The Empress’s Gigolo

After more than 15 days, each passing day made everyone feel even more worried.

With each passing day, the chances of those missing people coming back became lower.

Every day, there was somebody guarding a mountain pass that was one day’s journey away. Those coming back had to travel through this pass, but no news had been received.

Gradually, even Ren Baqian was unable to laugh.

Although Lin Qiaole only knew how to eat and sleep, she was still an interesting girl in her own way.

She had accompanied him up to the north and down to the south, escorting him to Zi City as well as to Tianjing Basin. She didn’t contribute much, but she had followed him for a long time. Besides the empress and a few of the guards by his side, Lin Qiaole was by his side the most.

If her life ended here, even Ren Baqian, who had gone through life and death so many times that he was blase about it, would feel regret.

Feelings would always develop after people had been together for a long time.

This was the case even though Lin Qiaole was always sleeping and her presence was not prominent.

As everyone waited for news, Ren Baqian continued with his cultivation.

Another five days passed by, and his internal essence started to enter his body surface and muscles.

As a result, he required a large quantity of food to replenish his essence.

Ren Baqian felt that a good description would be someone who was about to die and who was consuming deer antler, sea cucumber, and wolfberries to nourish himself.

He needed to eat three Man Wheel level animals every day and transformed this nourishment into internal essence qi before distributing it to the body surface. After experiencing the feeling of starvation, he would climb ashore and continue eating.

This feeling was really uncomfortable!

However, as the essence qi gradually entered his body surface and muscles, his skin began to become very fine.

His body hair, including the hair on his head and other parts, steadily fell off.

This gave him a fright!

His little birdie was bald!

This was a big problem!

Someone once said that nothing mattered except life and death. Nonsense!

Ren Baqian felt that many things were more important than life and death!

Apart from becoming bald, Ren Baqian felt that his skin was becoming as smooth as milk.

His body was like metal and reflected light.

It was always dim in the valley since there were no strong light sources, therefore it wasn’t obvious.

However, this problem would surface once he returned to Earth.

After staying in the other world for five days, Ren Baqian changed his clothes once he returned to Earth. As he stood in front of the mirror, he discovered that he couldn’t recognize the image in the mirror.

The sunlight streaming in from the window revealed a shiny bald head that was beaming like a lightbulb in the mirror.

There was also the glossy, shiny skin.

It was as if a layer of oil had been applied to it.

A big fat hunk weighing 150 kilograms with smooth skin that reflected light. Just thinking about it was mind-boggling.

Ren Baqian observed himself in front of the mirror for half a day before finally becoming resigned to this look. How could he go out looking like this?

He sighed, opened the door, and went downstairs.

It was autumn on Earth. The 12 winged cavalry warriors were in the yard using big stones as exercise equipment.

They glanced at the door as it opened and gasped in surprise.

“Lady boss, you are shiny!”

Their accent made it sound like they had said, “Lady boss, you are cold.”

Ren Baqian raised his arm, and as expected, his whole arm reflected the sunlight that was shining directly on it.

It looked like it was emitting light.

If his arm looked this way to him, there was no need to think about how others would look at him.

Although it was still not as shiny when compared to metal, the luster of his body was very obvious.

He was simply a man that radiated light.

He had a body that was emanating light under the sunlight!

Ren Baqian sighed and went back to his room.

He gave Yang Sen a call to check on the progress of the jade-waisted slave research. After that, he soon came out of his room, called out the Golden Spear, and trained for half the day.

He waited for two days before bringing back a third version of the pesticide to Dayao.

Upon returning and opening his eyes, he saw everyone looking at him solemnly.

“Are they still not back yet?” Ren Baqian almost blurted out.

He could see it from their expressions.

It had already been 21 days.

It looked like the odds were stacked against the missing people.

This included that delicate-looking girl who was always sleeping and drooling in Qingxin Palace Hall and had a pair of A’s!

At this point, Ren Baqian felt even worse.

He might as well continue with his training.

After another five days, Ren Baqian felt that he had changed from low gloss to high gloss. His skin appeared to have a thin film covering it, and as long as some light hit him, he would radiate in all directions! He was like a superstar.

At this time, they didn’t harbor any hope for Gong Zheng and Lin Qiaole anymore.

Everyone was raging inside and preparing to take revenge for Gong Zheng.

Now, what they were waiting for was the return of those who went to the Ya Family Village.

A few days later, some more people were sent out. This time, the empress instructed them to look for the jade-waisted slaves in the mountains at night and to leave without any hesitation once they spotted them. They weren’t allowed to go near these butterflies.

Another five days went by. Ren Baqian felt that he could change his name to Golden Shine.

“Why do you look so gloomy?” The empress saw that he looked upset. Even though she wasn’t in a good mood, she asked gently.

“I never thought that I would become so shiny after using this method to cultivate!” Ren Baqian said with bewilderment.

The empress gave him a once over and felt that anyone could see his situation provided they weren’t blind.

Nothing was more appropriate than saying, “Give him some sunshine, and he will shine brilliantly.”

“It’s fine! There isn’t that much of a change from before!” the empress said.

Ren Baqian silently took out a torchlight and shone it on his face. His face was bright and shiny.

“Your Majesty, do you really mean it?”

The empress pondered for a moment and thought about telling the truth. However, she couldn’t bring herself to say something against her principles.

She said softly, “It isn’t bad—my husband should be a radiant man!”

Ren Baqian contemplated and said with a glowing face, “Does a radiant man refer to the type who radiates light in all directions?”

“It’s considered so!” The empress sat on a stone and looked down at him. She used both hands to hold his neck, brought him closer, and kissed his forehead.

She then pushed him back, carefully observed him, and smiled before saying, “This is also not bad!”

Ren Baqian sighed and replied, “Indeed. The next time there is an assassination attempt, there won’t be a need to search for the target. Just head directly toward the brightest spot and you can’t go wrong!”

Librarian Lin didn’t mention this before, so he hadn’t thought about it.

Who would have expected that this method of cultivation would have these kinds of side effects.

Presently, he could only hope this was a partial result of this cultivation method and that he would recover to his original state after completing the first stage.

Apart from this, Ren Baqian had greatly increased his defensive capability.

Previously, a knife cutting him would leave a hole. Now a knife cutting his skin was like cutting an iron plate and would leave only a small mark.

Ren Baqian punched himself hard and felt this punch being dispersed over a large area of his body surface.

The essences that entered his body surface had fused with the cells and formed a layer together. When a cell was attacked, the surrounding cells would scatter the force.

A blow that would previously cause him a slight injury would hardly be felt and would now feel more like a slight push.

However, a blow that would cause him serious injury would still make him seriously injured.

After all, the essence distributed to his body surface was limited. Thus, the level of attack that it could withstand was also limited.

In other words, there was no difference for those who wanted to kill Ren Baqian if their skills were superior to his.

The danger posed by warriors who were at the same level as Ren Baqian was greatly reduced.

For those who were inferior to Ren Baqian in skill, they were previously able to injure him if they caught him by surprise.

Now, it would feel more like a massage.

However, fighting was not the most important benefit of this cultivation method.

The main benefit was being able to enter the bridal chamber!