The Empress’s Gigolo

Lin Qiaole threw a head that was scratched beyond recognition at Ren Baqian’s feet. She gave him an embarrassed look, and the word “candy” was written all over her face.

Ren Baqian threw Lin Qiaole a bag of candy and said, “I will give you some more another day.”

When Lin Qiaole contentedly stuffed the candy in her bosom, the “airport” on both sides became “steamed buns.”

Otherwise, it would look awkward if one side was big while the other was flat.

Thereafter, she lay down to sleep and began drooling. Ren Baqian didn’t know whether she was tired, but he felt that she might be greedy because she was smacking her lips while sleeping.

One after another, the winged cavalry only returned in the evening after they finished chasing and killing.

Starting from the location where everybody was, tens of thousands of corpses were laid out in the shape of a fan. Especially in the northern and southern areas, the corpses were piled up and resembled a mass grave.

After resting for a night, they separated into two groups and continued heading south. Qing Ping and the winged cavalry were responsible for clearing away the remnant rebels that were fleeing south. Meanwhile, to the rear, the soldiers from the Protectorate of the South were responsible for those fleeing north.

As for the empress, Xi Wanya, Zong Shen, Lin Qiaole, and Ren Baqian, they led a portion of the Rearguard Commandery soldiers straight to the Six Doors in the south.

If they didn’t guess incorrectly, the people from the Six Doors were very likely preparing to run back to their old roost.

Additionally, there was an 80 percent chance that Xie Kun was with them.

After rushing for three days in a row, they finally arrived at a location outside the territory of the Six Doors. Regardless of whether they were heading for Da Yunze or the Six Doors, they still had to pass through here.

Many soldiers of the Six Doors were Man Wheel level experts or even lower ranking, so they would take at least five days to traverse this road. If a detour was taken, it would be even slower.

As they were in no hurry, Ren Baqian distributed the soldiers from the Rearguard Commandery so that at least two baihu were stationed at all the areas where people could pass through.

He then went back to Earth, but the other party was still not here yet when he returned from Earth.

However, Ren Baqian had brought back another gadget, a box the size of two palms that had a display and a detector lens. This was the upgraded version of the detector that Yang Sen had previously shown him. The upper limit had been raised from 1500 to 4000. It didn’t assess combat power, but measured blood and qi.

However, the blood and qi was equivalent to combat power to a certain extent.

Ren Baqian glanced at Zuo Leng, and the number display below the lens increased crazily before stopping at 960.

Ren Baqian was shocked to learn that Zuo Leng’s score was so high.

As a matter of fact, Ren Baqian had completed the [Visualization of Fire] after consuming the xueke. He had attained three out of the five visualization techniques and progressed from a score of 158 to 201, which was equivalent to 40 ordinary people or ten elite soldiers. Even if he reached the Earth Embryo Realm, his score would only reach around 400. He had eaten two rare treasures consisting of a peach from Su Wen and a xueke from Ning Caichen. There were also many herbal medicines inside his body, which made his score much higher than that of an ordinary Man Wheel expert.

Yet, the score for Zuo Leng’s blood and qi was more than 900, which was four and a half times as high as his, and this amazed Ren Baqian.

Ren Baqian estimated that Zuo Leng was an advanced stage Earth Wheel expert, or what was known as the Earth Embryo Realm, and that he only needed to cultivate fervently to ultimately break through to the realm of Spirit Wheel.

In addition, he was born in the Lingshan Sect, which was the biggest sect in Tianjing Basin, so other experts were no better than him.

That meant that the strength limit of the Earth Embryo Realm was about 1,000 to 1,200.

Ren Baqian also measured the guards of the empress. Their scores were around 1,000 to 1,300. These were ordinary guards from the palace—the true experts, such as Gong Zheng, were in charge of various ministries.

No wonder it was said that the practitioners of Great Xia were far inferior to aboriginals at the same rank. The practitioners who reached the upper limit of the Earth Embryo Realm were only equivalent to ordinary palace guards, not to mention the ordinary Earth Wheel experts.

For the aboriginals, the rank of Four-way Heaven corresponded to the Man Wheel level. Kismet Heaven was equivalent to the Earth Wheel level, whereas Cardinal Heaven was akin to the Spirit Wheel level.

Gong Zheng and those other guards were at the Kismet Heaven level, but were much stronger than the ordinary palace guards. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have become captains in the winged cavalry. Five or six soldiers of the same rank joining hands together wouldn’t be his match.

Ren Baqian guessed that Gong Zheng was almost at the highest level of Kismet Heaven, was pretty close to the Cardinal Heaven level, and that his fighting ability would score at about 1,600 to 1,800.

It was a pity Gong Zheng wasn’t in front of him at the moment, so there was no way to verify his conjectures.

When Ren Baqian aimed the detector at Qing Ping, the number on the display jumped crazily again. He had a suspicion that the detector might explode again.

When the display stopped changing, Ren Baqian swallowed his saliva when he saw the figure.

Without comparison, there would be no harm.

He was accustomed to meeting many Spirit Wheel experts and eminent aboriginals, so he didn’t feel any misgivings.

After using the detector, he finally realized how big the gap was.

The reading on the display was 3,115.

It was more than 15 times his own score.

As a matter of fact, a 50 percent difference in blood and qi values didn’t mean a 50 percent gap in fighting ability. Instead, it meant the difference between the king of boxing—Mike Tyson—and an average person. After cultivating to reach a certain realm, the blood and qi score was only one of the values. Strength, speed, the ability to withstand attacks, reflexes, and the five senses were also different.

A difference of more than 15 times… This was probably the difference between a weak chicken and a huge elephant.

Ren Baqian measured Zong Shen, and the score was 3,669…

When measuring Xi Wanya, Ren Baqian was afraid that the detector would explode, so he kept his face far away from the device to avoid being disfigured. Based on his personal blood and qi score, Ren Baqian could only depend on his looks to make a living.

3,927!

Xi Wanya’s score was close to the limit of the detector.

As for the empress, there was no need to measure. Based on Ren Baqian’s estimate, her score should be at least 5,000 or higher.

The people on Earth had set the limit of the detector at 4,000 because they probably thought that it would be enough.

This proved that the scientists on Earth underestimated the power of these super experts.

Their imaginations were most likely hampered by their lack of exposure.

After all, those masters on Earth that they interacted with and considered as being very strong only had blood and qi scores of around 100.

“What are you doing with that thing? You have spent almost half a day!” the empress commented from the side.

“Your Majesty, do you remember the previous detector? This is a new model that can measure a person’s blood and qi value and estimate their strength via the score.” Ren Baqian carried the detector and placed it beside the empress. Then, he aimed the lens at the people one at a time and showed the scores to the empress.

Among them, Lin Qiaole was measured at 2,299, which was unexpectedly low.

Although Lin Qiaole’s strength was known to be lower than Qing Ping’s, Ren Baqian believed that her score should be around 2,600 and was surprised that it was only 2,299.

“This is kind of fun. What about me?”

The empress and Ren Baqian huddled together to look at the display eagerly.

“It’s not possible for such an instrument to measure your power,” Ren Baqian said. This sentence conveyed the message that the empress was at a different level compared to the others.

Although this was the truth, it sounded more pleasant when presented this way.

The empress was deeply impressed and looked very happy, yet tried to feign indifference.

Xi Wanya and a few others also came over and saw that the detector revealed the individual scores of those that it measured. They gaped in wonder and felt amused. It wasn’t that accurate when used to measure Spirit Wheel experts because their blood and qi values weren’t high, but they possessed their spirit as well as a Heaven-grade weapon.

This was the case with Lin Qiaole—her blood and qi value wasn’t high, but her specialties were her speed, the strange skills that resided in her memory, and her hunting expertise. This meant that her fighting ability wasn’t that much different from Qing Ping’s, unlike what was indicated by the blood and qi score.

Prior to this, Ren Baqian only knew that the experts in this world were very powerful, but there was no measurable data to determine how strong they were.

Now, he finally had a concept in mind.

The following two days, Ren Baqian would measure the baihu with the detector when they returned. After gathering this data, he was fully aware of the strength of these Earth Wheel experts.

Among these baihu, the one with the lowest score of just over 500 was a guard who had just entered the Earth Wheel level. The rest ranged from 600 to 900, and two of them scored even higher than Zuo Leng. Both Zhu Nong and Xie Yunbing were from the hidden village.

Xie Yunbing, an old man with white hair, was the strongest. He looked like an angry lion and had a score of 1,245. He wasn’t weaker than the ordinary guards. In addition, these martial arts experts tweaked their skills, possessed unique abilities, and could be slightly better.

After waiting for a few days, everyone was starting to get impatient. They mobilized so many soldiers just because of a few people on the other side. Even the empress was waiting here.

They had waited for so long, but they didn’t even see the shadows of the other party.

The empress lost her temper three times in one day… Qing Ping and Xi Wanya were tossed up into the trees, whereas Ren Baqian was tied and hung from the branches.

As for the thing used to tie Ren Baqian… It was the metal chain rascal that was eating and drinking in his mind.

Ren Baqian was thinking about using the metal chain to tie up other people in some sort of a game… but it turned out that the metal chain was more afraid of the empress!

Fortunately, traces of the people from the Six Doors were found at this time. As a result, Ren Baqian was released from the tree.