The Ink Marker is Working, So I Can't Be Lazy Either?

What were the properties of these various auras?

Metal, wood, water, fire, earth? Light, darkness, yin, yang?

Was this wisp of purple trying to tell me it was Great Sun Purple Qi?

And this pale white wisp—surely it couldn't be Lunar Moon Essence?

Shen Le grabbed a few different wisps and twisted them between his fingers. Identical auras could merge with one another;

Different auras sometimes stuck together but ignored each other, drifting apart naturally the moment Shen Le let go;

Others repelled each other. If he squeezed them together hard, the repulsive force between the two was immense, like the positive poles of two magnets; it took every ounce of his strength to force them together, and they would snap apart the instant he relaxed;

Then there were others that, for some unknown reason, would act like a spark hitting gunpowder the moment they touched, emitting soft, popping explosions...

It was a pity that the Copper Fragment provided no identification function, labeling none of the auras, let alone providing instructions on how to use them.

If Shen Le wanted to know what use these auras had for him, he had no choice but to experiment slowly on his own:

He grabbed a speck of cyan light, pressed it against his body, and simultaneously channeled his internal heat to circulate along his meridians. Half a cycle, a full cycle—the light speck remained unchanged, and it drifted away the moment he let go;

He grabbed a speck of blue light... also useless...

White... useless, and it even caused him pain...

Red... not only was it useless, but when he channeled his heat, he felt a faint burning sensation, as if his meridians were about to be stretched to the point of tearing or being scorched. Terrified, Shen Le quickly let go and let the speck of light drift away...

Shen Le failed time and time again, but he did not lose heart, trying different methods over and over.

It wasn't until he grabbed a speck of earthy yellow light—which looked dense and full—and pressed it against his body that he discovered, to his surprise:

It worked!

This one worked!

He didn't know the nature of this light speck, but when pressed against his body, it was naturally absorbed by his internal heat and drawn into his system!

After one cycle, the heat began to amplify, and his meridians felt firmer and more powerful;

After another cycle, the newly captured light speck, carrying even more heat, began to surge into new meridians. It branched off from the original path, pushing into his arms, his fingers, and opening up one acupuncture point after another.

It seemed that the cultivation technique I am practicing—or rather, the technique the Copper Fragment gave me—absorbs energy with the properties of this earthy yellow light?

Now that I have a specific target, things will be much easier; I can finally speed up my cultivation!

With this new realization, Shen Le woke from his meditation and stood up to head outside. Little Ink Marker was still working diligently. As soon as Shen Le looked at the table leg they had repaired, he frowned:

"The way you repaired this... it's not right!"

To the eyes of an ordinary person, the furniture brought in from the Landlady's shop was nothing more than a few tables, chairs, and a cabinet.

The style was simple, straight-edged and square, with no carvings, let alone gold leaf, painted colors, or inlaid mother-of-pearl.

The paint was peeling, there were minor scratches—in short, they were the kind of wooden tables and chairs you could see in any old-fashioned restaurant, completely unremarkable.

However, Shen Le was currently using his Spirit Eye. As his gaze fell upon a chair Little Ink Marker had just repaired, he frowned.

That chair had been the least damaged, with only one broken leg. Little Ink Marker had directed the saw to cut away the damaged part and sawed a new piece to replace it;

They had directed the chisel to carve a mortise and tenon joint, fitting the broken leg and the new piece together;

Then they directed another chisel wrapped in sandpaper to polish the chair leg thoroughly, removing the residual paint. Once the new paint was applied and dried, the chair would be finished.

But...

But...

Through the Spirit Eye, it was a completely different story.

The entire chair was shrouded in a hazy aura that covered every part of the old furniture. It drifted like green smoke in the wind and flowed like moonlight on water; it had form but no substance, yet it flowed with exceptional smoothness.

However, this smoothness was abruptly blocked the moment it reached the missing chair leg!

Even though a piece had been patched on, the aura of the chair did not connect to that area. Every time it flowed downward, it was blocked by the new section.

Even the original piece at the very bottom of the leg was like water without a source or a tree without roots; the aura was growing weaker and weaker, looking as if it would dissipate like thin smoke at any moment.

"It seems I can't be lazy after all..."

Shen Le sighed. He could leave the basic labor to Little Ink Marker, but this work of harmonizing the auras had to be done by his own hands; Little Ink Marker couldn't help him at all!

Shen Le crouched down, slowly circulating his energy, and channeled the heat to his fingertips. He grabbed the aura above the chair and pulled downward, then pulled again—

Ugh, it snapped!

Shen Le tried a different approach. He pressed his left hand against the seat and gripped the broken chair leg with his right, squeezing tight, then wiped firmly from top to bottom.

With this wipe, his fingers felt as if they hadn't touched anything at all—just gripping the chair leg—yet it also felt as if he were embedded in thick asphalt.

As his fingers moved, a bit of aura was indeed "wiped" down, staining the new material that had just been sawed and patched into the chair leg. Shen Le's eyes lit up, and he pressed on, wiping a few more times with effort:

It worked!

It really worked!

Did that Landlady, who paid such a high price to entrust the restoration work to him, have this in mind? Did she see that he possessed this ability?

Shen Le rolled up his sleeves and threw himself into the work. As for the issue with the aura, if he couldn't see it, so be it; he would just treat it as repairing the tables, chairs, and cabinets as usual.

However, now that his Spirit Eye was open and he could see it, he couldn't just let it slide. It was enough to drive a perfectionist mad!

If he didn't smooth out these auras and level the entire energy field of this chair, there was no way he could hand it over!

Shen Le transformed into a mason, gripping the chair leg and scrubbing away with all his might.

After only twenty or thirty strokes, his vision dimmed slightly; the aura on the chair was no longer visible, and his fingers no longer felt that sensation of being embedded in asphalt.

You've got to be kidding me?

Did the Spirit Eye state fade that quickly?

Or was it that smoothing out this kind of aura consumed an extraordinary amount of his energy?

Shen Le had no way to find the answer. He closed his eyes slightly and, following the circulation path provided by the Copper Fragment, guided the heat flow to rotate along his Ren and Du Meridians. After completing nine cycles, he opened his eyes and let out a long breath.

The Spirit Eye was back, and he could use it again!

The endurance of this technique was a bit lackluster; one cycle of cultivation for five minutes of work?

When would he be able to level it up?

The wooden chair remained silent, and the Copper Fragment made no sound. With no one to ask, Shen Le steadied himself and continued his work.

One stroke, another stroke, and one more. Just as the aura on the chair had spread halfway across the newly repaired section, Shen Le's vision dimmed again, and the Spirit Eye state vanished once more...

He circulated his energy again, then went back to work. It took Shen Le seven or eight consecutive cycles of cultivation before he finally smoothed out the energy field on this chair leg, connecting the upper part to the broken section below.

"Sigh, Landlady, the work I've done is more than enough to justify the price you paid me..."