The Empress’s Gigolo

Ren Baqian sat on a piece of rock in front of the Sea God Temple.

Not far in front of him was Zong Shang. He was looking toward the temple with a gentle smile on his face.

He had just watched a sub-temple chief enter the Sea God Temple.

As the wind howled, an abnormally pale-looking man with dry hair and a thin body appeared in front of the two. A large black flag was wrapped tightly around his body.

“Deputy Temple Chief, why aren’t you going in?” the man asked with a smile.

“You have arrived, Bo Hai. Since you are here, wait here with me for a few others to arrive!” Zong Shang immediately smiled.

“I’m fine with that.” Bo Hai turned to look at Ren Baqian and asked softly, “What are you trying to do?”

“You’ll know in a while.” Zong Shang smiled and brushed the question away.

“You know the condition of my body. I have gotten a chill on the way here. I should probably head in and rest.” Bo Hai frowned and shook his head slightly.

He then cupped his hands at Zong Shang.

Zong Shang’s face turned dull as he stopped speaking.

With eyes full of pity, he turned to see Bo Hai walking into the Sea God Temple.

Zong Shang tried to give him a hand. What a pity…

Ren Baqian watched this from a detached point of view and had a smirk on his face. If Hades wanted him to die at midnight, no one could delay it.

However, Zong Shang didn’t try to hold Bo Hai back after he refused to stay, and this made Ren Baqian very pleased. Zong Shang was very wise to save whoever he could and give up if he couldn’t.

What Ren Baqian was most afraid of at present was having a lousy teammate.

If that had been the case, he would have simply left and blown everyone up.

As members of the Temple of Heaven started streaming in one by one, he simply watched from the side.

Some people began to stay beside Zong Shang. Although they felt puzzled, they still waited for his explanation.

By the evening, apart from Zong Shang and Ren Baqian, 13 people stayed outside the Sea God Temple with them.

This included Xu Wuming and Xiao Wensheng.

In fact, Ren Baqian hoped that those two would go in so that he could blow them up and make the empress happy.

All he could say was that it wasn’t time for them to die yet.

Ren Baqian got up from the rock, stretched, and said faintly, “It’s time.”

“Deputy chief, what is going on exactly?” The person who spoke was a graceful lady dressed in black with light muslin covering her face. It was the chief of Fushi Temple, Fei Yan.

“I have a few things to say to everyone.” Zong Shang turned to the crowd.

Everyone’s eyes were focused, and they knew that the exciting part of the show was coming. Everyone had seen how he had been testing the temple chief all these years.

The people who waited here were either trying to persuade him to reconsider or simply taking his side.

They had no idea what Zong Shang was about to say.

He couldn’t possibly be trying to create internal chaos, right? He probably wouldn’t do something that unwise.

As everyone was pondering, they saw him carrying Ren Baqian and speeding into the distance.

“Everyone, let’s talk over here.”

A figure appeared in front of the Sea God Temple and shouted, “Deputy chief, what are you doing?”

“Qing Yang!” Zong Shang couldn’t be bothered to care about him, and his feet didn’t slow down either.

Everyone hesitated slightly and a few of them glanced over at Qing Yang before catching up to Zong Shang.

Qing Yang was furious and resentful. What was Zong Shang trying to do right now?

At this time, the chief of the Temple of Heaven grimaced and glared.

What’s Zong Shang trying to do?

I shouldn’t have kept him all these years!

Some of the members stayed silent with their eyes shut while others were glaring. Some wondered if Zong Shang was trying to break off relations with the temple chief by trying to stop some of the members outside.

Some were thinking about the issue of Ren Baqian and how there sadly wasn’t any way to make him submit. What was the deputy chief trying to do?

At that moment, when everyone had varying thoughts and Qing Yang was hesitating over whether he should chase after Zong Shang, Ren Baqian smiled and pressed the detonation button.

In that instant, everyone felt great danger coming from under their feet as their blood ran cold. They immediately dashed forward at full speed.

A muffled bang and the rumbling of the ground occurred at almost the same time.

In a split second, the Sea God Temple disappeared.

What replaced it was a pillar of fire that rose into the sky along with broken bricks and stones.

The ground rumbled as if a dragon was rolling beneath their feet, and cracks appeared in the ground. Rampant flames raged underground looking for an exit and burst through the cracks along with dirt and gravel.

With a loud bang, cracks appeared one after another in the ground while flames spewed into the sky. Large amounts of mud burned in the sky, turning into a rain of fire.

The people turned around and looked, only to see that the landscape had totally changed.

The sky was glowing red, and the land was erupting with flames.

Cracks and flames increasingly covered the entire area with no signs of receding.

The ground still continued to vibrate beneath their feet, and there were noises, exclamations, and the sounds of houses collapsing from the fishing village nearby.

“This… What exactly happened?” Everyone turned to look at that place. A region with a radius of more than a kilometer and the sky above it were filled with blazing pillars and scorched earth everywhere. This was accompanied by the constant sound of collapses and explosions. It was like purgatory.

The entire place, especially where the original Sea God Temple was located, had completely turned into a sea of fire.

Gray smoke, dust, and fire gradually formed a mushroom cloud in the sky.

Everyone looked in front of them with horrified expressions. It was a little pitiful that Ren Baqian was wearing sunglasses. Since the nuclear bomb was detonated underground, the effect seemed much more mellow and less artistic.

However, for these people, this artistic scene was unexpectedly shocking.

He could feel that Zong Shang’s body had completely stiffened.

Even Zong Shang, one of the leaders of the organization, didn’t expect the explosion to be so powerful. The explosion happened underground, and the Temple of Heaven was dozens of meters below ground level.

If this was the situation above ground, the people underground had probably died without a corpse.

“Zong Shang! What have you done?” Xu Wuming turned to look at Zong Shang and Ren Baqian. His eyes looked murderous, and it seemed as if he would draw his sword at any time.

Everyone else looked horrified as well.

“The chief of the Temple of Heaven isn’t a human being—she is a member of the foreign races! For thousands of years, the organization has been affected by the foreign races and has become their weapon!” Zong Shang replied bluntly.

“What did you say?” Everyone was shocked. Even the scorched earth in front of them didn’t shake them as much as his words did.

“Nonsense! Nonsense! Zong Shang, you have colluded with outsiders to make a mess and killed numerous leaders of the temple. You are a sinner of the Temple of Heaven!” shouted a sharp voice from nearby. Covered in dirt with bits of burn marks on his body, Qing Yang stood in the distance with flickering eyes.

“Don’t you know whether or not she’s a member of the foreign races? Do you really think that nobody knew about what happened 3,000 years ago?” Zong Shang sneered.

“Nonsense!” Qing Yang rebuked angrily as his eyes flickered even faster.

“I’ll let you guys know so that you’ll be able to die convinced. I have always had the evidence to prove that the temple chief was a member of the foreign races. Follow me!” Zong Shang said to the crowd.

“Very well! I’ll see what evidence you have. You have clearly colluded with outsiders to create chaos, yet here you are, still trying to tell lies. Zong Shang, you won’t die peacefully!” Qing Yang scolded furiously.

“We’ll find out shortly who will be the one dying.” Zong Shang sneered as he led everyone toward the fishing village.

At this point, almost half of the village had collapsed. Fortunately, as the village consisted of wooden houses and was a fair distance away from the Sea God Temple, the casualty count wasn’t high. However, the villagers were truly alarmed. Many of the stronger experts stood outside the village and looked at the flame-covered area in panic.

It wasn’t until they saw Zong Shang and the others coming over that they calmed down and asked, “Sirs, what happened?”

“Head back first and do what you need to do. Don’t panic. I’ll gather all of you later on.” Zong Shang waved his hand to disperse the crowd.

“Qing Yang!” Xu Wuming suddenly shouted loudly. Everyone turned their heads when they heard this, only to see Qing Yang, who had been lagging far behind them earlier, actually turn his back and run away…

After a few moments, they couldn’t even see his figure.

He didn’t even dare to confront Zong Shang!

At this point, even though the others didn’t exactly know what had happened, they immediately believed Zong Shang’s words to a large extent.

Everyone immediately grew furious as they didn’t expect the temple chief to actually be a member of the foreign races. They didn’t expect Qing Yang’s division to already know about this fact a few thousand years ago, yet continue to let the foreign races lead the organization while hiding it from the others.

Xu Wuming’s face flushed with anger. He shouted loudly and leaped up into the sky.

Shortly after, everyone felt the presence of a majestic sword in the distance.