The old things I repaired have become fine

Chapter 809 Professor, the artifact itself did the deed!
Professor Li scratched at the window, then started scratching at the door with all his might. Shen Le, what are you doing!
Don't think that everything is fine just because the Dukang map has been repaired to its current state!
Show us the map!

Stop rushing headlong into your dagger and leaving this roll of silk behind!
Shen Le was truly done with it. After taking a picture of the Dukang map, he put it directly into another safe.
It wasn't even ventilated or shaded; it was simply left there to be illuminated by indoor LED lights, maintaining a constant temperature and humidity.

The only thing I could say I did to live up to my teacher's expectations was to send Professor Li's email a video of him restoring the silk scroll, along with some high-resolution photos I had just taken.

The meaning is quite clear: take it and study it however you like, publish whatever paper you want, you're welcome.

As for me, I'm in a hurry...

In a hurry, Shen Le spread out a brand new large sheet of paper and began to quickly draw a map based on the dagger marks left on the Dukang map.

Guided by these marks, the width and thickness of the dagger, as well as the shape and thickness of the hilt, are clearly visible. Even the gold light that emerges, outlining the dagger's remaining marks, reveals the subtle patterns on the hilt.

It was made of extremely fine silk rope, carefully and tightly wrapped around the handle of the knife, circle after circle.

Look at those fine, dense indentations, line by line, almost parallel; one can imagine the patience the knife maker of yesteryear must have had to wrap the handle with them.
It has enough anti-slip properties so that it can be firmly held by the owner, and it will not slip even if the handle is soaked with blood...

"Good news, silk ropes are still easy to find, and you probably won't find strange things like ice silkworm silk or fire silkworm silk."

Bad news, it's hidden by the silk rope. What kind of wood is the handle made of? How can we tell...?

It might be difficult to provide all the answers at once. Shen Le composed herself and decided to take it one step at a time:

He first adjusted the photo to the same size as the original map, then adjusted the colors and brightness to make the traces of the silk rope visible, and began to measure its thickness.

Then, open the previous scan file, retrieve the X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy scan results for the specified location, package them, and send them out:
"Please, please, help me figure out what molecules are in these locations—I need to know what color this thread is, or what dye was used..."

With a ringing sound, Professor Li picked up his phone, glanced at it, and sighed helplessly. Sigh, although he wasn't his own student, although he wouldn't show him the precious Dukang map, although…

But they are still students of my own college!
The child needs help, and they're in a rush to get it. What can you do? Quickly, dump the task on the students and urge them to help with the work!

Having finished the drawing, Shen Le had a clear idea of ​​the dagger's shape. When he returned to the blacksmithing task, he no longer hesitated.
Clang, clang, clang, the hammer blows fell methodically, one after another. Following the marks left on the Dukang map, a gleaming, thin yet sharp dagger was forged.

The angle, length, and thickness of the front end are exactly the same as the broken dagger. Even if you use a vernier caliper or a micrometer, you can't detect the slightest difference.

The willow-leaf shaped dagger is long and sleek, double-edged, exuding an exceptionally dangerous aura. It seems that even without touching it, simply looking at it would sever one's gaze...

"Should...that's it, right?"

Shen Le examined the dagger with his eyes, his mental power, and various other means, even running it over various instruments:
X-ray fluorescence spectrometry is used to investigate the types and amounts of elements, X-ray diffraction is used to investigate the crystal structure, and metallographic microscopy is used for direct observation...

It was finally confirmed that its metal composition was essentially the same as the broken dagger. As for the spiritual essence, he had already used as much spirit gold ore as possible; if he was still not satisfied, there was nothing he could do…

"Alright, sir, please take another look and see if you like this body." Shen Le took a deep breath, picked up the dagger with a special clamp, and respectfully placed it on the broken dagger.

He held his breath, stepped back, and stretched his arms forward as far as possible to keep himself as far away from the Broken Dagger as possible, so as not to let the Broken Dagger lash out again and cut him to pieces.

Fortunately, this time, the broken dagger did not show any anger, nor did it suddenly vibrate and cut the newly forged dagger in two, or even into steel pellets.

It lay motionless and quiet, like an ancient dagger devoid of any spirit or superpowers, neither vibrating nor emitting light, showing no resonance whatsoever with the brand-new dagger...

"Oh... so are you satisfied or not...?"

Shen Le frowned, his spiritual energy circling the broken dagger seven or eight times, soaking it, tapping it, and pushing it away. After all that back and forth, after much effort, he only got one result:
It seems a little lazy to move?
Shen Le thought for a moment, then put the broken dagger and the newly forged dagger into the storage box where the Dukang map had been placed, and adjusted its position so that it would be in the center of the spirit gathering array.

Then, he gently activated the spirit-gathering array with his divine sense, reactivating it so that it greedily absorbed spiritual energy and poured it into the broken dagger.

Gradually, a ray of platinum light gently gathered at the tip of the broken dagger, hanging tremblingly like a drop of dew.

In a moment, it gradually dissolved, seeping along the blade and soaking the entire body of the knife, then disappeared in a flash.

The broken dagger trembled very, very slightly, as if it had moved a tiny bit closer to the dagger Shen Lexin had forged, and then all the trembling subsided...

"Is there not enough spiritual energy?"

Shen Le frowned in thought. After thinking for a while, he moved a large number of spirit jades one by one and filled the area around the spirit gathering array to supply spiritual energy.

They saw the Spirit Gathering Array's radiance grow ever brighter, its circulation ever faster, and the condensed platinum-gold light becoming increasingly intense.

Finally, another drop of water fell onto the tip of the broken dagger, followed by a second, a third, and a fourth...

The broken dagger finally trembled rapidly. This time, the newly forged dagger above it suddenly softened and collapsed as if it had been heated to a red-hot state.

It silently adhered to the broken dagger, and soon, like spring rain seeping into parched land, it seeped into the broken dagger...

"It's fixed?"

Shen Le peered over. A complete dagger—or rather, the metal part of the dagger—lay quietly on the tray.

The dark black mark on the tip of the blade was a remnant of the broken dagger, and the strange, sweet, and chilling aura was suspected to be the poison quenched on the dagger.
The latter half blended seamlessly with the broken dagger, seemingly having always been one piece, without any forging, welding, or splicing. The only problem was…

Shen Le held his breath and pinched the dagger near the hilt with two fingers of his right hand; the hilt was specially crafted to be flat.

Without picking it up, simply gently channel the heat through it, allowing it to travel along the hilt to the tip:
"It always feels... just not quite right?"

The newly attached part appears to be seamlessly integrated with the original part of the broken dagger, but in terms of its spiritual essence, it still feels far inferior...

"Shen Le, what are you doing? What are you going to do with this dagger?!"

Suddenly, a heartbroken voice came from the microphone. Shen Le quickly turned his head and saw an old face distorted on the screen, with two huge, red nostrils flaring open.

Shen Le leaned back, almost taking a step back. After regaining her composure, she recognized who was on the screen:

"Professor Zhou?" "Shen Le, do you even remember how to repair cultural relics?!" Professor Zhou, the professor at the university specializing in ironware restoration, stared at the now-intact dagger, practically wanting to beat his chest in despair.

"Do you remember the principle of authenticity? Do you remember the principle of minimal intervention? How, how, how did you fix it completely?! Did you weld it or cast it?!"

"Ah, there's none..." Shen Le's forehead was sweating, and this time, he really took a step back.

There was no way around it; even though he had graduated and no longer needed the school's approval to publish papers, defend his dissertation, or obtain his diploma, the professors who had taught him still held considerable influence...

"Teacher, please don't be angry. Please sit down. Please don't be angry... Please calm the teacher down and make sure his blood pressure doesn't rise!"

A moment later, a gentle breeze blew through the old house, circling around Professor Zhou.

Immediately afterwards, several flowing skirts appeared, their wide sleeves fluttering, forming a long, continuous line that gently pulled and pushed Professor Zhou back into his chair.

Of course, there was also a slight chilling fluctuation that cooled his burning forehead and slowed his rapid breathing:
In fact, Professor Zhou felt a jolt run through his body, as if he had almost been frozen...

The skirts were already under immense pressure, only releasing a tiny bit of yin energy, enough to not harm the professor. He was slightly taken aback, and was about to jump up when Shen Le quickly pulled up the video:
"Teacher, you see, it's not that I fixed it, it's that it wanted to be complete—it's that it's devouring the newly forged dagger, wanting to have a complete body!"

Professor Zhou: "..."

An old revolutionary encounters a new problem. Poor Professor Zhou, who has dedicated his life to cultural relic restoration, is facing his first encounter with a situation where "the cultural relic is desperately devouring other iron objects, causing its body to grow out of its original length"...

"you……"

He opened his mouth, closed it, opened it again, closed it again, going back and forth several times, but he still couldn't find a suitable word to express his feelings.

After a long while, he slumped back in his chair, weakly waving his hand at Shen Le as if to shoo her away. Then, with a struggle, he sat up, dragging his feet, and slowly walked out…

Shen Le watched the professor's hunched figure disappear through the door, feeling a little embarrassed. However, it wasn't something he could control.

His goal in restoration is to bring these artifacts back to their strongest spiritual essence, to restore them in accordance with their own will. As for the museum's exhibition needs?
At worst, I can just make a replica of the broken dagger myself and have the teachers take it to a museum for exhibition...

He sighed deeply, "invited" out the Dukang map, and carefully searched along the marks left by the dagger.

After a long while, several dust-like objects, almost invisible to the naked eye, rose from the Dukang map and landed in a small glass dish held by Shen Le.

Shen Le strode out of the laboratory and, shamelessly, approached Professor Hu:
"Teacher, could you please do me a favor and get someone to do a DNA test? I need to know what kind of wood this is..."

Professor Hu stared at the dust particles in the glass dish that were almost invisible to the naked eye, and almost wanted to beat up Shen Le.

However, given the gravity of the situation and seeing Shen Le's pleading eyes, he had no choice but to raise his hand and give Shen Le's head a hard slap:

"You really know how to cause me trouble..."

After watching Professor Hu leave, Shen Le gritted her teeth and went to find Professor Li, who specializes in fabric repair.

Good news! The data he sent matched exactly the data Professor Li's team had measured before, and they immediately provided the results:

"It's gallnut. Boiling gallnut in water and soaking it in dye can produce a very good black color, which is suitable for both silk and cotton fabrics—how about it, would you like me to dye a batch for you?"

"That's wonderful! Thank you, Professor!"

Shen Le was overjoyed and seized the opportunity without hesitation. Professor Li stared at him for a moment, then sighed:
"Alright... I guess you don't know how to reel silk, you certainly don't know how to dye it, and you probably don't know how to twist it into thread either... Besides, you need a product made using ancient techniques? Without any modern ingredients?"

Shen Le nodded, nodded, nodded vigorously. Professor Li rolled his eyes at him, put his hands behind his back, and swayed away.

"Okay, leave it to me..."

The professor led his students on a laborious craft project. Shen Le, meanwhile, brought out his collection of various types of wood, including spirit wood, piece by piece, for the Dagger Master to appraise.

"Won't sandalwood work?"

"Not even rosewood?"

"Even Phoebe zhennan wood won't work?"

"Seriously? You don't even like boxwood? What kind of wood do you want?!"

They tried various kinds of precious, rare, and protected woods, which they obtained with the help of monsters, but all of them failed.

The spirit trees felled from various secret realms were tried out, but they were all rejected.

Finally, just as Shen Le was about to lose patience, Professor Hu sent over the experimental results:

"It's jujube wood..."

The simplest and most common answer is jujube wood, which can be planted in every household and in front of and behind houses. It is also a high-quality wood with hard texture and fine grain.

Shen Le sighed and found a piece of jujube wood that was as old as possible but still intact. He placed it on either side of the knife handle. Although the knife handle showed its disdain, it surprisingly didn't cut it into pieces...

The next steps are straightforward: cut the wood, sand it, attach it to the shank, and carefully glue and secure it with bone glue and mortise and tenon joints.

Then, using the black-dyed silk thread provided by Professor Li, we twisted it into a rope of the appropriate thickness and carefully wound it around the handle, round and round...

When all the work was finished, Shen Le held the brand-new dagger, and a warm feeling of blood connection welled up inside him.

He instinctively gripped the dagger, pulled it to his waist, and thrust it forward with all his might—

With a faint whooshing sound, the world suddenly turned upside down.

(End of this chapter)