Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
By the time Ren Baqian got in touch with the people of Dayao, it had been two days since he was captured.
The empress received the news the day after he was captured.
When Tong Zhenye said that Ren Baqian wouldn’t be able to escape without a beating… Tong Zhenye really wasn’t trying to scare him. If Ren Baqian dared to tell her that he merely went to chat with people and talk about life and ideals…
Tong Zhenye could still vividly remember her reaction when she first received the news.
The empress, who was originally calm, was suddenly stunned. It was as if she froze in time.
This was the first time since she ascended the throne that he saw such a reaction from her.
She then asked a little distractedly, “What?”
“Your Majesty, Zhao Prince Consort… has been captured.”
“When? Who did it?”
“Yesterday morning. We still don’t know who is behind it…”
As the empress collected her thoughts, her face immediately turned gloomy. It was as if there was an impending storm. Her might radiated through the entire hall with so much pressure that the others could hardly breathe.
“Where?” Her questions were out of sequence, but the person reporting still knew what she wanted to ask.
“The Yun Nation, Heyun District, Misty Rain House.”
“What about Xin Zhe? What about Lin Qiaole? What about Li Yuanzhu?” The empress emphasized every word that she uttered. “Are they dead?”
“They are fine. Once it happened, Commander Xin Zhe immediately rushed to Ping City to relay the news back.”
“Why didn’t they die?” Her voice was full of anger.
How could so many people fail to protect one person?
These people were alright, yet Ren Baqian got abducted?
As soon as the empress finished her words, she immediately vanished from the hall.
She left directly without even dismissing the court.
After she left, everyone flared up as the hall became a boiling pot.
Regardless of whether it was toward Dayao or the empress, Ren Baqian’s abduction was the most serious issue.
The changes in Dayao today had already begun to show.
Especially after everyone experienced the nuclear explosion, the people in the imperial court now paid more and more attention to him. Whether it was the steam train or the diesel internal combustion engine that was currently being developed, everyone placed great focus on his work.
However, at this moment, Ren Baqian, the person who orchestrated all of this, had been captured?
Many of them wanted to head to the Yun Nation immediately and slaughter the people there.
However, before they had finished arguing, they felt an aura coming from behind the palace that stopped in front of the hall.
“Your Majesty…” Everyone turned to look, only to see the empress riding on Qishui with a longbow in her hand and a quiver of bone arrows on Qishui’s back.
These were all of her weapons.
She took a deep breath to suppress her anger and said to Shi Qing, “Notify Zi Donglai! Get him to inform everyone in the Yun Nation and give them two options: either find Zhao Prince Consort or die!”
“Everyone!” the empress repeated.
This time, it wasn’t just the Yun Nation’s warriors, but the entire population of 100 million. This showed how angry she was.
If something were to happen to Ren Baqian, she dared to bury all of them.
It wouldn’t matter even if the outcome was a bloody world and endless hatred.
Everyone in the imperial court was dumbfounded. Even they were surprised by the empress’s decision.
She wasn’t talking about thousands or millions, but tens and even hundreds of millions of lives.
This was five times the population of the aboriginals.
Killing all of them… Everyone felt a little psychologically stressed.
Calculating Dayao’s present military strength after including mobilization of the troops in the Protectorates of the North and South, they would only have an army of 80,000 men. Each of them would have to kill…
“With an 80,000 man army, how many will each of them have to kill?” someone asked softly.
“100?”
“Bullshit! It’s clearly 10 tens.”
“What’s the difference between 100 and 10 tens?”
The people from the Ministry of Revenue couldn’t help but comment, “It’s more than that. One man would have to kill at least 1,000 of them!”
“Oh! I see!”
Indeed, everyone in the hall began to wonder how many people each soldier had to kill.
After the empress was done talking, she ignored the reactions of the crowd, rode out of the palace on Qishui, and headed for the Yun Nation.
A group of officials ran after them and tried to persuade her… to at least take a few people with her to protect her.
However, several kilometers later, they were left far behind Qishui. Everyone gathered with most of them returning to Lan City while some continued running toward the Yun Nation.
The empress and Qishui traveled for exactly 20 hours, almost an entire day. They had been dashing for almost 1,000 kilometers, and Qishui’s body started to bubble.
A lot of water was stored in its body and on its skin. After long hours of running, every cell in its body was respiring and trying their best to absorb the ambient external energy, resulting in this…
The water and air fused on its skin and reacted. Due to the wind generated by the high speed, bubbles had formed on its skin…
Throughout the journey, bubbles had been flying all over the place, trailing behind Qishui like a bubble flag…
The empress went straight to Ping City.
When she arrived, the first thing she asked was, “Is there any news about Zhao Prince Consort?”
The second thing she said was, “Give it water. Large amounts.”
The third thing was, “Where are they?”
The empress’s heart was filled with anger, but she wasn’t given the chance to vent it.
Xin Zhe and the rest were still out there searching for clues.
“Have you passed down my orders?” she asked Zi Donglai with a cold voice.
“I have already notified all the sects in the Yun Nation and put up notices all over the city.” He remained expressionless.
This was mainly because he had injured a facial nerve in the past. As such, he couldn’t express his emotions on his face.
As for the empress’s order, Zi Donglai didn’t discount it at all.
At present, although he hadn’t put up notices throughout the entire Yun Nation, he had already covered most of the city.
Overnight, it could be said that the whole Yun Nation was shaken.
She wanted to slaughter the entire Yun Nation’s population of nearly 100 million people just for one person. It could be said that the nation, which had just settled down, became chaotic once again. This news immediately angered the entire nation.
Cries about her arrogance and brutality resounded all over the place. In a short period of time, the entire nation was so furious that they were just short of starting a rebellion.
They were able to escape back then, but after receiving this piece of news, if the empress truly resorted to killing everyone, they would have nowhere to run.
Prior to this, many of the Yun Nation citizens didn’t know who Zhao Prince Consort was. Everyone only started to realize after learning that he was her husband.
After this, there was no one who hadn’t heard of the name “Zhao Prince.”
Of course, it was nothing positive.
However, the empress didn’t care about this and neither did Zi Donglai.
The only person who cared about this still didn’t know what had happened.
The empress rested for a few hours in Ping City. Although she wanted to go directly to the place where Ren Baqian was abducted, Qishui couldn’t take it anymore and had to rest a few hours to recover its vitality.
Just when the empress was about to set off again, she received news about him.
After hearing that he was fine, exhaustion began to overwhelm her.
It was mental exhaustion, not physical.
Her mind had been tense since the morning before.
The empress quickly went to the radio station room and heard the voices of Ren Baqian and the others on the radio.
After hearing his voice, she truly felt that she could finally relax her nerves.
She took a few steps forward, took over the receiver, and asked with a deep voice, “Where are you?”
“I should be somewhere in Great Xia!” Ren Baqian’s voice suddenly softened when he heard the empress’s cold voice.
“Are you in danger? What is your exact location? I’m going to find you!” She really didn’t want to wait for him to return on his own. She was eager to rush over and bring him back immediately.
Then, she would hang him from the ceiling beams of her quarters and give him a beating.
After that, she would give him an injunction order that forbid him from being able to travel more than 50 kilometers away from Lan City.
As for the people who captured Ren Baqian, they weren’t the most important thing at the moment.
The most important thing was his circumstances and whether or not he was in danger… The empress would only be able to feel at ease by going to find him in person.