“How interesting, so rare to see it is solved it like that”
The pig spoke, then turned around and went into a nearby field again.
As the two people moved forward, the dirt road started to become a decent brick road, as more and more people can be seen.
This is the official road leading to Bai Hua Immortal country’s capital.
On this road, you can no longer fly or glide, only walk with your own two feet.
After walking for about 10 minutes, they saw a forked road.
On the left road was a large green stone, on it stood a white goose.
The goose spread its wing, pointing at them: “Go right if you want to enter the city, come answer a poem to attempt a list, don’t push, even if you rush you won’t get passed me” (1)
As they looked, they saw there was a long line of vehicles going into the city on the right, but on the left stood more cultivators, from Foundation Establishment, Golden Core, there were even Rejuvenation realm cultivators.
“What, today is poetry?” quite a few of them showed troubled faces
A few sighed and stepped back, but more stood in place, waiting to see how others will answer the poem.
The subject to answer is always different every day, the guide is also different, thus making it pass the guide to go on the left road requires a bit of luck.
This goose today wanted to test their poetry skills, but most cultivators only want to get stronger day after day, so not a lot of them actually have the leisure to study things like poems and literature.
“Answer poems? I have a bit of confidence in that, but I wonder if the poem will be hard” Leng Tian Xing hesitated a bit and said.
“Come with me” Gu Qing Shan lead Leng Tian Xing and pushed through the crowd to go in front of the goose.
“Give me some spirit stones” he asked with a low voice
“Spirit stones? How many?” Leng Tian Xing asked.
“20 pieces” Gu Qing Shan answered.
Leng Tian Xing took out 20 pieces of spirit stones and gave it to him.
Gu Qing Shan put the spirit stones on the rock, then clasped his fist towards the good, saying: “Brother goose, please give us some convenience”
“You don’t want to answer the poem? What are these materialistic things for?” The good asked with disdain.
Gu Qing Shan earnestly: “I really have something urgent to ask of Her Eminence, please help me a bit” (2)
The goose stared at Gu Qing Shan, then suddenly the look in its eyes became serious.
As it passed its wings over, the spirit stones disappeared.
“Quickly go quickly, don’t just stand there in front of me” the goose ordered
“Thank you very much!”
Gu Qing Shan blinked at Leng Tian Xing and went into the left road.
Everyone there couldn’t help but opened their mouths wide ——–so not only did bribing on the spot doesn’t get you scolded, but you can actually pass!
Immediately one of them put out a bunch of spirit stones on the rock, smiling: “Goose brother, please also give me some convenience”
“Ah?” the goose looked up, “You for what reason?”
The other person bowed down, acting really earnest and said: “I have something urgent to ask of Her Imminence, please help me a bit”
“Peh!” the goose swung its wing, knocking the spirit stones away and shouted: “Scram!”
The other person was shocked, pointed at Gu Qing Shan who still wasn’t that far and asked unconvinced “How come he can pass?”
The goose answered: “He has something urgent to do”
The person: “I also have something urgent”
The goose stood from high up and looked at the person, smirking: “Urgent my ass”
The person scowled: “You’re being unfair, I want to make a complaint!”
The goose lightly said: “How was Yi Hong Lou yesterday? 8 dishes worth of spirit food today’s morning wasn’t enough for you? In a hurry to go back and eat more?”
The person was speechless, his face reddened, then paled and left the crowd.
The goose swung its wings pridefully, saying: “Don’t any of you dare try to pull the wool over my eyes, if you want to pass, quickly come and answer the poem”
The crowd just looked at Gu Qing Shan walking away, curious what exactly he went through that the white goose let him pass.
Gu Qing Shan and Leng Tian Xing were quickly on the way.
Leng Tian Xing couldn’t help but said: “That goose was quite easy wasn’t he?”
Gu Qing Shan replied: “You shouldn’t underestimate him”
Leng Tian Xing confused: “Why?”
Gu Qing Shan just smiled and didn’t say anything.
A while later, they arrived at the dock.
On the dock was a single old boat, an old ferryman sat at the hem, smoking.
“Can we leave right away? We can pay for the whole boat” Leng Tian Xing said.
The ferryman staggered a bit to stand up, then looked at the two of them seriously.
“Come, let’s go then”
The two of them went on the boat as it quickly left shore.
“Kuh, here, if you want to attempt a list, you must pass my test”
The ferryman was steering the boat as he said that.
“Please do tell” Gu Qing Shan clasped his fist.
Leng Tian Xing also did the same behind him.
The ferryman answered: “In this river there’s a fish, extremely big and black all over, I call him the Big Black Fish, you go catch it”
“Understood”
Gu Qing Shan looked at the river, it was calm on the surface, but the rushing current below can easily send you thousands of miles away.
He can swim, but to catch a fish here, he’ll have to think of an appropriate measure.
Clank!
A metal sound was heard behind him.
As Gu Qing Shan looked back, he saw Leng Tian Xing already undid his armor and now taking off his boots.
“You’re going into the water?” Gu Qing Shan asked.
“Hm, our Yao Guang Sect is on the sea, I’ve already dived deep into the sea to catch fish since I was small ——–this river isn’t much compared to it, just leave it to me” Leng Tian Xing spoke with confidence.
Leng Tian Xing jumped high up, diving into the water with beautiful posture, and quickly wasn’t seen anymore.
The water was calm for about 10 minutes.
Suddenly, air bubbles were floating up from the water.
Then, Leng Tian Xing floated up to the surface, holding a big, black fish.
Both him and the fish were frozen in ice, you could feel the chill even from far away.
But as you look carefully, you can see the fish’s spirit energy wave was gradually becoming stronger than Leng Tian Xing’s.
The fish had a pair of vertical pupils, its mouth full of sharp teeth, squirming its frozen body to break out from the ice.
Leng Tian Xing’s face was pale, clearly reaching his limit.
The last of his Crimson Crane Pill was given to Gu Qing Shan, so he’s already running on his last leg, about to not be able to hold the big black fish anymore.
Then, the big black fish turned around, opened its bloody mouth to bite Leng Tian Xing.
Pew!
A streak of light was seen flying, shot straight into one of the big black fish’s eyes and out the other.
It was Gu Qing Shan who saw the situation about to go bad, took out the Night Rain and the snake poison arrow in time to help.
The big black fish flailed around for a while, finally turned its belly up and float.
“Not bad, the two of you”, the ferryman used a smaller boat to go fish up the big black fish.
“Next is something I have to do, so you just wait there”
As the ferryman said that, he took out a sharp dagger and quickly sliced open the big black fish on the deck.
Leng Tian Xing breathed in, jumped on the boat and shook his head at Gu Qing Shan: “How disgraceful”
Gu Qing Shan replied: “I don’t blame you, who knew a fish would reach Foundation Establishment realm”
The two of them sat down on the rocking boat, slowly waited for the ferryman to deal with the fish.
“I’m begging you here, can’t you do it a little softer?” the fish suddenly spoke.
Half the flesh on its body was already cut off, revealing a bloody, fishy smelling central bone.
Gu Qing Shan and Leng Tian Xing looked at each other in anxious.
——-the fish clearly died earlier, half its flesh had also been flayed off, so how is it still speaking?
The ferryman’s hands didn’t stop, only shaking his head and said: “Can’t, this is the rule”
Note:
(1): Answer a poem: I’m not sure if there are anything similar to this in the West, but this was a type of improvisation test, where the tester would read the first verse of a poem (usually 1-2 sentences), the one being tested is expected to be able to match the theme, tone, rhyme and idea of the poem with something that they thought up on the spot. You could basically think of this as a rap battle, but done with 1-2 lines of poems. The main reason why people usually take this test is to show off and get chicks, though in the old days “getting chicks” meant marrying them.
(2) Her Eminence: originally written as Xian Zun, meaning venerable fairy, as a way to show respect, since “fairy” as a designation isn’t meant to be used to call someone’s unless you’re of the same status or higher than them. Basically it’s a status thing.
