The Empress’s Gigolo

The old were indeed wiser. It wasn’t easy making a name in the martial arts world nowadays.

The Liu brothers looked taciturn, but with no difficulty, they managed to show Ren Baqian what the word awesome meant.

That young man would definitely have a phobia of hitting punching bags for the rest of his life.

Ren Baqian was in good spirits and was slightly more impressed with the Liu brothers. They had achieved their objective.

In all honesty, the Liu brothers were aware that they wouldn’t be able to impress the boss, no matter how well they could fight. There were too many that could fight. Those men in the villa could poke them to death with just a finger and send them plastered to the wall with just one slap.

Such experience was what Ren Baqian cared about, and his reaction had proved this point.

Both parties forgot about one thing. Ren Baqian’s reason for asking the brothers to come over was to teach the winged cavalry warriors about the virtue of martial arts… It was about teaching the virtue of martial arts…

The rest of the youths rushed over to their leader. After clearing up the whole situation, they immediately jumped up and started cursing in rage.

“B*stard! Aren’t you embarrassed of yourself?”

“How are you fit to open a martial arts center?”

“F*ck!”

Ren Baqian tilted his head when one of the winged cavalry warriors suddenly made a smart move and walked over as though he had everything under control. Tremors could be felt with every step that he took.

His huge body made those youngsters cower in fear. Their voices paused for a moment before shouting frantically, “You didn’t dare to fight and played dirty. What do you want now?”

They refused to believe that Ren Baqian and his people could do anything to them now.

If Ren Baqian were to do anything to them, they would simply call the police. Then, Ren Baqian would have to bear the consequences.

That winged cavalry warrior walked over beside them with a look of disdain. Keeping silent, he turned his body and swept his leg across. Before those people could even react, his leg swept across the punching bag as a gust of wind swept across their faces.

Boom!

The punching bag which left that young man in pain immediately exploded. The metal ingots shot out like shrapnel from artillery shells. The visual impact made everyone feel the tremendous strength of this winged cavalry warrior.

Ta! Ta! Ta! After a series of sounds, several of them regained their senses. Their faces turned pale when they looked at the wall.

The wall was densely embedded with metal ingots that were three fingers wide and two fingers thick. All of the ingots were deeply embedded in the wall with none of them jutting out on the outside.

That kick didn’t seem like it was executed by a human, but by a Gundam. Otherwise, how was such force created?

Everyone’s eyes and mouths were wide open. They were like fish on land and couldn’t even speak a word.

As beads of sweat rolled down their heads, their faces were deathly pale.

They looked at that winged cavalry warrior and then back at the wall. They unanimously took a few steps back, picked that young man up, and left without a word.

They didn’t even dare to speak a single word.

If that kick landed on their bodies, it probably wouldn’t be any better than getting hit by a truck going at a speed of 100 kilometers per hour.

The only difference was whether they would die in one piece.

They weren’t the only ones frightened. Even Ren Wannian and the Liu brothers were startled.

After those youngsters took off, the trio looked at those two winged cavalry warriors with high respect for their virtue.

“Boss, shall we do some publicity or something?” Ding Jie asked. With the strength of these “mountain kids,” a little bit of publicity would immediately create a stir. For instance, filming that kick and uploading it on the internet.

In his mind, this martial arts culture company would then be able to expand all over the country. Like the Shaolin Monastery, their center would have a huge reputation and become the Mecca of martial arts in the minds of ordinary people.

The only way they differed from other martial arts centers was that they required large amounts of money and energy to promote themselves. Other people might not even buy into their idea.

For their own sake, he simply needed to give them a slight push in the back.

Everyone was suddenly all ears after hearing this.

“No hurry—it’s not time yet. Let’s chill and get new students first. Fate will bring everything together.” Ren Baqian shook his head. Given the strength of the winged cavalry, once someone witnessed it, people would naturally start coming in.

The winged cavalry were simply too strong, so Ren Baqian was confident that they wouldn’t lack students even if they didn’t do any publicity. Like what happened today, news would definitely spread.

If those people lost in a normal fight, there naturally wouldn’t be anything to talk about. They might even begin to slander their opponents after they left.

However, that winged cavalry warrior’s kick had far exceeded mankind’s capability. It would only be more likely for an ordinary person to exaggerate after seeing this, which would only make the martial arts center more famous.

If they did more publicity, the martial arts center would probably be overflowing with people.

The martial arts center had also only just been established, so various systems weren’t exactly refined yet. They didn’t have sufficient experience either and weren’t ready with their preparations.

It was better to take it slow. After all, Ren Baqian’s martial arts center was entirely different from taekwondo gyms, karate clubs, or other existing centers. It involved too many things, and many of them needed to undergo careful consideration.

Ding Jie and Ren Wannian didn’t seem to understand and felt that this was such a pity. Other martial arts centers wished they could become famous, whereas Ren Baqian seemed to be afraid of people knowing their name.

However, they would listen to whatever Ren Baqian said.

“In the future, we shall categorize our disciples into three groups. The first group shall comprise of ordinary external disciples. Those with higher potential shall become internal disciples and form the second group. The last group shall be the core disciples,” Ren Baqian said.

“What will the difference in treatment be?” Ding Jie asked.

“For the ordinary students, it will be as we planned. They will pay 50,000 yuan per year, and we will only impart fighting techniques and train their bodies. For the internal disciples, they will pay 20,000 yuan a year, and we will impart basic fighting techniques. As for the core disciples, their membership will be free of charge. However, they will be required to carry out missions to accumulate credits that they can exchange for techniques,” Ren Baqian explained simply.

Ding Jie and Ren Wannian both found it a little strange. They didn’t understand the purpose of the system that Ren Baqian created. The core disciples actually didn’t have to pay for their membership, but had to carry out missions instead? What kind of missions?

The Liu brothers subsequently focused their attention on the “techniques” that Ren Baqian mentioned.

“That’s all for now. Certain things will become clearer to you in the future.” Ren Baqian waved his hand.

Ren Baqian left soon after and visited another one of his martial arts centers in Pudong. Same as the previous place, there were two winged cavalry warriors overseeing its operations as well.

This center was a little different from the previous one because it actually had a few students.

Ren Baqian knew without thinking that these students definitely had some sort of connection to certain departments. However, it didn’t matter to him—it was impossible to clean out sand. Let them be if they wanted to send their men over.

This time in Shanghai, Ren Baqian opened two martial arts centers, one in Jingan and another in Pudong. Both had a floor area of roughly 1,000 square meters and were established in superb locations.

Other than the training area, every martial arts center had its own dining area and herbal unit. The ingredients used were natural herbs and meat to aid training. These items were brought back from Dayao.

Of course, these privileges weren’t made available to the external disciples. Simply based on these two extra facilities, other martial arts centers couldn’t match up to them. These were things that money couldn’t buy. Plus, Ren Baqian had no plans to sell them either.

Ren Baqian originally intended to open two more martial arts centers in Beijing and Guangzhou, respectively. However, after careful consideration, he wasn’t confident in dispatching the winged cavalry warriors and worried about them getting into trouble.

After settling the issues of the martial arts centers, Ren Baqian left all the subsequent work to other people, leaving both centers to Ding Jie and Ren Wannian to slowly develop. In any case, his request was to let nature take its course. He didn’t want to do publicity or any such activities because it didn’t matter to him whether there was business or not!

He then went back to Dayao and set out to build the paper mill.

On top of that, the laying of the track bed and railroad ties for the ring-shaped railroad had already been completed. Now, Ren Baqian needed to arrange for the laying of the railroad tracks.

130,000 kilograms of steel was used in this railroad project, which was equivalent to Dayao’s total steel production for the last three years. This was the largest amount of resources ever utilized since the empire had been founded, so he had to show results to the officials of the imperial court as soon as possible.

Besides that, there was something else that was even more important. He still had to accompany the empress to watch soap operas, eat meals, laze in the garden, and play cards. He would also occasionally get a little cheeky with her and get punched in the chest with her nuclear-powered fists…