Translator: TYZ Editor: Book_Hoarder
Chapter 197 - A Coincidental Encounter
Ren Baqian and the empress were rampaging through the shopping mall. That's right, they were rampaging through the shopping mall. Ren Baqian bought every dress that the empress had her eyes on. After only half an hour, Ren Baqian had no choice but to place the heap of shopping bags into his car first before continuing to shop with the empress.
The empress was in a rather good mood. Soon, they arrived at an undergarment shop. After taking a few steps into the shop, Ren Baqian realized the empress was still standing outside. She was motionless as her gaze wandered elsewhere.
Ren Baqian merely stood there and smiled. Casually, he chose eight different designs, asked the shop assistant to find them in the right sizes, and paid for them.
The shop assistant found it very humorous too. She had never encountered a situation in which the lady wouldn't enter an undergarment shop no matter what and the man chose and bought the undergarments for her.
When Ren Baqian carried a plastic bag out of the shop, the empress did not want to look him.
The society of Dayao wasn't really conservative and hot girls wearing short skirts made of animal hide could be seen everywhere on the streets. After all, the climate of Dayao was extremely hot. However, the empress was an exception. Due to her status, she seldom came into contact with the outside world, and she always had a dignified and cold look on her face. Therefore, she subconsciously felt too embarrassed to choose and buy personal things such as undergarments.
The shopping trip had ended, and the back seat and the trunk of the car were fully filled with red-colored dresses. Most of their designs looked somewhat similar.
The pair arrived at a restaurant. Ren Baqian watched on as the empress wolfed down ten portions of rice and dishes. Even the server was shocked when Ren Baqian ordered more food.
Soon after, both of them stopped eating, or rather, the empress stopped eating.
"Are you full?" Ren Baqian asked.
"I still can eat a bit more." The empress wasn't embarrassed of her ravenous appetite. Aboriginals naturally had huge appetite. Furthermore, she was on the path to recovery now.
She was used to ignoring surprised gazes from other people.
She simply did not care how tiny individuals with no power looked at her.
"Should we go to another restaurant? We can try other cuisines." Ren Baqian looked at the heap of plates on the table and smiled.
"Alright!" The empress nodded her head.
That night, both of them visited three restaurants. The first restaurant sold Shandong cuisine, the second restaurant sold Hunan cuisine, and the last restaurant solely sold dumplings. After they finished eating, they went for another shopping spree before returning to Ren Baqian's house to rest.
The two of them lay on the sofa watching a movie on the television with all the lights switched off. Only the light and sound from the television could be seen and heard.
They were watching Transformers in Chinese language. This was the movie that Ren Baqian had previously used to scare the empress. There were many scenes in this movie that depicted modern armies fighting. This could help the empress to know and understand more about modern warfare.
However, towards the end of the movie, Ren Baqian felt slightly vexed. Since he watched this movie quite long ago, he did not remember much of its storyline. Now that he watched the movie again, he realized the modern armies depicted in it were extremely weak. He reckoned that the empress could tear out the arms of the Transformers with bare hands, let alone those soldiers.
"In real life, our armies are much more powerful than the ones shown in the movie. We have various types of guided missiles. We also have weapons of mass destruction such as the nuclear bombs. The sarin gas you used is one of these weapons of mass destruction," Ren Baqian turned his head around and explained.
"I get it," the empress replied casually. With brightly lit eyes, she stared at the battle between humans and Transformers on the television screen.
After consecutively watching two Transformers movies, Ren Baqian finally switched off the television. The empress looked glum, it seemed that she wanted to continue watching the rest of the movie series.
...
Ping City. In an official residence, a group of people stood around a table looking at a map.
"Her Majesty travelled through this path," Hong Wu drew a line across the map, "She set off from Lan City and travelled in a straight line."
The empress had already gone missing for half a month. When he heard this news, he almost tore down his entire house. He did not expect the empress to go to the Nine Pavilions alone for the sake of that lad. If he'd known this would happen, he would have killed that lad with a slap. He believed that the empress wouldn't blame him for killing that lad.
After all, at the time when the empress chose Ren Baqian as her husband, she did not seem too interested in him.
Hong Wu did not know what could have happened recently that would cause such a change in the empress's attitude. He couldn't believe the empress would place herself in such a dangerous situation for Ren Baqian. This was something that he couldn't understand.
Now that the empress did such a thing for Ren Baqian, Hong Wu knew he couldn't touch that lad anymore. Currently, he hoped that he empress could come back safely and that lad would die there.
Then again, it was hard to determine the outcome.
Those madmen in the Nine Pavilions weren't easy to deal with.
Now that the empress was in enemy territory, if she was detected, the imperial family of Great Xia would not let such a good opportunity slip by.
"Is there any news from the winged cavalry?" Hong Wu asked with a deep voice. For the past half a month, he only slept two hours each day. Therefore, he was feeling slightly exhausted now. However, he still had to stay awake and alert in front of everyone.
In everyone's eyes, Hong Wu had always been a stabilizing force. Right now, he could only stay calm so that they wouldn't panic.
"There's no news from them yet. The one thousand and five hundred men of the winged cavalry have been split up into ten units. They have already been in Great Xia for ten days. I'm afraid it's difficult for them not to get detected even if they are split into ten units," someone replied.
"As long as one unit can find Her Majesty, we will find out where she is," Hong Wu said. Every unit of winged cavalry had a carrier pigeon to send information. Right now, he was waiting for the winged cavalry's news so that he could personally bring Her Majesty back.
Everyone sighed. The longer the empress was in Great Xia, the more danger she was in.
This applied to the winged cavalry as well.
Like what Hong Wu said, everyone could only wait for the winged cavalry's carrier pigeons.
"Sir, there's news on Her Majesty." While everyone was deep in thought, someone suddenly ran into the room.
Upon hearing these words, a look of joy appeared on everyone's face. What they were afraid was there was no news of the empress. As long as there was news of her, it would be good news to them.
"Speak up, what news?" Hong Wu's eyes lit up brightly.
"Her Majesty defeated Hua Sanliu and used poison to obliterate the Nine Pavilions. Only two ordinary disciples survived," the soldier reported to Hong Wu loudly.
A wave of silence swept across the room. Following which, an uproar broke out.
There was a huge amount of information contained in these words.
They couldn't believe the empress actually killed Hua Sanliu. This was something unexpected.
Previously, everyone was afraid that the empress would clash with the Nine Pavilions. After all, they were well aware of her temperament. Furthermore, the people living in the Nine Pavilions were madmen. Therefore, there was a high chance that the empress would clash with them. Moreover, Hua Sanliu was ranked fifth in the world while the empress was only ranked seventh. Hence, none of them had been optimistic that she could defeat him. The best outcome they hoped for was that neither side won.
They were also afraid that the empress might get hunted down by the Nine Pavilions.
This was another reason why the winged cavalry took the risk to enter Great Xia and headed straight for the Nine Pavilions. Along the way, they also searched for traces of the empress.
If Hong Wu did not know he couldn't catch up with the empress, and that he had to oversee Ping City, he would have headed to the Nine Pavilions as soon as possible.
However, no one had expected the empress to kill Hua Sanliu!
This was beyond everyone's expectations.
The following news they received was even more incredible.
Who doesn't know about Her Majesty? She was a blunt and straightforward individual, since when she did she know how to use poisons?
Furthermore, even though the Nine Pavilions wasn't top-notch in using poisons, they still knew a thing or two about poisons. Therefore, how was it possible that Her Majesty could poison everyone in the Nine Pavilions to death? How was it possible that even the other eight pavilion masters were killed by her poison?
What was going on?
It seemed that the empress only brought Imperial Deputy Prefect Ren Baqian with her on this trip. Was it possible that Ren Baqian was a poison expert? Was he so powerful that he could destroy the Nine Pavilions?
These questions came to everyone's mind.
Other than this, there were no other possible explanations.
"Is there any more news? How's Her Majesty doing now?" Hong Wu suppressed the amazement in his heart and asked.
"Reportedly, Her Majesty is severely injured and her whereabouts are unknown. Her Majesty reached the Nine Pavilions four days ago, and she left that place on the same day," the soldier continued.
"Bang." The table beneath Hong Wu's hands reduced to smithereens instantly.
...
At this moment, the empress and Ren Baqian were sitting on the back of Qi Shui. Suddenly, Qi Shui stopped in its tracks and lowered its body. It was looking at the two girls standing in front of it on high alert.
The two girls were dressed like nuns. One of them was wearing a hanging tiara in front of her forehead. She was elegant and remarkably beautiful, looking like a goddess descended from the sky. Her eyes were limpid and serene like the surface of a lake.
The other girl looked approximately sixteen years old. With some baby fat still on her face, she looked innocent and naive. At this point in time, she was staring at Ren Baqian and the empress with her eyes widened. After taking a closer look at the kirin, Ren Baqian, and the empress, her eyes became wider while her mouth turned O-shaped.