The Empress’s Gigolo

Ren Baqian was still hoping for Qingyun Sword to surrender.

As the head of the hidden village and the leader, it would play a big role in calming down Tianjing Basin if he surrendered.

Furthermore, Qingyun Sword wasn’t an ambitious person. His greatest wish was for the people of Tianjing Basin to be free.

With regard to the various sects, Ren Baqian actually didn’t desire to exterminate them.

The people that he had yet to decide about were from the three major factions.

This was because the members of the sects were dispersed all over the basin, didn’t have political power, couldn’t influence the commoners, and had no links to their ancestral temples. Even if they were left behind, they wouldn’t cause much upheaval.

The people from the three major factions were a different kettle of fish. They were the people controlling Tianjin Basin, which was a state within a state. They were more sophisticated and knowledgeable too. This was why Ren Baqian was still considering whether they could be spared or not.Qingyun Sword didn’t give Ren Baqian a reply after hearing him out. He cupped his hands to bid farewell and turned to leave.

He came with the intention of hearing the truth from Ren Baqian and would then decide whether to die or survive together with Wu City.

Still, he was shaken by the words of Ren Baqian.

As a matter of fact, it sounded simple to surrender.

However, he had convened so many people together and so many people had been killed. Was it really that simple to surrender?

How was he going to face the rest of his people?

At this point in time, surrendering was a more difficult choice than death.

Dying was easy. Once he died, his good reputation in Tianjin Basin would be handed down through the generations and recorded in its history.

However, surrendering meant that he had to suffer name-calling, and it would destroy his lifelong reputation. He would have no face to meet his people after he died, just because of a vision painted by Ren Baqian.

He couldn’t decide between these two choices.

Ren Baqian shook his head after Qingyin Sword was quite a distance away and then took over roasting the lamb meat from Shi Gan.

After breakfast, Ren Baqian thought about letting Shi Gan and Lin Qiaole wait at a place near Wu City in case the winged cavalry arrived ahead of schedule, disagreed with the plan, and destroyed Wu City.

Shi Gan was quite talented. He was endowed with the power equivalent to an Earth Wheel expert at a very young age and was very quick-witted. It would be an injustice if he were to be killed by enemy Spirit Wheel experts in Wu City.

If he were to send Lin Qiaole alone, he guessed that by the time she woke up, the space rocket that Dayao had developed would already be in outer space.

Upon sending these two people out, Ren Baqian turned to ask the empress about his previous question, “Your Majesty, what is the name of this planet?”

The empress looked at him blankly…

“You see, my country and my world are on a planet called Earth. What about this planet?”

The empress pondered for a moment and declared, “Planet Dayao!”

Ren Baqian gave her a quizzical look.

Couldn’t the empress be more serious?

“How about calling it Planet Baqian?” Ren Baqian noticed the empress’s expression after saying this, instantly changed his tune, and suggested, “Planet Ba Zi? Oh, Your Majesty, the most suitable name should be Zixiao Star!”

The empress’s mood changed from gloomy to sunny instantly and she exclaimed, “This is it!”

It was a nice feeling to have a planet named after her.

“What if the planet is square?” The empress raised a serious question.

Ren Baqian pondered whether it was possible for a planet to be square. In that case, it shouldn’t be a planet and should be the world of “Minecraft.”

[1.Minecraft: A 2011 sandbox video game created by Swedish game developer Markus Persson and later developed by Mojang]

This was a difficult question for an underachiever like him to answer.

“Furthermore, there’s already a star that belongs to me, so don’t they have the same name?” The empress remembered that everyone had a star. Although it was just a beautiful myth, she believed it to be true.

“Planet Zixiao and Zixiao Star!”

Slap!

“Heavenly Zixiao Star and Land Planet Zixiao!”

“Very appropriate!” The empress became happy again.

“Your Majesty, do you think there are other continents aside from this one? After conquering the Yun Nation, we can build ships, send people to explore, and discover how big this world is!” Ren Baqian calmly said despite his swollen hand.

“Great!”

The two speculated about the original shape of this world. During the afternoon, they heard the sound of hoofbeats in the distance and saw the dust cloud generated by it.

Close to 1,000 soldiers were rushing over from afar before coming to a neat stop. They dismounted, cupped their fists in greeting, and saluted, “We are here to pay our respects to Your Majesty!”

Although there were only about 1,000 of them, the impression they projected was equivalent to a large army. Every soldier exuded power and courage from head to toe and had a bloody aura around them.

The empress stood up and looked at these warriors with all kinds of battle scars on their armor. It was these people who had penetrated into Great Xia when she was heading for Great Xia. They were the frontline force during the war with Great Xia, had raided Great Xia after the war, and still immediately rushed all the way here after returning to Dayao.

From the original 1,500 warriors, there were over 900 left.

The eyes of the empress brushed over each and every face. Then, she said softly, “Take a rest first!”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

The empress asked the captain of the winged cavalry to tell her about the situation in Great Xia.

The captain of the winged cavalry was a strong man with a beard, and his name was Gong Zheng. She was familiar with him as they had met in the northern region before.

Ren Baqian heard an interesting story about how Li Qianqiu kidnapped a few scholars in Great Xia, and even brought their families along after they begged him.

“Captain Gong, where are those people?” Ren Baqian was very interested in these scholars. He wasn’t biased against people from the other countries like the aboriginals were.

After all, Earth was a global village with all kinds of people.

“Sir Ren, I don’t know about this matter.”

“Oh.” Ren Baqian nodded. It looked like he would have to ask Li Qianqiu upon returning.

Fortunately, he had sent Shi Gan in advance or else the heads would now be rolling in Wu City.

It wasn’t until late at night that Xi Wanya brought his army back. Among them were dozens of half-dead captives that were riddled with bloodstains.

As these captives were thrown down from the mounts, they discovered to their despair that besides the soldiers from the Protectorate of the South, the winged cavalry was also here.

The winged cavalry had indeed arrived.

Xi Wanya took some big strides and said in front of the empress, “Your Majesty, the other party had some Spirit Wheel experts, so we only managed to capture 23 people.”

This was slightly less than what Ren Baqian had expected, but still acceptable.

Carrying a torch to look at the captives who were confined in the center, Ren Baqian saw two ladies from the Manxing Pavilion, a few from the Green Bell Flower, and an old man he had met in the hidden village. Everyone else belonged to the various sects. There was no one from the Golden Ring Residence, and the girl who took erhu lessons from him for half a month was also not present.

All the captives had bloodstained wounds on their bodies. Some had twisted limbs, some were missing limbs, and it looked they were captured after a bloody battle.

When they saw Ren Baqian under the torchlight, everyone glared at him.

Ptui! A lady from the Manxing Pavilion spat bloody saliva in front of Ren Baqian’s shoes. Instantly, a soldier kicked her bloodstained, but still recognizable delicate face. Her whole body flew backward as she spurted fresh blood in midair… as well as her teeth!

“I want them alive.” Ren Baqian shouted.

“Watch them separately. Break the legs of those who try to run away, but keep them breathing.” Ren Baqian warned.

All the captives looked at him with murderous eyes. If looks could kill, Ren Baqian would have been left with no bones a long time ago.

One night passed by.

After eating breakfast the next morning, Ren Baqian got people to carry the captives, and the whole group arrived at Wu City again. They threw the captives on the ground in front of the city wall so that they could be clearly seen.

Then, Ren Baqian announced, “People in the city, listen. You have been surrounded. Surrendering is the only way to save your lives!”

The people on top of the city wall were green with fear as they looked at the more than 20 people on the ground below as well as the winged cavalry behind them!