The old things I repaired have become fine

Chapter 777 Why does the porcelain kiln harbor such deep resentment?!

Gu Yulin tried everything to persuade and appease him, even pulling out his identification and opening the Special Affairs Bureau's internal app to finally prove that the person he brought was a person, a living person, and someone on the Special Affairs Bureau's expert list.

In short, it was everything, except for the kind of strange, inhuman being he had imagined.

We had just finished calming things down when the ground rippled beneath our feet, and a head popped out from two feet away...

"what!!!"

"Ah, sorry, sorry." The head quickly retracted into the ground and disappeared, leaving the ground flat and smooth without a single crack.

A moment later, Shen Le emerged from behind a tree by the roadside, spotless and without a speck of dust, a broad smile on his face.
"I got a little dizzy from looking for a target and forgot to maintain social etiquette..."

That's not a matter of social etiquette!
The special affairs officer thought angrily. Unfortunately, when it came to fighting, he couldn't beat them. What he couldn't handle with all sorts of talismans and magical artifacts, the other guy could easily stop with just a peach wood sword.

In terms of status, he can't compare to the other person. Although one is inside the system and the other is outside the system, the other person is an expert. Just for that reason alone, he should show more courtesy and respect.
In terms of personal relationships, that person had just done him a great favor:
"It's alright, it's alright." He quickly put on a smile and stepped forward. He stretched out his arms, as if to help Shen Le support the box in his arms, or at least lend him a hand.

"Did you find it? Is there anything I can help you with? Or, why don't we come to the office, sit down, have some tea and a late-night snack, and I can help you look up some information?"

Shen Le was indifferent. He had just carried the pottery house around underground seven or eight times and could only confirm that the former porcelain kiln should be in this area, among these hills.

However, I was a bit clueless about which kiln it was in. The familiar atmosphere of the pottery houses was scattered over a large area, and I couldn't find my target for the time being...

They returned to the Special Affairs Bureau's local post, where the young man poured them tea, gave each of them a mooncake, and then busied himself organizing the magical artifacts and talismans they had taken out, taking stock of the damage, and writing reports in a flurry of activity.

Accompanied by Gu Yulin, Shen Le turned on the computer in their institute, flipping through the documents page by page, comparing them with maps and images taken by drones:

"This place looks familiar..."

"Looks familiar? Have you been here before?"

Gu Yulin asked curiously. Shen Le's past experiences were a key research subject for the Special Affairs Bureau, and a team of people kept a close watch on him year-round.

People meticulously study everything about him: where he's been, what he's done, what papers he's written, even what he browses online, what content he's liked, and who he's argued with online.

There's no way around it; a cultivator whose power originates from within himself, a cultivator capable of long-distance, high-speed mobility without relying on public transportation, a cultivator with an extremely high destructive potential...

Even if he doesn't attack others for no reason, you must first ensure that others don't provoke him for no reason!

However, Shen Le shouldn't have been to this place before... Gu Yulin silently checked the information in his mind:

Of course, unless Shen Le is traveling underground and they don't know he's here, then that's a different story. But that doesn't make sense either; if he's traveling underground, there's no reason he wouldn't have a phone...

These days, it's practically impossible to get around without a cell phone!
"No, it just looks familiar." Shen Le chuckled, glossing over the matter. He'd never been to this place in real life, but in Tao Wu's memory, it was incredibly familiar.
The Shen family's porcelain kiln was built here, on this hillside. It stretched upwards along the mountain, allowing the rising smoke to naturally permeate every inch of the kiln.

However, times have changed, rivers have changed course, hills have been leveled for soil, and this area of ​​land has also changed. He really couldn't find the location of the kiln site from back then for the time being.

"It should be nearby. Let me look carefully..."

He moved the mouse, zooming in and out, zooming in and out, and constantly shifting the viewpoint.

Unfortunately, the perspectives from satellite maps, drones, and people standing on the ground are all different, and for a while, they just don't match the kiln site in my memory.

After quite a while, the young man finished his report on the operation and came over to take a look:

"What are you looking for in this area? An ancient kiln? -- Oh, it's late today. I'll take you there tomorrow. There's something strange about this area; we just can't seem to get rid of it. Luckily, it's not harmful..."

How strange could a porcelain kiln be?

Previously, Mr. Zhao, the porcelain demon from Jingdezhen, lived a peaceful life and there were no strange occurrences.
Shen Le couldn't keep him working overtime all night, so she had to arrange a time for him to come the next morning.

The young man had already prepared everything, loading all sorts of instruments and ritual implements onto the vehicle. Upon seeing them, he handed each of them a folder.

"Here, take a look. This is the information I just compiled. With this, it will be much easier for you to find what you're looking for!"

Shen Le thanked him and began to carefully examine the pages. Just as the young man had said, there was indeed something strange about this place:

Ordinary people can walk by without any problem, but if twins walk by at night, they will be stopped by a pair of strange people.

The strange couple started off very hospitable, inviting them to meals, tea, and even their homes. However, if anything displeased them, or if the conversation dragged on until the wee hours of the morning, they would quietly ask:

"Why can there be two? Why are there two possible?"

"Only one of the two can be kept! Only one can be kept!"

Then, one of them remained smiling, unchanged; the other, however, developed countless cracks, collapsed on the spot, and shattered into pieces at people's feet...

It doesn't actually hurt anyone, it just gives you a fright. Twins were extremely rare before, so this kind of strange occurrence only happens every few years…

"But you know, nowadays, people are having children at an increasingly later age, and conceiving is becoming more and more difficult, leading to a rise in assisted reproductive technologies. And with this increase, it's not uncommon to have twins..."

The special affairs officer was heartbroken:

"In just one year since I took office! In just one year! More than ten strange incidents have been reported to me!"

"Why are there so many?"

Shen Le and Gu Yulin asked in unison. The Special Affairs Bureau officer shrugged, looking utterly helpless.

"A primary school has moved from the town ahead... This is the only way to get here..."

Shen Le was also helpless. He pondered deeply, feeling as if he had heard of this situation somewhere before, but couldn't quite place it.

After thinking for a long time, I decided to call Mr. Zhao, the Porcelain Demon, and sincerely ask for his advice:

"I always felt that this strangeness was somehow related to porcelain..."

"That's right, it's related to porcelain." Mr. Zhao said decisively, without the slightest hesitation.

"There's probably a weak porcelain spirit here, or a porcelain kiln that's mostly destroyed. Its resentment is lingering, which is why this is happening... Just disperse its spirit, and the problem will be solved!"

"But...why?" Shen Le couldn't figure it out for a moment. Porcelain had always been a relatively safe thing, and in his memory, porcelain spirits were all peaceful and calm, and none of them had ever caused trouble.

What is this person's demand?
"It's very simple, it's just resentment," Mr. Zhao said calmly.
"Think about it, when firing porcelain, especially when making pieces for nobles, the request is often only for one piece. But to ensure the success rate, you can't just fire one piece... So, what do you do with the rest?"

"It's smashed?!"

Shen Le instinctively shivered. From a human perspective, from the perspective of a producer, this choice was obvious and logically sound;

However, from the perspective of the porcelain itself, the piece that was broken probably harbored resentment from the moment it was shattered, constantly questioning:
Why did you smash me?

"why me?"

"Why was it me who got smashed when we had two identical items?"

"Two identical items... Do we really have to destroy one of them? Can't we keep both?"

Such repeated questioning, such utterly destroyed resentment, if accumulated over hundreds or thousands of years, would only frighten people—that's actually quite gentle...

"I understand, thanks!" He laughed as he hung up the phone, then tapped the back of the front seat.

"We've roughly figured things out. We'll go over there and try our best to find that thing. I suspect that what I'm looking for and what you're looking for, even if they aren't the same thing, are still deeply connected."

"That's right! That's exactly the point!" The young man perked up, stepped on the gas, and the car immediately accelerated.
"Leave it to me! I'm good at finding things—half of the equipment in the trunk is for detection, I can find any type!"

Shen Le smiled and gave him a thumbs up. The car rumbled along, arriving at the hilly area. The young man, pulling a small trailer and carrying a backpack, trudged up the hill, his steps uneven.

"It's in this area... Several incidents have happened in this vicinity, so we'll start our search from here!"

He unloaded the trailer on the top of the hill, took out a long pole, quickly assembled it, and then pulled a data cable from his backpack and plugged it into the pole.

"Mr. Shen, will you come with me, or find it yourself?"

Shen Le smiled and waved to him, then sat cross-legged and began to unleash her spiritual power. Layer by layer, it seeped into the hillside, into the soil, gently caressing downwards:

Spiritual power is like the gentlest fingertips, caressing layers of soil, probing into rocks, and listening to the years that have slumbered underground.

Above the earth, grass and trees flourish and wither, insects and ants scurry about, everything is full of vitality.

However, beneath the surface, Shen Le's "vision" revealed a completely different scene:
Layer upon layer of different soil, deposited over time and with human activity, settled and settled. Qing Dynasty, Ming Dynasty, Song Dynasty, Tang Dynasty…

The traces of human activity, which I didn't quite understand when reading books or being taught by archaeology teachers, become crystal clear when touched with my mental power.

As he touched each layer, Shen Le suddenly exclaimed, "Huh?"
"This is?"

When spiritual energy touches the soil, large clumps of earth become hard and parched, filled with a long-standing fiery aura that has never dissipated over the years.

Expanding the search area further, he quickly found a large number of bricks, some regular and some irregular, that had changed color due to prolonged exposure to high temperatures.

"It's here... The ancient kilns we found during the previous archaeological excavation were distributed in roughly the same way..."

Shen Le silently recited the mantra, using this as a guide to extend his spiritual power to deeper and wider areas.

Soon, more information flooded into his senses.

At the foot of the hills, at the bottom of what used to be a deep ravine, he “saw” a large number of sharp-edged fragments.

They are delicate and hard, with a subtle glaze. Some are flat, some are curved, some are sharp, and some have had their edges smoothed out.

Even after the passage of time, Shen Le can still feel the burning flames that shaped them back then.

These are porcelain shards, a large number of shards that were deliberately broken and buried here. Generally, there are ash pits like this around porcelain kilns, but it's unclear if this is the type they're looking for…

"Take a look here." He waved his hand, sending out a beam of light to point to the location of the ash pit in the Special Affairs Bureau, before continuing his search.

In the ash pit he had just found, he sensed a malevolent aura and resentment, but it was extremely shallow and did not seem like it could cause any trouble.

We still have to search, we still have to keep searching...

The special affairs officer came over as instructed, pointed at the long pole, swept it back and forth on the ground, and shook his head.

Shen Le moved lightly, as if the entire earth supported him, carrying him around the surrounding hills.

Mental energy, like a woven net, marks out these scattered clues one by one.

Broken bricks, shattered porcelain, and scorched earth. Patches of these formed five relatively concentrated areas, slightly spaced from each other.

Those scorched earth and solidified bricks, clinging to the mountainside and rising upwards, are clearly the remains of an ancient kiln.

"found it!"

He opened his eyes, took out his phone, pulled up a map of the surrounding area, and quickly drew several small circles on it:

"Here, here... In this area, there are at least five ancient kiln sites that have collapsed and been abandoned. What we are looking for should be here."

"Great! Leave the rest to us!"

The Special Affairs Bureau was in high spirits. Shen Le had gone this far; now it was his turn to shine!
He called over Gu Yulin, took out a small, portable entrenching shovel, ground-penetrating radar, and other equipment from the trailer, and began precise positioning and preliminary clearing based on the location pointed out by Shen Le.

Explore and ask questions as you go:
"Do you want to do archaeological restoration? Do you mind if I dig a little rough? -- You don't mind? Great! Wait for me to call the excavator!"

With the introduction of modern tools, the speed immediately increased. The first and second kiln sites were quickly excavated. As soon as they saw the light of day, Shen Le shook his head:
Beneath the soil lay the collapsed kiln structure, along with some ordinary discarded porcelain shards and kiln tools. In terms of monetary value, there was none; in terms of artistic merit, there was none; in terms of spiritual significance, there was even less…

It wasn't until the third kiln site, when the topsoil was cleared away to reveal the denser inner fill layer, that a chilling, sorrowful, and stubborn atmosphere suddenly became clear.

Instantly, the excavator started creaking and making strange noises from its engine. Gu Yulin and the special affairs bureau guy both instinctively shivered.

"Stop! This is it—non-professionals, evacuate!"

(End of this chapter)