The old things I repaired have become fine

Chapter 758 The Correct Way to Communicate with "The Inscription on Sealing the Wolf and Dwelling in the Wilderness"
The entire summit was deathly silent.

Apart from the old professor's voice echoing softly, there were only the long and short gasps of the people around him, sounding as if they were about to stop breathing.

The old professor swayed precariously, but gritted his teeth and refused to fall, desperately tilting his head back to look at the dazzling pillar of light in the sky:

"You won't leave..."

"Wherever you are, that is China..."

"It's China!!!"

Shen Le looked at him worriedly, then carefully, with her arms outstretched, she shuffled over, inching forward with her feet. "Grandpa, please don't collapse here..."

It's a blizzard here! The temperature is minus twenty degrees Celsius! The weather is extremely unfriendly to humans, even more so to the elderly, and exponentially unfriendly to men in their fifties and sixties whose cardiovascular systems are not protected by estrogen!

Fortunately, the old professor recovered on his own before Shen Le could approach him. He took a deep breath, his Adam's apple bobbing (Shen Le suspected he swallowed a bag of tears), then suddenly strode over and knelt on the ground:
"Could you come down the mountain with us? We won't take anything with us, we just want to do some research at the bottom of the mountain, and then send it back once we've figured it out?"

no response.

Nothing happens.

The backpack lay quietly on the ground, neither shaking nor swaying, not rolling in the cold wind. Coughing was perhaps the biggest abnormality.

The beam of light neither brightened nor dimmed, nor did it sway, and of course, it did not suddenly shoot out in all directions, leaving several charred marks on the people around it.

Only two secret service agents exchanged a glance, furtively pulled out a small detection device, and pressed the power button:
"drop--!"

A wisp of black smoke, and it burned up again...

It seems the extraordinary energy here is quite strong; not only strong, but also highly exclusive, completely undetectable...

The old professor's face was grim. He pressed his hands to his backpack and asked again and again, but still received no answer. He opened the backpack, took out the heavily wrapped box, held it to his chest, and asked once more, but to no avail.

Helpless, he sighed deeply, stuffed the box back into his backpack, stood up, and struggled to lift the backpack again—

It can't be pulled up.

The young lecturer next to him quickly stepped forward, took the bag strap from the teacher, and pulled it upwards. The strap straightened easily, but the backpack sat firmly on the ground, as if it were one with the entire mountain peak.

The young lecturer was a little incredulous. He tried once, then again, and finally turned around, slipped the two straps over his shoulders, bent down, and squatted down with great effort.
"Hey--!"

I tried to get up, but couldn't. The reaction force pulled me backward, almost causing me to fall flat on my back on top of the backpack...

"Take it easy!!!"

Shen Le quickly caught him, lifting him gently and settling him on the ground. With a sigh, she knelt down herself, placed her hands on her backpack, and whispered a prayer:
"We won't take you away, we really won't... We just need to conduct more research on you to verify your identity. Just to the foot of the mountain, at most the foot of the mountain, okay?"

There was no reaction. Fortunately, the light didn't bounce back or attack him. Shen Le breathed a sigh of relief and reached for his backpack:
He heard his fingers, wrists, elbows, and the cracking sounds of his joints and muscles...

Okay, fine. But, the logic still doesn't work. Shen Le put his hands into the backpack and pressed them against the box. The heat flowed into the box, touching the precious artifacts inside.

I dared not immerse myself in it, dared not depict it, but simply established a connection between myself and it, and then, with utmost sincerity, repeated the previous words three times in succession.

Gradually, I could feel the warmth emanating from my palms, and I was allowed to touch the surface of the jade tablet, but I couldn't penetrate it at all, nor could I sense any change in it.

After praying three times, try to pick it up and take a step. As soon as you take one step, your body feels as heavy as a thousand pounds, and your shoulders and spine are pressed down and make a cracking sound.

Having no other choice, I knelt down again, put it on the ground, and started thinking:
Perhaps this precious jade tablet, this stone tablet that embodies the might and glory of Huo Qubing's army and has been praised by the Chinese people for thousands of years, does not know what "research" means.
Shen Le thought for a long time, then quickly walked to the side and began discussing with several professors. After a while, he returned to the jade tablet, carrying a thick, freshly printed paper that was still slightly warm.

"Um... You've been buried in the ground for thousands of years, and now that you've been unearthed, do you hope that many Chinese people will come to see you and the place where Huo Qubing won a victory?"

The divination blocks were tossed; one was yin, one yang, a positive result, indicating the other party's approval. Shen Le nodded and continued praying:
"If we want them to come and see you, we need to prove your identity. Of course, we all know that you are the one who left behind the Fenglangjuxu Inscription by General Huo, but we also need to use modern research methods and scientific methods to prove it. What do you think?"

The divination blocks were thrown, both facing upwards. It was unclear whether the other person hadn't understood or needed further explanation. Shen Le assumed the latter and began to open the paper:

"You see, the first thing we need to do is to identify the chisel marks on your surface. This is relatively simple; we can do it with a microscope, which they brought."

"Then, there are the details of the chisel marks, which requires a 3D laser scanner... For example, Qin Dynasty stone carvings generally use the flat-edged single-blade method, with even dots and strokes, shallow penetration into the stone, parallel lines on both sides and some cracks."
By the Eastern Han Dynasty, the double-blade technique had developed, where the blade cuts diagonally into the stone, resulting in deep engravings and minimal chipping. Look at the Yanliang Stone Inscription from the Qin Dynasty… This kind of chipping requires a scanner to capture clearly, and these scanners are very large and difficult to carry up mountains…”

Shen Le turned the page, her finger moving back and forth across the comparison photos. After a pause, she cautiously asked:
"Did you understand?"

He tossed the divination blocks; one yin, one yang—a positive result. It seemed she understood; thank goodness. Shen Le silently bowed several times and continued explaining:
"Then, we need to use a metallurgical microscope, a super depth-of-field microscope, and a scanning electron microscope to look at the fine traces on the surface. These traces are not only the marks left by the carving knife, but also the traces of years of wind, frost, rain and snow, as well as the traces of water immersion and soil contamination."

These are all very large instruments, and carrying them up to the mountaintop is extremely difficult. Providing them with a flat work surface and a stable power supply is also very difficult. Not only is it difficult, but there's only so much space at the top; there's nowhere to put them..."

"These are surface scratches. After studying the scratches, we will also study the weathering marks on your body, which can only be done with an ultrafast pump detection system. Look at the photos and spectra taken above."

This instrument, the platform alone is 2 square meters. Can you really bear to let the old professor carry it up to the summit on his shoulders?

The beam of light seemed to sway slightly... It was unclear whether it had understood or was simply teetering under the bombardment of modern scientific research methods and instruments.

Shen Le didn't want it to be the latter. To be honest, although he was also a professional in this field, had spent countless hours in the lab, and written many papers, he still felt that burying himself in the lab and messing around with these things was really exhausting... However, faced with an artifact that he couldn't beat, couldn't reason with, and couldn't yell at, much less threaten, Shen Le had no choice but to persevere and add fuel to the fire:

"Oh, right, we also need to take a tiny sample from your body... a very small one! A tiny one, the size of a pinhead! To study your age, to study the marks on your body, and what tools were used to leave them."

These studies require laser Raman spectrometers and energy-dispersive X-ray diffraction spectrometers, each of which is a very large instrument... It's really impossible to list them all.

"Would you please come down the mountain? I promise, once we're at the foot of the mountain, anywhere a car can reach, we can set up the lab there. I won't let you walk an extra step!"

The beam of light flickered again. Shen Le flipped through the entire thesis from beginning to end, then from end to beginning, pointing to the various pictures and tables, explaining them to it one by one.

Finally, turn to the last color page and show it the instruments that will be needed:

"Look, this scanning electron microscope is already the smallest, and it still needs its own room... This ultra-depth-of-field microscope, when we're doing research, also requires a silicone coating, so we need to prepare a special worktable..."

All things considered, the required area clearly exceeds the size of the summit—the Chinese graduate students of the joint archaeological team corrected, and the research staff urgently produced a comparison diagram.

Shen Le spread the blueprints out and laid them flat on the ground in front of his backpack, letting the colorful beams of light illuminate them clearly. He looked up and earnestly pleaded:
"So, let's go down? Down to the foot of the mountain, give the researchers some space? Besides, if you stay on the mountaintop and everyone wants to see you, we'll have to build you a house, a place that won't be exposed to wind and rain. You'll have to vacate some space first!"

He held his breath and waited for a long while. Silence surrounded him; from the researchers from both countries to the special affairs bureau personnel, and even the little creatures in Shen Le's backpack and bracelet, everyone was quiet and holding their breath.

After a long while, Shen Le bent down and tossed the divination blocks again:
Oh no, the two bamboo divination blocks were spinning around on the ground, refusing to stop for ages. Heaven knows what that meant...

"Did I not explain it clearly? Or did you not understand?... Or perhaps, you didn't listen at all?"

Shen Le asked in great distress. After another long silence, finally, a young man from the Special Affairs Bureau, hunched over and holding a cell phone, shuffled up.

Amidst the crackling and terrible background noise from the phone, an elderly voice could be heard intermittently:
"Ahem... When communicating with non-human beings, especially some ancient beings, we still recommend using sacrificial rituals... setting up an altar, burning incense or offerings, and then reciting the sacrificial text..."

So, do we have to do it again?!
Shen Le's vision went black, and he swayed precariously. The Special Affairs Bureau officer quickly steadied him.
"We'll do it! We'll do it! We'll prepare the incense table and the offerings! Mr. Shen, we just ask that you preside over the ceremony, that would be enough!"

So it's still me who has to go through these papers again...

To appease him, the special affairs bureau personnel quickly assembled a wooden altar, set up an incense table, placed ritual implements and offerings, and arranged incense sticks on the summit outside the excavation area.

After everything was settled, they gathered around Shen Le and bowed to him.
"Please, please, it seems like you're the best at communicating with it right now..."

"I really don't want to go over the paper again..." Shen Le wailed.

Despite his wailing, he still dutifully burned incense, prayed, and read a eulogy hastily prepared by the Special Affairs Bureau—it was unclear whether it was written by some expert or by some AI.

After reading the eulogy, I picked up my thesis and started from the beginning...

"Is that alright? Do you understand? Are you willing to come down with me? I promise, I will stay by your side until we return to the mountain, I won't leave your side for a single moment!"

He carefully disassembled the entire paper, page by page, and threw it into the huge brazier in front of the incense table, while also being careful to keep the flame from going out.

Watching those thick, crisp A4 sheets of paper curl, turn black, and finally turn to ashes, swept upwards by the cold wind, Shen Le unexpectedly felt a secret sense of joy:
Before the inscription on the Fenglangjuxu Stele, all beings are equal!

Whether you're a professor, an associate professor, or a struggling researcher, all the papers you painstakingly write end up being burned in the end...

He patiently waited until the last piece of paper had burned completely, then tossed the divination blocks again. One yin and one yang divination result—a positive result. Excellent! With this hexagram, I'll take it as your agreement!
Shen Le bowed respectfully to the backpack, strode forward, and picked it up by the strap. Great, this time he managed to lift it!
Shoulders up, let's go!

A massive pillar of light enveloped the summit, remaining perfectly still, as if determined to stand here forever, ensuring that this land belongs to China.

However, the stone carving itself had already moved downwards step by step, following the path trodden out by the crowd, along with Shen Le.

We moved the makeshift research tents, traversed the long road down the mountain, arrived at the vehicle location halfway down the mountain, got in the car, and sped down!

"squeak--"

Upon reaching the foot of the mountain, the vehicle suddenly jerked, its four tires sinking and deforming, sinking deep into the mud.

From the seat to the frame and the suspension below, it made an unpleasant creaking sound, and looked like it was about to break apart!
"That's it for now!" Shen Le quickly shouted.

"That's enough! Level the ground! Set up the lab! We promised, we won't leave the foot of the mountain!"

The research work unfolded in full swing. Suddenly, Shen Le felt a chill run through his body, as a powerful and sharp aura poured down from the top of his head.

Shen Le only had time to jump out of the car and hand over his backpack before collapsing to the ground. He focused all his energy on guiding the flow of energy into his dantian, through his limbs and bones, cleansing his entire body.

I could no longer focus on the archaeological progress, unaware that the official announcements were being issued one by one in a joint effort:

"The 'Fenglangjuxu Inscription' was unearthed atop Mount Kent..."

"Following consultations between the archaeological communities of both countries, and in accordance with internationally accepted rules for the preservation of cultural relics, it has been decided to leave the inscription on the summit for permanent preservation..."

"Researchers from both countries will work together to create the best conditions for the stone inscription, which will benefit the preservation of the cultural relic and its future exhibition..."

(End of this chapter)