Ren Baqian's upper body was exposed as he stood in the middle of the arena. Over the past few months, he had grown quite a bit of muscle. At the very least, his original ribs were nowhere to be seen.
At this moment, his eyes were filled with determination as he stared at his opponent. Even if Chen Qing was beside him, he wouldn't be able to recognize this sharp-eyed, sword-like, ruthless man. He was actually his friend, who many people thought was ordinary and unremarkable.
The laptop behind him was connected to the sound system and was playing the song "Into the Battlefield." It was a hot-blooded high-school soundtrack. When he watched this movie, this music simply made his blood boil.
At this moment, the strong rhythm and dense drumming made Ren Baqian's adrenaline surge and his fighting spirit surge. He felt that if he had a gun, he would be able to carry it onto the battlefield.
At this moment, Ren Baqian's opponent's attention was obviously attracted by the thing that was making the sound not far behind him. His gaze wandered and was fixated on the sound system.
"Chance!" Ren Baqian's eyes lit up. He stomped on the ground and dashed toward his opponent like a wild dog released from its leash.
"Bang!"
Then, he flew back at a faster speed and landed heavily on the ground with a 46-yard large footprint on his chest.
"Ouch!" Ren Baqian groaned as he lay on the ground. "Your Majesty, I need to change my opponent."
"You can choose from the imperial guards!" the empress, who was eating popcorn not far away, said generously.
"Can I lower the age of the imperial guard? I haven't even reached the Man Wheel level! "Ren Baqian cried.
"How?" Ren Baqian's current imperial guard was about 30 years old. For the aboriginals, he hadn't reached the peak yet. Furthermore, the imperial guards weren't the most skilled. At the same level, the winged cavalry was slightly stronger than the imperial guards.
"I feel that I can give it a try with an opponent around 10 years old." Ren Baqian seriously stated his request.
The empress almost laughed at Ren Baqian's shameless behavior.
Qing Yuan and Hong Luan looked at him with disdain. Could he be any more shameless?
Meanwhile, Ren Baqian's opponent was looking at the sky at a 45-degree angle.
He didn't even use 5% of his strength just now. What else did he want?
"Isn't this a form of sparring? With my current strength, I'm still no match for him even if his hands and feet are tied up, "Ren Baqian got up from the ground and pleaded earnestly.
The empress squinted at him for a long time and finally said, "Okay!"
Ren Baqian was overjoyed when he heard this. "Your Majesty, you are accomplished in both literature and martial arts. You are benevolent to the common people and are willing to deliver all living things from suffering!"
"Let's continue today! I will change your opponent for the sparring session the day after tomorrow, "the empress said.
"Alas!" Ren Baqian sighed and struck a pose. Then, he stepped to the rhythm of a song by Nightwish and charged toward his opponent like a wild dog that had escaped its leash.
Bang!
…
This was the seventh day since the empress started teaching him the fist technique. These seven days could be said to be filled with tears and snot.
Just the eight moves of the [Fist of Death] were enough to make Ren Baqian suffer.
Ren Baqian's bones had already taken shape, and there were many movements that he couldn't perform.
Then, the empress ordered two imperial guards to press down on his shoulders and form a straight line. At that time, his voice was like the sound of a pig being slaughtered, and it spread throughout the entire palace for a long time.
For three days in a row, Ren Baqian's legs were splayed outwards when he walked. It felt like his legs were like noodles.
He had to practice martial arts every day, but this was still okay. At most, it would be a little tiring. He still had to get beaten up every two days, and this made Ren Baqian's heart full of regrets.
Today, he finally couldn't help but bring up the idea that he had been pondering over for a few days.
At night, a female official helped to disperse the extravasated blood on his body. Ren Baqian's body was also smeared with a layer of Indian divine oil. This was what Ren Baqian called it. After applying the oil, his whole body would reflect light. However, the effect was indeed excellent. Every time he was smeared with Indian divine oil to disperse the extravasated blood, his whole body would feel comfortable. The next day, not a single scar could be seen on his body.
However, he didn't know that only a small number of aboriginals could afford this Indian divine oil. Even though it wasn't considered priceless, it was still extremely expensive. Even the children of the court officials could only use it occasionally. It was impossible for them to rub it all over their body every two days like Ren Baqian.
A bottle of this medicine cost 100 taels of silver. Using one bottle at a time would cost more than 10,000 taels of silver a year. Even for the empress, this was considered a considerable amount.
Caretaker Shi was a Rank 9 official, and his monthly salary was only six taels of silver. The annual rent for a shop on Jingyang Street was only slightly more than 100 taels of silver.
The medicine used for the medicinal bath was even more expensive. A single medicinal bath cost 1,000 taels of silver and could only last for seven days.
Just the two medicines that Ren Baqian used cost 50,000 taels of silver a year.
Dayao wasn't rich. The entire imperial palace only spent 40,000 taels of silver a year. Most of it was spent on the salaries of the imperial guards, female officials, and maids. Ren Baqian's expenses alone were more than the annual expenses of the entire imperial palace.
The empress could only rely on the income from the gold and silver mines for a small surplus. Coupled with the expenses on Ren Baqian, the imperial palace's income immediately became a deficit.
…
The next day, Ren Baqian hurriedly went out and met up with Feng Hou, the director of the Department of Ordnance, and Tong Yan, the director of the Department of Construction. He received news in the morning that the pile of bricks used to burn the furnace had been produced. However, they had all turned into slag.
Along the way, Ren Baqian sat on the back of the fork-horned cow and pondered the reason behind the bumpy ride. Since cement could be produced from burning, then some of the ores in this world should be similar to those on Earth. Furthermore, the main ingredient for burning bricks was clay. Such a situation shouldn't have occurred.
When he arrived at the Jingtian Furnace, the supervisor, Tie Mu, hurriedly welcomed him, "Sir. Yesterday, the furnace fire was extinguished. We wanted to follow your instructions to take out the bricks, only to find out … "
"Let's wait and see." Ren Baqian waved his hand and hurriedly rushed to the furnace. The bricks inside had not been taken out yet. Ren Baqian went down the ladder and saw that only half of the bricks were left. The rest had turned into slag and fell to the bottom of the furnace.
The remaining bricks looked cracked on the surface. Many of them were bulging. When he touched them with his hand, they immediately turned into fragments.
Ren Baqian frowned.
What was going on?
"Sir Ren, how is it?" Tong Yan shouted from above.
After drinking together at the brothel, everyone was very familiar with each other.
Ren Baqian frowned and climbed out of the furnace with dust all over his body. He said to Tie Mu, "Do it again. I want to see what the problem is."
Then, he said to Tong Yan, "I'm not sure. Let's see."
While the craftsman of the Jingtian Furnace was working, Ren Baqian took out a piece of paper and compared it step by step to see which step was the problem.
"There's no problem?" Ren Baqian muttered. He personally saw the craftsman of the Jingtian Furnace crushing, stirring, and kneading the bricks step by step. There was no problem at all.
"Could it be that there's something wrong with this piece of paper?" Ren Baqian started to suspect if there was a problem with the information he found.
There might be something that wasn't written on this piece of paper.
"Sir Ren, what's this?" Tong Yan and Feng Hou leaned their heads over. Just now, they saw him holding a piece of paper and mumbling to himself.
"I remember some things," Ren Baqian replied casually. In any case, the two of them couldn't understand it.
"I've never seen this kind of writing before." Tong Yan glanced at it and shook his head.
Ren Baqian ignored him. It would be strange if he had seen it before.
"Hey, what are you guys doing?" Ren Baqian looked at the craftsman as he sent the kneaded bricks into the furnace.
"Sir, you said to burn it." The craftsman looked at him blankly.
"Dry it in the shade, dry it in the shade first. How are we going to burn it if we send it in like this?" Ren Baqian's eyes widened. It was clearly written on the paper that it had to be dried in the shade.
"Sir, you told us to burn it in this way the last time." Tie Mu was dumbfounded.
"How is that possible? The bricks haven't even dried yet, how can they be burned? "Ren Baqian stared at him.
"Sir Ren, you didn't say to dry it in the shade the last time. This is how we burn it," Feng Hou said righteously.
Ren Baqian looked at Feng Hou with disdain and said, "How is that possible?"
He thought to himself, Damn it, did you really not say it the last time?
Thinking about it carefully, it seemed that the last time, the cement and the bricks were all done in one day. How could there be time to dry it in the shade?
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