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

Perhaps it was because he was worried about his mother, or perhaps it was because his mind wasn't on the pawnshop business.

The smile that used to grace Jiang Yunzhi's face was gone, replaced by a cold expression, and his attitude towards the guests was no longer as warm as before.

Because he was spending more time practicing martial arts, Jiang Yunzhi spent less and less time in the pawnshop.

With these changes, the pawnshop's business has deteriorated significantly. Fewer and fewer people come to the shop to pawn items, and it often takes one or two months to close a single deal.

Mu An didn't say much about any of this and continued to do her own thing every day.

Over time, the cabinet behind him has been mostly filled, and there are only twelve items left to reach his goal of ninety-nine items.

So much time has passed, it's okay to take it a little slower.

……

Unlike his previous cautious and timid demeanor, Jiang Yunzhi now seizes every opportunity to accelerate his cultivation.

He would ask Mu An for advice on any problem he had, hoping to break through the bottleneck as quickly as possible.

Mu An did not agree with Jiang Yunzhi's current performance, but when Jiang Yunzhi asked him for advice, he would not hesitate to offer a word or two of guidance.

Driven by anger and eagerness to save his mother, Jiang Yunzhi's cultivation progressed rapidly.

Correspondingly, his life was passing away at an extremely rapid pace; the faster he cultivated, the weaker his body became.

By the age of twelve, half of Jiang Yunzhi's black hair had turned white.

The martial arts manual that Mu An gave to Jiang Yunzhi was not a legendary martial arts manual circulating in the martial arts world, but a classic text compiled by Mu An himself. Strictly speaking, this manual could only be considered an experiment.

The core of this technique is to overdraw one's future in exchange for rapid growth.

In the Nine Realms, innate talent and comprehension are issues that every cultivator must face.

Diligence can make up for lack of talent; this is certainly a wise saying.

For ordinary people, diligence is essential to changing their destiny and achieving upward social mobility.

However, in the Nine Realms where individual power can change the world, the opportunities left for ordinary people are actually very few.

All the ordinary people can do, no matter how hard they try, is to keep moving closer to the limit that was set by heaven and earth at the moment of their birth.

For these ordinary people, the limit they pursue throughout their lives may only be the starting point for those geniuses.

Fate can be great or small, ranging from escaping poverty and living a life of plenty to attaining immortality and sitting on the throne of a king.

In the Nine Realms, the fate of the minor is easily changed, but the fate of the major is almost impossible to change.

What can truly change a person's destiny, besides the natural talents bestowed by heaven, is encountering a benefactor.

The encounter between Mu Ling'er and Mu An is the best example.

Unfortunately, even someone as powerful as Mu An cannot perfectly change a person's aptitude at present.

Or rather, he cannot reshape a person's fundamental nature and understanding without altering their soul and body.

Because it was impossible to achieve this, Mu An chose to have Mu Ling'er ascend to godhood in order to circumvent these restrictions.

The martial arts technique that Jiang Yunzhi is practicing is also a product of this process.

……

And so another year has passed.

When a person has a goal that they are willing to achieve at all costs, they become a madman in the eyes of many.

Because of extreme behavior, because of overly radical thinking, because of difficulty controlling one's emotions, because of actions that no longer fit in with the group...

For the vast majority of ordinary people, in order to protect themselves and avoid trouble, they will actively stay away from this type of person.

As time went by, "Pawnshop No. 9" once again became a place that the people of the city avoided.

The once enthusiastic shop assistant became known as a madman in the eyes of the neighbors, and the pawnshop became deserted, with no locals coming to pawn their goods anymore.

Because Jiang Yunzhi became increasingly bad at communicating with people, Mu An had to step forward and try to communicate with the guests herself.

Although progress has been slow, it is much better than it was at the beginning.

Following Jiang Yunzhi's example, Mu An is gradually learning how to communicate with ordinary people again.

With just a few more words, without using a commanding tone, Mu An can chat with people.

Occasionally, you might encounter one or two out-of-town customers who urgently need money, and you might be able to close one or two deals.

At the age of thirteen, Jiang Yunzhi broke through to the Innate Realm amidst a flurry of snowflakes, his gray hair dancing in the air.

At this moment, there were only two empty spaces left in the cabinet behind Mu An.

……

Winter goes and spring comes.

As the spring breeze swept through the streets and peach blossoms bloomed all over the mountains, Mu An placed a gold hairpin into the last cabinet.

The letter from Mu Ling'er arrived as scheduled, and Mu An packed his things, preparing to leave the small town where he had stayed for so long.

Just like before in Shuzhou City, Mu An left a letter and gave the pawnshop to Jiang Yunzhi.

The difference this time was that when Mu An reached the city gate, Jiang Yunzhi chased after him.

The white-haired boy knelt on the ground and kowtowed nine times in a row.

"I humbly request that you allow me to continue serving you, my lord."

Looking at the boy kneeling on the ground, Mu An did not grant his request.

But when Jiang Yunzhi cautiously followed behind him, he did not say anything to stop him.

Jiang Yunzhi can go wherever he wants, as long as he doesn't cause trouble for Mu An, Mu An won't interfere.

……

In the twenty-first year since Mu Ling'er ran away from home, Mu An followed the clues she left behind, left the territory of Southern Xinjiang, and arrived at a county town controlled by rebel forces.

In the present-day Apocalypse Domain, outside the areas covered by the five major powers, there are numerous rebellious forces of all sizes.

Whether it was a peasant uprising, a rebellion in the prefecture, a local strongman, or a band of mountain bandits...

Mu An's destination, Yu City, is located in what was formerly Huangzhou.

Due to years of war, there are now more than forty rebel groups of varying sizes in Huangzhou, while Yucheng is controlled by a sect called Huoyumen.

As the largest rebel force in Huangzhou, the Fire Feather Sect controls six prefectures and has as many as thirty counties under its jurisdiction, showing a tendency to subdue the entire Huangzhou.

Feather City was the foundation of their power, and it was relatively stable overall, so they didn't have to face the attacks of other rebels every day.

These details were not obtained by Mu An, but rather by Jiang Yunzhi after he had taken a walk around the city.

Perhaps because he has realized that it would be difficult to save his mother by relying on his own strength, Jiang Yunzhi is now consciously collecting intelligence and trying to learn as much useful information as possible.

The distribution of power in Yucheng and Huangzhou was very important intelligence in Jiang Yunzhi's eyes.

After clarifying the general outline, Jiang Yunzhi immediately reported the information he had gathered to Mu An.

Fourteen-year-old Jiang Yunzhi was in a hurry, eager to show himself and prove that he was not a useless burden.

After arriving at a shop in Yucheng, Mu An changed his previous approach and no longer allowed Jiang Yunzhi to help with buying and selling goods, only permitting him to clean the shop and do tidying up.

If Mu An hadn't continued to answer his questions about cultivation, Jiang Yunzhi would have even thought that his previous unauthorized actions had angered Mu An.

Jiang Yunzhi had no idea what had happened, nor did he know what kind of game was going on between Mu An and Mu Ling'er.

But he knew in his heart that in the eyes of truly important people, he was still just a stray dog ​​on the roadside that could be crushed at will.

His roars, his anger... were nothing more than a performance on a stage in the eyes of those people, something to laugh at during their leisure time.

His only hope was the mysterious Mu An.

Jiang Yunzhi is now willing to pay any price to seize this only opportunity.

He had to be useful to Mu An.

The boy had nothing but passion.

The young man now understands that no matter how passionate he is, he can't put food on the table. After the passion fades, he still has to face reality. To save his mother, he must have enough power.