The Empress’s Gigolo

Ren Baqian gnashed his teeth in anger as he passed through the smoke of the gunpowder. His eyes swept over Yan Wei’s tattered body, and he felt disgusted. But, more attention was placed on Lian Baocheng who was sitting there completely dumbfounded.

Lian Baocheng could not figure out what exactly happened just now.

How did that green ball suddenly explode into countless fragments, in addition, with a loud noise and a ball of flames?

Did the leader of his guards just die like that? As a matter of fact, although Yan Wei just stepped into one of the levels in the Earth Wheel, he was regarded as only a minor-league expert. Even the Lian family was not considered as among the top-notched in Great Xia, but was considered well-known in the second-level echelons. There were only six Earth Wheels in his clan.

Great Xia practitioners were divided into different Wheels. Firstly, Spirit Wheel, also called Wisdom Palace. This was followed by Heaven Wheel, also known as Celestial Path. Next, Earth Wheel which also called Earth Embryo. Lastly, anyone beneath all the aforementioned Wheels were divided into Man Wheel, with Self-Indwellment as an alternative name.

Most of the practitioners could not even achieve the level of Man Wheel. Only one in a hundred could reach the Man Wheel level to explore their own potential and truly be in control of their body; whereas one in a thousand of the Man Wheel practitioners could reach the next level, Earth Wheel. This person would be considered as a very rare and outstanding practitioner. Even those that just entered the Earth Wheel could get a Deputy General position in the army. To be able to reach the peak of the Earth Wheel, one could be regarded as an expert in the party.

Only those who reached the apex of the Earth Wheel would be genuinely known as Earth Embryo. With the ability to borrow the power of Earth, just by standing on the ground would be sufficient for them to receive the qi from the Earth to restore physical strength.

With one foot in the Earth Wheel, that is to say that one had the potential to reach the realm of the Earth Embryo. With some luck, one could even break through the Celestial Gate and embark on the Celestial Path. Such a person was well respected everywhere. The Lian Family spent so many years and countless effort to cultivate and attract six precious Earth Wheel experts. It goes to show how precious they were.

He had always been favored by his father. When he went to Dayao, his father assigned two assistants, who had just stepped into the Earth Wheel level to him. These two experts were Lian Tong and Yan Wei.

Lian Tong was ordered to be trampled to death by that crazy fellow a few days ago. He would be unable to account for himself when he was to go back home later on. No matter how much his father doted on him, he would inevitably be punished. Thus, he hated Ren Baqian to death, wishing to skin him and eat his flesh. On the one hand, he hated Ren Baqian for making him lose face. On the other hand, it was the punishment awaiting him when he returns home.

Indeed, he brought along Yan Wei after confirming the direction Ren Baqian headed in, and they turned towards this direction, from another path which wasn’t far away from here.

They were still looking for him and did not expect to see him appear like a person being chased by dogs right in front of them. This practically made him laugh out loud.

There’s a path to heaven, but you did not choose it.

There were no gates to hell, yet you barged through.

I was looking for you, yet you appeared right before me.

However, all those incidents happened, and things—all of a sudden—took a new turn.

Yan Wei died just like that.

Lian Baocheng displayed both fear and lifelessness. His fear was due the earlier incident, and the lifelessness was due to Yan Wei’s corpse.

He still had not seen the empress, and two of his Earth Wheel experts were already dead.

He would go back home to be dealt with according to his family rules and thinking about the outcome made him tremble uncontrollably.

With the firearm in his hand, Ren Baqian walked to ten meters in front of Lian Baocheng. He pointed the gun at his rival and took a deep breath.

Lian Baocheng woke up from his reverie, saw the black object that Ren Baqian was pointing at him.

What is that?

Lian Baoqian did not think much and felt that he was going crazy.

“Are you lying to me?” Lian Baocheng looked at Ren Baqian with red eyes. There was still a glimmer of hope: if what Ren Baqian said was true then he would be able to explain himself later on. Just like a drowning person clutching at a straw, he definitely wouldn’t let go.

“Isn’t that just nonsense.”

Lian Baoqian scowled at Ren Baqian like a lunatic infected with rabies. “I will kill you to accompany him at the burial!”

He threw his whole body at Ren Baqian.

His martial arts training was minimal. With some lessons taken during childhood, he was not even anywhere near to stepping into the Man Wheel level. However, anybody could see that Ren Baqian had no martial skills at all.

As a result, Lian Baocheng was filled with the idea of killing this bastard who drove him to such a pathetic stage regardless of whatever it takes. He believed he could definitely kill him.

If this person was Yan Wei, Ren Baqian would have been somewhat worried. This was also the reason why he did not fire the handgun directly back then. If he wasn’t able to kill the opponent, he would surely die.

But facing Lian Baocheng this time, he did not have to worry.

Ren Baqian acted as if he was looking at a fool. Then, he aimed at the opponent and his finger trembled slightly as he pulled the trigger.

“Pop, pop, pop!” Three crisp and soft gunshot sounds were heard. They were not like what was heard on TV or the muffled “piupiu” sounds heard at games galleries when the silencer was used. Ren Baqian learned at the shooting range that the silencer only lowered the sound, but it still let out a popping or a pulsating sound.

Following the three gunshots, Lian Baoqian froze in his position. He raised a hand to touch his chest, and his strength began to drain from his body. His expression changed from that of anger to one of disbelief and fear.

What exactly was in the other party’s hand?

“Thump.” Lian Baocheng toppled onto the ground, breathing in, but did not breathe out anymore.

One shot had hit his lungs, and fresh blood oozed out from his mouth.

Ren Baqian moved to his back, aimed behind his heart, and fired a shot. Only then was he able to feel secure.

It was not the first time that he had put someone to death. He had ordered the killings of a few people, but today was his first time killing someone personally.

Especially in regard to killing Lin Baoqian with his handgun, it made him feel slightly uncomfortable.

Ren Baqian took some deep breaths which helped to ease his emotions a little. However, the tightness in his chest still remained.

Wu Fang, who was standing from afar in the shade of the trees, faintly squinted his eyes. How did this Storyteller Ren come to possess so many mysterious and strange gadgets?

Originally, he could not understand why the empress was impressed by a foreigner. Now, he got a clearer picture of the situation.

Ren Baqian sat down and even though it seemed that he did not do much just now, he was really nervous. If he had confronted Yan Wei with a handgun, he would have no confidence of succeeding. At last, he told a big lie and managed to throw the grenade at him. If he had failed, he would have to use his handgun to battle him.

As to whether he could win, he did not have any confidence at all.

An arrow could be blocked with a sword, but could a gun really handle everything?

Fortunately, Lian Baocheng was from Great Xia. The big lie saying that the Seventh Prince of Great Xia was not the emperor’s real son had attracted the other party’s attention and created covetous thoughts.

Right now, he was the winner.

His whole body was depleted of strength.

After sitting on the floor for a few minutes, Ren Baqian considered the issue of the two dead bodies.

The recent explosion from the grenade was quite loud and might attract people to come and investigate.

If nobody came, the two dead bodies would be quickly eaten up by wild beasts.

However, the explosion just now was too loud. Although this patch of forest seldom had people passing by, but, the surrounding area was quite well populated. Such a large explosion would most probably attract the attention of many people.

Surely, it would not be long before people arrive, and there was also not enough time left for him to shift the corpses away.

Ren Baqian dared not delay any further. He picked up the crossbow, carried it on his back, and then went to look for Yan Wei’s sword. He came back with the sword and hacked Yan Wei’s body several times until it was beyond recognition. Although the people in this world wouldn’t be able to tell how he died as nobody knew of a grenade, he only felt an ease of mind after doing this.

After all, he was an ordinary guy before and did not know how to destroy his tracks. He also didn’t have much time to do so and all he could do was to destroy it in his own way.

Withstanding nausea, he cut open Lian Baocheng’s belly to look for the bullet. While searching for the bullet and fighting the nausea, he felt the vomit rising to his throat and forced it back down. Ren Baqian dared not think about anything as it was too disgusting. He was afraid that he would vomit at any moment.

He used a 9mm bullet whereby the stopping power was very good, but the penetrating power was average. Even at a distance of ten meters, it might not necessarily penetrate the human body.

At last, he found two bullets in Lian Baocheng’s stomach. There was still another bullet which he shot at his back and flew out from his chest. He wasn’t able to locate this last bullet.

After doing all this, Ren Baqian chopped Lian Baocheng’s neck in half. He dared not waste any more time, looked around quickly for the arrow without success and fled the scene quickly. Success. He did not dare to touch Lian Baocheng’s belongings as it was too risky. Moreover, he was too nervous and disgusted and had no time for weird ideas.

He ran continuously and only bent down to vomit after he couldn’t take it anymore.

Ordering others to kill, using his own hand to shoot someone dead, and cutting up the other party’s belly to find the bullets were totally different things.

Since a while ago, Ren Baqian almost could not endure it but forced himself to. He vomited everything in his stomach, churning up the stomach acid, and forcibly swallowed a few mouthfuls of water to restore his strength. Then, he limped away to leave the place.

After walking for short distance, he heard the sound of a flowing stream.

Following the sound, he came across a small stream. It was clear all the way to the bottom and you could see a few fishes swimming about.

Ren Baqian splashed his face with the cool water only after ascertaining there was no danger. He felt much more comfortable and slowly began to wash the bloodstains on his hands.

Even though he could not see any bloodstains on his hands, he could still sniff out the raw bloody smell.