The Empress’s Gigolo

Two guards and an official holding a torch were looking at a painting on the wall.

When Ren Baqian, the empress, and others came over, the three of them moved aside and said, “Your Majesty, it’s here.”

Waving the torch forward, he said, “It extends all the way to the front.”

They looked up and saw that the picture on the wall was carved about half an inch deep and that the edges were smooth.

Tong Zhenye used his finger to trace the carving and said, “This was carved by fingers. It’s narrower than my finger by about 30 percent and was not carved by aboriginals.”

This wasn’t surprising.

Moreover, the aboriginals came out of the Sixty Thousand Mountains over 70 years ago.

This place was built at least in the middle era of the Hao Nation or might be even older than the Hao Nation, but there was no proof. This place had been sealed up for so long that it couldn’t be ascertained whether it was 300, 500, or 1,000 years old.

“Continue to go forward and search!” Ren Baqian instructed the official and those two guards before looking up at the mural.

At a glance, the carvings appeared to be scribbling done by children. There were small holes poked by fingers, some arcs, and irregular patterns everywhere.

Plus, a thin wavy imprint extended all the way from the start to the far side that wasn’t visible.

Everything on the wall seemed to be messy and irregular. It shouldn’t be considered a mural and looked more like a madman had scrawled on the wall.

However, it appeared to be different after he looked at it carefully.

“What does it look like?” the empress asked softly after frowning for a long time.

“Breasts…” Two voices were heard at the same time.

Bang!

The empress was beside Tong Zhenye in an instant. As she smashed his bald head downward, his head went into the ground, causing cracks to appear all over the floor.

“Your Majesty, this white jade is meant for building the palace.” Ren Baqian was feeling heartache. What hurt more was that he was speaking the truth just now.

The empress’s anger didn’t subside. She stepped on Tong Zhenye’s head and coldly said, “If you don’t restrain yourself, I will… hang your head on the rampart and let the citizens admire the Minister of Works.”

She turned toward Ren Baqian and saw him looking at her chest from all angles. She blushed for a moment as her eyes shone with a dangerous light.

Ren Baqian was considering whether he should voluntarily lower himself down to the ground. It wouldn’t be so painful that way.

“There’s a door here!”

A voice rang out at just the right time.

Ren Baqian felt that he should award these guys with the Dayao peace prize.

The empress gave Ren Baqian a look that said, “I will give you a lesson when we return” and then moved forward.

There was a loud sound behind him as Tong Zhenye pulled himself out of the ground. He dusted himself off and looked at Ren Baqian resentfully.

Ren Baqian gave him a “We are different” smile.

After walking along the passageway for more than 40 meters, everyone finally came to the so-called door.

It was black, made of some unknown metal, and the reflected light from the torch looked kind of ghastly.

On the door was a winged snake with its tail on the ground and its head close to the top of the door. The snake was gray with its wings folded behind itself.

Ren Baqian subconsciously found it to be familiar and asked, “What kind of a beast is this?”

Tong Zhenye shook his head to indicate that he didn’t know.

The empress didn’t respond at all.

It looked like the two of them didn’t know, but when Ren Baqian saw this picture, he thought of the legend of the winged snake.

Ren Baqian felt that there was some kind of a link between this world and Earth. Although the characters were different, they also spoke Chinese. Furthermore, there were also dragons, phoenixes, and kirins in this world. In fact, there was a kirin in the palace.

However, Qishui wasn’t as big and powerful as the mythical beast. It couldn’t fly or tunnel into the ground. At most, it was at the Cardinal Heaven level, which was far less powerful than the beast described in the legends.

Still, Qishui was similar to the legendary kirins of Earth—even its name unquestionably sounded the same.

With these commonalities, it wasn’t surprising to find a legendary winged snake here.

However, Ren Baqian didn’t say these thoughts out loud.

The empress stepped forward to open the door with her hand, but her face changed when she touched the winged snake. She retreated a few meters away to stand just in front of Ren Baqian.

“This thing is real!” The words of the empress gave everyone a shock.

Everyone had assumed that the snake on the door was a carving and was surprised to find that it was real.

After being touched by the empress, cracks began to appear on the surface of the snake and pieces of it fell to the ground. Everyone then realized that it had turned into an empty shell long ago.

Soon, it was just some fragments on the ground.

The empress went forward to pick up a gray bead that was the size of a pigeon egg. After she wiped it, a green light glowed faintly.

“What is that?” Everyone was eager to find out.

Whether it was the beast or the bead, nobody had seen it before.

Ren Baqian rubbed the bead that was in the empress’s palm and discovered that it was elastic.

Ren Baqian immediately speculated that the beast had condensed all of its energy into a bead for its descendants before it died. This type of plot was often seen in martial arts novels.

However, he needed to carefully study this bead to find out what it was.

The empress fiddled with the bead for a while, didn’t see any use for it, and simply threw it to Ren Baqian, who kept it carefully.

The others treated the snake as just a beast that they had never seen before. To Ren Baqian, he treated it as a mythical beast, so he regarded what it had left behind as something unique.

“Is this beast the guardian of this door?” Ren Baqian guessed.

“It’s possible!” The empress nodded. Before they came here, this passageway was undamaged, so either the dead snake was hung on the door or it had stayed there until it died.

Everyone was more inclined to believe the latter hypothesis.

“This beast stayed here until its death. I wonder who the owner was,” the empress murmured softly before going forward to push open the door.

If they guessed correctly, then the guardian of this place was that dried out snake and there shouldn’t be any traps at the door.

Yet, to be safe, Tong Zhenye blocked the empress and declared, “Your Majesty, let me do it!”

Tong Zhenye put his hand on the door and slowly increased his strength until it was at 80 percent. His face was red before the door started to creak.

“Open!” Tong Zhenye shouted. He used both hands to push with all his strength, and the door started to gradually open.

Everyone was on guard, but no traps were found as the door opened.

However, a gust of air caused the torch carried by the guard to sway and then snuffed it out.

Everyone felt that it was difficult to breathe.

“People light candles, ghosts blow out the lights. Even this torch has been snuffed out. Scram!” Ren Baqian pulled the empress, turned around, and ran.