Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
It was evident that Ren Baqian was much stronger than before.
He tried it out on the heavy objects in the room and found that his strength had increased by about a quarter. At present, he could generate about 4,000 newtons of force with his hands.
Adding on the strength from his thighs and waist, he felt that he could probably use a car as a training tool.
Ren Baqian’s speed underwent the greatest improvement this time around. He somehow felt that his entire body was as light as a feather and that he could seemingly leap up by simply applying a little force.
He stood outside his room and exerted some force through his feet. Then, he dashed out like an arrow shot from a bow.
Thump!
“Sir Ren!” The bodyguard outside the courtyard quickly came running in.
“I’m fine. No worries.” Ren Baqian rubbed his nose. A few more cracks appeared on the wall after he crashed into in.
Thinking about the day when he first broke through as he was about to ram into the tree, he simply pressed his hands lightly on the ground and flipped on top of a tree branch. His reaction then was so much faster than it was now.
He had no choice but to admit that humans could only perform under pressure!
One would truly be able to unleash his or her full potential when facing extreme hunger.
Ren Baqian tapped his feet lightly and landed on top of the three-meter tall wall. With another leap, he landed on the roof of the opposite building.
He leaped across a distance of over ten meters in an instant. His felt his vision go blurry for a moment before he landed on the rooftop and broke two tiles.
Ren Baqian made an estimate according to the distance travelled. It would now take him around two seconds to travel 100 meters, an improvement from the five seconds that it used to take him.
This meant that he was now more than twice as fast as before.
He was slightly faster compared to the winged cavalry warriors. They had already attained the Kismet Heaven level for many years and didn’t just break through, yet he was still faster than them.
Furthermore, he had just broken through to the Earth Wheel level and would probably be even faster in the future.
In terms of strength, Ren Baqian was much weaker than a Kismet Heaven expert. An aboriginal Kismet Heaven expert could generate at least 5,000 newtons of force with their hands, whereas the winged cavalry warriors could exert around 6,500 newtons.
An Earth Wheel expert could normally only generate around 7,500 newtons of total force.
At 8,000 newtons of force, Ren Baqian was already slightly stronger than other Earth Wheel experts, but on the other hand, he was much weaker than his aboriginal counterparts who were at an equivalent level.
Another important change was that Ren Baqian could now sense a more obvious flow of qi in his body. His qi used to be like small puddles that were scattered all over, which also required him to be more attentive to be able to sense it. In the blink of an eye, his qi would simply dissipate throughout his body.
Now, it was like a large river, an unending flow that circulated around his five viscera.
Occasionally, essence blood would convert into essence qi and join in the circulation. Some of the essence qi would dissipate throughout his body as well.
Even though the feeling wasn’t very distinct, Ren Baqian could feel it happening within his body.
From the moment he set out to jump, he could feel the essence qi flowing into his legs.
He roughly knew what sort of changes he had undergone after breaking through to the Earth Wheel level. Seeing that it was already late at night, he went back to his room and fell into slumber.
Ren Baqian woke up the next morning and headed to the empress’s quarters. He met two of the bodyguards on the way, and they cupped their hands as they approached from afar.
“Sir Ren, we were impudent that day when we failed to recognize you. Please forgive us.”
“It’s alright.” He waved his hand. Not to mention these two people, given his condition at that point in time, even his own mother wouldn’t have recognized him.
“Both of you were simply carrying out your duties! The situation was unusual that day, and I don’t blame you.”
They immediately gave a very down-to-earth and brutish smile before saying, “We knew that Sir Ren isn’t someone petty. We will buy you a drink next time.”
After bidding farewell, Ren Baqian arrived at the empress’s quarters and saw her sitting in front of the mirror while Hong Luan groomed her.
“Are you well rested?” the empress asked softly when she saw him entering.
“I’m fine already.” Ren Baqian smiled. “Sorry to have you worried.”
“Your training was a little odd. Such things don’t normally happen when a Man Wheel expert breaks through to the Earth Wheel leve, so I wasn’t expecting it. Thankfully, you are alright,” the empress replied faintly.
“I previously checked with a few other experts regarding their experiences during their breakthroughs to the Earth Wheel level, and theirs were indeed different. However, all of them trained up slowly, and their bodies had an abundance of essence blood. Most of them trained for more than ten years, and naturally, a small portion of their essence blood was converted into essence qi during their training. It slowly changed their bodies, which resulted in not needing to expend so much essence qi during the breakthrough.
In my case, I took a huge leap. I have taken medicinal herbs to nourish my body and practiced the five Visualizations to strengthen my viscera, supplementing my body from the outside. I have taken less than two years to achieve what others need more than ten years to attain. Naturally, the advancement process was much more treacherous,” Ren Baqian explained. He had thought about it last night and was very clear about the situation within his body.
“Yeah, it’s good that you know. This set of techniques that you practiced was obtained from the treasury of the previous dynasty. There’s already no one who currently knows anything about its specific details. You have to be extra careful, especially when there are certain parts that aren’t stated clearly. You were fortunate to have inadvertently obtained another scroll belonging to this set of techniques. Make some conjectures to prevent such things from happening again. After all, you probably won’t be this lucky every time,” the empress replied faintly.
“Yeah!” Ren Baqian responded softly as he stood there and watched the empress getting groomed.
The empress had previously already grown accustomed to his gaze, but she felt that the look on his face now was a little different. She blushed slightly and lashed out at him softly, asking, “What are you looking at?”
Ren Baqian thought to himself, According to our usual talking habits, I should reply to her with ‘So what if I’m looking at you?’
A wooden box on the dressing table immediately flew toward his head, and he watched as it flew over from two meters away…
Ren Baqian took a step back, stretched out his arm, and grabbed ahold of that box. He opened it up and found that it contained lip rouge from the Yun Nation. Even though he bought quite a few lipsticks for the empress on Earth, she preferred the fragrance from this lip rouge.
“So fragrant!” Ren Baqian took a whiff and laughed.
The empress knitted her brows and said, “Growing audacious!”
Ren Baqian smiled and looked at her. He had finally attained the Earth Wheel level…
The empress relaxed her eyebrows as her face started blushing again.
“Chase him out! He’s a disturbance standing there!” The empress was shamed into anger.
Qing Yuan was beaming from ear to ear when she saw Ren Baqian winking at the empress.
“I’m just waiting for Your Majesty to have breakfast together!” Ren Baqian laughed, turned his attention away, and stopped staring at her. If she were to feel overly humiliated, he would definitely get in trouble.
After having breakfast with her, he quickly rushed to the school.
He bumped into the people who were waiting outside for the morning court session when he left the palace.
Morning court in Dayao started at 7 AM, unlike how it started at 5 AM in ancient China. Both the school day and the morning court session would start at around the same time, and there were already many people waiting outside the palace when he left.
“Eh!” Many of them were stunned when they saw Ren Baqian.
There were so many experts among the officials that it was impossible for them to fail to notice the changes in him.
“Sir Ren has actually progressed! This is such a rare occasion! Let’s go to House Yunyan tonight, and I will throw a celebration for you!” Tong Zhenye stepped forward and laughed heartily when he saw Ren Baqian. This was followed by him patting Ren Baqian with his palm-leaf fan sized palm.
To Tong Zhenye, there was no issue that couldn’t be settled with a visit to the brothel. Even if there was, it could be settled with two visits.
When Ren Baqian saw Tong Zhenye’s hand approaching, even though he wanted to dodge it, he couldn’t find the energy to retaliate under this palm. Tong Zhenye’s palm-leaf sized palm was so huge that it seemed as if it could block out the entire sky and that it would surely land right on his shoulder even if he tried to run.
In two pats, Ren Baqian got drilled into the ground.
“Much sturdier than before!” Tong Zhenye clicked his tongue.
“Sir Tong, you probably can’t get Sir Ren to come to House Yunyan this time.” Shi Qing laughed as he stepped forward.
Tong Zhenye still somewhat showed Shi Qing a little respect and turned his body to fully face him before asking, “Why not?”
“Now that Sir Ren has already attained the Earth Wheel level, it’s time for him to plan his marriage with Her Majesty.” Shi Qing smiled as he stroked his beard. Even though the empress was dogmatic at first, no one supported her idea. However, Ren Baqian had displayed his capabilities for the past year or so and had also attained the Earth Wheel level about six months sooner than expected. This proved that he was certainly gifted and still had room for more improvement.
As a result, he gradually gained the favor of the people.
Ren Baqian pulled himself out from the ground, landed behind Shi Qing in a flash, and said, “I shall not impose on you any further. Farewell!”
He ran off as his words landed before anyone else could pat him into the ground again.
“Shi Qing is indeed a good comrade!” Ren Baqian felt deeply moved as he ran. It was still Shi Qing who was dependable at such a crucial moment!
After he left, everyone started to whisper to each other.
They didn’t expect Ren Baqian to attain the Earth Wheel level so soon, and it was much sooner than what everyone had projected.
Most importantly, the empress’s marriage would seemingly be brought forward.
She ascended the throne when she was in her teens. She had been just a young, tender, and lost little girl. It was about time for her to tie the knot… Everyone suddenly felt extremely complicated.
