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Gu Jiuque did not react at first, staring blankly at the line of text before him.

Cleaning the painting core was the most basic step in restoring ancient calligraphy and paintings. The restorer had to thoroughly clean the painting core without damaging the original fiber structure or image, so as to facilitate the subsequent removal of backing and restoration.

Gu Jiuque's grandmother, Yue Jinmei, was a master restorer of calligraphy and paintings with exquisite skills. After Gu Jiuque turned one, Grandpa Gu and Grandma Gu began guiding him in all kinds of cultural relic restoration techniques. While other children played with LEGO and building blocks, Gu Jiuque played with Luban locks handcrafted by Grandpa Gu, learning to identify different materials from jade and wood under his grandfather's encouragement. While other children learned watercolor painting, Gu Jiuque was coaxed by his grandmother into using tweezers to remove backing from calligraphy and paintings with her, then learning color matching and brushwork repair with a brush in hand.

By the time he was burned to death by one of Bai Yuesheng's admirers, Gu Jiuque had accumulated more than twenty years of restoration experience. Yet when it came to restoring calligraphy and paintings, he had successfully restored fewer than twenty ancient works. Aside from the difficulty of obtaining authentic ancient works, the time and effort required to restore a single painting also limited Gu Jiuque, whose crippled legs had left him frail and weak.

Gu Jiuque had to admit that a person's time and energy were limited. In his previous life, after his family died, he had devoted all his attention to restoring the old residence and reviving Antique Appreciation Studio. Inevitably, he had neglected to study other skills in depth. Now Jade Celestial Pivot was asking whether he wanted to repeat the painting-cleaning process. Had it noticed that his skills were rusty and found his performance unsatisfactory?

But the painting core had already been cleaned. How could it possibly be washed again?

Filled with doubt, Gu Jiuque pondered for a long while before choosing "Yes."

The next second, the freshly restored painting core on the mounting table suddenly reverted to its damaged state, with the backing still attached. Gu Jiuque froze.

What was going on?

Could Jade Celestial Pivot actually turn back time?

Gu Jiuque repeatedly recalled the book he had seen before his death and confirmed that after Bai Yuesheng had snatched Jade Celestial Pivot, he had never gained any similar supernatural ability!

That "book" had clearly described how Bai Yuesheng could only judge the authenticity of antiques and cultural relics by whether his palm grew warm—even determining their specific age was beyond him. He even had to photograph antiques and ask Gu Jiuque for help. How could he possibly have activated such a mysterious ability?

Why did Jade Celestial Pivot display such an extraordinary effect in his hands?

Could the Gu family heirloom truly unleash its full power only in the hands of a Gu family member? In the hands of Bai Yuesheng, who had stolen it, had it been reduced to nothing more than a useless treasure-appraising warmth function?

Gu Jiuque took a deep breath. If his guess was true, Jade Celestial Pivot was far more powerful than he had imagined.

Gu Jiuque stared at the damaged scroll on the mounting table, restored to its original state, and could not help letting his thoughts run wild. If Jade Celestial Pivot could truly provide an endlessly resetting practice environment, did that mean he could use this ability to break free of the limits of time and materials, repeatedly practicing and studying all kinds of restoration techniques until he achieved perfection?

At the thought, a blazing light burst from Gu Jiuque's eyes. He took a deep breath, barely steadying himself before lowering his head and beginning to remove the backing once more.

This time, Gu Jiuque chose to clean the painting core using the boiling-water scalding and squeezing method!

After Gu Jiuque carefully repeated the removal of the backing and the cleaning of the painting core, the words [Repeat painting-cleaning process?] appeared before his eyes again, just as expected. A small line had been added after them: [2/10000].

Gu Jiuque's gaze fell on [2/10000]. Did Jade Celestial Pivot want him to repeat the painting-cleaning process ten thousand times in order to achieve the goal of "practice makes perfect"? He actually had the chance to practice ten thousand times! Gu Jiuque's eyes burned even brighter.

Since time could be reversed and reset anyway, Gu Jiuque simply began boldly using every technique and chemical reagent he knew to clean the painting core during the restoration process that followed. He also used instruments to test and meticulously record the comparative results of the various methods and reagents.

After repeating the process ten thousand times, Gu Jiuque had not only mastered the effects of various techniques and chemical reagents when cleaning a painting core, as well as the degree of damage they caused, but had become so proficient that he could splash boiling water directly onto the painting core with perfect precision—not one drop too many, not one drop too few.

Only then did Gu Jiuque enter the next stage in complete satisfaction.

Thus, with Jade Celestial Pivot repeatedly resetting everything, Gu Jiuque tirelessly repeated the restoration steps another ten thousand times: removing the backing, filling in the painting-core paper, edge lining, first backing, color matching, brushwork repair, and more.

Who knew how much time had passed when Gu Jiuque felt a sudden heat between his brows. His eyes flew open, and he still saw the damaged Willow-Branch Guanyin Portrait on the mounting table. Yet Gu Jiuque had no time to marvel at Jade Celestial Pivot's unfathomable ability. To his astonishment, the sky outside had somehow turned completely black, and a blaze of fire shot into the night.

Without a second thought, Gu Jiuque rushed out of the mounting room and sprinted through the corridor with its leaking windows toward the central courtyard. Flames soared into the sky, and the Western Wing where he lived had already been swallowed by a sea of fire. The blaze was gradually spreading, showing faint signs of reaching the surrounding area. The nightmare-like scene instantly brought Gu Jiuque back to the moments before his death.

But this time, Gu Jiuque could move freely. He did not have to lie on the ground and wait to die.

Gu Jiuque abruptly came back to himself and took out his phone to report the fire.

The area where the Gu family lived was filled with ancient buildings dating back to the Ming and Qing dynasties. To effectively prevent fires, the fire department had specially built a small fire station less than five kilometers from this residential district, ensuring response times of no more than five minutes.

In his previous life, if Gu Jiuque had not been struck on the head by a falling doorframe and knocked unconscious while fleeing the fire, the best time to put out the blaze would not have been delayed.

As for this life, he had just checked for fire hazards and had even specifically sent Bai Yuesheng out of the residence, yet he had still been unable to prevent this fire...

Gu Jiuque's gaze sharpened. But this was not the time to think things through. He put away his phone and turned to run outside. Suddenly, the sound of shattering glass came from behind him.

Gu Jiuque halted and turned to look toward the Western Wing.