The Empress’s Gigolo

That night, Ren Baqian entered the [Visualization of Water] again. The lake was still lifeless, slightly misty and had a few trees surrounding it.

Ren Baqian couldn’t wait to plunge into the lake. He swam to the middle of the lake and dived down for ten, twenty, and then finally, thirty meters. The pressure was increasing and the surrounding was getting dinner.

However, his condition was much better as compared to earlier and his heart was on fire.

When his fingers touched the objects at the bottom this time, Ren Baqian still had some air left in his lungs.

Based on his experience, he could last a dozen seconds more.

These days, he was keenly aware of the situation of his body before he dived.

Due to the lack of oxygen in his lungs, Ren Baqian had begun to experience a burning pain. He put all his mind on his hands and touched all over the surrounding area.

It wasn’t the mud that he envisioned, but rather, what felt like stones at the bottom. One of his hands felt something protruding out. But, before he could carefully probe it again to figure out what it was, he suddenly woke up feeling very tired.

“What a pity, I just missed by a bit.” Ren Baqian thought.

“But I missed it by just a little, I certainly can do it tomorrow.” Ren Baqian tried to wave his fists but didn’t have the strength and went to sleep immediately.

The next day, Ren Baqian dived to the bottom of the lake once again and directly searched for the object he touched the day before. He finally touched it, and it seemed to be a stone ring.

When he woke up from the [Visualization of Water], he felt somewhat unwilling as he was so close to success.

That stone ring was thrown down? Could it be pulled open? Is there anything below? Ren Baqian pondered.

There was no record of this stone ring in the [Ruyi Visualization].

“I can certainly do it tomorrow!” Ren Baqian laid on the bed and waved his fists.

On the third day, Ren Baqian came out from the [Visualization of Water] with an unwilling look once again.

“I can definitely do it tomorrow!”

On the fourth day, Ren Baqian was lying on his bed after coming out from the [Visualization of Water].

“Damn it!”

On the fifth day, “Son of a bi*ch!”

…

The progress over five consecutive days wasn’t much, and this led Ren Baqian to suspect that his method might be wrong.

He finally came to this conclusion after pondering the concept of the cultivation of [Ruyi Visualization]. This [Visualization of Water] began with absorbing the effects of the medicinal bath which slowly strengthened the body. Besides increasing his energy, his physical strength was also much stronger than before.

For example, he didn’t feel the slightest bit tired even after walking for a few hours.

Diving into the lake daily during the [Visualization of Water] was to subject him to mental pressure and, at the same time, influence the outer body. This was the process to bring out the potential of the body and promote the efficacy of the medicine.

Right from the start, this point was the main reason for entering the [Visualization of Water].

That stone ring was certainly not a riddle for him to play with, but for the same reason as before, it was to put his body under pressure and bring out the potential in his body.

Now, since he had reached the bottom of the lake, if he wasn’t mistaken, what he had to do was pull the stone ring out.

At this juncture, Ren Baqian resolved to pull out the stone ring one day, whether it took one day, two days, or even longer.

A few days later, after returning from a trip to Earth, Ren Baqian continued his medical bath routine and pulled at the stone ring again. He pulled with all his might and finally felt the stone ring moving up a little.

This raised his morale as he knew he was on the correct track.

He managed to move the stone slab below the stone ring slightly and it seemed like there was a door.

Another day had passed, and Ren Baqian was lying on his bed cultivating the [Visualization of Water]. All of a sudden, his originally calm body started to tremble.

Two hot streams started from his kidneys and flowed all throughout his body.

Wherever the hot streams flowed, the blood vessels and the blue veins would rise, and the muscles would bulge as if something was moving underneath.

With the heat flowing in his body, Ren Baqian was running a high temperature and turned red at the same time, as if he developed a fever. The temperature of his body quickly reached 40 degrees Celsius, but the heat couldn’t be discharged together with his sweat as his sweat pores were closed tightly.

After a while, Ren Baqian’s head emitted gas looking similar to steam from a large kettle.

If he was seen by someone on Earth at this moment, they would have thought they were witnessing the legendary “Three Treasures and Five Visceras”.

[Three Treasures and Five Visceras – terminology used in Taoist Neidan/internal alchemyNeidan, or internal alchemy, is an array of esoteric doctrines and physical, mental, and spiritual practices that Taoist initiates use to prolong life and create an immortal spiritual body that would survive after death]

After a long time, the gas emitted from Ren Baqian’s head gradually decreased and his body temperature also dropped.

Ren Baqian slowly awakened at this time.

Soon after waking up, he didn’t feel like he had any breakthroughs or made any progress. His whole body felt as if he was totally exhausted. He was thirsty and tired, and his brain wasn’t clear. He only felt like having a good sleep.

He struggled to get up and gulped three cups of water in a row. Then, he collapsed on the bed and fell into a deep slumber.

Afterwards, Ren Baqian was woken by his hunger. He couldn’t tell the exact time, and in any case, it wasn’t bright out yet. His stomach felt like it was on fire and all the cells in his body were crying out for food.

He crawled out from his bed, quickly ran out of his house, picked up a bamboo shoot that had been prepared for Tiantian and Gungun and started gnawing on it.

The two chaps were awakened by him. They found this rascal stealing their bamboo shoots and ambled around trying to grab it back.

But at this moment, Ren Baqian’s eyes were flashing green light. He was considering roasting them as he could smell the scent of meat.

Sir Ren!” The guard outside was alarmed by the commotion inside, came in to look and saw Ren Baqian squatting there with penetrating green eyes.

“Quick, bring me to the imperial kitchen, I am dying of hunger!” By this time, he had already eaten the second shoot, but it didn’t relieve his hunger at all.

He knew what he needed, meat, and in great amount.

When he reached the imperial kitchen, to his surprise Ren Baqian didn’t see any leftover food. What he saw were either raw vegetables or raw meat.

While eating the fruits, he got someone to start the fire and then began to stew the meat.

He fretted for three hours and ate through two pots of meat, which was about 20 catties worth. Only then did his hunger recede.

Ren Baqian leaned against the wall while sitting on the floor and felt like cursing. He had encountered the same situation before, and it was the same for this breakthrough. For the next breakthrough, he must certainly prepare some food first. There should be at least a dozen catties of braised beef with soya sauce or something similar; otherwise, the feeling of debilitating hunger was too unbearable for an average person.

After a good rest, the sky was already bright when Ren Baqian strolled to Pingle Park while picking his teeth.

At this point in time, Ren Baqian couldn’t adapt to his body. His body was much more relaxed, his legs were floating, and his walking style was like doing a spacewalk.

He tried it out when he went back and ran ten meters in the blink of an eye. His speed was much faster than before.

If his running time for one hundred meters was thirteen seconds before, now, he only needed eight or nine seconds at most, and he felt he was not even exerting himself.

The sudden change in his body was rather hard to adapt to initially.

At the same time, his punching speed was also much faster.

As for his strength, the increase was even more pronounced. When Ren Baqian went to Pingle Park and fiddled with the dumbbells, his strength had increased, and he could now exert 500 more newtons of force.

Which was to say, he could exert more than 3000 newtons of force.

The most improvement was in his jumping ability. He was able to jump over a two-meter-high wall with one thrust of his legs.

Ren Baqian clenched his fists with a smile, this breakthrough had actually improved his body to such a great extent.

He then asked the imperial bodyguard to help him test out other aspects of his abilities and discovered that his spatial vision and reaction were much quicker than before.

For example, when he fought with Tong Lan previously, he couldn’t see her moves clearly and even when he could see them occasionally, he wasn’t able to react fast enough.

After this trial, Ren Baqian was excited throughout the entire day. He had finally advanced to the Man Wheel level and could be considered a practitioner. His strength had improved tremendously as well.

Although his power had only improved from 250 kilograms to 300 kilograms, the extra 50 kilograms brought his power to the crushing level.

Needless to say, his speed had increased by forty percent, his jumping ability had doubled, and his spatial vision and reaction improved by thirty percent.

If he were to compare himself now with what he was one day before, Ren Baqian felt that he could easily defeat three persons of his previous version.

The improvement by thirty or forty percent didn’t seem like much, but the difference in end result was actually substantial.

Compared to his ability one day before, he could see the movements which he couldn’t see previously. The attacking strikes he could not dodge before could be avoided now.

The opponent’s point of view was opposite to his.

Ren Baqian was smiling excitedly right until he was facing Tong Lan on stage in the afternoon

He played Justice League’s BGM “Hero’s Theme”.

With this majestic music playing, he imagined himself in a battlefield filled with smoke.

Ren Baqian was boiling with indignation at the thought of being beaten by this little Lolita for so long. He could finally take revenge and emerge victorious today.

Even if he was no match for his opponent, he should at least give her a fright.

“Sir Tong!” Ren Baqian suddenly changed his expression, smiled and nodded in the direction of someone behind the little Lolita.

Following which, he crouched like a leopard, charged at Tong Lan and attacked with his fists moving like shadows.

The little Lolita was shocked by the faster than expected strike and was caught unaware.

However, it was only for a moment.

“Boom!”

Ren Baqian arced across the stage and landed heavily on the ground.

“Sigh, such is life!” Ren Baqian laid on the floor looking at the dark blue sky and let out a long sigh.

“Your strength has improved!” Tong Lan was amazed by the big improvement shown compared to the previous day.

He had doubled his power by managing to parry four strokes instead of two.

Ren Baqian opened his mouth to blow a bubble. Whatever happened, he had advanced from a level two rookie to a level three rookie.

From this battle, he discovered that his defensive skills had also improved. The punch by Tong Lan to his body was only slightly painful now and didn’t hurt as much as before.

Tong Lan controlled the power of her attack very well and always delivered the same amount of force. That meant his defensive ability had improved greatly.

The last time he was hammered lightly on his chest by the empress, he was almost fatally injured. At present, he should only suffer a serious injury.

This was a tremendous improvement.