The old things I repaired have become fine

Chapter 797 No way, the devilish training has begun?

Shen Le sorted out all the cultural relics he needed to restore.

The lacquer box was submerged in water, and everything, including the pottery urn and bamboo slips, had to be removed before restoration could begin.

The earthenware urn was soaking in water, and all the items inside needed to be removed before any repairs could begin.

He still can't move the ironware fragments, silk fragments, and wooden artifacts inside the earthenware urn; he has absolutely no idea how to touch them.

According to his investigation and the professors' urgent visual inspection, the gold-plated slab had been burned once. In other words, even if it wasn't in a hurry to be repaired, it wouldn't deteriorate anytime soon, so its priority was relatively low.

The silk painting has been retrieved. It needs to undergo microbial culture and a sterilization plan be determined before it can be further processed.

The bamboo slips haven't been retrieved yet. They need to be retrieved before restoration work, including drying, reshaping, and recoloring, can be carried out...

In conclusion, after careful consideration, aside from what is already being done, what is not urgent, and what cannot be done at the moment, Shen Le's most pressing task is:
Retrieving bamboo slips.

Retrieve the waterlogged bamboo slips.

These waterlogged bamboo slips, already softened and brittle from soaking, with tiny strands at the edges, would likely crumble in the water if disturbed even slightly...

Shen Le had absolutely no confidence. In terms of water content, the compass itself had an astonishingly high water content when it was repaired, but being made of solid hardwood, it had only been submerged for a little over a hundred years and could be easily handled.
When Yun Kun was repaired, the wooden planks of Yun Kun had a considerable amount of moisture. However, it had been on the Dragon Lord's collection shelf for hundreds of years and was far from being so fragile that it would break at the slightest touch.

The problem is, now these bamboo slips...

These bamboo slips...

Shen Le didn't even need to touch it with his hand; the slightest disturbance of his mental energy was enough for it to sway in the water, releasing wisps of bamboo fibers as if in warning:

I'm doomed!
I'm doomed!
Otherwise, why would Shen Le risk being scolded to death by his mentor just to bite the bullet and call in people to provide guidance?
Now, trapped in a vicious cycle, Shen Le had no choice but to call Lao You, the landlady, the Dragon Palace, and his various monster friends, asking them to collect the water-soaked bamboo slips.

Yes, this is a niche item; it's not generally expected to be collected by anyone. And even if someone collects it, there's no guarantee it won't spoil. However—

What kind of thing isn't buried in the mud beneath the centuries-old cave of the water demon?
As expected, the Dragon Palace responded to him cheerfully. Shen Le rushed to the shore of Poyang Lake, plunged in, and was immediately led by Qing Li to a grand hall. Qing Li casually waved aside a curtain of water and stepped inside.

"Come on, pick whatever you like!"

Shen Le was completely dumbfounded. Inside the main hall, neatly arranged piles of clam shells lay, each shell half-open, containing all sorts of things:
There were golden knives, jade pendants, lamps, handkerchiefs, coral trees, and a small bronze carriage...

Of course, there are also bamboo slips, either unfolded or rolled up, with exceptionally clear ink writing and vermilion seal patterns on them...

Dazzling lights, breathtakingly beautiful.

Is this like opening the Dragon Palace's treasure vault, allowing me to choose whatever I want?
Shen Le ignored the other items and walked straight towards the bamboo slips. Qing Li accompanied him, and with a casual wave of her hand, the layer of light on the outside of the clam shell quietly dispersed, revealing the shimmering water inside.

Shen Le could reach inside the clam shell and touch the bamboo slips without any effort, or explore it with his mental power without any hindrance...

However, Shen Le only probed slightly before a wry smile appeared on his face, and he shook his head and stepped back:
“These won’t do, really won’t do. Brother Qingli, thank you for your kindness in offering these Dragon Palace treasures for me to use, but what I need is precisely not these treasures…”

After being immersed in the Dragon Palace's treasure vault for thousands of years, even rotten wood has been transformed into magical treasures! Not to mention, anything that catches the Dragon Palace's eye and is collected into its vault is of exceptional quality; anything inferior simply wouldn't be allowed in.

Pengli Dragon Lord is one of the four ancient river dragon lords and nine marsh dragon lords, whose status is second only to the four sea dragon lords. What inferior thing would he look at?

The Dragon Lord isn't a garbage collector!
Shen Lezai carefully explained his situation, even taking out his phone and playing two videos. Qing Li listened attentively and nodded.
"I see, I misunderstood. Please wait a moment, Mr. Shen, I'll give the order right away. The Dragon Palace has everything you need, it just requires a little searching—"

At his command, the shrimp soldiers and crab generals of the Dragon Palace, as well as the water demons who had already gained sentience but had not yet taken human form, all scattered to search everywhere.

Especially those spirit snakes, spirit loaches, and spirit eels, with their slender bodies, agile turns, and adeptness at burrowing into the mud, they have a special expertise in finding these creatures.

Shen Le only waited one day, but received seven or eight messages:
Somewhere on the shore, a haphazard pile of bamboo lay buried in the silt, seemingly meeting the requirements...

At the bottom of a certain lake, there used to be a village, but it was later flooded and remained submerged for hundreds of years. There are some bamboo and wooden utensils in there, and they have been soaking in the silt for hundreds of years...

Beneath the cave of a certain demon...

Among the collections of a certain demon...

Shen Le was overjoyed and went to see them one by one.

Most of the information reported by these water demons was useless; the bamboo and wood were either completely rotten or had absorbed enough demonic energy to be refined into magical artifacts.

But he actually found two piles! Two huge piles of bamboo!

A pile of bamboo furniture, bamboo beds, bamboo chairs, bamboo wives, etc., has been buried under the silt for hundreds or thousands of years without being disturbed.

Another pile consists of individual bamboo stalks, which, for reasons unknown, have been buried in the deep silt for hundreds or even thousands of years.

Shen Le scanned it with his mental power and immediately burst out laughing:
"It's you!"

Pack it up and take it with you!
The bamboo furniture alone filled seven or eight large boxes, enough to fill a truck. As for the bamboo, if it weren't already saturated with water, there would be enough to build scaffolding on the construction site.

In other words, Zhong Xiaomei's absorption capacity is limitless. The moment the pen holder was opened, it sucked in a whirlwind of air, instantly stuffing everything inside. Anyone else would probably need a shipping container to hold it all…

In short, when Shen Le brought this large pile of water-soaked bamboo products into the campus and displayed them to the teachers, the professors were all dumbfounded.

The water-soaked bamboo slips they could use for practice were counted one by one!
A bamboo slip must be handled with utmost care. A small section without writing is cut off and used for experiments—observed under a microscope, an electron microscope, and an infrared spectrometer…

Even a small piece of bamboo slip is used repeatedly, almost to the point of being reduced to ashes, until every last bit of its remaining value is squeezed out.

Unlike Shen Le, who casually handed over dozens of boxes, filling an entire hall, and with a wave of his hand:

Use it freely!

"There's more if that's not enough!" No, no, no, that's enough, really enough. With so many materials, after Shen Le practices, they can also be used by master's and doctoral students in this field at the university.

That's not all. If they were a little more shameless and took half of these waterlogged bamboo stalks, it would be enough to train students for decades!

Professor Hu, who was in charge of the research on water-saturated bamboo slips, took a deep breath, his eyes shining, and took out his phone to snap photos and then a long video.
Send a copy to the Jingzhou Cultural Relics Institute!
Send a copy to the Changsha Archaeological Institute!
We sent a copy to all the units that had previously sent messages asking for help and practice materials, but who made excuses and claimed that even the richest families don't have any surplus grain!
I don't need to beg you guys anymore, hehe!

What you keep in mind will eventually come back to you. The photos and videos were sent out, and messages started popping up all over the place.

The most excited person was an elderly gentleman from a Shanghai museum:
"Old Hu, you guys have struck it rich! Could you lend me some money? I've taken on a new student and I'm a bit strapped for cash..."

"Hey, hey, no!"

Click, the phone call ended. Professor Hu, his head tilted back, was beaming.
"Shen Le, don't rush to use bamboo utensils. Practice with bamboo first. Soaked bamboo, bamboo utensils, and roasted bamboo slips all feel different to the touch. Let's take it one step at a time."

"Okay, first pick a bamboo stalk, not a small one. For making bamboo slips, use the largest, strongest, and most plump bamboo. Choose sturdy bamboo, not moso bamboo, as sturdy bamboo makes up a larger proportion of bamboo slips..."

Shen Le stared at him blankly. Bamboo shoots and moso bamboo?

Even if you put two clumps of live bamboo in front of him, he wouldn't be able to tell which one is Phyllostachys edulis and which one is Phyllostachys pubescens!

Asking the bamboo won't help, and asking the bamboo spirit might not be helpful either, since the bamboo spirit might not even know which species it belongs to!
Professor Hu: "..."

"It's okay, I'll point it out to you. Just point to whichever one you want to pull out!"

This bamboo stalk, though soaked in water, is not as loose as bamboo slips, and it can still withstand mechanical force.

Professor Hu was still making plans, intending to build a few robotic arms to use ropes or grabs to move the bamboo out, when he saw the sky in front of him suddenly turn black.

Looking up again, he shuddered, a gurgling sound rose in his throat, and he looked as if he was about to collapse.

"Ghost!!!"

Four flowing skirts billowed up! They floated to the top, where they were suspended upside down, their long black hair spread out.

One becomes two, two becomes four, four becomes eight, forming a black curtain on the ceiling, breaking through the water and suspending the bamboo that Professor Hu pointed out!

Shen Le stepped forward and slapped Professor Hu on the back, a surge of heat rushing into his body.

Professor Hu was on the verge of a heart attack, but he was pulled up by the force of the other man. He caught his breath, looked up at the rising bamboo, and his voice quickened:
"Don't break it! This kind of waterlogged bamboo is very fragile! Is the storage box ready? Is the nitrogen filled? Don't watch over me, I'm fine, get back to work!"

Shen Le couldn't help but admire his spirit. Fortunately, he didn't need to direct them; the girls had already repaired many magical artifacts under his guidance and were quite skilled experimental assistants. They immediately pushed out the storage box.

Shen Le focused her mind slightly. The water in the box, wrapped around the bamboo, lifted it up, sharing most of the weight with the women in their skirts.

Once the water tank was moved out and near the storage boxes, his mental energy concentrated like a knife, cutting the long bamboo pole into seven or eight sections and stuffing them into the various storage boxes.

After evacuating the air, filling with nitrogen, and adjusting the temperature to ensure all the necessary steps for preserving the bamboo slips were completed, the work was turned to Professor Hu.
"teacher……"

Stop spacing out, please give me some pointers!
Professor Hu, still shaken, glanced again at the few quiet, flowing skirts that looked like mere exhibits in the old house, and forcibly drew his attention back to the safe deposit box.

He took a deep breath and looked at Shen Le:
"You understand all the theoretical knowledge?"

"I've read all the books and papers I could find..." Shen Le replied with a bitter face.

Finding theoretical information is easy, but no theoretical information will be detailed enough to describe the specific steps of this operation—if he could learn it from books, he wouldn't be relying on the school for help!

"Alright, I won't test you anymore. Let's get to it." Professor Hu nodded.
"When processing this level of waterlogged bamboo, the feel is the most important thing. Come on, don't use any tools yet, just use your hands to feel its current state."

He instructed Shen Le to put on the thinnest latex gloves and open the observation port of one of the storage boxes.

Shen Le carefully inserted her finger and gently touched the water-soaked bamboo pole:
"hiss……"

This is completely different from the compass he repaired before, and the wooden planks that make up the cloud kun!
Beneath the fingertips, there wasn't even the slightest bit of firmness, no, not even any elasticity, only an extremely ambiguous softness!

What he just touched didn't seem to be bamboo, but a piece of tofu, or... a clump of noodles that had been overcooked and soaked in the bowl for too long.
Even more frightening was that before he even touched the bamboo, he had already touched something strange:

It's slippery, sticky, and soft; it feels like it could be peeled off with the slightest pressure, yet it also feels like this stuff is stuck to the surface of the bamboo and could break along with the bamboo at any moment...

"Do you feel it?"

Professor Hu watched his movements intently, seeing his fingers slowly approach, then hesitate and withdraw, then approach again, then withdraw again:
"This is the state of waterlogged bamboo slips. Tell me, what is this outer layer?"

“It’s… a bacterial film…” Shen Le racked his brains, recalling the literature he had been frantically consuming during this period:
The article "Preservation of Water-Saturated Bamboo Slips Unearthed at Zoumalou, Changsha" mentions that two types of bacteria may have caused this condition:

One type is an unknown mold, referred to as 'M fungus' in the paper, which forms white spots on the bamboo, eventually forming a soft, translucent membrane-like substance;

Another type is Paracoccus, which forms a slippery, colorless layer of slime on the surface of bamboo slips and lacquered wooden artifacts when soaked in water, making it difficult to clean…

"Hmm, not bad," Professor Hu said with satisfaction. Since the student had memorized the relevant knowledge, he decided not to test him further. Instead, he opened his briefcase and took out several specially made tools.

One of them looks like a kitchen heat-resistant plate clip, except that the bottom is made to be exceptionally wide, flat, and thin:
"Your force must be even and gentle, without the slightest shearing force. Now, try using it to lift things up—not clamp, but support!"

"Wait, I didn't tell you to practice with bamboo sticks! What are you thinking?! -- Do you think everyone has as many practice materials as you?"

Professor Hu pulled Shen Le into the outer laboratory, turned on the stove, and started cooking noodles.

"Come on, use this thing to pick up the noodles! Pick them up one by one, don't break them!"

Shen Le: ? ? ?
No way, the hellish training has begun!

(End of this chapter)