The Empress’s Gigolo

“I feel that something is wrong with the commander of the palace’s imperial guards lately. Do you know anything?” the empress suddenly asked the afternoon before the second contest.

Ren Baqian was shocked.

“I recruited General Xin Zhe to help me with an electric shock experiment a few days ago in order to test a Cardinal Heaven expert’s resistance toward electricity. After all, if I don’t understand it properly and make accurate calculations, someone could easily die from it…”

“Electric shock?” The empress looked a little pensive. “Is it like what happened to that person?”

“Ning Caichen?” Ren Baqian didn’t expect the empress to still remember him.

“That name—perhaps you know who I’m referring to,” the empress replied faintly. “However, what are you going to do if something happens to my imperial guard commander after experimenting on her?”

“There won’t be any problem. What happened to Ning Caichen was simply an accident,” Ren Baqian responded. “If something really happens… then I will take over for her.”

“Forget about it! I would still have to protect you then!” The empress waved her hand and gave him the side eye. How could he possibly not know how weak he was?

Ren Baqian then explained, “The impact of the electric current could have affected General Xin Zhe a little, but she should be fine after a while.”

“I hope so.” The empress nodded.

“I shall head back for preparations then.” Ren Baqian stood up and bade farewell after seeing that the empress was fine.

After leaving her quarters and walking quite a distance away, he finally heaved a sigh.

He merely did an experiment—it was just science! So why did he feel so guilty?

However, after recalling that scene, he simply couldn’t bring himself to muster enough self confidence and think that he was right. If another person had appeared there, he wouldn’t be able to clear his sins even after jumping into the Yellow River.

It was the first time that Ren Baqian had seen that wild-natured and alluring look on Xin Zhe’s face. She looked slightly at a loss too. Eventually, she seemed to appear as if she was enjoying it.

It was like a pulsing blaze that was about to burn him and the surroundings into ashes.

After all the experiments had been completed, even at the Cardinal Heaven level, Xin Zhe was drenched in sweat. With her two small pieces of clothing stuck tightly to her skin, it was as if she had just been lifted out of the water. The rays of sunlight reflected off her drenched body, giving out a sparkling radiance.

Ren Baqian was drenched in sweat as well. Being able to control himself under such circumstances, he felt that his mind was even less corrupt than Liu Xiahui.

Fortunately, he had gotten the data that he was after.

Under normal physiological circumstances, Xin Zhe was able to withstand up to 550 milliamperes of electric current. Her essence blood only began to combust when the current reached 800 milliamperes.

Ren Baqian assessed that the highest limit that she could reach while burning her essence blood was 1,000 milliamperes. When her essence blood had been exhausted, such high levels of electric current would make her entire body go numb and cause difficulty in breathing. Her life would be in danger after a prolonged period of time exceeding ten seconds.

However, this amount of electric current was frightening enough.

An electric current of over 100 milliamperes would already be life threatening to an ordinary person.

The resistance of a Cardinal Heaven expert was about five to ten times higher. If a person was stronger, their resistance might go even higher.

As Ren Baqian was pondering, the scene in the room and Xin Zhe’s blank and helpless look due to the changes in her body came to mind again

He quickly shook his head to get rid of those thoughts. Upon thinking of the look on her face, it made him feel like he was responsible for something.

Xin Zhe and Ning Caichen were different. Ning Caichen made that choice on his own, which didn’t impose any sense of responsibility on Ren Baqian. Xin Zhe’s expressions and gaze had indeed made it extremely difficult for him to forget. As such, he felt a little remorse for her.

Ren Baqian very quickly walked past the palace. A lady in armor appeared around a corner behind him. She looked at his back and headed in another direction.

Even though it was just an experiment and even though Xin Zhe knew what Ren Baqian was doing, she somehow felt that something didn’t feel right after it happened. However, she didn’t know what the problem was.

This was especially the case for that sensation she felt in her body at that point in time. It made her very frightened every time she thought about it. She wanted to erase it from her mind, but was unable to. It was like a nightmare that she was entangled in.

…

“Hong Xian has started to collect bets again this time. The odds are 1:1 for Yagui. Are you guys betting?”

“You made a windfall the previous round.”

“I have placed my bets on him again. The payouts are lower than the previous round when I had bet 60 taels of silver at 1:10 odds. I will make 1,200 taels of silver if I win again this time. Besides, I will also be able to see the looks on their faces when they lose. Just the thought of this makes me happy.” Xu Peng laughed mischievously.

“You are pretty confident in Yagui.”

“Even Du Laoliu, that good-for-nothing, ended up winning, so how can Yagui lose? Besides, I roughly know what tricks he has up his sleeve.”

One day later, the competition venue was again outside the city and was even more crowded.

Besides the court officials who were present the previous time, there were also many commoners who rushed over to watch this contest between a Four-way Heaven and a Cardinal Heaven expert after hearing the news.

These people included the Zhang family and the Jing Tribe, who came after hearing about the news later on. Together, they occupied a small area in a corner of the arena.

An average sized metal cage was transported and placed in the middle of the arena stage. All six faces of the cage were made of steel bars that were no thicker than the size of a pinky finger. This cage was made by the Ministry of Works with no other types of metal used in its construction. Any Four-way Heaven expert would easily be able to break it apart.

Soon after, someone placed a wooden chair inside as well as a cushion made of an unknown material.

Ren Baqian and Tu Hong exchanged glances for a brief period before walking into the arena. However, the expressions of the pair looked substantially different.

Ren Baqian appeared pretty relaxed while holding a box in his hands, whereas Tu Hong seemed extremely grim.

After all, he had already lost the previous round. No matter what, he musn’t lose this round.

Aside from the two of them, there was also an eight year old child who was constantly snivelling.

This child was at the Four-way Heaven level, which was considered pretty good compared to the rest of the ordinary children.

Ren Baqian first entered the cage through a small door at the side and closed the door. He then sat on the chair unhurriedly and placed the box down on the cushion near his feet. He pulled out an electric cable from the side of the box and clipped the metal clamp to the bottom of the steel cage.

“It’s ready. You can come and give it a try—do it like how I described just now.” Ren Baqian smiled as he said this to the child.

“Ok.” The child stepped forward, grabbed ahold of a metal bar, and tugged on it. Immediately, it bent without the child even exerting that much force.

“Go and find that man you saw before for your reward.” As Ren Baqian smiled, the child immediately ran toward the crowd with a look of delight.

“This is made by the Ministry of Works, and it hasn’t been tampered with. The trick lies in the box at my feet. You win as long as you can break this cage apart and pull me out,” Ren Baqian explained calmly.

Tu Hong naturally knew that the steel cage was made by the Ministry of Works and also saw how easily the child bent the steel bar. With his strength, he would easily be able to tear this cage apart with a mere slap.

However, after having experienced failure once, his expression wasn’t able to loosen up at all. This time, if he were to lose again, the entire Tu family would be utterly embarrassed.

Xin Zhe appeared in the arena and said to the both of them, “Begin!”

“Is there anything that you wish to say?” Ren Baqian smiled, but Tu Hong kept pretty quiet this time around.

It seemed like he had gotten wiser after having stumbled once.

Tu Hong glanced over at him and took a big step forward, stretching out his hands to grab the steel cage in front of him.

Given the thickness of the steel bars, he would easily be able to tear them apart like paper.

He would win as soon as he was able to tear the cage apart.

If he could do this, no matter how many tricks his opponent had, they would all be useless.

However, the moment his fingers touched the cage, there seemed to be some sort of shock between his fingers as the steel bar made him fling his hand away subconsciously.

“What kind of a trick is this?” Tu Hong felt rather delighted. Even though he didn’t know what this was, if that was all there was to it, he felt he was bound to win.

After that, he used both his hands to grab ahold of the steel bars very quickly.

Looking at Tu Hong’s movement, Ren Baqian began to smile. The entire cage was electrified. If Tu Hong were to kick the cage away, Ren Baqian would probably be in trouble. However, it was impossible for Tu Hong to do that.

The request that Ren Baqian made at the start and the child’s actions were combined to lure Tu Hong into using his hands to tear the cage apart.

If Tu Hong wasn’t able to get out of this, then Ren Baqian was bound to win.

The audience watched as Tu Hong stopped moving after he grabbed the cage. He was immobilized from head to toe with even his beard hairs standing on end. He then tilted his head backward and fell to the ground.

Everyone was shocked. What happened this time around?

They clearly saw the child bending one of the steel cage’s bars just now. However, Tu Hong actually collapsed after grabbing ahold of it. What exactly happened?

Nobody had any idea what was going on.

However, by the look of it, Tu Hong didn’t seem to be able to stand up? How could Tu Hong, a Cardinal Heaven expert, collapse so ineffably and not be able to get up?

Ren Baqian, the principal of the Black Bamboo Academy, had won again? Tu Hong couldn’t even break apart this cage?

“It seems like it was indeed just an experiment the other day.” Xin Zhe, who was watching from the side, immediately heaved a sigh of relief. Even though she felt as if her reaction was a little odd, it still seemed pretty alright?

It must be a normal reaction!