The Empress’s Gigolo

“Tie Tou, are you really going to bet on Sir Tu? Didn’t you bet on that guy previously? Now that Sir Tu has already lost two rounds, you still want to place your bets on him?”

“From what I see, Sir Tu is in danger this time around. Have you heard of the news from the north? Previously, that man sent something to Great Xia’s camp and then the commander of Great Xia’s army got eliminated…”

“Hmph! I don’t care about that. I’ve never cared about any of this when I place my bets. All I see are the odds! I bet on whatever gives me higher returns! It’s either I don’t bet or I bet big! All in! All in! I’ll reserve all the seats in the brothel if I win and go back to the mountains to continue hunting if I lose!”

“Your family’s pretty weird too. Big families definitely have some sort of monthly allowance, yet you still want to go hunt in the mountains!” The youth laughed.

“My father said that strength is gained through fighting and not training. It was the same for him as well, fighting from the mountains to Lan City. He always said that a person is useless if he can’t even defeat the beasts in the mountains!”

…

Seven days passed by in a flash.

During these seven days, two concrete cubes that were ten meters tall and ten meters wide were placed about 1.5 kilometers outside the city.

These two cubes were made from pieces of rock that were half a meter thick in diameter and mixed with concrete. The extreme hardness and enormous volume of these cubes was sufficient for the competition.

After seven days had passed, everyone gathered outside the city once again. A group of people looked at some metal pipes that were placed to the side and whispered to each other while speculating about their purpose.

“Are those weapons?”

“Swing them around to hit people?”

“No idea. Who do you think will win this time?”

“Normally, I think that Sir Tu would definitely win. However, after the last two events, I don’t know anymore.”

Everyone nodded their heads.

To the aboriginals, Cardinal Heaven was the highest level that only the strongest people could attain.

Prior to these events, people would laugh if someone said that he was able to defeat a Cardinal Heaven expert.

However, after these two contests, everyone’s opinions began to change.

The principal of the Black Bamboo Academy did indeed have a few methods.

Of course, if both parties were to exchange blows, the Cardinal Heaven expert would definitely win without question. However, since they were competing in other aspects, Black Bamboo Academy’s principal was very unpredictable due to the countless number of tricks he had up his sleeve.

“She’s here—Her Majesty is here.” As the crowd was talking, a loud voice suddenly shouted out. Everyone immediately dispersed to make way for the empress’s imperial carriage.

“This shall be the last one, no matter what the result is.” The empress lay on a thick layer of animal fur in her carriage and held a One Piece[1.One Piece: Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Eiichiro Oda] book in her hands. She said this to Ren Baqian without even lifting her head.

“I know that you have to show what you are worth in order to make them change their way of thinking. However, you can’t possibly keep picking on them!”

“I understand.” Ren Baqian didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

Yeah, it indeed wasn’t very nice to keep picking on them.

They were at least at the Cardinal Heaven level, the strongest level of experts among the aboriginals. He reckoned that Tu Hong might even be questioning his own existence now.

The imperial carriage came to a halt and Ren Baqian jumped out first. He then turned around and stretched out his hand to help the empress down. However, he realized that she was no longer in the carriage. He turned his head again and saw that she was already sitting in the chair above.

“Greetings, Your Majesty,” everyone greeted.

“Okay, get ready to begin,” the empress responded faintly and shifted her attention toward the manga again.

“We don’t have to explain much about the rules anymore. In front of us are two concrete cubes, and the winner shall be determined by the level of destruction they inflict on these cubes,” Xin Zhe stepped forward and explained. “Sir Tu, Principal Ren, get ready.”

“You first, Sir Tu.” Ren Baqian smiled.

Tu Hong looked at him without speaking a word and took big strides toward those two gigantic blocks.

These two blocks were the results of the captives’ labor; the Ministry of Works had engaged them to work day and night on these cubes. They were completed just yesterday. Ren Baqian had already inspected them and was very confident in them.

As they drew closer, the concrete blocks grew larger and larger.

Standing in front of the concrete blocks, Tu Hong’s body was very minute in comparison, and the contrast was quite striking.

This was especially the case when he stood two meters in front of the blocks. At this distance, they almost took up his entire field of view. All he could see was a wall, but they were much thicker than ordinary walls.

Tu Hong’s clothes immediately ripped apart, revealing the blue veins that were creeping through his entire body. The fine vein lines then turned into an ash green color, creeping nonstop around his body. Even those in the distance could feel the intense vigor that he was emitting.

The weaker ones could even feel a constriction in their chests.

Tu Hong took a deep breath, lifted his arms up with a slight bend, and struck a stance with one fist above the other. With a stomp of his feet, he soared into the sky as countless shadows from his fists struck the middle of the concrete block.

Thump! When his fists struck the block, fragments screeched through the air and scattered all over. A one meter deep hole appeared in the middle of the block as cracks spread throughout the block from the point of impact.

Ka… Ka… The cracks crept along the concrete block, causing fragments to start falling off.

At the moment when both of Tu Hong’s feet landed back on the ground…

Boom!

The ten meter concrete cube exploded with a loud bang as it was reduced to countless rock fragments.

Ren Baqian smacked his lips as he stood in the distance. Such a scene was truly astonishing in terms of both visual impact and destructive power.

Tu Hong actually destroyed such a large cube with one strike.

Furthermore, the concrete cube wasn’t hollow, it was completely solid—1,000 cubic meters of solid concrete!

This wasn’t a feat that could be accomplished with a few thousand kilograms of strength.

Thankfully, Ren Baqian had never belittled the skills of this world. Even though it was astonishing, it was still something that he found acceptable.

Li Fu could even destroy a mountain with one strike of his rod. If Ren Baqian were to look at everything in this world from the modern scientific point of view, he would have gone mad a long time ago. He had to accept that many facts in this world were impossible in the eyes of science.

Tu Hong smiled after hearing the gasps of surprise from the people at the side and watching the cube crumble like a landslide. His skin subsequently began to split open all over his body as fresh blood spurted out around three meters into the air. Then, he collapsed backward.

I should be able to win this time around, right? Tu Hong looked at the sky above him and thought to himself.

After having ignited his essence blood the past two rounds, he wasn’t able to regain his full strength.

He gave it his all just to win this round.

Fortunately, he came prepared, with Tu Wan immediately bringing him to the side for the doctor to treat him.

As Tu Wan looked over, she turned her head and said to Ren Baqian in a deep voice, “Sir Ren, it’s your turn.”

“It’s already in the middle of the preparation.” Ren Baqian nodded while assembling the mass killing weapon, a 300 mm mortar.

Considering the amount of weight that he could carry while maximizing the power at the same time, this was the most suitable size that he could find. Its power would be too weak if it was smaller and too heavy for him to bring back if it was bigger. Hence, under the suggestion of Shen Feng, the Messier 87 department produced this custom-made mortar and mortar shell for him.

He brought back the mortar barrel from Earth on his own. Other than being made from a suitable alloy, its precision and range was also reduced to shorten the mortar barrel by a fair bit, which lowered its weight to about 300 kilograms.

The two-legged support bracket and chassis were all manufactured in a hurry by the Ministry of Works, and they weighed 850 kilograms and 1,900 kilograms, respectively. It only had one firing angle, giving it a range of 1.5 kilometers.

As for the mortar shells, Ren Baqian only had one of them.

It weighed 480 kilograms and was composed of 225 kilograms of CL20 explosives, which is 16 times as powerful as the same amount of TNT.

This also meant that this mortar shell had the same power as 3 tons of TNT.

This was indeed a mass killing weapon, not just in name, but also in reality.