The Empress’s Gigolo

Ren Baqian closed his eyes. A layer of yellow light swept across his body before it gradually shrank and concentrated on his chest. It then slowly disappeared, leaving his body drenched in sweat.

A while later, Ren Baqian opened his eyes and woke up. His entire body didn’t feel exhausted as if he had just undergone training, but was full of energy instead.

He clenched his fists and felt that his strength had increased by quite a bit. After he struck out with his fists, he realized that he had also gained some speed.

It had been six months since his last breakthrough, and now, he had finally achieved another one.

After breaking through the [Visualization of Earth], besides having increased speed and strength, his internal organs were also strengthened. This was the most unique aspect of the [Ruyi Visualization]. At least other martial arts didn’t have such effects.

All martial arts aided in strengthening the inner body through physical training. Only the [Ruyi Visualization], which had an unknown origin, trained both the inner and outer body at the same time. After practicing every segment of the five Visualizations, each segment would strengthen its corresponding organs.

Ren Baqian’s spleen was strengthened this time after he achieved a breakthrough in the [Visualization of Earth]. The spleen represented “thinking” and affected the liveliness of a person’s thought process.

Ren Baqian somehow felt that after achieving this breakthrough, he would probably be a little smarter and more quick-witted.

However, he still couldn’t verify this for the time being.

It had only been a year since Ren Baqian started practicing the [Ruyi Visualization], yet he had already completed four of the segments, namely the [Visualization of Water], [Visualization of Wood], [Visualization of Fire] and [Visualization of Earth]. He was only left with the [Visualization of Metal] before he would break through to the Earth Wheel level. When that happened, he would be considered an Earth Wheel expert.

Of course, it wasn’t just a year. Adding the time that he spent on Earth, it had been exactly two years, and he had consumed some rare supplements. For instance, he had eaten four of Su Wen’s peaches. He had also eaten the Spirit Yuan Pill, which he obtained after killing Lu Pinghai, and the xueke, which he got from Ning Caichen in exchange for the stun batons. Ren Baqian was only able to quickly reach this level after consuming these.

However, after completing this step, a huge portion of the supplements’ power stored within his body had already been used up. It would take a much longer time for him to break through to the next level.

Ren Baqian couldn’t help but admit that his innate talent wasn’t great. It was only due to the large amount of herbs and rare supplements that he was able to reach this level.

Once he reached the Earth Wheel level, he would be able to get married to the empress.

Once he got married to the empress, he would be able to hold that lady, who stood at the pinnacle of the world, in his embrace. The thought of asking for her hand in marriage made him very excited, and he looked forward to it.

When that happened, would she be shy and bashful?

It would definitely be impossible for her to act like an ordinary girl… If she was really shy and bashful, would she fly into a rage out of humiliation?

Ren Baqian somehow felt like he needed to learn some martial arts like the [Golden Shield and Iron Cloth] and that this was more important than the [Boxing of Death] or the [Hunter Techniques].

After laying for quite some time on the bed, Ren Baqian finally managed to fall asleep.

He woke up early the next day, dressed up neatly, and headed to the Black Bamboo Academy.

It had been a week since the dispute at the imperial court, and today was a slightly special day at the Black Bamboo Academy. It was the start of the term for the second batch of new students.

There were about 80 students in the first batch due to the officials sending almost all of their families’ good-for-nothings to join the school. This time around, there were much fewer students that were from the next generation of the families of the officials. Kids with commoner backgrounds made up most of the new batch, and there were exactly 76 students in total.

Early in the morning, Ren Baqian stood outside the school with his hands behind his back. A few students were giggling in the distance and waiting to see what their juniors looked like.

“Greetings, Principal!” Soon after, two youngsters approached and respectfully greeted Ren Baqian when they saw him standing there.

Next, they signed their names at the table, followed Ren Baqian’s directions, and went toward the second row of newly constructed classrooms.

After the arrival of these two, other students arrived in succession as well. The first batch of students was gesticulating from afar as they watched the new students come in.

Those students from the first batch weren’t intelligent during normal times, but at the moment, had taught themselves to put on airs and act like seniors.

When everyone had arrived, Ren Baqian immediately shut the door and brought the robot to the classroom to teach the first batch of students. This robot was custom-made once again after the previous one was destroyed by Tong Lan. This one was able to store more content than the previous one and displayed better artificial intelligence as well.

Ren Baqian moved the robot into the classroom and removed the cloth that was covering it. Instantly, all the students present were dumbstruck.

“This is…”

“This can’t be?”

“How can this be?”

Everyone then turned their heads and looked toward Tong Lan with their faces full of emotion.

This time around, the appearance of the robot wasn’t Gundam anymore—it was Tong Zhenye! It was vivid and lifelike. Well, at least the head was.

The upper half of its body resembled a real human and was also specially built full of muscles to look like Tong Zhenye. It also wore the same set of clothes that Tong Zhenye always wore.

As for its lower body, it had four legs…

Ren Baqian glanced at Tong Lan and saw that she was indeed sitting there with a dull look. She pointed her finger at the robot with her mouth wide open and asked, “Grandpa?”

Ren Baqian laughed mischievously to himself.

Destroy it again this time! Do it! If you dare to do it, I will tell that old man Tong Zhenye that his granddaughter tore him apart!

As for the others, if anyone dared to destroy it, Tong Lan would fight it out with them!

“Grandpa!” Tong Lan returned to her senses after some time and shrieked, “Impossible! I just saw him this morning! This isn’t real!”

“Nonsense! This is your teacher, not Minister Tong. They merely look alike!” Ren Baqian said with his eyes wide open. No qualms about it, this was obviously fake. If this was the Tong Zhenye that Tong Lan saw in the morning, how could she have thought that Ren Baqian transformed her grandpa into this?

Everyone looked like they were full of emotion. Not only did the robot and Tong Zhenye look similar, they were simply identical aside from the four legs that the robot had.

“Why does it look exactly like my grandpa then?” Tong Lan slammed the table, immediately shattering it. All of her hair was standing on end.

“How would I know that they look exactly the same? This thing is like a human—each one has different looks. There’s also a small chance that it may look similar to someone else. This is called a splitting image!” Ren Baqian replied confidently.

Everyone felt suspicious. Was he for real?

“No matter what, this will be your teacher from now on! When I’m not around, ask him any questions that you have. As for how to do so, it’s the same as before,” Ren Baqian instructed.

After he was done speaking, he stopped paying attention to them and left to go talk to the group of new students.

Fortunately, most of the students in the new batch were commoners that were more obedient compared to Tong Lan and the rest. They didn’t make Ren Baqian talk that much. He then picked one of the students from the previous batch to lead the new students in learning the Three Character Classic[1.Three Character Classic: one of the classic Chinese texts] and simplified Chinese characters.

In the past, there was only one batch of students, yet he was still barely able to teach them. Now, with a novice second batch, he had no choice but to pick a few of the commoners with better results from the first batch to assist in teaching. They would take turns every day.

Li Fu grabbed Ren Baqian by the collar the moment he stepped out of the classroom and asked, “Kid, when are you going to give me the thing that I asked for?”

“An anxious person can’t get the good stuff. Sir Tong already sent people to the south to search for rubber a while ago. They have already found it and are bringing it back. If it’s the thing that I’m looking for, then we will be able to start production very soon,” Ren Baqian replied unhurriedly.

“Step on it, kid! I can’t wait any longer!” Li Fu let go of Ren Baqian, and hopped to the rooftop.

Li Fu hadn’t been this anxious in the past. However, when he saw Ren Baqian release the sky lanterns during the New Year, he felt his heart itch and couldn’t wait to fly up into the sky.

Ren Baqian waved his hands at Li Fu. Then, they both left to handle their own business.

Even if Li Fu couldn’t wait, he still had to wait.