"To be honest, if the instrument readings hadn't been normal, I really would've thought that couple was about to turn into zombies."
"I thought so too. If they weren't turning into zombies, why did the ink line snap against them?"
The two senior martial brothers walked along, complaining as they went. They headed down from the sixth floor, left the residential complex, and went to the local Police Station to talk things over. That lousy residential complex was actually unmanaged, with no property management, and not even a security camera at the gate. If they wanted to find out who the Ink Marker had been sold to, they'd have to rely on the Police Station's resources...
"Ugh, it wasn't sold to a junk collector, but to a stranger. Otherwise, the police would surely know the junk collectors, since it's such a distinctive line of work. They could find one right away!"
Shen Le had no idea that the two senior martial brothers he'd dealt with last time were looking for him again. He widened his Spirit Eye and carefully studied the Ink Marker in his hand and the layer of mist swirling around it:
He remembered that Little Puppet—no, Xiao Ling—had a similar mist around her. Even the furniture in the room, the ceiling, and Great Camphor Tree Ah Lu were surrounded by something like it. The thickness varied. The mist around the Ink Marker was about the same as the mist around Xiao Ling, much thicker than the mist around the furniture, but much thinner than the mist around Great Camphor Tree Ah Lu and the ceiling.
The colors were different, too. Great Camphor Tree Ah Lu's mist was green, the ceiling's was red, and Xiao Ling's was a fiery orange-red. But the mist around the Ink Marker...
Black?
The other tools in the wooden box were also stained with a thin layer of black, though the amount of mist around them was about the same as around the furniture in the room. So the source of the mist around those tools was the Ink Marker, and the reason it was wreathed in black mist was...
Had it turned evil?
Would it become a monster?
Would it do bad things?
Or was it simply because it was an Ink Marker, with a belly already full of ink, so its mist was supposed to be black?
There wasn't enough information to tell. Fortunately, Shen Le had a special trick for situations like this:
Why not just fix you up?
Once Little Puppet had been fixed, she'd gained intelligence and could talk to him. This Ink Marker had about as much mist around it as Little Puppet. If he fixed it, maybe it could gain intelligence and talk to him too?
Having made up his mind, Shen Le focused and began examining the Ink Marker, looking for anything that needed repair. As he inspected it, he realized it had been through quite a lot:
The paint had peeled in places over time, and the clumps of mane on the lion-head section of the Ink Marker had been knocked around more than once. A piece had broken off the top of its head, ruining the chrysanthemum shape formed by the lion's mane.
There was a scratch on the lion's right ear, deep enough to nearly split it in two. The lion's body and four legs were marked with scratches of all sizes and depths. Some were only on the surface, while others had sunk deep into the wood, letting dirt from outside seep in with them.
The reel holding the Ink Line didn't turn smoothly. The metal axle inside seemed a little rusty, and something about the Silk Thread on the reel felt off. Maybe it had been unused for too long and needed replacing...
"None of this is too difficult." Shen Le encouraged himself. It was all within his abilities—he could even say it was easy, something he could handle in a snap. The only problem was...
"Oh, no!"
Shen Le cursed. He'd been afraid this would happen, and now it had: the Devil's Work Ball needed repairing! Something inside the Devil's Work Ball was broken!!!
Maybe it had been struck or knocked against something. The surface of the Devil's Work Ball had cracked, and a piece had even broken off, exposing the ball inside.
Half a dragon was missing from the outermost layer, and a chunk of the carved design was missing from the next layer.
He poked it and turned it again. Oh, no. Another piece fell out from inside!
There was no way he could repair this. The only way to fix it was to replace it outright. The problem was, he'd studied the restoration of ancient buildings. He could manage a bit of woodcarving, but he'd never worked with ivory carving!
The Devil's Work Ball was an ivory-carving technique! Sure, this one was made of wood, but it still fell under ivory carving!
He didn't know the first thing about it—not even a quarter of a thing. He'd never tried it before and had no idea where to start!
Shen Le muttered to himself, getting mad. When he'd finished, he gritted his teeth and set to work repairing it anyway:
Fortunately, this Ink Marker had been carved from a single piece of wood, so he didn't have to tap away with a Rubber Hammer to loosen the mortise-and-tenon joints and pull each piece out one by one. All he had to do was pick up a wrench, loosen the nut on the other side of the reel, then carefully draw the Scroll Rod out little by little...
"Ugh! Rust removal on metal parts is a whole other job... It takes skill, tools, and chemicals..."
With a sigh, Shen Le got up and searched the kitchen. As expected, he didn't have any suitable rust remover. Luckily, restoring metal parts was often part of restoring ancient buildings, so he had plenty of experience and knew the right people. He pulled out his phone and placed an order with practiced ease:
Heh, when he was working on projects out of town, he often had to buy all sorts of things. He and his senior martial brothers and sisters would take turns ordering, depending on who was free. He knew all the good shops by heart!
After placing a flurry of orders, Shen Le set the Scroll Rod aside. He pulled it out of the wooden handle, wiped it clean, and arranged the pieces neatly. Then he picked up the Devil's Work Ball and carefully examined and measured it:
"Ah... This thing is only 15 millimeters across! That's just ridiculous! You made a three-layer Devil's Work Ball with a diameter of 15 millimeters!"
"The material should be... should be..."
To be fair, identifying common types of wood was a basic skill for anyone restoring ancient buildings. After all, restoration was supposed to preserve the original look. Unless the material was especially expensive, like a Golden Phoebe Wood pillar, you were supposed to use the same material for repairs and replacements.
But the things you usually had to identify were pillars, main beams, bracket sets, rafters, or, at the very least, something like a Brush Pot.
The Devil's Work Ball in Shen Le's hand was only 1.5 centimeters across, with such delicate carvings that every dragon claw, scale, whisker, and hair was clearly rendered. It was beautiful, sure, but if you asked him what the wood grain looked like...
Sorry, he couldn't tell.
The color wasn't reliable either. After all this time, it must have changed, and there was no way to make out its original color. Shen Le poked and prodded it from every angle, but could only tell that the Ink Marker and the Devil's Work Ball were made of different types of wood. As for what kind of wood the Devil's Work Ball was made of...
"Don't tell me I'll have to resort to drastic measures. Do I have to measure its density? With a shape this complicated, measuring its density..."
It was like Archimedes' crown! Unless you submerged it in water, there was no way to get an accurate volume!
Shen Le muttered as he rolled up his sleeves and dismantled the Devil's Work Ball, prying it off the plumb bob. He hefted it in his hand, but still couldn't figure it out:
"I'll need precision scales for this. Ordinary scales won't do. It only weighs a few grams..."