Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
It was a torturous night for Ren Baqian. He couldn’t sleep, yet he dared not move and had to breathe softly to prevent the empress from being awakened.
One moment, he was thinking of the scene he saw at that time, and another moment, he was remembering the touch that he felt and worrying whether the empress might get angry when she woke up.
Although they were betrothed to each other and took their vows in front of the Queen Mother’s grave, the empress was very conservative in this aspect.
It was hard to make any progress before their wedding.
Ren Baqian was clear about this and was in no hurry since there were only a few months to go.
He didn’t expect this situation to arise due to half a bowl of fake honey.
On the contrary, he was rather perturbed.
Although the reward was big enough, the danger outweighed the reward.
Marx said that with a 300 percent profit, he would dare to commit any crime and even risked being hanged.
If Ren Baqian grasped one, two, or three times… and got buried by the angry empress, it would be unjustified.
Therefore, the best choice was to play dead.
Time passed and Ren Baqian kept his eyes tightly closed. He heard the slight sounds made by the empress upon waking up,
The empress sat for awhile before getting dressed. The details from the sounds she made were making him speculate.
Then, the empress kicked Ren Baqian to wake him up.
“Hey? Ouch!” Ren Baqian blinked sleepily.
“What happened yesterday?” the empress asked.
“What happened? I don’t know!” Ren Baqian stared blankly at her. The empress had put on her white underwear and red dress. She looked at him with flickering eyes.
“What happened?” Ren Baqian asked again.
“It’s fine now!” The empress looked away. In a flash, she was at the doorway and about to open the door.
Her actions made Ren Baqian feel relieved. He was full of admiration for his own acting skills, which were worthy of a movie star.
As the empress opened the door, her eyes shone. She felt her back sweating slightly, but with her power, this wasn’t supposed to happen.
“Your Majesty, why’s your face flushed?” asked Qing Yuan, who was carrying a wooden basin.
The empress looked at her fiercely. Without betraying any emotion, the empress asked, “Is my face red?”
Qing Yuan was given a kick by Hong Luan and bowed her head, saying, “I was mistaken—it must be the morning sunlight shining on your face that is making it look red.”
“What’s the problem with Her Majesty?” Ren Baqian asked as he came out of the room.
“I’m fine.” The empress waved her hands and let the two attendant wash her.
“If Your Majesty’s face was redder, it would be even nicer,” Ren Baqian said with a laugh.
Although he had been suffering all night, he was in high spirits mainly because of the effect of the honey. Just a little was enough to boost his energy level tremendously.
This honey had a strong stimulant effect.
Just a little bit too much would cause a situation like the night before, inducing excitement, pleasant sensations, all kinds of hallucinations, and even ecstasy.
After breakfast, their group of people prepared to leave.
However, only 300 winged cavalry warriors followed the empress while the other 300 headed in other directions to the various villages.
Including Gong Zheng, the empress assigned them with the task of reinforcing the winged cavalry.
It wasn’t just to reinforce them as the empress was going to expand the winged cavalry to 4,000 people.
Dayao’s grain production had increased dramatically, and the Yun Nation would be in their hands soon. Even if the winged cavalry warriors had big appetites, more could be fed now.
The direction that the empress and Ren Baqian were headed was an area of remote and eerie forests, and there were hardly any villages around. After being divided into two groups, the group led by Ren Baqian and the empress traveled to the area mentioned by Librarian Lin, whereas the other 300 led by Gong Zheng ventured deep into the mountains to recruit Kismet Heaven experts.
When the groups were packing for the journey, Ren Baqian saw an imperial cook storing that jar of honey on their mount and quickly said, “It isn’t necessary to bring that.”
“Sir, this Golden Ring bee honey is very precious, and it would be a pity to throw it away,” the imperial cook said.
Ren Baqian pondered for a while. This honey was really good, but he wondered whether he would get addicted. Otherwise, it would be useful to eat it during their wedding night.
“We are taking the mountain roads and it can easily break. Leave it here and take it on the way back.”
He was grateful that he had concealed this from the empress as he didn’t know how she would react.
As for its consumption on the wedding night, that wasn’t a problem.
The empress had mentioned this trip to Qi Ziting, so he wasn’t surprised when he saw the group preparing to depart and even went to the village gate to send them off personally. Beside him was a hefty fellow with a claw wound on his neck. The skin was ripped open, and he was fortunate to still be alive.
However, his breathing was abnormal as his windpipe must have been damaged when he was clawed by an animal.
He carried a bow made from horn that was about as tall as half a person and rode on a strange, odd-looking mount. It had the horns of a deer and the face of a dog, but had the body of a tiger, the tail of a dog, and was covered with stripes of camouflage.
“His name is Ya Sheng. In this village, aside from me, he has been to the most places around. He has been to the place you are going and can lead the way. I will not be coming along. Anyway, there isn’t much danger there, and you will be returning to this place on your way back.”
The empress, who was seated on the Qishui, turned and nodded, saying, “It isn’t necessary to send us off. I will be back in a few days.”
After that, she gave the order to set off.
The group was already prepared and immediately moved forward.
On the way to the destination, Ren Baqian spent less time with the empress and studied a book in his free time.
On the one hand, he had a guilty conscience, and on the other hand, he wanted to read the cultivation manual for [The Yang Boosting Technique] one more time in order to remember it by heart and understand the details.
According to Librarian Lin , this method was simple and easy to understand. The most difficult part was cultivating it.
However, Ren Baqian didn’t take this lightly
They headed southwest for seven days. This stretch of road was much harder to travel than the previous one. Strange-looking rocks abounded with remote mountains and wild rivers everywhere. The Sixty Thousand Mountains was a desolate place, but this area was even more desolate and eerie. The forests were so densely covered that the sky could hardly be seen.
Furthermore, there were no paths in many places and wild grasses grew taller than a man. They completely relied on Ya Sheng to lead the way so as not to get lost.
One day, while they were moving forward, they heard a roar. It sounded like a tiger or a lion and was so loud that it seemed like a huge drum was beating next to their ears.
Even though it was hundreds of meters away, they could feel the unmatched ferocity of the animal.
Ren Baqian subconsciously moved closer to the empress and said, “Your Majesty, there seems to be a big beast in front.”
After being in the Sixty Thousand Mountains for so long, he was gradually able to distinguish between a weak and a strong beast. Although they had never encountered it before, the one in front of them projected great power and wasn’t to be trifled with.
Furthermore, after hearing that ear-splitting roar, even Ren Baqian’s mount, the crow general, started looking apprehensive.
The crow general was a Cardinal Heaven level beast, was stronger than a normal Cardinal Heaven expert, and had only been subdued when the empress took action.
For it to act this way after hearing the roar, it could be deduced that the beast in front was bound to be very powerful.
Ya Sheng, who was leading the way at the front, was shocked and almost lost his voice, exclaiming, “Xiong yan?! How could this beast be found here?!”
