The old things I repaired have become fine

Chapter 699 Shen Le: Should I open a porcelain factory?

"It's cracked."

"Broken into seven or eight pieces."

"It collapsed... The nine-story porcelain pagoda shattered into a porcelain disc..."

Shen Le's kiln firing work encountered unimaginable difficulties.

During the manufacture of the porcelain tower, he held the greatest power, able to open any warehouse and demand any resources he felt he needed;

He can command any fellow disciple, senior disciple, or senior master to crush glaze, sift clay, carve porcelain blanks, watch the kiln fire, or do anything he deems necessary.
But correspondingly, all the responsibility rested on his shoulders alone. Every time the kiln was opened, Shen Le had to steel himself and walk out to face everyone's expectant gaze:
"Sorry, it didn't work out again this time..."

"...It's okay, it's okay." The expectant look in her eyes immediately turned into disappointment, then into doubt, which was then carefully suppressed.

The sect's strongest weapon refiner, Senior Brother Mingxin, slapped Shen Le's shoulder with his heavy hand, causing him to stumble.

"Making something new is always difficult! When I, your senior brother, make a new magic weapon, it always takes me ten or eight attempts! Don't be discouraged! We'll keep going. The sect leader has given us three years!"

Shen Le gritted his teeth and continued, starting with mixing the clay and kneading the porcelain blanks. Firing large pieces is always difficult; similar legends circulate in every kiln and every kiln cluster region:
For three years, they tried to fire dragon-shaped jars and life-sized vases, but to no avail. Their superiors were pressing them relentlessly. One kiln worker, sacrificing himself, threw himself into the kiln, and the next batch was perfected. The kiln worker was revered as a kiln god, and offerings were made to him every year…

The porcelain tower that Shen Le is about to fire is no smaller than a dragon jar or a vase, and its internal structure is far more complex than those large pieces.

It's normal to fail to burn it the first time. Even if it fails to burn it ten or a hundred times, it's not strange... Damn!

That's too tragic!

"This porcelain tower can barely be considered a success..." After the seventh firing, Shen Le circled the upright porcelain tower three times, and sadly announced:
"That won't work either. The glaze is uneven in thickness, and if I'm not mistaken, the glaze flowing inside is blocking the channels for power to enter and exit? Senior Brother?"

“Ah, that’s right.” Senior Brother Mingxin stepped forward from the crowd, placed his hands on the edges of the porcelain pagoda, closed his eyes, and sensed it for a moment:
"The spiritual energy isn't flowing evenly; it's tangled up inside. Here, here, here..."

Thick, yet surprisingly nimble fingers flicked across the porcelain tower, flying to seventeen or eighteen different places in one go:

“There are blockages, backflows, or the lines are crooked here…”

Shen Le sighed deeply. He kicked the porcelain tower, knocking it over, and it rolled into the pile of broken porcelain beside him.
"Alright, let's continue! The sect leader gave us three years, and it's not even been a year yet!"

Two more years, I refuse to believe we can't get it fired!
He stumbled and struggled, constantly adjusting his plans. If he couldn't fire a large batch the first time, he would disassemble the porcelain tower layer by layer, fire each layer separately, and then reassemble them to fire as a whole.

If the glaze is uneven, try different glaze formulas over and over again, using various methods—brush, spray bottle, water control magic—to try repeatedly;
The array inside the porcelain tower twisted and deformed, constantly calculating the shrinkage rate of the porcelain clay, as well as the depth, angle, and continuity of the lines in the Dao patterns...

"This time it should finally be okay, right..."

Ten more rounds of attempts followed. Two months later, Shen Le opened the kiln door again and brought out three porcelain towers. Seven or eight hands eagerly reached out and placed them on top:

"Not bad, not bad, much better this time."

"At least the tower is stable now; it won't tilt or collapse."

"There were no cracks or explosions inside...but..."

However, the array pathways inside the tower, especially several crucial energy nodes, were twisted and deformed, becoming a tangled mess.

Shen Le tried several times, but to no avail, so he went to find some technical experts:
"Uncle-Master, Senior Brother, the problem now is that the array nodes absorb a lot of heat during the forging process. They've finished forged, but the surrounding areas are all warped and twisted. What should we do?"

This was a problem that none of the senior or junior disciples had encountered before. In the past, when refining weapons, one either forged them hammer by hammer or meticulously carved them, slowly imbuing them with magical power.

This was the first time they had ever seen something like this, fired in a kiln for a long time, so they had to figure it out little by little.

"Or, could we adjust the formula for the porcelain blank so that it can absorb vital energy more quickly, thus preventing it from warping?"

"No, no, the formula for Mingde's porcelain blanks has been adjusted so many times! If it's adjusted again, it won't meet the three-year deadline!"

"Or, could we slow down the absorption of vital energy by this formation?"

"If it's slow, it's no longer an array... Setting up an array inside a tower is meant to absorb the surrounding negative energy and yin energy. What kind of nonsense is it to change it?"

"Then... how about..."

Shen Le walked around aimlessly with his hands behind his back. Three months, three months, and another three months passed, and nearly a year had gone by. The heavy snow had long since covered the entire Zhongnan Mountain.

Only the courtyard where Shen Le fired his kiln was slightly warmer. Stepping a little further out, each footstep crunched through the snow. Shen Le kicked out a bag of snow, then another, and then, in the process, he stumbled.
"Huh? We've arrived at the vegetable garden?"

This land was also cleared out by Taoist disciples in the mountains for their own consumption—rice and grain could be carried up the mountain, but carrying vegetables up the mountain every day would be too troublesome.

Shen Le kicked it once, then again, kicking out half a ridge of the paddy field, covered in dark, gaping vegetation. After kicking it a few more times, Shen Le sighed.

Sigh, if it were just a row of winter wheat, at least he could see some green... wheat... wheat... oh!

"I have another idea!"

Shen Le rushed back and stormed into the discussion area, waving his arms:

"Could we put a protective shell or something around the core array pattern? Like a seed buried in the soil? That way it can filter out external firepower?"
"—After it's fired, should we use some method to awaken the array patterns inside?"

Everyone looked at each other in bewilderment. A moment later, Senior Brother Mingxin slammed his hand on the table:
“Sure! This method will work! — Just like with talismans, there’s a pause between drawing them and activating them… Let me think… Let me think…”

He slumped onto the table, grabbed a large sheet of paper haphazardly, and began sketching rapidly. His fellow students craned their necks to watch him, whispering and pointing amongst themselves.

"To awaken him using the method of blood oath?"

"Or perhaps a ritual to consecrate it?"

"I think activating the runes connecting the ley lines should be enough..."

"I still think..." Once the mind is clear, things become easier. The fellow disciples pooled their wisdom and came up with four plans in one go, which they then presented to Shen Le, telling him to put them into practice.

In the first round, two of the four protective shells were ruined, while the other two remained intact and survived the scorching heat of the kiln fire.
In the second round, during the process of firing the porcelain tower components into a complete porcelain tower, another protective shell was wasted, leaving only the last one to hold on until the end.
In the third round, the glaze is applied, and the vessel is fired again. The glaze melts into liquid in the intense flames, smoothly covering every corner of the porcelain tower...

"Click."

An ominous cracking sound sent a shiver down Shen Le's spine. He patiently waited for the fire to extinguish and the kiln to cool gradually before hastily removing the porcelain tower. He infused it with his inner energy, and his brows immediately furrowed deeply.

"It's still not working..."

"very good already!"

Brother Mingxin rushed forward, pushed him aside, placed his hands on it, and silently felt it:
"It's much better than before! Let's do it again! Let's do it again! Didn't you burn so many pieces? You could assemble seven or eight porcelain towers with them! Let's do it again!"

Shen Le: "..."

You're trying to work me to death!

There's nothing he can do; he brought this on himself.

The kiln was spacious. In order to avoid wasting the kiln fire and to make it easier to control the atmosphere in different parts of the kiln, Shen Le would pile up seven or eight layers of materials in the kiln each time he fired it. This was enough to make parts for dozens of porcelain towers. He would repeat this process over and over again.

Even if the success rate is only one in ten, and even if the positions of the parts that are successfully assembled are different each time, seven or eight complete parts can still be assembled, and they can be dragged out at any time to burn another tower!

"Okay, okay... I'll fire up another batch..."

Even though there were still problems, they were getting closer and closer to success. Not only Shen Le, but his fellow disciples were also overjoyed.

Senior Brother Lou Yun even made a special trip to Kunlun Mountain to bring back a large piece of mutton-fat jade for Shen Le. The outer stone skin was also full of spiritual energy; if it was ground up and mixed into the porcelain blank, it would be enough to fire twenty seven-story porcelain pagodas.
As for the jade core inside, it was pure white and flawless, smooth as solidified fat. Senior Brother Mingxin personally cut it open, pointing to the jade, which was as big as a bowl, and praised it to Shen Le with admiration:

"Look, look. Such a fine piece of jade! If you were a noble person, I would carve out a whole set of jade rings for you, so they could hang from your waist all the way down to your feet!"

Shen Le rolled her eyes at him. Thanks, but that kind of jingling jewelry style seems to have been popular during the Xia, Shang, and Zhou dynasties, but not so much in the Han dynasty. And now it's almost the end of the Sui dynasty!

"No need for that! Senior brother, it's rare to find such fine jade. Why don't you get a few dozen jade pendants for everyone to share? It's too chaotic down the mountain; having something for self-defense is always a good thing."

"Are you trying to work me to death?!"

Exhausted to the point of near collapse, Shen Le had been burning the midnight oil from the depths of winter to mid-spring, and then from mid-spring to the height of summer, finally creating the first demon-suppressing tower that barely met the requirements.
Once it was confirmed that the item was usable, most of the sect rushed over to take a look. Shen Le carefully carried the porcelain pagoda step by step out and placed it in the sunlight.

This seven-story porcelain pagoda is only three feet tall, with an exquisite and graceful form. The entire pagoda is a warm ivory white, with a smooth, jade-like glaze that subtly reveals its translucency when viewed from the side in sunlight.

The base of the tower is engraved with intricate runes connecting to the earth's veins, and the outer walls of the tower are covered with fine, woven patterns that seem to flow faintly under strong light.

A small piece of specially treated fluorite, capable of faintly attracting stellar energy, is embedded at the top of the tower. With a slight turn, an arc-shaped pattern lights up on the surface of the stone, as if an eye is opening as the tower top rotates.

The crowd peering out let out a unified sigh. Just by placing it on the ground, everyone could feel the entire tower radiating a restrained yet stable spiritual pressure—

This thing can work!
Since it works, the next step is to test it in the field. Shen Le has been on the mountain for many years, but he hasn't had time to explore all the surrounding peaks and valleys, unlike his fellow disciples.

At the sound of a test, someone immediately packed the porcelain pagoda into a bundle, slung it over their shoulder, and ran outside.

"There's one just outside the mountain! It's very close! Follow me! There are a lot of evil spirits around here!"

There were quite a few, but not many either, mainly because the area was relatively small, just a small valley, at most one or two acres. Shen Le landed on the ground and shivered.
The entire valley was filled with an unsettling, chilling atmosphere. Although the ground was covered with a thin layer of soil, no vegetation could grow. After taking a few steps, kicking aside a small pile of rubble, one could even see a skull, its dark eyes staring at Shen Le.

"Put it here!" The senior brother had already walked around the valley once. He beckoned Shen Le over and pointed to a particularly sunken spot in the shady area:

"This place is the most yin and evil place!"

The senior brother pointed, and the soil churned and rolled aside, revealing a pit half a foot deep.

Shen Le knelt down, cradling the porcelain pagoda, and placed it neatly into the pit, covering the base. Then, he personally used his true energy to penetrate the base and continue downwards:

hum!
With a deep, resonant sound, the small tower seemed to come alive, its body shimmering with a faint light.

On the base of the tower, the runes connecting to the earth's veins have been illuminated, followed by runes for absorbing yin energy. Then, a faint light also appeared inside the seven-story porcelain tower.
"here we go!"

"here we go!"

Several senior brothers shouted in hushed tones. Visibly, the surrounding gray-black mist began to be drawn by an invisible force, slowly flowing towards the tower and being absorbed by the runes at the tower's base.

The tower trembled slightly, and the erosion array carved on the inner wall began to operate, like a miniature millstone, crushing and transforming the wisps of Yin energy, lifting them upward layer by layer.

Although the speed was slow, the conversion efficiency was limited, and the tower was still vibrating, with a layer of hazy mist slowly seeping upwards, clearly indicating that it was under significant pressure, but—

It succeeded! It really is actively absorbing, suppressing, and slowly transforming the Yin energy!

There was no collapse, and there was no loss of control!
"It's done! It really is done!" Lou Yun slapped Shen Le on the shoulder, making him fall to the ground with a thud.

A cheer erupted from the crowd. The disciples who had worked on building the tower for a year and a half had finally succeeded!
Even though it is small, even though its transformation ability is weak, even though it cannot yet form a magic array, this porcelain tower has taken the first step!
Elder Xuanming stroked his long beard, his eyes filled with satisfaction: "Although this tower is small and weak, its principles are clear! Given time, with further research into the materials, improvement of the formation, and expansion of its scale, it will surely become a powerful weapon for locking down demons and suppressing monsters!"

Shen Le took a deep breath, leaned back, and lay sprawled on the ground where Yin energy flowed. The azure sky came into view, igniting a brilliant golden light in his pupils:

This porcelain tower is just the beginning.

In time, he will have porcelain towers of his design placed in famous mountains and rivers and ancient battlefields all over the land of China to suppress all darkness and evil!

Wait... how many porcelain towers would this require?

Should I open a porcelain factory?

(End of this chapter)