The old things I repaired have become fine

Chapter 782 Why can he take the surname Shen as soon as he arrives, but we can't?!
"Returning home..."

"Returning home..."

Shen Le held the pottery house in his hands and sighed deeply. It had taken him less than 24 hours to ignite the spiritual flame and repair the pottery house.
However, the memories of witnessing the pottery house kept him immersed in the rise and fall of a family for ten, twenty, even a hundred years. Even after opening his eyes again, his mind couldn't immediately detach itself from it.
For a small family to expand, or even just to continue its existence, is incredibly difficult. Natural disasters, man-made calamities, successive dynastic changes, peasant uprisings, and various wars...

Even the slightest setback can be a devastating blow to such a small family.

Throughout China's millennia-long history, countless families have risen and fallen. How many families possess a genealogy, a clear lineage, and the ability to provide evidence of their descent from so-and-so?

Even among the descendants of the Liu, Li, and Zhao families, how many can provide evidence to claim that they are descendants of a certain emperor?

Even so, according to genetic monitoring studies, tens of millions of Chinese men carry the paternal marker O-F254 of the Liu Bang family, making it the de facto number one surname in China.

However, most of their descendants have changed their surnames to other ones, forgotten their origins, and faded into obscurity among the common people of China from the "imperial surname" of the Han Dynasty...

For ordinary people, the only way to combat these natural and man-made disasters is to live, live, and live on. To farm, to marry, to reproduce, and to continue the family line—

Only with a sufficient population can civilization be preserved and kept alive amidst waves of war and disaster...

Shen Le let out a heartfelt sigh. A warm current surged in his palm, and the pottery house, now imbued with sentience and shrinking on its own, trembled gently, echoing his inner感慨 (gǎnkǎi, a feeling of deep emotion or reflection).

Even when they sought refuge in Yizhou, even when they struggled to survive amidst typhoons, torrential rains, miasma, and attacks from the natives, this ancient house still held a special place in the hearts of the Shen family.

Before the graves were destroyed and the pottery house was washed away, the thoughts and feelings embodied in this pottery house over many days had already given it a spiritual quality.

This spirituality, in turn, guided the family members who were struggling to survive:
Come, come here, come to the old house... One day, we can go back, return to the hometown we've always dreamed of...

Shen Le gently closed her eyes for a moment. In the memories of the pottery house, there were many specks of phosphorescence, rising from the grave and from the sea, casting their light into the interior of the pottery house, where they were gathered up.
Until the very last moment before the graves were washed away and the terracotta house crumbled, it still did its utmost to protect the phosphorescence, to protect its spirit from being extinguished...

"Now, you're home..."

He murmured. As if hearing his sigh, tiny specks of starlight rose from the fragments, circled the room three times, and plunged into the ground, disappearing from sight.

From a distance, Gu Yulin raised the long pole of the detector and cautiously peered towards them, his eyes fixed on the display screen:

"The value has changed! The value has changed significantly! This is—"

"It leans towards yin energy, but not the filthy or evil kind..." A local guy from the Special Affairs Bureau also came over to look:

"It's the kind of peaceful energy that's been sacrificed to, that's been blessed... Ah, thank goodness, this kind doesn't need any further treatment..."

The two men, both in dire straits, exchanged a glance, and in each other's faces they saw undisguised longing:
"If all the dead were in this state, we wouldn't have to work overtime like crazy every day!"

Starlight scattered. It was invisible to ordinary people but exceptionally clear to cultivators. It circled the pottery house and Shen Le several times, as if confirming that it had returned to its homeland.

Then, some slowly rose, soaring into the starry sky, while many more gradually descended, sinking into the earth. Gu Yulin stared wide-eyed, intently watching the points of light flying out of the pottery house, silently counting:
"One, two, five... there must be about ten... twenty, thirty... fifty? Goodness, over a hundred! What kind of thing can store so many?"
"Hurry up and finish walking, it should be over once we're done, and then we should be able to go home..."

Sigh, he's always either incredibly bored or incredibly busy following Shen Le around.

Shen Le occasionally stays home, either in seclusion to repair things, cultivate, or simply not knowing what to do. His daily life is filled with idleness, making him feel like a paycheck thief.

Although he can no longer even steal salaries these days, he still gets dragged over to help out when his colleagues nearby are working overtime.
However, once Shen Le comes out of seclusion, if he wants to run around, get busy, or do something, he'll have to be with him 24/7.

For example, in this round, Shen Le was digging up the ancient kiln and rubbing it by hand. Heaven knows how much he had spent the whole night with it!
Please hurry up and finish this, let me go back to sleep, okay...?

However, the local guy next to Gu Yulin had a completely different idea. He was also staring intently at the points of light, even constantly turning his head to look outside:

"This thing... can it absorb something else? Filter it again? Hopefully, it can help us out—even before it was fixed, it could attract spirit rings..."

Ah, it's here! It's really here! That's great!

The starlight inside the pottery house dissipated and disappeared. After a short pause, even more starlight drifted over from not far away.

There weren't many, just a few individual grains, spaced quite far apart. They were trembling a bit as they arrived, bobbing up and down, their light and color unstable.

After settling into the pottery hut, they seemed to settle down quickly, as if their fur had been smoothed out...

The young man's eyes lit up immediately! He moved the probe between his index and middle fingers, clasped his hands together, and sincerely murmured:
"Amitabha, this thing really works! I don't know how much coverage it has, how fast it processes data, or what the upper and lower limits are..."

If this thing can cover the entire city, and its processing speed is fast enough, with upper and lower limit values ​​that can handle all normal and abnormal situations, then wouldn't they be able to win without lifting a finger?

Even if the power is relatively small, it can be taken to those master craftsmen to study and see if they can come up with a universal magical artifact or a universal talisman...

He pressed his pounding heart and waited patiently for about half an hour, until the nearby lights seemed to have been drawn away and no new lights appeared for five minutes.

Only then did he tiptoe over carefully, bowing and straining to speak in a low voice:

"Mr. Shen, Mr. Shen?...Does your newly repaired magical artifact have any special abilities?"

Shen Le slowly opened his eyes. A faint light shone from the pottery house in his palm, and it suddenly began to expand rapidly. Half a foot, a foot, a foot and a half…

Shen Le had no choice but to kneel down on one knee, stretch out his arms wide, and carefully place the pottery house, which had been restored to a length and width of more than one meter, on the ground.

Even so, he still needed to use his mental energy to quickly communicate with the earth element and level the ground, lest any uneven spots cause the clay house's base to crack due to insufficient strength... After settling the clay house, which had just stretched out, he stood up and casually touched the corner tower's spire at the edge of the house. Turning to the Special Affairs Bureau colleague, he nodded and smiled:
"I'm sorry for the trouble I've caused you these past few days. Yes, Azi—I'm referring to the spirit of this pottery house—it does indeed have some special abilities..."

Okay, another child with a spirit. Gu Yulin quickly took out his phone and started taking pictures, recording, and uploading:
With a spirit, a spirit artifact with independent consciousness is considered a separate individual by the Special Affairs Bureau. Well, at least every spirit artifact that Shen Le has enlightened is considered a separate individual.

It needs to be named, it needs to be given an ID card, it needs to be issued a bank card, a mobile phone card and a series of other documents, its energy value needs to be measured and its abilities recorded.

Oh, right, we also need to contact specialized teachers to guide its socialization. The Special Affairs Bureau has a special budget for these things.

Fortunately, Mr. Lu hadn't resigned yet. Given Shen Le's speed in enlightening spirits, the next student would often arrive before the previous one even graduated...

"Is its name Ah Zi? Which character? Does it have a surname?"

“The Zi of Sangzi,” Shen Le answered smoothly. But when he got to the surname, he paused, then froze, his brows furrowing deeply.
【Of course my surname is Shen! The Shen family's ancestral home, the Shen family's ancestral home, my name is Shen Zi, is that not allowed?】

"Why?! I was the first one Shen Le did this to, and I don't even have a surname. Why do you get Shen Le's surname right away?!"

[Exactly! Exactly! I've helped Shen Le so much, I'm the best fighter by his side, and I don't even have a surname, so why should you have Shen Le's surname?!]

【And I! 】

【And I……】

The little ones were in a frenzy in his mind. Shen Le took a deep breath, forcing himself not to press his temples, and also forcing himself not to yell at the little ones:
"Stop arguing!"

Ah, why didn't he discuss giving Xiaoling a surname from the beginning?

Oh, it seems that Xiaoling was passed down in someone else's family for generations, so it might be closer to the original owner and want to inherit the original owner's surname.

In short, when he was naming the little ones, he hadn't even thought about surnames...

The little ones who have their own surnames all gave them those names themselves; he didn't come up with them...

"Quiet!" he finally shouted in his heart:
“We’ll discuss your surnames later! Azi’s surname is Shen because his former family also happened to have the surname Shen. He didn’t take my surname!”

Just like Zhong Xiaomei, Huang Yutong, and Li Xingtang, they take their respective owners' surnames—now, hold your tongue, I need to talk to someone else!

A sense of peace finally settled in her mind. Shen Le seized the moment and smiled at Gu Yulin:

"Shen Zi, its name is Shen Zi—its former owner also shared the surname Shen with me. Hmm, its abilities..."

The little guy had just woken up and was still a bit dazed. Shen Le patiently communicated with it for a while before continuing:
"It says it can guide the deceased on their way home—of course, not that it leads directly to the underworld or anything, and it can't even sense the existence of the underworld."

But it can gather them, soothe them, and calm them down temporarily… What? You mean range? Range doesn’t know, it says it will try slowly…”

"Oh, that's great!" Gu Yulin and the local guy exclaimed in unison.

Even if it's too good, it's useless. No matter how good it is, Shen Zi can't immediately start working.

Shen Le carried it on a long drive back to Zhuxi Town, first going to the Shanghai Special Affairs Bureau to give Shen Zi a precise "full-body test".

Take photos, videos, perform full-body scans, weigh the product, and most importantly, record its energy intensity and energy characteristics.

Given that it is an ancient pottery piece, an expert from the Shanghai Museum was specially invited to study it. The expert practically pounced on it, hugging the pottery vessel tightly and refusing to let go.

"This is an extremely rare cultural relic! Its completeness and exquisite craftsmanship are second to none, not only in China, but at least in the Jiangsu and Zhejiang region!"
"What? It even has a traceable provenance? We can find the kiln site where it was fired, and the family it belonged to? That's fantastic! Could we exhibit it at the Shanghai Museum? We could put on a special exhibition for it!"

"Oh, this really won't work..."

Shen Le's forehead was beaded with sweat. Spiritual artifacts naturally possess powerful spiritual radiation, making them unsuitable for ordinary people to handle—

Moreover, Shen Zi has just woken up and is not familiar with how to use his power. If we just throw him into a museum like this, who knows what trouble he will cause!

Shen Le pleaded and persuaded, even pulling out records of how he had collected fragments from various places before the pottery house was restored, before finally convincing the expert to stop.

Even so, the expert looked at the photos unfolding on the screen with a face full of heartache and indignation:
"How did it end up like this? How did it get refired, becoming completely one piece? Shen Le, you're a professional in cultural relic restoration, don't ruin cultural relics like this in the future!"

But I'm repairing magical artifacts, so I can't follow the same approach as museum artifact restoration...

Shen Le silently argued in her heart, but could only force a smile and respectfully see the teacher off.

Back in the room, several researchers from the Special Affairs Bureau were gathered around Shen Zi. Some were burning incense, others were offering pig's head, boiled mutton, and braised beef shank, while still others were using strange instruments to scan its body.
"What are you doing?"

"Ah, we're testing whether there's a way to expand its range or increase its battery life..."

Shen Le shook his head and sighed helplessly. Although he could communicate with Shen Zi using more efficient methods, he couldn't overcome the exhaustion of the Special Affairs Bureau experts who were desperately seeking solutions.

"Alright, I'll talk to it and see where the limits of its abilities lie. But let's take away the incense and candles; it says the smell is making it sneeze. Let's take away the sacrificial offerings too; it won't be able to eat them anyway—"

I said, "Next time you set out offerings, at least use a plate! Don't just use those plastic containers from takeout!"

(End of this chapter)