Pawnshop Appraiser Apprentice

Chen Shaojun's head swam, as though a heavy hammer had smashed into it. He felt utterly miserable.

He struggled to open his eyes. In the fairly spacious room, there was only a table, upon which an oil lamp burned, casting out its light.

Beside the lamp lay an ancient jade pendant, emerald green throughout.

Where was this?

As he wondered, scattered fragments of memory abruptly surfaced in his mind.

Through those memories, he had all but confirmed that he had transmigrated.

This place

was not the Earth of his previous life, much less any dynasty from his memories.

This was the Great Zhou Dynasty, the ninety-seventh year of Shengde.

That was right. The reigning Shengde Emperor had inherited the throne at thirty-five, and had now ruled for ninety-seven years.

Moreover, there had been no word that his health was failing. No one knew how many more years he might remain seated upon the throne.

Clearly,

this was no ordinary world.

Of course, ordinary people could not truly live beyond a hundred years.

At fifty, one knew Heaven's decree; reaching sixty already counted as longevity.

The reason the Shengde Emperor could live beyond a hundred, it was said, was because... he had achieved success in cultivation.

Without question, this was a world where cultivation existed.

Demons and ghosts ran rampant; Dao and martial arts coexisted... chaos, strangeness, fiends, specters, and every kind of legend all existed in this world.

It was a golden age for the ambitious, yet a nightmare in the eyes of ordinary people.

And he was precisely an ordinary person.

One who had signed a contract of sale and become an appraiser apprentice at the Lin Family Pawnshop in Shengjing City.

What was an appraiser?

Put simply, one was an evaluator in a pawnshop, responsible for assessing the value of pawned goods and calculating the silver to be paid.

Generally speaking, becoming an apprentice appraiser at a pawnshop meant one might someday stand on one's own and become a full appraiser. That could be considered soaring to great heights.

After all, an appraiser's status in a pawnshop was not low, second only to the shopkeeper.

A truly skilled appraiser would even have the shopkeeper waiting upon him attentively, not daring to show the slightest disrespect.

However,

this world was, after all, far from ordinary.

The dead gave rise to ghosts, demons and fiends appeared one after another, and all manner of bizarre, mysterious objects could be found everywhere.

If a pawnshop appraiser assessed ordinary items, that was one thing. But if he came into contact with special objects, then without the corresponding means, his life could very easily be endangered, and he might die a violent death.

Thus, in this world, being a pawnshop appraiser was absolutely not a good profession. It was, moreover, a high-risk profession.

Chen Shaojun remembered it clearly.

Half a year ago, when he had first entered the Lin Family Pawnshop, there had been twelve appraiser apprentices like him. Now, only seven remained.

Not all of them had necessarily met with misfortune. Some might simply have pulled strings and found another way to make a living.

But it was enough to show just how perilous this line of work was.

"This world is too extraordinary, and too dangerous."

After sorting through the memories in his mind, Chen Shaojun felt cold from head to toe.

Who could have imagined that even an ordinary inanimate object could threaten one's life?

Yet in this world, such inanimate objects that could endanger lives were countless as the hairs on an ox.

If possible, he absolutely did not wish to remain here any longer.

He had to change to a safer, more reliable profession.

He believed that with the memories and knowledge from his previous life, even if he possessed nothing, surviving in this world would not be difficult. Once he had stabilized himself for a time, even if he wished to learn those legendary Daoist and martial methods, there should be plenty of ways.

However,

he carried a contract of sale signed to the Lin Family Pawnshop.

Contracts of sale in the Great Zhou Dynasty carried legal force.

The moment he dared to run away, the Lin family would immediately begin hunting him down, dead or alive.

And once they reported it to the authorities, the government would issue notices for his arrest and dispatch constables to track him down. At the same time, he would be unable to obtain household registration, forced to hide and skulk for the rest of his life.

With his abilities, even if he luckily escaped beyond the city, survival would be exceedingly difficult, much less escaping the authorities' pursuit.

Those constables all possessed martial skills.

Even the Lin family had its own household guards, each one capable of taking on ten men alone.

He did not resent his predecessor's biological father for selling him to the Lin family. His predecessor's family had been impoverished: three mu of thin farmland and five children. Had they not sent him away, at least several of them would have starved to death. Being ill at the time, he would very likely have been the first.

Sending him to the Lin family had at least given him a mouthful of food, and he had survived.

"So, for the time being, I can only stay at this Lin Family Pawnshop."

Chen Shaojun sighed. Finally returning to reality, he turned his gaze toward the green ancient jade on the table.

His face was filled with an uncertain expression.

This ancient jade was the appraisal item the pawnshop had assigned to him.

A pawnshop was a business that opened its doors to trade. Every day, it received all kinds of pawned items. Precious and special objects would naturally be handled by the pawnshop's full appraisers, while ordinary items would be distributed in turn to the appraiser apprentices.

Some had already been appraised and were used as tests; others were "raw stock"—items that had not been assessed, whose origins were unknown, and whose danger could not be determined.

Clearly, this green ancient jade was raw stock.

Thinking of how he had suddenly transmigrated and been reborn, Chen Shaojun could not help but regard this green jade with unprecedented vigilance.

He wanted to turn around and leave.

But he knew the pawnshop was no charitable hall. If he failed to complete his assignment, he would inevitably suffer the pain of cudgels and whips.

An appraiser apprentice's status was not necessarily much higher than that of the pawnshop's errand slaves.

Drawing a deep breath, Chen Shaojun carefully picked up the green ancient jade and began examining it closely.

When appraising raw stock like this, aside from the necessary observation, the most important thing was the appraiser's unique method of Spirit Sight.

So-called Spirit Sight meant observing with one's mind.

Every person possessed spiritual power. An ordinary person's spiritual power was comparatively weak and difficult to manifest.

But pawnshop appraisers could use special methods to condense their spiritual power and magnify it tenfold in an instant, thereby probing the special properties of the item they needed to assess.

Having spent half a year in the pawnshop, Chen Shaojun had naturally mastered the art of Spirit Sight as well.

Each use consumed an enormous amount of mental energy, and he needed at least several hours of rest to recover afterward.

And when he used Spirit Sight, it was also when he came into the closest contact with the item he was assessing. Naturally, it was when he was at his weakest and most vulnerable.

If the treasure he assessed contained dangerous energy, he could only endure it head-on.

Among the five appraiser apprentices from before, some had met with misfortune because of this and vanished from the pawnshop.

Chen Shaojun calmed his breathing and focused his mind. His eyes narrowed slightly, and his breath gradually steadied.

With a particular rhythm, he drove the qi and blood within his body upward toward his head.

One minute, two minutes, three minutes...

This was a process of gathering momentum, slow yet unwavering.

Whoosh!

At a certain moment, he opened his eyes wide. It was as though a beam of sharp light shot forth and sank into the green ancient jade.

One breath, two breaths, three breaths...

Chen Shaojun's face gradually turned pale, his mind weakened. Clearly, using Spirit Sight consumed a tremendous amount of energy.

Only after quite a while did he shift his gaze away and let out a long breath.

Fortunately, nothing unexpected had happened.

Just as he was celebrating inwardly, his mind suddenly went blank.

Boundless white clouds appeared before his eyes. At their edge, a towering palace seemed to emerge. Looking carefully, he realized that both the endless clouds and the majestic palace were merely reflected within an ancient, grand Eight-Sided Rhombus Mirror.

And upon the Eight-Sided Rhombus Mirror were several strange runes.

The instant he saw those runes, he understood their meaning.

Spirit-Seeking Treasure Mirror.

A new book was setting sail. I hope both new and old readers could lend it some support.

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