The Empress’s Gigolo

Chapter 917: Continue With the Praise! I’m Not Overly Excited Yet!
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios

“Your Highness!” A man hurried over and greeted Ren Baqian, who was resting against the railings of the second floor and overlooking the hall below.

Ren Baqian smiled when he saw this man walk in because the man was an old acquaintance!

Zhan Changkong!

The chief of the Golden Ring Residence and the father of Zhan Caixian was presently the qianhu of the Yun Nation’s Guard Commandery.

Although a few years had passed, Zhan Changkong seemed more energetic than ever. This old tree had been alone in the Yun Nation for so long and could possibly have bloomed again!

Otherwise, why did he look so radiant?

However, these things had nothing to do with Ren Baqian.

“Come in and talk!” He turned around and walked into the room.

Xin Zhe was standing behind him just now and immediately followed him when he walked into the room. She simply stood in a corner without saying a word.

Zhan Changkong carefully closed the door and acted as if he didn’t see her.

“Why is Your Highness here? I previously heard that an aboriginal-looking man traveled east from Liang City. I was thinking about investigating this during my free time, but never did I expect it to be you!” he said respectfully.

Ren Baqian nodded lightly. He didn’t inform anyone here that he was coming. They had done a pretty good job considering that they noticed him amid spending most of their energy on investigating the big case!

After all, it hadn’t even been three years since they first arrived in the Yun Nation. Their manpower wasn’t exactly adequate either. It seemed that they had developed well in this area.

If Ren Baqian remembered correctly, the entire Yun Nation had about 10,000 practitioners scattered across more than 400 cities with an average of 20 to 30 people in each city.

The lowest position over here was a tiqi. These people were non-official staff who were similar to a life-time contract worker and were mainly responsible for being informants.

“What is happening in the Yun Nation recently? How are you doing?” Ren Baqian asked.

“Your Highness, before the incident, the number of people on the streets had already begun to decrease. After the incident, none of the members of the society could be seen idling on the streets. There were only occasional sightings of people from the sects hanging around.

We originally got in touch with some of the Yun Nation’s practitioners and even recruited some of them. We got some news from them which hasn’t been verified, and that’s why we haven’t reported it to you yet!” Zhan Changkong explained.

“Tell me!”

“Many of them who lived in remote areas have vanished, leaving their houses empty. Furthermore, there’s no telling where they have gone. Looking at their residences, there were no signs of fighting, so they seem to have left on their own. Some of the sects’ experts have gone into seclusion. On the other hand, those who belong to the larger sects act as usual and nothing seems to have changed.”

“Tell me again what the situation of the Yun Nation is!’ Ren Baqian closed his eyes as Zhan Changkong’s words filled his ears.

“The Yun Nation has a total of 127 sects and gangs, of which 13 are famous. Out of these 13, 10 are orthodox, two are unorthodox, and one is a cult. All of these sects have outstanding strength, status, and influence, and they are called the Superior 13. These sects are the ones that I said weren’t affected by this incident.

Apart from these 13 sects, there are also 41 of them who have Spirit Wheel experts as their chiefs. These sects are also not considered weak. Together, they have a total of nearly 50,000 disciples.

The rest are mainly groups composed of some Earth Wheel experts or once had Spirit Wheel experts, but have deteriorated. They usually only operate within a city. One city could even have about two or three of these gangs. These groups are quite numerous, but they don’t have that many experts. As for the gangs, most of their people are commoners.

We are roping in the members of these gangs as they don’t have the cohesiveness of a sect. Most of these gang members were recruited from outside. As such, they are also easier to rope in.”

“At present, how many sects are unaffected?” Ren Baqian muttered.

“Based on what we know, there are 30 to 40 sects that have been affected yet. As for the chiefs of the remaining sects, they are either cultivating in seclusion or wandering outside.”

“The incidents that happened recently, were they the action of these sects?”

“According to our recent investigations, before and after those incidents, some of these sect members’ whereabouts were unknown. As for the others, we still need more time to find out!”

Ren Baqian opened his eyes when he heard this.

“In other words, it’s possible that these sects could be the culprits?”

“Yes! However, after consolidating, the total number of the experts whose whereabouts are unknown does not exceed 100. It seems impossible for them to quickly ambush the patrol teams without letting anyone escape.”

“It could be done if top experts were involved! Are there any abnormalities among the ordinary disciples in these sects?”

Ren Baqian knew that there were many things in this world that couldn’t be reasoned with common sense.

It would seemingly be impossible for even hundreds of people to ambush those patrol teams, Wu Kai, and the lieutenant colonels, Peng Yu and Li Rui.

However, there was a type of person called a top expert.

It would be sufficient if there were a couple of them at the front line.

“No, they have only reduced their scope of activities without any sign of large-scale deployment.”

“Continue to investigate and also check the statuses of the reclusive and missing experts of the sects. Do it quickly, and if possible, directly find breakthroughs in those sects. As for the considerations, nothing is more important than their lives! In addition, hurry up and find out the situations of the top experts in the Yun Nation!” Ren Baqian ordered.

“Understood.”

“Go on!”

After Zhan Changkong left, the chill in Ren Baqian’s eyes gradually subsided as he knitted his eyebrows.

So many sects were implicated in this matter. If suspicions turned out to be true, it might be a little difficult to handle!

Even if some experts and ordinary disciples didn’t participate in these incidents, now that the empress and everyone else was fuming mad, they had no intention of determining whether these disciples should die. As long as some of them were implicated, none of them could be let off.

The empress originally ordered that all warriors at the Earth Wheel level and above be killed. Another order was issued to exterminate all the sects.

The former referred to the idle practitioners, while the latter referred to all 127 sects and gangs.

Could the experts of the Yun Nation have lost heart and collectively gone crazy? With more than a hundred organizations, did people from every one of them participate?

Alternatively, was there a group that reached out to all of the sects?

If so, this group was really terrible!

“What do you think?” Ren Baqian asked without even turning around.

“They ought to be killed!” Xin Zhe’s cold voice sounded.

He rubbed his brow. Her reply came as expected.

She knew that this was the purpose of this trip, not to mention the empress and the members of the imperial court.

She reckoned that even the empress didn’t have any expectations this time around. It wasn’t that the empress didn’t trust herself, but she wanted to kill all of them!

“Well, I’m here to save the lives of thousands of people. I’m really a saint. My wife wants to kill, yet here I am trying to save them!” Ren Baqian laughed at himself.

The door opened.

Li Yuanzhu walked in and said to him lightly, “This is for the entire human race! All aboriginals have the same temperament and can’t be reasoned with. You are here because you are rational, farsighted, and think of the future.”

“You can continue with the praise! I don’t think I’m overly excited yet!” He pondered for a moment and smiled at her.

“It is all from the bottom of my heart.” She chuckled after hearing this.

“After receiving so much praise from the third most powerful expert in the world, even though there’s no alcohol, I feel like I’m about to be drunk!” Ren Baqian was deeply moved.

Li Yuanzhu pursed her lips and smiled.

She initially wondered why Qi Zixiao chose such a weak man as her husband. He was just an ordinary person back then and wasn’t even a Man Wheel warrior. Compared to Qi Zixiao, one was above the sky and the other was beneath the ground.

Indeed, beneath the ground, not even above it.

However, from recent encounters, Qi Zixiao wasn’t very good in other aspects, but her foresight wasn’t bad at all.

Although Ren Baqian wasn’t strong, he was indeed talented. While he wasn’t as proficient in poetry as the scholars, he was pretty masterful in all other aspects.

For matters of state, he was the one who subdued Tianjing Basin with the Jing Tribe now revering him as their leader.

The current situation of the Yun Nation was his plan as well. If it wasn’t for this series of unfortunate events, the region would already have been more or less stabilized after just a short period of two years.

The official road was also Ren Baqian’s idea. Although the actual purpose of this road hadn’t seen operation yet, anyone with a little bit of knowledge would understand the usefulness of it.

It was said that Dayao was preparing to build a new capital city along the river. This was also part of his plans.

The shaved ice, glassware, streetlights, soap, toothpaste, and even salt that Dayao produced during the war were all commonly seen commodities in Lan City. All of these were his ideas.

As the principal of the academy, Ren Baqian established the first school in Dayao and trained a group of students with practical skills.

He also opened a bookstore and printed newspapers to broaden the knowledge of his people.

In addition, the public welfare organization was based on the framework he erected.

All of those nuclear bombs had been introduced by Ren Baqian as well.

And now, he was running around for the sake of the warriors of the Yun Nation…

Although he wasn’t considered an expert, his knowledge was equivalent to the strength of millions of soldiers…

Qi Zixiao had indeed found a treasure!