Immortality: Starting with a grave, I'm invincible when burying corpses.

Two more years have passed in a row.

In the past six months, Mu An has added a lot of things behind the counter.

An elderly man, in order to prevent his youngest son from being taken to the battlefield to die, tearfully mortgaged the land deed that had been passed down for generations.

An old scholar who had studied all his life mortgaged his worn-out books just to raise money for his students' travel expenses to the capital for the imperial examinations.

A weary traveler, in order to pay for his father's medical treatment, was willing to pawn his entire future to a pawnshop.

A young merchant was tricked, and his caravan suffered heavy losses. He had to pawn his family heirlooms to get money to help his family through the crisis.

Some women who had recently become mothers pawned all their jewelry and secretly redeemed the merchant's family heirloom.

The merchant and the woman argued incessantly in the pawnshop, but their eyes welled up with tears as they left.

……

People who need money always have various reasons, and the items they pawn are also diverse.

Mu An saw all of this.

When Jiang Yunzhi and his associates were doing business, Mu An would occasionally take a second look, and if the mood struck him, he would slightly increase the amount of the collateral.

After the first price increase, Mu An simply handed over the task of assessing the value to Jiang Yunzhi, letting the young man decide how much to give.

The boy is better suited to make the decision than Mu An herself.

In Mu An's eyes, the stories behind each of these collectibles are far more meaningful than the small amount of money they contain.

After more than two years, he had come to understand why Mu Ling'er had left him with such a difficult problem in this small town.

Doctors, farmers, carpenters, musicians, painters, shopkeepers, pawnbrokers...

This is a gradual process, designed to slowly cultivate Mu An's desire to continue playing the game.

This was an open-ended approach, but Mu An only truly understood it in recent years and chose to cooperate proactively.

Mu An still doesn't take the initiative to communicate with guests, but sometimes he will ask Jiang Yunzhi to tell him the guests' stories after they leave, no longer as indifferent as he used to be.

Two years have passed, and the boy still holds Mu An in awe, and still won't take the initiative to fight for himself.

For the past two years, Jiang Yunzhi has never asked Mu An about his cultivation, and he has been studying on his own every day.

Even when faced with one obstacle after another, one problem after another, he would figure it out on his own, preferring to make mistakes during his cultivation rather than disturb Mu An.

But Jiang Yunzhi would always carry out whatever Mu An asked him to do with utmost seriousness.

It seemed that in the boy's eyes, taking the initiative to strive was a very shameful thing, while Mu An's instructions were extremely sacred, requiring him to do his best to complete them.

Aside from his work at the pawnshop, Jiang Yunzhi made the most of his time.

He even reads while eating, and his rest time is getting shorter and shorter.

"Why sleep so much before death, when you'll sleep forever after?" became a phrase that Jiang Yunzhi often said.

Only through hard work can we secure a future; only through struggle can we achieve our goals.

All the effort and exhaustion are the only way to success.

The diligent young man never complained of being tired. Even if he practiced martial arts until late at night the day before, he would force himself to be energetic the next day and do his best in everything.

As a teenager, he found that he was more efficient when he was putting pressure on himself.

The visible results relentlessly pressured the young man, forcing him to push his limits time and time again.

I practiced longer, slept later, and used every available moment to constantly push myself to the limit.

Lin Yu did not notice the problem with her child, only thinking that her child was an outstanding person who had inherited the excellent bloodline of her and her husband, and was destined to achieve even greater success than his father in the future.

Jiang Yunzhi's achievements made Lin Yu forget that her child had been frail and sickly. A few years ago, her only hope was that her child could live a peaceful and safe life.

Lin Yu now wants more and more. She still cares about Jiang Yunzhi, but without even realizing it, she puts more pressure on him.

Day after day, week after week, the tension in my heart is always high, and fatigue accumulates little by little in this process.

Unbeknownst to him, a strand of silvery-white hair appeared in the boy's hair, a fact he himself had not noticed.

Mu An saw this but did not say anything to stop it.

Unless you're a genius like him, it's not advisable to start practicing martial arts too early, let alone overdo it.

He had mentioned this issue before, and since Jiang Yunzhi wouldn't listen, he would have to bear the consequences himself.

Aside from Mu Ling'er, Mu An has little patience for anyone else, and he certainly won't correct problems over and over again.

……

In the peaceful days, time passed little by little, and as Jiang Yunzhi grew up, he naturally assumed that this kind of life would continue indefinitely.

Until one summer night, a middle-aged man dressed in brocade robes and several armored soldiers broke into his house and took his mother away in front of him.

Jiang Yunzhi charged forward, fists waving, only to be stomped to the ground. Despite his best efforts, he couldn't get a second glance from the middle-aged man and could only rage helplessly like a stray dog ​​at the village entrance.

As his cheeks were stomped into the mud, Jiang Yunzhi heard the middle-aged man's indifferent words.

"You bastard! My Lin family has no place for a lowly scum like you!"

I also heard my mother's desperate pleas.

"Brother, it's all my fault. It has nothing to do with the child. Please, please let him go..."

On that day, the boy should have died in a pool of blood.

But because of his mother's desperate pleas, the boy ultimately survived.

The next morning, the bruised and battered boy stumbled into the pawnshop and knelt before Mu An.

When the boy finished recounting his experiences with a heart full of anger and begged Mu An to help him rescue his mother, Mu An merely glanced at him, her tone indifferent.

"This is your business, what does it have to do with me? Since the person is not dead, go and save them yourself."

The boy kneeling on the ground was stunned for a long time, his bloodshot eyes staring blankly at Mu An.

After a very long time, he finally slammed his head hard onto the ground.

"Sir, if I want to save my mother, to what extent do I need to train in martial arts?"

Mu An remained indifferent, but pulled a cultivation manual from the drawer and tossed it to Jiang Yunzhi.

This is the next stage of the cultivation technique that Jiang Yunzhi is currently practicing.

"You'll be fine once you've mastered it all."

After the boy held the martial arts manual on the ground with both hands, Mu An added another sentence.

"When you go, you can temporarily use my name."

The boy on the ground didn't know the meaning of those words; all he could think about was how to save his mother.

Looking at the familiar sequel to the martial arts manual in his hand, Jiang Yunzhi felt that it was all useless.

He looked at Mu An with his forehead covered in blood.

"My lord, is there a faster cultivation method? This one is just too slow to master."

Mu An paused for a moment, then met the boy's eyes.

The boy's eyes were bloodshot, and beneath his burning rage lay an unwavering resolve.

After a few breaths, Mu An took out a cultivation manual from his sleeve and threw it on the ground.

"If you practice this technique, you won't live past forty. The choice is yours."

The kneeling boy grabbed the cultivation manual from the ground and kowtowed three times to Mu An.

"Without my mother, there would be no Yunzhi today. Forty years is not a short time; it's enough for Yunzhi to accompany my mother to the very end..."

The room was quiet for a long time, then Mu An spoke again amidst the dripping sound of blood.

"You still need to continue working at the store. If you have any questions in the future, just ask me."