Recaps

Shen Le built a small stone prayer house to draw the black lights out of the ancient residence model, then sealed them inside and entrusted them to Ah Lu. As plaques and family history arrived for the restored residence, the model glowed, and Shen Le realized it might want its history recreated.

• The Temple Keeper of Guan-Yue Temple laughed at Shen Le’s oversized model and offered old bricks from Qingjing Temple in exchange for the crystal fragments.
• Shen Le and Little Ink Marker’s tools built a tiny stone prayer house, which attracted most of the black lights from the ancient residence model.
• The black lights briefly returned to the model, drove out a remaining group, and then all entered the stone house; Shen Le sealed it in a wooden box and left it with Ah Lu beneath the Great Camphor Tree.
• Shen Le tried to understand the old residence model’s silent signs, then told his advisor that the restoration was nearly ready to open to the public.
• Family members brought plaques and recounted their family’s history at the residence, including resistance to the Yuan and Qing and support for the Red Army.
• Seeing the model glow around the plaques, Shen Le asked whether it wanted its generations of history recreated.

Shen Le finished restoring the plaques on the ancient residence model, which transformed under moonlight and helped release the spirits bound to it. The model became a portable, talking spirit artifact and revealed that it could expand into a full-sized residence and hold many rooms.

• Shen Le copied the old residence’s plaques and inscriptions with help from the Silk Skirts, while his mentor explained the importance of the family’s examination honors.
• The completed model absorbed moonlight that purified the well and the residence, and Shen Le supplied his warm current to help cleanse the lingering bloodstains.
• A girl’s spirit emerged from the white silk and vanished, while the spirits of a young man and woman appeared from the palace lantern and departed together.
• The residence model shrank to dice size but expanded unexpectedly, pinning Shen Le and his chair against a wall before he ordered it to shrink again.
• Shen Le packed up the little ones and took the model to the wilderness, where it expanded into a full-sized residence and said it could house his whole family if given wood and furniture.

Shen Le helped the newly self-aware residence choose the name Huang Yutong and furnished it as it grew into a home for the artifact spirits. Just as Huang Yutong prepared to travel once it received spirit jade from Cloud Kun, Cloud Kun urgently called for help because Firebird had tangled with one of its brothers.

• The Little Oil Lamp, Brush Pot, and other artifact spirits moved into the residence and encouraged it to choose a name; it rejected the Huang clan’s generation names and names honoring Shanshan and A Zhen.
• The residence chose the name Huang Yutong and expanded, dividing itself into rooms for the artifact spirits.
• Huang Yutong demanded wiring, appliances, and more space, so Shen Le gathered spirit wood and spirit earth and arranged renovations and furnishings with the Special Affairs Bureau.
• The electrician struggled to supply enough power, and Gu Yulin proposed a Spirit Jade Generator; Cloud Kun promised to bring spirit jade when it returned from its mission.
• Shen Le spent two months furnishing Huang Yutong, which then asked when Cloud Kun would return so it could travel.
• Cloud Kun urgently called Shen Le for help, saying one of its brothers was tangled up with Firebird.

Shen Le learned that Cloud Kun’s whale-demon brother and a Chinese escort vessel were under attack by a firebird near the Red Sea, so he prepared to join the rescue. He outfitted Huang Yutong as a mobile shelter and hospital, then departed aboard Cloud Kun with the crew and medical team, ready to face the danger.

• Cloud Kun told Shen Le that his whale-demon brother was fleeing a firebird and asked him to help; the Shanghai Special Affairs Bureau then confirmed that an escort vessel was also in danger.
• Shen Le gathered Qing Deng, Zhong Xiaomei, Huang Yutong, medical supplies, and Dragon Lord’s flag, while Huang Yutong insisted on joining so she could shelter and treat the injured.
• At the military port, the commander tested Huang Yutong’s residence with animals and soldiers, confirmed they were unharmed, and sent military doctors and equipment aboard.
• Shen Le and the crew boarded Cloud Kun, and Huang Yutong expanded inside the ship so everyone could evacuate into her residence if needed.
• Shen Le reinforced the reactor’s fireproofing, told the crew how to take shelter, and stood at Cloud Kun’s bow with Dragon Lord’s flag as the ship set out toward the Red Sea.

Shen Le and Cloud Kun raced to rescue their allies near the Red Sea, where a furious firebird attacked them over its stolen inner core. Dragon Lord’s flag intervened just in time to protect the ship, and Shen Le tried to negotiate while the battle continued.

• Shen Le realized Cloud Kun had crossed the border, and the crew struggled to locate their escort ship without the water veins or reliable instruments.
• Cloud Kun received the escort ship’s coordinates, and Shen Le used the Compass and Scroll to locate the firebird’s immense flames.
• Cloud Kun chose to approach despite the risk of exposing its secrets, but the firebird detected it and chased the ship as Shen Le and the crew prepared to flee.
• The firebird’s attack stripped away Cloud Kun’s water barrier, and Dragon Lord’s flag finally raised a wave that protected the ship from its fire.
• Shen Le offered to return the firebird’s inner core if it stopped attacking them and their country’s warships, but the firebird continued its assault as a distant whale surfaced and nearby navy personnel collapsed.

Shen Le and Cloud Kun fought the Firebird with compressed seawater, lightning, and talismans as it drew on volcanic power beneath the sea. When the Firebird reignited in a pillar of flame, Shen Le and his allies opened a deep waterless passage toward it, preparing for Dragon Flag's lightning strike.

• Whale healed the escort vessel's wounded with its mist, then rushed to help Cloud Kun, while the damaged frigate obeyed orders to return to its fleet.
• As the seabed began to erupt, Shen Le ordered Cloud Kun to dive and sent the ship's soldiers, paper people, and Mud Figurines into the ancient residence for safety.
• Shen Le used Dragon Flag and Copper Fragment to strike the Firebird with condensed seawater, while Little Oil Lamp added lightning that blackened and wounded it.
• Shen Le cast twelve Fireball Spell talismans into the Firebird's golden-red energy, then launched the gathered fire upward, heating the sea and driving Whale away from the battlefield.
• The Firebird drew on a volcanic eruption to recover, but Shen Le used the Mountain Patrol and Water Control Bronze Seal and a Water-Breaking Talisman to open a deep passage through the sea.
• Lan Zhuang, Cloud Kun, and Whale reinforced the water passage, which reached the Firebird as Dragon Flag called down a pillar of lightning.

Shen Le and his companions discovered that the firebird had attacked Cloud Kun because it mistakenly believed Cloud Kun was helping people who had harmed its followers. After Shen Le showed it evidence and cleared up the misunderstanding, the firebird returned and asked whom it should fight in exchange for its belongings.

• Little Oil Lamp survived the lightning strike, grew stronger, and helped Shen Le and Cloud Kun subdue the firebird.
• Huang Yutong translated the firebird’s accusations, and Shen Le learned it had mistaken Cloud Kun for the powerful ship aiding its enemies.
• Shen Le explained that Cloud Kun had not bullied the firebird’s people and showed it the Five-Star Red Flag, persuading it to investigate before making a pact.
• Shen Le arranged for navy personnel to show the firebird news footage, and it flew away to verify what it had learned.
• The firebird returned, introduced itself as Zafarat Hulud, declared Shen Le and his companions friends, and asked whom they wanted it to attack in exchange for its belongings.

Shen Le and Cloud Kun negotiated a pact with Zafarat Hulud, securing the Firebird’s promise not to attack ships or places bearing their country’s flag in exchange for its treasure. After returning home with the navy personnel and wounded, Shen Le learned that Firebird had apparently created a new strategic advantage, though he did not yet know what it had done.

• Shen Le brought Firebird to the fleet and summoned two sailors to serve as negotiation representatives while he contacted officials back home.
• Shen Le offered to return Firebird’s treasure if it recognized their national emblem and promised not to attack anything bearing their flag, and Firebird accepted by creating a pact on Spirit Jade.
• The Copper Fragment and Dragon Flag helped Shen Le seal and duplicate the pact, and he returned Firebird’s fireball, allowing its power to surge.
• Firebird gave the fleet red crystal gifts and burned the souls Shen Le returned to it, then let Cloud Kun carry Shen Le and the wounded navy personnel home.
• Shen Le returned the sailors and wounded to the naval base, where an officer praised the strategic advantage he had secured and began explaining what Firebird had done.

Shen Le learned that a biogas tank explosion crippled Western Power’s aircraft carrier and improved the negotiations, then helped value Cloud Kun’s recovered fireball at 254 million points. Cloud Kun and its spirit artifacts began planning a major weapons upgrade, while Compass absorbed a radar and demonstrated a 400-kilometer detection range.

• A military port official told Shen Le that Western Power’s aircraft carrier had been forced to turn back after its biogas tank exploded, giving their side an advantage in negotiations.
• Cloud Kun explained that it had ignited the vulnerable tank, and the official asked how to defend against the same tactic before awarding Shen Le and Cloud Kun contribution points.
• Special Affairs Bureau experts valued Cloud Kun’s fireball at 254 million points after comparing it with a powerful pill furnace, and Shen Le reviewed a weapons quotation for Cloud Kun.
• Compass bargained for a radar, absorbed a model with a 400-kilometer detection range, and demonstrated its reach, but said it could not copy itself.
• Cloud Kun asked for strategic missiles, carrier-based aircraft, and then a Type 1130 close-in defense gun as Shen Le tried to steer its upgrade toward feasible equipment.

Shen Le and the military expert negotiated with Cloud Kun and Compass over radar and weapons, while Cloud Kun strengthened its hull by eating spiritwood. The group settled on a reduced radar package, several weapons, and four drones, and Cloud Kun agreed to testing while insisting the test missiles be paid for separately.

• Shen Le brought spiritwood to Cloud Kun, then interrupted Cloud Kun and Compass's argument over how to divide their equipment budget.
• Shen Le and the military expert talked Compass down from its demand for an enormous radar and settled on an 800-million-yuan radar package.
• Cloud Kun argued for an arsenal of weapons, and the expert agreed to test its hull before fitting it with a close-in defense gun and missiles.
• Cloud Kun demanded a hundred YJ-12 missiles and carrier-based aircraft, but accepted sixteen YJ-12s, eight YJ-18s, and four drones after the expert and Shen Le objected.
• Cloud Kun agreed to hull and weapons tests, then insisted that missiles used in testing be paid for separately.

Shen Le helped Cloud Kun strengthen its defenses with water-gathering Talismans, then used what he learned to repair the Dragon Flag. After taking Huang Yutong and the other Artifact Spirits to the Nansha Islands, he left them to enjoy the scenery while he refined the flag until it could summon torrential rain.

• Cloud Kun struggled to launch missiles safely during tests at Lop Nur, while Shen Le watched researchers collect the debris and Cloud Kun trained to strengthen itself.
• Shen Le examined the damaged Dragon Flag at Qinghai Lake, identified its three-dimensional Water-Gathering Talisman, and engraved the design onto wafers for Cloud Kun to absorb water.
• Shen Le and the military experts agreed on which parts of Cloud Kun needed Talisman protection, and Shen Le spent a month carving them before bringing Cloud Kun to the sea to recharge.
• Shen Le saturated a tiny Water-Gathering Talisman on the Dragon Flag, tested its ability to collect water, and discovered it could gather half a regulation-sized swimming pool.
• Shen Le took Huang Yutong and the other Artifact Spirits to the Nansha Islands, where they explored the beach and tried to cook for him while he refined the Dragon Flag.
• Shen Le inscribed more than thirty Talismans onto the Dragon Flag, turning it deep green and giving it the power to summon torrential rain.

Shen Le and the little ones watched a powerful sandstorm sweep across the desert, where he fought off ghost soldiers with his Five Thunder Peach Wood Sword and Little Oil Lamp’s lightning. After the storm passed, he followed a strange wind wall into the desert and uncovered something buried beneath the sand.

• Shen Le used his magic to keep himself and the little ones comfortable as they traveled across the Gobi, while two Special Affairs Bureau agents followed in an off-road vehicle.
• The agents warned Shen Le that a sandstorm was coming, and he carried the little ones to a dune to watch as it approached.
• Shen Le built sand and wind barriers around the group, but the sandstorm swept over them and buried his shelter in sand.
• As ghost soldiers attacked through the storm, Shen Le struck one with his Five Thunder Peach Wood Sword and called on Little Oil Lamp to unleash lightning.
• The ghost soldiers’ cries gave way to a song about fighting in the yellow sands and refusing to return until Loulan was broken.
• After the storm passed, Shen Le chased the fading black wind wall and brushed sand away from something buried at the foot of a dune.

Shen Le uncovered and carefully excavated fragments of a Tang Dynasty helmet in the desert, then experienced the dying soldier’s memories embedded in it. He brought the spiritually dangerous artifact to Dunhuang Academy, where he warned the waiting professors that ordinary people could not handle it.

• Shen Le found a spiritually charged metal fragment in the sand and used his tools and spiritual power to carefully excavate its scattered pieces.
• As Shen Le examined the damaged helmet, its memory overwhelmed him with the pain and final thoughts of a dying soldier, and he collapsed on the dune.
• Little Oil Lamp kept rescuers away with a barrier until Shen Le recovered and allowed the helicopter crew to approach.
• Shen Le left the desert with the helmet and traveled to Dunhuang Academy, where professors recognized the find as potentially valuable Tang Dynasty armor.
• Shen Le warned the professors to stay away from the helmet and called for Special Affairs Bureau personnel to help establish a laboratory that suppressed spiritual energy.

Shen Le carefully examined a spiritually dangerous ancient helmet with help from Professor Bai and the research team, learning that it was likely a Tang-style helmet rather than one made by the Tibetan Empire. After extensive scans and research, he prepared to extract tiny samples from it without damaging the relic.

• Special Affairs Bureau personnel escorted Shen Le and the helmet to an isolated research room, where a detector revealed that the helmet contained dangerous levels of spiritual energy.
• Professor Bai urged Shen Le to restore the helmet and offered technical support, while Silk skirt helped him draw a precise sketch.
• Shen Le consulted Professor Bai, who compared the helmet with historical references and said its upward-curled ear guards suggested advanced Tang-era metalworking, making Tibetan ownership unlikely.
• Shen Le studied research records on excavated armor, used his spiritual power and instruments to locate traces of non-metal materials, and marked possible cords and padding on the helmet.
• Two Mud Figurines built a protective frame, and Shen Le placed the helmet beneath a microscope to begin carefully collecting samples.

Shen Le reconstructed the excavated helmet and began restoring corroded artifacts brought from the institute’s storeroom, discovering that his magic could clean and separate them far faster than conventional methods. After removing rust from a coin and returning its energy to the metal, he accidentally made the coin come alive.

• Shen Le used CT scans and historical references to assemble a three-dimensional reconstruction of the excavated helmet.
• Professor Bai arranged for students to bring Shen Le thirty-five sealed artifacts from the institute’s storeroom to practice restoring.
• Shen Le unpacked the artifacts with help from Huang Yutong, the Silk Skirts, the Mud Figurines, Little Ink Marker, and the carpenter tools.
• After carefully cleaning a pile of corroded coins by hand, Shen Le used a Cleaning Spell to clear the grime quickly and verified that it had not damaged the metal.
• Shen Le extracted copper rust from a coin and returned its metal energy to the coin, causing a separated copper piece to spring up and spin across the table.

Shen Le developed a formation that restored copper coins while keeping their spirituality calm, then sent the design to the Special Affairs Bureau for industrial use. The institute displayed the lively coins as research exhibits, but visitors immediately started tossing coins into the cases.

• Shen Le listened to the memories clinging to a Copper Fragment and found that his usual restoration method made coins unnaturally lively.
• Shen Le consulted Alloy Master, whose metal-restoration method strengthened the coins’ memories and added his own spiritual characteristics.
• Shen Le studied formations supplied by Gu Yulin and eventually created one that purified metal without making its spirituality overly strong.
• Shen Le sent the formation’s design to the Special Affairs Bureau, which built and delivered a spirit-jade-powered device and awarded him contribution points.
• Shen Le used the device to restore coins and sent them to the institute for an exhibition, but the coins broke their display glass and visitors began throwing coins into the cases.

Shen Le restored and studied an ancient iron helmet but could not identify its decorations or reshape its pieces himself. After three days of failed practice, Professor Bai offered to let others help, and Little Ink Marker volunteered to hammer the iron.

• Shen Le separated, cleaned, documented, and studied the helmet pieces, then consulted Professor Bai when he could not identify their patterns.
• Shen Le and the Silk Skirts searched illustrated books for matching armor designs and narrowed the patterns to a human face, a tiger, and a beast head.
• Shen Le infused the iron pieces with Metal-element power, assembled printed copies into a helmet shape, and asked the institute to make shaping tools.
• Shen Le practiced bronze-restoration hammering under Professor Bai's guidance but repeatedly damaged the practice copper and failed to shape it.
• Professor Bai offered to have others reshape the helmet pieces, and Little Ink Marker volunteered to do the work with the claw hammers.

Shen Le used spiritual power to restore the helmet’s iron plates, then investigated its leather, padding, and blood traces. While his Healing Spells enlarged the damaged leather into cowhide, the little ones worried that his restoration magic might recreate a person from the helmet’s bloodstains.

• Little Ink Marker tried to make the Iron Hammer repair an iron plate, but Shen Le stopped it and tested his own restoration method on spiritually responsive scrap iron.
• Shen Le restored the scrap iron, scissors, caltrop, and helmet plates by infusing them with metal-element power and guiding them toward their original shapes.
• Tiny iron fragments nearly drained Shen Le’s spiritual power, but he recovered and used the helmet’s resonance to merge some fragments into its plates.
• Institute students told Shen Le that the helmet had deerskin, cotton-and-silk padding, leather cords, and traces of blood from two people; Shen Le preserved the bloodstains with Cleansing Spells.
• Shen Le used Healing Spells on the damaged leather cords, which grew into pieces of cowhide, while the little ones feared his magic might reconstruct a person from the helmet’s blood.

Shen Le finished restoring the helmet, but its spiritual power made it repeatedly fall apart until he wore it and was transported into the memories of a Tang Dynasty soldier. The soldier died in an ambush on the road to Kucha, leaving Shen Le to wake amid scattered armor plates and wonder if he was dead.

• Shen Le forged replacement iron plates, braided cowhide cords, and repaired the helmet with help from the Silk Skirts, Little Ink Marker, and Lan Zhuang.
• The completed helmet repeatedly undid its own lacing, so Professor Bai summoned an armor restoration expert, Curly-Bearded Guest, to inspect it.
• Curly-Bearded Guest suggested the helmet might not acknowledge Shen Le, and Shen Le poured warm spiritual energy into it until it briefly stayed assembled.
• When the helmet fell apart again, Shen Le put it on, and his surroundings shifted from the research institute to an ancient Tang Dynasty army bound for Kucha.
• After three days on the march, Shen Le's unit encountered an enemy attack, and he was struck down before waking among scattered armor plates and wondering whether he was dead.

Shen Le repeatedly entered the iron helmet’s battle memories, struggling with the trauma of killing an enemy before returning for another trial. He fought more skillfully on his next attempt and passed, though he discovered that the helmet expected him to outperform its original owner.

• Shen Le failed the helmet’s first trial after killing an enemy in battle and watching himself die, then woke vomiting and kept the experience from the Special Affairs Bureau staff.
• A senior Special Affairs Bureau official brought Shen Le gifts to calm his mind, and Shen Le assured him that the helmet’s memories would not cause him to fall into demonic deviation.
• Shen Le entered the helmet again and used the days before battle to practice horsemanship and fighting from horseback.
• Shen Le fought with a lance, saber, and shield, helped his unit break through the enemy formation, and received praise after the battle.
• Shen Le returned to the laboratory with the helmet intact and learned that its original owner had survived his first battle without killing anyone, suggesting the trial required Shen Le to do better.

Shen Le restored and mercury-silvered the helmet after learning the craft through repeated attempts at the Dunhuang Research Institute. Once he fitted it with a red plume, the Copper Fragment finally revealed lights on its map, suggesting the helmet could locate its companions.

• Shen Le tried to connect the helmet to the Copper Fragment but found no armor pieces responding, and suspected the helmet had exhausted its strength.
• Shen Le arranged for a fume hood and silvering equipment at the Dunhuang Research Institute, then painstakingly prepared one hundred armor plates.
• Shen Le failed at his first attempt to make silver amalgam, then switched methods and practiced until he could silver and polish the armor plates evenly.
• Shen Le silvered the helmet and fitted it with a plume, restoring its former proud appearance.
• The Copper Fragment unfolded in Shen Le's vision and showed faint points of light across the map.

Shen Le traveled toward Khotan to locate the remaining pieces of the armor, with an archaeological team following behind him. When the helmet’s call reached scattered fragments buried in the hills, they began rising from the ground on their own.

• Shen Le studied the map and set out toward the Tarim Basin, while Bearded Guest insisted on joining him and arranged for an archaeological team to follow.
• Shen Le’s group reached Khotan, where Old Huang offered jade and guided them toward the nearest light point.
• Old Huang told Shen Le that a thousand-year-old snow leopard might know about Tang Dynasty ruins, but warned that he could not safely approach it.
• Shen Le left the vehicles behind and flew toward the target, promising Bearded Guest and the archaeologists that he would wait before excavating.
• The helmet called to scattered armor fragments in the hills, and the buried pieces began emerging from the ground before Shen Le could dig.

Shen Le led the archaeological team to a mountain site where he and Professor Yu uncovered signs of Tang Dynasty beacon towers and numerous metal fragments. As the team faced a long excavation and a difficult return after dark, Shen Le offered them a house he had brought along.

• Professor Yu hurried to join Shen Le after receiving photos of metal fragments, and Old Huang led the group up a dangerous mountain path.
• Shen Le meditated and drew spiritual energy into a copper fragment while Professor Yu noticed a strange halo around him on the Drone feed.
• Professor Yu identified possible beacon tower remains, and Shen Le used his mental power to trace a stone chamber hidden among fractured boulders.
• The Special Affairs Bureau stopped Professor Yu from touching a dangerous metal fragment, and Shen Le collected it along with other artifacts.
• Shen Le found many more marked excavation sites, and when the exhausted team worried about digging and returning after dark, he offered them a house.

Shen Le unfolded his residence on the mountain so the archaeological team and Special Affairs Bureau members could rest comfortably, then joined the team’s excavation the next day. As the archaeologists uncovered traces of the old border garrison, Shen Le returned to his workshop to piece together metal fragments and learn what they could reveal.

• Shen Le unfolded his residence, and the professors, students, and Special Affairs Bureau members settled in for the night while the startled Huang Yutong fled as a marmot.
• The team rested, ate, and slept in the residence before returning to the excavation site the next morning.
• Shen Le joined Professor Zhao and the students as they examined an ash heap containing scraps of everyday life, bone fragments, and a possible gourd fragment.
• The archaeological team found a stove, a ceramic jar with possible rations, and a damaged box containing writing they could not yet read.
• Shen Le returned to the workshop and began assembling the metal fragments, wondering what they had looked like and what their former owners had experienced.

Shen Le studied damaged metal fragments from the ruins and worked out that they were crushed three-dimensional decorations from armor, but he still struggled to restore them. After helping excavate a warrior’s cenotaph and discovering a treasured letter from home, he returned to the research institute with the fragments and asked them to reveal what they had once looked like.

• Shen Le used 3D-printed replicas to puzzle over the metal fragments, and Curly-Bearded Guest guided him to identify them as armor decorations that needed CT scans and further study.
• Shen Le scanned the fragments, tried shaping a reconstruction from modeling clay, and then studied reference books with Curly-Bearded Guest and the others.
• While excavating with Professor Yu’s team, Shen Le helped uncover a cenotaph marked by a Hotan Jade epitaph and containing fragments of armor, fabric, a broken sword, and a letter from home.
• Shen Le sensed that the letter’s owner had left no spiritual trace, and he left the excavation after three days once the team had found all the metal fragments he sought.
• Shen Le returned to the research institute, where he stared at the fragments and asked them to show him what they used to be.