Pawnshop Appraiser Apprentice

Appraiser Apprentice

Chen Shaojun's head felt dizzy and heavy, as though he had been struck with a sledgehammer, making it thoroughly agonizing.

He opened his eyes with difficulty. In the reasonably spacious room, there was only a table, and upon it, an oil lamp burned, casting a faint glow.

Beside the oil lamp lay a jade piece of a deep cyan color throughout.

Where was this?

While he was still wondering, fragments of memories abruptly surfaced in his mind.

Through the memories in his mind, he had all but confirmed that he had transmigrated.

Here.

This was neither the Earth of his past life nor 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 the age of thirty-five, and had now been in power for ninety-seven years.

Moreover, there had been no word of him suffering from any ailments, nor did anyone know how many more years he would remain upon the dragon throne.

It was obvious.

This was not an ordinary world.

Naturally, ordinary commoners could not truly live past a hundred years of age.

At fifty one knew the mandate of heaven, and sixty was already considered longevity.

The reason the Shengde Emperor was able to live past a hundred years was said to be because... he had achieved success in cultivation.

There was no doubt that this was a world capable of cultivation.

Demon ghosts ran amok, Dao and martial arts coexisted... Chaos, strangeness, fiends, spirits, and all manner of legends existed together in this world.

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

As for him, he was merely an ordinary person.

An indentured apprentice who had signed a bond of servitude, becoming an appraiser apprentice within the Lin Family Pawnshop of Shengjing City.

What was an appraiser?

To put it in common terms, they were actually the evaluators in pawnshops who appraised the value of pawned items and calculated the silver.

Generally speaking, being able to become an appraiser apprentice in a pawnshop meant one had the potential to stand alone as a formal appraiser in the future, which could be considered a meteoric rise to success.

After all, within a pawnshop, the status of an appraiser was not low, second only to the shopkeeper.

A skilled appraiser was someone even the shopkeeper had to wait upon carefully and treat with utmost respect.

Only.

After all, this world was unusual.

The dead gave birth to ghosts, demons and fiends emerged frequently, and all kinds of bizarre and occult objects were to be found everywhere.

As for pawnshop appraisers, it would be fine if they appraised ordinary items, but once they came into contact with those special objects, the slightest lack of corresponding methods could easily endanger their lives and send them straight to the netherworld.

Therefore, in this world, being a pawnshop appraiser was definitely not a good profession, but rather a high-risk one.

Chen Shaojun remembered very clearly.

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

While not all of them had necessarily met with misfortune, with some perhaps simply pulling strings to seek alternative paths of survival,

it was enough to show just how perilous this trade was.

This world is far too unusual, and far too dangerous.

Finishing sorting through the memories in his mind, Chen Shaojun felt a chill run through his entire body.

Who could have imagined that an ordinary dead object could also endanger a life?

And in this world, dead objects capable of threatening lives were countless.

If it were possible, he was utterly unwilling to stay here a moment longer.

He was bound to find a safer and more reliable profession.

He believed that with the memories and knowledge of his past life, even with nothing to his name, it would not be difficult to survive in this world. After stabilizing for a period of time, even if he wanted to learn those legendary Dao and martial arts methods, there ought to be plenty of ways to do so.

Only.

Upon his person, however, was a deed of servitude signed away to the Lin Family Pawnshop.

A bond of servitude in the Great Zhou Dynasty carried genuine legal validity.

Once he dared to run away, the Lin Family would immediately launch a pursuit, with orders to kill regardless of whether he was captured dead or alive.

Furthermore, once the authorities were notified, the yamen would also issue warrants to capture him, dispatching constables to track him down. At the same time, he would be unable to obtain household registration, and could only live in hiding for the rest of his life.

Given his capabilities, even if he managed to escape outside the city by sheer luck, it would be extremely difficult to survive, let alone completely evade the pursuit of the government.

Those constables were all men skilled in martial arts.

Even the Lin Family possessed their own retainers and guards, every single one of whom was a man capable of taking on ten.

He didn't resent his biological father from his past life for selling him to the Lin Family. His family of origin had been impoverished, with three tiny strips of poor land and five children. If they hadn't sent him away, at least a couple of them would have starved to death, and given that he had been ill at the time, he would likely have been the first.

Sending him to the Lin Family meant he at least had a mouthful of food, and furthermore, he had survived.

Therefore, for the short term, I can only stay here within the Lin Clan Pawnshop first.

Chen Shaojun sighed, finally returning to reality as he directed his gaze toward the cyan ancient jade upon the table.

His face was filled with an expression of shifting uncertainty.

This piece of ancient jade was an item assigned to him by the pawnshop for appraisal.

A pawnshop was a place that opened its doors to do business, taking in various items pawned and collected every day. Naturally, precious and special objects among them would be handled by the formal appraisers within the pawnshop, while some ordinary items would be distributed in turn to the appraiser apprentices.

Some of these had already been appraised and served as tests, while others were 'raw goods'—meaning items that had not yet been verified, whose origins were unknown and whose danger levels were undetermined.

Obvious to anyone, this piece of cyan ancient jade was precisely a piece of 'raw goods'.

Pondering his sudden transmigration and rebirth, Chen Shaojun could not help but harbor unprecedented vigilance toward this piece of cyan jade.

He had the mind to turn around and leave right then and there.

Yet he knew that a pawnshop was no charitable institution; once he failed to complete the task assigned to him, he would inevitably suffer the punishment of floggings and whip lashes.

The status of an appraiser apprentice was hardly any higher than that of the menial servants and slaves within the pawnshop.

Taking a deep breath, Chen Shaojun carefully picked up the cyan ancient jade and began to observe it closely.

When appraising such 'raw goods', apart from necessary observation, the most crucial thing was the unique 'Spirit Sight' method belonging to appraisers.

The so-called 'Spirit Sight' meant observing with spiritual power.

Everyone possessed the power of the spirit within them, though the spiritual power of ordinary people was relatively weak and difficult to manifest.

Pawnshop appraisers, however, could use special methods to condense their spiritual power, instantly expanding it tenfold so as to probe the special attributes of the item needing appraisal.

Having been in the pawnshop for half a year, Chen Shaojun had naturally mastered this Divine Gaze Technique.

Every time he executed it, it consumed a tremendous amount of spiritual power, requiring at least several hours of rest before he could recover.

Moreover, when executing the Divine Gaze Technique, it was also the time when he was in closest contact with the item being appraised—and naturally, the time when he was at his weakest and most dangerous.

Once the treasured artifact being appraised contained dangerous spiritual Qi, he could only endure it head-on.

Among the previous five appraiser apprentices, some had met with misfortune precisely because of this, vanishing from the pawnshop altogether.

Chen Shaojun gathered his thoughts and concentrated his mind, narrowing his eyes as his breathing leveled out.

With a special rhythm, he guided the vital energy and blood within his body to surge upward toward his head.

One minute, two minutes, three minutes...

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

Swish!

At a certain moment, he opened his eyes wide, as if a sharp ray of light had burst forth, plunging straight into that cyan ancient jade.

One breath, two breaths, three breaths...

Chen Shaojun's complexion gradually grew pale and his spirit wilted, making it plain that executing the Divine Gaze Technique consumed a massive amount of energy.

After quite a while, he finally pulled his gaze away and let out a long breath.

Fortunately, nothing untoward had happened.

Just as he was feeling a sense of fortune, his mind underwent a brief spell of dizziness and haze.

Before his eyes floated boundless white clouds, and at the edge of those white clouds, a towering palace unexpectedly appeared. Looking closely, whether it was those boundless white clouds or the towering palace, both turned out to be merely reflected within a primitive and imposing Eight-Sided Rhombus Mirror.

And upon this Eight-Sided Rhombus Mirror, several eerie runes were inscribed.

The moment he laid eyes on those runes, he understood their meaning.

Spirit-Seeking Treasure Mirror.

The new book sets sail, and I hope new and old readers will show their support.