The Empress’s Gigolo

The team was expected to return before daybreak, but after cultivating in the spring and coming out, the sky was already turning as white as a fish belly and there was still no trace of them.

Ren Baqian lay beside a bonfire and started to speculate. Could they be in some trouble?

The jade-waisted slaves might not be easy to handle, but with the empress around, it shouldn’t be a problem.

Ren Baqian had confidence in the empress’s capability.

Furthermore, she knew the actual situation over there very well.

He rested for a while, cooked a bowl of meat soup, and went into the water to cultivate after eating the soup.

As for Qing Yuan and Hong Luan, they couldn’t restrain themselves and were already waiting anxiously at the entrance of the valley.

After noon, Ren Baqian began to worry and was wondering whether he should search for them when he heard the voices of Qing Luan and Hong Yuan coming from outside the valley.

“They are back! They are back!”

Ren Baqian was relieved and sat there slowly cooking his meat soup in a deliberate manner.

After some time, the team entered the valley and Ren Baqian observed them carefully. The empress, who was leading them, looked fine.

Many of the winged cavalry warriors, who were behind her, bore some injuries.

The most important thing was the headcount.

Ren Baqian counted and found that eight people were missing.

“Your Majesty! Drink some soup first! Ren Baqian offered a bowl of soup to the empress. After she had taken a gulp, he asked, “Did you encounter any trouble?”

Her expression immediately turned chilly as she replied, “These jade-waisted slaves are really formidable! Fortunately, we sealed them inside the cave yesterday or else we might not have been able to take down that herdsman!”

Ren Baqian was astounded.

The jade-waisted slaves weren’t guided by anyone. Despite being led by the empress, many winged cavalry warriors were wounded and eight had even been killed.

In situations where these butterflies were guided, the cost of getting rid of more than 30 herdsmen would be high and hard to estimate.

Obviously, the empress was also worried about this matter.

The news of Zi Donglai capturing the capital of the Yun Nation only made them happy for half a day. The appearance of these herdsmen and jade-waisted slaves made everyone wary.

After everyone had rested, the empress sent out a team. A few of them went to the Ya Family Village to contact the winged cavalry warrior recruits.

As for the 30 plus herdsmen, they couldn’t be dealt with by the present forces that the empress had at hand.

The rest of the team was sent to look for the search party that comprised of Gong Zheng, Lin Qiaole, and their complement of winged cavalry warriors.

If the search party were to encounter those herdsmen, they might not be able to return!

“Your Majesty, did you bring back some corpses of those jade-waisted slaves?” Ren Baqian inquired. “I will bring them back to see whether we can find their weaknesses.”

As for the herdsmen, Ren Baqian knew of their superior speed and how they might trick people by calling out their names.

As long as they took preventive measures, these herdsmen didn’t pose a great threat to them.

No matter how fast these herdsmen were, they were physically weak.

The biggest threats were the tens of thousands of jade-waisted butterflies.

The end result was currently proof of this point.

The empress frowned and shook her head.

“When those demonic butterflies die, they shrink into a lump and disintegrate into ashes.”

At this point, the empress glanced at Ren Baqian and refrained from saying any more.

On the way back, she had already contemplated for a long time. Whether each jade-waisted slave carried the face of its host or turned to ashes after death, the implication was that it couldn’t decouple from its own soul.

If there was a special skill that could deal with the soul, it might have a great effect on these jade-waisted slaves

However, the aboriginals had no expertise in this area.

The methods of Ren Baqian might work… but in this case, he was far from having a solution.

“I will go back and see how the Messier 87 department is progressing on their research of the undeveloped jade-waisted slaves!” Ren Baqian said before going back to Earth.

After 16 hours, Ren Baqian returned with two wooden boxes…

“What are these?” the empress asked with some interest. “What was the conclusion of the research?”

“There is no conclusion… but I did bring some stuff back!” Ren Baqian said with an air of mystery.

The empress looked at him suspiciously and asked, “Is it for dealing with the jade-waisted slaves?”

In this respect, she had the same idea as Ren Baqian.

“Yes!”

“How is the effectiveness?” the empress asked again.

“I don’t know…” Ren Baqian said.

He had rushed to the Messier 87 department and was given these things before he left, which made him curse and swear.

He never expected the Messier 87 department to give him this type of stuff.

It was pesticide!

Of course, it was a special pesticide.

Although the Messier 87 department didn’t make much headway in the research of the demonic butterfly corpses, they did make some discoveries and devised a special pesticide.

As for its effectiveness, nobody knew.

After all, there were no live specimens to test on.

The Messier 87 department simply did some research and decided that some substances might work on the demonic butterflies.

The empress wasn’t disappointed after hearing this since there was at least something to try.

She said, “Wait for them to come back! You shall carry on with your cultivation!”

Ren Baqian nodded and took off his clothes before jumping into the water to continue his cultivation.

After five days, some of the winged cavalry warriors had started to come back. However, they had to travel far away to hunt after resting for a short time.

Over here, food was a big problem.

With some people coming back and some going hunting, the valley had about 70 to 80 people at any one time and was bustling.

Ren Baqian found some time to go back to Earth and brought a second version of the insecticide.

In addition to killing insects, it was volatile and flammable.

After another half a month passed by, Ren Baqian had already cultivated in the spring for almost two and a half months.

The opposing polarity between hot and cold as well as the restoration of his internal essence had resulted in some unexpected changes to his physical appearance and muscles.

His body grew by one layer. As if he had been inflated, he became brawnier in just ten days…

At 1.75 meters tall, he weighed at least 150 kilograms, and his body was bulging with muscles.

He was like a person that others wouldn’t dare to approach.

If he were to stand among the aboriginals, he wouldn’t be distinguishable from them when viewed from afar.

However, he could be recognized at close range because his face was fairer than theirs.

Regarding this change, Ren Baqian understood that this was close to the completion of the first step.

The remaining step was to take a portion of the internal essence circulating in the organs and distribute it to the body surface and the muscles.

After completing this step, there would be a great improvement in his defensive ability and a casual punch from the empress wouldn’t injure him badly.

He could then enter the bridal chamber safely.

The empress’s mood during this period was bad, which didn’t only affect her.

All the winged cavalry warriors were gloomy.

15 days had passed, but some people still hadn’t come back. This included three teams and the people who were sent to find them. There was no news at all.

The longest distance that the expedition had planned for required a six-day journey.

One of these three teams was Gong Zheng and Lin Qiaole’s group!

“Your Majesty, with Lin Qiaole’s speed, there shouldn’t be a problem.” Ren Baqian came out of the spring, wiped himself with a towel, and walked until he stood beside the empress.

The empress was rather cold and reticent.

Lin Qiaole’s speed was very fast, but the speed of those herdsmen wasn’t slow either.

The most important thing was whether these two had been tricked by other means.

For example, did they reveal their real names?

If Ren Baqian didn’t give some random fictitious names that day, he and the empress would have been tricked without knowing it.

It wasn’t possible to prevent themselves from falling into a trap when they weren’t aware of it!