"Mu An Xiao is still alive," the man in green said, turning to look at Shi Yi.
Shi Yi's eyes widened. "Are you telling the truth?"
"Why would I lie to you? I came to tell you this because I calculated that it has been ten days in heaven and ten years on earth. Mu An Xiao has become Zhang Yan's disciple. If I'm not mistaken, she should be able to conjure magical artifacts by now."
"Then how does he know?" Shi Yi asked.
The man in green took a deep breath. "My senior brother can sense whatever he wants to know. Ten years ago, there were two hundred and forty-nine demon souls appearing in the mortal realm. But... in these ten years, twenty of them have been subdued. And that spell is a spell from the immortal books. Senior brother naturally sensed it."
"Who possesses the immortal book?" Shi Yi asked.
The man in green chuckled. "Who else but Mu An Xiao!"
The moment the man in green spoke Mu An Xiao's name, Shi Yi's heart began to stir. "I'm going."
"You can't. For the past ten long days, you've been lazing around every day. Your demonic energy hasn't been filtered, and your immortal energy hasn't grown. Coupled with your subpar spells, you'll die before you even get there."
"I..."
"You are different from senior brother. Stay here and behave. Master wants tea, go prepare it."
"..."
The man in green reached out and patted Shi Yi's shoulder, then turned and walked away.
Shi Yi frowned slightly, recalling the bearded face and excited demeanor from ten long days ago when the wind began to stir, and thinking of his own decadent state. Shi Yi reluctantly accepted reality.
In the mortal realm, Mu An Xiao wandered alone through the streets. No one who saw her didn't dodge.
Mu An Xiao helplessly scanned the dodging pedestrians, letting out a soft hum. "People, how truly realistic. Back then, when I opened my tavern, everyone owed me money on credit, promising to pay it back. But in the end, no one paid me, and they even lectured me. Now... I've become a beggar, and no one is willing to give me alms; they all dodge me on sight. People, so realistic."
After ten years in the mortal realm, Mu An Xiao had truly seen through people's hearts.
This time, she would consider it a good deed, having been deceived by a bunch of scoundrels whose consciences had been eaten by dogs.
"Yo, isn't this Boss Mu? How did you end up like this?"
Hearing this, Mu An Xiao looked up at Boss Wang, Wang Gui, her nemesis for the past nine years.
"..."
"I'm asking you a question. Didn't you used to work as a general laborer in some shop not long ago? How did you end up a beggar now?" Wang Gui said, glancing down at Mu An Xiao's tattered bowl. "Tsk tsk tsk, no money."
"Wang Gui, what exactly do you want to say?" Mu An Xiao asked in a hoarse voice.
"Are you really a woman?" Wang Gui suddenly asked.
"..."
Mu An Xiao didn't want to reply to this, because it was precisely due to her gender that she had fallen to this state.
Speaking of this matter, it was all thanks to Piao. If he hadn't mentioned that Mu An Xiao was a woman, none of this would have happened.
The story went like this: Initially, Mu An Xiao went to Piao to reason with him about this matter. Piao immediately took her back to the inn and said in front of everyone, "Alright, you claim to be a man, then prove it to us now!"
Prove it, how could she prove it? Of course, by proving herself in front of everyone.
At that moment, Mu An Xiao was embarrassed. But considering that the city she lived in was a patriarchal place, she couldn't truly prove herself. Thus, in her helplessness, she said, "I'll use my tavern to prove I'm a man."
After this statement, Mu An Xiao's tavern went out of business, and everyone believed Mu An Xiao. But who would have thought that now, with Wang Gui's question, Mu An Xiao was speechless.
"Why aren't you speaking?" Wang Gui asked.
Mu An Xiao replied, "If I had opened for another year, this street would still have you."
"Since you're a man, you could have just proven it on the spot. Using the inn to prove yourself is truly childish."
"Now I ask you to prove yourself in front of everyone in a way that involves peeling off skin, would you be willing?" Mu An Xiao interrupted.
Wang Gui: "....."
"I've been competing with you for nine years. Don't you know what kind of person I am?" Mu An Xiao retorted.
Wang Gui said weakly, "You are a reserved man."
"Good that you know," Mu An Xiao said, glaring at Wang Gui before walking away.
Wang Gui froze in place.
For the past year, Mu An Xiao had avoided Wang Gui out of self-consciousness. After saying this, her mood greatly improved.
However, before her mood could lift for long, Mu An Xiao heard people nearby discussing her again.
Consequently, she stopped and glanced at a few people standing there pointing at her. She deliberately said, "Wang Moumou owes me five taels of silver, Liu Moumou owes me ten taels of silver, Zhang Moumou owes me ten taels of silver, and Yuan Moumou owes me fifteen taels of silver."
The moment Mu An Xiao said this, those people scattered and fled.
Mu An Xiao let out a soft hum, looked down at the tattered bowl in her hand, then looked up at the sky and said, "After ten years, twenty demon souls, and not even one tael of silver in reward money. It seems it's time to find him."
The "him" Mu An Xiao was referring to at this moment was Zhang Yan. Speaking of Zhang Yan, he was quite a scammer. The day after Mu An Xiao's tavern went out of business, he descended to the mortal realm to find Mu An Xiao. Mu An Xiao thought he had come to help her, but who would have thought he would say, "It's time to pay tuition."
Therefore, Mu An Xiao gave him all the silver she had.
Afterward, Mu An Xiao could only rely on working to make a living. Unexpectedly, the boss of the shop where she went to work was an even bigger swindler. She worked herself to death for a month and only earned three taels of silver. Upon receiving the money, she quit on the spot.
Just like that, she became a complete pauper.
So, thinking of these things made her angry. Thinking of Zhang Yan made her even angrier. A month later, she captured three demon souls and went to submit them happily. But who would have thought that Zhang Yan would tell her that he couldn't collect because she had no silver, and his reason was quite valid. He said those were demon souls she had captured before, and she had already received money for them at that time, so now it was equivalent to... what... after-sales service.
That day, she realized... all the more than ten demon souls she had captured before were for nothing. That tuition fee was all from the money she had from her tavern.
Before her tavern went out of business, she had always been grateful to Zhang Yan for helping her open it. It was only a year ago that she found out... the shop she had rented for nine years was the most expensive shop there. And the rent money Zhang Yan had advanced for her earlier would still have to be repaid.
This meant that now, besides tuition, Mu An Xiao still owed Zhang Yan a lot of money.
When Mu An Xiao heard Zhang Yan say that, her heart collapsed.
Originally, she thought of earning some money, then buying some decent clothes to go and collect debts, and first repaying Zhang Yan's money. But who would have thought that after leaving the shop, when Mu An Xiao went to ask for her money, the money she had lent out had become bad debts, and the debtors simply didn't admit it. But this was also her fault for being foolish and not getting IOUs back then.