Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
The empress, Ning Caichen, and Ren Baqian stopped talking after a while and sat at the fireside, watching the number one expert in the world as he ate. He was feasting as if he hadn’t eaten for a few months as he stuffed a huge piece of mutton into his stomach.
He finished a big piece of mutton in a few minutes and immediately reached for a second piece.
The empress was protective of her food, so it was uncharacteristic of her to keep quiet in such a situation, but she constantly flexed her body excitedly in anticipation.
Ren Baqian had been with her for quite a long time and had very rarely seen her showing this kind of expression.
Although the number one expert in the world had been missing for a long time, seeing him in front of her was making the empress’s enthusiasm for fighting soar.
After half an hour, the old man had devoured the mutton that Ren Baqian had prepared for the empress and said, “I haven’t eaten such delicious food in a long time. Little guy, from your features, you look like a talented person. Do you want to follow me and find the ladder to ascend the sky?”
“Are you looking for a cook?” Ren Bian laughed. This top expert didn’t look like an enemy to him.
The empress stood up and said impatiently, “Li Fu, you have eaten the food and drank the wine! Let me have a look at your skills as the number one expert in the world!”
Ren Baqian laughed again because he didn’t expect the name of this person to be so ordinary.
However, his name did match the way he dressed.
Whether it was the empress, Hong Wu, Tengyue, or even Zuo Cheng, they still had the air of an expert.
Yet, no one would believe that this guy in front of him was the number one expert in the world if others didn’t say so.
“I don’t know martial arts, so don’t look for me when you want to fight. I’m a blacksmith and have not practiced the craft for many years!” Li Fu gestured with his hands.
“I only had a whiff today and couldn’t resist this craving of mine. This doll is so petty and expects some favors just because I have taken one meal.”
The empress flared up and sent a punch at Li Fu. The surrounding air reverberated from the force of this punch, and the area within a 100-meter radius was like a whirlpool with the empress at the center of the vortex.
“Goodbye, little doll!” Li Fu fluttered away from the punch and disappeared into the darkness.
Ren Baqian only realized at this time that Li Fu had a black iron rod, but at 70 or 80 centimeters, it was shorter than a normal iron rod and also had a turtle head on one end.
The empress was angry to find that Li Fu had departed.
It was a rare opportunity to meet the number one expert in the world, and she was hoping to test how powerful he was. However, the other party didn’t even parry her punch—he ran away and left her bewildered.
She then yelled at the top of her lungs, “Li Fu, I thought you wanted to find out how you can ascend to the sky?”
Her voice was resonant and extended into the center of the forest before them.
The next moment, Li Fu appeared in front of the bonfire and asked seriously, “Little doll, do you know?”
“I don’t know, but I know how to go up into the sky!” the empress declared with a strange expression.
“Is this true? Don’t bluff!” Li Fu was pleasantly surprised, but he was worried that the other party was tricking him due to her hesitant look.
“You tell him!” The empress glanced at Ren Baqian.
Ren Baqian was at a loss for words.
“Is Your Majesty referring to the airplane or the rocket?” Ren Baqian felt that the question was too sudden and could only think of these two modes of flying.
“Is there really a way to bring me up to the sky?” Li Fu heard Ren Baqian’s tone and could hardly believe his ears.
“Tell me what you want to do first as these two modes of transportation are different. Do you want to go up just to have a look? If you want to go up into the sky to take a look, a paraglider should solve the problem,” Ren Baqian explained.
“I’m looking for the deities in heaven!” Li Fu originally looked like a beggar, but when this was mentioned, he was filled with murderous fervor and made people feel chills.
“Are there really deities?” Ren Baqian asked. Although this world had many strange things, he still had doubts about the existence of deities. After all, there wasn’t much information about deities in Dayao, so he naturally didn’t have much experience with such matters.
He had heard that Great Xia had various stories about deities.
Why did the number one expert in the world have this murderous expression? Why was there so much enmity? Or was he trying to achieve a breakthrough and uncover his eyes? At this age, he should have already gone through his teenage crisis.
“Of course there are!” Li Fu said vehemently. However, with his torn clothes and bedraggled appearance, he came across as a madman.
“Can you tell me what you know about the deities?” asked Ren Baqian curiously. He was interested in this topic—everyone, no matter who, would be interested in this topic.
Especially since he was the number one expert in the world, he should know more than a multitude of ordinary people. He had been searching all this time for a ladder to ascend into the sky in order to look for deities,
“Do you really know how to go up into the sky?” Li Fu fixed his wide-open eyes at Ren Baqian.
“If you want to go into the sky, I certainly know how, but it will take a long time to make that flying machine, at least 30 to 50 years,” Ren Baqian answered.
30 to 50 years was already the fastest they could go, and he would need to bring over the mature technologies directly from Earth. With accelerated development here, they could then make a rocket.
Of course, after 30 to 50 years had passed, it would be more than 100 years later on Earth. There might already be small vehicles that could ferry people to outer space by then.
It didn’t matter if Li Fu couldn’t find any deities after going into outer space because Ren Baqian had no intention of letting him come back.
There was another reason for Ren Baqian to say all of this. It was to keep the number one expert in the world within Dayao as one of their fighters… Although it wasn’t probable, there might be a chance since Li Fu was so keen on flying.
Even though he would only occasionally be activated, this would be good enough.
“How do you do it?” Li Fu was beside Ren Baqian in a flash and grabbed his shoulder.
Ren Baqian only felt a powerful hand gripping him and immediately couldn’t exert any strength.
“Let go of him!” The empress was full of anger. Although there was no wind blowing, her red dress fluttered and her hair stood up.
It didn’t matter whether he was the number one expert in the world or anyone else, no one could touch her subjects.
“Let go!” The empress punched at Li Fu without saying anything more. To avoid injuring Ren Baqian, she concentrated her strength at one point.
“There is no way you can beat me with this punch. It doesn’t matter to me, but this guy will certainly die!” Li Fu shouted in haste and disappeared into the darkness with Ren Baqian.
“Li Fu!” The empress was furious and instantly chased after him.
Ren Baqian felt the wild wind blowing on his body and couldn’t even keep his eyes open. This speed was faster than when the empress had carried him along.
However, in the next moment, both of them landed in an unknown place.
“Li Fu! I’m going to kill you!” The empress’s shrill voice was heard from far away.
“Young man, speak!” Li Fu pushed Ren Baqian to the ground.
Ren Baqian was horrified that the empress couldn’t even catch up to this ordinary looking guy who had carried him along. In an instant, he had taken Ren Baqian to a place where the empress couldn’t find them. This kind of ability was really terrifying.
Fortunately, the other party didn’t want to take his life. Otherwise, if he wanted to attack Ren Baqian, the empress would definitely not be able to protect him.
After calming down, Ren Baqian laughed bitterly and quipped, “You ate the empress’s roasted meat, drank her wine, and took away her man. Even though you are the number one expert in the world and revered by many people, this isn’t a good way to do things.”
Li Fu was a little embarrassed and said, “That young lady isn’t easy to deal with, and I don’t want to argue with her. I will send you back and also give you a benefit.”
Ren Baqian relaxed after seeing his expression. This man was like what Ren Baqian had thought he was and wasn’t secretly a ruthless man.
“It’s useless to tell you because this equipment can’t be manufactured even if everyone in the country works on it,” Ren Baqian said.
Li Fu stood up as straight as a ramrod and said firmly, “Not many people can stop me from doing what I want.”
Although this sounded boastful, it didn’t seem so coming from a person with such a status.
However, with regards to manufacturing rockets, even adding 100 of him would be useless.
“A rocket can easily send you beyond heaven,” Ren Baqian said coolly.
“What kind of thing is it?” Li Fu immediately asked.
“You tell me what you know about the deities first!” Ren Baqian responded.
Li Fu hesitated, then sighed and said, “200 years ago, I had a fiancee who was virtuous and beautiful…”
Upon hearing this, Ren Baqian immediately associated it with a 3,000,000 word novel about love, hate, and revenge.
His fiancee was snatched away by deities. How could that be? Or his fiancée was the daughter of a deity and that deity took her away after finding out about their relationship. From that day on, they existed in two different places between the heavens and the earth and could only meet once a year by crossing a bridge formed by magpies.
“However, my fiancée suddenly got pregnant half a year before our marriage…”
Ren Baqian responded, “Huh?”
“However, my fiancée was still a virgin. People said that this was done in a dream with a deity and that the baby was the child of a deity…”
“I couldn’t accept it and spent half a year making this Dragon Turtle Rod. Then, I vowed to find this deity who had insulted my fiancée and swore to let him have a taste of the humiliation I had suffered!” Li Fu said furiously. His beard hairs standing up like steel needles, and his heart was pounding.
“Hey… Are you thinking of blowing up a deity’s buttocks?” Ren Baqian was astonished. With just this aspiration, Li Fu was motivated to become the number one expert in the world.
“The buttocks? You are absolutely right!” Li Fu said fiercely. “I have searched for 200 years, from the desert to the eastern shore and from the north to the south. I transformed from a blacksmith to the top expert. However, the ladder to the sky remains a mirage!”
“I have researched all the information regarding the deities and stopped here on my way to the interior of the Sixty Thousand Mountains to see whether I can find what I’m looking for in its endless expanse!”
He turned to stare at Ren Baqian and said fiercely, “Young man, if you can help me, you will be handsomely rewarded. If you lie to me, no one in this whole world can protect you!”
Ren Baqian’s jaw dropped in astonishment because he had never expected things to turn out this way. Furthermore, the information content was too much, and he didn’t know where to start.
After pondering for some time, Ren Baqian decided not to tell Li Fu about his conjecture regarding the fiancée being accidentally impregnated by someone who had masturbated when she had fallen into a pool or while she was swimming.
Ren Baqian feared that this blow would be too much for Li Fu to bear.
Li Fu had spent 200 years and, according to him, transformed from a blacksmith to the number one expert in the world. He gave up everything—fame, fortune, wealth, women, and pleasure—just for the sake of taking revenge.
These 200 years of hatred couldn’t be washed away even with all the water in the entire world.
