The Empress’s Gigolo

Ren Baqian and his party entered the village only to see more than 100 stone houses arranged in the shape of a ring. There was a large open space in the center of the village with a fireplace and some scrap materials. This made the village feel slightly livelier.

Ren Baqian took a close look at the houses around him. Even though they were ordinary aboriginal stone houses that were commonly seen, the stones in this area had the same characteristics as the soil. As if they had been stained with blood, there were dark red spots and smears.

He opened one of the doors and saw a wooden bed, a table, three stools, and a cabinet.

There were also two people inside.

They were in their thirties to forties and fully naked. Their bodies were completely deathly pale, and they simply sat on the bed and blankly stared forward.

Ren Baqian walked in front of them and noticed that they had the same gaze as the other two from before. There was no life in their gaze, and they looked as if they were dead.

He touched their foreheads and felt that there was some warmth, albeit slightly colder than an ordinary person’s temperature.

He reached under their noses and could feel that they were still breathing very lightly and slowly.

Ren Baqian originally wanted to reach out his hand to feel for the lady’s heartbeat from her chest. However, he remembered that women generally had more fat on their chest, so it would be harder to feel their heartbeat. He then placed his hand on the man’s chest instead.

The man’s heart rate was about 10 beats per minute.

“What are you doing?” the empress asked as she walked into the room and saw Ren Baqian placing his hand on the man’s chest.

He turned his head and said, “Their hearts are beating very slowly—at around 10 beats per minute. A normal person has a heart rate of about 80 beats per minute.”

An aboriginal’s heart rate was roughly 80 beats per minute. This was slightly faster than an ordinary person’s and was necessary to provide enough blood and energy to the rest of the aboriginal’s body.

“Oh!” The empress nodded.

“Let’s check out the other houses.” Ren Baqian held her hand and walked out of the door.

They went into eight houses and found that the condition of every house was pretty similar. People in the houses simply sat there naked. Their complexions were all deathly pale, and their gazes were like the eyes of dead people. The conditions of their bodies were all pretty similar as well.

If not for their breathing and heartbeat, Ren Baqian would probably think that they were clay figurines.

When he entered another house, he suddenly raised a question and asked, “Your Majesty, have you realized something?”

“What?”

“We haven’t seen any teenagers or children,” Ren Baqian said as he touched his forehead.

After hearing what he said, the empress seemed to realize this as well. The people inside the houses that they entered were all above the age of 30. Not only were there no children, but there weren’t even any teenagers around.

It would still be pretty normal if they had only visited one or two houses, but it was rather abnormal to encounter this situation after visiting so many houses.

In comparison, the population of teenagers and children under the age of 30 shouldn’t be less than 30 percent.

After all, the lifespan of an ordinary aboriginal wouldn’t exceed 100 years.

“Let’s find out more…” Ren Baqian seemed to have become a kid again. He hadn’t experienced such an odd incident in his entire life. This strange village had truly piqued his curiosity.

“Gong Zheng!” The empress stepped out of the house and called out for him. “Get everyone to check the houses. See if there are any teenagers or children who are under the age of 30.”

Ren Baqian ignored her arrangement and continued checking out the houses on his own. After he had covered about half of them, Gong Zheng’s men reported, “There are no youngsters or children in any of the houses.”

Ren Baqian, the empress, and the rest of the people subsequently found a corner in the village and took a break as they waited for nightfall to reassess the situation.

According to Ya Sheng, these people would come back to life at night.

Ren Baqian pondered for a long time while he rested, but he didn’t manage to figure anything out. Instead, he thought of many unrealistic possibilities.

For instance, he thought of these people as being possessed or that they had already been dead for many years.

After all, this place wasn’t far from the Earth Yin Spring, which was only a day’s journey ahead.

Legend had it that the Earth Yin Spring was the passageway to the world of the dead.

The strange happenings in this village made Ren Baqian’s imagination roam.

It was almost 3 PM in the afternoon when their party had arrived.

After waiting for another four hours, night began to fall.

When the sun had completely set, an odd smell began to permeate the air around the village.

It smelled like an earthy scent.

Soon after, all sorts of sounds could be heard from the quiet village.

Sounds of people stretching, talking, and sighing could be heard from the stone houses.

Ren Baqian’s eyes were affixed on the two people who had been left on the ground not too far away.

As night fell, the old man and the middle-aged lady opened their eyes, looked around them and made their way back to their houses as if they hadn’t seen Ren Baqian and his group of people.

The other villagers started to leave their houses naked and greeted their neighbors with rigid expressions.

“Mu Xu, have you handled the prey we caught today?”

“That was three days ago. Your memory is getting worse!”

“Xu Dalian, you came out of your house butt naked! The elder will kill you!”

“Xu Yier, aren’t you heading to Ya City? When are you leaving?”

“Has anybody seen my boy? He went missing last night, and I haven’t been able to find him the entire day.”

“Auntie, do you have any wild herbs? Please spare me some.”

Ren Baqian, the empress, and the winged cavalry knitted their eyebrows as they watched the village suddenly come to life.

“Your Majesty, that man, whom I suppose is known as Xu Dalian, asked another person when he was leaving for Ya City when someone asked him why he wasn’t wearing clothes… Their conversations are mismatched and they aren’t even conversing. They are simply saying random empress’s hand. (TLC. Middle of the sentence seems to be missing.)

She nodded her head. She could tell this even without him saying it.

However, Ren Baqian was more familiar than the empress with such situations.

This reminded him of the NPCs ¹ in video games.

They were simply saying things that had been pre-programmed in them.

This was the impression that the villagers gave him.

Gong Zheng crossed his arms and said, “Something is amiss! We are such a big group of people, yet those villagers don’t even look over at us at all.”

Soon after, an occurrence attracted their attention.

Around 40 villagers formed a team and left the village.

“Let’s follow them and take a look.” Ren Baqian immediately got up from the ground.

Without any restraint, Ren Baqian and his party walked across the village and followed the villagers.

After walking for about an hour, the villagers stopped at a place that was full of pits and began digging into the ground around them with their bare hands.

Very quickly, Ren Baqian discovered what these people were digging for.

They were digging for green worms that were about the length of a child’s arm.

Each of the villagers caught about five wriggly worms and held them in their hands, before they formed up into their formation and walked back to the village.

During the process, they continued to say random things to each other.

This strange situation made everyone’s hair stand on end.