Recaps

Shen Le studied the metal fragments, identified their hammer marks and turquoise inlays, and learned silverworking from Squire Lu so he could restore them. After reshaping the fragments into their original contours, he sought a shoulder to test how they fit, but rejected the Mud Figurine that volunteered.

• Shen Le used scans and research to identify the fragments’ metalwork, distinguish their front and back, and infer that turquoise pieces may have decorated a tiger-shaped shoulder guard.
• Professor Bai showed Shen Le hammer marks on a silver plate and sent him magnified photographs to study.
• Shen Le returned to Zhuxi Town and learned basic hammering from Squire Lu, an artifact-refining furnace spirit, while Zheng Mo practiced alongside him.
• After a week of training, Shen Le restored practice pieces and then hammered the fragments back into their original contours.
• Shen Le asked who could lend him a shoulder to check the fragments’ fit, and told the volunteering Mud Figurine to get lost.

Shen Le learned metalworking from Squire Lu and used his new skills and Metal-element power to join the replica armor fragments, then began restoring the original shoulder guards. The main structure was repaired, but the engraved patterns, gold beads, and missing turquoise still remained unfinished.

• Shen Le used a plastic mannequin to arrange the shoulder-guard fragments and searched Tang Dynasty references for a matching fierce-beast design.
• Squire Lu taught Shen Le how to shape silver with molds and hammers, demonstrating the technique with a Dancing Horse Holding Cup Silver Ewer.
• Lan Zhuang gave Shen Le real-time feedback as he practiced metalworking for half a month, and he eventually made silver sheets for the shoulder ornament.
• Shen Le joined the replica fragments with Metal-element power, then used the method to make two sturdy replica shoulder guards that Professor Bai examined.
• Shen Le returned to restore the original shoulder guards, but he still lacked the skill and materials to replace their engraved details, gold beads, and missing turquoise.

Shen Le searched across the Silk Road for turquoise that Shoulder Swallow would accept while restoring the shoulder guard with Squire Lu’s help. When no suitable stones appeared, he took the two Shoulder Swallows to Qinghai, where they finally pointed him toward a destination.

• Shen Le tested turquoise from jewelers across the Silk Road, but each replacement stone shattered and its light was absorbed by the original beast eyes.
• Squire Lu taught Shen Le several methods for making gold beads, and Shen Le finished engraving and decorating Shoulder Swallow with paired lions.
• With the eyes still missing, Shen Le traveled through Yanqi, Kucha, Kashgar, and Khotan, but Shoulder Swallow found no suitable turquoise.
• Shen Le went to Qinghai and followed Shoulder Swallow’s faint signals through Kumbum Monastery, searching among its turquoise ornaments.
• The two Shoulder Swallows turned their heads and projected beams that converged in one direction, and Shen Le ordered the Special Affairs Bureau driver to take him there.

Shen Le followed the green beams of the shoulder-swallowing lions to a remote school and studio in the mountains near Lhasa, where thangka artist Langga Zhaxi showed him his collection of sacred art. The lions rejected the available turquoise and fixed their gaze on a revered portrait in the innermost room.

• Shen Le used the lions’ green beams to triangulate a destination near Lhasa and traveled there with Special Affairs Bureau escorts.
• After the lions’ glow disrupted local monitoring equipment, Shen Le stored them away for the night, then set out again once he had rested.
• Shen Le followed the beams north into the mountains and discovered a small school where Langga Zhaxi tutored local children and painted thangkas.
• Shen Le explained that he sought turquoise eyes for the restored lions, but the lions rejected Langga Zhaxi’s gemstones.
• Langga Zhaxi showed Shen Le the sacred art in his inner room, and the lions turned their beams toward a solemn portrait at the back.

Shen Le discovered that Langga Zhaxi’s turquoise-inlaid wooden box guarded relics from a missing People’s Liberation Army soldier, and used their resonance to locate a possible burial site in the Kunlun Mountains. The chapter ended with Shen Le and two Special Affairs Bureau officers reaching the barren Gobi location, where the box trembled as if urging them to find the remains.

• Shen Le learned that Langga Zhaxi’s wooden box resisted being moved because it contained a half military cap, a broken mug, a pencil stub, and a damaged herdsman’s whip handle belonging to an unidentified soldier.
• Shen Le found the words “Great in life” and “Glorious in death” inside the cap and determined that marks carved into the whip handle might record fallen soldiers.
• Shen Le meditated with the relics, and the half red star and whip handle pointed west and slightly north toward a distant place in the Kunlun Mountains.
• Shen Le asked the two Special Affairs Bureau officers to help, and they prepared equipment before setting out with him the next day.
• After driving for two days and searching the area, Shen Le identified a barren Gobi site where the earth indicated remains were buried, while the wooden box shook urgently in his hands.

Shen Le helped archaeologists recover the remains of fallen soldiers at Zama Fortress, then used the recovered relics to enter the memories of Wangdui, a warrior in a Tibetan force. The memory ended with Gesang dead, the force badly wounded, and its leader telling Wangdui to take the survivors home.

• An expert team excavated human remains at Zama Fortress and found the matching half of a red star that Shen Le had brought with him.
• Shen Le meditated with the wooden box, which released two turquoise stones, and he fitted them into the lion-shaped shoulder guards before entering a new memory.
• As Wangdui, Shen Le traveled with a force heading toward Tang territory and heard Gesang question whether they should fight the Tang people.
• Wangdui realized the tribal leaders, rather than the starving people, benefited from war and the wealth taken from Tang lands.
• Wangdui, Dorje, and Gesang crept toward a Tang beacon tower, but Gesang made a noise and triggered a volley of arrows.
• Wangdui pulled the wounded Gesang to safety, but Gesang died after asking for rock sugar; the returning leader ordered Wangdui to take the survivors home.

Shen Le repeatedly failed to solve the turquoise’s memory trial until he understood that generations of tribal hardship could not be ended through raiding and warfare, and the turquoise revealed memories of liberation and development on the plateau. After returning the recovered relics to the expedition, he tried to compensate Langga Zhaxi for the turquoise, but Langga Zhaxi refused his money.

• Shen Le led the wounded survivors down the mountain to raid bandits, but the tribe was destroyed before they could seek protection, so he awakened and restarted the trial.
• Shen Le repeatedly tried different ways to save the tribe, including fleeing alone, ruling it himself, farming, annexing neighbors, and promoting Buddhism, but each attempt ended in failure.
• After Shen Le exhausted his options, the turquoise revealed generations of memories and the arrival of people who liberated the tribes and brought roads, supplies, education, and medical care.
• Shen Le realized the relics’ memories had opened only after he had tried every available path, then entrusted the recovered items to the expedition team investigating the martyrs’ remains.
• Shen Le returned to Langga Zhaxi and offered to pay for the turquoise, but Langga Zhaxi refused and insisted on giving the stones to him.
• A Special Affairs Bureau agent suggested Shen Le pay the ordinary gemstone price and donate the extra amount to a local school, but Langga Zhaxi had not yet answered.

Shen Le relaxed beside a sacred highland lake with his Artifact Spirits, but sensed a hostile presence beneath the water and fought it when it rose. The clash ended in mist and the sound of Buddhist bells, leaving the enormous lake creature’s fate unclear.

• Shen Le arranged a donation for the local Hope Primary School, and Langga Zhaxi accepted money to buy turquoise and help plan supplies for the children.
• Shen Le took his Artifact Spirits to a quiet meadow beside the lake, where they played while he rested and entered a state between sleep and meditation.
• Little Oil Lamp electrocuted fish while fishing, and Shen Le briefly sensed an unexplained shadow in the lake but found nothing during a search.
• As Shen Le prepared to leave, birds, wild asses, fish, and a snow leopard reacted fearfully to a vast hostile shadow rising from the lake’s depths.
• Shen Le attacked the shadow with fire while the lake fish formed a shield, and the clash shook the water as Buddhist bells rang and a flash of golden light appeared in the mist.

Shen Le and Little Oil Lamp battled a blood-soaked monster beneath Heavenly Lake while the Special Affairs Bureau sent drones to help. The monster was driven off, but a wounded golden light sank into the lake as a trace of black energy fled north.

• Shen Le, Little Oil Lamp, and the beasts attacked the shadow beneath Heavenly Lake as it regenerated from the blood sea, while Shen Le called for reinforcements.
• Zhong Xiaomei and the Mud Figurines moved the two Special Affairs Bureau men to a snowy mountain, where they used a satellite phone to contact the Bureau and report the battle.
• Armed drones bombarded the lakebed, and Shen Le contained the blood sea with a net of fire and lightning while protecting a snow leopard that sought shelter with him.
• A second drone launched missiles that shook the lake and forced all the raised water back into place, leaving the lake murky and its fish floating belly-up.
• A faint wisp of black energy fled north, while the wounded golden light sank into the lake; Shen Le called after it and offered to help repair it.

Shen Le left the Heavenly Lake of the Snow Region after helping defeat a sealed beast, while the Special Affairs Bureau investigated the lake and Daoist Qingyue searched for the immortal sword. Back home, Shen Le used the armor pieces to locate another set of companions and discovered they were far away in the desert.

• Shen Le stayed by the lake while the Special Affairs Bureau investigated, and a spiritually aware snow leopard followed him and sought his care.
• Daoist Qingyue arrived to search for the immortal sword, and underwater teams found a huge curved horn and fangs that triggered alarm from the monks, the snow leopard, the sword, and Shen Le’s armor.
• A gray-haired man identified the remains as belonging to Dashe Molü, a bloodthirsty sacred beast sealed beneath the lake, and monks asked Shen Le to help hunt its escaped remnant soul.
• Shen Le refused to search the plateau, returned home through the earth veins, and promised the armor pieces he would look for their missing companions.
• Shen Le meditated with the repaired helmet and shoulder beasts, which pointed him toward a distant desert region beyond the Heavenly Mountain and Kunlun Mountain ranges.

Shen Le set out with Compass and Scroll to explore the Tang Dynasty’s western frontier, hoping to find the places and relics connected to the Anxi Protectorate. After seeing the desert’s modern irrigation and the ruins around Luntai, he headed toward Kucha, where the search would begin across a vast area.

• Shen Le declined Cloud Kun’s offer to accompany him, and Compass and Scroll chose to go with him to see the desert.
• Scroll showed Shen Le an image of an ancient frontier pass, while Zhong Xiaomei argued that the pass could be defeated by cutting off its supplies.
• Shen Le traveled west through the Gobi and learned how canals from Bosten Lake irrigated the region’s farmland.
• Shen Le and his companions reached Luntai and reflected on the old city and the Anxi Protectorate.
• Shen Le continued toward Kucha and learned that the objects he sought were scattered across hundreds of li of desert.

Shen Le searched the desert for scattered parts of an ancient suit of armor and found a stone disc beneath an underground current. A huge fish demon claimed the disc and burst out of the ground after Shen Le returned to the surface.

• Shen Le used the Copper Fragment’s resonance to find a damaged armor cuirass in the desert, while the Special Affairs Bureau agents recorded his abilities and tracked the search.
• Shen Le located more scattered armor pieces over a week of searching and sensed the strongest resonance beneath a dried-up riverbed.
• Shen Le sank underground, entered a fast-moving current, and retrieved a stone disc encased in rock from the riverbed.
• A huge fish demon attacked Shen Le and claimed the disc, but Shen Le escaped through the earth and returned to the off-road vehicle.
• The fish demon burst out of the ground in a column of water and charged at Shen Le and the agents, shouting that the disc was its own.

Shen Le and the Special Affairs Bureau enlisted Mr. Jin, a flamboyant goldfish demon, to calm the black fish demon and recover objects hidden in the underground river. After the haul revealed many artifacts and a broken mirror linked to the armor, Shen Le was left wondering how to restore the pieces into a complete set.

• Shen Le waited while the Special Affairs Bureau tried unsuccessfully to communicate with the angry black fish demon, then watched Mr. Jin arrive in an enormous gold-and-red gown.
• Mr. Jin transformed into a goldfish, subdued the black fish demon, and persuaded it to stop attacking the road and return the stone disc to Shen Le.
• Shen Le offered the fish demon aquatic plants in exchange for its other finds, then followed it and Mr. Jin through the underground river to retrieve objects from several hidden nests.
• Mr. Jin registered the black fish demon with the Special Affairs Bureau and promised to guide it as it grew, while Shen Le rested beside the Khotan River.
• At the Dunhuang Research Institute, Shen Le extracted and catalogued artifacts from the stones, then examined a broken mirror whose traces were entangled with demonic aura and wondered how to restore the armor set.

Shen Le restored and reconstructed a Tang Dynasty suit of armor with help from Professor Zhang and Curly-Bearded Guest, who began making and livestreaming a reproduction. The completed armor suddenly animated, broke free from its stand, and attacked Professor Zhang with an octagonal mace.

• Shen Le cataloged and restored the armor pieces and other relics he had recovered from the desert while professors watched through a protected studio camera.
• Shen Le used the intact front armor as a guide to reconstruct the damaged back, and Zhong Xiaomei sent Mud Figurines to serve as mannequins.
• Curly-Bearded Guest finished lacing a reconstructed suit of armor and shared the lacing method with Shen Le.
• Professor Zhang led students in making a reproduction suit of armor and livestreamed the process.
• The completed armor broke free from its stand, armed itself, and swung an octagonal mace at Professor Zhang.

Shen Le subdued a newly awakened suit of armor after it escaped and attacked Professor Zhang, then returned it to his studio to calm it beside the Tang Dynasty armor. The Special Affairs Bureau scanned the armor, but a clipped recording of the livestream incident spread online.

• The armor assembled itself in Shen Le's studio, attacked the Red Wedding Dress, and scattered its plates before Little Oil Lamp stopped it.
• Shen Le rushed to Professor Zhang's studio and found Professor Zhang fighting the armor with a shield and hammer while Little Oil Lamp protected him.
• Shen Le used the Five Thunder Peach Wood Sword to sever the force linking the armor's vambrace and hammer, then pinned it down and soothed it until it calmed.
• Shen Le returned the armor to his studio, where the Tang Dynasty armor knocked it off the table, and then asked the Special Affairs Bureau agents to scan it.
• The agents confirmed the new armor was clean, but learned that someone had clipped the livestream incident and uploaded it online, where it quickly spread.

Shen Le finished restoring the Tang armor, whose spirituality had caused it to attack Curly-Bearded Guest, and tried to teach it about the world after the Tang Dynasty. He then began reconstructing its damaged belt, hoping the completed relic would awaken more fully.

• The Special Affairs Bureau suppressed the armor incident online by circulating short-drama promotions, while Curly-Bearded Guest reassured callers that the event was staged cultural-tourism promotion.
• Shen Le concluded that the Tang army’s will had formed spirituality in the armor, which had possessed Curly-Bearded Guest’s armor because its own body was still being repaired.
• Shen Le spent two days lacing the armor plates together, balancing their spiritual auras and restraining the armor with Mud Figurines as he worked.
• When the armor struggled, a Mud Figurine angrily scolded it for fighting over the fallen Tang Dynasty and demanded that Shen Le repaint its damaged clay; Zhong Xiaomei stopped it from asking for gold leaf.
• Shen Le calmed the Mud Figurine, set the silent armor before documentaries, and began measuring and piecing together its shattered gold belt plaques to restore the belt.

Shen Le recruited the Dunhuang Research Institute professors to launch an algorithm project for matching gold belt fragments, while he used spiritual perception and the armor to sort them himself. He made a breakthrough and expected to finish the restoration within two days, startling the researchers whose algorithm was still unfinished.

• Shen Le proposed a fuzzy-algorithm project to match scanned gold belt fragments, and Professor Bai, Professor Xu, and Professor Li helped assemble a team with outside specialists and students.
• The project team began working urgently while Shen Le continued arranging 3D-printed fragments and sensing subtle differences in their auras.
• Shen Le tried asking the fragments directly which pieces belonged together, but they did not respond until he brought over the armor and laid the leather belt across it.
• The armor and fragments began to tremble in resonance, and Shen Le used the vibrations to identify a matching fragment he had not touched.
• Shen Le announced that he could finish restoring the belt within two days, while an elderly professor protested that the team had only reached the algorithm's third version.

Shen Le restored an ancient belt and discovered that its markings formed a military map of the Khotan River. When the belt stopped growing before reaching its full length, it pulled him into a vision of its owner, revealing the hardship behind its markings.

• Shen Le scanned the damaged belt, identified its lacquer colors, and found a map-like line and tally marks on its back.
• Shen Le matched the winding line and nearby dots to the Khotan River and nearby settlements, and the professors recognized the belt as a military map.
• Shen Le cleaned, sterilized, and softened the belt, then used silk fibroin solution and Healing Spells to restore its missing length.
• When the belt stopped at two-thirds of its original length, Shen Le gave it energy, and the belt curled around his wrist and showed him a vision.
• In the vision, the belt's owner marked three enemies killed and tore strips from the belt to eat while struggling to reach Kucha.

Shen Le restored the eleven gold belt plaques and awakened the iron armor, which carried him into a battlefield memory where he fought as A-Li against Tibetans and an ambushing Rouran force. The chapter ended as he faced a Tibetan boy wearing a familiar pair of Shoulder Swallows.

• Shen Le examined the belt and its metal fragments, finding blood traces and evidence that the gold plaques had been cut apart.
• Shen Le reconstructed the plaques’ lion designs with help from the algorithm team’s models, then forged alloy and pure-gold replacements.
• Shen Le restored the eleven ornaments and secured them to the leather belt, prompting the iron armor to leap onto him.
• The armor plunged Shen Le into a battle vision, where he rode with Tang cavalry and shot fleeing Tibetan riders as A-Li.
• Shen Le followed his comrades around a bend, attacked the Rouran ambush, and saw a Tibetan boy wearing a familiar pair of Shoulder Swallows.

Shen Le relived A-Li’s life as an Anxi garrison soldier, learning about the outpost’s dwindling troops and struggling to survive a night attack in the illusion. After preparing for another assault, he fought off the attackers, but his comrades fell until he was left alone at the beacon tower.

• A-Li killed a young Gewo tribesman, stripped his armor, and later received the Shoulder Swallows as a reward for his service.
• A-Li’s comrades lamented that the outposts were losing soldiers and that many veterans had been unable to return home.
• A-Li took the night watch, was killed by an attacker who slipped past the sentries, and returned to Shen Le as the armor scolded him for failing.
• Shen Le entered the illusion again, sharpened his senses, and woke his six comrades when he detected an approaching attack.
• Shen Le and the other Tang soldiers fought the attackers at the beacon tower, but his comrades fell one by one.
• After the fighting ended, Shen Le found that he was the only living person left at the beacon tower.

Shen Le relived the beacon tower battle and failed to save his comrades or the captives before dying, then returned to the laboratory and restarted the armor’s memory. He changed the battle’s outcome, rescued seven women and children with the surviving soldiers, and cleared the stage upon reaching the city walls.

• Shen Le lit the beacon after the Tibetan Empire forces killed everyone at the tower, then tried to ambush the thirty soldiers escorting captured women and children but was killed while fighting to save them.
• Shen Le returned to the laboratory, checked that his body was unharmed, and put the iron armor back on to restart the memory.
• Shen Le prepared traps and weapons over more than a month, helping the beacon tower’s defenders repel the next attack and survive.
• Shen Le and Erzhuma scouted the captive column, then Shen Le organized the tower’s surviving soldiers into an ambush using loosened boulders.
• Shen Le and the soldiers killed the Tibetan Empire escort at the cost of three men killed or wounded and escorted seven women and children back to the city, clearing the stage.

Shen Le recovered from the battlefield illusion and resumed restoring a Tang soldier’s battered leather boots, struggling with their stench and fragile condition. As the boots’ history of hard use emerged, one of them kicked Professor Bai’s camera, leaving Shen Le to restrain them and promise he would not send them away.

• Shen Le recovered over several days with music from the ghostly garments before returning to the armor restoration.
• Shen Le hesitated to handle the flattened boots, then began cleaning them with Cleansing Spells and rehumidifying the leather.
• Shen Le opened the boots enough to clean their interiors and uncovered holes, repeated patches, rope marks, and layered bloodstains.
• Professor Bai asked Shen Le to leave the rare boots to a museum, but a boot kicked the camera off the desk.
• Shen Le pinned down both boots and promised not to make them leave, warning them not to damage themselves.

Shen Le struggled to identify the leather in ancient boots, then explored Nanhua Street and found a leatherworker who recognized the materials. He learned she was a Painted Skin Demon, prompting Little Oil Lamp to threaten her until she insisted her skins were handmade and she had harmed no one.

• Shen Le found that the ancient boots' pores had vanished, so he consulted research and used an electron microscope but still could not identify the leather.
• Shen Le wandered through the newly bustling Nanhua Street, where he saw shops serving living customers by day and ghosts and demons by night.
• Shen Le found the leather goods shop and asked its owner to identify the ancient boot; she identified its cowhide, sheepskin, and camel-hide parts.
• The owner explained that she was a Painted Skin Demon, and Little Oil Lamp rose threateningly as she protested that her skins were handmade and she had never harmed anyone.

Shen Le restored the Sixfold Black Leather Boots, which then insisted he wear them and drew him into another memory. He found himself in Khotan as the Khotan River and farmland dwindled, and the general entrusted him with a grave responsibility.

• The Painted Skin Ghost reassured Shen Le that she had harmed no one, then agreed to make custom bodies for the Silk Skirts so they could livestream.
• Shen Le carefully dismantled the Sixfold Black Leather Boots, restored their leather and threads, and preserved the damage the boots chose to keep.
• Shen Le studied tanning methods, made replica boots after several failed attempts, and reassembled the originals with patches.
• The restored boots and Iron Armor insisted Shen Le wear them, then carried him into a memory of Khotan City.
• Shen Le saw that the Khotan River had shrunk and the surrounding farmland had dwindled, then went to meet the general.
• The general asked Shen Le how long he had served and whether he dared accept a grave responsibility.

Shen Le accepted a mission to carry a military dispatch and the soldiers’ letters from Anxi to Chang'an, but his desert crossing ended in a brutal fight with horse bandits that left him the sole survivor. After reaching Kucha, he learned from Guo Xin that he would have to take a long detour through Uyghur territory to continue toward Chang'an.

• Shen Le agreed to lead ten men north to Kucha and then carry a dispatch to Chang'an.
• As the Khotan River dried up, Shen Le’s squad dug wells, abandoned armor and weapons, and survived by slaughtering camels.
• Horse bandits attacked the water-starved squad, and Shen Le’s nine comrades died while he fought his way through.
• Shen Le tracked the bandits to their camp, recovered the soldiers’ letters, and defeated them before continuing north with camels and water.
• Shen Le reached Kucha and met Guo Xin, who ordered him to detour through Uyghur territory on the way to Chang'an.