The Empress's Gigolo

Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios

Ren Baqian collapsed to his knees the moment he returned to Earth. The spear touched the floor, sending an intense pain throughout his body that almost made him pass out. He didn’t dare to remove the spear because doing so would result in huge blood loss. His house was quite a distance from the city center, and he wasn’t about to test the extent of the ability granted by the [Visualization of Wood] to stop the bleeding. If anything went wrong, the ambulance would arrive to find a corpse that was ready for cremation.

Gasping for breath, Ren Baqian unsteadily forced himself up to the second floor to make a call.

“Shen Feng, send an ambulance to my place immediately. Any delay and you’ll be out of a job!”

Ren Baqian’s voice was weak, but still steady.

The most dangerous part of teleporting back to Earth was the delay. Anything could happen during the one second before he disappeared. Previously, the empress had blinked over to him within this small window of time and grabbed him. Ren Baqian would have met a tragic end if Teng Yue had noticed this and came back to Earth with him.

Luckily for him, Teng Yue’s attention was drawn to the empress. By the time he noticed Ren Baqian, it was too late.

For a moment, Ren Baqian had believed that he was really going to die. After all, Teng Yue was the fourth most powerful expert in the world and a despicable one at that. The empress didn’t have any opportunity to save Ren Baqian once he got caught.

Fortunately, Teng Yue became overconfident. He had pinned Ren Baqian to the wall using a spear to provoke the empress, but this gave Ren Baqian a chance to escape.

If not for that, Ren Baqian would have ended up six feet under.

Ren Baqian leaned against his bed and gently balanced the tip of the spear on top. This reduced the downward pressure that the spear was placing on his body, slightly alleviating the pain.

It wasn’t much, but was still better than nothing.

Feeling slightly more comfortable, Ren Baqian laughed. He had cheated death, and it was now that bastard Teng Yue’s time to die!

So what if he was the fourth most powerful expert in the world? Ren Baqian wondered what Teng Yue would do now that his Heaven-grade weapon, which he had spent his whole life forming, had disappeared. Ren Baqian thought of how exciting his reaction must have been and badly wanted to see the despair on his face.

However, he probably wouldn’t get the chance to do so.

If a group of experts couldn’t stop a spearless Teng Yue, then he wouldn’t just be the fourth most powerful expert in the world, he would be the most powerful of them all.

While his thoughts ran wild, Ren Baqian traced the flow of blood from his wound to the puddle on the floor. Streaks of bright red blood flowed along the golden traces found on Teng Yue’s spear. Ren Baqian began to panic when he realized he had yet to hear the sound of the ambulance siren. It wasn’t until after he called Shen Feng to confirm his location that he regained some composure.

The gold traces on the spear looked as though they were carved into its body. Feeling them, Ren Baqian found that the traces were indeed slightly indented, which was why his blood seemed to follow their curvature.

Even though they were shallow, there appeared to be too many traces for all of them to be physically present on the spear!

Every minute that passed was torture. Ren Baqian felt his strength slowly ebb away as his body became weaker and weaker. His consciousness was starting to fade.

The metal chain made its way out of the top of Ren Baqian’s head and coiled itself around the shaft of the spear. It seemed as though the metal chain was trying to remove the spear.

The metal chain had detected a crisis. It would have no place to exist if Ren Baqian died.

Ren Baqian was abruptly roused by the metal chain’s movement and quickly attempted to stop it.

Right at that moment, he heard a siren that was growing louder.

The next thing he heard was the sound of people slamming on the villa’s door. Ren Baqian could hear them, but he was too weak to call out to them through the window. An instant later, someone, most likely Shen Feng, opened the door with a key. She had arrived right after the ambulance did.

A group of people followed the trail of blood up to the second floor, where they found Ren Baqian sitting against his bed with a spear through his body. All of them were flabbergasted by what they saw.

They were shocked by the spear and also by the clothes that Ren Baqian was wearing.

He was still wearing Dayao official robes after all.

“Boss, how are you feeling?” Shen Feng hurriedly asked, her face still full of surprise.

“I’m still alive, but I won’t be if we continue to hang around,” Ren Baqian feebly replied.

No one dared to touch the spear, so they carried him sideways out to the ambulance. The spear was two meters long and got caught on things every now and then, causing Ren Baqian to grimace in pain. The hatred he had for Teng Yue would never go away.

Ren Baqian relaxed a little once they made it into the ambulance. On the way out, he had also noticed some people, who were probably from Messier 87, observing from a distance. There was no way they wouldn’t know that something this big had happened, and they wouldn’t let him die so easily once they knew.

Compared to the hospital, Ren Baqian had much more faith in Messier 87.

Ren Baqian slowly slipped into unconsciousness as the ambulance drove off.

“Eh? The spear is gone!” Ren Baqian heard someone exclaim just as he blacked out. The inside of the ambulance descended into chaos as the paramedics pressed down on his wound and scrambled to stanch the bleeding.

Upon reaching the hospital, a large group of people rushed into the emergency operating room to save Ren Baqian.

As a matter of fact, his condition wasn’t particularly complicated. What was most critical was to stop the bleeding, and his ability to do this was much better compared to ordinary people.

The biggest issue was his body’s oddly vehement rejection of donor blood, even if the blood was of the same, common type.

“It looks like one’s physiology may change drastically after achieving a certain power level. This even includes the blood.” A couple of doctors who had never set foot in this hospital before flashed looks of agreement at one another while someone at the side recorded these findings.

…

Ren Baqian woke up two days later, roused by his own growling stomach. He felt as if his innards were rebelling.

Although Teng Yue hadn’t hit any vital points and Ren Baqian’s wound wasn’t particularly serious, he had still lost quite a bit of blood. He was greatly weakened because blood transfusions were out of the question.

“Boss, I have good news and bad news. Which do you want to hear first?” Shen Feng asked upon seeing Ren Baqian wake up. Shen Feng was playing games on her cell phone by the bedside.

“Give me the bad news first,” Ren Baqian replied weakly as he wondered if there was something wrong with his body.

“You have kidney stones and gallstones. Would you like them removed?” Shen Feng asked.

Ren Baqian’s face turned pale when he heard this. The [Visualization of Water] and the [Visualization of Wood] corresponded with the kidneys and the liver. He strongly believed that these stones were linked to his completion of these techniques and wouldn’t believe anyone who told him otherwise.

Ren Baqian declared through clenched teeth, “I’ll break the skull of anyone who removes those stones!”

“Boss, are you sure you don’t want to take more time to consider this? Kidney stones will cause urinary tract issues and impair kidney function…” Shen Feng responded.

Ren Baqian gave Shen Feng a death glare that sent shivers down her spine. She swallowed the rest of her words.

“And the good news?” Ren Baqian pressed.

“There are no major issues. All you need to do is rest for a while. That’s good news, right?” Shen Feng smiled.

Her smile brought a hint of femininity to her usually neutral and expressionless demeanor.

Ren Baqian heaved a long sigh of relief when he heard the good news and said, “Bring me some food, enough food to feed ten people!”

20 minutes later, Ren Baqian asked while eating porridge, “What happened to that spear?”

“It disappeared shortly after you were brought into the ambulance.” Shen Feng had a surprised look on her face when she recounted the incident. “Boss, what was that thing?”

“I’ll let you know when it’s time for you to know.” Ren Baqian waved her question off. Such a time would likely be a long way off and would be after Spirit Wheel experts had appeared on Earth and forged their own Heaven-grade weapons.

The spear’s disappearance reminded him of the metal chain’s assimilation into his mind. As for Teng Yue, his body should be cold by now.

After finishing an entire pot of porridge, Ren Baqian felt some vitality flow back into his body. Even though he was still weak, he knew that it was only a matter of time before he fully recovered.

After his meal, Ren Baqian shut his eyes and entered the [Visualization of Fire]. He noticed that a spear adorned with golden traces was hanging out with the metal chain by one of the lava rivers. They were… having a foot soak?

The spear swayed a little when Ren Baqian entered, but soon stopped.

The metal chain didn’t give two hoots about him entering. It minded its own business and enjoyed its foot soak.

Ren Baqian’s first encounter with the metal chain in a visualization technique had made him unsurprised by this behavior. Seeing the two of them here did make him feel slightly annoyed, however.

So now, in addition to the metal chain, I have a spear living in my mind too?

Am I supposed to collect all the different types of weapons?

Ren Baqian would be able to subdue these Heaven-grade weapons once he attained the Spirit Wheel level. By then, even if he couldn’t defeat his opponent, flashing his collection as a display of power could serve as a potent deterrent!

Thinking carefully, Ren Baqian felt that this was a pretty decent idea!