The Empress's Gigolo

Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios

“Kill the chief of the Temple of Heaven—she’s not human!”

After hearing these words echo in the room, Ren Baqian’s heart suddenly skipped a beat. He turned to look at Zong Shang, only to see that he had a serious face and stern eyes. The originally mild and benevolent looking face now seemed acutely determined.

“How do you know this?” Ren Baqian asked in a deep voice.

Back then, Ren Baqian had already wondered if there were foreign races in the Temple of Heaven, but he only had this as a thought in his mind. He didn’t expect that this was really the case and that someone in the temple actually knew.

The seriousness in Zong Shang’s face eased slightly. He walked over to Ren Baqian and moved some things on the shelf. The entire shelf slid silently to the side, revealing a tunnel.

“Please follow me.”

After saying this, he went into the tunnel, took a flint from the wall, and lit a torch. The tunnel lit up instantly.

The two walked all the way to the end and finally arrived at a secret room.

“Your security really isn’t that tight!” Ren Baqian said lightly.

This matter involved the chief of the Temple of Heaven and the foreign races. How could the evidence be stored in such a simple room? If other people came in by mistake, Zong Shang would be dead.

“It looks simple, but in fact, it requires a specific finger force to hit it repeatedly dozens of times. Other than me, no one can enter unless this mansion gets razed to the ground. However, our division would probably be extinct by then, so it wouldn’t be a big deal if someone found out,” he explained as he led the way.

Ren Baqian then came to understand.

“Your division?” he asked again.

“There were 42 members in total when the Temple of Heaven was established. 31 divisions were passed down. Over time, these 31 divisions were reduced to 19.”

“There are eight sub-temple chiefs, eight deputy sub-temple chiefs, two deputy temple chiefs, and one temple chief.” After Ren Baqian calculated, the numbers matched.

“There are disputes where there are people!” Zong Shang sighed.

Ren Baqian immediately knew how this number came about.

“Yet, about half of them died with no known cause!” Zong Shang said while lighting a few oil lamps on the wall in the secret room. This suddenly revealed everything in the room.

There was nothing in the room, not even a simple stool.

Instead, there were paintings on the wall.

Looking closely, they were paintings of women.

Somewhat surprisingly, the portraits on the wall were of a young woman, an old woman, another young woman, another old woman, and so on.

“This is the first chief of Youjing Temple, and this is when she was old.” Zong Shang pointed at two of the paintings.

“This is the second chief of Youjing Temple and when she was old.”

Ren Baqian stood in front of the wall and looked at the paintings one by one before he was suddenly startled.

“This is the chief of Feidu Temple, and she should be considered the third temple chief.”

“This is the fourth chief of Youjing Temple.”

“This is the fifth deputy temple chief…”

Zong Shang introduced each painting.

One wouldn’t be able to tell anything from the paintings of the chiefs when they were young. Each of them had different looks, temperaments, and beauty.

However, looking at the portraits of their older selves, all of their faces looked somewhat similar.

Regardless of what the women looked like when they were young, whether they were smashing or extremely ugly, they all looked quite similar when they were old.

Or even looked the same!

For instance, the first chief and the fourth deputy chief of Youjing Temple, the seventh chief of the Temple of Heaven, and the fourteenth chief of Queyin Temple.

For Instance, the second chief of Youjing Temple, the eleventh chief of Tunzei Temple, and the fourteenth deputy chief of the Temple of Heaven…

All of them seemed to be carved out of the same mold.

However, when they were young, some of these people had large, round eyes, some had red phoenix eyes, some had oval-shaped faces, some had egg-shaped faces, and some had round faces…

However, when they were old, they looked almost identical.

Apart from this, the appearances of all the past temple chiefs looked quite similar, especially their eyes, which looked like that of a beast as it watched its prey.

“Their lifespans were longer than that of ordinary warriors due to the martial arts that they practiced. As such, only a few would notice the change in their appearances.”

“Why did you draw all of the temple chiefs?” Ren Baqian felt curious.

“Because all of them were women!”

After hearing this answer, he actually felt pretty sympathetic for Zong Shang and his people.

“Since the two former chiefs of Youjing Temple were very popular back then, some people naturally left behind their portraits. However, they realized some problems later on—that these two women looked too similar when they were old,” Zong Shang continued.

Ren Baqian somehow felt that it should be more than just these two people.

A similarity in appearance between just two people didn’t reveal much…

Zong Shang definitely wasn’t being entirely truthful here.

However, this had nothing to do with Ren Baqian, and he had no interest in the dark history of Zong Shang’s ancestors.

Not a single bit.

Well, was there anything wrong with a man being a little wretched and perverted?

“In the beginning, we thought that it was because of the martial arts that they practiced, but it wasn’t. They were always secretly looking for replacements, but this wasn’t surprising because all of us were doing the same. However, their approach seemed a little different.

In a short period of time, the strength of the successors of these chiefs would greatly increase. Then, the former temple chief would die.

These successors would ascend to their positions in a very short period of time and would be very familiar with many things. As such, we came to be aware of this problem.

In fact, 1,000 years after the human race arrived at this piece of land, they once had a moment of rejuvenation. At that time, many talented people were born. There were 11 people who attained the Heaven and Earth Region level, and there were thousands of Spirit Wheel experts.

At that time, some people suggested that they wanted to return to their homeland. Even many in the Temple of Heaven felt the same.

The reproductive rate and speed of recovery of the foreign races were far inferior to ours. Back then, there were vast plots of empty land. As long as the human race could find a place to stay and persist for more than ten years, there would be a possibility of reestablishing themselves and returning to their homeland.

However, this idea was later interrupted, and those talented people who wanted to leave were killed.

It was them. They caused all of this.

Since then, our people have been paying attention to them and finally found out the truth. In fact, apart from us, others have also found out the truth, but they later died due to various reasons. We were the only ones who have been able to continue to this day,” Zong Shang explained succinctly.

“Why not tell the truth? Could the collective strength of the entire Temple of Heaven not be her match?” Ren Baqian asked in return.

Zong Shang replied, “She isn’t alone. Someone once revealed this news in a meeting with half the members. As a result, five divisions supported her and survived. The chiefs of the 11 other divisions died. Four of them, who didn’t have successors, were completely severed.”

Ren Baqian sneered after hearing what Zong Shang said.

Zong Shang looked a little ashamed when he talked about this.

“Nobody knows what happened at that time, but one thing is certain. Her division is stronger than they look, and they might even be stronger than all of us combined. This is the reason why 11 chiefs died and why the other five chiefs had no choice but to support her. After that, my division didn’t dare to act lightly because we are probably the only ones who are aware of the real situation,” he said while sighing.

“If we were also severed, the Temple of Heaven would truly be reduced to being the lackey of the foreign races.

I originally thought that my generation had no chance of overthrowing her, but I didn’t expect to meet a visitor from another group of the human race. I think that the opportunity that I have been waiting for is finally here. From the story that you told, you must have very strong weapons capable of fighting the temple chief,” Zong Shang concluded.

“Xu Wuming has probably exceeded the Spirit Wheel level, right? Is he still not her match?” Ren Baqian suddenly asked.

“There are still one or two who can attain the Heaven and Earth Region level in every generation. Back then, there were experts who weren’t any weaker than Xu Wuming,” Zong Shang replied.

Ren Baqian raised his eyebrows. Originally, he wanted to blow this place up directly, but after hearing what Zong Shang said, it would be pretty difficult to handle.

He indeed possessed powerful weapons, but powerful weapons had equally large areas of effect.

If he were to detonate the nuclear bomb, apart from leaving the place earlier himself, it was impossible for the others to leave earlier. Otherwise, the temple chief would definitely sense something fishy.

As for whether Zong Shang’s words were true, Ren Baqian didn’t really have much doubt.

This was because the old lady’s earlier reaction had already made him feel weird.

Everything would make sense if she was a member of the foreign races.