The Empress’s Gigolo

It was a dark space where right or left as well as near or far couldn’t be distinguished. No boundaries existed, and time was non-existent.

However, a fireball floated here and emitted light, which made the space more energetic.

In addition, some pockets of gases were revolving around the fireball. These gases were changing and seemed to be retracting into the fireball.

After observing this space for a while, Ren Baqian realized that it would take time for the planets to form.

This was the sea of knowledge inside Ren Baqian.

When Ren Baqian condensed everything in his sea of knowledge into a singularity and exploded it, innumerable invisible cosmic dust particles were scattered all over his sea of knowledge.

Ren Baqian didn’t know whether it was cosmic dust or something else in his sea of knowledge and didn’t even know whether it was physical matter or something spiritual.

Since it was inside his sea of knowledge, Ren Baqian felt that it was more likely to be spiritual.

Soon after, these invisible particles collided and fused to form interstellar clouds.

After a few more days, the movements and collisions of the particles caused the nebula to change. The gravitational forces coalesced the nebula at different points with one of them becoming this fireball, or rather, this star.

Other gaseous bodies became massive and were forming planets according to Ren Baqian.

This filled Ren Baqian’s thoughts with wonder.

After all, the experience of creating a universe in your own sea of knowledge and observing how it came into being was rather novel.

He didn’t know whether the real universe was formed this way, but he felt that the probability was very high.

At least the stage where the singularity exploded to form stars seemed to be correct.

What he wanted to know was what the universe in his sea of knowledge could bring him. It couldn’t just be for the sake of bringing the universe into existence.

It looked like he had to wait for the formation of the planets before slowly exploring further.

Ren Baqian opened his eyes by taking his spiritual mind out of his sea of knowledge and saw the high walls on the horizon.

Lan City!

“We are finally back.” Ren Baqian sighed softly. He looked around and found that he had left with less than 1,000 soldiers and had come back with close to 3,000.

More than 2,000 were newly recruited winged cavalry warriors.

However, the original winged cavalry was reduced by 200 after going to the Sixty Thousand Mountains.

It must be mentioned that this was a very risky mission.

Out of 1,500 people, only 400 or so were left after a short period of less than three years… He didn’t know whether he had brought the bad luck or whether they were unlucky. Ever since he arrived, they seemed to die exceptionally fast.

During the seven years after the empress ascended the throne and before he arrived, there were very few casualties.

Then, it was downhill all the way. He couldn’t bear to recall the extraordinary past.

At this point, Ren Baqian heaved a sigh. It seemed like these things had happened after he saw the bichi for the first time. It was all its fault.

Sometimes, they were due to natural disasters, but even more were man-made. One disaster after another; it was diabolical.

Fortunately, since coming out of the Sixty Thousand Mountains, the bichi hadn’t been seen and its whereabouts was unknown.

If possible, it was best not to see it again.

At this point, Ren Baqian shook his head, put the thought of that rascal out of his mind, and rode the crow general to follow the empress.

He had brought back the crow general and the roaring emperor after this trip. Ren Baqian was preparing to bring the roaring emperor to court if people quarrelled with him and would let them be extremely surprised.

After another two hours of travel, he could see Lan City clearly and also saw a crowd waiting outside.

The crowd outside the city was relieved to see the return of the empress and her retinue. Her Majesty had been away for a long time! She had been gone for more than a year.

However, when the empress’s party got closer, the crowd grew stern again.

The retinue stopped and split into two rows as the imperial carriage moved to the front. The people surged forward to greet her and said, “We are here to welcome Your Majesty.”

Hong Luan parted the curtain to reveal the empress, who was laying inside. She glanced at them, sat up, and said, “It has been a hard time for everyone. Let’s go back to the palace first.”

“Yes!”

“You should lower yourself when we enter the city in a while.” Ren Baqian patted the crow general.

The crow general was quite tall. The tip of its head was four meters high, its back was more than two meters high, and with him mounted, this was higher than the imperial carriage. It wasn’t a problem when they were outside because nobody took notice of it. However, Ren Baqian thought it was better to keep a low profile when entering the city.

A low profile equated to a lower position.

The crow general was confused.

How was it supposed to become shorter?

“How about squatting while moving?” Ren Baqian suggested.

The crow general was upset after hearing this. It was already vexing enough to be his mount, but now he wanted it to squat while moving. Did he not know that it was very hard for a bird to squat?

It was unable to do this!

The process of entering the city attracted more citizens. The aboriginals had greater interest in watching processions than other people. This time, the empress had also been away for more than a year. She hadn’t been away for so long before. Previously, her longest absence was her trip to Tianjing Basin. Before that, it was to fight Great Xia in the north, and another time, she went to Great Xia because of Ren Baqian…

It seemed that every trip had something to do with Ren Baqian.

Somehow, many people thought of this idea and looked at Ren Baqian with suspicion.

It was as if Ren Baqian was abducting the empress.

Of course, the reality was like this.

It wasn’t only Ren Baqian who attracted the crowd’s attention, but also the huge bird below his butt. Everyone could feel the oppressive power of this bird, and it felt like facing an official from the court.

Their expressions changed when they realized that it was a Cardinal Heaven level beast.

In Lan City, the only other beast at this level was Qishui, who was the empress’s mount.

The main thing that puzzled the people was that the bird had hunched its neck and lowered its body. A Cardinal Heaven level beast was walking like an old mother hen.

The crow general carried a backpack containing the roaring emperor, and the roaring emperor stretched out its head to look in all directions.

The roaring emperor was familiar with people and full of curiosity. It was wondering whether it should let out a roar to announce its existence.

Before it could decide, Ren Baqian’s big hands dropped down from above and pushed it back into the bag.

Upon entering the palace, the empress gave the excuse that she was tired after a long journey and would attend to matters in court the next day. Since she directly entered her chamber, the rest of the people had to suppress their grievances and disperse.

Ren Baqian went to Pingle Park to see Tiantian and Gungun. They were already as tall as a man. He rubbed their faces and then played a game of slapping each other.

Tiantian gave Ren Baqian a slap that he dodged before returning with his own the slap.

Gungun also did likewise.

A moment later, the two rascals sat there looking at Ren Baqian with their eyes brimming with tears.

The ling ting was laughing uncontrollably at one side. It jumped on Ren Baqian’s shoulder, handed a peach to him, and stared at him because it was afraid that Ren Baqian would really take this fruit that was covered in paw prints and saliva.

“Disgusting fellow!” Ren Baqian shook him off. This rascal always joined in, but it was insincere and cunning.

He locked these rascals outside, went back to his house to put his stuff down, and laid down on his couch.

He sighed happily and said, “I’m finally home.”