The Empress’s Gigolo

Over the next few days, Ren Baqian kept trying nonstop. During the last attempt, he died due to excessive bleeding at the border of the Infinite Sword Field. The closest he got was about 200 meters away from the endpoint when a sword suddenly shot out and pierced through his throat.

However, Ren Baqian knew that he was very close to breaking through. No matter how the metal dust and the sword formation changed in this Jinrui Land, his entire body had always been forging ahead. With a distance of a couple of hundred additional meters, he could probably break through if he was lucky the next time. Even if lady luck wasn’t on his side, it should only take another ten to 20 tries.

Another two weeks passed.

He was missing three fingers on one hand, whereas the other arm had been severed at the elbow. He was also missing an ear and blinded in one eye. There wasn’t a single part of his body that was in a complete state, and he looked extremely miserable.

However, all of this was incapable of stopping the fervor in his heart.

He finally managed to walk across the sword formation.

It had taken him more than seven months and over 200 deaths. There wasn’t one part of his body that hadn’t sustained any injuries.

In any case, he finally managed to walk past it.

“Ah!” Ren Baqian looked at the sky and bellowed. He mustered all his strength and strode forward. However, he felt a sharp pain in his knee before even completing half of the remaining journey. He also lost his sense of balance and fell forward.

At that moment, the metallic force field that was suspended in the air gushed down at his leg that was already riddled with injuries.

Thump! Ren Baqian’s heart trembled as he slammed against the ground. The feeling arose of falling and bleeding to death time after time. He clenched his teeth and thought to himself, Am I going to fail again this time?

However, even if he were to fail, he couldn’t simply stay here and wait to die. Even if he was able to get an inch closer to that sword, his hopes of succeeding the next time would be slightly higher.

Ren Baqian gritted his teeth and used his limbs to crawl forward. The wounds on his body were smeared with soil, and at the same time, he left a long trail of blood on the ground.

His energy level grew lower and lower, and he started feeling colder as well. However, he was also getting closer to that sword.

If others could see this scene within his consciousness, they would be able to feel the tenacity that was emitting from his body.

If others were to repeatedly die so many times, the weak-mindednes would have already given up long ago. Even if an ordinary person didn’t crumble, there would still be a huge change in their temperament.

This time around, Ren Baqian had persevered for so long and had never given up, so much so that he would simply cry and laugh to himself just to keep himself going.

Even he himself had never thought that he could have such strong tenacity.

One and a half years in Dayao had tempered him into such a state.

Even though every movement he made caused him excruciating pain, he was still able to crawl forward bit by bit with his arm that was severed at the elbow and his leg that was exposed at the knee cap. He had even lost his sense of time. No matter how weak his body became, he was still able to stay alive and crawl toward that sword with every last breath.

That sword’s handle was red, but he wasn’t sure what it was made of.

It was different from the other masterless swords. The entire sword was dazzling and appeared as if its master had been meticulously polishing it every day.

There weren’t any designs on it either. There was an inclined plane at the middle portion of the sword, which made it much thicker than both sides of the sword’s edge.

“Heh, heh, hehe… hehehe…” Ren Baqian laughed as he lay on the ground. With that sword right in front of him, his fingertips could almost feel the chill that was emanating from it.

He could finally touch it!

“Stand up, stand up…” Ren Baqian had enough of laughing. He mumbled to himself as he used his hand that was missing three fingers to slowly push himself up. He then realized that his missing leg and the stump of his left arm made it impossible for him to stand up from this position.

He gritted his teeth and pressed his mangled arm on the ground. The pain he felt from the injuries all over his body and the agony when his flesh rubbed against the soil made him almost scream out.

It took him a minute to do something as simple as standing up. Blood and sweat incessantly dripped from his body to the soil.

If he had moved slower, he probably would have felt less pain, but it would also have taken a much longer time.

Ren Baqian didn’t know how much longer his body would be able to hold out in its current state.

With his exposed knee stump pressing into the soil, he struggled to kneel on the ground. Finally, he was able to stretch his arm out and reach for the sword.

Reaching for it gave off a very mild and gentle feeling. It was as if he was touching skin.

Regardless of whether Ren Baqian touched the hilt or the grooves in the blade, he somehow felt that it was wrapped in human skin that was dyed red with blood.

“Haaaaa…” Ren Baqian let out a long breath that reeked of blood.

All that was left for him to do was to pull this sword out.

Ren Baqian tried very hard to raise his arm, but that sword simply wouldn’t budge.

He tried three times in a row and exhausted a great deal of the tiny amount of energy he had remaining. Yet, that sword still didn’t even move an inch.

“I’m not using enough strength—I have to stand up,” Ren Baqian mumbled to himself as he panted heavily.

His anguish and the blood loss made it very difficult for him to even breathe.

Ren Baqian used his two fingers and his palm to firmly grasp the hilt of the sword. He shifted his center of gravity forward and tried very hard to use his arm to prop himself up.

Zzz! Unexpectedly, that sword sank downward due to his body weight. It let out a sound as if it had pierced through something beneath it.

“Hehe! Hehehehe!” Ren Baqian laughed ineffably. From the moment he saw this sword, he thought that he was supposed to pull it out, but he was actually supposed to push it down…

If he arrived here in one piece, there was no telling how long it would take for him to realize this.

He was truly lucky.

As he thought this to himself, his body could no longer support itself, so he fell to the ground. His consciousness grew more and more indistinct, and he could return to reality any moment now.

Rumble!

The skies shook, and the ground rumbled. Everything in this world was swaying and crumbling.

As cracks filled the sky, the ground began peeling off.

…

This entire world felt as if it was suspended in the air. Now that the layer that was supporting this world had been punctured, the entire place began to crumble and peel…

As this world peeled away, it shattered into fragments toward the end, leaving behind a boundless void.

All of Ren Baqian’s sensory organs had been stripped off, including his sight, hearing, smell, touch, strength, and even his sense of pain as well as his sense of time. Except for his ability to think, which was something he was still able to slowly carry out, he had been stripped of everything.

He drifted in the darkness like this.

In addition, Ren Baqian’s body was undergoing some changes in the outside world.

The moment that he was about to break through, the metal that was counteracting his lungs suddenly brought about an indescribable change. The impurities that were originally in his lungs had been cleared out. Ren Baqian, who had lost all consciousness, began to cough up black mucus from his mouth.

These were impurities that had adhered to his lungs over many years. During this change, they were all peeled off and excreted.

At the same time, his five viscera had also subsequently become one whole entity. The small amount of essence qi that had formed in his body in the past was scattered all over. At present, all of it started rushing toward his five viscera. Then, it began circulating in a fixed sequence. From time to time, some of the essence qi vaporized into various parts of his body. Simultaneously, some of his blood also transformed into new essence qi that joined the circulation.