The Empress’s Gigolo

After spending four rough days on the road, Ren Baqian had seen a lot of things. To his utmost surprise, every time they stopped at a village, the winged cavalry would teach martial arts to the children living in the village. Even though they did not teach the children much, the pointers they gave were still extremely precious to them. These pointers could save those children a lot of time and effort in their future growth.

The aboriginals spared no effort in promoting martial spirit and the relationship between the army and commoners. This made Ren Baqian sentimental as he seldom heard of this happening in ancient China.

Other than the army that founded the current regime of China, there was only a small number of armies in the history of China that won the hearts of the citizens. In the ancient times, citizens often viewed soldiers as wolves.

A few days later, they reached a small town and Ren Baqian suggested that they should rest for a day.

Even though the rest slightly scorned upon this request, they did not say anything. After all, Ren Baqian had a unique status.

Ren Baqian told them not to disturb him and requested his food to be placed at the doorstep of his room. Following which, he returned to Earth in his room.

The long and arduous journey had worn him out thoroughly. He needed to have a good rest.

Even though his request was slightly unreasonable, he still had to request it. After all, he was just an ordinary human. Even when he was in Dayao, he did not suffer so much.

The most arduous experience he’d ever had would definitly be that night he spent in the wild during the Great Hunt.

However, it had been more of mental stress than physical stress for him at that time. It was incomparable to the fatigue he was feeling this time around.

In any case, his time in that world was up. It was better for him to find a place and disappear now, than to suddenly disappear tomorrow.

When Ren Baqian returned to Earth, he threw himself on his bed straight away. The soft and huge bed that did not shake when he jumped on it felt extremely comfortable.

Ren Baqian finally woke up after sleeping for approximately five hours. He did not want to get up and rolled around his bed. After a long while, he finally got out of his bed and made himself a cup of instant noodles to eat.

After spending three days at home without going out at all, Ren Baqian returned to that world again. It was exactly midnight when he arrived at that world. He lay on the bed and took a nap. After a few hours, he heard someone knocking on his door.

“Sir Deputy Prefect.”

“Come in.” Ren Baqian sat up from his bed.

“Sir, it’s time to set off.” The one that knocked on his door was Teng Ji. He finally felt relieved when he saw Ren Baqian.

.

For the entire day, there wasn’t any sound from Ren Baqian’s room. The food that was placed at the doorstep of Ren Baqian’s room was left untouched as well. As such, he had been left feeling uneasy all this time.

If it weren’t for the fact that Ren Baqian had reminded him not to disturb him, he would have barged into the room.

“Alright, understood,” Ren Baqian nodded his head and replied. He got out of his bed and washed his face. After an hour, he was back on the road in his carriage.

…

Mount Damo was the location one of the two mines in Dayao. There were all kinds of criminals working in it. Most of them were prisoners of war that had been captured during Dayao’s conflicts with its neighboring countries. Currently, there were a few thousand of them. Some of their strength even reached the intermediate stage of the Man Wheel level. However, all of them were chained with shackles and they had zero chance of escaping.

Even though the mine was filled with young and strong warriors, the speed at which iron ore was extracted was still very slow. Increasing the amount of manpower was useless. The rocks in the mine were as hard as metal. Every strike from a pickaxe produced a burst of sparks and at most a mere white spot on the rock.

There was a unit of three hundred men guarding this place. The strength of the weakest guard was on Man Level.

Powerful individual strength was the reason why Dayao could use merely sixty thousand troops to act as a deterrence against possible aggression from the three countries.

Every one of these sixty thousand warriors was at least on Man Level. Even if they had to defend three fronts at once, they were not to be trifled with. They were the cornerstone of Dayao’s stability.

A fleet of carriages and horses arrived at the foot of Mount Damo.

“Who?” the guard at the foot of the mountain took two steps forward and asked.

This place was located in the depths of Dayao and the only visitors were aboriginals as well, and as such, the guard did not really look vigilant.

“Ask your commanding officer to come out, this is Her Majesty’s command token,” Teng Ji said with a deep voice while sitting on his mount.

While waiting, Ren Baqian and Tao Jiyuan got out from their carriages and stretched their bodies. Staying on the carriages for two days straight had caused their bodies to turn stiff entirely.

Even though Ren Baqian had rested on Earth for three days, Tao Jiyuan seemed to be in a better condition than him. He had no choice but to admire the body constitution of aboriginals.

These few days, Ren Baqian had gotten closer to Tao Jiyuan. After all, they had been chatting with each other on the journey here. On the third day, Ren Baqian and Tao Jiyuan even sat in same carriage and conversed for quite some time.

After chatting with Tao Jiyuan, Ren Baqian realized that not only was he literate, he was also quite knowledgeable in many aspects. Tao Jiyuan was considered a rare talent among the aboriginals.

Ren Baqian also found out that there were a few high officials from Tao Jiyuan’s family in the past generations. His family had a lot of books from other countries as well. They had a total of five hundred books, which was considered plentiful among the aboriginal families.

Tao Jiyuan grew up in such an environment, it was no wonder that he was so knowledgeable.

However, his body constitution was born weak, limiting his progress in cultivation.

Ren Baqian heard that he had an older brother than held an office in the Left Army. Even though his current rank wasn’t as high as Tao Jiyuan’s, his prospects were much better than Tao Jiyuan’s.

In the aboriginals’ eyes, an official position in the army had the greatest prospects out of all professions. At least Tao Jiyuan was filled with pride and hope when he mentioned his older brother.

Soon after, everyone saw three men rushing down from the mountain. All three of them were clad in armor and had a broadsword on their waists.

“I am the warden of this place, Gu Qiong. I didn’t know you will be arriving here, do you have the command token of Her Majesty?” the man at the front said loudly while scanning everyone with eyes. He was around forty years old and he had a huge beard on his face. The armor that he was wearing was slightly dusty.

With a single glance, he could tell that they were the winged cavalry. After all, this was the only unit in Dayao that had a colored, spotted feather sticking out of the shoulder plates.

However, most of time, his gaze was upon Ren Baqian and Tao Jiyuan. They were obviously the bosses here.

Even though the winged cavalry was powerful and it was Her Majesty’s personal army, they had no jurisdiction over this place.

“This is Imperial Deputy Prefect, Ren Baqian. This is Overseer of Military Arms, Tao Jiyuan. I’m Colonel of Winged Guards, Teng Ji. We are under Her Majesty’s order to come here for an inspection and search for a solution to increase the mining output.”

While Teng Ji was speaking, he threw a piece of white paper towards Gu Qiong. The white paper flew through the air as though it was a solid object.

Gu Qiong caught the paper with one hand and took a glance at it. Following which, a smile appeared on his face as he said, “I see, Sirs, please follow me.”

Ren Baqian and Tao Jiyuan did not get on their carriages. They walked towards Gu Qiong and cupped their hands to greet him. Gu Xiong returned their greetings as well.

“General Gu, please lead the way.”

Everyone followed behind him.

Ren Baqian couldn’t get a full glimpse of Mount Damo when he was at the foot of the mountain. Now that he followed Gu Qiong up the mountain, he could gradually make out the panoramic view of Mount Damo and the mine.

Mount Damo was still the most eye-catching. it was seven hundred meters tall and was shaped like a saucepan lid placed upside down. The entire mountain did not have many trees or plants. Especially beside the path that Ren Baqian and his counterparts were walking on, trees were cut down, revealing uneven jagged rocks.

At the foot of the mountain, there were a few thousands of men working with a pickaxe in their hands. They were working extremely hard to excavate the mine, throwing every piece of broken rock to one side.

Along with the wind, a huge gust of dust blew towards Ren Baqian and his counterparts.