here. If I stay another half hour, my skin will start peeling!"

Shen Le watched helplessly as he squeezed into the SUV she had come in. The huge back seat was packed full, leaving no space at all.

While feeling relieved that she didn't have to take a car, Shen Le lightly floated up, touched the ground with her toes, and followed beside the SUV, explaining the situation:

"The cave below is quite narrow, and the underground currents are complex, some of them quite fast. That fish demon is enormous, so please be very careful..."

"Don't worry, I already knew!"

Mr. Jin waved his hand as if it were perfectly natural:
"Otherwise, they wouldn't have sent me! Just a little fish, hmph..."

Small?
That's quite a lot!
Or perhaps, you...

The SUV sped along, climbing hills and tumbling downhill, kicking up clouds of dust, and soon arrived near the cave. The door opened, and Mr. Jin leaped out, transforming into a golden light:
thump!
Wow!

The enormous skirt spread out in the cave, and in an instant, the entire cave was filled with golden and red light, almost completely enveloping the black fish demon below.

Shen Le paused for a moment, then looked closely again. The golden-red light had receded, transforming into a large fish that swirled gracefully beside the black fish demon.

It has a plump figure, a bright red head growth, and most of its body is covered in brilliant golden-red scales, while a small portion of its scales are snow-white, forming beautiful patterns with the golden-red.

That magnificent, dazzling tail, which stretched out and covered two-thirds of its body, would occasionally lash out, knocking the black fish demon over and sending it tumbling head over heels...

"Ah...oh...fish demon..."

Shen Le stood blankly at the edge of the cave, looking down.

I have to say, such a beautiful tail would be better suited as a large skirt if it were to transform into human form; turning it into pants would be too jarring... What the heck!

Why do male fish wear such large skirts?
"I understand……"

The driver, who was slightly off-center, walked over and stood shoulder to shoulder with him, his eyes also a bit glazed over.

"This senior, is your true form probably a goldfish? In many fish species, the males are more beautiful than the females. Look at betta fish, the males have magnificent tails that they constantly display, while the females are all grayish-brown..."

So after transforming into human form, he brought his fish-like habits with him into human society. What's wrong with the big tail?
What's wrong with a big skirt?
So what if it's dazzling gold and red?
I like to dress up nicely, is there a problem with that?
The stronger a person is, the more they like to do as they please and the less they like to be bound by rules.

Not to mention, this beautiful tutu, along with the hair ornaments and peony flowers on his head, are probably a part of his true form, not just clothing, so he was dressed for maximum comfort...

Shen Le took a deep breath, then a deep breath, trying to convince herself that she shouldn't use human rules to restrain a fish—

Especially since they didn't violate any laws or regulations; they just wanted to dress as they pleased.

However, after trying to persuade him for a while, I still found it a bit too much to bear, so I turned my head away and only used the corner of my eye and my mental energy to investigate:
Good grief, is this how you persuade people?
Just try to persuade them physically?!

Mr. Jin was tumbling and rolling in the water, locked in a fierce battle with the black fish demon. No, it was less of a battle and more of a one-sided beating:

With a flick of its fin, the black fish demon tumbled and crashed into the burrow, causing sand and soil to tumble down the burrow walls.
With a flick of its tail, the black fish demon sank to the bottom and was carried a long distance away by the current.

Wait a minute, as the black fish demon charged forward again, a beam of red light shot out from the head growth on the goldfish's forehead, tearing open another row of the black fish's scales...

After thrashing and beating it for about half an hour, the blackfish finally lay still in its burrow, no longer daring to surface. The goldfish shrank its size, from the size of a person to the size of a palm, and kept swimming around it, blowing bubbles and slapping its head with its fins and tail...

The blackfish would occasionally exhale a small string of bubbles, nod its head and wag its tail, it was hard to tell whether it was communicating or surrendering.

Fifteen minutes later, with a splash in the water, Mr. Jin leaped high into the air, transforming back into human form mid-air, and strode over, dragging his wet, puffy dress.

"It's settled. It acknowledges that this thing belongs to you, and it won't cause any trouble—is there anything else? If not, I'm leaving!"

Shen Le quickly put on a smile and strode over. He held up the stone disc he had found at the bottom of the cave, then took out the helmet, shoulder guards, and fragments of armor, showing them to Mr. Jin one by one:
"Thank you so much, you've worked so hard. Could you please ask around—besides this stone disc, did it find anything similar to these things? I'd like to trade with it!"

He reached into his bag and pulled out a small bottle of aquatic plants: aquatic plants imbued with spiritual energy, taken from the Jade Ring Secret Realm in the White Mountains and Black Waters, as a bonus for fish and shrimp.

Mr. Jin's eyes lit up as soon as the item was taken out:

"This is great stuff! Just give it to me, I'll go ask it and make it hand it over!"

Ah this...

Shen Le thought for a moment, then took out a bottle of seaweed and a small box of pearls:

"This is for you, thank you for coming all this way. As for the next person, I'd like to suggest we exchange them?"

Mr. Jin's smile faded. He carefully examined Shen Le, then nodded. He took the small bottle, his enormous skirt swaying, and slowly walked towards the cave.
"Please wait a moment. The little guy is too young to understand—his cultivation isn't high enough. I'll go talk to him!"

I understand. Lesser demons with insufficient cultivation are barely awakened; if you try to explain complex things to them, they won't understand. If you want to communicate, beat them up first, then talk to them!
There were fish demons that had cultivated into human form—Shen Le didn't know if they were of the same kind, but the relationship between fish demons was probably closer than the relationship between humans and fish demons, so Shen Le let them communicate.

Mr. Jin jumped into the water again, pushed the small bottle in front of the black fish demon, its fins flared, and it kept blowing bubbles.

After a while, the black fish demon slowly rose to the surface, shaking its head and wagging its tail, nodding repeatedly at the water's surface before diving back down. Shen Le followed suit and leaped in.

"Wait, I'll do it! Just show me the place, I'll unpack it, and make sure it doesn't break it!"

The goldfish quickly swam over, raised one fin, and waved at Shen Le, indicating that Shen Le should climb onto it.

Shen Le smiled and nodded at him, activating her water-repelling spell and steadily following behind the two fish. They followed each other into the dark waterway, fifty meters, one hundred meters, two hundred meters…

It's getting farther and farther away. The Hotan River flows from south to north, crossing the Taklamakan Desert.

Even if they aren't all surface rivers, a significant portion of the underground streams are wide enough for the black fish demon to pass through...

The fish demon found quite a lot of things, which it separated and placed in several nests—the river's water level varied with the seasons, bringing different kinds of food.

Mr. Jin could pass through without hindrance, and so could Shen Le; the two special affairs bureau guys were left on the shore, wandering around in circles:
"Why hasn't Mr. Shen come up yet?"

"Yeah...it's been half an hour already!"

"Should we make a call and ask?"

Did he bring his phone?

"It seems like he brought it... I saw him put his phone away and keep it with him. So should we call?"

"Are you kidding me? What kind of phone call can be made underwater or underground?"

"Um... gentlemen, how is Mr. Shen? Is he safe?"

From the backpack, the little wooden puppet leaped out, spun around once, and squatted down to scribble words haphazardly:
"Safety"

"Quite far"

"Wait"

"You're not taking me with you"

Don't take me with you!
They're not taking us!

It went down by itself!

Humph! !! !!
The two young men breathed a long sigh of relief and sat down on the sand, which was still warm from the recent sunset. As long as Shen Le was safe, nothing else mattered…

They can't control other things, can they?
Shen Le swam quickly alongside the giant black fish. The fish demon swam differently from ordinary fish; it seemed that instead of using its fins and tail to propel itself, the water current carried and supported it forward.

A short while later, it landed at the bottom of a small puddle and kept banging its head against it. Mr. Jin explained from the side:
It says the thing is hidden down there.

"Understood, thank you." Shen Le used his mental energy to try and sense it. It was still surrounded by layers of stones, some flat, some long, some round, and some irregularly shaped.

The items varied in size and were piled up haphazardly. The aura emanating from them was also quite mixed, unlike anything found in the armor series, but…

Well, anyway, let's get it first. Even if it's not what he wants, it might still be an antique!

Shen Le swam forward and touched the black fish:
"I've given you what you wanted, so I'll take it?"

He placed his hands on the bottom of the pool and silently invoked the power of the earth. After a moment, the bottom of the pool rippled and parted on its own, and several items quietly rose up and came to Shen Le's side.

Shen Le put the things into the pen holder and patted it again in a friendly manner.

"Thank you so much. Is there anything else? I'll trade you a few more seaweeds in return?"

Led by the black fish demon, he ran to five different places in one go and got a bunch of... well, unidentified objects that can only be called blind boxes.

He emerged from the river, sent his location to two secret service agents, and they both went insane simultaneously.

"You ran over a hundred kilometers?! In just an afternoon and a half, you ran from the middle of the desert to the outskirts of Hotan?!"

"Do we still need to drive over to pick them up?"

Sigh, working for others is truly a miserable life...

Shen Le didn't feel his life was miserable at all. He found a secluded spot by the river, snuggled comfortably into the thousand-work bed, and enjoyed the warmth of the quilt.

Mr. Jin was soaking in the wide, clean Hotan River at the foot of the Kunlun Mountains, chatting with him intermittently:

"You're actually a pretty nice person. You didn't just kill that ignorant little demon."

"We've already taken its things, how can we hit it?"

"By the way, do you like antiques? I have some here, would you like some?"

"Ah... I don't like antiques, I like restoring them... What will become of this little demon? It seems it'll be stuck here forever, the Hotan River doesn't connect to the sea..."

"It's alright. Once it's almost ready to take human form, I'll guide it and ask if it wants to move. Anyway, this river is wide enough for it to live in during the summer!"

"Thank you very much then..."

"No need to thank me. The Special Affairs Bureau gives you a stipend for mentoring younger colleagues like this. Hey you, come here!"

Which one?
Shen Le lifted half of his head off the pillow and looked around. The next moment, there was a loud splash beside him, and a black fish demon emerged.

Mr. Jin took out a jade pendant, and then pulled out a long gold thread from somewhere, which he tied to the base of the black fish demon's fin, and hung the jade pendant on it.
"Alright, now that we have this, it's a monster registered with the Special Affairs Bureau. We can get some resources from it in the future, and the Special Affairs Bureau can contact it if they need anything."

"Hey, remember, don't spray water on the road again, or you'll get fined..."

Chattering and chattering. Shen Le slowly drifted off to sleep to the splashing sounds of the two fish demons communicating, sleeping until dawn when he was awakened by the sound of a trumpet.
"Mr. Shen, please be more careful next time! Underground currents and such are really too dangerous!"

Regardless, this adventure was still very valuable. On the third day, in a specialized research room at the Dunhuang Research Institute, Shen Le laid out his findings one by one:

"This looks like a box... Hmm, it is indeed a box inside, and there seems to be some paper inside? Be careful when you take it out, don't break it!"

"This is... half an arrow? It's lucky the arrowhead didn't rot..."

"These are silver ingots? What era are they from?"

"Let me see what this strangely shaped thing is... Damn it, it's a camel skull!"

Under the CT scan, the contents of the stone were revealed one by one. Most of them were unrelated to the armor Shen Le had found; they were completely mismatched and even dated incorrectly.

Shen Le guessed that this fish demon probably didn't know much and collected all the human items that had fallen into the water and caught its attention.

Even so, it greatly encouraged the professors at the research institute:

Once these items are extracted from the rocks, the institute's collection will be expanded!
Paper, in particular, carries a lot of valuable information!

Shen Le decisively opened the stone, took out the contents, sealed them one by one into a specially made glass box that could isolate spiritual energy, and sent it to the old professors for research.

Then, he was faced with a dilemma: the first round stone disc he found, and the half-broken mirror he had pulled out from inside the disc.

The demonic aura on the mirror and the traces left by humans have become so intertwined that the mirror and the armor seem somewhat out of place together.

How exactly can we repair it to perfectly restore it and reassemble it into a complete set?

(End of this chapter)