The Empress’s Gigolo

The bichi arched its body and stared at the golden-feathered eagle as it simply flew in circles up above and occasionally let out a distinct cry.

The golden-feathered eagle wasn’t considered one of the top predators in the Sixty Thousand Mountains. Even though eagles like this only had a wingspan of around eight meters, its metallic talons were able to rip apart a black master of equivalent strength. To an ordinary aboriginal, the golden-feathered eagle was considered a very dangerous entity… However, as there were too many ferocious beasts in the Sixty Thousand Mountains, there were many predators in the sky that were even stronger than these eagles.

Besides, the eagle’s meat had a rather delicate taste.

It would easily fall prey to other beasts if it wasn’t cautious.

As such, golden-feathered eagled were normally very cautious and only preyed on weaker beasts in the forest like the ba beasts that always moved around in groups.

There was no telling why, but this eagle had currently set its sights on the bichi. Even though the eagle knew that the little fellow wasn’t easy to deal with, it was still unwilling to leave.

After some time, the bichi looked away and suddenly leaped to another tree without even looking back. It moved around from tree to tree, occasionally revealing its back to the golden-feathered eagle.

The eagle couldn’t stand it any longer and swooped down from the sky.

It could reach speeds of up to 600 kilometers per hour while diving to catch its prey, but it was still too slow compared to the bichi.

This was especially the case when taking action in front of the speed devil.

At the instant when the eagle almost caught the bichi, the bichi suddenly vanished from the tree branch. The eagle’s enormous body and talons immediately broke the branch that was as thick as a fist before crashing straight toward the dense forest below.

The bichi transformed into a streak of red light and scurried over to another tree. Using its momentum, it leaped back, stretching its claws at the eagle’s neck.

In the blink of an eye, the eagle’s neck was torn in half and fresh blood began spurting out, releasing an alluring smell of blood into the forest.

The golden-feathered eagle intended to stake it all while it was falling to the ground and wanted to rip the bichi apart with its metallic talons, but this all came to naught.

The eagle struggled as it fell, breaking a few branches along the way.

It was almost dead when it landed on the ground.

The bichi jumped on its body and bounced off it. It shook its tail lightly and looked extremely pleased with itself.

However, not long after, its eyes opened wide as all of its fur stood on end.

Several meters away, a black animal was staring at it with a cold and cruel gaze.

It was a large bird that stood four meters tall.

The black feathers on its body gave off a metallic sheen.

A look of ridicule was emitted from its eyes.

The bichi was shocked by this frightening beast that it hadn’t noticed before.

However, this was just a slight scare.

The bichi jumped off the golden-feathered eagle’s body and took a few steps toward that beast in an attempt to try it out. It then bounced around and jumped from side to side, periodically shifting its attention between that black beast and the surroundings.

That strange black bird simply stood there and watched the bouncing bichi with eyes of ridicule.

The bichi felt that this was becoming a bit meaningless, so it leaped around ten meters away from that bird, raised up its head, and looked at it. It felt pretty uncomfortable doing this and jumped up on a tree branch. The bichi then looked down at that bird and finally felt content.

Bark! The bichi cried out.

Its voice conveyed a sense of provocation.

The black bird started moving after that.

Its movements were like streaks of black lightning.

It slammed straight into the tree beneath the bichi.

Boom! The tree immediately snapped in half and flew away.

Even though the bichi managed to jump off in time, it was shocked by this bird’s frightening speed!

It was fast!

Very fast!

This was the first time the bichi had encountered a living thing other than itself that was able to move so swiftly!

The black bird dashed toward the tree that the bichi was standing on. It waved its wings like metallic blades and chopped down the tree.

This was how these two beasts started fighting in the forest.

The bichi ran while the black bird chased and cleared out a path in the forest like a bulldozer.

Trunks after trunk, the gigantic trees fell with loud rumbles.

Soon after, the bichi started cursing.

How could this fellow be so fast? Wasn’t it tired yet? The black bird chased the bichi so closely, that it couldn’t seem to lose it no matter how fast it moved or where it hid. That bird was like a maggot stuck to its body that followed it wherever it went.

It didn’t even have time to catch its breath!

…

Shang Ping Village atop Mount Ping Liang.

When the empress and her party arrived, the entire village naturally came out to greet and welcome them.

However, the empress noticed that many of them had wounds on their bodies.

Ren Baqian glanced across and saw that there were roughly 600 people. The men were wearing shorts made of animal hide, whereas the ladies were wearing shorts and tube tops. There were only a few elders who were clothed in fabric.

Many of them had wounds on their bodies.

There were at least 20 of them that sported different wounds.

These 20 people comprised of both men and women. However, the one similarity they shared was that they were all at the Kismet Heaven level, which was equivalent to the Earth Wheel level.

The other Four-way Heaven villagers were mostly fine.

“Shang Ping Village welcomes Your Majesty’s arrival. This is your first time visiting our village in over ten years and we hope that you will forgive us for our belated welcome!” A few elders dressed in fabric came forward and spoke to the empress. Even though they looked peaceful on the outside, she could sense that they were worried.

“What happened?” the empress asked as she raised her eyebrows. Even though this Shang Ping Village was merely a small village, it was located pretty close to the Forest Pillar Barriers and Ya City. It was a place where the aboriginals would pass by whenever they went into the mountains, and as such, its condition had always been pretty well maintained. Many of the weaker villagers had even given up the tradition of being hunters and became middlemen instead.

They worked as guides who earned a small fee by bringing aboriginals who came out of the mountains to Ya City. In Ya City, they could sell herbs and ores as well as buy salt and metals.

Since this village was located outside the mountains, it had always been very peaceful without the disturbance of ferocious beasts.

However, they seemed to have faced problems lately, especially the Kismet Heaven experts who were wounded. If remembering correctly, Shang Ping Village very rarely fought with people. After taking in some people from other villages, there were at least 60 Kismet Heaven experts in the village.

Currently, there were only about 20 of them who showed themselves. What had happened to the rest of them?

“You must be tired from the journey, Your Majesty. Please rest in our village!” The few elders ignored her question and invited the empress into the village.

Shang Ping Village was a small village, but they had quite a number of houses that were built out of stone. Many of them were vacant and were used to house traveling aboriginals, giving them a place to rest.

Furthermore, this housing was all free-of-charge.

Due to this hospitality and its strategic location, Shang Ping Village had a good reputation among the other villages.

Ren Baqian smelled the lingering scent of blood the moment he stepped into the village.

Following this scent, he saw about eight corpses that were placed to the side and covered with straw.

The empress asked, “What exactly happened? I wish to know.”

A few of the villagers pondered for a moment before answering, “We didn’t want to impose on Your Majesty. A few months ago, an extremely strong crow general appeared out of nowhere and claimed the territory nearby. We tried to chase it away initially, but many of our people ended up getting hurt. Now, whenever we go out to hunt, it will often attack us. If this goes on, we are afraid that we won’t be able to stay here any longer!”

The empress raised her eyebrows and asked, “A crow general at the Cardinal Heaven level?”

“Yes! It must be at the Cardinal Heaven level! During this period, there were exactly 31 of our villagers who were either wounded or killed by it!” The elders nodded.

Ren Baqian pensively looked at the empress and asked, “Your Majesty, there aren’t many crow generals that are this powerful, right?”

“Very rarely heard of!” Gong Zheng, the commander of the winged cavalry, answered in a deep voice.

Ren Baqian nodded. He saw a Cardinal Heaven level crow general last year in Tianjing Basin that was one of the Six Door’s three strongest creatures. All of the people and other creatures were killed during the last battle, except for that crow general. It was the only one that got away!

Could this be the same one?

After all, such ferocious beasts normally had their own territory and wouldn’t easily move to an unfamiliar place.

Furthermore, Shang Ping Village was located at the outskirts of the Sixty Thousand Mountains. There should be no reason for it to appear at such a place.

This was especially the case for a crow general because it was a very rare creature to begin with.

It would still make sense if this was the same one that had appeared in Tianjing Basin, although he wasn’t sure how it ended up here all the way from Tianjing Basin.

Soon after, Ren Baqian felt a fire burning within himself.

He had highly coveted that crow general. Not only was it extremely strong and powerful, but its entire body was so tough that it was as if it was made out of metal. Most importantly, it could be used as a mount.

Back then, he remembered seeing the mangshan riding on it and escaping with a monkey.

It would be great if the empress could subdue this crow general! Even though it wasn’t as awe-inspiring as Qi Shui the kirin, it would still be a top-notch mount.

One important thing was that they had obtained the records of this crow general back when the manuals of the Six Doors were handed over.

Even though these records were currently at the school, Ren Baqian could communicate with people over the radio at anytime and could get someone to read the records to him.