The Empress's Gigolo

Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios

“I’m leaving!” Ren Baqian waved his hand. “I’ll see you after some time anyway!”

“Indeed! I also want to see what Lan City, the city that never sleeps, looks like today.” Zong Shang smiled.

Zong Shang and several sub-temple chiefs were currently around Ren Baqian. The rest were all busy with the Temple of Heaven’s matters. As they had just encountered a big change, everyone was busy dealing with its issues.

Ren Baqian put his hands behind his back and looked up at the sky. The weather was good, and there were so many clouds that he couldn’t even see a trace of the sun.

Fortunately, he had a horse carriage prepared for him. Although its speed wasn’t that fast, he at least had a place to shelter him from the wind and the rain.

Although Zong Shang urged him to stay until it was done raining, Ren Baqian had no intention of staying any longer.

After nodding to the crowd, Ren Baqian turned around and boarded the carriage to return to Dayao.

There were a total of two carriages. In the other carriage was Fei Yan, the graceful lady who covered her face with black muslin and was also the chief of Fushi Temple.

However, Ren Baqian had seen half of her exposed face when she turned around. It was covered in red wounds that were about the size of a baby’s mouth. They crisscrossed and looked a bit scary.

Heavy rain began to fall and patter on the carriage only half an hour after setting off. The dark clouds seemed to be asserting pressure above their heads.

The two carriages temporarily parked at the side of the road.

With such heavy rain, even if the drivers could see the road clearly, the horses couldn’t.

“Have a seat inside,” Ren Baqian called out to Jiao Ping. He entered the carriage, putting his oil coat and bamboo hat aside.

Oil coats were the raincoats of this era and were made by applying a layer of tree oil to fabric. However, this was only able to protect against light rain. In just a short period of time, Jiao Ping’s body was drenched.

“This is?” He was surprised when he saw the lines of words floating in the air inside the carriage.

“These are books from our place.” Ren Baqian smiled.

These were projection books that he brought back to pass the time.

These days, the three-dimensional projection chip had been miniaturized, and the technology was relatively mature. The transitional equipment that used a mist spray as the projection medium was naturally eliminated.

Jiao Ping fervently looked at the text floating in the air. Although he couldn’t read what was written, this scene was enough for him to have a boundless yearning for Ren Baqian’s world.

Ren Baqian smiled and continued to focus on the text in front of him.

He was reading a whodunit.

Although he was in another world, looking at the familiar scenes and plots in the story still made him feel as if he was on Earth.

However, he was ignorant regarding some of the things in these books. Although he would learn about the changes on Earth every time he went back, in the past ten years, a variety of new technologies and products had emerged. However, he hadn’t been in touch with many things.

For instance… Ren Wannian’s “New World Software Company” company had launched a music game in which oncoming blocks were slashed to the beat with various weapons.

Yes, this was a virtual reality game that had been all the rage a decade ago. If it wasn’t for thought controlled technology, present-day virtual reality technology might just be an actual national grade product.

However, after the birth of thought controlled technology, the several largest virtual reality technology companies fell from the clouds to the bottom within a few years.

No matter how immersive virtual reality was, it was fake.

However, thought controlled technology could turn fake things into reality. By directly projecting into the mind, people could experience the same feedback as they did in reality. As such, it replaced virtual reality after a short period of time and was a technology that was close to reaching maturity.

Nevertheless, launching new games was like this. Virtual reality equipment was all the rage back then, but now, the focus had shifted to thought controlled equipment. As a result, it immediately became the hottest game.

Not only could people chop those oncoming blocks in rhythm, but they could also practice the precision and strength of their offense as well as their dodging and reaction ability.

It was said that Ren Baqian’s parents learned a set of swordsmanship. Their skills matched harmoniously, and they were invincible.

He was bewildered when he heard this news. After watching a video, he pondered for a long time and came to a conclusion that left him at a loss. He might not be a match for his parents!

This was just an example.

For the past ten years, the development of Earth’s science and technology had never stagnated, but Ren Baqian hadn’t kept up with these changes.

He would often feel this information gap as well.

…

After four days, Ren Baqian finally arrived at the border between Great Xia and the Yun Nation.

The journey to the Temple of Heaven took half a day, but the return trip took four days. Firstly, the horse carriage was slow. Secondly, the initial journey was over the mountains, whereas the return journey was via the official road.

He also observed that Great Xia’s official road was mainly paved with stones that were about 50 centimeters in width. The road was about three meters wide and pretty shabby. The carriage ride felt very bumpy travelling on it.

Great Xia had four border checkpoints in this area, namely Helong City, Mishan Pass, Pingxiang City, and Jinghong City. Originally, there was a garrison of 200,000 soldiers in total.

However, there were only 50,000 at present.

These 50,000 soldiers were all hiding and shivering in the cities right now. The commanders in several cities lingered on the city walls every day without daring to let their guards down.

This was due to the 30,000 strong aboriginal army outside the walls and also the big flag that was planted there with “Dayao” written on it.

When the watch commander first learned that Dayao had led their army to attack, his hand shook so hard that he almost plucked his beard off.

Great Xia’s 200,000 man garrison might not even be able to stop the 30,000 aboriginals, let alone the 50,000 troops that were scattered across the four cities.

The aboriginals’ giant flag made Great Xia’s commander’s face turn deathly pale.

The aboriginal army didn’t usually use such flags.

There would only be one scenario where such flags were displayed: Dayao’s monarch leading the troops personally.

Qi Zixiao was in this army!

This time, Great Xia’s commander was indeed in deep sh*t.

However, he couldn’t be bothered by that anymore. He quickly rushed to the top of the city walls and looked down. With a pale face, he subsequently arranged most of the front line troops. After that, he turned around and went back to drink, preparing to get intoxicated.

However, to everyone’s surprise, the aboriginals didn’t attack the city.

They didn’t go somewhere else either.

Instead, they set up camp directly below the city walls.

This made everyone in Great Xia scratch their heads since no one could figure out what the aboriginals were trying to do.

The commander carefully watched their movements as he quickly requested the imperial court for help.

Of course, he also knew in his heart that this call for help was useless and that the court had no soldiers to send.

All he asked was for the court to treat his family well.

For the next few days, none of the generals in Great Xia could rest well due to the fear that the devils near the city would suddenly strike.

Only the commander in chief remained the most calm, drinking alcohol all day.

In any case, there would be no difference if a man died, but his name would go down in history if he survived… They had no chance against Dayao and could only resign themselves to fate!

Six days later, in the middle of Great Xia’s restlessness, they saw two carriages coming from far away that bypassed the city and directly entered Dayao’s military camp while led by a row of winged cavalry warriors.

By now, the people of Great Xia knew what the Dayao army was up to.

Dayao actually came all the way to Great Xia’s border to receive someone… Dayao completely didn’t care about the people of Great Xia and ignored their existence.

This made them feel humiliated, but at the same time, a little thankful.

Thankful that the aboriginals weren’t here to fight!

Next, the people of Great Xia became curious. With such a big force and Qi Zixiao coming in person, who were they receiving?

…

“Your Majesty, I missed you so much!” Ren Baqian gave the empress a hug with a smile on his face.

Her uneasy heart finally eased when she felt his warmth. After that, she set her eyes on the man and woman who followed him.

Especially the woman.

“Greetings, Your Majesty. Fei Yan and Jiao Ping, chief of Feidu Temple from the Temple of Heaven!” Both of them greeted her respectfully.

Fei Yan took off her veil, revealing a face full of crisscrossing wounds.

Below her eyes, there was almost nothing that was in good condition.

The empress glanced at the two of them and said, “Thank you for your trouble. Someone lead them to take a rest.”

On the way back, Ren Baqian had already informed the empress about the situation via radio. As such, she wasn’t surprised by their existence.

When the two left, she looked at his smiling face, and her face immediately turned gloomy.

“Someone hang him up!”

“Huh? What are you doing, Your Majesty?”

“Hanging you up for a beating!”