Ren Baqian was seated and swaying on Qi Shui's back while staring into s.p.a.ce. He felt that this time, it seemed as if he was on a journey to India to retrieve the Buddhist scriptures with Tang Sanzhang. A moment ago, he had just defeated the Single Horned Rhinoceros King, and the next moment, he was prepared to ascend the Mountain of Flames, experiencing hurdle after hurdle.

[Tang Sanzhang, Single Horned Rhinoceros King - characters from The Monkey King]

It was such a pity that there wasn't the Red Boy waiting over there. There also wasn't any sweetheart before the flowers and under the moon.

[Red Boy - character from The Monkey King]

Ren Baqian thought about it again and even if they existed, he wasn't even Sun Wukong, the Monkey King. Fortunately, the empress wasn't Xuanzang either.

After walking for an entire day, there was a very high mountain peak obstructing this group of people. So long as they were able to cross over, they would reach Falling Moon Gorge within half a day's time. After that, they would be on an unimpeded journey back to Dayao.

At long last, the three commanders got sick of playing with the binoculars. Unlike the previous instances when it seemed as if the binoculars were tied to their heads, their gazes were now s.h.i.+fted to the bags hanging from both of Qi Shui's sides. At the very least, one of the things inside was called the "drone". It was a pity that Ren Baqian didn't even let them touch it, and this made the three of them hold a secret grudge against him.

"Sigh!" Ren Baqian who was currently in a daze, cried out in surprise. Unexpectedly, Qi Shui jumped up and nearly flung him off its back. His voice had just left his mouth when he felt a gush of power placing him on Qi Shui's back once again.

"Many thanks, Your Majesty." Ren Baqian turned his head and smiled at the empress. The sun shone on the canopy of the trees, as if it had just been smashed and dropped downwards while spots shone on the empress's body.

The empress had the earpiece plugged into both of her ears. Listening to music from the music player was also considered a form of entertainment during the journey.

With the fragmented suns.h.i.+ne sprinkled all over the empress's body, her earpiece, music as well as her relaxed expression, it made the empress look as though she was a girl sitting beneath the shade of a tree on campus.

If there wasn't that bunch of gazes in the surrounding which swept over from time to time and caused an irksome presence, it would be so much better.

At this moment, there were actually two mounts that had no one riding on them. Ren Baqian didn't think of changing over while the empress didn't chase him away either. As such, they both considered it as tacit agreement to continue riding on the same mount.

They have reverted to addressing each other by Ren Baqian's official position as well as Her Majesty. They didn't talk much throughout the day, and there seemed to be some kind of atmosphere between them, causing the rest of the people to be isolated from them.

This led many winged cavalry warriors to feel envious whenever they swept their gazes over and were forced to look at the pair being affectionate. More than one person even pondered if they should make a trip to the mountains when they returned, to find a woman they fancied and get married to her.

Once again they used one day to cross over a mountain in front of them. After leaving that mountain, there was a huge river that was about a hundred meters wide. The noised created by the turbulent river could even be heard from afar.

"There are people opposite!" Teng Ji shouted by the side.

.

Ren Baqian raised his binoculars and sure enough, there was a Great Xia soldier who was riding on his horse and headed towards their direction to survey the scene from an elevated position. It seemed as if he was specially deployed to wait over there. Then, Ren Baqian changed the direction of the binoculars to face the side. They were able to see that there was one soldier stalking out at the area not far from the upper and lower reach of the river as well.

"They are specifically waiting for us," Li Tanhua spoke casually. He reached back to touch his bow but to no avail. Only then did he remember that his bow was still in the empress's hands.

On the contrary, the empress didn't bother if the Great Xia soldiers were stalking out opposite. They weren't able to keep them in the dark in any case. As such, she couldn't be bothered with them.

Ren Baqian looked carefully at the river and it was very muddy. After all, the flow of the water was so rapid that it brought along the mud in the river, and he completely unable to see the base of the river at all.

"Deputy Prefect Ren, be careful. There are weird fish inside the river," Teng Ji warned him. Now, Ren Baqian was even more valuable than bitcoin.

"What sort of weird fish?" Ren Baqian turned his head and asked.

He thought to himself, could there be piranhas inside?

However, it wasn't impossible. If piranhas existed on Earth, it wouldn't be a surprise if they existed here as well.

It was at this time, he heard something emerging from the water behind him.

"Be careful!" Teng Ji's expression changed, and he immediately threw himself onto Ren Baqian. However, faster than him was a red silhouette that appeared instantly by Ren Baqian's side.

Upon hearing the sound of an object emerging from the water, he turned around just to see a gigantic fish head advancing towards him and was in the midst of swallowing him up.

Yes, that's right, swallow is the word.

The fish had the mouth of a bird, very long and full of fangs. But, its body was round. It looked like a bird's beak affixed onto a fish's body. It was ugly and, in addition, ferocious looking as well. Ren Baqian immediately trembled as he took a step back.

In the next second, a lily-white hand stretched out beside Ren Baqian and slapped the mouth of the fish which was about to attack him.

That fish's head seemed as if it was being smashed by a heavy object, and the fish shot out from the water immediately. Its approximately six-meter-long body flipped in the air, and the empress slapped its body just when its tail was about to hit her. Then, its body burst open and lots of flesh spewed out towards the big river. Together with its flesh, the body also sank at the middle portion of the river.

Soon enough, another five to six dorsal fins appeared in the middle of the huge river. That river was already contaminated with blood.

Ren Baqian finally calmed his heart down after a long time. Back then, he really received the shock of his life as everything happened too abruptly.

Never did he expected that by standing near the riverside, that thing actually dared to extend its head and tried to swallow him. It was practically a terrifying experience.

If it wasn't for the empress, he would have been fed to the fish.

At this moment, the empress had already returned to Qi Shui's back and was staring blankly, just like nothing had happened before.

"Deputy Prefect Ren, hehe." Teng Ji winked at Ren Baqian and gave him a smirk as well. In the next second, he felt something fly past the tip of his nose together with the sound of the wind. It made him break out in cold sweat.

The empress lowered her head and looked at her palm, it was crooked again.

After going through this near-death experience, Ren Baqian became well-behaved. He didn't dare run all over the place anymore. This word was too dangerous.

Everyone directly pitched their tents over here.

Ren Baqian notified the empress and went to find a secluded place so that he could return to Earth. After staying on Earth for two and a half days, he returned with many things. Among them were an additional thousand portions of antidote as they already had plans to release the poison gas. With the poisonous gas, he felt that he wouldn't need to bring anything else.

No matter how the other party set up their deployment, after fourteen bottles of sarin gas were thrown over, they should be able to continue with their journey.

It was just a pity that it would be very difficult to obtain this thing again.

Apart from this, he also brought the customized traditional Han Chinese dress back. He held it in his hands and smiled at the empress, "Only you can bring out the charm of this dress. I have specifically gotten it customized as a gift for Your Majesty."

"What type of clothing is it?" The empress shot a glance at him and was somewhat suspicious. It was wrapped up, so she couldn't tell how it looked like.

Ren Baqian took out a photo that displayed how the outfit looked on a model.

It was a long gown with broad sleeves that had to be wrapped around one's body three times. The lengthened front piece formed a triangle which had to go past the front of the body, all the way till it reached the feet. Overall, it was red but had black and gold along the edge of the gown. Embroidered on the front was a golden phoenix spreading its wings, and as for the back, it was embroidered with golden petals falling gently in decoration. It seemed to provoke one's eyes, but, it was also extremely beautiful.

Ren Baqian imagined the effect of that set of clothes on the empress. Together with her ice-cold aura as well as her temperament, in all likelihood, she would be able to take everyone's breath away.

If someone else were to wear it, perhaps, would only give off the air of a local tyrant.

After all, it depended on who wore the clothes. The effect of the same piece of clothing worn on Shawn Yue, would definitely be different from others.

[Shawn Yue - Hong Kong actor]

The empress looked at the clothes in the photo and revealed a look that indicated she fancied it. No women would be able to resist beautiful clothes. Soon after, she got Ren Baqian to keep the clothes in the bag and would only try it on once she got back to Dayao.

He carried the items and went back. With regards to Ren Baqian's disappearance last night, everyone was somewhat aware of it. After all, he was always with Her Majesty at the same bonfire whenever they pitched their tents. This morning, the empress didn't set off because she was waiting for him. Everyone was unsure of where he went and felt that this person was even more mysterious than before.

...

The name of the river was the White Dragon River. According to legend, there was a white dragon which incited trouble in the river.

The Falling Moon Gorge was situated along both of the sh.o.r.es of the White Dragon River. It was about 300 meters tall, and below it was the turbulent White Dragon River.

At this moment, they were at one side of the Falling Moon Gorge and over ten thousand soldiers were scattered about and taking a rest wherever they were. A majestic old man stood on the rock and looked distantly at the opposite bank.

The other party had arrived at the White Dragon River yesterday afternoon. Following which, they pitched their camp. However, they didn't set off this morning, and it somehow made him not unsure what the other party was planning to do.

"Zhu Mu Elders, thank you for your help this time. If we succeed, I will request recognition for your merits," after a while, the old man got off the stone and said to the two old men who were both sitting cross-legged and as skinny as a pole. After taking another closer look, he realized that the both of their appearances were exactly the same. The only difference was that one of them had a bamboo embroidered on their cuff, whereas the other had a tree embroidered on it.

After hearing what he said, the Zhu Mu Elders opened their eyes and gently nodded.

These two people had a very grand reputation in Great Xia. Even though their ranking was not among the top ten experts in the world, they were ranked at the eleventh.

The two of them had always worked hand in hand since birth and had never been separated before. When dealing with people, they would attack them hand in hand regardless of whether the other party was a single person or a group of people.

Thus, both of them were tied at the eleventh position among the other experts.

As a matter of fact, their intentions were aligned. In addition, they also had a method to attack combinedly and their coordination largely increased their military strength. Even Hong Wu found it tricky whenever he ran into them. It was just that the strength of one of them, was weaker when compared to the tenth position in the top ten experts in the world, and as such, they were at the eleventh position.

However, following the death of Hua Sanliu, the pair were now the tenth most powerful expert in the world.

This time, it required a large price for them to invite these two elders with something that they desperately needed.

Just at this moment, a yiniao bringing along a letter flew over. A person quickly stepped forward after receiving the letter, "General, they have set off and will arrive in two hours."

The old man became solemn, "Organize the troops and prepare for battle."