The Empress’s Gigolo

“Buddhism?” Li Yuanzhu thought for a moment, but had never heard of such a religion.

Ning Qing’s face crumbled, and she felt that it was done for. This man actually still believed in a cult. People like this were more loathsome because all of them were like lunatics.

Ren Baqian led them in and spoke casually, “Daoism preaches about the creation of life from nothingness. One becomes two, two becomes three, and three becomes everything in the world. Buddhism preaches about nothingness. Nothingness is the same as the material form, and the material form is the same as nothingness.

Daoism preaches about cultivating the heart and honing the character, while Buddhism preaches about cultivating the character instead of the body and finding one’s true self!

Daoism preaches about achieving the perfect pagoda, self-contained and seamless.

Buddhism preaches about breaking free from the agony of life.

In fact, the two religions have different approaches, but in the end, they have the same goal!”

Although Ren Baqian only remembered that he was a Buddhist when he started talking about it, he had a deep understanding of the religion. Over the last few years, the “Heart Sutra” kept him from crumbling from the endless death. Although he only read this sutra, it always came to his mind naturally when he was on the brink of death and his understanding of it wasn’t shallow.

If that little monk were to hear him talk about all of this, he would probably scream “Buddha” again.

Li Yuanzhu’s eyes brightened after she heard how Buddhism was the complete opposite of Daoism.

One was life, and the other was nothingness.

One was about cultivating the heart and honing the character, whereas the other was about finding one’s true self.

One went from nothingness to life, while the other went from life to nothingness.

This immediately made Li Yuanzhu interested, but she wasn’t sure whether Buddhism was an orthodox religion. She couldn’t tell based on the things that Ren Baqian said. Those unorthodox religions often sounded very pleasant as well.

“So, what’s the goal of Buddhism?”

“Breaking free from one’s self!”

“How?”

“Discovering one’s true self!”

“Specifically how?”

“You are Buddha, I am Buddha, she is Buddha, and all beings are Buddha. If you find the Buddhist nature in your true self, you naturally will be Buddha. Therefore, Buddhism preaches about discovering one’s true self and discovering one’s Buddhist nature.”

“What is Buddha then?”

“Buddha is the forerunner.” Ren Baqian and Li Yuanzhu went back and forth with questions and answers, making Ning Qing confused.

If Buddha is the forerunner, then why were all beings Buddha? If all beings were Buddha, then why did they have to practice Buddhism?

It was clearly nonsense!

Li Yuanzhu grew more and more energetic as she asked questions, and the aura of her body changed. Her eyes were alternating between enlightenment and confusion.

“Thank you for clearing my doubts!” She cupped her fists at Ren Baqian. “Where is Buddhism passed down from? Are there any Buddhist scriptures that I can read?”

She grew to have a good impression of Ren Baqian after their conversation. He at least didn’t look as frivolous as the last time. Although his mind wasn’t all good, he seemed to be quite knowledgeable. From the first few things that he said, it could be seen that he knew quite a bit about Daoism.

Daoism’s influence in Great Xia wasn’t that great, and there were many branches of it as well. As such, its influence was naturally limited.

“Even currently in Tianjing Basin, there are millions of Buddhists. There are scriptures, but if you think that the Daoist deities are the highest beings in the world, the Buddhist scriptures state that Buddha is supreme. You mustn’t get annoyed by these religious disputes,” Ren Baqian said casually.

“Utter nonsense!” Ning Qing twitched her mouth.

There were hundreds of millions of people in all of Great Xia. How could the entire nation be Buddhist? (TLC. Not sure about this part)

Li Yuanzhu’s eyes flashed. She thought about this problem, but didn’t speak of it.

“Rest assured, Daoist friend!”

“I will make some copies and send them to you over the next few days!” Ren Baqian then suddenly remembered a phrase and said, “Please stay, my friend. I see that you have a connection with Buddha!”

This Daoist nun would look quite pretty if she became a Buddhist nun!

A rather weird smile appeared on his face.

Li Yuanzhu suddenly felt that Ren Baqian didn’t have good intentions and subconsciously distanced herself a little from him.

“The two of us wanted to meet the owner of this place, but ended up getting refused.” She shifted the topic.

“I don’t think the guards know who you are. It would be better if you wait here for a moment while I get someone to relay the message.”

“Thank you for your trouble. There’s another thing that I want to ask about, Zhao Prince Consort. Do you know where Li Fu is?” Li Yuanzhu asked.

“Li Fu? Oh!” Ren Baqian glanced around the courtyard and pointed in a direction. “There!”

What she saw was a dirty old man with a messy white beard and hair. He was squatting on the ground and digging a pit as if he was starting a fire.

In his hand, there were a few of those things called sweet potatoes that she recently saw.

“Liar!” Ning Qing called out immediately.

“Li Fu, the world’s most powerful expert?” Li Yuanzhu asked faintly. She meant to tell Ren Baqian that she was looking for Li Fu, the world’s number one expert.

However, she immediately noticed that something was wrong. That old man’s aura was restrained and looked no different from an ordinary person’s, but it wasn’t normal for such a person to appear here.

Besides…

Well, there wasn’t anything else. He was no different from an ordinary person.

“Could he actually be so different? So much so that I can’t even recognize him in person?” Li Yuanzhu couldn’t hold it any longer and turned to ask Ren Baqian, only to see his lively expression.

She turned to look at Li Fu again with her eyebrows raised before they slowly relaxed.

She walked until she was a few meters away from him, cupped her hands, and said, “Greetings, senior. I’m Li Yuanzhu of Genuine One Sect!”

He drilled into a piece of wood with his finger a few times, and a flame burst out of the hole when he lifted his finger.

Li Fu then looked up and said, “You are too formal, child. The person looking for you is that man—it has nothing to do with me!”

Li Yuanzhu pondered for a moment and realized that she had been deceived! That letter was written by Qi Zixiao!

However, she kept calm and asked, “Why are you here, senior?”

“I’m old and am just here to make ends meet. Besides, that kid has many interesting things that I’m waiting to see!” Li Fu lowered his head and continued to light a fire to roast the sweet potatoes.

If others were to meet the world’s number one expert, they definitely wouldn’t be willing to leave just like that.

However, Li Yuanzhu simply stood there and thought for a moment before starting to walk toward Ren Baqian.

In fact, she was still curious about why Li Fu was here, but she didn’t force the issue when he refused to explain.

“The letter was written by Qi Zixiao?” As if she could directly read his mind, she looked at Ren Baqian with a pair of clear eyes.

“Didn’t you insist that the world’s most powerful expert wrote that letter?” Ning Qing whispered.

Li Yuanzhu glanced at her. Whose side was she on?

However, she truly didn’t expect Qi Zixiao to do such a thing.

“It doesn’t matter who wrote it. The contents are real. What understanding do you have about the foreign races and the origins of the human race?” Ren Baqian asked.

“Nothing at all!” Li Yuanzhu shook her head.

He felt relieved after hearing this. He was originally afraid that he would immediately be criticized like what Li Fu had said

There was finally someone who didn’t know about this!

Even though Li Yuanzhu was the third most powerful expert in the world, she was still young and had spent most of her time in a Daoist temple. Naturally, she wouldn’t know about issues like these.

“Come in and sit down!” Ren Baqian returned to his office.

After the two sat down, he said, “The reason I wrote to you is relevant to what I just asked!”

“Liar!” Ning Qing muttered again.

He didn’t worry about her and continued, “The human race came from the southern part of the Sixty Thousand Mountains, where the ancient Wan Tribe resides. After the human race was defeated in the past, the remaining survivors, who numbered less than 100,000 people, migrated here.

Some of them, who specialized in fighting, stayed in the mountains to fend off the enemies. These became the aboriginals!”

“Liar!” Ning Qing shouted with her eyes wide open. “This story is too outrageous.”

Li Yuanzhu was also taken aback.

“What’s the use of deceiving you?” Ren Baqian spread his hands. “Li Fu knows about this. To him, it was the same in Great Xia and Dayao. However, he knew about this before me!”

“Why did he tell you about this then?” Li Yuanzhu wondered. Why didn’t Li Fu tell others about this? Why did he tell Ren Baqian instead? There were many experts in Great Xia, but she had never heard about this topic.

“Him? He couldn’t wait to bury this matter with him.” Ren Baqian chuckled. “Do you know why all the experts of the last century disappeared? They are all dead! Xu Wuming, the Sword Devil, killed them! Because they wanted to explore the mountains in search of a chance to break through!

This region is a barren land, it lacks some things, and it is different from the outside world. As such, it is almost impossible for one to achieve great strength here. Just look at the number of experts who attained the Heaven and Earth region level (TLC. Not sure about this term.) from ancient times until today.

However, it is not exceptional to find experts at the Heaven and Earth region level (TLC. Not sure about this term.) in the outside world!

I naturally have my reasons for knowing all of this. In other words, we have already met people belonging to those foreign races!”