The Empress’s Gigolo

Amidst the landscape, the sky was slightly misty and far away in the distance was a lake.

Right in the middle of this landscape, a person was gazing blankly with both eyes.

After a long time, that person’s eyes regained its vitality.

“Where is this place?” Ren Baqian looked at the surrounding environment and was quite lost.

Shouldn’t I be in the palace now?

How did I show up here?

Did I teleport again?

Thinking about this made Ren Baqian shiver immediately. He had just made his mark in Dayao, and if he were to start all over in another strange world, others would perhaps be happy, but certainly not him.

The scenery here was very familiar.

Ren Baqian took a look at the surroundings and suddenly, a thought emerged in his head.

It was déjà vu.

Like what he had seen it in a dream before.

Everyone had such an experience, where a certain event or place seemed very familiar as if it had happened before.

If one pondered very carefully, only then would they discover that they have actually seen it their dreams before.

This was what Ren Baqian was feeling at this time.

He took a few steps towards the lakeside, and the water vapors condensed on his face.

Ren Baqian suddenly realized where he had seen this. It was the first picture in [Ruyi Visualization].

That lake and that tree were what he saw in [Ruyi Visualization].

Has he passed the initiation stage?

Visualized the first picture?

According to [Ruyi Visualization], he is inside his own mind now?

Thinking up to this point, Ren Baqian was in ecstasy and could not control his yelling and shouting. He had actually and truly succeeded.

The method mentioned by that monk really worked.

Ren Baqian was in an ecstatic stage for a long time before he sat down on the floor.

He couldn’t suppress himself from smiling.

All this while, he was worried about what to do if he couldn’t cultivate.

Perhaps the empress would find a way for him, by robbing or stealing from others. But waves, storms, and bloodshed were inevitable. The empress might not mind, but how about the people in the imperial court of Dayao?

In the end, what would be awaiting him? Ren Baqian did not dare to ponder.

Now, there wasn’t a need for him to consider those things any longer. Whatever the case may be, he had finally passed the initiation stage.

After this, all he had to do was to nourish himself with medicinal herbs. The rest of this martial art wasn’t difficult to overcome, and at the most, he just needed to spend more money on medicinal herbs as well as some time.

As for his fighting prowess, he didn’t care so much about it.

After half a day of random thoughts and speculations, Ren Baqian toned down his excited and ecstatic mood and recited a section of the Heart Sutra to calm down.

The water was very cold as he walked towards the middle of the lake. He was shivering a little, but he endured the cold and moved fiercely forward before he swam to the center of the lake.

When he arrived at the center of the lake, he was compelled to dive down towards the bottom of the lake.

A long time later, Ren Baqian awakened and found himself in a room in Pingle Park. After which, he suddenly felt dizzy, blacked-out, and collapsed onto the bed.

After an unknown period of time, Ren Baqian awakened from his sleep and felt slightly better.

Although he still had a headache, but, it wasn’t so bad now.

Previously, he had been struggling under 15 meters of water and was unable to withstand it; therefore forcing him into waking up.

As mentioned in [Ruyi Visualization], once he was able to reach the bottom of the lake, the [Visualization of Water] would be considered successful.

It was not known how long it would take to reach that level, but he had passed the most important round and could slowly cultivate himself to reach it.

Thinking about this made Ren Baqian somewhat excited. From the look of the sky outside, it should be afternoon and still some time before sunset.

Ren Baqian thought of announcing the good news to the empress. After all, besides announcing the good news to the empress in this world, there was no one else to share his happiness with.

However, he smelled his own body odor even before he went out. He had not bathed for God knows how long and hadn’t even change the clothes he was wearing. His mind was completely focused on [Ruyi Visualization], and he had not been aware of any other matters.

At the same time, he found a meal on the table, it was set there an unknown amount of time ago and looked untouched.

Originally, he did not feel anything, but after seeing the meal, he felt his stomach growling. He ate a few mouthfuls, and although it was cold, at least it helped to fill his stomach.

However, when he took the bowl earlier on, he felt something was not quite right with himself. His movements were uncoordinated and he felt a little awkward.

Ren Baqian was a little suspicious. He made another few movements and they seemed to be faster. What previously took two seconds to complete, only took one second now. He was used to the habit of taking two seconds to complete the task and it felt very strange.

In addition, Ren Baqian tried some other movements, but did not discover any changes.

“It looks like these were the effects of [Ruyi Visualization].” Ren Baqian thought. Although these effects were happening faster than expected, it was, nevertheless, a good thing.

Soon after, Ren Baqian went to fetch some water for a shower. There were no shower gels to speak of in this world and not even perfumed soap.

What he used was a type of tree ash, it was applied all over the body, then rinsed off, and the results were similar to soap. He had always taken his showers after returning to Earth, thus there was no necessity for such products. At this moment, he felt it would be slightly better if he could make some perfumed soap.

However, this sort of thing did not matter right now, and he might as well see the empress first.

Before leaving the house, he shaved his beard and looked in the copper mirror. Besides his hair being a little bit longer, everything else was alright, and he went out after this check.

Seeing the guard at the doorway, Ren Baqian casually asked, “How long have I been inside here?”

“Twenty three days,” the guard answered quickly.

“Thank You.”

“It turns out that it has already been so long, but, it is still acceptable,” Ren Baqian thought and then suddenly thought of a question. The last time he went back was in late November. He was here for more than twenty days and that meant more than two months had passed on Earth. This meant that it was approximately February.

Although he had returned to Earth during this two months, his mind was totally on [Ruyi Visualization], and he had been in a muddled state of mind. He completely did not communicate with his family and was worried they would be anxious.

According to his calculations, he should go back tonight. The first thing he should do was to contact his mother; otherwise, she would go crazy. Furthermore, it seemed that Lunar New Year was fast approaching. He wasn’t sure of the date and wondered whether he could spend Lunar New Year with his family or not.

He was thinking all the way to the palace gates and directed the guards, “Ren Baqian requests to meet Her Majesty, please notify her.”

A moment later, Ren Baqian strode into the palace. The empress was eating fruit and did not even cast a glance at him.

Hong Luan and Qing Yuan were trying to hide their laughter, as previously, Her Majesty was asking about him every day. On the contrary when he came, Her Majesty appeared as if he wasn’t there.

“Your humble servant pays respect to Her Majesty.” Ren Baqian paid his courtesy from a distance away.

The empress then lifted her head to look at him, threw the core of the fruit into another plate beside her, wiped her mouth with a handkerchief and asked, “Why are you out? Have you successfully mastered the [Ruyi Visualization]?”

As she was asking, she gave Ren Baqian’s body a once over to check on his progress.

Soon enough, she was able to discern that Ren Baqian’s vigor had improved a little.

It wasn’t much, but it was easy for an expert like her to detect.

In particular, when Ren Baqian was practicing visualization using [Ruyi Visualization], he missed out on a few meals, and according to the guard, he should be getting weaker by the day. However, at this moment, she wasn’t able to detect that from the outlook of his body.

The imperial guards wouldn’t lie to her. In that case, the reason should be because Ren Baqian had passed the initiation stage of [Ruyi Visualization].

Even so, the progress was a little too fast.

Because nourishing the blood depended on eating food, medicinal herbs and such. But if he didn’t consume food, the medicinal herbs alone were useless. How could he recover his vigor? Even if Ren Baqian had passed the initiation stage of visualization, his body shouldn’t be how it was like at this moment.

Ren Baqian cupped his hands and said, “With your Majesty’s good luck, I was fortunately able to pass the visualization stage.”

He spoke with a face glowing with happiness.

“It is somewhat beyond my expectation. I didn’t expect you to pass the initiation stage.” The empress saw his delights and felt happy too. But, this feeling of happiness was rather unfathomable as well.