Chapter 75 Gu Insect
"Hahaha! Die, all of you!" Xuanjizi laughed, blood still flowing from his shoulder, but he didn't care at all. He turned and rushed out of the hall. "The Gu worms have already crawled out. You will all go crazy soon! The entire hall will become my territory!"
"Quickly sprinkle the insect repellent powder! Sprinkle all the powder around the Gu worms!" Ye Wanning shouted.
The insect-repelling powder left behind by the young eunuch had just surrounded the Gu worms. As soon as the powder hit the ground, the Gu worms stopped moving immediately, lying in place and circling around, no longer daring to crawl forward.
However, some Gu worms still crawled to the side of the pillar and were climbing up it. Ye Wanning's heart tightened—if the Gu worms climbed up the pillar, the thing that Xuanjizi had hidden inside might be triggered!
Just then, Su Zhong rushed over, holding a torch in his hand, and said urgently, "Second Miss! I'll go burn the Gu worm jars outside! As long as the Gu worms inside the jars are burned to death, these Gu worms won't be able to cause any trouble!"
"Uncle Su! It's too dangerous! There are assassins outside!" Ye Wanning tried to stop him.
But Su Zhong had already grabbed a torch and was running out of the main hall: "Second Miss, I owe you so much! This little danger is nothing! The guards will help me!"
Several guards jumped down from the beams of the main hall and ran out with Su Zhong—they were arranged by Pei Zhi to hide on the beams, preparing to launch a surprise attack on Xuanjizi.
Ye Wanning felt a warmth in her heart as she watched Su Zhong's retreating figure—although Su Zhong had been blackmailed by the Tianyan Sect into becoming a traitor, he had always genuinely wanted to protect her and the children of Ci'an Hall.
Xuanjizi had already run to the entrance of the main hall when he saw Su Zhong running out with a torch. He shouted angrily, "Stop him! Don't let him burn the Gu worm jars!"
But the Imperial Guards had already surrounded him, blocking his path. Pei Zhi drew his sword and pointed it at Xuanjizi: "Xuanjizi! You can't escape! The Imperial Guards outside have surrounded the palace three times over. Even if you break through the palace gates, you won't be able to escape!"
Xuanjizi looked at the Imperial Guards closing in, then at the Gu worms at his feet—the worms were blocked by the insect-repelling powder and couldn't crawl near him at all. He knew he was doomed, but he still refused to admit defeat: "If I can't escape, you won't get away with it either! I've planted explosives in the palace granary. As soon as I blow this whistle, the granary will explode! Three months' worth of grain for the capital will be reduced to ashes!"
He pulled a silver whistle from his pocket and brought it to his lips—if he blew it, the explosives in the granary would detonate!
"Xuanjizi! How dare you!" Ye Wanning shouted, taking out the last silver needle from her bosom and aiming it at Xuanjizi's wrist joint—the silver needle shot out with a "whoosh" and hit the hand holding the whistle!
Xuanjizi's hand went numb, and the whistle fell to the ground. He bent down to pick it up, but Pei Zhi had already rushed over and slashed his hand with his sword: "Xuanjizi! Stop struggling in vain!"
Xuanjizi clutched his hand, the excruciating pain causing cold sweat to bead on his forehead, yet he still sneered: "Even if the granary doesn't explode, you won't have an easy time! I've already sent word to the former dynasty's remnants; they'll be attacking the capital soon! When that happens, the Great Qi's empire will still fall into our hands!"
Former officials of the previous dynasty? Ye Wanning's heart sank—she had never heard Xuanjizi mention this before. Every time the topic came up, Xuanjizi's eyes were full of smugness, as if he could already see the destruction of the Great Qi. Among the things her mother left her, there was never any mention of former officials remaining from the previous dynasty. This sudden news caught her off guard.
"Stop talking nonsense! Twenty years have passed since the previous dynasty. Where would any old subordinates come from? Even if there were, the late emperor would have cleaned them up long ago!" Pei Zhi held a sword to Xuanjizi's neck.
"Clean them up?" Xuanjizi sneered, blood trickling from the corner of his mouth, yet he remained arrogant. "Back then, the late emperor only killed the royal family of the previous dynasty, but he never expected that my father had already sent the former dynasty's old subordinates to the Western Regions! Over the years, we have been secretly cultivating our power, and now we have an army of 50,000. As long as I give the order, we can attack the capital!"
Ye Wanning frowned—she knew Xuanjizi hadn't lied. That morning, a eunuch from the Western Regions vassal king reported that the Turks were mobilizing troops at the border, possibly colluding with former officials of the previous dynasty. With 50,000 troops and only 30,000 imperial guards in the capital, they simply couldn't withstand them.
"Drag him away! Keep a close watch on him!" Pei Zhi ordered the imperial guards around him, then turned to Ye Wanning and said, "We need to go see the Emperor quickly so that he can make preparations as soon as possible."
They had barely taken two steps when they heard a young eunuch scream from inside the hall: "Insects! Insects have crawled in!"
Ye Wanning turned around and saw that the Gu worms that had been blocked by the insect repellent powder had somehow bypassed the powder and were crawling into the crowd. A soldier accidentally stepped on a Gu worm, which immediately crawled onto his leg and bit him!
The imperial guard's pupils dilated instantly, his eyes turned crazed, and he raised his sword to slash at another person next to him!
"Oh no! The Gu worms are no longer afraid of the insect repellent powder!" Ye Wanning panicked, suddenly remembering what her mother's medical book said—the Soul-Devouring Gu becomes more ferocious when it encounters blood, and it is no longer afraid of insect repellent powder. The blood that flowed from Xuanjizi's shoulder just now must have driven the Gu worms mad!
"Everyone be careful! Don't get bitten by the Gu worms!" Pei Zhi shouted, deflecting the knife from the out-of-control imperial guard's hand with his sword. But more and more Gu worms crawled in, and the people in the hall panicked. Some rushed out of the hall, while others grabbed their weapons to block them.
Ye Wanning suddenly remembered another porcelain bottle left by her mother—it contained "Gu-Extinguishing Water," made from Dragon's Roar Grass and Heartbreak Flower, capable of completely killing Soul-Devouring Gu. She quickly took it out from her bosom and said to the Shadow Pavilion members beside her, "Quickly sprinkle this water out, sprinkle it in places with many Gu worms!"
The Shadow Pavilion members took the porcelain bottle, removed the stopper, and sprinkled the antidote water on the ground.
As soon as a drop of the antidote water was applied, the worms immediately curled up into a ball and died in no time. However, there was too little water in the porcelain bottle; it could only be sprinkled on a small area of the main hall. Many more worms were still crawling outside the hall, ready to rush in at any moment.
Just then, Su Zhong returned with his guards, carrying several charred jars of Gu worms. He shouted, "Second Miss! We've burned all the Gu worm jars outside! We've also killed most of the Gu worms!"
"Uncle Su, quickly help us kill these Gu worms! They're not afraid of the insect repellent powder anymore!" Ye Wanning said, pointing to the Gu worms in the hall.
Su Zhong immediately ordered his guards to bring out torches and burn all the Gu worms in the hall to death. In no time, the Gu worms in the hall were completely cleared out, and the imperial guards who had been bitten by the Gu worms were all subdued and locked in cages outside the hall.
Pei Zhi took Ye Wanning's hand and wiped the dust off her face, his voice filled with lingering fear: "Are you alright? You scared me to death just now."
"I'm fine." Ye Wanning shook her head, but her brows remained furrowed. "What should we do about the former dynasty's remnants that Xuanjizi mentioned, and those 50,000 troops?"
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