The Empress’s Gigolo

“At this point, I want to ask all of you a question. What’s the biggest difference between humans and beasts?”

To answer the people’s doubts, Ren Baqian raised his voice and asked this as he jumped out of the empress’s imperial carriage.

“Language? Emotions? Or writing?”

Everyone simply stared blankly when that heard this. Even though they didn’t know how these things that Ren Baqian brought up were related to the duel, they started to ponder about the differences between humans and beasts without any self-restraint.

Apparently, very few people had thought about this extremely simple question. The things that Ren Baqian mentioned, like language, emotions, and writing, were all just a subset of the differences, right?

“No, but let me tell you that the biggest difference between humans and beasts is that people can use their brains and work with tools instead of simply relying on primitive instincts or their fangs and claws! Since the time that our ancestors first learned how to use fire, mankind has already embarked on a separate path from beasts. When our ancestors first learned how to break away from the boundary of the olden days and began keeping a record of events, they started passing on their knowledge from generation to generation, building a foundation for us to continue progressing. This is how they passed on their knowledge and wisdom! And this contest has proven the value of tools. A Four-way Heaven expert was able to defeat a Kismet Heaven expert by simply using a few little gadgets. Even though this wasn’t absolute, it bears a rather important significance.”

“What exactly were those things?” someone asked.

“Tools!” Ren Baqian replied without hesitation. “A few extremely low-cost items.”

He walked toward Du Laoliu before stopping a short distance away from him and saying, “I’ll deal with you later. Give me those things you have on you.”

After catching the two smelly stun grenades that Du Laoliu threw over, Ren Baqian knitted his eyebrows, held a grenade in his fingers, and showed it to everyone.

Then, he explained, “This is a stun grenade! A very simple little thing made using ammonium and magnesium. These two elements can be found in plants or soil. To explain further, after plants and soil undergo some processing and manufacturing, they can be turned into this—something which is extremely cheap. How cheap? With the presence of well-developed technology, it only costs a few coppers to produce one of these. As for its effects, I believe you have already seen them. Even a Kismet Heaven expert will lose his vision and hearing for a short period of time if it explodes within close proximity.

A person is considered to have pretty good innate talent upon reaching the Kismet Heaven level by the age of 20. However, any ordinary person can manufacture 10 to 100 of these grenades in one day, make 10 to 100 experts lose their senses of sight and hearing, and trample on them. If an ordinary person doesn’t make use of weapons or tools, how many of them would it take to defeat a Kismet Heaven expert? 100 of them? 1,000 of them? This disparity of 100, 1,000, or 10,000 men is eliminated when using tools.

Apart from using this stun grenade, one of the key factors to Du Laoliu’s victory was the stun baton, which is an instrument that stores electricity. That’s right, it’s the same lightning that splits open the sky which you have seen and dread! With the appropriate methods, it can be used as a tool. It can also be used in other applications, not just as a weapon. I don’t need to explain too much about this because you will probably be able to see it for yourselves in the coming days.

What I want to say is that knowledge and culture are all it takes to manufacture tools. This is my intention for setting up the academy—to allow the descendants of the aboriginals to learn this knowledge. My intention has never been to take in useless people! The school isn’t a garbage chute, but the starting point that will change everything!”

“Perhaps to all of you, Du Laoliu is a useless person with regard to martial arts, so you might despise him and see no value in him.” Ren Baqian turned around and looked at the Du, Shi, and Tu families before continuing, “But to me, Du Laoliu and the students of the school are the future of Dayao. They represent the success of Dayao’s future. This is the reason why I am standing here and explaining all of this to you!”

Ren Baqian’s voice wasn’t loud at all, yet everyone in the vicinity remained in absolute silence and had perplexed looks on their faces. Ren Baqian’s words had too great of an impact on them and had practically shattered the notions and values that they had always had.

“Yagui seems so manly today!” The students in the surroundings clenched their fists tightly after hearing what Ren Baqian said. There had never been a single person who made them feel valued and never a single person who valued them this much before.

He said that they were the future of Dayao in front of so many people, and this made the students feel overwhelmed with emotion.

Even Du Laoliu, who was standing among the crowd, was emotionally moved.

Everyone’s faces kept constantly changing. The notions that they had always had made them want to deny Ren Baqian’s’ words, but they didn’t know how to refute him. What had just happened proved the power of his words and persuaded them.

These two notions continued to fight nonstop in their minds!

However, at this moment, someone’s voice immediately rang out and declared, “I don’t believe this!”

Everyone turned their heads, only to see a tall and husky man walking out of the crowd with a gloomy face. It was Tu Yu’s father, Tu Hong.

“In this world, strength is the only principle. Our ancestors used their strength to make a living from the jaws of fearsome beasts, and we will use our strength to conquer Dayao.(TLC. Great Xia or one of the other nearby empires?) I only believe in my own strength!” Tu Hong articulated every word clearly.

At this moment, many people felt the same way as him. Nobody was willing to let someone immediately deny the principles of the aboriginal way of life, principles they had relied upon for so many years. It was just that nobody directly voiced this out loud.

After Tu Hong articulated his thoughts, there were many people who agreed with him.

“Strength? That’s right, force is a part of strength. However, brains and tools are also a part of strength. What you see is only the physical strength of a person and not his other attributes,” Ren Baqian responded unhurriedly.

“Those are unorthodox! Take the Yun Nation for instance—how can unorthodox methods thrive? Under the blades of Dayao’s ferocious warriors, they weren’t even able to withstand a single blow!”

“A very narrow-minded way of thinking, but I can understand this. If that’s the case, do you want to have a fight with me? Shall we see if these unorthodox methods are truly incapable of withstanding a single blow like you said? Shall we see if the strength that you have so much faith in is actually that mighty?” Ren Baqian tilted his head and smiled.

Regardless of whether Tu Hong was angry about Tu Yu’s loss just now or whether he had a different opinion, Ren Baqian felt that it was time to show everyone the power of technology.

It had been so long since he first arrived in this world, and he had seen many experts. He also had considerable knowledge about the strengths of a Cardinal Heaven expert. Even after witnessing the duel between Tu Yu and Du Laoliu, there were still people who voiced their objections. Ren Baqian decided to take this opportunity to completely turn around their way of thinking.

A Man Wheel expert defeating a Cardinal Heaven expert should probably be shocking enough! It should be able to let them understand that real strength didn’t only come from their muscles.

Everyone immediately took a deep breath when they heard Ren Baqian’s words.

Ren Baqian was only at the Man Wheel level, which was equivalent to the Four-way Heaven level of the aboriginal system. Even though Tu Hong had just made a breakthrough to the Cardinal Heaven level, he still possessed the strength of a Cardinal Heaven expert.

There was a disparity of two levels between the two of them.

Even a comparison between a muscular man and an infant wasn’t sufficient to describe this disparity.

Ren Baqian was simply crazy!

Tu Hong was a Cardinal Heaven expert, not a Kismet Heaven expert. The fight would be over before Ren Baqian could take out his tools or even react in time.

“Are you for real?” There was an ominous glint in Tu Hong’s eyes.