What were the properties of these different kinds of energy?
Metal, wood, water, fire, earth? Light, dark, yin, yang?
Was this wisp of purple meant to tell me it was Great Sun Purple Qi?
And this wisp of pale white—surely it couldn't be Lunar Moon Essence?
Shen Le grabbed a few different wisps of energy and rubbed them between his fingers. Wisps of the same kind could fuse together;
some different kinds could sit side by side, simply ignoring each other. The moment Shen Le let go, they drifted apart on their own;
some repelled each other. When he squeezed them together, the repulsive force between them was considerable, like the north poles of two magnets. He had to use all his strength to press them together, and the moment he loosened his grip, they sprang apart;
and some behaved in ways he couldn't explain. As soon as they came together, they set off a chain reaction, letting out a faint explosion...
Unfortunately, the Copper Fragment didn't come with an identification feature. It didn't label any of the energies or provide instructions on how to use them.
If Shen Le wanted to know what use these energies might be to him, he had no choice but to experiment slowly on his own:
He grabbed a few green specks of light and pressed them against his body, while also drawing out the heat flow and guiding it along his meridians. Half a circuit, then a full one—the specks didn't change at all. The moment he let go, they drifted away;
then he grabbed a few blue specks... Still no use...
White... no use, and it made him feel pain...
Red... not only was it useless, but when he drew out the heat flow, he also felt a faint burning sensation, as if his meridians were about to burst and burn through. Terrified, Shen Le quickly let go and released the speck of light...
Shen Le failed again and again, but he didn't get discouraged. He kept changing his approach and trying once more.
At last, he grabbed a mustard-yellow speck of light that looked dense and substantial. When he pressed it close to his body, he was delighted to discover:
It worked!
This one worked!
He didn't know what properties this speck of light had, but when he pressed it against himself, the heat flow naturally absorbed it and drew it into his body!
After one circuit, the heat flow began to grow stronger, and his meridians felt sturdier;
after another circuit, a newly grabbed speck of light brought an even stronger heat flow, which began to break through new meridians. It branched off from the existing route and surged into his arms and fingers, breaking through one acupoint after another.
So the energy absorbed by the cultivation method I'm practicing—or, more accurately, the one the Copper Fragment gave me—is this mustard-yellow light?
Now that I know what to absorb, this should be easy. I can speed up my cultivation!
With this new understanding, Shen Le came out of his meditation and got to his feet. The Ink Marker was still diligently at work. When Shen Le saw the leg of the table they'd repaired, he frowned:
"You repaired this... wrong!"
To an ordinary person, the furniture the landlady had brought over consisted of nothing more than a few tables and chairs, plus a cabinet.
They were plainly made, all straight lines and right angles, with no carvings, let alone Gold Tracing or Mother-of-Pearl Inlay.
The paint had peeled, and there were a few scratches. In short, they were wooden tables and chairs you could find in any old-fashioned restaurant—utterly unremarkable.
But Shen Le had his Spirit Eye open. The moment he looked at a chair the Ink Marker had just repaired, he frowned.
It was the least damaged chair, with only one broken leg. Under the Ink Marker's direction, a saw had cut off the damaged section and cut a new piece to replace it;
then a Chisel had carved out a mortise and tenon joint, fitting the broken leg and the new piece together;
then another Chisel, wrapped in Sandpaper, had been directed to give the chair leg a thorough sanding, removing the remaining paint. All that was left was to apply fresh paint and let it dry. Then the chair would be finished.
But...
But...
Through his Spirit Eye, it was a completely different story.
A hazy aura enveloped the entire chair, covering every part of it. It swayed like green smoke in the wind and flowed like moonlight over rippling water. It had form but no substance, and yet it moved with extraordinary smoothness.
But when this smooth flow reached the missing chair leg, it was abruptly blocked!
Even though a new section had been fitted in, the energy in the chair still didn't connect to it. Every time it flowed downward, the new piece stopped it.
Even the original section at the bottom of the leg seemed like water without a source, a tree without roots. Its energy grew weaker and weaker, and it looked ready to disperse like wisps of smoke.
"Looks like I can't slack off after all..."
Shen Le sighed. The Ink Marker could handle the basic work, but the task of harmonizing the energy had to be done by hand. The Ink Marker couldn't help him with that at all!
Shen Le crouched down and slowly circulated his cultivation, guiding the heat flow to his fingertips. He grabbed the aura above the chair leg and pulled it downward, then pulled again—
Uh, it broke!
Shen Le tried a different approach. He pressed down on the seat with his left hand, gripped the broken chair leg tightly with his right, then rubbed firmly downward from the top.
As he did, his fingers felt as if they weren't touching anything at all, merely gripping the chair leg. At the same time, it was like they were embedded in a thick layer of asphalt.
As his fingers moved, he really did manage to "rub" a little of the energy downward, transferring it to the new material that had just been cut and fitted into the chair leg. Shen Le's eyes lit up, and he continued, rubbing several more times with all his strength:
It worked!
It really worked!
Had the landlady paid him so much to do the restoration because she'd anticipated this? Had she realized he could do this?
Shen Le rubbed his hands together and threw himself into the work. If he couldn't see the problem with the aura, then so be it; he could just repair the tables, chairs, and cabinet and call it a day;
but now that he'd opened his Spirit Eye and seen it, there was no way he could ignore it. It was torture for a perfectionist!
Until he smoothed out the energy and evened out the aura throughout the chair, there was no way he could hand it over!
Shen Le turned into a plasterer, gripping the chair leg and rubbing away with a vigorous shh-shh-shh.
After only twenty or thirty strokes, his vision dimmed. The energy on the chair had vanished from sight, and his fingers no longer felt as if they were embedded in asphalt.
Wait, what?
Did the Spirit Eye fade this quickly?
Or was moving this kind of energy unusually draining?
Shen Le had no way of finding out. He closed his eyes slightly and followed the cultivation route given to him by the Copper Fragment, guiding the heat flow along the Ren and Du Meridians. After nine circuits, he opened his eyes and let out a long breath:
The Spirit Eye was back! He could use it again!
This cultivation method didn't have much stamina. One round of cultivation for five minutes of work?
When could he upgrade?
The wooden chair remained silent, and the Copper Fragment said nothing. Shen Le had no one to ask, so he steadied himself and got back to work:
Rub once, rub again, and once more. Just as the energy on the chair had spread halfway into the new section, his vision dimmed again, and the Spirit Eye disappeared once more...
Cultivate again, then work again. Shen Le had to cultivate seven or eight times before he finally evened out the aura around the chair leg, connecting the upper section to the broken piece below.
"Phew, landlady, I've definitely earned the price you paid me..."