"Since His Majesty is so unrighteous..."
"Then let the entire world be buried with the Zheng family."
A maniacal smile curled at the corners of her lips.
The moment the blood seeped into the crack of the box, a sharp screech came from inside.
The box lid suddenly popped open, and a Gu King, entirely crimson and shaped like a centipede, slowly crawled out, its tentacles trembling as it greedily licked her blood.
The Gu King burrowed into her mouth. Consort Zheng chuckled as she watched her body being devoured bit by bit, her eyes reflecting a crimson light. She whispered her final words: "Go...eat everything."
When the Gu King was released, the first to fall were two palace maids from the laundry department.
They were drawing water from the well when suddenly their bodies stiffened, and the buckets plunged into the deep well with a splash.
One of them knelt on the ground, her fingernails scratching at the bluestone slab, making a teeth-grinding crunching sound, while the other convulsed on her back, her mouth torn, and a bright red centipede crawled out of her eye socket and swam into the distance.
The deputy commander of the Imperial Guards suddenly pressed his temple.
"My head...it hurts so much..."
He staggered two steps, and when he looked up again, his eyes were bloodshot and his mouth was involuntarily agape.
"Commander??"
The guards on the side stepped forward to inquire.
With a soft thud, the blood-stained blade emerged from the back of the guard. The deputy commander of the Imperial Guard tilted his head, letting out a non-human roar: "Roar! Roar! Roar!"
Chaos reigned in the palace, with living people even tearing each other apart.
One of the guards was tackled and his throat was bitten through.
The palace maid who committed the crime had blood all over her mouth but was still laughing strangely. As she laughed, countless red Gu worms suddenly crawled out of her ears.
The worms scattered as soon as they hit the ground, crawling along the pool of blood towards the soles of more people's boots, cuffs, and open mouths.
Consort Zheng's corpse also began to move. She crawled up with her limbs bent backward, her neck twisted at an eerie angle, and something was wriggling under her skin.
Suddenly, with a soft "poof," she deflated like a punctured balloon, a large hole bursting open in her chest, and the Gu King swarmed out with countless hatched offspring.
Her physical body, like a discarded garment, drifted lightly to the ground.
*
"Your Majesty! Please leave the palace immediately!"
The Dark Guard and the Death Squad surrounded and protected Yin Jiuxiao, slashing at the dense swarms of Gu worms as they quickly moved toward the secret passage.
Yin Jiuxiao looked into the distance, his brows furrowed. If these insects were to escape outside, the consequences in Hougou would be unimaginable.
The once-majestic Imperial Guards are now devouring each other like wild beasts. If these insects were to escape outside the palace, the common people would not only fight each other irrationally, but would also become a tonic for the Gu worms!
He can't just run away like this!
*
When Zi Xi burst through the door of the palace medicine storehouse, her hair was disheveled and her cuffs were still stained with the poisonous blood from killing the Gu worms.
“Crimson Blood Vine! Cinnabar! And…”
"There really is a Hundred Poisons Ash!!! There's hope!!!"
She slashed and killed the puppet that had been eaten and controlled by the Gu worms, while pulling a sealed ceramic jar from the deepest part of the medicine cabinet.
Zi Xi lifted the lid of the jar and began to pour the dark red powder mixed with strong liquor into various copper basins with a very steady hand.
"laugh……!"
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