The Empress’s Gigolo

Under the red moon, more than 100 of those rigid-looking aboriginals were eating their meals in the village; the wriggly green worms that were the size of a child’s arm.

A squishy sound could be heard every time someone bit down on a worm, a blue fluid would ooze out, and the worm would also make a creaking noise.

Ren Baqian, the empress and the others felt their blood run cold when they witnessed this sight.

“They… What exactly is going on?” Qing Yuan and Hong Luan asked softly as their faces turned pale.

“You should actually ask if they are still living people.” Ren Baqian touched his forehead. “Are there any legends about things like sorcery in the Sixty Thousand Mountains?”

“Not that I know of.” The empress shook her head and got someone to bring Ya Sheng over.

When Ren Baqian asked the question again, Ya Sheng shook his head as well.

“Did they behave like this the last time you came?” Ren Baqian asked.

Ya Sheng shook his head and said, “They weren’t like this last time. I realized that they enjoyed the night and hated the day, but their rigid expressions and sluggish speech made me feel weird, so I left very quickly. I didn’t expect them to be like this now.”

“When was it that you last visited this place?”

“16 years ago. Back then, I discovered the trace of a shansong. I followed it to this village and found this place very weird. Subsequently, that shansong disappeared, and I left after a few days of searching.”

Ren Baqian naturally didn’t know what a shansong was. In reality, there were countless strange beasts in the Sixty Thousand Mountains. There were more uncharted territories than areas that had been discovered.

As such, he had given up on asking about the beasts in the mountains. In any case, he would naturally learn when he saw them.

Unexpectedly, Gong Zheng got curious and asked, “There are still many of them around?”

“That’s right. I have heard from the village elders that shansongs liked to grind their teeth on rocks and that they will leave all sorts of dirt behind on the rocks. I coincidentally discovered this back then and saw that not only was there dirt left behind, there were also marks that were formed as a result of the teeth grinding.

Actually, I have heard that they can be found in the deeper regions. It’s just that they haven’t been spotted in this area for many years.”

After hearing what they said, this beast sounded pretty special. Ren Baqian then became curious and asked, “What’s a shansong?”

“It’s a type of beast that resembles a human. They are normally about three to seven meters tall with rather clumsy movements. However, they are very strong and like to feast on humans. They also have two long tusks in their mouths. There used to be a lot of these creatures in the past, but after the aboriginal villages started to hunt them, their numbers gradually reduced,” Ya Sheng explained.

“That’s pretty strange,” Ren Baqian casually replied. These creatures resembled humans and were at least three meters tall. He wondered if they were similar to gorillas.

King Kong? They seemed to fit that description.

He then began to talk about the issues of the village and continued, “According to what Ya Sheng said, these people haven’t always been like this, but rather, they gradually became like this. They seem to have undergone some changes.

I think that they have been affected by something, which resulted in them becoming like this.”

The empress looked at him and asked, “What’s your opinion?”

“No idea. I don’t even know if they are currently dead or alive. Perhaps… we can grab one of them, dissect them, and find out!”

The empress glared at Ren Baqian as soon as he finished talking.

“We have to first understand their situation before we can decide on our next move. In any case, they are currently acting as if they are dead people. In other words, they are simply a bunch of puppets with body warmth and beating hearts,” Ren Baqian said.

“Your Majesty, I would rather die than live like that,” Gong Zheng added. At the thought of it, it was rather terrifying to be living like a puppet.

“If you dissect them, will you be able to find out the reason that they are acting like this?” the empress asked after pondering for some time.

“Of course… not.” Ren Baqian took a deep breath. The empress got so angry that she sent him flying away with a punch.

Ren Baqian flew more than 20 meters away and even knocked down one of the nearest “puppets.”

As he got back to his feet, that puppet simply sat on the ground.

At this moment, everyone in the village had finished eating their worms. All of them sat there silently and even stopped saying those random things that seemed to have been pre-programmed.

The entire village fell silent.

However, under the moonlight, the silhouettes of people sitting on the ground could be seen, and the atmosphere was very strange.

Ren Baqian took another look at the “puppet” that he had knocked down before walking back and sitting down in front of the empress.

“Judging from the current situation, we can only slowly try to find out the cause. We have to make use of various methods, but even so, we still might not be able to find the cause. After all, it’s too strange for them to be behaving this way. This is not caused by something ordinary. Dissecting them is just one of the methods that we can use to see if they are any different from a normal person. We may be able to discover something. In our world, we call this autopsy.”

At present, Ren Baqian was already treating them as corpses.

Fortunately, these villagers didn’t bite. Otherwise, he would already be thinking that this was a biochemical crisis.

“Understood.” The empress sighed.

She knew that Ren Baqian was right.

“Just do as you said.”

“Go bring someone here and dissect him. I feel sick when I see blood.” Ren Baqian gave Gong Zheng a kick.

Actually, he didn’t have much hope for this.

These people were too strange, especially when they repeatedly talked about random things that seemed to be pre-programmed. This wasn’t normal.

There might not necessarily be a solution even if he took them back to Earth.

Since they were already acting like this, might as well treat them as if they were dead people. There still might be a chance to discover something.

Gong Zheng strolled around the village and grabbed an old man. Then, he brought him back and threw him to the ground.

The old man lay on the ground naked before standing up and walking back to where he had been sitting.

“Hold him!” Gong Zheng shouted.

Two men rushed forward and pinned him to the ground.

Gong Zheng held his blade and waved it around before turning to Ren Baqian and asking, “Where do I cut?”

He had only killed people before and had never dissected anything.

Even though Ren Baqian had killed quite a number of people as well, he had never dissected a body before. Even though it was an autopsy, he still felt weird doing it.

He looked at Gong Zheng and the “puppet” that was pinned down against the ground and said, “We need to flip him over.”

What could they do to him when his back was facing them?

After they flipped the old man over, Ren Baqian said, “Cut the skin on his arm to observe his blood.”

As Gong Zheng wielded his blade, a 10 centimeter long wound split open on the old man’s arm.

Everyone then began to frown.

Everyone had seen a fair share of bloodshed and knew what it looked like when a person’s skin was cut open.

This “puppet” was totally different from a normal person.

Dark red blood began to slowly seep out of the old man’s wound after exactly 10 seconds.

Not only did he bleed a small amount of blood, his blood was also very viscous.

“Stomach,” Ren Baqian said.

Gong Zheng wielded his blade around the old man’s stomach. The old man seemed to have detected danger, and his rigid face immediately turned frantic and hostile. He struggled hard with great strength, causing the two winged cavalry warriors to actually have to exert more force to keep him pinned down.

“Oh,” one of the winged cavalry warriors groaned after the “puppet” suddenly twisted his head and bit him.

At this moment, Gong Zheng’s blade swung across.

A wound split open on the old man’s chest.

The two winged cavalry warriors were startled when countless vein-like tubes suddenly shot out of his chest and pricked both of them.