I've never felt happy to become an immortal.

Chapter 43 Chinese Romance, Four Tests on the List

The reason why Bai Xuan wanted to bring Lin Jiaolu with him was not only because of the habit of "I've already saved him, so I might as well send him off to the west", but also because he had his eyes on Lin Jiaolu's wallet.

At this time, it cannot be said that he was penniless, but he was clean-handed.

The dry food that had been bought earlier was smashed together with the carriage and left in Chouyun Mountain.

On the way back, the mountain spider took him away and dropped his only remaining purse.

Although there wasn't much silver left, it was still enough for the journey.

If you don't have money and can't buy food, you can go hunting. At worst, you can just survive in the wilderness. It's not too difficult for Bai Xuan. Sword-wielding skills can kill people, so naturally, you can also kill small animals. It's not difficult to hunt field mice, fish, etc.

When the famous sword becomes fully spiritual in the future, he will just point to the kitchen and say: Go cook two dishes for me!

The current problem is the coffin. It cannot be carried by one person alone. It must be transported by a means of transportation, at least a donkey cart.

When Bai Xuan got up this morning and checked while cleaning, he found that the bag Lin Jiaolu was carrying was in very good condition and of very high quality. There were seven or eight kinds of medicine bottles and several large-denomination silver bills in it.

With her around, I don't have to worry about money.

Moreover, the forest banana deer has a pretty face and outstanding temperament. If it just stands on the side of the road and gives a thumbs up, maybe a kind passerby will agree to give it a ride.

That's what happened in FF7. Two grown men held up a sign but no one paid attention, so Tifa and Aerith stepped in, and immediately a kind-hearted transport driver came to help.

In fact, it was proved that Bai Xuan's guess was correct.

We met a caravan on the way.

At first, the other party did not want to take the two people with them, especially since there was a coffin, which was a bit unlucky for a businessman.

It was all thanks to Lin Jiaolu's act of pity, who lied that the two were brother and sister and were taking their father to live with relatives. This aroused the sadness and sympathy of the caravan's owner, who then specially freed up a carriage to transport the coffin.

Bai Xuan was sitting in the carriage at the back. He could see Lin Jiaolu was like a little lark. He could make the proprietress smile with just a few words. His social skills were really good.

Family education in the feudal era is different from what modern people understand as family education.

Modern people are educated in the philosophy that everyone is equal, while in the feudal era, family education was based on the idea that the head is determined by the butt. Even if a daughter in a high position has a good temper, she would never try to please a maid, let alone be too polite to merchants.

Lin Jiaolu's performance at this time broke this stereotype to some extent. She seemed to have finally found her familiar comfort zone. She communicated fluently, even with a certain smoothness that was flawless.

Half an hour later, she returned to the carriage with the cakes and herbal tea she had received from the proprietress and the people around her.

"Try some mung bean-filled pastries... This caravan can just take us to the county ahead. Seeing how anxious we are, they said they won't rest on the way."

"Amazing." Bai Xuan said honestly, "With your communication skills, if you were in the business world, you'd be worth tens of millions."

Lin Jiaolu took a bite of the pastry and chuckled, "I used to really want to learn how to do business. When I was a kid, there were always many merchants coming to our house to sell all kinds of goods. They had all kinds of interesting things in their hands, so I told my mother that I wanted to go into business."

"You want it now?"

"I sometimes think about going to many places, seeing many new things, bringing good things from my hometown to other places, and bringing good things from other places back to my hometown." Lin Jiaolu slowly talked about his childhood dream.

Bai Xuan leaned against the car, picked up a piece of cake, and said slowly, "This dream is quite down-to-earth. It's much more practical than becoming a scientist or an astronaut."

"What about you? What's your dream?" Lin Jiaolu asked. She wanted to know more about the person in front of her.

"my dream?"

My previous dreams were naturally some Chinese-style romance.

"How can I care for my family if the Xiongnu are not yet destroyed?", "Dedicate myself to the cause until my death.", "The Imperial Guards bow their heads, and the emperor steps down.", "Reform the system, introduce new ideas.", "Success may not be mine, but I must be part of it.", "My sins are in this life, my achievements will be remembered for generations to come.", "My name will live in history, or my infamy will endure forever."

Among them, the extremely exaggerated "One Sword Frosts Fourteen States" was achieved in the previous life.

Although it is still a little distance away from the ultimate in Bai Xuan's mind... it is only a small step away from 'holding the sun and the moon and picking the stars', 'crossing the long river of time, and traveling across the universe with the flesh', 'even holding up the original imperial city with one hand...'

That is not something that can be achieved overnight. It is a dream, but it is slowly getting closer.

Bai Xuan shook his head and said, "Too many of them have already come true. I need to think about my next dream first."

It’s more of a goal than a dream.

In every life, you should set a small goal and then move towards the short-term goal. This way you will be more motivated to live.

If you set a long-term goal that is too far ahead at once, you will start to give up because you see no hope for the time being. You may even get so bored that you delete your character and start a new account because the idle period is too long.

After Lin Jiaolu asked this casually, Bai Xuan finally realized that he had gone to the capital... and then, what should he do after that?
He hasn't thought about it yet.

So far, I have been just going with the flow.

Never mind, I'll just keep doing it for one day. Don't I still have to collect the six roots slowly?
Bai Xuan didn't say anything else, just sat in the carriage and hummed a little tune.

In his hundreds of lifetimes of travel, there were several skills that he had never mastered, one of which was singing.

But the worse he is, the more he likes to play, and he can't help humming when he is bored.

Lin Jiaolu couldn't find a suitable topic for a while, so she just sat in the carriage, looking at the scenery with him, and listening to the tuneless and intermittent humming beside her...

She suddenly felt that these flowers and plants that she had been tired of seeing in the past... didn't seem bad?

Boys and girls are supposed to be lively and active by nature.

At this time, the two of them sat quietly, with a unique sense of tranquility flowing.

……

The caravan arrived in Wu County around 2:00 PM. Although Wu County was a small county, it was blessed with abundant aquatic resources and a large amount of fertile farmland, resulting in a relatively prosperous population. Although it was a county seat, its prosperity was gradually approaching that of Yunzhou City, making it far from a tiny place.

It took the caravan a quarter of an hour to enter the city.

They need to unload a batch of goods here and go to the Chamber of Commerce.

Everyone rested by the roadside and had a late lunch.

Everyone at the dinner table was bored when they suddenly heard a guard from the caravan say, "There's someone on the horse platform!"

When everyone heard this, they rushed out to watch the fun.

"Anmatai?" Bai Xuan tilted his head, curious about the name.

"This is a high platform in Wu County."

Lin Jiaolu was quite familiar with all this and immediately started talking.

"It's rumored that in the previous dynasty, the son of a famous general was so arrogant that he rode his horse through the city, about to trample women and children to death. Fortunately, a knight intervened and pinned the horse down in the street. The Ferghana horse's head was severed and it died on the spot. The dandy boy also fell from the horse, breaking both his legs."

"Later, this knight could not escape the general's revenge. He was boiled to death in front of the people on the street, causing public outrage throughout the city. However, that same night, the general and his entire family died under mysterious circumstances, apparently poisoned. To commemorate this knight, the people built a high platform and named it Anmatai."

Bai Xuan swallowed the steamed bun in his hand whole and choked a little: "If it's a place commemorating knights, why is it so lively?"

"Because Anmatai is also a place for martial arts competitions." Lin Jiaolu opened the water bag and handed it over. "Actually, the real Anmatai was destroyed during the war. This one was rebuilt. It was once used for military exercises, and now it's a common place for true martial artists to compete. Many masters in Wu County came from Anmatai."

Bai Xuan took a sip of water before he could swallow the dry steamed bun with difficulty: "So it's actually a martial arts arena? But there seems to be only one person on it."

After the deer took back the water bag, it did not put it back in place. Instead, it stared at the opening, its eyes gradually narrowing, looking a little guilty.

Bai Xuan stretched out his hand and waved it in front of her eyes. Xiaolu then turned around in a panic, pressed the lid of the water bag tightly and put it away.

"He should be waiting."

"What are you waiting for?"

"Challenger." Lin Jiaolu said as he stood up, then stood on tiptoe and placed his palm on his forehead as if watching, but he still couldn't see clearly.

She turned her head, her eyes rolled, her pretty face flushed, and she asked, "Brother, can I sit on your shoulders?"

She had previously lied to the boss lady and said that they were siblings, so calling him brother would be consistent with the perspective of outsiders.

Bai Xuan asked: "What are you going to do?"

"There are too many people. I want to see what's going on on the horse-pressing platform."

Bai Xuan: "...Are you sure?"

After a moment, Lu stood out from the crowd.

She sat on Bai Xuan's shoulders and immediately became half a height taller than an ordinary person, becoming extremely conspicuous.

Many people looked at this brave and pretty girl.

The caravan guards nearby noticed it, but they glanced away and looked away. It was nothing unusual for the siblings to be so close.

"I saw."

Lin Jiaolu suddenly realized, "The person on the horse-riding platform is conducting the fourth test for the ranking list."

Bai Xuan couldn't even stretch his neck: "Come down quickly if you see it."

Lin Jiaolu immediately jumped down, his cheeks flushed. He crossed his arms and said in a serious tone, "The man on the horse-riding platform has put up a flag. One side has "Challenge" written on it, and underneath it are eight handprints, proving that he has won eight consecutive games... If he wins two more, he should be able to enter the Heavenly Book."

Bai Xuan touched his chin and said, "Ten consecutive wins means four attempts to get on the list?"

"Yes, by raising a challenge flag in a public arena and winning ten consecutive matches against your peers, you will be recognized by the Book of the Heavenly Patching. This method has been proven many times."

The deer held up four fingers.

"There are four similar methods in total, so they are collectively referred to as the Four Tests for the Ranking List... These tests aren't exams, they're trials."

Then she crossed her hands.

"Of course, cheating is not acceptable. If you hire someone to stage a fake match, the Heavenly Dao will not approve."

Bai Xuan didn't understand: "If you want to get on the Crouching Dragon Ranking, isn't the fastest way to do it to challenge someone on the list?"

"This is kind of an established rule... If someone not on the list challenges someone on it, even if they're killed or crippled, that's perfectly acceptable. And if someone on the list challenges each other, if they have a legitimate reason or give advance notice, it can be considered a competition."

At this point, Lin Jiaolu recalled what his father had once said: "People in the underworld seek fame and fortune. Once they are on the list, they are easily challenged. Sometimes ruthless actions are necessary to establish their authority... That's what my father said."

"The world is bustling..."

Bai Xuan looked up at the sky.

I always feel that there is a pair of eyes hidden in the clouds, and a line of words are written clearly in them.

——As long as you dare to be on the list, I will keep an eye on you forever!
The two people who were talking did not notice that the banana deer that had just appeared in a high-profile manner had attracted the attention of some people even though it had only been visible for less than ten seconds.

In a teahouse twenty meters across the street.

A young man suddenly stood up: "Why is she here?"

(End of this chapter)