The Empress’s Gigolo

After a brief period, Xu Wuming came back with Qing Yang, who was covered in blood.

Xu Wuming was ashen-faced. Qing Yang’s earlier reaction explained everything.

However, Xu Wuming still wanted to see the evidence.

Looking solemn, everyone followed Zong Shang to the secret room in his residence and saw the paintings on the wall.

Unlike Ren Baqian, they were able to see with one glance that all of the paintings resembled the chief of the Temple of Heaven.

“These are…”

“These are the former temple chiefs!” Zong Shang replied faintly.

“How is this possible?” someone subconsciously responded. Regardless of what these former temple chiefs looked like when they were young, all of them looked identical when they were old.

Zong Shang quietly tapped a few times on the wall. Two stone slabs on the ground immediately flipped up, revealing a coffin underneath.

“You’ll understand after seeing this.”

He opened up the coffin as he spoke, revealing a dried-up corpse.

It hadn’t decomposed, but was almost completely dehydrated. Its face was beyond recognition as well.

“This is the temple chief from 3,300 years ago,” Zong Shang added without anyone asking.

“3,300 years ago? Chief of the Temple of Heaven?” Everyone was surprised.

Why would the corpse of the temple chief 3,300 years ago be here?

“3,300 years ago, Qing Lan, the chief of the Temple of Heaven, fought fiercely with Bo Yidao, Jian Wuming, and Gongyang Pingye. All three of them died while Qing Lan was severely injured. She accepted a disciple on the way back to the Temple of Heaven and died after handing over a few things. Her disciple, Qing Kong, later became the twenty-first chief of the Feidu Temple,” Wen Xiaosheng suddenly said.

Zong Shang nodded slightly. Wen Xiaosheng was worthy of his reputation for being highly knowledgeable.

“That’s right. Back then, Qing Lan accepted a disciple, but in fact, this disciple was already well-prepared. To them, the human body is just a receptacle that can be discarded and manipulated at any time. It took a while for Qing Lan to get used to her new body, so my ancestor took a chance and stole her corpse.”

“You mean… our bodies are her receptacles?” someone asked subconsciously.

“That’s right!” As Zong Shang spoke, he turned the corpse over. Everyone saw that the back of its head was opened up. There was also some dried up dark green material inside.

“The original brain tissue is almost all gone and has been replaced with this substance. In order to ascertain this, my ancestor stole several corpses to compare,” he said.

In fact, even without stealing the bodies for comparison, there had already been multiple occasions where they dug out the brains from people.

“What about the internal organs?” Ren Baqian asked suddenly while frowning.

“The internal organs are still there like in ordinary humans,” Zong Shang replied. “Do you know something, Mister Ren?”

“This looks similar to a creature I have seen, but that creature parasitizes in the chest. It replaces the internal organs and controls the human body. Although it can move, it doesn’t respond to the outside world,” Ren Baqian explained.

This corpse reminded him of the herdsmen and the jade-waisted slaves.

Before the jade-waisted slaves evolved into their butterfly form, they parasitized in human bodies like this.

Ren Baqian wondered if this foreign being was related to the herdsmen.

After all, the herdsmen had been monitoring the human race. If this foreign race had connections with them, then humans would have to be more careful.

After listening to what Zong Shang said, everyone looked gloomy and fell silent.

His words were credible, even though it hadn’t been proven that this corpse belonged to a former chief of the Temple of Heaven.

Coupled with Qing Yang’s earlier reaction, nobody could even question it.

With a gloomy look on his face, Xu Wuming flicked his fingers toward Qing Yang, who was lying on the ground. Shortly after, his body moved a little and he woke up.

“What else do you have to say, Qing Yang?” Xu Wuming asked coldly.

“What Zong Shang said is false—he is lying.” Qing Yang, who just woke up, had no idea what happened earlier. His first reaction was to accuse Zong Shang’s words of being false.

“Why did you run then?” someone sneered.

At this moment, everyone hated Qing Yang to the core. They didn’t expect the chief of the Temple of Heaven to be a foreign being or that Qing Yang’s division would follow her leadership despite knowing the truth. If it wasn’t for Zong Shang, everyone would still be kept in the dark.

Even at this moment, Qing Yang still wanted to quibble?

“Zong Shang is creating disorder, and you are all accomplices. You’ll die a painful death!” he suddenly shouted loudly with a fierce look on his face.

“Is Qing Chen a foreign being?” Xu Wuming asked coldly. It was as if he was looking at a dead person.

“No!” Qing Yang quickly exclaimed.

“You know that no one can lie in front of me,” Fei Yan said.

“You’ll regret it!” Qing Yang looked at her, glanced back at Xu Wuming and Zong Shang, and let out a sinister smile.

Xu Wuming lifted his fingers, and Qing Yang’s head immediately flew off with blood spewing out.

“I’m going to take a look at the Temple of Heaven,” Xu Wuming turned and said to Zong Shang.

He then turned to Ren Baqian and said, “I’ll settle accounts with you when I return.”

After speaking, Xu Wuming turned and disappeared through the entrance of the secret room.

Several others left with him in succession.

“This is Mister Ren, the reason all of you came back this time,” Zong Shang said to the remaining people.

Everyone nodded at Ren Baqian.

In fact, they already knew about his matter.

Even if they hadn’t seen him before, as sub-temple chiefs themselves, they had their own sources.

“Please wait here everyone. I need to go and appease the village.”

After everyone went up to the room above, Ren Baqian kicked open a box on the floor and said, “There are some things in here. Give them to the people. There’s fire poison underground now. People will get sick and might die if they get infected. These things can reduce the damage.”

So be it if Xu Wuming died. As for the rest, there was still value in keeping them alive.

When the others heard this, they suddenly realized an issue. Could Ren Baqian have performed that act of purgatory from earlier? It was unexpected, yet probable.

Zong Shang had no means of doing such a thing.

After he left, everyone started to calm down from the shocking news that the chief of the Temple of Heaven was actually from the foreign races.

They began to look at Ren Baqian with curious eyes.

“They said that Mister Ren comes from the outside world?” asked a gigolo-looking man.

He indeed looked like a gigolo. He seemed to be in his twenties and had thick eyebrows, dreamy eyes, supple lips, and white teeth.

However, Ren Baqian guessed that his age didn’t match his appearance as he nodded slightly.

Seeing his response, everyone turned their attention to him.

After all, they still had to wait for Xu Wuming’s return to further discuss the subject of the temple chief.

On the contrary, Ren Baqian, a visitor from the outside world, made them extremely curious.

Next, he began to helplessly answer everyone’s questions, repeating the story about the rise of the other group of the human race, the Chaotic Star Sea, the Hegemony of the Three Races, Summoner’s Rift, Snow White and the Seven Dwarves…

Looking slightly tired, Zong Shang finally came back at dawn.

“I have managed to stabilize the situation temporarily. I didn’t speak about the issue of Qing Chen being a foreign being.”

Everyone nodded because this matter indeed had to be kept secret.

“Go back and pacify everyone in your divisions,” Zong Shang said. He was unwilling to elaborate further about other matters.

After all, the temple chief as well as several of the sub-temple chiefs and honored ones had died, but these people remained unscathed. He had to put in a lot of effort to calm the situation down.

At noon the next day, Xu Wuming returned with the others.

They brought back two broken crystal coffins as well.