The Empress’s Gigolo

In the afternoon, Ren Baqian walked out of the palace doors while wearing the Imperial Deputy Prefect’s official robe. There were already two carriages waiting outside the plaza. They both had crooked cows pulling the carriages, but they had very different exteriors.

One carriage was from the palace and was pulled by two crooked cows. The carriage was entirely made out of wood and it emitted a fragrance of timber. The carriage driver was an old man with grizzled short hair and a square face, who appeared very solemn.

On the other hand, the second carriage belonged to Tao Jiyuan. It was also pulled by two crooked cows, but the carriage was slightly smaller.

Behind the two carriages were four horsemen donned in leather armor. They were not wearing helmets, and they each had a feather affixed to their shoulder plates. They were the winged cavalry—the most elite of the empress’ subordinates. There were only 1500 of them, but even their weakest member was stronger than Great Xia’s Earth Level practitioners.

Those who had just entered the Earth Wheel level in Great Xia could hold a military position of Standard class, Rank 7 and below, whereas in Dayao, one with the same level of strength could hold a military position of Standard class, Rank 7 and below. However, they were just ordinary horsemen among the winged cavalry.

These winged cavalry members were all riding the type of gigantic goats. These animals could run quite fast, and they were especially good at jumping. Their abilities to pass over mountain ridges were on par with that of the mountain-gazing birds. It was only that it would be a slightly bumpier ride.

The reason they chose this type of mount over the mountain-gazing birds, was that the horsemen had bigger builds. Adding on their weapons, the weight would be too great for the birds to handle. Another reason was that with a large number of mountain-gazing birds gathered together, the stench would definitely be overbearing.

“Thank you very much.” Ren Baqian cupped his hands with gratitude after the imperial guard moved his luggage into carriage.

He was very familiar with this imperial guard. It was usually him or another imperial guard keeping guard at the door of Pingle Park, and he was on his shift today.

That imperial guard laughed with his mouth wide open. He cupped his hands in salute to Ren Baqian and returned to the palace.

“Deputy Prefect Ren!” Tao Jiyuan alighted from his carriage and greeted. At that moment, he sized him up from head to toe as he did not have a good look at Ren Baqian in the morning. He could not see anything special about him.

However, when Sir Feng went back just now, he actually asked Tao Jiyuan to follow Ren Baqian’s orders. Tao Jiyuan felt astonished and was curious to know what they spoke about after he left the palace.

Unfortunately, Feng Hou had been forced to suck it up. He couldn’t possibly say that he did not understand a single thing Ren Baqian said, could he?

Seeing that confident look on Ren Baqian’s face and with all that content that he didn’t understand, he wavered a little. He was unsure if this man really knew about those things.

At that moment, the empress spoke. “That is it for now. We shall see how it turns out in the time to come.”

Upon hearing that, Feng Hou swallowed the words that were at the tip of his tongue. He decided to wait and see how Ren Baqian’s iron ore mine mission would turn out.

“Deputy Prefect Ren, shall we set off?” Teng Ji dismounted and took a few steps forward before asking.

“I appreciate your effort, Overseer of Military Arms. Set off!” Ren Baqian said as he looked back at the tightly shut palace door. He then turned around and got on the carriage.

The two carriages pulled by the two crooked cows weren’t very wide at around 1.6 meters. He had to stretch his legs outside if he wanted to lie down. A layer of fur was spread over the floor of the carriage, and there was also a small table at the side to put things such as wine, fruit, and so on.

All the carriages of that era had wooden wheels and were very bumpy. It was still possible to put things like wine or water on the table within the city. But once out of the city, there wasn’t a need to even think about it.

Ren Baqian sat cross legged in the carriage and leaned against the wall. He lifted the curtain and looked outside.

“Set off!” Teng Ji’s command sounded.

Everyone turned their mounts around, and the cow carriage slowly moved forward.

They picked up speed once they left the city. Ren Baqian looked at the scenery outside along the way. He could feel the vibration from the carriage, and even if it only went over a tiny piece of rock, he was still able to feel .

Fortunately, he had the fur mat underneath him. It was indeed very useful.

However, even with the fur mat, Ren Baqian could not take it after four hours. He lifted the curtains and squeezed his way beside the cart driver to feel the head-on wind and dust. After a while, with a mouthful of dust, he returned to the carriage.

“It’s simply torturous to go on a long journey in this world.” Ren Baqian heaved a deep sigh, lifted the curtain by the window and continued looking outside.

There isn’t much scenery to look at in this world.

There’s nothing else besides mountains and water, if not it’s back to farmlands again.

There are also occasional frightened animals by the road side.

In the beginning, It seemed pretty fresh and interesting. But as time passed, it got boring.

He somewhat regretted that he didn’t bring his e-book reader over. At least it was something for him to whittle the time away.

At that moment, a thought emerged in his mind. If he were to return to Earth in the carriage, where would he appear when he was back? Would he still be in the carriage? Or would it be in the place where he disappeared?

It would take five days for this journey, and he actually wanted to try that out.

Unfortunately, if he were to disappear, he reckoned that it would be discovered in less than half a day.

They continued with the journey up till eight in the evening. Ren Baqian lifted the curtain asked the cart driver, “How much more till we take a break?”

“Deputy Prefect Sir, there is a village just ahead,” the cart driver replied promptly, appearing to be very familiar with the area.

Ren Baqian nodded and looked at the surroundings. It was already dark by that moment and nothing could be seen. Only occasional howls of wild beasts could be heard from the night scene.

After about an hour, the horsemen in front came to a halt. Teng Ji turned around and shouted towards Ren Baqian and Tao Jiyuan’s carriage, “Both Sirs, ahead is the Fallen Leaf Village. Please wait for a moment, while we have a word with the village chief.”

A horseman returned after a while, and the troops continued forward in a slow pace. As Ren Baqian had never seen the villages of this world, he lifted the curtain and sat beside the cart driver.

The village was not very big and he could make out a loop of wooden fence a short distance away. Its purpose was probably to ward off wild beasts. As a result, even though it was said to be a village, it seemed more like a camp.

Ren Baqian guessed that the aboriginals resided in such camps back when they were in the mountains. When most people left the mountains, they still continued their usual practices, and such traditions were then carried on for a long time.

Ren Baqian asked the cart driver if his assumptions were true.

If there weren’t any wild beast attacks, perhaps after tens to hundreds of years later, following the expansion of the village, these wooden fences would probably disappear as well.

As Ren Baqian followed the troops into the village, the entire feature of the village was displayed in front of him.

Most of the buildings were constructed with wood. Beneath the buildings were supporting wooden pillars of at least 20 centimeters in diameter and around 50 centimeters in height. All that was to prevent rain water, snakes and insects from encroaching within.

There was a fishy smell in the village. Many of the houses had dried wild herbs and animal skins hanging outside to sun dry, which explained the hefty odor.

When they realized that a troop was entering the village, the villagers were not a single bit afraid. They even walked out of their houses with smiles and waved at the people.

Their clothes were mostly made of animal skin, exposing their bronze colored skin. The smiles on their faces were very sincere and full of passion.

They curiously sized up Ren Baqian after seeing him seated in the carriage. After all, they could tell in one look that he was not an aboriginal.

“Aboriginal troops and commoners have very good relationships.” That thought came to Ren Baqian instantly.

The village was practically circular and there was a round open space in the middle filled with things like stone dumbbells. Assumingly, the villagers used them to train their physiques when they had free time.

There were also some wooden poles that were placed on top of a wooden rack at the side.

One could tell from the look of this village how much the aboriginals appreciated martial arts.

The residences were all built surrounding that plot of open space, separated into two levels. At one glance, there were about a hundred families or so, which equates to about two to three hundred people in the village.

At this moment, each and every family lit up their oil lamps. Some came out to greet the troops, while some just leaned on their windows as they looked outside.

Ren Baqian alighted from the carriage and had a good stretch. The day’s journey was simply too torturous and it was finally time to relax at last.

Tao Jiyuan jumped down from the carriage beside as well, but he looked much better than Ren Baqian and did not seem as tired.

“Both Sirs, this is the village chief. The biggest house belongs to the chief’s family. The both of you will be resting in the chief’s house for tonight.” Teng Ji brought an elderly man over.

“Greetings to the both of you.”

“Deeply appreciated.” Ren Baqian said as he cupped his hands in obeisance.

Tao Jiyuan nodded his head instead.

Ren Baqian endured an entire night of mosquitoes buzzing after spending a night in the village chief’s house. He woke up the next morning and yawned as he went straight into the carriage. He swore to himself that he would rather stay in the carriage the next time. To his surprise, there were so many mosquitoes, and they bit only him alone. He wondered if they were attracted to those animal skins that were hung outside to dry.

He asked Tao Jiyuan when he woke up in the morning, but he didn’t really get bitten by the mosquitoes. Even the mosquitoes knew how to bully the weak.

Furthermore, Tao Jiyuan’s snores from nearby also made him suffer throughout the night.