The old things I repaired have become fine

Chapter 756 Shen Le: I can't touch it, but it's okay for them to dig it up?

"The data collection is quite good."

"The location selection... was quite good."

The head of the archaeology department looked at Shen Le with a half-smile and slowly nodded.

Traveling to other countries for archaeological work is no easy feat. Even though Shen Le's alma mater is one of China's top universities, it took them more than a month to set foot on the Kent Mountains.

From identifying the items brought by Shen Le, to initiating the proposal, to the project being approved, and then to communicating with neighboring countries and organizing a joint archaeological team, every step had to be taken steadily and practically, and no step could be skipped.

However, as Shen Le said, something this important must be unearthed under the supervision of top global archaeologists and in full view of the public in order to be convincing enough.

Otherwise, you, an unknown student, could go there yourself, dig it up, and present it to scholars worldwide—

Is this from the Shang or Zhou dynasty, or from last week? How did you find this place, and what made you think of digging here? Come on, tell me!
Therefore, Shen Le had no choice but to patiently run around, even serving tea and water, just to get into the archaeological team.

Originally, it wasn't necessary, but since his own mentor also wanted to join the team, as a disciple, he should do what was asked of him. If Shen Le didn't run errands, should he let a sixty-year-old man do them?
what?
Are you also planning to go to the other side of the strait?
Oh dear, we can go there anytime, sooner or later. What he wants won't grow legs and run away. It would be such a pity not to be able to personally participate in such an important discovery as the sealing of the wolf's lair!
Having already performed ninety-nine prostrations, I absolutely cannot give in on the last hurdle!
Fortunately, Shen Le's alma mater was very helpful and completed all the procedures in just over a month, allowing them to reach the Kent Mountains.

It would be too difficult to start any later. Winter is coming soon, with strong winds and snowstorms that could close the mountain in a heartbeat. We won't be able to start work until April or May next year.

In fact, if Shen Le hadn't confidently assured them, "I can pinpoint the location," and "I can control the target within an acre," the professors would really have waited until next spring to come...

After all, while archaeological discoveries are important, the lives of researchers are also vital, and the lives of senior professors are even more so…

Even if the situation could change at any moment, they couldn't simply rush to the mountaintop and start digging. After all, the information Shen Le submitted made it clear:
"Scattered artifacts were discovered at the foot of a mountain in the Kent Mountains, showing traces of activity by early Han Dynasty people."

Given that these artifacts form distinct bands, it is recommended that further excavation be conducted along the direction in which the bands extend…

Given this, the joint archaeological team from both countries began excavating bit by bit from the location where Shen Le discovered the artifacts. This excavation delighted the head of the archaeology department:
"This location is pretty good!"

If you dig a little to the side of the places Shen Le pointed out, you can immediately find even more treasures.

For example, there are clusters of tombs, and rare coffins—the nomadic peoples of the grasslands at that time did not use coffins for burial, so the people in the coffins were most likely Han Chinese.
For example, the Jingguan, which was deliberately piled up, can still be seen as a tower of stacked human heads even though it is covered with soil.

For example, there are fragments of armor, fragments of weapons, arrowheads made of steel, broken crossbow arms, and arrowheads made of stone and bone...

These things alone are enough to write a rich body of research papers, proving that not only Han people lived and thrived here, but also that armies passed through.

And when they dot the landscape, forming a line that stretches towards the distant mountain peaks, what they signify is obvious to everyone—

Follow this road, and at the end of the road ahead, there will be a great discovery!
The place Shen Le pointed out is really good; the road is already paved, so we can just walk straight ahead!

They dug, identified, and moved forward. The further they went, the more people joined the team, constantly bringing in top-tier research talent (just kidding!) students and young teachers from across the country.

The things found on the roadside are also very important. They need to be photographed, carbon-14 analyzed, and a lot of experiments need to be done. The excavated tombs and human heads need to be DNA analyzed and skulls reconstructed.
However, at the end of this road, it is clear that something more important awaits, and we cannot afford to divert our efforts!
The team followed the marked locations of the artifact discoveries. Thirty li, fifty li, they made their way to the foot of the mountain. Shen Le stopped and pointed upwards:
"I think the bigger discoveries must be up there!"

"above?"

"The summit!" Shen Le nodded heavily, his voice firm. He looked up, and the scattered snowflakes swirled in his eyes, shimmering like the flames that had been used in sacrifices to the heavens thousands of years ago.
"If there is a discovery, if there is the most important discovery—it must be at the summit, at the end of this road!"

The elderly professors exchanged glances. Shen Le had already reported what he had seen and sensed to them, and it had been verified through the Special Affairs Bureau's channels.

Although the part involving supernatural factors sounds a bit unbelievable, the artifacts unearthed along the way have, in another sense, proven his claim.

And now, they were about to face the final outcome of this operation. More than one professor moved their lips, either speaking aloud or silently reciting:

"Sealing the Wolf-Dwelling Mountain... Zen ceremony at Guyan, ascending to the vast sea..."

Is this the mountain in front of us, Langjuxu Mountain?
Where exactly is Guyan Mountain?
What is the Hanhai? Is it a vast desert, a huge lake, or some other place?
Everything, perhaps, is about to have an answer...

"Everyone get ready! Let's begin the climb!"

The off-road vehicle roared furiously as it sped uphill. Five hundred meters, one thousand meters, and finally, the engine came to a stop, panting heavily. The wheels, wrapped in snow chains, spun endlessly, unable to go any further.

Faced with the expectant gazes of the senior professors and the Special Affairs Bureau personnel, Shen Le could only shrug and spread his hands.
There's nothing I can do; I can't communicate with the mountains here, they won't listen to me.

I can't melt the ice and snow, I can't deform the earth, I can't carve a smooth path leading to the summit. The rest of the journey is up to each of us to walk…

He jumped out of the car, shouldered the largest and heaviest backpack, and took a trekking pole in each hand, leading the way.

The young men and women in the archaeological team, each according to their abilities, carried various instruments and equipment and filed out in single file.

As for the old professors, Shen Le exerted his mental energy to envelop them: Very good, they all walked steadily, at least they didn't slip, and even if they occasionally fell, they wouldn't fall to the bottom of the mountain...

He took each step steadily, and in the swirling snow, the 80-pound backpack seemed weightless on his back.

Upon reaching the vicinity of the summit, I found a flat spot to unload my gear. After hesitating for a moment, I patted my left wrist:

"Huang Yutong, can you unfold it? Can you unfold it into a house so everyone can go in and rest for a while?"

I'll give it a try...

The old house vibrated slightly on his wrist. He jumped, then jumped again, landing on the ice and snow, and immediately began to expand.

From the size of a die, to the size of an orange, to the size of a fist, and then to the height of his knee. Suddenly, the whole house began to rattle, the walls shook, and the roof tiles trembled violently.

It seemed to be desperately trying to push against some kind of pressure, desperately trying to expand its volume; however, after several expansions and several contractions, it finally let out a mournful cry and quickly shrank back:
I... I'm not doing well. It's too strong here... I can't move...

"I'll help you!" the little oil lamp huffed and puffed. It flickered in the bag on Shen Le's chest, shooting out a beam of electricity.
Watch me split everything apart! Once I've split it apart, you can unfold!

"Green Lamp! Don't be rude!" Shen Le exclaimed in alarm. If he wasn't mistaken about the situation, for the small oil lamp to be deployed here, it would at the very least have to contend with the undying spirit of the military heroes—

On a larger scale, it may be facing the transmission, remembrance, commemoration, and even faith of countless generations and hundreds of millions of compatriots in China over thousands of years.

Such a massive force, you not only don't provoke it, but you also directly challenge it. Are you afraid it can't crush you?!
【All right……】

Shen Le pressed him down forcefully and rubbed his head vigorously through his backpack, so Little Oil Lamp could only huff and shut up.

Shen Le clicked and clacked, taking apart the tent poles one by one from the side of his backpack, driving tent pegs into the snow and ice, and setting up the carbon fiber tent poles.
Soon, students following behind came up and worked together to unfold the tent fabric and string it to the tent poles, creating a slightly warmer and sheltered place for the elderly professors to arrive.

Then, tents were set up one by one, and instruments were taken out and placed down, temporarily establishing an advance camp near the highest peak:
"That's about enough... enough to hold all of us. Put your things away, let's head to the summit!"

Having arrived here, Shen Le's mission was complete. The pressure from the entire mountaintop was roughly the same, or rather, it had exceeded the range that he could detect with his mental power.

He could only stand aside like an ordinary student, waiting for the department head and several senior professors to squint and survey the area in the raging snowstorm.
"It should be right here."

Yes, this is pretty much it.

“Referring to the Fengshan ceremony at Mount Tai… the flat ground at the highest point of the summit is the most suitable place…”

"If we're going to build an altar to offer sacrifices to heaven and then bury the sacrificial text... the altar should be located in the center of the mountaintop, or somewhere slightly off-center?"

"In short, draw a circle with the midpoint as the center, and then search inside the circle! Don't be afraid of the hard work, this is the last round!"

"OK……"

Weak, feeble responses echoed all around. The students pulled their hoods tighter, put on their gloves, quickly picked up their instruments, and began scanning the ground section by section, following the lines drawn on it.

Someone was pushing a ground-penetrating radar, scanning back and forth, bar by bar.

Someone turned on the metal detector and followed closely behind the senior student, scanning the area like mowing grass. As they scanned, they muttered to themselves:

"No……"

"It's not here either..."

"Not deep enough, is it?"

The waveforms on the ground-penetrating radar are constantly changing. Ice, snow, soil, and rocks reflect chaotic waveforms.

Even if you're a student, being able to work on projects with this kind of team means you're already a skilled professional. You meticulously scan the high-frequency antenna, the intermediate-frequency antenna, and the low-frequency antenna, then push the radar back to the tent to analyze the data.

Shen Le couldn't intervene or help, so he could only stand aside, spreading his spiritual energy to be on guard, while simultaneously sensing the reactions of this world:
There was no reaction. The magnificent, majestic, and sharp aura that he perceived held no traction for the ordinary people on the summit who were constantly surveying the area.

It's unclear whether they're treating it as if it doesn't exist, or if the official Chinese team is exploring Chinese relics and is therefore not subject to rejection...

So, it's not okay for me to touch it, but it's okay for them to dig it up?

"Found it!" a shout suddenly rang out from inside the tent. A flurry of footsteps followed, rushing into the tent where data was being analyzed.

"It's right here! There's something underground, about... one to one and a half meters deep, it's..."

The student repeatedly pushed and pulled the raw data on the screen, his tone puzzled:
"can not tell……"

"It doesn't look like anything's wrong! Let's dig!"

Shen Le took the lead, picked up an ice-breaking axe, and swung it down at the location marked by the ground-penetrating radar. Crack, crack, he cleaved through the ice with several blows, then switched to an ice axe, and soon after, an entrenching tool.

He quickly broke through large sections of the snow and ice on the ground. Immediately afterwards, other students, armed with pickaxes, shovels, and hammer drills, surrounded him from all sides.

"Senior brother, take a rest! We'll do it!"

"Digging through this frozen ground is exhausting!"

"Don't rush, we'll take turns! Anyway, we've already found the thing. Whether it takes half a day to dig it out or a whole day, it's not that different. Let's take our time and switch hands!"

"Hey you over there, don't stop! Scan the whole hilltop! There might be other good stuff there!"

Even with seven or eight students taking turns, digging a one-meter-deep pit in the frozen soil on the mountaintop was no easy task.

First they used an impact drill, then a wooden pickaxe, and finally, they switched from a large shovel to a small one. Finally, after digging a hole about half a person's depth in the ground, the metal detector came over again, beeping twice, emitting a very clear signal:
There's something down there!
At this point, the professors wouldn't even let the students do it themselves. They knelt on the ground, holding small shovels, bamboo skewers, and wooden sticks, and painstakingly dug through the soil, almost as if they wanted to dig with their bare hands.

As night deepened and then faded, the sunlight once again fell on the mountaintop.

The wind stopped, the snow ceased, and the sun shone brightly. The head of the archaeology department, with trembling hands, scooped up a clump of muddy, plate-like material from the soil, its surface completely obscured.

It was brought into the tent, its surface carefully cleaned, and then the writing on it was read out word by word:

"In the fourth year of the Yuan Shou era, the year of Renxu, on the day of Gengchen in the sixth month, Chen Qubing, the General of the Cavalry and Marquis of Champion of the Great Han Dynasty..."

"found it!"

"We found it!"

A sudden burst of cheers erupted. The white-haired professor, the vigorous researchers in their forties, and the young students in their early twenties, just starting their graduate studies and essentially just there to do the hard work, jumped and shouted, tears streaming down their faces.
"We found it!!!"

(End of this chapter)