Intangible Heritage Restoration: My Chisel Can Slay Gods

Lin Mo is a struggling inheritor of intangible cultural heritage who looks after the century-old woodcarving workshop passed down by his grandfather. Buried in debt and facing demolition, he awakens the Civilization Restoration System in his darkest hour. The System grants him the ability to use traditional crafts to restore artifacts steeped in historical resentment, and guides him toward uncovering the shocking secret of the late Qing “Artisans’ Burial Case.” Back then, countless master craftsmen were forced to be buried alive with the dead, and their resentment clung to the artifacts they left behind. Now, a mysterious organization called “Ink Shadow” covets the power within those artifacts, intent on claiming it for themselves and overturning the legacy of traditional craftsmanship.

To protect his grandfather’s workshop and carry on the heritage of traditional crafts, Lin Mo uses the System and wields his carving knife as a blade and intangible cultural heritage as a shield. Starting with the restoration of a wooden carving of the “Immortals of Harmony and Union,” he gradually unlocks such techniques as paper-cutting that opens a path to the spirit world, guqin melodies that pacify souls, mortise-and-tenon defenses, and celadon that breaks formations. Along the way, he meets Su Qingyan, a meticulous and clever expert from the cultural relics bureau who becomes his ally, and the two work together to investigate the case. He also faces Zhao Hanshan, leader of Ink Shadow and his sworn enemy. Once an inheritor of traditional crafts himself, Zhao is a ruthless man who took the wrong path and began plundering artifacts because of a family vendetta.

Thanks to the System’s information advantage, Lin Mo repeatedly turns the tables. He uses traditional crafts to foil Ink Shadow’s pursuit and suppress the malevolent forces within the artifacts, while also facing skepticism and contempt toward intangible cultural heritage. From a young craftsman who only wanted to save his workshop, he gradually becomes a guardian shouldering the legacy of traditional crafts. In the end, he uncovers the full truth behind the Artisans’ Burial Case and foils Ink Shadow’s plot, allowing traditional crafts to shine anew in the modern era.