(End of explanation)
“You should also feel that something is wrong. If you want to kill her, you can start with the food she’s been eating these past few days. The fact that you’ve gone to such lengths means there must be something more tempting to her.” Chen Zhuangmu said as she dressed, speaking confidently about her idea.
Zhao Yi grabbed the thing in her hand and said, "Do you know what she did before? In the past, Miao territory was divided into two factions: poison doctors and poison healers. She was the successor of the poison Gu technique!"
Upon hearing this, Chen Zhuangmu was at a loss for words. Neither of them would put down the garment. After a long while, Chen Zhuangmu raised an eyebrow, "Will you put it down or not?"
"..."
"...You, come back quickly." After thinking for a moment, Zhao Yi released his sleeve.
Miao territory and Hui capital are not far apart, yet they are worlds apart.
Compared to other regions, Miao territory is like a piece of land embedded in the map. Whether it's the climate, the culture, or even the prisons, it's different from other places.
The prisons in Miao territory were also made of mud, with patterns on them representing different social classes. Uya belonged to the highest class.
She walked to the outermost room, and before she even stepped inside, she was hit by an overwhelming stench that clung to her clothes, making it impossible to cover her nose.
Chen Zhuangmu braced herself and went inside, but after taking two or three steps she realized it was too much and had to take out a handkerchief to cover her mouth and nose before continuing forward.
The cells here were different from those in Huijing; they were clean and tidy, but the surroundings were soaked, until she heard screams of agony.
"Ah...ah!" This suppressed cry of pain clearly indicated that the person making the sound was suffering greatly. Chen Zhuangmu removed her handkerchief and hid it in her sleeve.
Walking further in, she saw Wuya. She could recognize her because of the mosquito and fly hair ornament on her head, which was the only part of her body not covered by the Gu worms.
Chen Zhuangmu took out the insect repellent powder she had asked Miao Xin for beforehand from her sleeve, shook it, and sprinkled it all over Wuya's body. The insects all disappeared from her body, and in an instant, she gradually revealed her original appearance from being surrounded by black.
Chen Zhuangmu was prepared to be mocked, but the person just stared at her intently with a strange look in her eyes, which contained both pity and struggle.
"You pity me?" Chen Zhuangmu couldn't stand seeing such a look directed at her.
Uya chuckled, a helpless laugh, and said softly, "I've seen you before, in many ways."
The woman behind the heavy makeup remained silent.
“When I saw you, your eyes were closed.” Uya looked at her with a complicated expression and continued, “I escaped from the palace; I’m the sorcerer who cast the spell on you three years ago.” She paused, “And I’m also the sorcerer who’s currently removing the spell from you.”
"Thump! Thump! Thump!" Chen Zhuangmu could clearly hear her own heartbeat growing louder and louder, until she could barely hear anything else: "What do you mean?"
Uya was lost in her own thoughts, or perhaps considering how to tell the story.
She thought and thought for a while before finally saying, "Your uncle should already be searching for me. I am the sorcerer who cast the curse on you three years ago."
Chen Zhuangmu's breathing slowed down considerably. She took a few steps forward, now only a few railings separating her from Wuya, eager to learn more from her.
“Go on,” Chen Zhuangmu said.
Upon hearing this, Uya looked at the bars in front of her and the cage inside. She smiled faintly at her, made no demands, and said, "Let me tell you about myself."
After saying that, she brushed away the small insects lying on the ground and calmly sat down.
"I was born into the Poison Gu sect in the Miao village, which you've probably heard of. But in the year I was born, the Poison Gu sect was already thinking about giving up." She suddenly looked up at Chen Zhuangmu, but seeing no pity in her eyes, she quickly lowered her head again.
“I was taught to save people from a young age. Later, someone slaughtered the Poison Gu Sect and the suppression of the Miao people became more and more rampant. I had no choice but to escape from the village, and that's when I met the people from the palace who were looking for me.”
“They said they were looking for directions, but they were actually looking for a wizard. I was too young to tell the difference. When they saw how familiar I was with the place, they decided to kidnap me and take me back to the palace.”
“They coerced and bribed me, threatened my life, and before long, I couldn’t bear the pain anymore and put a curse on you. I vaguely remember that day was your birthday.” This time she didn’t look up.
Strangely, Chen Zhuangmu seemed unmoved. She touched her heart but felt nothing. Instead, she was filled with disbelief and asked, "How can you prove what you're saying is true?"
She sighed heavily. "Sigh. Do you even need to ask? You haven't actually gone anywhere else to see a doctor. You've always been staying in a small courtyard in the woods of Huijing. Every month on the fifteenth, I would brew you a bowl of medicine, originally to cast a spell. After about a year and a half, the Emperor actually ordered me to remove the spell from you." She tilted her head at Chen Zhuangmu, a smile playing on her lips. "Besides, before I cast the spell on you, I discovered you had already been poisoned. This poison has been there for at least seven or eight years." After she finished speaking, a look of relief appeared on her face.
It was as if, as long as she voiced her guilt, everything would vanish like smoke in the wind.
But for Zhuangmu, every word she uttered was a testament to her life experiences. She realized she couldn't hold on any longer, so she quickly jotted down what Zhuangmu had said. Just as she was about to ask her something, she took a step back.
"What exactly do you want? The person who cast the curse on me tampered with the process of removing it. Now you're pitifully telling me about your experience. If you were just wasting your breath on something you didn't want, that's just nonsense, isn't it?" Whenever Shen Zhuangmu was trying to extract information or interrogate someone, her voice would always be lowered unconsciously.
"Fine, I can hold out for a while, that should be enough to go back and seek revenge." Chen Zhuangmu said, turning to leave.
"You'd better stop acting." Uya's emotionless voice came from inside, her expression cold, as if she hadn't been the one complaining just moments before.
"I want the position of chief of the Miao village." Only when she said this did a hint of genuine warmth appear in her eyes. "I'm more than ten years older than this kid, and I've worked tirelessly to revitalize the Miao village, while he's actually calling his enemy brother..."
Uya poured out her grievances and cursed the unfair treatment she had received all along, but Chen Zhuangmu just smiled faintly. Uya felt uneasy, as if this person was taking pleasure in her pain.
"If you want to be the clan leader, why don't you make the vessel for the Gu worms yourself?" Chen Zhuangmu found people who liked to reap without sowing disgusting, so she simply stabbed them where it hurt.
Uya rolled her eyes and said disdainfully, "Do you think just anyone is qualified? He is the chieftain's child, possessing the most unique bloodline. Ordinary people would only die." As she spoke, she pushed herself up from the ground and said, "The poison in your body has penetrated deep into your bone marrow, but the Gu that old emperor had me use on you is also the most sacred in the world. It is only because of the two that you survived."
The usually sharp-tongued Chen Zhuangmu fell silent upon hearing these words. She seemed to be numb with pain, her mind buzzing, but she instinctively asked, "What was the purpose of the herbal soup given on the fifteenth of each month for the past three years? When did you begin the detoxification process?"
“Hmm… The medicinal soup from the fifteen earths every year is actually not very toxic. It just creates a more suitable environment for the Gu worms to live in your body. You can’t live without it, and it can’t live without you.” Wuya thought for a while. “As for properly removing the Gu from you, it was in April or May last year.”
Last April or May? That was right when she had just joined the Dali Temple.
She seemed to have forgotten about Uya, preoccupied with her own thoughts, but the more she thought about it, the more her head ached. This was something that seemed impossible to her, yet it had actually happened to her.
Why did the emperor poison her and use witchcraft on her?
A strong sense of disgust suddenly rose in Shen Zhuangmu's heart. She didn't want to find out anything about these events; she just wanted to see the emperor die.
"I agree to your request. How do I do it?"
Wuya was startled by the coldness in Chen Zhuangmu's voice, but since it was someone else's business, she didn't care and said, "First spread the word that the clan is going to change its clan leader. I will remove the curse from you two. When I'm almost done, I will hand it over to Miao Xin and then I will finish removing the curse from you."
“Okay.” Chen Zhuangmu lowered her head.
Without pausing, she turned and walked out. She found Zhao Yi by memory; he and Miao Xin were discussing something inside. Seeing her return, they both stood up.
"Is it resolved?" Miao Xin asked.
Chen Zhuangmu nodded and said, "Yes. She said she wants to set up the antidote chamber as soon as possible so she can start, but her requirement is that you become the clan leader."
"Huh?" Miao Xin frowned, suddenly raised his head and looked at the two of them from left to right, then lowered his eyes and said, "Okay, I understand." Anyone with eyes could see that he was trying his best to hide his discomfort.
Chen Zhuangmu walked over and patted his shoulder, saying gently, "You go out first, I need to talk to your brother about something."
Miao Xin felt even more aggrieved. She forced back her sobs, nodded, and slowly walked out, closing the door behind her.
Zhao Yi had a vague feeling that something was wrong with Chen Zhuangmu. She seemed to be floating around, and she had a kind of resoluteness that she had never shown before.
"Zhuangmu, don't scare me. What's wrong?" Zhao Yi asked first, and when she didn't answer, he went over to her.
He took her hands in his, gently rubbed her face with his palms, and said, "Tell me about it."
She removed his hand from her veil, pulled her arm behind his back, and hugged him tightly.
She felt a pain in her throat and eyes, and wanted to cry but didn't have the strength.
She gasped softly and whispered, "Qingzi, that sorcerer said that it was she who scared me with the Gu poison. When she cast the Gu on me three years ago, she discovered that I had been poisoned for seven or eight years."
A tear seemed to well up in her eye, relieving the dryness but making the pain worse.
"I'm going to kill him. Qingzi, remember this, I'm going to kill him!" Chen Zhuangmu withdrew from Zhao Yi's embrace. Zhao Yi felt heartache seeing the hatred in her eyes and could only reply, "Okay."
The two of them sat on the bed, Zhao Yi holding the heavy dressing table, neither of them speaking. Normally, whenever there was anything that needed to be done outside, Zhao Yi would never ask anyone to do it, but today he was unusually unmoved.
The wind stopped, the sun went down, and everything fell into darkness. In this fleeting evening, the antidote chamber was rebuilt.
The news of the change of clan leader has spread throughout the village. In Miao territory, bloodline is highly valued, but if a blood cross is drawn between the pulse points, the blood will mix and the person can gradually pass through each day.
It's unclear whether Zhao Yichen knew about this matter, but the two of them agreed to go without asking Miao Xin how to change the clan leader.
Normally, Shen Zhuangmu and Zhao Yi would talk a lot before going to bed, and she would hold Zhao Yi's hand on the ground to rest. But today, neither of them mentioned anything, and they just sat there all night.
As dawn broke, the two got out of bed and went to the antidote room, where they found most people gathered together. Miao Xin was also standing next to the antidote room, eating from a broken bowl, but he wasn't as impatient as before.
"It's all set up." He gestured with his chin toward the antidote chamber and added, "I've separated the two of you. Let's get started."
This time, the task of removing the Gu not only involves trying to eliminate the Gu near Shen Zhuangmu's heart, but also dealing with their Lian Sheng Gu. The Lian Sheng Gu is not a problem for the time being, but it will worsen over time.
The two of them were not allowed to have breakfast and followed the signs into the dismissal room.
Uya was released from prison at this time. She deliberately tugged at her sleeve, trying to cover up the large and small wounds from the Gu worm bites.
Miao Xin couldn't understand what Wu Ya was thinking. Even if he transferred the clan leader position to her, what difference would it make? He was just no longer qualified to be the clan leader, but only he could cast the purest Gu.
Uya didn't even look at him, seemingly not taking this little brat seriously. She went straight to the firing room and made two cuts between Shen Zhuangmu and Zhao Yi's pulse points.
The difference is that there was another cut on Chen Zhuangmu's arm.
Uya added different things to the two people's dismissal room, and with the heat emanating from it, the surrounding environment became scorching hot.
They both felt a rush of blood, as if something was trapped inside them and wanted to burst out. But just like that, the feeling was forcibly extinguished.
"Replace the clan leader!"
It seems the process of removing the curse is more than halfway complete, and Wuya has started doing her own things.
Chen Zhuangmu suddenly opened her eyes and was about to rush out of the door when she suddenly saw a fleshy black worm wriggling on the cut on her arm. Perhaps it was touched by the cold, and it was constantly shrinking back inside.
Suddenly, it couldn't move.
It was grabbed by two hands and pulled outwards, the Gu worm carrying Shen Zhuangmu's blood and flesh, which she then ruthlessly threw to the ground.
She had no intention of letting Miao Xin transfer the clan chief to her!
She tried to stand up, but she didn't have the strength. She gritted her teeth and forced herself to take a step. Suddenly, she didn't know where the strength came from, but she swung open the door in front of her and rushed towards Uya!
Uya watched helplessly as Chen Zhuangmu raised her arm, the dark hole in the hidden weapon aimed directly at her vital point. But before she could even be shocked, she was stabbed in the shoulder by a dagger and staggered.
Everyone stared blankly at the scene, and the two who came out of the antidote room looked at each other in astonishment.
"Zhao Yi?!"
"Makeup curtain?"
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