Chapter 189 The waves behind the Yangtze River push the waves ahead

"Master, this is just a trivial trick of mine. You are overpraising me."

Cheng Long looked him up and down for a while, but couldn't recognize where he came from. It can be seen that the Taoist priest in front of him who is well versed in Taoism is most likely not a character in the plot.

However, just based on the fact that this person came riding a sword, one can conclude that he is a Quanzhen Taoist who has returned to nature and attained enlightenment.

"My friend, you are too modest. Your skill of transforming spiritual energy into form has reached perfection. I, an old Taoist priest, am very envious of you!" The old Taoist priest with white hair and a youthful face, wearing a simple Taoist robe and holding a whisk in his hand, walks as freely and elegantly as a cloud in the wind. One seems to feel the heaviness of the years and the dignity forged by history in him.

Face to face, this person gave Cheng Long the feeling of an old scholar with extensive knowledge and profound Taoism.

He is far from being comparable to Yan Chixia, who changed his career late.

"May I ask your name, sir?"

"My name is Xuan, and my name is Gui. I wonder who your teacher is?"

Taoist Master Xuangui learned from Laoshan, but the place where he lived was not a Taoist temple in Laoshan, but a waterfall called Bitan.

Bitan Waterfall is more than 500 miles away from Yunlang Town, which is not far but not close either.

"Master Xuan Gui, I have no sect or school."

"Rogue cultivator?"

Taoist Xuan Gui frowned and asked in confusion, "It doesn't look like that. Besides, the aura transformation technique you just performed can only be learned by orthodox Xuanmen. Did any of your ancestors become Taoist disciples?"

"Master, these seem to be my son's private affairs. Why are you asking so many questions?"

Bai Ling frowned slightly, with dissatisfaction in her expression. This old Taoist was so rude. Not only did he come here to disturb them, but he even asked them questions.

"Haha..." Taoist Xuan Gui, knowing that he was in the wrong, smiled heartily and apologized, "My friend, I forgot that you have a beautiful woman to accompany you. Please forgive me for disturbing you. I live in Bitan Waterfall, Qu County, 500 miles away. If you pass by one day, you can go to the old Taoist to talk. I won't disturb you anymore."

"Taoist Master, walk slowly."

After watching Taoist Xuan Gui fly to the official road on his sword, Cheng Long looked back at Teacher Bai who was protecting him and said affectionately, "Ling'er, you just performed well, but in the future, if you meet a Taoist priest with high cultivation, it's best not to say too much. After all, you are a female ghost. If you meet a small-minded one, he might find fault with you."

"Just find trouble if you want to, why should you be afraid of them!"

Bai Ling is no longer a powerless little ghost girl, so she doesn't need to take ordinary Taoist priests and monks seriously.

"Sir, I'm not afraid. I just don't want to cause any more trouble."

"That being said, don't forget your true identity..."

Teacher Bai’s fighting power was off the charts tonight, and he once again left Mo Chou speechless.

……

Two days later.

Cheng Long brought Yan Chixia's parchment scroll to the door of Wumenju.

creak!

The wooden door was pushed open from the inside out.

Then, Cui Hongjian, who was carrying a load on his shoulder, walked out of the door and saw Cheng Long standing at the door. He smiled, put down the load in his hand, and greeted him, "Mr. Cheng, would you like a bowl of tofu pudding? Freshly cooked tender tofu pudding is especially delicious."

"Okay, then have a bowl, with more sugar."

"okay!"

Cui Hongjian skillfully served a bowl of tofu pudding, sprinkled a handful of crushed rock sugar into the bowl, and then handed it to Cheng Long.

"Brother Cui, the provincial examination is coming soon. I think you'd better not think about renovating the house. Just live here first. If you need money, tell Shi'er. I think he will be happy to help you. Otherwise, how many coppers can you earn every day?" Cheng Long said while drinking tofu pudding.

"Mr. Cheng, Shi'er has no money either..." Cui Hongjian looked at Cheng Long eagerly.

"Want to borrow money from me?" Cheng Long finished his bean curd in one gulp and said jokingly, "Okay, as long as you are willing to give me half of everything after you become successful, I will give you the money, no matter how much you lend me."

"Half?"

The scholar was more flexible in thinking, and immediately thought of the official position. He frowned and said, "Master Cheng, if you say so, then when I pass the imperial examination in the future, won't I have to share half of my fame with you?"

"Don't worry, I don't want anything that can't be shared, such as fame and official positions. I just want half of what can be shared."

"That's no problem."

Cui Hongjian only cared about the status and official position of scholars. He didn't give any points for these, and everything else was not a problem.

"Don't you want to consider it?"

Cheng Long raised the corners of his mouth slightly, revealing a devilish smile.

Whether the property can be divided or not is up to him.

As long as Cui Hongjian dared to sign this contract with him, if he behaved unkindly in the future, he could take out this document and take away everything that belonged to Cui Hongjian.

He did this purely to buy insurance, otherwise it would be really upsetting if he accidentally funded a corrupt official.

"No, I've thought it through."

At this point, Cui Hongjian changed the subject and said, "Selling tofu pudding at the stall these days has taught me a lesson. For a poor scholar like me, if I want to be rich, I can only fight for it. It is almost impossible to save enough money to build a house and go to Beijing for the imperial examination by selling tofu pudding."

"So how much are you going to borrow?"

"Ten taels of gold."

Cui Hongjian grew a finger. If he wanted to borrow, he would borrow more. Anyway, if he failed to pass the imperial examination in the future, he would not have to worry about not being able to pay it back.

Master Cheng did not say how much he would return, only that half of the money and items earned in the future would be divided among them. So as long as he was poor enough, he would have nothing to lose.

"No problem, come with me and sign a document."

"As we should." The two of them entered Wumenju one after the other.

Afterwards, a written agreement was signed under the witness of Shier.

"Brother Cui, this gold bar is exactly ten taels. Take it and weigh it. If it's not enough, tell me."

Cheng Long took out an exquisitely shaped wooden box out of thin air. The moment he opened the box, Cui Hongjian and Shi'er stared in amazement.

The box was filled with hundreds of gold bars of uniform specifications and shining with golden light.

If they had a box of gold like this, they wouldn't need to take exams or exorcise demons. They could just lie at home.

"Why are you standing there like an idiot? Take it to the scale!"

“Ohh…”

Cui Hongjian took the gold bar, turned around and ran to the kitchen to borrow Yan Chixia's scale to weigh it.

In the world of Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio, one tael is approximately equal to 37-50 grams. The net weight of the gold bar given by Cheng Long is 500 grams, which is definitely enough.

As expected, when Cui Hongjian came back with the gold bars weighed, he took the initiative to say, "Mr. Cheng, you gave me too much gold bars. I weighed them and they are a full fourteen taels!"

"It's okay, I'll give you the extra ones."

Cheng Long patted Cui Hongjian on the shoulder, turned around, took out the parchment scroll, and handed it to Shier, "Shier, this is what your master gave me. Keep it first and return it to the senior for me later."

"Brother Cheng, are you going out? Can you take me with you? Because I want to leave this sad place and kill some monsters to vent my feelings." Shi'er broke up a few days ago, and the girl he had a crush on for many years got married without saying a word.

He even goes to buy the dolls made by the other party every day. He is so self-indulgent.

As a result, no one took him seriously at all.

"Forget it. You are Master Yan's beloved disciple. If you go out with me and get hurt by mistake and lose some limbs, Master Yan will definitely fight me to the death!"

Cheng Long didn't want to cause trouble for himself. Although Shi'er had some skills and he didn't have to worry about him most of the time, his main purpose of traveling was to slay demons and eliminate monsters. If he took someone with him, wouldn't he be asking that person to share his merits of saving the world?

How can this be done?

He also wanted to cultivate the Golden Wheel of Merit as soon as possible and use it as a talisman!
"Brother Cheng, I already have the fifth level of my master's power. Ordinary demons and monsters can't do anything to me. How could I go out and come back with missing arms and legs?"

"That won't work either. If you want to go out and kill ghosts and monsters, go out on your own. Don't try to blame me."

Cheng Long did not give Shi'er a chance to pester him, and turned around and left. Shi'er, who had been treated as a child by Yan Chixia since childhood, was the apple of his eye. If he came back and saw that Shi'er was missing, he would definitely look for her all over the world.

He had no destination on this trip and no idea when he would return, so it was impossible for him to take Shi'er with him.

"Qiang!"

However, just as he was about to walk out of the door, there was a sudden sound of sword energy at the door, and a chilling cold air covered the door. The wooden door carefully crafted by Shier was immediately chopped into pieces by the sword energy.

Wow, someone actually comes to mess things up!

You are so brave!
"Hahaha, Yan Chixia, we finally found your nest. Let's see where you can run this time?" A burly man in black, over 1.9 meters tall and with a strong physique, kicked open the tattered wooden door and came in laughing.

"you again?"

Seeing the big man in black, Shier frowned and said, "Uncle Xiahou, you came at an unfortunate time. My master is out traveling. If you want to duel with my master, please come earlier next time."

"..."

Xiahou Swordsman paused, clearly not believing it, and shouted at the top of his voice: "Yan Chixia, you are really going backwards as you grow older. You actually asked me to come out and get rid of me! What's wrong? Are you scared? Or are you worried that your title as the world's number one swordsman will be lost?"

No one responded.

"Yan Chixia, Yan Chixia..."

Still no one responded.

After a moment of embarrassment, Xiahou Swordsman looked at Shier awkwardly, "Is your master really not here?"

Shier rolled his eyes and said unhappily: "Didn't I tell you? Master is out traveling. I don't know when he will be back..."

"Damn it!"

Swordsman Xiahou gritted his teeth.

Seeing this, Cheng Long couldn't help but laugh and said, "Uncle, Master Yan is hiding from you not because he is worried about the title of the best swordsman in the world. It's mainly because you and him are no longer on the same level. The sword control technique he is practicing now is the method of the sword immortal. How can you, an ordinary swordsman, compare with him?"

"What nonsense are you talking about?"

Xiahou Swordsman glared at each other angrily. He was a genuine swordsman in the martial arts world. When Yan Chixia worked in the government office before, he was also famous for his sword skills and was even given the title of "the best swordsman in the world".

Xiahou frequently came to him just to take away the title of the best swordsman in the world.

But he had no idea that Yan Chixia, who had been fighting with him for more than ten or twenty years, was no longer the chief constable he used to be.

"It seems that you still refuse to give up. You must know that there are always people better than you. Even if you defeat Yan Chixia, what can you do? Can you still defeat all the masters in the world?"

"Uncle, you are obsessed! Let it go!"

Cheng Long advised kindly.

In order to gain the false title of being the best in the world, Xiahou kept coming to Yan Chixia's house to challenge him in swords, which made Yan Chixia very annoyed. Since he had owed Yan Chixia a favor, he decided to help him get rid of him since they had met.

This would save Yan Chixia from having to take care of Xiahou's emotions like a child when he comes back, for fear that he would beat him too hard and cause him to never recover.

But he didn't have that concern.

If Xiahou Jianke does not know what is good for him, he will definitely make this person understand what it means that the new generation will replace the old generation.

(End of this chapter)