The Empress's Gigolo

Ping City was located the northernmost part of Dayao, it was half a day\'s journey from Great Xia\'s Tiesuo Pass.

Even though this city had a population of less than fifty thousand inhabitants, it had prevented Great Xia from invading Dayao for many years, resembling an extremely sharp knife point pointing at Great Xia.

The city walls of Ping City were sixteen meters in height. They were covered in traces of various types of damages and repair. Most of the bloodstains on the walls had already coagulated.

At this point in time, Ping City seemed more dilapidated than usual. There were many scattered, crushed rocks outside of the city. These were caused by Great Xia\'s trebuchets.

Logically speaking, after the Great Xia army had retreated, the soldiers and citizens of Ping City should be having a good rest now. However, at this point in time, every corner of the city was filled with torches. Hong Wu waited outside of the city with a bunch of generals.

Soon after, when they heard the sound of hooves coming from the darkness, a look of joy appeared on their faces.

After a while, they could see silhouette emerging from the darkness.

Hong Wu could easily see the heads hanging on the mounts of the winged cavalry. Aboriginals did not have the habit of chopping and keeping the heads of their enemies as spoils of war. The heads hanging on the winged cavalry\'s mounts should be their comrades\'. They were to be sent back to the Sixty Thousand Mountains.

When Hong Wu saw the angry-looking head hanging on the side of Li Tanhua\'s mount, he looked unmoved, but he let out a deep sigh in his heart.

Lin Yaoqi was extremely talented, and Hong Wu thought very highly of him. This lad had a very high chance of reaching his level.

Upon spotting Qi Shui, Hong Wu greeted the empress, "Greetings, Your Majesty." Then, he hurled a piercing glance at Ren Baqian, who was also seated on Qi Shui.

Everything that happened was all because of him.

Even if the empress managed to destroy the Nine Pavilions, become the fifth most powerful expert in the world, and return safely this time, he still wished this kind of incident never happened at all.

He also couldn\'t believe that Ren Baqian and the empress were sitting on Qi Shui\'s back together. He simply couldn\'t believe the empress would allow Ren Baqian to sit with her.

Hong Wu wasn\'t the only one—the rest of the generals also looked shocked.

Upon seeing the look on everyone\'s face, Ren Baqian felt slightly awkward.

Previously, it was still alright for him to sit with the empress on Qi Shui. Now, it did not seem appropriate for him to continue doing so. Furthermore, given the incident that happened this time, these people definitely did not like him. He felt that he should get down from Qi Shui\'s back.

However, just as he was about to jump down from Qi Shui\'s back, he felt his lower back turn numb, and he couldn\'t move his body. Following which, a hand grabbed the back of his clothes and held him tightly in place, stopping him from jumping off Qi Shui\'s back.

"Speak after we enter the city," the empress said to everyone.

"Yes, Your Majesty," everyone immediately replied.

Under everyone\'s attentive gaze, Ren Baqian rode into the city with the empress. However, Hong Wu and a few other generals had noticed the empress\'s action, and they shook their heads in silence.

After the empress and Ren Baqian entered the city, Hong Wu and his generals placed their attention on the winged cavalry. They realized there was something wrong with the number of winged cavalry present. There were too many winged cavalry warriors.

Out of ten units of winged cavalry that had been dispatched, seven units had already returned. That meant the empress had at most three units of winged cavalry with her, which was approximately four hundred men.

Reportedly, the empress and her counterparts faced at least three interceptions from Great Xia on their way back. The first one was at Mount Yuyang, and the second one was at the mountain pass at Mount Lianyin. During these two interceptions, Great Xia had lost a total of six thousand men. This was the news that they obtained from Great Xia. To everyone\'s surprise, they realized the winged cavalry units that escorted the empress back lost only a few men.

The third interception was at Falling Moon Gorge. Even though no one knew the exact details, they knew what was going on. This was another reason why Hong Wu had arranged for Lin Yaoqi to lead one thousand men to receive the empress.

However, only the heads of that one thousand men returned. Everyone could easily see the heads hanging on the mounts of the winged cavalry. They also saw Lin Yaoqi\'s head. Logically speaking, the winged cavalry should suffer heavy losses after going through three tough battles. However, this did not happen.

This baffled everyone.

On the way back, some people counted the number of winged cavalry warriors present. Six men were missing, and there were six empty mounts.

Everyone\'s mind was filled with question marks. They did not know what happened. Was the winged cavalry really that powerful? However, out of the other seven units that had returned, three units had encountered interceptions and suffered heavy losses. One of them even returned with half of their men killed. As for the rest, all of them were injured in one way or another

After reaching the general office situated at the center of Ping City, Ren Baqian went to rest while the empress held a meeting with all the generals.

"Initially, I wanted to receive Your Majesty personally. However, a few days ago, Great Xia launched a furious invasion on Ping City. Therefore, I had no choice but to stay here and send Captain Lin Yaoqi to receive you. Please forgive me," Hong Wu started talking first.

"It\'s alright," the empress waved her hands and dismissed.

"Your Majesty…" Hong Wu apologized first before starting on another topic.

"You were too rash this time around,"

The empress darkened her face and replied, "Don\'t talk about it anymore, I know I should do."

A powerful aura gushed out from her body as she pinched her own fingers beneath her sleeves. How would she not know she had been too rash this time around? She just did not want other people to talk about it. The husband she had just chosen was poisoned with Torment, how could she let it go that easily?

Furthermore, she did not want Ren Baqian to die.

After all, this was the first time in her life that she fell in love with someone. This was also the first time she felt a rush of excitement for someone.

It was just that she couldn\'t tell anyone about these things or her feelings.

Hong Wu took a look at the empress and sighed in his heart. He felt that the empress had changed. Then, he changed the topic and asked, "Was everything smooth on your way back?"

"It was rather smooth," the empress replied after thinking about it.

"Did a Great Xia army intercept you at Falling Moon Gorge?"

The empress sneered and replied, "There was someone called Jia Yugong waiting for us there. The Zhu Mu Elders were also there. Both of them took over ten years to make it to the top ten rankings by luck, how dare they challenge me!"

Hong Wu was slightly startled. The Zhu Mu Elders were troublesome individuals, he couldn\'t believe they were hired by Great Xia.

After he heard of the Nine Pavilions\' destruction, he knew with certainty that Her Majesty had activated the power of her blood lineage. Even until now, she definitely had not recovered yet. This could be seen from her aura. She had not even reached fifty percent of her peak form yet. In her current state, it was extremely difficult for her to escape from the Zhu Mu Elders.

However, the empress was sitting unscathed here right now.

"What happened to the two of them?" Hong Wu continued to ask.

"I sent them to meet Hua Sanliu," the empress sneered.

Everyone in the meeting hall was shocked. Not only did the empress kill Hua Sanliu, she also killed two persons who were just promoted to the top ten rankings. After all, even Hong Wu might have difficulty dealing with them.

If Ren Baqian was here, he would definitely say something like, "Your Majesty\'s wisdom and strength is unparalleled, you\'re undefeatable and you\'re alone at the top of the world."

This bunch of people only knew how to exclaim in admiration, none of them knew how to bootlick her.

Therefore, the empress found Ren Baqian to be more likeable.

Hong Wu was amazed by the empress\'s feat as well. However, it was more appropriate for him to ask the winged cavalry for more details.

"Your Majesty is mighty," Hong Wu stated. Following which, everyone in the meeting hall repeated after him, "Your Majesty is mighty."

"Lin Yaoqi\'s unit was completely annihilated, I wonder what happened?" Hong Wu asked again. He wasn\'t the only one that wanted to know about this matter, the rest wanted to know about it as well.

"You can ask the winged cavalry later," the empress shook her head and replied.

She did not want to tell them that Lin Yaoqi and his counterparts were ambushed and killed by Great Xia soldiers.

After talking about a few other things, the empress said, "I\'m tired, all of you are dismissed, let\'s talk about other things tomorrow."

after everyone left, Hong Wu was the only one that remained at the same spot.

"General, is there anything else?" The empress\'s attitude became much friendlier when she talked to Hong Wu alone.

"Is it true that Your Majesty poisoned everyone in the Nine Pavilions and the four thousand men at Mount Lianyin to death?"

The empress nodded her head.

"Is it Imperial Deputy Prefect Ren\'s doing?" Hong Wu could be considered one of those who knew the empress the most. He might not know some things about her, but he definitely knew that she did not know how to use poisons.

After thinking about it, the empress nodded her head.

"Your Majesty, this man is really dangerous. Furthermore, I heard that he has encountered a bichi, I\'m afraid he is not suitable for you."

Even though Ren Baqian looked like he couldn\'t even defeat a child or kill a chicken, he was still considered terrifying for poisoning thousands of people to death. Moreover, he was always by the empress\'s side.

Looking at the way the empress behaved previously, he could only beat about the bush when persuading her to reconsider her decision to marry Ren Baqian.

"This is my personal matter. I already knew about the bichi incident, don\'t mention it again." The empress\'s face darkened again.

Upon hearing these words, Hong Wu knew he couldn\'t persuade the empress for the time being. Therefore, he could only say, "I shall escort Your Majesty to your room then."

The empress nodded her head.

After escorting the empress to her room, Hong Wu withdrew his gaze and sighed deeply.

At this point in time, he felt worse than a father who had to see his unmarried daughter getting cheated on by a man. At the start, he did not take Ren Baqian seriously at all. However, now that he saw what happened to the empress, he felt that Ren Baqian wasn\'t as simple as he appeared.

When he saw the empress giving everyone a this-is-my-personal-matter-all-of-you-shut-up look, he knew that she had already made up her mind. Even though he already knew this when the empress headed to Great Xia to obtain the antidote for Ren Baqian, he was still speechless when his conjecture was confirmed now.