The Empress’s Gigolo

“What’s Storyteller Ren doing?” the empress asked faintly in the palace. The musical box in her hand was giving off a crisp and clear melody.

“He has not once left his room for the past few days. Every day, he will sit behind the table and study the martial art without doing anything else. Occasionally, he will yell and yank his hair,” Hong Luan replied softly.

“Oh,” The empress nodded her head and placed a piece of candy into her mouth.

She had been feeling bored these few days. She wanted to listen to some stories, but Ren Baqian was busy with his cultivation.

Behind her, Hong Luan winked at Qing Yuan. This was the fifth time that the empress asked them about Ren Baqian. She would ask them about him once every day.

Has Her Majesty fallen for that guy?

It’s a pity that he was too weak.

And at this moment, Ren Baqian was yanking his hair in distress. He was distraught with anxiety. A moment ago, he lost his focus again.

The method introduced by Abbot Su Wen was harder than he expected.

It had been seven days—four days in this world and three days on Earth. Every time he tried to focus his attention, his subconscious mind would bubble up with various distracting thoughts. Needless to say, it was even harder to focus while he was sleeping or eating.

He also did not know when he would be able to achieve the state of emptiness in his mind. It was possible that he could never ever achieve it.

At this point in time, he was felt very dejected and took out the Heart Sutra.

“Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva, when he meditated deeply, saw the Emptiness of all five Skandhas and sundered the bonds that caused him suffering. Listen Sariputra, this Body itself is Emptiness and Emptiness itself is this Body. This Body is not other than Emptiness and Emptiness is not other than this Body. The same is true of Feelings, Perceptions, Mental Formations, and Consciousness. Listen Sariputra, all phenomena bear the mark of Emptiness;

their true nature is the nature of no Birth nor Death, no Being nor Non-being, no Defilement nor Purity, no Increasing nor Decreasing…”

Ren Baqian read the scripture over and over again. After reading it for an unknown number of times, his mind finally calmed down.

Placing the Heart Sutra aside, Ren Baqian stood in front of the window and took in a deep breath of air. Following which, he opened his mouth and yelled at the top of his voice, “AHHH!”

His yell scared away a lot of birds.

The guard standing at the entrance shook his head at Ren Baqian. Every day, Ren Baqian would have several outbursts. The guard was already used to seeing him like this.

After yelling at the top of his voice, Ren Baqian felt much better. He returned to the table and flipped open the manual of [Ruyi Visualization]. Then, he continued to stare at the lake on the first page of the manual. He concentrated all his attention to it, not daring to relax at all.

He had made some progress in last two days. Even though the progress he made wasn’t huge, he found it easier to focus his attention on [Ruyi Visualization] now. This gave him some hope.

…

“How’s Ren Baqian?” The empress was feeling bored in the garden. She reached out her hand and a bird flew into her palm. If one took a closer look, he or she would realize that the bird was frantically flapping its wings and trying its best to escape from the empress’s palm. Despite all its effort, it still remained in the empress’s palm.

“I heard that he doesn’t yell as much as before now. Sometimes he doesn’t even know when his meals are delivered to him. I also heard that he is in a very bad condition now. He has become very weak.”

The empress brought the bird to her face and stared at its tiny eyes. The bird’s eyes immediately filled with fear and panic. She dully raised her hand and let the bird free.

“Did he eat?”

“Every time, the food is placed in front of him. Sometimes, he will finish the food. Sometimes, there will be leftovers. However, for the last two meals, he did not eat at all,” Hong Luan replied.

The empress nodded her head, looking slightly distracted. She seemed to be thinking of something.

…

Looking at the city wall that appeared on the distant horizon, a smile appeared on Seventh Prince’s face. He was finally back.

For the past fifteen days, he had been on the road, and as such, he was feeling utterly worn out. No matter how luxurious his carriage was, it still couldn’t be compared with his mansion house.

Even thought this was just a county near the border of Great Xia, it still had hot water, fine liquor and delicious food. Overall, it was still better than the wilderness.

However, he had been feeling uneasy for the past two days. He had a premonition that something was going to happen.

When Seventh Prince’s carriage reached entrance of the county town, the county magistrate, the official registrar, and other officials of the county came out to receive Seventh Prince. “Welcome, Your Highness.”

“What are your names?” Seventh Prince smiled and asked.

“I’m the county magistrate, Li Zisheng. This is the official registrar, this is the county military officer…”

“Alright, I have noted down your names. I am just passing by this town, prepare a place for me to rest tonight, and I will set off tomorrow morning,” Seventh Prince pulled open the curtain of the carriage and said.

“Yes, Your Highness. We have already prepared a place for you to rest,” the county magistrate and the official registrar immediately replied.

“Good job.” Seventh Prince nodded his head and closed the curtain.

The county magistrate, the official registrar, and their counterparts heaved a sigh of relief. The status of Seventh Prince was too grand for them to curry favor with him. As long as nothing went wrong, they would be thankful to Heaven.

As for Seventh Prince saying that he had noted down their names, only a fool would believe in such conventional words.

Hong Bao and his counterparts were waiting for them on a distant mountain. All of them had carried jerky with them. As they were waiting, they ate the jerky and washed it down with unfiltered rice wine. This was considered a form of enjoyment in the wilderness.

When night arrived, a huge man returned reported to back to Hong Bao and said, “Sir, they have entered Pinggu county.”

“Alright. From Pinggu county to the capital of Great Xia, they have to go through Broken Dragon Canyon. We will wait for them there,” Hong Bao said loudly. “We have rested enough, let’s go now.”

Hong Bao only brought fifteen men. Including him, there was a total of sixteen men. Traversing through the forest, they ran as fast as though they were flying. While it was still dark, they quickly crossed the plain. The next morning, they entered the forest to hide themselves again. By the time night arrived, they had reached Broken Dragon Canyon, which was 150 kilometers into Pinggu county.

Broken Dragon Canyon was a canyon with a dragon-head-shaped mountain on one of its sides. On its other side, there was a meandering mountain range that was shaped like the body of a dragon.

Reportedly, during the ancient times, there was a real dragon here and a colossal sword descended from the sky at the same time. The sword eventually beheaded the dragon, forming Broken Dragon Canyon.

After Hong Bao and his men reached Broken Dragon Canyon, he sent some men to keep a lookout for Seventh Prince’s carriage. Everyone else then rested in the forest.

Another two days had passed. In the morning, someone reported back to Hong Bao, “That carriage is here.”

After a while, a convoy appeared on the horizon. At the front and the back of the convoy, there were fifty horsemen each. All of their strength was on Man Level. Seventh Prince had spent of a lot of effort and time to hire and cultivate these horsemen.

In the middle of the convoy, there were five carriages. The most luxurious-looking one was Seventh Prince’s and Xiu Wu’s carriage. Behind them, there was a carriage that carried two consecrated experts. Both of their strength were on the Earth Embryo Level. The remaining three carriages carried the supplies needed for the long journey.

Hong Bao had already acquired this information before he set out on this mission. There were only one hundred horsemen that were on Human Level and two experts that had reached the peak of Earth Embryo Level. A grin appeared on Hong Bao’s face. After waiting for so long, he could finally take action.

“Sir, what now?” someone asked Hong Bao.

“Kill every single one of them, don’t leave anyone alive. Remember, I want Seventh Prince’s head, don’t crush it,” Hong Bao reminded his men.

“Understood.” Everyone nodded their heads.

When Seventh Prince’s convoy reached Broken Dragon Canyon, it reduced its speed and stopped. Four horsemen whipped their horses and proceeded forward first.

Even though it was impossible that anyone would dare to ambush their convoy in Great Xia, it was still better for them to be safe than sorry.

When the convoy began advancing again, Hong Bao waved his hand and his men immediately took down the bows from their backs.

“Attack!”