Old Ke, guardian of the Desert Tortoise Shell Camp, forged this blade from turtle-shell-shaped alloy of abandoned fortifications when a sandstorm destroyed the camp’s defenses, embedding fragments of the camp’s totem turtle shell in the hilt patterns. He threw it to pin the supply rope blown away by the wind, then used the blade’s sharpness to chisel open the sand-buried water tank—now sand from that storm still clings to the hilt’s tortoise patterns; every throw stands as steady as the camp’s old tortoise, guarding life in the desert.