The Empress’s Gigolo

The words of Ya Sheng caused a stir.

The winged cavalry warriors in the group were recruited from the Sixty Thousand Mountains, so many of them had heard of the xiong yan before.

They heard of it through the legends passed down by aboriginals who passed through their villages.

According to these legends, 650 kilometers south of the Ya Family village, there was a red mountain called Mount Tu.

Some people said that a long, long time ago, there was a herd of beasts there. They were powerful, stronger than Cardinal Heaven experts, wreaked havoc in all directions, and destroyed umpteen villages.

Subsequently, an aboriginal expert gathered many people from the villages to attack and destroy the whole herd.

That expert perished there while many villages suffered great casualties.

That mountain was stained with the blood of the beasts and the aboriginals.

From then on, not even a blade of grass grew on Mount Tu.

Nearly 100 years ago, that mountain was occupied by a fierce animal known as a xiong yan.

Standing at 25 meters tall, it had a human-like face, short black hair, a silver stripe on its back, was tailless, and could walk upright .

As soon as that beast appeared, it destroyed a nearby village, but it remained within 50 kilometers of Mount Tu and caused no further damage. Furthermore, it was powerful, so no one sent any forces to fight against it.

However, this beast was said to be a killer. It didn’t only kill for food like other animals, but also killed for pleasure. As a result, it was called a xiong yan.

“Are you sure it’s a xiong yan?” Gong Zheng frowned as he looked at the dense forest in front.

“It should be correct. I have been in the vicinity of Mount Tu and saw a xiong yan once. It was quite a distance away and was hunting for a murderer on the run who had entered its territory. I took advantage of the distraction to escape.” Ya Sheng looked upset while speaking. The memory of seeing that animal was enough to make him perturbed.

“Are there any other roads?” Gong Zheng asked.

“If we take a detour, it will take at least one more week and we will have to go through Bellyworm Valley.”

After hearing this, Gong Zheng looked even gloomier..

Bellyworms were palm-sized insects that weren’t powerful. The problem was that they came out en masse and even beasts avoided them out of fear.

It was said that Bellyworm Valley was full of bellyworms, which was a greater threat to the group than the xiong yan.

“Come with me to see Her Majesty.”

After listening to them, the empress pondered for a little while and asked, “How powerful is a xiong yan?”

“Your Majesty, there was a Cardinal Heaven expert in the village that it destroyed. He went missing after the village was destroyed, so he must have perished!” As Ya Sheng recalled the rumors at that time, his eyes betrayed some of his fear.

Cardinal Heaven experts were regarded like immortals by the aboriginals and were considered the apex masters.

The fact that such an expert was unexpectedly defeated by a xiong yan and couldn’t even escape showed how horrifying the xiong yan was.

Ren Baqian thought of other possibilities as he listened. That Cardinal Heaven expert could have died trying to protect the villagers or trying to help the villagers stall for time.

Although that beast was very powerful, it shouldn’t reach the point where even a Cardinal Heaven expert couldn’t escape.

After all, this was the middle section of the Sixty Thousand Mountains and a long way off from the deepest areas.

Beasts at the Cardinal Heaven level were rarely seen in this area, not to mention such an extremely powerful beast.

Still, just in case, Ren Baqian said, “Your Majesty, how about turning back and not going to the Earth Yin Spring. If we encounter danger and lose manpower due to this mission, it will not be worth it.”

The empress shot him a glance and replied, “I want to take a look. I want to see how awesome this xiong yan is!”

“Your Majesty!” Gong Zheng spoke up hastily to stop her.

“Don’t try to persuade me. I’m just taking a look.” The empress waved her hands.

“Your Majesty, in that case, I will follow you!” Ren Baqian quickly added.

Gong Zheng looked askance at him. Wouldn’t Ren Baqian be a burden instead?

“If the empress and I do not come back in two hours, retreat to the place we camped yesterday and wait for three days. We will certainly come back,” Ren Baqian said to Gong Zheng.

The empress immediately understood Ren Baqian’s idea.

“Your Majesty, please wait a moment.” Ren Baqian decided that it was better to bring Lin Qiaole along.

He might be able to use her as a human shield.

From quite a distance away, the beast roared again, which made Gong Zheng feel even more worried.

Beasts wouldn’t normally roar like this all the time.

Beasts would only do so when faced with a formidable enemy that was stronger than them.

Was there another animal that was as formidable as a xiong yan?

When did the middle area of the Sixty Thousand Mountains become so dangerous?

Ren Baqian searched through the group and found Lin Qiaole lying on the back of a jumping goat.

He followed up with a kick to her buttocks!

Lin Qiaole jumped up and responded by clawing at Ren Baqian.

Ren Baqian felt that something was amiss and tried his best to avoid the strike by moving back, but he still felt a chill on his face, followed by a tingling sensation and warm liquid flowing down his face.

He saw Lin Qiaole extending her nails by an inch and glaring at him.

“I’m waking you up to eat candy!” Ren Baqian said calmly.

He was used to getting scratches on his face, and the wounds would be fine after putting some medicine on them.

“Oh!” Lin Qiaole was furious one moment and serene the next.

Although she didn’t know when she would get this good offer again, it was still a good thing to get candy. Even getting kicked during her sleep didn’t make her angry.

Ren Baqian took some White Rabbit Creamy Candies from behind his waist and threw them to her.

“There’s work to be done. Follow me!”

After he brought Lin Qiaole to see the empress, they left the group from the current location and entered the dense forest as a trio.

The trees in the forest were tens of meters tall, and the undergrowth was as tall as a human. It was difficult for ordinary people to move even a single step, but it didn’t affect the three of them much.

The empress and Lin Qiaole flashed about on the branches.

Meanwhile, Ren Baqian had to occasionally use vines to aid his progress, and the other two had to slow down to allow him to keep up.

A distance of a thousand meters wasn’t considered far for them, and they arrived after a few minutes. The deafening roar was even louder and was painful to the ears.

Ren Baqian jumped toward a branch in front of him and grabbed at a hanging vine when he was three or four meters from reaching the branch. The instant he touched the vine, it didn’t feel like a vine. Instead, it felt slippery and followed him as he fell to the ground.

Frightened, he spun to look at the vine, and it turned out to be a slender snake that was six or seven meters long. The snake was writhing and trying to bite him.

A figure clawed at the snake and instantly divided it into six parts.

Lin Qiaole carried Ren Baqian, stamped against a tree trunk, and landed on a branch.

“That gave me a fright!” Ren Baqian said as his heart palpitated in his chest.

Mistaking a snake for a vine was terrifying.

Many of the snakes here were poisonous, but luckily, he hadn’t been bitten.

Ren Baqian tried to stay as quiet as possible because he was afraid of being detected by the beast. However, he also knew that it wasn’t possible to hide from it at such a close distance.

In general, beasts were more sensitive than humans.

Fortunately, the other party didn’t know what kind of opponent it was facing at the moment and didn’t have time to pay attention to them.

He jumped over another two branches and felt strange.

There was no open space around, just tall trees, various types of vines everywhere, and all kinds of vegetation on the ground.

Based on the roar, the other party should be in front of them.

It was said to be 25 meters tall… How could such a large creature be crammed in a forest like this?

Yet, the roar came from the grass below the slope! However, the three of them didn’t see the giant beast that was expected.

Instead, they saw a familiar figure.

The bichi stood on a branch and looked in a particular direction with uncertainty in its small eyes.

Following the direction of its gaze, the three people finally saw the so-called “xiong yan.”

Standing at about one meter tall with a grey head and brown fur everywhere else, an animal was waving its pair of small claws and roaring at the bichi.

As it opened its mouth, it unleashed a roar that was totally incongruous with its size. The sound was thunderous and full of ferocity, but it didn’t match the creature’s size and face at all.

It was like a rabbit defiantly roaring like a T-Rex.

Its funny looking face was filled with anger, and it looked puzzled.

All along, it just needed to roar to make all the animals around it disappear!

Why was this one not running away?

It was getting tired of roaring!

Meanwhile, the bichi was also confused. Why was this plaything roaring? It didn’t fight or run, but just stood there and roared!

Furthermore, how was it possible for such a small body to make such a loud noise?

“Is this a xiong yan?” Ren Baqian pointed at the hamster-like thing in disbelief.

It was totally unlike what the others had described.

The empress also looked doubtful. In a flash, she was behind the roaring hamster and picked it up by the neck.

The hamster was frightened initially, but turned to roar at the empress.

The empress looked even more bewildered.

This roar truly gave her the feeling of facing a powerful beast and subconsciously alarmed her.

Yet, this thing… was only at the Man Wheel level at the most… It wasn’t even able to struggle in her hands.

It was effectively powerless.