Recaps

Shen Le finished repairing and painting a chair with the Ink Marker’s help, then delivered it to the Heavenly Fragrance Restaurant and discovered he could see colored energy around the servers. After devouring a bowl of noodles, he tasted the lamb Boss Lady brought him and realized it was unlike any lamb he had eaten before.

• Shen Le stabilized the chair’s energy and watched the Ink Marker direct the tools through precise repairs to a broken table.
• Shen Le repeatedly guided energy into the chair between coats of paint until he finished it at dinnertime.
• Shen Le delivered the chair to the Heavenly Fragrance Restaurant, where Boss Lady praised its workmanship and brought him lamb noodle soup.
• Shen Le noticed colored mists of energy around the restaurant’s servers but saw nothing unusual around Boss Lady.
• Still ravenous after the soup, Shen Le asked for more food, and Boss Lady brought him a bowl of lamb and rice.
• Shen Le tasted the lamb and recognized that it was different from the lamb he usually ate.

Shen Le discovered that the Heavenly Fragrance Restaurant’s lamb greatly enhanced his cultivation, allowing him to repair furniture faster. After completing the restaurant’s furnishings, he saw their auras form a powerful formation and decided to repair the furniture in the Old Mansion next.

• Shen Le ate the proprietress’s lamb and felt warmth and energy spread through his body as she urged him to eat at the restaurant every day.
• Shen Le practiced the Copper Fragment method after his meal and found he could circulate his energy eighteen times and smooth furniture aura more effectively.
• Over the next ten days, Shen Le ate the restaurant’s lamb regularly and increased his furniture-repair output from one piece a day to three.
• Shen Le repaired and delivered all the restaurant’s furniture, then used his Spirit Eye to see its aura forming a formation that soothed customers and strengthened Little Ink Marker’s ability.
• Shen Le decided to repair the furniture in the Old Mansion and harmonize its auras so he could live more comfortably.

After deciding he could not afford to restore the mansion with expensive lumber, Shen Le discovered he could collect the aura clinging to its surfaces and store it in a Jujube Wood Devil's Work Ball. He began building a miniature model of the mansion to connect it to the real house, leaving his tools busy crafting a tiny courtyard and wisteria.

• Shen Le inspected the mansion's aura, pulled a clump from a pillar, and stored it inside the Devil's Work Ball.
• Shen Le discovered that rubbing the Devil's Work Ball affected the pillar, giving him the idea to build a model linked to the mansion for surveillance and defense.
• Shen Le asked Zheng Mo to help measure the West Wing Three-Courtyard Residence and used the Ink Marker to measure the building's height.
• Shen Le instructed his tools to build a one-to-one-hundred model of the residence, then took a nap while they worked.
• Shen Le woke to find the model underway and watched his tools make a tiny building, doors, windows, and wisteria.

Shen Le finished a miniature model of his entire estate and used it to monitor and affect events across the courtyards. When Xiao Yu visited to deliver dinner and admire the lotus pond, a sudden storm broke out, leaving Shen Le wondering which fellow Daoist was undergoing tribulation at his house.

• Shen Le and Zheng Mo completed detailed models of all six courtyards, embedding each area's atmosphere so Shen Le could monitor and influence the estate.
• Shen Le used the model to spot a cat, a plastic bag, and evidence that a koi had jumped from its pond, then asked Zheng Mo to add railings around the estate.
• Xiao Yu brought Shen Le dinner from the Heavenly Fragrance Restaurant and asked to look around the estate.
• As Shen Le ate, the sky suddenly darkened over the lotus pond, and lightning struck as he wondered which fellow Daoist was undergoing tribulation at his house.

Shen Le watched a flowering tree undergo a lightning tribulation in the Second Compound and realized it might be Xiao Yu, one of the waitresses at Heavenly Fragrance Restaurant. After his attempt to intervene injured his fingers, the Copper Fragment healed them, while Special Affairs Bureau agents arrived outside Shen Le’s home.

• Shen Le saw lightning striking near the neighboring courtyard and used his residence model to investigate.
• Shen Le spotted a newly appeared flowering tree in the Second Compound and suspected it was Xiao Yu.
• Lightning battered the tree, breaking its branches and knocking off nearly all its blossoms.
• Shen Le reached into the model to help, burned his fingers, and then watched the Copper Fragment heal them.
• Gu Yulin and another Special Affairs Bureau agent arrived outside and wondered how to respond to the thunderclouds in Shen Le’s home.

Shen Le diverted the tribulation lightning away from Xiao Yu by planting metal chopsticks in the miniature mansion, and the storm ended without setting the wooden buildings on fire. The proprietress arrived to take Xiao Yu home and thanked Shen Le, who eagerly accepted her fragrant carrying box.

• Zhang Bingxin and Gu Yulin detected the powerful tribulation cloud over the Old Mansion and prepared to respond if anything caught fire.
• Shen Le realized he could redirect the lightning with the metal chopsticks from the proprietress's food box and planted them in the mansion model.
• The lightning struck the chopsticks until the clouds cleared, and Shen Le saw that the miniature houses and pond were unharmed.
• Gu Yulin went to the front gate while Zhang Bingxin watched from a rooftop, and the proprietress arrived with a carrying box to bring Xiao Yu home.
• Shen Le accepted the proprietress's thanks and carrying box, eager to taste its fragrant food.

Shen Le enjoyed the proprietress’s exquisite pastries, which helped his cultivation, and received a gift from her in thanks for protecting Xiao Yu. The proprietress proposed that Xiao Yu deliver pastries daily and revealed she wanted Shen Le to protect her workers, then asked what he thought she and her people were.

• Shen Le photographed and ate three flower-shaped pastries, noticing they aided his cultivation.
• Shen Le checked the Heavenly Fragrance Restaurant but found the pastries were not on its menu.
• The proprietress and Xiao Yu visited Shen Le to thank him, and the proprietress offered him a box of vital-energy elixirs.
• The proprietress proposed that Xiao Yu clean Shen Le’s home, but he refused and asked instead for the pastries.
• The proprietress offered to have Xiao Yu deliver pastries each day and asked Shen Le what he thought she and her people were.

Shen Le learned that the Heavenly Fragrance Restaurant’s proprietress and waitresses were peony demons, offered them his home and asked them to sell furniture made by Little Ink Marker. His new plan to make beds was interrupted when Senior Brother Zhuang invited him to help survey an ancient village, and Shen Le agreed after hearing he could search its old houses for timber and antiques.

• Shen Le guessed that the proprietress and waitresses were peony demons, and she explained that the name peony had fierce origins.
• Shen Le invited the women to eat at his home and offered to help them, while the proprietress encouraged him to dine at her restaurant to nourish his qi and blood.
• Shen Le asked the proprietress to sell furniture made by Little Ink Marker, and she agreed, believing the furniture could benefit cultivators and earn merit.
• Little Ink Marker suggested making beds, so Shen Le began planning a bed-making venture and ordered lumber.
• Senior Brother Zhuang told Shen Le that the team needed help surveying and protecting an ancient building because Senior Sister Xu had to rest during her pregnancy.
• After Senior Brother Zhuang mentioned the old houses and their salvageable antiques and timber, Shen Le agreed to join the job.

Shen Le traveled to a remote mountain village to help his professor restore a historically valuable old building, meeting power-office worker Xiang Yang on the way. After joining the research team and starting the architectural drawings, Shen Le suddenly lost his vision and wondered whether he had been pulled into a memory.

• Shen Le left Little Ink Marker at home, then traveled by train and bus toward Shangtian Village to join his professor's restoration work.
• At the county bus station, Shen Le met Xiang Yang, a Zhuxi Town power-office worker headed to a nearby village, and learned that the electricity bill at his old house had recently dropped sharply.
• Shen Le and Xiang Yang rode the bus together until Shen Le reached Shangtian Village, where Senior Brother Zhuang picked him up in a Wuling Hongguang.
• Senior Brother Zhuang drove Shen Le into the mountains, where Shen Le learned the team was restoring a Ming Dynasty mountain residence with architectural and cultural value.
• After the professor assigned Shen Le to prepare drawings, Shen Le opened CAD software and suddenly lost his vision, wondering if he had entered someone's memory.

Shen Le discovered a nearly century-old oil lamp with a powerful, unusual aura while accompanying Xiang Yang as he investigated the village's power outage. He bought the lamp from its elderly owner, hoping to take it with him.

• The village's power went out, and Shen Le learned that there was no local electrician to repair the breaker.
• Xiang Yang arrived from a neighboring village to fix the outage, and Shen Le helped him inspect the houses.
• Shen Le found a rusty oil lamp that its owner said could no longer be lit, and he noticed its date markings suggested it was very old.
• Shen Le used his Spirit Eye and saw that the oil lamp's aura was unusually dense and silvery white.
• Shen Le offered to buy the lamp, and the old man agreed to give it to him; Shen Le paid him two hundred yuan.

Shen Le touched the oil lamp he had bought and was pulled into a brief memory of its journey from overseas to a cramped Shanghai attic, where someone read New Youth by its light. After the village power returned, he joined his advisor and classmates on a hike to inspect an old building, keeping pace thanks to his improved stamina.

• Shen Le showed Zhuang Boyang the oil lamp he had bought and planned to restore it, then felt the Copper Fragment draw him into its memories.
• Shen Le experienced the lamp’s voyage across the sea and saw its owner carry it into a Shikumen attic and read New Youth beneath its light.
• Shen Le returned to the present when the village power came back and postponed restoring the lamp.
• Shen Le helped his advisor draw plans that evening, then hiked with his classmates the next morning to inspect an old building.
• Shen Le kept pace with his advisor on the mountain and reflected that the Copper Fragment’s training had improved his stamina.

Shen Le joined his mentor and fellow students to survey an old residence for preservation, learning about its architecture and the painstaking work involved. As the team recorded damage and used a 3D scanner, Shen Le watched his mentor hand-draw the building and calculate its structural loads.

• Shen Le identified the main hall's column-reduction method and regional architectural details when his mentor quizzed him.
• Shen Le and his junior fellow students photographed, measured, and recorded the residence's damaged and decayed features.
• Senior Brother Zhuang used a Leica 3D laser scanner to survey the building, and Shen Le admired the expensive instrument.
• Shen Le's mentor warned him not to neglect foundational skills even when using modern tools.
• Shen Le saw his mentor sketch the structure by hand and calculate how it would respond to repairs and reinforcement.

Shen Le disassembled the Little Oil Lamp and used electrolysis to remove its rust after discovering his senior martial brother had not brought the promised rust remover. When Shen Le finished for the night, the mountain’s power failed again, and the electrician Xiang Yang returned angrily to investigate.

• Shen Le borrowed a rotary tool and carefully disassembled the kerosene lamp, laying out its rusty parts and noting the damage.
• Shen Le washed the lamp components and complained when his senior martial brother admitted he had not brought rust remover.
• Shen Le improvised an electrolysis bath with baking soda and electrical wires, removing rust from the lamp components.
• Shen Le rinsed the parts and prepared to let them dry, then realized the power had gone out again.
• Xiang Yang rode back up the mountain on his electric scooter and demanded to know why the electricity had failed after he had checked it the day before.

Shen Le discovered that Little Oil Lamp was causing the village’s power outages because it felt neglected after electric lights replaced it. He coaxed the lamp into restoring power, then wondered how to discipline it.

• Xiang Yang carefully inspected the village’s electrical system, but found no fault.
• Shen Le used his Spirit Eye to examine Little Oil Lamp and saw its memories of villagers celebrating when electricity first arrived.
• Shen Le touched the lamp and witnessed it being neglected as electric lights became reliable, then saw it deliberately extinguish a bulb so its owner would light it again.
• Shen Le tried to persuade Little Oil Lamp to stop causing outages while Xiang Yang searched the lines and equipment for the problem.
• Shen Le reassembled the lamp and promised to take it home and light it every day, and Little Oil Lamp restored the village’s power.
• Xiang Yang remained baffled by the outage, while Shen Le wondered how to discipline the misbehaving lamp.

Shen Le struggled to communicate with the disassembled kerosene lamp while Xiang Guoqing and Xiang Yang searched for the cause of the village’s power outages. Xiang Yang used a power-line inspection drone to show his father a safer way to check the lines, and Shen Le urged the lamp to behave as repairs continued.

• Shen Le found the kerosene lamp’s scattered parts too wet to reassemble and went to bed unable to communicate with it.
• Xiang Guoqing arrived early to help Xiang Yang inspect the village’s power lines, insisting that his experience and old tools would find the fault.
• Xiang Yang offered his father modern climbing spikes, but Xiang Guoqing chose to keep using his wooden climbing boards.
• After the pair spent the day searching without finding the problem, Xiang Guoqing prepared to inspect the mountain lines at night, and Xiang Yang stopped him.
• Xiang Yang launched a power-line inspection drone, and Xiang Guoqing became emotional as he watched the clear view of the lines on its screen.
• Shen Le quietly wiped the lamp parts and asked the lamp not to act up while the electricians worked on the repairs.

Shen Le experienced the oil lamp’s memories and found himself inhabiting a starving young soldier on a nighttime march with his unit. After the Instructor shared ripe bayberries, led songs, and taught the soldiers, the young soldier asked what life would be like after victory.

• Shen Le repeatedly brushed tannic acid onto the oil lamp to protect it from rust, then rested with his hand on its wick.
• The lamp sent Shen Le a memory in which he inhabited a young soldier carrying it along a dark mountain trail with an armed group.
• Shen Le and his comrades reached a clearing, boiled wild greens, and ate a meager meal despite their hunger.
• The Instructor traded his ripe bayberries for the young soldier’s unripe ones and shared them with Shen Le.
• The Instructor played the harmonica, led the soldiers in singing, and taught them from a notebook by lamplight.
• The young soldier asked the Instructor what their lives would be like after driving out the Little Devils and winning the revolution.

Shen Le recalled the Instructor and his soldiers enduring an enemy manhunt during the revolution, then returned to the present, where a village child named Bingbing had gone missing. As the search began, Little Oil Lamp revealed a route to a place called Hundred Battles Cave.

• The Instructor read a poem by the Army Commander to encourage the hungry, wounded soldiers to hold out after the revolution succeeded.
• Enemy troops searched the mountain, forcing Shen Le and the soldiers into a hollow where the Instructor wrote the poem on the wall as fire approached; the night passed without disaster.
• Shen Le and his companions returned to find villagers searching for seven-year-old Bingbing, who had gone off to explore a place he called Hundred-Whatever Cave.
• Villagers and students organized a search, while Shen Le’s fellow students kept their advisor behind to coordinate possible rescue efforts.
• Shen Le assembled Little Oil Lamp, and its Spirit Eye showed a route ending at a red-marked location named Hundred Battles Cave.

Shen Le followed Little Oil Lamp’s guidance to Hundred Battles Cave and found the missing child sleeping safely there. After bringing the child home, he repaired the lamp further and learned its date marked it as a century-old antique, though he refused to sell it.

• Little Oil Lamp guided Shen Le toward the missing child as the search party split up to search the mountains.
• Shen Le followed the lamp’s silver path to Hundred Battles Cave, found Bingbing asleep, and messaged the project group that he had found him.
• Shen Le woke Bingbing and led him out of the cave, where he saw a memorial poem and the name Hundred Battles Cave carved into the rock.
• The next day, Shen Le reshaped and smoothed Little Oil Lamp, then reassembled it into a nearly new-looking lantern.
• Xiang Yang admired the restored lamp, and Shen Le revealed its 1923 date but said he would keep it rather than sell it.

Xiang Guoqing refused to leave his rural post despite Xiang Yang’s pleas, while Shen Le realized Little Oil Lamp’s sadness might be causing the village’s power outages. He comforted the spirit, but its surge of light pulled him into another memory.

• Xiang Guoqing tested the village’s electrical equipment and rejected Xiang Yang’s offer to move to Zhuxi, insisting the villages needed him.
• Xiang Yang argued that restoring the old houses and developing tourism could bring people back, but Xiang Guoqing refused to leave.
• The village’s lights abruptly went out, and Shen Le suspected Little Oil Lamp had caused the outage.
• Shen Le comforted Little Oil Lamp and asked it not to cause more trouble when it felt sad; it agreed to sleep inside the lamp.
• Little Oil Lamp’s light flared around Shen Le, and the Electric Snake swallowed him, sending him into another memory.

Shen Le experienced Little Oil Lamp’s memory of villagers and workers hauling electrical equipment up a mountain to bring power to a village. He watched the villagers celebrate electricity, then live through frequent outages, and the memory ended with a baby safely delivered by lamplight.

• Shen Le carried electrical supplies up a steep mountain trail alongside villagers and workers, then joined them in singing as they climbed.
• The workers raised utility poles and installed a transformer while Little Oil Lamp illuminated the worksite.
• The villagers cheered when electricity first reached the village, but shortages and costs meant households could use their lights only briefly.
• Shen Le watched villagers rely on oil lamps during outages as children studied, women sewed, and elders wove baskets.
• A young man fetched Mother Li to help deliver his wife’s baby, and Little Oil Lamp lit the room until the child was born safely.
• Shen Le told Little Oil Lamp that the villagers had hoped for constant electricity, not for the lamp to be with them all the time.

Shen Le calmed Little Oil Lamp by promising to repair it and learned that outages still affected the village, while Xiang Yang called for a professional investigation. As Shen Le and his team surveyed the mansion and nearby homes, he discovered the abandoned houses offered far less salvageable material than he had expected.

• Shen Le soothed Little Oil Lamp, which feared the villagers no longer needed it, and promised to fix and repaint it.
• Xiang Guoqing told Shen Le that power restrictions and typhoons still caused outages, prompting Little Oil Lamp to celebrate that it could still be useful.
• Xiang Yang found no fault in the village wiring and called for professionals to investigate, insisting the report would bring help through normal channels.
• Shen Le continued documenting damage to the old mansion as his team assessed its timber, roof, beams, and decorations for restoration.
• Shen Le surveyed nearby abandoned homes and concluded that their rotten, low-quality materials were barely worth salvaging.

Shen Le finished applying a protective coating to Little Oil Lamp and welcomed a large team of electrical specialists sent to investigate the village’s power problem. After his restoration supplies arrived, he cleaned a lampshade and prepared to repair its crack.

• Shen Le explained the archaeological protective coating to Little Oil Lamp, then brushed multiple layers of Paraloid B-72 solution onto its parts.
• Xiang Guoqing and Shen Le watched as three trucks carrying electrical specialists arrived to investigate the village’s electrical fault.
• Xiang Yang introduced the specialists, who began testing equipment and inspecting the village’s electrical system.
• A delivery truck brought Shen Le’s restoration supplies, and he checked that his ordered materials had arrived.
• Shen Le cleaned the lampshade glass with a microfiber cloth and considered how to repair its long crack.

Shen Le repaired the Little Oil Lamp and stopped its Artifact Spirit from disrupting the village’s power supply. He then began treating rust in its burner, leaving the lamp wrapped in a homemade rust remover for two days.

• Shen Le repaired the Little Oil Lamp’s cracked glass shade and brought it downstairs while technicians investigated the village’s electrical faults.
• Shen Le warned the lamp’s Artifact Spirit not to interfere with the power supply, but it scattered silver light around the village and triggered more abnormal readings.
• Shen Le used the Copper Fragment to trap and threaten the Artifact Spirit, then persuaded it to stop causing trouble by reminding it of its former masters.
• Shen Le mixed flour, salt, and vinegar into a dough and pressed it into the rusted Brass Burner.
• Shen Le wrapped the burner in dough and plastic wrap for two days while the Artifact Spirit protested that it felt trapped.

Shen Le finished restoring the Little Oil Lamp, whose light and spiritual aura grew much stronger, and discovered that the Copper Fragment could change size in response to his words. He went downstairs and found a large crew of utility workers gathered at the village entrance, where a mobile transformer vehicle was being set up.

• Shen Le scrubbed, ground, and repaired the Brass Burner, then assembled it into a working kerosene lamp and lit it.
• The Little Oil Lamp rejoiced at shining brightly again, and Shen Le used his Spirit Eye to see that its restored aura now flowed evenly through it.
• Shen Le saw that the Copper Fragment had grown into a U-shape and discovered that it could shrink and stretch when he asked it to.
• Shen Le went downstairs and found villagers gathered around utility workers operating several vehicles, including a Mobile Transformer Vehicle.

Shen Le learned that the village electricians were replacing the old transformer because they could not find the cause of the power problems, and he comforted Little Oil Lamp as it mourned the loss of its longtime friend. After the new transformer was installed, Little Oil Lamp said goodbye to the old equipment and agreed to go home with Shen Le.

• Shen Le found Little Oil Lamp grieving after electricians took down the old village transformer.
• Xiang Yang explained that the transformer was being replaced because workers could not find the fault causing the power to trip.
• Xiang Yang and Xiang Guoqing showed Shen Le how modern vehicles let the electricians replace the transformer without interrupting power, unlike the old days when workers used chain hoists and climbing spikes.
• After the electricians installed the new transformer, Shen Le thanked the old transformer and comforted Little Oil Lamp as it said goodbye to its electrical friends.
• Shen Le invited Little Oil Lamp to come home with him, promising it a mansion and two Artifact Spirit friends, and Little Oil Lamp happily agreed.