The old things I repaired have become fine

Chapter 788 Mr. Shen, would you be willing to reside permanently in the Dragon Palace?

Shen Le cautiously looked at the wooden boat that Qing Li had carefully brought up, which was contained in a box.

Dark brown, with a somewhat rough surface, its texture appears to be somewhere between wood and bark. It is about the length of a palm and the thickness of three fingers, with pointed ends, and has no oars, sails, or canopy.

At first glance, it resembles a child's handmade canoe; compared to Yun Kun, its refinement, or rather its complexity, is far inferior.
However, upon closer inspection, the small wooden boat immediately gave him a sense of dread. Whether it was the gap on the port side or the large hole in the hull, even a slight mental focus could sense the roaring turbulence emanating from it.

Just one glance is enough to make you feel like you'll be sucked in and torn apart, from your mind to your soul.

However, Shen Le was no longer at the level he was when he repaired Yun Kun. He focused his mind, not immediately extending his spiritual energy threads, but instead circling the box, carefully observing it from all angles:
"What material is this ship made of? It doesn't feel like wood, or rather, it's not entirely wood..."

His gaze swept across a small circle, from Qingli, who was standing by the table and slightly leaning towards the box, to Longjun, who was leaning against the railing and looking down, seemingly with all his attention focused on the white jade railing.

Qing Li's expression was stern, and she shook her head slightly, as if to say, "I was born too late and haven't had a chance to hear about it yet."

Although the Dragon Lord didn't turn around, from the side and behind, the corner of his mouth seemed to be slightly curved upwards:

"It's not entirely made of wood. Back then, we took a large branch from the Jianmu tree as the main material, refined it with copper from Shoushan Mountain and jade from Kunshan Mountain, using the rosy light as the warp and the primordial magnetism as the weft..."

He spoke at length, his tone relaxed, pausing slightly from time to time.

His gaze drifted upwards, seemingly tracing back to memories, or perhaps recalling the friend who had once helped him build wooden boats:

"I still have some tree branch fragments left, but no whole pieces. I've also collected some rosy clouds and magnetic energy over the years; you can have those if you need them—"

Besides that, please feel free to ask if you need anything else.

Shen Le: "..."

He didn't rush to answer; instead, he spread his knees slightly, lowered them slightly, and assumed a concealed horse stance. His toes gripped the ground inside his shoes, his core was tense, and he tried to maintain his balance, preventing himself from swaying precariously.

What is Jianmu?

What is the copper from Shoushan?

Does Shouyang Mountain still produce copper? Has it been depleted by mining?

It seems that the jade in Kunlun Mountain has been almost completely mined out. In Porcelain Tower's memory, he couldn't find suitable chalcedony even when he went to Kunlun Mountain before the Tang Dynasty...

Should we ask the Dragon Lord for help, or mobilize the local monsters he knows to search through the inventory, or perhaps ask the Special Affairs Bureau for help?

And then there's the concept of "the rosy clouds as the warp and the magnetic field as the weft"—even if you had these things in stock, do you really think I could actually utilize such high-level, ethereal concepts?!
"...I can't say for sure right now. More investigation might be needed to determine that." Shen Le quickly organized her thoughts and answered cautiously.
"Could you take this wooden boat out of the box, unfold it, and let me take a closer look?"

"Oh, are you ready now?" Long Jun turned his head and smiled at him. Before Shen Le could nod, he waved his hand, and the wooden boat flew out of the box, growing bigger and bigger, growing rapidly.

In a single breath, it grew from the length of a palm to a full three meters;

The second breath increased the length from three meters to thirty meters;

On his third breath, Shen Le stood at the ship's railing, craning his neck to look left and right, no longer sure how long the ship actually was.

It seemed, it appeared, it was longer than what he had seen standing beside any warship in the naval base...

Moreover, even though the giant ship was floating beside him and didn't move at all, it exerted tremendous pressure, making it almost impossible for Shen Le to breathe!

So how big is this thing in real life?
Thanks to the phenomenal photojournalist from the Strategic Deception Bureau, Shen Le genuinely couldn't match the photos with the actual length of the warships, and he also lacked the ability to estimate the length of the warships with the naked eye.

But thinking about it carefully, given the enormous dragon figure he saw at the bottom of the pool, even if the ship were several thousand meters long when fully extended, it wouldn't be enough for the dragon to stretch its body, right?

Thinking this, Shen Le took a step back, then another. Before she could take the third step, she suddenly felt something strange under her feet:
Looking down, he saw that the floor beneath his feet was smooth and had a texture that resembled the structure of mutton fat jade that he had seen under a microscope. The shape was not flat, but rather a gentle arc.

Looking further back, the floor quickly narrows downwards from the front and back sides, while the left and right sides, like two arms, embrace the center from afar...

Why do I feel like I'm standing next to a jade basin?
Shen Le turned around and looked outside. His gaze fell upon the outside world, where the entire side hall had expanded hundreds, thousands, even tens of thousands of times in size, and even the Dragon Lord's figure had become exceptionally majestic.

Carefully walk to the edge of the floor and look down. It feels as if you are standing on the edge of a cliff or a building hundreds of stories high.

The surface of the abyss beneath my feet is covered with rings of dark brown veins, which look... a bit like tree rings?

"How about it, do you need to come closer? Or perhaps you could come out and rest for a bit first?"

A voice drifted from afar. It seemed to be Qing Li, or perhaps the Dragon Lord, but thankfully, there wasn't a gigantic face hovering over the jade basin, peering at him...

Shen Le took a deep breath, finally recovering from the shock of suddenly facing the colossal object. He waved to the outside and raised his voice:

"No need to rest! I'll go investigate right away!"

He roused himself, stomped his foot, and unleashed his spiritual power to summon the wind and clouds, hoping to have the wind lift him up and fly him to the wooden boat.

I tried once, twice, three times, and failed three times in a row.
Every blade of grass, every tree, every flower, every stone, even every cloud and every drop of water in the Dragon Lord's Palace was clearly beyond the reach of his meager spiritual power...

Just as Shen Le was thinking of another way, a wave suddenly rose from the shallow half-basin of water in the jade basin. One end rested at his feet, and the other end rested on the gunwale of the boat, unfolding into a flat glass walkway.

Shen Le's spirits lifted, and he quickly stepped onto the plank road, stomping his foot hard:
Very good. This boardwalk is strong enough, yet it has a slight elasticity and friction, so there is no feeling of slipping or falling off when walking on it.

This water control is amazing, and so thoughtful!

"Thank you!"

He waved to the outside, strode across the plank road, and headed towards the wooden boat. The further he went, the greater the oppressive force became, so great that it made it difficult for him to breathe, so great that he even had to slightly bend over for the last few steps, struggling forward step by step against the pressure.

However, the greater the pressure, the more concentrated and invigorated his mental energy became. His internal energy circulated rapidly, and the faint humanoid figure of light within his body even showed signs of materializing.

As soon as I stepped onto the deck, all the pressure in my body suddenly vanished. The humanoid figure of light swayed in my chest, then suddenly shot up and exploded into sparkling fireworks!

"call……"

Shen Le instinctively spread her arms and looked up at the sky. The fireworks expanded, expanded, expanded to their limit, and then suddenly contracted inward, revealing a complete human shape.

She and Shen Le are not exactly similar, but apart from their size, they are exactly the same.

The next moment, Shen Le was shocked to find that his perspective had completely changed. From the small humanoid figure standing on the deck, he had become the enormous humanoid figure of light hanging high above the deck.

Not only is the perspective elevated, but what you see is also completely different:

He truly saw the light. Threads upon threads, one after another, the traces of the tree branches were clearly visible to him:

Thick, supple bark covers the outside, while a sturdy heartwood provides support inside. The heartwood wasn't simply hollowed out; rather, it was refined and layered, greatly increasing its density and naturally concave inwards.
The bark surface, the heartwood, and all the key parts of the ship are supported by sturdy array nodes.

Each node, embracing yin and yang, is deeply embedded in the ship's hull, forming a complex array foundation—the copper of Shouyang and the jade of Kunshan…

The vast majority of the array's foundation stones are still intact, with extremely complex rune patterns layered upon each other, extending from the surface to the deepest layer, constantly rotating and moving.

The arrays were interconnected by intricate lines, some thick and sturdy, others delicate yet dense, enveloping the entire ship.

The light of the bright clouds and the magnetic energy intertwine to form lines of warp and weft. They are the veins of the formation, the outer shell of the entire ship, and perhaps also the barrier that separates the wooden ship from the outside world.

The illusory image of Shen Le, forged from light, cautiously reached out and touched the line closest to him. It could be touched!

It can be stretched!
Since he can have an impact, perhaps he can try to fix something?
Shen Le walked carefully, almost on tiptoe, from the bow to the stern and then back again.

It must be said that the enormous, luminous figure does have its advantages; at least it saves you a few steps.

If it were replaced with the original humanoid form, just walking back and forth would probably take two hours, and then investigating the damage to the ship would take an even longer time.

As Guangren took his first step, each step was about ten feet long, almost enough to make him leap off the deck.

If it weren't for the huge gash in the ship's side and the large hole in its hull, requiring him to be extremely careful, he could have run back and forth between the two locations in a quarter of an hour...

After walking through it once, Shen Le had a general idea of ​​the extent of the damage to the wooden boat.

The ship originally had about 365 nodes, but due to the damage to the hull, only about 330 remain. A batch needs to be recast and embedded with arrays.

Some of the lines between the array nodes need to be reconnected and repaired, while others are broken, twisted, or tangled and need to be straightened.
Outside and inside the ship, the "cloth" woven by Mingxia and Yuanci was tattered and had many small holes, requiring it to be rewoven. This was not too difficult, as he had even repaired the barrier between heaven and earth.

The bark and branches of the Jianmu tree are largely broken, this...

This is more difficult...

His spells do indeed include growth spells, which can even regrow nearly rotten wood and cracked, damaged leather armor.

However, is his skill level just a drop in the ocean when it comes to the branches of the Jianmu tree?
Can he afford the spiritual energy and nutrients needed to stimulate the growth of Jianmu trees?
And there's that huge fissure, and that large hole. Shen Le still wasn't confident about those two places:
Even without getting close, the humanoid figure of light swept past the edge from afar, and the entire form felt shaky, with wisps of light scattering from its outline.

The crack was extremely sharp, and the turbulent currents were so fierce that just getting close to it made his soul tremble with fear.

...However, at least if some parts are repaired, 30% or 50%, then his trip won't have been in vain.
The Dragon Lord should have some understanding of his power level; he wouldn't force him to do something impossible...

Shen Le made up her mind to communicate properly with the client and solicit their opinions.

He lowered his eyes, focused his mind, and the humanoid form of light gradually shrank, shrinking smaller and smaller with his will, until it finally disappeared into the top of the door.

He opened his eyes in his physical form, quickly looked around, and saw that the water bridge was still firmly placed on the side of the boat, waiting for him to step on it.

Shen Le strode to the edge of the jade basin, leaped out with all his might, the wind whispering around him, the light and shadows shifting. In a moment, he stood steadily by the table, standing shoulder to shoulder with Qing Li, looking down at the wooden boat floating quietly on the square table and in the jade basin.

The young man in blue robes stretched out one hand, making a hand seal as if to guide someone, but had not yet retracted it.

"Thank you." Shen Le smiled and nodded at him, then turned to the Dragon Lord and bowed respectfully.
"I might be able to fix part of it—with your help, perhaps, I can fix part of it, except for the broken part. But the timeframe is hard to say; it might take a long time..."

"A portion of it is already very good," the Dragon King said softly.

“Even repairing just a third, or even less, would be a huge help. It’s okay if it’s slow; I can keep that gap under control for a long time—what do you need? Is there anything I can help you with?”

"You might need to give me a little bit of the cypress branches you collected, just a small piece will do... and something to help it grow..."

Shen Le meticulously listed the items he needed. The Dragon King showed no sign of difficulty and immediately gave his orders:

"Qingli, give Mr. Shen everything he wants. Mr. Shen, would you like to stay here to repair it, or would you prefer to go back to your own place? If you stay here, you can use the Dragon Palace's spiritual energy and treasures as you please, without worrying about the materials not being suitable."

Shen Le: "..."

Nothing else matters, except that if I stay in the Dragon Palace for a few months and the little ones can't find me, will I cause a huge uproar?

And then there's the Special Affairs Bureau; who knows what's gotten into them, they're in such a hurry to contact me!
“Mr. Shen, the Dragon Palace has telephones and internet access.” As he hesitated, Qing Li gave a slight bow and calmly added. Shen Le immediately made up his mind:
"Then I'll leave you to my own devices! I'll stay here and try my best to repair this ship—to the best of my ability!"

(End of this chapter)