The Empress’s Gigolo

“Ah!” Ren Baqian released a yelp as he climbed up the tree. The babeasts pounced onto the bottom of the tree trunk and used their momentum to jump upwards.

Even though Ren Baqian had climbed two meters up the tree, his butt was still scratched by one of the babeasts.

Seeing a slightly thicker tree branch above him, Ren Baqian flipped himself over and sat on it. The few babeasts beneath him were still trying their best to jump up the tree.

One piece of good news was that babeasts did not know how to climb trees. Even though they could make use of the tree trunk to jump higher, they still could not touch Ren Baqian, who was roughly three meters above the ground.

Sitting on the tree branch, Ren Baqian felt a scorching pain spreading across his butt cheek. “Goddamnit, I almost died.”

Ren Baqian cursed and glared at the babeasts beneath him, appearing as though they had snatched his wife or something.

Now you can’t touch me, serves you right.

Ren Baqian took off the crossbow from his back, loaded it with one arrow, took aim and pulled the trigger. Following which, a miserable shriek resounded through the air. The arrow pierced through the body of one of the babeasts.

The death of that babeast infuriated the other babeasts even more. Each one of them propped themselves up against the tree trunk, but they couldn’t climb up.

“Bastards, all of you better not run away!” Ren Baqian grimaced in pain as he took aim at the babeasts with his crossbow. How dare you touch my ass! No matter what, I have to take revenge! Do you really think you can touch my ass just like that?

By the time he killed the third babeast, the remaining three babeasts finally showed signs of retreating.

They snarled at Ren Baqian before turning around to retreat.

Ren Baqian raised his crossbow, took aim and pulled the trigger. An arrow streaked through the air. However, this time around, it only hit the leg of a babeast. That babeast moaned miserably as it limped away with an arrow in its leg.

After the babeasts had left, Ren Baqian heaved a sigh of relief. He touched the wound on his butt, causing his hand to be stained with blood. The wound was so painful that he did not even dare to sit down. He could only sit on the tree branch using one side of his butt cheeks.

Tree climbing was indeed an essential skill to ensure survival in the wild.

Fortunately, he always visited his grandfather with his dad in the countryside when he was a child. He often climbed trees to steal bird eggs, and therefore, he had such solid tree climbing skills.

Otherwise, he would have been killed by the babeasts even though he had a handgun.

Even if he did not die, his body would have been riddled with injuries. His butt wouldn’t be the only injured body part then.

After the babeasts had left, Ren Baqian felt no rush to get down from the tree. He was pondering over something.

If I’m not wrong, the smell of blood can attract wild beasts, right?

Why don’t I cut open these three dead babeasts and see if I can attract any wild beasts here?

Anyway, he did not know where to find the Bei. If he could attract it to him, that would be the best. Worst comes to worst, if he couldn’t attract it to him, he would stay on this tree until tomorrow noon. It’s still much safer than him running around the mountain.

The more Ren Baqian thought about it, the more feasible he felt this plan was. He began to feel at ease as well.

If he stuck to this plan, it shouldn’t be difficult for him to last until tomorrow afternoon.

Even if he could not find the Bei, he could kill the animals that were attracted here and report back to the empress with them.

Right now, he was immersed in the joy of coming up with a plan that allowed him to easily pass the time until noon tomorrow. His butt no longer hurt that much either. There was a smile on his face as he felt refreshed and relaxed. Right now, he just lacked the song “Pomp and Circumstance” to complement his feeling of joy.

“I will cut open the dead babeasts and let their blood flow out first. I can get my arrows back too.” After making up his mind, Ren Baqian climbed down from the tree. One by one, he pulled the corpses of the babeasts away from the tree. Following which, he pulled out the arrows from the babeasts’ corpses and put them back into the quiver without wiping them. Next, he took out his military knife and cut open the babeasts’ stomachs. Doing this made the smell of their blood stronger.

Clenching his teeth, Ren Baqian finished doing everything and climbed back up the tree. Initially, he climbed four meters up the tree, but then he felt that spot wasn’t really comfortable. As such, he climbed down to his previous spot.

Now, he just needed to wait for something to take the bait.

Making use of the time he had now, Ren Baqian ripped a piece of cloth from his clothes and bandaged the wound on his butt with it. It wasn’t easy to bandage this part of his body. He felt a sharp pain every time he touched the wound.

With great difficulty, Ren Baqian finally finished binding up the wound. No wild beast took up his bait yet, but he could hear someone screaming miserably in the distance.

“I wonder who is so unlucky?” Ren Baqian rejoiced in that person’s misfortune. It was definitely not an aboriginal. It should be one of those nobles from the other nations. However, this did not make any sense at all. Each of them had been allowed to bring a follower. Furthermore, this area was still at the edge of the mountain. There shouldn’t be any powerful beasts here.

“Eh? This person’s voice is so powerful? He did not even take a breath after screaming for two minutes straight. His voice is more powerful than Luciano Pavarotti’s!” Ren Baqian muttered to himself while furrowing his eyebrows. That was because the scream was heading towards his direction.

Furthermore, the speed at which the scream was approaching him was very fast. When he first heard the scream, it sounded as though it was three hundred meters away. Now, it was less than a hundred meters away.

Not only could Ren Baqian hear the blood-curdling scream of that person, but he could also hear the sound of a gigantic creature bulldozing through the forest. Ren Baqian could even hear the sound of trees collapsing.

“Boom.” When a human figure appeared in Ren Baqian’s line of sight, he saw a tree behind that person collapse.

Following which, a two-meter-tall, gigantic wild boar appeared in Ren Baqian’s vision. The fangs protruding from the wild boar’s mouth were half a meter long, resembling two long swords that pierced through its mouth. The wild boar stared fixedly at Ning Caichen as it charged and pursued him.

“Such a huge wild boar? I think this looks more like a wild-boar-shaped tank!” Ren Baqian was shocked by the size of the wild boar.

Wild boars were considered troublesome creatures on a mountain, especially a fully grown, male wild boar. Even a tiger would not dare to provoke a fully grown wild boar.

The skin of a wild boar was very thick. Beneath the skin, it also had thick layer of fat. Usually, the teeth of a carnivore would not be able to cause any damage to a wild boar. On the contrary, the fangs of the wild boar could easily gouge out the carnivore’s internal organs.

There’s an old saying that goes, “A tiger is stronger than a bear and a bear is stronger than a boar.” The killing power of a wild boar, which usually weighed approximately 600 catties, was definitely comparable to a ferocious tiger’s.

Needless to say, the killing power of this wild boar was definitely comparable to a tiger’s. It was two meters tall, and it was built like a bulldozer. While it charged forward, the ground trembled. Ren Baqian could feel the ground trembling even though he was sitting high up in the tree.

Given the wild boar’s skin and layer of fat, Ren Baqian reckoned that even his handgun could not do much damage to it, unless he shot its eyes or vital areas.

The person who was being chased by the wild boar while shrieking was someone he knew—Ning Caichen. While he was running in a zigzag course, he was letting out a blood-curdling scream.

One had to admit that he was extremely bold to have provoked such a beast while he was alone in a forest.

Usually, if someone saw such a huge wild boar, he or she might not even have the chance to avoid it.

Ren Baqian merely took a glance before he took in a deep breath of air and held his breath. He even cast his gaze elsewhere. He only dared to look in the direction of the wild boar and Ning Caichen through the corner of his eyes. Doing this would prevent the wild boar from sensing his presence.

Unexpectedly, Ning Caichen ran towards the tree that Ren Baqian was on after making a sharp turn, causing Ren Baqian to almost curse out loud.

If Ning Caichen ran past Ren Baqian’s location, the wild boar would follow him and destroy everything in its path, including the tree Ren Baqian was on. Ren Baqian would be in deep trouble then.