The Empress’s Gigolo

Ren Baqian looked unhurriedly at the craftsmen of the Ministry of Works as they assembled the mortar.

The base of the mortar weighed around two tons, yet it only took two people to carry it.

One man was already able to carry the two-legged support bracket that weighed 850 kilograms.

Ren Baqian sometimes felt that it was a waste of talent not sending these guys to build the pyramids.

All of the mortar’s components that were made by the Ministry of Works were produced with the aid of a blueprint. Even the slots of the connection points were made by hand. Although there were some minor issues with it, there weren’t any major problems after assembly. If any problems occurred, for instance, the connection piece being slightly too large, the craftsmen would simply be able to hammer and file it down to solve the problem.

There was absolutely nothing wrong with the phrase “force births miracles.”

After 15 minutes, the mortar was fully assembled.

“Your Majesty, please get everyone to fall back,” Ren Baqian said.

The empress took her eyes off the manga and looked at him with narrowed eyes.

The sun shining from behind Ren Baqian was a little glaring.

“We are already so far away. Isn’t this enough?” The empress pointed toward the concrete blocks in the distance.

“It’s too close, and I’m afraid that accidents may happen. It’s best if we can fall back 2,000 steps,” Ren Baqian said.

For the convenience of spectating, everyone was merely 200 meters away from the concrete blocks. The crowd was really too close and could easily be injured accidentally.

Besides, some components of this mortar were fabricated in Dayao. If anything were to happen, for instance, if the mortar shell landed off target, at least half of the spectators there would be wiped out.

Even if the Cardinal Heaven elders were to survive, the majority of the lower level officials would either be dead or severely injured.

Even if no problems occured, the kill radius of the shrapnel was still pretty large and definitely overlapped with the current location of the crowd.

The empress looked at Ren Baqian suspiciously and asked, “You aren’t using a nuclear warhead, right?”

She was very fearful of the effects of nuclear warheads. The impact of those things wasn’t something that men could withstand.

If a nuclear warhead were to explode far enough away, she might still be able to escape in time.

If it exploded too close, its effects would be devastating. She remembered it very clearly from the last time she watched a video and saw photos of its aftermath.

“It’s not a nuclear warhead. The government has very strict control over those things, and they will never let anyone get ahold of that stuff. However, the power of this weapon is pretty strong as well. Otherwise, how am I going to make them wholeheartedly accept?”

Again, the empress looked suspiciously at Ren Baqian before asking for Xin Zhe and ordering, “Make everyone fall back 1,500 steps.”

“Yes!” Without question, Xin Zhe turned around and set forth to make arrangements.

After that, the crowd behind them started getting chaotic. Even though they didn’t know why Her Majesty gave such an order, they gradually started moving further back.

“Could it be that Ren Baqian’s move is too powerful and that Her Majesty is afraid it would hurt us?” Liu Ruoyao asked with an odd accent as she moved backward with her hands behind her back.

“Who knows!” Hong Xian responded casually. “There must be a reason for Her Majesty to make such arrangements! We will find out shortly.”

She then added in a cold voice, “Yaozi, you’re slightly overreacting—you are actually questioning Her Majesty now!”

Liu Ruoyao stared blankly for a moment before replying softly, “I’m sorry.”

Hong Xian shook her head and warned her, “It’s not a matter of being sorry, but acting like this is a little dangerous.”

“I will take note.”

Once everyone fell back, Ren Baqian got the people around him to clear the area in front of and behind the mortar. He then opened up a box and carefully lifted out a mortar shell that was roughly the size of a human.

Even though this thing wouldn’t explode that easily, the fact that he was hugging such a large bomb somehow made people feel ill at ease.

With everyone watching, Ren Baqian carefully placed the mortar shell into the mortar barrel. Subsequently, he took a few steps back and shouted, “Shi Hu!”

“Sir!” Shi Hu stepped forward looking doubtful. Why did Ren Baqian call out for him?

“Pull this trigger when I give the command later on.” Ren Baqian pointed to the trigger at the side of the rear section.

“Understood!” Shi Hu nodded.

“Be careful,” Ren Baqian reminded him.

After hearing this, Shi Hu immediately attached importance to this task.

Ren Baqian ran a few meters to the side, covered his ears with both hands, and said, “Pull the trigger.”

BANG! Accompanied by a loud roar, everyone in the surroundings felt a tremor beneath their feet.

The people with sharp eyes could see a black object soaring into the sky amid the smoke.

After all, the initial speed of this mortar shell wasn’t exactly that fast.

The crowd looked anxiously at the sky and at the cube in front of them as they waited to see what exactly would happen.

A few moments later, everyone could vaguely see a small object screech through the air as it fell from the sky.

BOOM!

The enormous explosion made the crowd lose their hearing for a brief period of time. Following the explosion, everyone felt the ground shake violently as if there was an earthquake. At the location where the two concrete cubes used to sit, a gigantic ball of fire and smoke was rising up into the air.

The shock wave propelled the heated air in all directions like a seventh-grade gale, which made some of the weaker people lose their footing and fall on each other.

Shrapnel flew out over 1,000 meters from the center of the explosion and smashed into people’s bodies, but they didn’t seem to feel a thing.

Everyone was dumbstruck after witnessing this unexpected sight.

Nobody was even paying attention to Ren Baqian as he squatted to the side while covering his ears.

The sight was like doomsday—it was something that nobody had ever seen before.

Not even the strongest person in the audience could strike a blow with such impact.

Regardless of whether it was Tong Zhenye, Tu Wan, Qin Chuan, anyone from the Zhang family, Qingyun Sword who was watching this while leaning idly against the city walls, the students, or Hong Xian and her people, everyone was stupefied after seeing something that was so unexpected.

Everyone was stunned, even those in Lan City.

After all, the blast occurred at a close distance. The explosion took place only 2,000 meters away from Lan City. One could even feel the violent tremors from the other end of the city.

Needless to say, that deafening noise sounded as if the gods were in a rage.

Once the smoke dissipated, the concrete cube in the distance had vanished. Even the remnants of the cube that Tu Hong had previously shattered were also gone.

All that was left in that spot was a gaping hole with a ten meter radius.

There was barely even any grass left on the ground within 100 meters of that hole. Even trees outside this range were damaged as well.

There was absolute silence outside the city.

Afterward, a series of gasps could be heard all around.

“Your Majesty, let me go have a look!” Tong Zhenye’s eyes appeared to beam with radiance. He vanished in a flash and reappeared in the distance before coming back again a few seconds later with smoke rising from his beard.

“Hot, hot, it’s too hot!” Tong Zhenye patted his beard as soon as he landed, then asked Feng Hou miserably, “How is my beard? I seem to smell something burning…”

Feng Hou collected himself from the shock and took a look at Tong Zhenye. Next, he said, “Shave it! It’s hopeless!”

Tong Zhenye’s entire beard had shrivelled up.

At this moment, everybody collected themselves. Soon, the entire crowd outside the city became chaotic. Everyone was discussing what had just happened in shocked tones.

Everyone knew that Ren Baqian definitely had a trump card, but little did they expect that this ace was so powerful. It left them all astonished.

After two hours had passed, the temperature of the blast area was beginning to cool, so people were able to get close.

When they stepped forward to take a look, all they saw was an enormous hole that was more than 20 meters deep and had a radius of ten meters.

Now, they could see that the power of this thing wasn’t just great, it was practically terrifying.

After all the gasping about this frightening and destructive power, the crowd’s expressions began to look odd.

The concrete cube was inside that hole in the ground.

However, it wasn’t that big anymore. Aside from the fact that it was now about a quarter of its original size, it looked completely perfect

Tu Hong’s cube had been completely shattered into fragments and appeared to have currently vanished. It seemed to have been blasted away by the shock wave just now.

The big piece of concrete inside the hole had to be Ren Baqian’s target.

If the two of them were competing to make holes in the ground, then the winner would undoubtedly be Ren Baqian. The might of that explosion just now was unquestionable. Its visual effects were already shocking enough, yet its might made the people feel even more astonished.

However, their targets were in fact those two large concrete cubes.

In other words, even though Ren Baqian unleashed a frightening and destructive power that exceeded everyone’s imagination, he still lost…

Ren Baqian was rather speechless when he looked at the concrete cube in the hole.

He then laughed pretty awkwardly and said, “It was off target… It seems that Sir Tu has won this round!”

By the look of it, the mortar shell had brushed past the concrete cube and landed on the ground before exploding. Since the explosion occurred at the bottom, a large part of the cube was destroyed. The remains of the top part then got blasted upward before landing in the hole…

Everyone was speechless when they heard this. Xu Peng and the rest of the people at the side were astonished!

They were even more astonished now than when they saw the explosion from before!

You built such a big weapon, created such a big hole, then said that you missed the target?

Huh? Are you trying to be funny? Huh?

“Ah! Ah! Ah! My pocket money!” Tong Lan crumbled. If not for someone holding her back, she would have rushed forward to fight it out with Ren Baqian.

“Hahahaha. That’s what I said. Regardless of what you guys said, do it big if you want to gamble! Bet it all on whatever pays the best odds! I’ll reserve all the seats in the brothel if I win and go back to the mountains to continue hunting if I lose!” A shrewd looking young man was laughing his head off. “Dear sirs, it’s my treat tonight at House Jinyu!”

This crazy laughter immediately attracted countless hostile looks and a gigantic fist!