No, gentlemen also guard against

Chapter 863 Assessment
In the morning, the sun shines brightly.

Outside the bamboo forest.

A group of young girls and boys walked out of the bamboo courtyards and gathered on the beach.

When Ouyang Rong and Sha Ergou walked out, Song Zhian and Yu Xiaoniang were already in the crowd.

Lu Jinghong was seen standing next to the two girls like a piece of shit plaster, talking to Song Zhian.

Ouyang Rong looked around and saw that there were about thirty girls on the beach. In addition to Ouyang Rong, Sha Ergou and Lu Jinghong, there were four boys. They all looked simple and honest. They were probably the children of fishermen and farmers like Sha Ergou. They all came here for their own reasons.

The ages of the people ranged from ten to sixteen. For example, Song Zhian and Yu Xiaoniang were just reaching the age of marriage. According to the experience Ouyang Rong learned from his junior sister, Rong Zhen, this age group was the most suitable for Qi training.

Ouyang Rong is the oldest among them. Not to mention that he is already over 20 years old, just this fake body of Ashan looks like a 19-year-old.

Most of these girls are pretty and young, with lively looks at first glance. However, there are also some skinny little girls with pale faces and timid eyes, who are obviously from poor families.

Or to say, Yunmeng Jianze selected mostly Yue girls from poor families.

One reason is that they do not accept three girls, and the other is that there are many poor people in the Wu and Yue regions, so it is naturally easier for talented girls to be born.

If it weren't for the keen eyes of these Yue girls, most of these girls would have been lost in the secular world.

From this perspective, entering Yunmeng Jianze and becoming a Yue girl is indeed a channel for promotion.

Ouyang Rong looked around again and found that Song Zhian, who was frequently spoken to by Lu Jinghong, was tall and slender, with lively almond eyes and lips like cinnabar. She was indeed one of the most conspicuous girls among the group.

At this moment, the time when Yuenu would notify the gathering was very close.

Ouyang Rong and Sha Ergou were able to arrive at the right time.

Song Zhian said softly: "Brother Liu, why are you guys so late?"

Ouyang Rong looked at Sha Ergou, who scratched his head guiltily.

Ouyang Rong did get up early, but Sha Ergou almost overslept and was snoring loudly. Every time Ouyang Rong went to call him, he muttered "wake up".

Ouyang Rong was washing up and passing by. When he pushed the door and entered the room to check, he tried to stand up straight and nodded his head like pounding garlic to gain trust... But as soon as Ouyang Rong turned around and left, Sha Ergou fell down again, racing against time to sleep. When Ouyang Rong came again after a while, the same thing happened again, and it has been delayed until now.

Ouyang Rong was a little speechless. He didn't know what to say about his ability to fall asleep as soon as he lay down and couldn't be woken up no matter what, but being able to fall asleep was a blessing.

Normally, Sha Ergou goes to bed early and gets up early, and is quite diligent. But last night he slept very late in order to welcome Ouyang Rong and to earn money from Madam Li, which is understandable.

However, today is the selection day mentioned by Song Zhian, which is quite important.

Song Zhian also noticed this, her eyebrows and eyes were dark, and her eyes turned slightly:
"Sha Ergou, did you not sleep well?"

Sha Ergou waved his hand: "It's okay."

After saying that, he yawned.

Seeing this, Lu Jinghong shook his head, as if he felt that it was a piece of mud that could not be propped up against a wall.

Although Song Zhian was not from a good family, she had some courtesy of a lady from a wealthy family. She did not despise him and took something out of her sleeve and handed it over:

"This is a cooling ointment, originally used to repel mosquitoes. Apply it under your nose to wake you up."

Lu Jinghong, who originally didn't care, immediately turned his head and said:

"Come to think of it, I'm also feeling sleepy, so I'll give it a try too."

Sha Ergou waved his hand awkwardly, but Ouyang Rong took it and handed it to him:

"Wake up."

Ouyang Rong did not use the cooling ointment. While Sha Ergou and Lu Jinghong were applying the ointment, he stood silently behind the crowd, looking at the small island next to him.

I saw a bamboo forest on the small island, and people were gathering on the beach over there.

It seems that this group of people participating in the selection were dispersed across the two islands.

While Ouyang Rong was thinking, a cold-faced Yue woman arrived at the shore first on a bamboo raft.

Behind her, there were more than a dozen bamboo rafts, each of which had a Yue woman in Wu costume and a peach wood plaque hanging from her waist. They also looked at the newlyweds on the beach with curious eyes, and most of them had kind expressions.

The cold-faced Yue girl who led the group looked around at everyone and said coldly:

"The woman will come first and go to Taogu with the boat, while the man will stay and wait."

……

Song Zhian, Yu Xiaoniang and other girls left first.

Ouyang Rong and the other boys waited for about two hours. Near noon, a raft finally returned, also led by the cold-faced Yue woman. There were not that many bamboo rafts because there were fewer people.

They boarded the bamboo rafts one after another, and together with the group of boys who had stayed on the neighboring island, they sailed towards the island with the Peach Valley that the cold-faced Yue woman had mentioned.

Sha Ergou couldn't help but yawn:
"Why did we have to wait so long?"

He was sleepy to begin with, and could have used some cooling ointment to wake himself up in the morning, but after standing on the beach waiting for the entire morning, he became even more drowsy under the sun.

The key point is that Song Zhian is not here, so there is no cooling ointment to wake me up.

Lu Jinghong, who was riding the bamboo raft with him, curled his lips:

"Nonsense, they are selecting Yue girls, and we can't be Yue girls, we just need to be qualified to enter the Bamboo Hall, and the process is not as complicated as theirs, so naturally we can't go together."

Sha Ergou muttered:
"Zhutang? What kind of place is this? Do you have to be selected to work here? Is the salary high? Is it a stable job?"

Lu Jinghong was speechless and turned his head away, not wanting to answer this stupid question.

Soon, the bamboo raft arrived at a small island deep in the sea. On the island there was a secluded valley full of peach trees.

The cold-faced Yue girl turned around and said to the dozen boys including Ouyang Rong and Sha Ergou:
"Yue girls are the foundation of our sect, and we mainly recruit Yue girls. However, there is a slight exception for Zhutang. Recently, Zhutang has been deserted and short of people, so the eldest lady made an exception and allowed a group of boys to be selected to supplement Zhutang. The previous threshold for Zhutang was an eighth-grade Qi-refining swordsman, but you haven't yet refined Qi, so we will make an exception and refer to the selection of Yue girls, and pass three levels.

"The three levels are swordsmanship, Qi training, and mental toughness... In addition, according to the old rules, after entering the Bamboo Hall, there will be another level, just like the successfully selected Yue girl, to test another very rare aptitude... But that's just a formality. No one has entered for decades. Well, I won't say more for now. Wait until you pass the three levels and enter the Bamboo Hall before we talk."

Except for Lu Jinghong, who was holding the sword confidently and seemed to have expected everything, Sha Ergou and the other boys looked at each other in surprise, obviously hearing about it for the first time.

Ouyang Rong also pretended to be ignorant.

Judging from the cold-faced Vietnamese woman's expression and tone, this group of boys was obviously not taken seriously. Even in today's test, they were ranked behind the Vietnamese female candidates such as Song Zhian.

It is conceivable that in Yunmeng Jianze, Zhutang's status is just like that. Not to say that he is despised, but he is also an extra-staff member.

But Ouyang Rong didn't know why Miss Zhishuang brought him in to take part in the test in the Bamboo Hall.

Shouldn't she find him a job as a bell ringer, so that he can accompany Ah Qing, her chosen disciple?
After thinking about it, it is very likely that Miss Zhishuang forgot again, or that the responsible people such as Lengmian Yuenu made a mistake and thought that Ouyang Rong was also brought into Jianze to participate in the selection.

Even Song Zhian, Lu Jinghong and other little friends tacitly agreed with this, thinking that he was the same as Sha Ergou and other boys...

Ouyang Rong glanced at the Peach Valley behind him. A thin mist was slowly spreading through the woods, and pink flowers were faintly visible in the mist.

From time to time, the long roar of some animal could be heard in the forest.

"Today is the first stage, to test your swordsmanship aptitude. This is the basis for entering our sect's Bamboo Hall. If you don't have a talent for swordsmanship, no matter how good your cultivation talent is, it will be useless to enter the hall."

The cold-faced Yue woman raised her chin, and three Yue women came forward and distributed blue-covered booklets to everyone. They also gave everyone a wooden identity card with their names written on it.

"Here, this is a book on swordsmanship. You don't have to memorize it. Just read it for a while and rely on your comprehension. Then enter the valley. There are some agile monkeys in the valley. You can just go through the forest. The faster the better..."

...Ouyang Rong got the secret book and looked at it together with Sha Ergou.

The secret book contains a set of simple sword moves, most of which are pictures to prevent illiteracy.

Ouyang Rong was not a newbie at all. He took a look and remembered it in his mind.

He looked around.

Lu Jinghong and others were taking notes every minute.

However, Sha Ergou next to him narrowed his eyes slightly as he watched... and seemed to be falling asleep.

Ouyang Rong was speechless and pushed him.

"oh oh."

Sha Ergou woke up in shock and quickly immersed himself in memorizing the sword-fighting secrets. However, his anxious look made Ouyang Rong a little worried about him.

However, Ouyang Rong couldn't help him. Soon, everyone took a wooden sword and entered Taogu together.

There was fog in Peach Valley. There were not many of them to begin with. About ten people entered Peach Valley from different locations. Peach Valley was very large, but there was only one exit, so everyone soon got separated.

Originally wanting to team up with Sha Ergou, Ouyang Rong gave up the idea.

After walking for a while, I heard some young boys crying in pain and monkeys laughing not far away.

"Dang——!"

Ouyang Rong turned his head and looked around, as if in a trance. It was as if he had eyes behind him, and he used an antelope chamfer to block the black stick.

The owner of the black stick seemed to be stunned as well.

Ouyang Rong looked back and saw a gibbon. It looked two times bigger than the monkeys in Mount Emei in his previous life. It had extremely long arms and was covered with black hair, but there was a tuft of yellow hair on its forehead, giving it a somewhat Shamatte look.

"Beep, bab, bab..."

The Shamatte monkey was holding a peach wood sword in his hand. It was obviously a sword, but he was dragging it like a stick. He circled around the rather strange and dull young man, seemingly observing him.

At some point, the Shamatte monkey pounced forward and suddenly attacked. Ouyang Rong turned around and thrust his sword, knocking it three meters away.

"babble--!"

It screamed.

Ouyang Rong casually made a sword flower.

The Shamatte monkey got up from the ground and jumped violently on the spot. The surrounding forest was filled with the sounds of its companions bullying the newcomers, but it was the only one that was beaten.

How could this be tolerated? The Shamatte ape was furious.

Ouyang Rong didn't think much about it, he picked up the peach sword and started chasing the Shamatte monkey and beating it up, putting the pressure on him to the maximum.

Anyway, this thin mist hides us and no one can peek.

How could he, a seventh-rank Qi-refining master, be afraid of this little Karami?

He was not sure whether he had the talent for swordsmanship, but his cultivation as a seventh-grade Taoist priest had enabled him to gain great control over the muscles of his body.

In terms of agility, these Shamatte monkeys are not half as good as him.

So I didn't use any sword skills, and I didn't make much use of the sword styles in the introductory book on swordsmanship. It was just a one-sided beating.

However, after Ouyang Rong chased the Shamatte monkey and hammered it for about ten steps, he found that he seemed to be out of place.

The surroundings were filled with the sounds of teenagers being beaten, and even Lu Jinghong's cries of pain and anger.

No, why are you all so bad...

After a pause, Ouyang Rong calmly restrained himself and pretended to be evenly matched with the Shamatte monkey.

At the same time, he gradually groped towards the exit of Taogu.

Realizing that he was becoming more courageous as the battle went on, as if his potential had been stimulated, the Shamatte monkey became more spirited and began to counterattack.

However, it found itself always inferior to the dull young man and gradually became annoyed.

Ouyang Rong was feeding the Shamatte monkey with moves. Halfway through, he kicked something and looked down.

It was a small bag and looked somewhat familiar.

When he saw the pastry crumbs scattered at the mouth of the bag, he realized that he seemed to have seen this thing at Miss Yu's place. It seemed to be a snack bag that she had hidden and that was stuffed into her hands by Miss Yu.

But looking at the mess on the ground... Ouyang Rong couldn't help but twitch the corners of his mouth.

I don’t know if Miss Yu’s equipment was destroyed by the Shamatte monkey at that time.

No, you secretly brought snacks to participate in the Taogu Trial, right? What's the difference between this and bringing snacks into the college entrance examination in your previous life?

What a silly daughter of a landlord.

In the peach forest, the screams of the boys came one after another, but as time went by, they seemed to have learned their lesson and the cries of pain gradually became less frequent, while the sounds of sticks and swords clashing became more frequent, and some of the boys had begun to fight against the monkeys on equal terms.

Ouyang Rong was the one who got to the exit the fastest.

There was no telling what was at the exit of Tao Valley. The closer they got to it, the more monkeys in the forest gathered and besieged Ouyang Rong, but they did not stop him at all.

It continued to move forward at the original speed, but when it was about to reach the exit, Ouyang Rong paused for some reason and deliberately took two steps back, which made the Shamatte monkey, which had been feeling frustrated all the way, very excited and thought it had the upper hand.

He let the water out near the finish line and waited for about twenty breaths. Then Ouyang Rong noticed a young man appear not far away, but he was obscured by fog and could not be seen clearly.

Ouyang Rong waited until he passed before he began to exert his strength and rushed towards the exit of Taogu in one go.

"Yes, it took one hundred and nine breaths, but still short of a hundred breaths. He is the second one to come out of Taogu, and he has a superior talent for swordsmanship."

Ouyang Rong rushed out of Peach Valley and saw a huge peach tree. Many mother monkeys were living on the tree with their baby monkeys in their arms. It seemed to be a monkey group's stronghold.

The cold-faced Yue woman was standing behind a peach tree with several other Yue women with peach plaques hanging from their waists, nodding slightly.

Not far from them, stood a simple young man with a dark face, panting.

Ouyang Rong also pretended to breathe heavily, walked forward and handed over the wooden sign.

"Liu Aliang."

The cold-faced Yue woman took the wooden sign, glanced at Ouyang Rong, and wrote it down in the book.

At this moment, another figure in brocade clothes rushed out from the rear entrance.

"Bah, what bad luck! This beast can bite people...hiss, it has wasted ten breaths of my life in vain! This time I will definitely not be able to make it to the hundred breaths..."

It was Lu Jinghong's voice.

The cold-faced Yue girl said coldly:

"Third place, took one hundred and thirteen breaths."

Lu Jinghong staggered out, got rid of the monkey, and was about to straighten his appearance and walk towards the peach tree, when he suddenly saw Ouyang Rong's figure next to the cold-faced Yue woman under the tree. His pupils shrank slightly, and his face changed...

(End of this chapter)