so if I showed @test, would I get 1 5 3 4 6 7?

All you have to do is print it to see:

use warnings; 
use strict;
use Data::Dumper;

sub simpleTest {
     my @i = qw(1 5 3 4 6 7);
     return @i;
}
my @test;
@test = simpleTest();

print '@test: ', Dumper(\@test);

__END__

@test: $VAR1 = [
          '1',
          '5',
          '3',
          '4',
          '6',
          '7'
        ];
[download]

Outside of the sub, @i is undefined because of the scope.

For recursion, you could use state:

use warnings; 
use strict;
use feature "state";
testFunc();
sub testFunc {
     state $i = 0;
     $i++;
     print "i=$i\n";
     testFunc() if $i < 4;
}

__END__

i=1
i=2
i=3
i=4
[download]

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