The old things I repaired have become fine

Chapter 786 Homecoming, Homecoming... All you Chinese people, come back, this is your home...

Azi herself wouldn't have a solution, nor would she use her brain to come up with a solution for Shen Le.

In fact, Shen Le didn't know where the "brain" of this pottery house was—the location of the spirit's thinking organ remained a mystery.

Fortunately, the little creatures that Shen Le had enlightened were always very well-behaved and willing to cooperate. Although it had no method of its own, it agreed to cooperate with Shen Le and help him analyze itself:

[Make it small... tear down a room... can't be that strong... would be too close... can't fit it... can't be pulled over...]

Shen Le listened patiently to its speech, carefully analyzing its hesitant and somewhat stuttering answers. After a long while, she finally understood what it meant:
A small one is possible. Azi's pottery house has three courtyards and dozens of rooms, with towering corner towers on all four sides, but it only needs one small room.

Of course, the small pottery house with basic talismans, once separated, certainly couldn't be as strong as Azi.

The small house can't cover much territory—in fact, given Azi's current situation, if she goes all out, her influence radius will be at least two kilometers, and with Shen Le's support, doubling that wouldn't be a problem.

The little house couldn't hold too many "things"—those "things" looked like just scattered phosphorescent lights, but the capacity of the little house couldn't be simply calculated by volume.
Moreover, the small house can't handle anything too powerful, so it might require the practitioners from the Special Affairs Bureau to run errands.

However, having something is better than not having it, and making something simple is better than making something complicated.

One hundred simple houses, each successful on the first try, evenly distributed, are far superior to one extremely complex replica of Azi, requiring countless attempts and numerous failures to succeed.

This is a good idea! Roll up your sleeves and let's go!
Shen Le reached out and pressed his hand on Azi's body, and the heat slowly seeped in, flowing over every wall and every talisman structure on Azi's body.

He expanded his mental energy to observe the resonance of these talismans, while simultaneously extending one hand to continuously move the mouse, marking the talismans recorded in the three-dimensional model constructed on the computer.

Before long, clusters of talismans were selected, marked, and linked together.

Next, Shen Le and Mr. Zhao worked together to simulate making small pottery houses, carving symbols on the clay blanks, and carefully firing them in the kiln.

“I don’t think these talismans are good enough to be put together; we need to add some more.”

“I feel that the connection is not quite right; the stroke on the side should be more rounded.”

"No, no, no, if we draw a circle, there won't be enough space here. I still think we should use a zigzag line..."

No one can convince anyone else; everyone thinks their own ideas are right—or perhaps no one is 100% certain that their own ideas are correct.

Having successfully navigated the talismanic pathways using special powers, they could only focus on building one, two, three to five, or even a dozen small pottery huts, carefully placing them into the kiln and firing them:
Mr. Zhao was responsible for the clay formula and controlling the moisture content of the clay blanks, while Shen Le was responsible for the vast majority of the talisman carvings. The two of them jointly managed the fire.

Fire one kiln, then another, and soon, evenly and consistently, smaller versions of the pottery houses were produced.

"This pottery house is extremely useful!" The Special Affairs Bureau staff were overjoyed. After testing the pottery house, they quickly reported back the results:

"Its coverage area reaches a radius of 500 meters, which is already quite good! If you fill it with small fragments of spirit jade, it can even reach a kilometer!"

"Most importantly, it's small! 20 centimeters high, 20 centimeters wide, and 20 centimeters deep—about the same size as those folk shrines on the streets and alleys, it won't attract any attention at all!"

“We can put it anywhere. If that doesn’t work, we’ll make it look like a shrine and sell it cheap!”

"Great idea! Don't those small shops like to display statues of gods? They can display Guan Yu, the God of Wealth, or even a lucky cat! We can sell them to them in bulk!"

In short, by making it smaller, it can be placed anywhere. Unlike that massive structure over a meter tall, which looks rather odd anywhere except in a museum, temple, or Taoist monastery—

You can't just go around negotiating with shopping malls to get them to allocate a separate area for such a large ceramic house, can you?
While it is indeed excellent and certainly worthy of exhibition, it is not worthwhile for every city to display several replicas!
Having created the pottery houses of various sizes, the next task is to modularize and standardize the work process.

Shen Le and Mr. Zhao joined forces, one setting the standard for clay formula and the other determining the standard symbols;
Then, the workers are responsible for preparing the ingredients according to the standard, washing and mixing them with their own machines, and pressing them into sheets using special molds.

Next, the pre-set production line inscribes the symbols layer by layer, stacking them up one by one, using a method similar to 3D printing to make the clay into a ceramic blank with symbol patterns.

Having previously worked on making porcelain towers and debugging production lines, the engineers had enough experience to get the production line for making small pottery houses working in just three days.
Working at full capacity, a full day can produce enough clay house blanks for one hundred pottery houses!

"Alright, the problem now is to ensure that every newly fired pottery house has a strong enough mental core to work according to our requirements..."

Shen Le took a deep breath. With him personally overseeing the kiln and activating the spirits on each pottery piece, these small pottery houses would certainly be fine;
But let him stay here day after day, until all the small pottery houses that could cover the whole country are burned down...

Then we might as well kill him!

It would be better to kill him!

"Let me think about how to adjust these talismans so that they can move on their own and do their own work..."

Before Shen Le could come up with an answer, he felt his clothes being tugged and his foot being stepped on.

Looking down, I saw that Azi was trying very hard to tilt her body and raise half of it:

[I! I! I can wake them up! I can!]

"Okay, okay, you can do it, you can do it." Shen Le quickly knelt down with a thud, spreading his arms out to cushion it:

"Land quickly, settle down, and lay flat! You're a piece of pottery! Don't jump around like that, what if the bottom cracks?!"

The most troublesome step has also been solved. The assembly line handles the production of clay blanks, the kiln is set at the temperature, and the clay is directly pushed in for firing.

Using an electric kiln instead of the traditional firewood-fired kiln allows for extremely precise settings of parameters such as temperature and oxygen content, ensuring a yield rate of over 99%.

All Shen Le and Mr. Zhao needed to do was to pave the way and set the initial technical parameters and standards.

Then, Mr. Zhao clapped his hands and went straight back to oversee the firing of the porcelain tower—that was more complex and demanding.
Shen Le plunged headlong into the research and development of large pottery houses: small pottery houses alone cannot connect the entire city; a large pottery house, a one-to-one replica of Azi's, is needed as a node...

In less than ten days, through his diligent hand-rubbing and tireless burning of the spiritual fire, nine fully replicated large pottery houses were completed.

They didn't possess consciousness and couldn't be considered artifact spirits, but according to the Special Affairs Bureau's tests, they were still considered mid-grade magical artifacts, quite acceptable. After all the tests were passed, these nine ceramic houses were placed in nine different cities according to the locations calculated by the Special Affairs Bureau…

Shen Le glanced at the map and felt that it was arranged according to the nine provinces.

Of course, this isn't necessarily accurate, since there are several versions of the ancient Nine Provinces, and the center of each province wasn't necessarily the modern-day central city.

For example, would you dare say that the center of Jizhou was the present-day capital?

When Yu the Great established the nine provinces, the capital city didn't even have a basic urban form yet!

One hundred small pottery houses surround one large pottery house, forming a node in the city.

Large pottery houses are placed in the city center, where the earth's veins intersect, or in peaceful places such as ancient temples and Taoist monasteries.

The smaller pottery houses, according to the Special Affairs Bureau personnel's calculations, are scattered like stars, spreading out in concentric circles around the larger pottery houses, striving to weave a network.

To make the Special Affairs Bureau personnel appear less suspicious while conducting calculations, especially to avoid looking like they were involved in superstition, the Bureau urgently developed specialized equipment:

A laser rangefinder used in engineering was modified by adding a small box under the rangefinder and placing a compass on it.

The compass and rangefinder are used together to measure direction, distance, sensitivity of spiritual feedback, and resonance between small pottery houses, and between small and large pottery houses...

Of course, special energy-supplying spirit jade fragments also need to be installed inside the small pottery house, and these fragments must not be stolen.

If someone with ill intentions steals it, you can arrest them and throw them in a detention center, but what are you going to do if a sensitive corvid gets in and pecks at the fragments?

Or what if stray cats and dogs take over these small earthen houses fixed on the street and make them their new homes?

In just half a month, the practitioners of the Special Affairs Bureau were so exhausted that their hair was falling out in clumps. They looked at each other and saw that everyone had dark circles under their eyes.

There was no overtime pay, no allowances, and no bonuses. Plus, a whole host of new problems needed to be solved. All we could do was comfort each other.

"Things will be much better once this round is over... Once this round is over, there will be far fewer 'dirty things' for us to deal with; we'll only need to come and pick them up once a week..."

Shen Le was completely unaware of these things, and he was completely oblivious to the changes brought about by the pottery house.

After all, the distance is too far. Jingdezhen is located in the ancient Nine Provinces, roughly near the border between Jingzhou and Yangzhou, which is a long way from any of the major cities.
However, as the nine large pottery houses and nine hundred small pottery houses were completed, Shen Le suddenly had a strange feeling:

"Something seems... different..."

He subconsciously stepped out of the kiln area, out of Mr. Zhao's private realm, the realm of the porcelain demon. Sure enough, as soon as he left the realm, the unseen connection between heaven and earth became even clearer, ripples spreading out in waves:

"when--"

In my mind, an unprecedentedly clear and melodious sound exploded.

The surrounding pedestrians showed no unusual behavior; some hurried along, others picked up the porcelain pieces to play with, and still others greeted customers with smiles.

Shen Le suddenly realized that the sound was not in his ears, but deep within his consciousness, shaking his soul:
What is it?
Yes, it's something very familiar...

He quickened his pace, found a secluded spot, and plunged into the ground. Embraced by the earth, he entered a meditative state, finally able to close his eyes and focus his attention on his own sea of ​​consciousness:
That copper piece, the one he always carried close to his body, once again manifested itself in his mind.

This time, the bronze cauldron, which has grown four sides and a lower belly but is still missing four legs, is slowly growing downwards at a speed visible to the naked eye.

The new growth is like the roots of a big tree, about to sink deep into the ground to absorb the earth's energy and merge itself with the whole earth.

Although it's still many nodes away from being fully completed, it has made a big step forward!

Shen Le subconsciously reached out his hand towards it. Invisible to the naked eye, but he could feel invisible, fine, continuous lines of latitude and longitude extending outwards from the bronze cauldron as its core—

The invisible barrier between heaven and earth that I had once witnessed and repaired, that barrier that covered the land of China, began to tremble quietly along these lines of latitude and longitude.

That barrier of heaven and earth was originally just an outer cover, used to separate this world from the distant wilderness inhabited by gods and demons, to resist external evils and the invasion from beyond the boundary;

But at this moment, Shen Le clearly felt that as the lines of latitude and longitude began to expand, this barrier was quietly rising from the depths of the earth!
"This is... the celestial axis and terrestrial axis, has it begun to rotate...?"

Shen Le watched, almost trembling. This newly risen barrier also appeared on the cauldron, echoing the topographical map of mountains and rivers on the cauldron;
The scattered, fine, sand-like rays of light flickered and clearly formed nine small clumps:
"Are these light spots... the ceramic house nodes that were just placed down...?"

The newly fired pottery houses, breathing in the earth's energy, resonated with the bronze cauldron and with Azi, radiating a firm yet gentle power.

This power has no destructive force; it merely serves to organize and guide. It rises slowly from the bottom up, gently descending and then gently rising again, joining the cycle of the entire world.
A clear, warm, and peaceful guiding force, resonating with the core force field of the large pottery house and the nodes of the small pottery house, slowly spread out:
"Returning home...returning home..."

"All my Chinese people... come back, come back... this is home..."

A glimmer of light appeared. Spirits, regaining power due to the revival of spiritual energy but wandering aimlessly for various reasons, seemed to hear a distant call at this moment:

I'm home...

I can go home now...

This is my hometown, this is my peaceful journey home. Here, there is no danger, no pain, only a warm embrace...

The phosphorescent lights drifted silently, slowly converging towards the nearest pottery house node, embarking on their return journey.

Shen Le looked at them quietly and smiled silently:
The responsibility is still heavy; he must at least cover every city, every village, and every place in need with these nodes.

However, the barrier between heaven and earth, which connects the upper and lower realms, will undoubtedly play a more significant role in the face of the great wave of spiritual energy revival.

It will better protect the people of China!
(End of this chapter)