Chapter 681: Recovery

“Damn it… Damn it… Damn it…” Drifting in the boundless darkness, all that was left in Ren Baqian’s mind were complaints about that group of dim-witted bodyguards and that streak of dazzling lightning…

Occasionally, he would also curse at the metal chain when he thought of it before going back to cursing at those bodyguards and the lightning.

He had just broken through to the Earth Wheel level and was immediately struck by lightning before he even had a good meal… What could be more miserable than that?

Without knowing how long he had been cursing in the darkness, Ren Baqian suddenly felt a change in the darkness around him.

There was only a very slight difference. It was as if there was a streak of purple pulsing in the darkness, but it was very minute. Adding on that it was camouflaged in the dark, he wasn’t able to detect it.

“What’s that?” This new discovery in the boundless darkness suddenly made Ren Baqian more alert to finding that pulsing streak of purple.

For another unknown period of time, Ren Baqian tried hard to locate that streak of purple, but he only managed to see it again twice. He only managed to catch a glimpse of it before it disappeared, which made him feel even more curious.

At this moment, he felt a tug. Huge changes started to happen. The feeling of pain all over his body and hunger began to pour into his mind again.

Have I returned to the outside world? Ren Baqian suddenly had this thought.

His eyelids twitched as he fought hard to open his eyes. The first thing he saw was the empress’s cold, yet deeply concerned, look. He then looked around and realized that he seemed to be in the empress’s quarters.

“You are finally awake!” The empress heaved a sigh of relief before speaking softly, “You are lucky. If someone else had been in your shoes, it would have been dangerous.”

“It was dangerous enough for me…” Ren Baqian muttered to himself.

He was clear-headed and could even sense that there were three other people in the room. The two smaller sized sensations were Qing Yuan and Hong Luan, and there was another person at the Earth Wheel level, but he didn’t know who it was.

“Your Majesty, Sir Ren seems to be in good health, but he has exhausted himself. His energy needs to be replenished,” an old voice said.

“I know,” the empress replied.

Soon after, the footsteps of that person leaving could be heard.

“Water, meat!” Ren Baqian’s lips quivered and had almost gone crazy from hunger.

“Drink this first.” The empress got Hong Luan to help him up and got Qing Yuan to feed him a bowl of black juice. The moment it entered his stomach, it converted into a warmth that spread throughout his body. What he experienced afterward was an even more intense feeling of hunger.

“Meat… Meat…” Ren Baqian felt like he could devour an entire fork-horned cow with his current level of hunger.

Even though he used to think this way when he was hungry in the past, he was normally only able to finish a tail on his own. However, he felt like he could really finish an entire cow this time.

“Notify the imperial kitchen,” the empress ordered. She then handled a fruit over to Ren Baqian and said, “Take this first.”

Ren Baqian lifted his hand to his mouth and gobbled up the fruit very quickly. He suddenly looked distracted when he was about to reach out for another piece.

He used to always associate the hands of skinny people with chicken claws.

Yet, he now felt that he was stretching out his own chicken claws and not his hands.

He was thin to the bone with hardly any meat left on his arm. There were only blue veins moving up and down the back of his hand.

It was also the same when he stretched out his other arm.

Ren Baqian suddenly recalled the incident where the bodyguards couldn’t recognize him.

“What do I look like now?” Ren Baqian asked with a strange look on his face.

“Hong Luan, bring the mirror,” the empress ordered faintly.

Ren Baqian then saw a skinny bag of bones in the mirror, a skeleton with hardly any meat under that skin! He originally weighed around 100 kilograms, but he looked like he was only around 40 kilograms currently… The baggy clothes that hung from his body made him look as if he was wrapped in a cloth.

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His exposed skin was chapped, which made him look even more terrifying.

Also, there was actually a streak of purple in his eyes.

“Is this me?”

“I never expected your breakthrough to be so dangerous. A large amount of your flesh and blood was actually converted into essence qi that circulated around your five viscera. You probably would have become a piece of jerky if it had lasted a while longer,” the empress said softly with a bit of lingering fear in her voice.

If not for the amount of tonics and top-level food that Ren Baqian had eaten in the past and also the high-quality herbs that he used during training, his body wouldn’t have been in its optimal state. He probably would have become a piece of jerky during his breakthrough.

“You will be able to recover after eating more,” the empress added.

Ren Baqian nodded and put a piece of fruit into his mouth.

After finishing off all the fruit in the empress’s quarters, he felt that he had a little bit more energy in his body. However, he wasn’t sure if this was due to the fruits or if the thing that she made him drink was taking effect.

“I can’t wait for them to be ready—I’ll go to the kitchen.” Ren Baqian braced himself and stood up.

The empress grabbed him by his collar and arrived at the entrance of her quarters in a flash. Soon after, both of them were in the kitchen. She put him down on the ground and said, “You are too light!”

Ren Baqian didn’t respond to her and staggered into the kitchen. His eyes glowed when he smelled the food cooking. Startling the cook, Ren Baqian hugged a piece of meat and began biting into it.

“Carry on with your work! Faster!” the empress said to everyone as she followed Ren Baqian.

“Yes, Your Majesty!” Everyone went back to doing their own tasks.

Ren Baqian acted like 1,000 year old hungry ghost. He swallowed the entire piece of meat after just a little bit of chewing and immediately reached out for another piece. After a short period of time, he devoured all the meat that the empress had ordered the kitchen to prepare.

Even so, it didn’t alleviate his hunger a single bit.

Ren Baqian shifted his attention to the vegetables. He couldn’t take it any longer after having a few bites. He picked up another piece of meat and started gnawing at it again.

He finished a huge portion of the high quality goat and fork-horned cow meat in the imperial kitchen. After that, he continued stuffing all the freshly cooked food into his mouth as well.

He ate nonstop from the time he woke up until dusk. All the cooks in the kitchen were so busy that they were drenched in sweat. He finished all the food in the kitchen as well as an additional batch of meat that was sent from another department before feeling satisfied.

“Phew!” Ren Baqian let out a deep breath. His long lost energy had finally returned, and his energy level felt even greater than before. He felt like he could beat the hell out of Tong Lan, the little lolita!

At the same time, similar to how a balloon was inflated, his body had grown larger from being a bag of bones.

Even though his body still hadn’t recovered to his original condition, he now looked more like a human instead of a skeleton draped with a piece of skin.

Most importantly, he was finally rid of that intense hunger.

“I’m finally alive again!” Ren Baqian exclaimed as he patted his tummy.

He had spent the entire day eating, and the empress accompanied him the whole time. While watching him eat, she still sent someone to go fetch her manga from her quarters.

The empress lifted her head and asked, “How do you feel now?”

“Very good! I feel like I can smash a mountain!” Ren Baqian clenched his fists and cracked his knuckles. He felt extremely great to be full of energy.

He lowered his head and looked at his arm. It was full of patches of dead skin that had torn apart, revealing the fresh skin beneath it.

He peeled a few pieces of it off his arm and let the large patches of dead skin, which had been burned by lightning, fall to the ground. The new skin beneath it appeared more tender than his skin had looked before.

“It’s good that you are fine. I’m tired, so I’m going back to rest first.” The empress closed her book, took a stride out, and vanished.

Even though she didn’t do much, she had been very worried while she waited for Ren Baqian to wake up. Now that he was in better health, she could finally be at ease.

Ren Baqian returned to Pingle Park and took a shower before peeling all the dead skin off his body. He felt much more relaxed afterward and began to explore the changes in his body after his breakthrough.