The Empress’s Gigolo

Ren Baqian asked Du Changkong to get out of his way. Without saying anything, he charged wildly toward the lantern platform. He clearly understood that he was the weakest among all the participants. Even if there were 10 clones of himself, he wouldn’t be able to beat the second weakest participant. Therefore, he chose to charge forward wildly like this.

At the same time, he was howling with laughter in his heart.

Why don’t you stop me? Why don’t you stop me? See what will happen if you touch me!

Ren Baqian indeed ran very fast. Within a few seconds, he was ahead of everyone. Some people were already fighting with each other in the distance.

When people saw who the fastest runner on the field was, they had stunned looks on their faces.

What is going on?

Is this acceptable? He is breaking the rules, isn’t he?

More than half of the participants were looking at Ren Baqian.

Should I stop him?

How do I stop him?

Everyone else looked at each other. In the end, all of them turned their heads and looked at the side of the field in unison.

Liu Ruoyao was stomping about in anger while yelling, “He is breaking the rules! He is breaking the rules! He is breaking the rules!”

Almost of all of the participants had such a reaction, let alone the spectators. Everyone looked on as the oversized hedgehog that gave off a cold glimmer charged forward wildly. The spectators went into an uproar.

Initially, Gu Zicheng did not know what was going on. However, when he noticed the reactions of people beside him and followed their gazes, he almost spurted out blood.

There was actually such a genius among the aboriginals?

However, he quickly recalled something that he heard of recently.

Could he be that guy? Other than him, no one else would do such a thing.

After staying over 10 years in Dayao, he understood the aboriginals’ nature very well. No aboriginal would think of such an ingenious method.

When the empress saw the participants looking at the charging Ren Baqian in a daze, she turned around and gave Tong Zhenye a glance. With a bitter look on his face, Tong Zhenye let out a cough that echoed across the entire field.

“He is not breaking the rules, so the contest shall proceed as per usual.”

The empress nodded her head in satisfaction.

Upon hearing these words, many spectators understood what “dirty tricks” meant for the first time in their lives, especially the descendants of the court officials. All of them were depressed. How could they defeat Ren Baqian this way?

When Liu Ruoyao heard these words, she was incensed.

In the end, she surged forward and appeared in front of Ren Baqian with wild rage written all over her face.

Ren Baqian merely lowered his head and continued to charge forward.

At the same time, he yelled, “I can’t stop! Someone please give me a hand!”

Behind him, Tong Lan had a look of disdain on her face.

Can you act properly? If that’s the case, what are your legs doing? They are like spinning wheels!

When Liu Ruoyao saw a mass of glimmering sharp points charging toward her and heard Ren Baqian’s voice, she became even more angry.

However, she did not dare to continue standing there. She did not want to see for herself whether or not those sharp points could pierce through her. In a flash, she dodged Ren Baqian’s charging attack. Afterward, she felt extremely sullen.

Previously, she was determined not to let him make contact with the lantern platform. However, she couldn’t even stop him now.

As Tong Lan ran past her, she even gave her a smile. Du Changkong and his counterparts had a relaxed look on their faces. Out of every team, their team was the most relaxed. Many teams had already started fighting with each other.

Du Changkong and the rest gave Ren Baqian a thumbs up in their hearts. It was good to have someone that had a powerful backer on their team.

However, as everyone picked up their speed, Ren Baqian began to fall behind. After all, he was still the slowest compared to everyone else.

At the same time, two girls from Hong Xian’s team had stopped Xu Le and Jiang Hu.

Meanwhile, Liu Ruoyao clenched her teeth and followed behind them, trying to find an opportunity to strike again.

The sound of people getting beaten up was incessant. Many people were launching punches and kicks while running at full speed. Occasionally, those who couldn’t dodge the attacks that were coming from all directions flew into the air and collapsed to the ground. Someone even got his arm twisted and thrown onto the ground.

“Watch out, hedgehog!” someone suddenly yelled. A man was flying toward Ren Baqian threateningly. He adjusted his posture in the air, but maintained his flying path. Even if he could kick Ren Baqian to the ground, the soles of his feet would be filled with holes.

This was the man that yelled those words.

Hearing these words, Tong Lan could not help but burst out laughing.

Ren Baqian was like a hedgehog that could not be eaten.

The aboriginals’ cultivation system was divided into four levels: Four-way Heaven, Kismet Heaven, Cardinal Heaven, and Longevity Heaven. Most of the commoners had attained Four-way Heaven. Every participant had attained Kismet Heaven. After all, they were quite good to have attained Kismet Heaven at such a young age.

However, even if they could stop Ren Baqian with their strength and even though Ren Baqian was like an ant to them, they did not dare take the risk of stopping him and becoming a sieve.

Even Liu Ruoyao did not dare to do so.

If you try to attack Ren Baqian, would you go hard or soft on him? If you go soft on him, you’re going to suffer a huge loss. Are you willing to become a sieve for the sake of merely touching him? However, if you go hard on him… don’t forget his status…

No matter how much Liu Ruoyao hated Ren Baqian, she only wanted to humiliate him. At worst, she only wanted to cause him a slight injury.

Only a fool would try to injure him severely. Her Majesty will not let her off if she did that.

Therefore, even though she was infuriated, she couldn’t do anything about it.

The rest felt the same way too.

However, that man’s yell was really funny.

“An oversized hedgehog? Hahaha…” Tong Lan laughed heartily while following behind Ren Baqian. Her voice was pleasant and alluring.

As Ren Baqian was running, he gave the guy in the air the finger. At the same time, he was making calculations in his head. If he did not change his speed, he might crash into that guy, so should he crash into him or not?

Before Ren Baqian could make up his mind, Du Changkong suddenly appeared in front of him. He squatted down and launched himself into the air. Holding a superman pose, he whizzed toward the guy in the air.

In any case, everyone in the arena was his opponent.

That guy wasn’t scared either. He brandished his arms and shot out countless fist shadows. Following which, he collided with Du Changkong. After a few exchanges, that guy got punched in his chest and flew backward. Du Changkong fell back to the ground as well. As he landed on the ground, his feet punctured two holes in the ground that went knee-deep into the soil.

Ren Baqian was roughly 70 meters away from the lantern platform. Even though everyone else started off slower than him and some were even in a daze for a few minutes, they still reached the lantern platform earlier than him.

This was like a 600-meter race between a tractor and a Ferrari. Even if the tractor started off at the 300-meter-mark, the Ferrari could still catch up and overtake it.

Over 10 people rose from the ground and jumped onto the second level of the lantern platform. Two of them were already exchanging kicks. One of them was kicked off the lantern platform while the other crashed into one of the supporting pillars.

However, the person who crashed into the pillar was pulled by Qin Haoyong from his back and then pushed off the lantern platform. After pushing that guy off the lantern platform, Qin Haoyong jumped three levels up the lantern platform.

Aside from the people that climbed the lantern platform, there were also some people who tried to stop other teams from approaching the platform.

Ren Baqian did not care about anything. Bracing himself, he charged forward and shouted, “If God tries to stop me, I will destroy him! If Buddha tries to stop me, I will destroy him! I will destroy anyone that tries to stop me! Get out of the way if you want to live!”

Those people raised their eyebrows and gave way to Ren Baqian.

There was no way that they could stop this spiky beast. However, given his speed, the contest would be over before he even made it to the midpoint of the lantern platform.

Following behind Ren Baqian tightly, Tong Lan was approaching the lantern platform as well. However, the rest of her team members had been stopped and were caught up in the chaos.

At this point in time, there were roughly 40 people climbing the lantern platform from its two sides. Every now and then, someone would fall off the platform.

Beneath the platform, there was a sea of chaos. Other than the people on the platform, half of the remaining people got caught up in the chaos far away from the platform while the rest were here.

“Phew!” Ren Baqian was panting heavily when he reached the lantern platform. By getting here safely, the hedgehog armor had indeed not let him down. His job was mostly done now.

However, since he was free, he felt that he should try climbing the lantern platform. Doing this would aggrandize him as well.

Tong Lan did not care about him. With a flip, she jumped onto the second level. Before she even landed on the second level, someone suddenly appeared in front of her. That person let out a gasp of surprise. He was surprised to see such a young participant.

However, his reactions weren’t slow at all. Using his right hand, he tried to karate chop Tong Lan.

Using one hand, Tong Lan held his right hand, somersaulted, and launched a slicing kick to the top of his head.

The guy took half a step backward and dodged Tong Lan’s attack. Following which, he tried to karate chop her again.

Whizz.

Tong Lan’s eyes widened. Are you bullying me due to the fact that my legs are shorter than your arms?

Her legs brandished in the air like a pinwheel and launched several kicks at the guy, causing him to stagger backward. Making use of her momentum, Tong Lan held the edge of the second level to propel herself into the air and surge toward the guy. After a few exchanges, her opponent fell off the lantern platform.

Meanwhile, Ren Baqian was still on the first level and trying to get to the second level. After all, he was weak to begin with. Furthermore, his armor inconvenienced his movements. Previously, when he was running, it was still alright. Now that he wanted to climb the lantern platform, it was slightly troublesome for him.

Moreover, the lantern platform lacked any ladders. Most people ascended it by jumping. If it weren’t for the fact that everyone had to ascend the platform level by level, most people would jump two to three levels at once.

Since Ren Baqian wasn’t capable of jumping, he had to grip the beams and pillars of the platform to climb up. At the same time, he had to make sure the spikes on his armor wouldn’t pierce the beams and pillars.

Watching an oversized hedgehog climb up the lantern, Liu Ruoyao felt frustrated. In a moment of rage, she took off one of her shoes and threw it at Ren Baqian.

Even though her shoe wasn’t heavy at all, with her strength level it hit Ren Baqian’s back like a brick.

This act of impulse caused two outcomes that she never thought of.

First, the shoe was pierced by the spikes on Ren Baqian’s armor and wouldn’t come off his back.

Second, the force from the shoe slammed Ren Baqian to one of the pillars. The spikes on his chest pierced the pillar and caused him to stick to the pillar as though he was being nailed onto it.

Ren Baqian felt something hit his back, and he hugged the pillar in front of him. He could even hear the sound of the spikes piercing the pillar.

“F*ck!” Ren Baqian widened his eyes. He exerted strength to push himself off the pillar. However, the spikes on his armor got hooked into with the wooden fibers inside the pillar, stopping him from releasing himself from the pillar.

When the spectators saw this scene, they were dumbfounded.

Many people rejoiced in his misfortune and burst out laughing.

The empress’s eyes twitched. Similarly, Shi Qing, Zhe Kouhai, Tong Zhenye, Qin Chuan, and the rest had their eyes twitching.

Right now, the fastest participants had already reached the fourth level. However, all of them were engaged in a fight to stop each other from advancing. No one could get away and ascend to the fifth level.

Initially, all of the spectators had their eyes fixated on the fifth level. They had not expected such a scene to occur below.

They had not expected somebody’s shoe to get stuck to the oversized hedgehog.

This scene happened too suddenly. No one knew how to react to it.

Ren Baqian was stuck to the pillar for a long while. After clenching his teeth and exerting a huge amount of strength, he finally pulled the spikes on his armor out of the pillar.

Liu Ruoyao was slightly taken back by the consequences of throwing her shoe at Ren Baqian. Following which, she felt a feeling of thrill and pleasure. At the same time, her eyes lit up. While fighting other people, she also kept her eyes on Ren Baqian, preparing to throw her other shoe at him.

When she saw Ren Baqian begin to move again, she took off her other shoe and prepared to throw it at him again.

However, before she could do anything, somebody else’s shoe flew out of the chaos and hit Ren Baqian. The shoe stuck to Ren Baqian’s back and slammed him back onto the pillar again…

“F*ck!” Stuck to the pillar, Ren Baqian was in a violent rage.

Which bastard threw his shoe at me?

The people fighting below the lantern platform lost the mood to fight. Their movements slowed down significantly, resembling a scene from The Matrix. All of them were looking attentively at the oversized hedgehog that was stuck to the pillar.

This fellow was too loathsome.

He actually dared to undermine the tradition of the lantern-grabbing contest.

How could any unarmed aboriginal youth accept the fact that a glimmering, alien, oversized hedgehog had been approved in this contest?

Previously, no one could do anything about him. However, the shoe from the sky had opened a new door for everyone, allowing them to see a new world… A new future…