Who understands? My Ink Marker kicked me out!

Whether the repair was successful depended on two things: first, whether the Ink Marker possessed sufficient spiritual essence, and second, whether the Copper Fragment provided feedback.

Shen Le flicked the Ink Marker, tapped it, and knocked it, fussing over it back and forth several times, but the Ink Marker remained lying quietly on the table.

It had no intention of jumping up to dance, nor did it show any sign of speaking, acting spoiled, or bickering with him like the Little Puppet.

Shen Le picked up the Copper Fragment to examine it from all angles; a faint cyan glow covered about half of its surface. Beyond that, the Copper Fragment itself hadn't grown, no new strokes had emerged, and no new points of light had appeared.

Judging by this, it seemed it did not acknowledge that the repair was complete and refused to provide feedback in the form of new abilities.

"Then I'll just have to find a way under the current conditions..."

Shen Le sighed softly.

He stood up, closed his eyes slightly, raised his hands, and activated the guidance function of the Copper Fragment, starting by performing a set of the Five Animal Frolics. Feeling the warm current gently surging throughout his body, he returned to his seat and picked up the carving knife to continue his work...

It had no effect.

The Five Animal Frolics was not the Iron Cloth Shirt, nor was it the Iron Sand Palm. Even if one practiced it, it didn't grant defense, especially not defense for one's fingers.

Shen Le made two cuts; it hurt just as much as before. If there was any difference, it was that he had used more force, increasing the counter-pressure, which made his fingers hurt even more...

"It really doesn't work... Is the level of the Five Animal Frolics too low?"

Shen Le tried a different approach.

This time, with the assistance of the Copper Fragment, he initiated a circulation of the internal energy, guiding the warm current to flow along his Ren and Du Meridians.

After circling a few times, instead of guiding the warm current to rise toward his eyes, he attempted to make it take a turn and flow toward his right hand:

"Failed..."

"Failed..."

"Failed again..."

"Hey, it worked this time!"

His right hand felt a slight warmth, and the pain in his thumb seemed to have vanished significantly. Shen Le looked down and saw that the red marks on his fingertips had actually almost disappeared.

His heart leaped with joy. Borrowing this warm current, he gripped the knife and pushed gently:

It helped!

It really helped!

The pain had lessened! Not only had it lessened, but he felt his fingers had more strength and were more responsive, making the process of pushing the back of the knife to carve much smoother...

Shen Le's spirits soared, and he took a deep breath, devoting himself heart and soul to his work.

The warm current brought by the technique could only protect his fingers for about a quarter of an hour before it vanished completely. Shen Le had no choice but to constantly circulate his energy and practice the technique:

When his fingers hurt too much, he would close his eyes and practice for a while; when he felt he could go on, he would continue working hard.

Swish, swish, swish. Fine shavings of jujube wood were continuously carved away from the Jujube Wood Bead, gradually piling up into a small mound on the table.

One night and another day, one day and another night passed.

Finally, a Jujube Wood Bead—with an innermost layer that wasn't quite smooth, no carvings on the outermost layer, and no patterns etched into the middle layer—turned gently in Shen Le's hand.

Could this be considered a preliminary completion?

How much effort had that original carver spent to reach this stage?

Shen Le didn't know.

However, when he tentatively attached the Jujube Wood Bead to the Lead Weight, forming a single unit with the Ink Marker, the Ink Marker suddenly leaped up.

The Lead Weight flew into the air, dragging the ink line out of the ink reservoir with a whirring sound, pulling it taut and pointing firmly toward the outside of the room.

Shen Le turned his head to look at the taut ink line and the Lead Weight hovering at its tip in defiance of gravity, and he felt a strong urge to sigh.

Sigh, I originally wanted to install a security camera to keep the house safe. With you lot pulling this, a camera? What camera?

Modern cameras are hacked all the time, and the footage is posted online for sale. Some surveillance software even comes with built-in backdoors. If it caught the Little Puppet dancing or the Ink Marker working on its own, how would I ever live in peace?

"What are you trying to do?"

Shen Le flicked the Lead Weight. The Lead Weight tilted, dodged his finger, wrapped itself around his knuckle, and pulled him toward the door. Shen Le hurriedly called for a stop:

"Wait, wait, wait! What exactly are you trying to do? Don't strangle me! This Silk Thread of yours is very thin! You'll cut my finger off!"

Are you kidding me!

This was Silk Thread, silk thread! A strand this thin, if it tightened around his finger joint, would cut off circulation after a while, and the finger would end up necrotic!

The Lead Weight moved slightly and quietly let go. Shen Le breathed a sigh of relief and was still wondering how to communicate with the Ink Marker when he saw the Lead Weight make a wide circle and wrap itself around his arm...

It tugged and tugged. When it couldn't pull him after two tries, it simply flew up and started wrapping itself around his body. Shen Le was terrified:

"Stop, stop, stop! Where are you going? Wherever you're going, just point the way, and I'll take you there, won't I!"

The Silk Thread inside this Ink Marker was 18 meters long!

It wasn't just useful for carpentry; stonemasons and bricklayers used it too, and even in shipbuilding, digging ditches, or clearing fields, they would use an Ink Marker to pull a long line and snap a straight mark for accuracy!

If 18 meters of thread were bundled around him, even if it didn't turn him into a silkworm cocoon, it would certainly truss him up like a piece of dried tofu!

The Lead Weight swayed left, then right, as if deep in thought. Shen Le waited with bated breath for a long while before the Lead Weight took flight again, releasing him. The line reel spun with a whir, retracting most of the ink line and leaving only a short segment trailing outside, which held the Lead Weight aloft, pointing firmly toward the door.

Shen Le sighed, having no choice but to pack up his things and head out with the Ink Marker. Along the way, he wore his backpack backward, leaving a small gap in the zipper so the Lead Weight could poke out, pretending the reel hadn't retracted fully and the thing was stuck. He stepped out of the room, turned left, and prepared to head for the main gate—

"Hey! Don't pull me! That direction is a wall! I need to use the door! The door!"

The Lead Weight slowly drooped its head, looking like a King Cobra that had relaxed slightly and was no longer planning to strike. Shen Le stroked it and sighed:

This is what happens when it lacks sufficient intelligence; it only knows how to point the way without considering how a person is supposed to get there, just like a completely uncalibrated, malicious GPS.

It was even worse than a malicious GPS. At least a malicious GPS would give you a route—regardless of whether it led through a government compound or across a gas pipe as thick as a man over a river—instead of just assuming the shortest distance between two points was a straight line!

Shen Le pinched the end of the line behind the Lead Weight, twisting and turning as he followed the direction it indicated.

After crossing two streets, walking down a dead-end road only to have to double back, and entering a residential complex only to be forced back out, he finally arrived at a place that looked somewhat familiar to him:

"This is where I bought you, isn't it?"

He tapped the Ink Marker. The Ink Marker remained silent, pretending it hadn't heard a thing, while the Lead Weight simply turned firmly in one direction, tugging Shen Le inside. They hadn't gone far when a familiar, high-pitched female voice rang out:

"Zheng Xiaohua! Don't you dare play dead with me! Divorce! We're going to the Civil Affairs Bureau today!"

Oh boy, it was that same couple who had sold him the Ink Marker. Shen Le instantly understood what the Ink Marker wanted him for:

"You want me to watch them fight? Or are you expecting me to play mediator?"