The Empress’s Gigolo

Ren Baqian’s parents stayed in the villa for three days. They felt a little uneasy at first, mainly because of the empress’s presence.

After three days, the two of them were finally slightly more familiar with her, and they could exchange a few sentences.

Ren Baqian brought them around Shanghai and even made a special trip to Disneyland. While his parents didn’t indulge, the empress and the little monk Xing Ruo had a great time.

Ren Baqian’s parents noticed that the empress’s face only showed expression when she was engaging with their son. Other than that. she looked cold and aloof, as though lacking human emotion.

Seeing her emote made them feel at ease. It would be difficult if their daughter-in-law was going to be icy all the time.

“You’re old enough to make your own decisions, so we won’t interfere with this. When will you bring her home? We have met her, but your relatives haven’t. You’ll have to introduce her back home!” Ren Baqian’s mother said. She couldn’t wait to see the looks on their relatives’ faces when Ren Baqian brought this beautiful girl home.

She was already planning to host 30 tables to accommodate everyone they knew.

“I’m sure there will be ample chances to do so.” Ren Baqian brushed the matter off and watched them walk through immigration security (TLC. Are they traveling by airplane? Maybe use “airport security?” Immigration makes it sound like they are leaving the country). He heaved a long sigh of relief.

Now that his parents had departed, he could assume his role as king once again!

He had read a review about a manga titled “One Man Above All” a few days back and liked the title a lot.

The next time he returned, he would read the chapters to see what qualities such a person would possess. He would work hard on enriching himself to become a king that reigned above all others.

After sending his parents off, Ren Baqian took the empress and Xing Ruo to a shopping mall. The three of them made an odd-looking family, drawing looks from curious people.

However, the empress alone was already capable of catching the attention of others.

Completing another round of shopping, the three of them returned to the villa. Ren Baqian put all the sweets, alcohol, and hotpot soup bases into a bag that already contained the empress’s clothes. He turned to the little monk and said, “Hold on to me. I’m going to transform you into the magical little monk Xiao Yuan!”

“Will it hurt? Also, my name is Xing Ruo, not Xiao Yuan,” the little monk replied shyly.

The air shuddered, then the three of them vanished with bags in hand.

Ren Baqian was so accustomed to teleporting between the two worlds that it no longer felt strange to him. He would sometimes even forget that this ability of his was gained later in life and not something present from birth.

They were greeted by a downpour upon arrival. Ren Baqian was completely drenched in a matter of seconds by the seemingly endless rain.

In the pouring rain, the little monk looked around at the pitch black surroundings. A second ago he was still in that villa in Shanghai. His lips pale, the little monk asked, “This… Where is this?”

Ren Baqian was too shocked to attend to the little monk. He had been in a house when he teleported back to Earth, so where was the house now? Where did that house disappear to? Could this be due his posture during the teleport?

The empress was in a terrible mood. She couldn’t fathom how this place had been reduced to a pile of rubble within a day.

The empress’s presence surged, creating a loud boom that shook the entire city. The next moment, several figures appeared among the rubble.

“Your Majesty!”

“Your Majesty!”

“We apologize for the delay. Please forgive us!”

A row of burly men were kneeling down before the empress in an instant, causing the little monk to hide behind Ren Baqian in terror.

They were all members of the winged cavalry and must have rushed here upon sensing the empress’s presence.

“What’s the meaning of this?” the empress inquired coldly.

“Your Majesty!” Xi Wanya greeted as he made his way in. Sensing her impressive demeanor, he asked, “Your Majesty has fully recovered?”

According to his calculations, the empress would require at least 10 more days to fully recover. He wasn’t expecting her to be at full strength after only one day and one night. Who knew where she had gone!

The empress frowned when she noticed that Xi Wanya was much weaker than when she had left. He must have fought against someone.

Furthermore, his body was plastered with eight freshly bandaged wounds.

“What happened here?”

“It’s pouring right now, Your Majesty. Let’s discuss this further in a sheltered location,” Xi Wanya replied.

“Lead the way!”

The relentless rain continued to fall as they left the ruins. Ren Baqian and the empress realized that the destroyed area was bigger than they thought.

It wasn’t only their residence that had been destroyed. Quite a few other official residences in the area were reduced to broken pillars and collapsed roofs as well.

They soon arrived at another large official residence. Hundreds of winged cavalry warriors stood at attention in the rain.

“Greetings, Your Majesty!”

Qing Yuan and Hong Luan scrambled out to shelter the empress with an umbrella.

By this point, however, the empress was already soaked and had no need for it.

“I’m going to change into a fresh set of clothes. We’ll talk about what happened in a while.” The empress had regained her composure. She walked to the rear of the residence with Qing Yuan and Hong Luan.

Ren Baqian asked Xi Wanya for directions to his room, then promptly went to change.

“Where are we?” The little monk had been in a state of shock ever since they landed here.

This place looked nothing like Earth!

All the huge, burly men made him want to run away and hide.

The little monk only knew of a sheltered life of meditation and scriptures, so the concept of traveling between worlds was completely foreign to him.

“This is where you’ll be living for the rest of your life,” Ren Baqian answered while he put on dry clothes. “You’ll get used to it eventually! Wait here, I’m going out to take a look.”

Ren Baqian exited the room in a hurry, leaving the little monk in the room

Ren Baqian hoped that the little monk would calm down significantly by the time he returned.

Back in the main hall, Xi Wanya, Qing Ping, Zong Shen, and Gong Zheng were waiting.

Qing Ping’s body was also filled with fresh wounds. The bandages on his body had tinges of red, and one of his ears was missing.

Zong Shen looked fine on the outside, but he was coughing up blood.

“What happened to you guys?” Ren Baqian was shocked.

The three of them were powerful experts, capable of handling three spirits wheel experts each. Something was very wrong if the three of them were injured like this. Who was strong enough to injure them like this?

“I’ll explain when Her Majesty is here,” Xi Wanya replied.

He didn’t mind that Ren Baqian and the empress had gone missing for a day.

He couldn’t possibly be watching Her Majesty every second of the day could he? They had left at the right time, allowing the empress to avoid engaging the Spirit Spear. In addition, the empress had fully recovered from her injuries.

The empress slowly walked in a quarter of an hour later. Her expression was ice cold, and her eyes were filled with murderous intent.

It looked like she had found out about what happened from Qing Yuan and Hong Luan.

“Give me the details,” the empress ordered coldly.

“Of course!” Xi Wanya proceeded to recount everything that had happened while the empress wasn’t around.

What had happened was actually quite straightforward. The Spirit Spear, Teng Yue, had appeared and spat out some nasty lines. A big fight had occurred immediately after that.

Xi Wanya took the time to painstakingly outline every small detail of what had happened, down to the very tactics and fighting style that Teng Yue had employed.

The empress’s expression hardened when she heard the name Teng Yue. She was intent on killing him. That was the only way his transgressions could be disregarded.

Xi Wanya ended his speech by saying, “I can rest easy now that Your Majesty has recovered.”

“How many casualties did we suffer?” the empress asked.

“We are to blame. We could not match up to the Spirit Spear. As a result, we suffered significant losses. If he were to return, however, I assure you that we will join the fight again.

The winged cavalry took the brunt of it, losing 157 warriors. Another 74 of them were severely injured, but among these, 30 have recovered enough to fight again!”

Bang! The empress smashed the table by her side to smithereens. The air around her was dense with the smell of bloodlust.

Only 30 out of 200 or so people had recovered. That meant that the casualties numbered at around 200.

The winged cavalry had started with 1,500 warriors. After fighting several wars, this number dropped to barely 1,000, but now, they were left with 800. The size of the unit had practically diminished by half.

The empress was reeling from such heavy losses.

Ren Baqian sighed quietly, his face an expressionless mask. It was through a stroke of luck that he and the empress managed to avoid the engagement.

Everything was fine as long as the empress was fine.

Ren Baqian suddenly had a shocking realization. Those four peaches that the monk had sent seemed oddly well calculated. Had he given two of those peaches to heal the empress because he knew of this situation?

The thought of this frightened Ren Baqian.

How on Earth could such a person exist?

He must be more than just a mere human. He must be some kind of god or buddha!

“Where is Teng Yue? I’m going to kill him and imprison his remains under the palace for all eternity!” The empress spat out each word with malice.

As somber as the current situation was, the empress’s words made Ren Baqian think about his poor erhu!