Kill The Crown Prince

Just her luck, the moon was large, full and bright, casting a soft silver-blue light to illuminate their path.

Xiu Rong got out of her secret chamber specifically made by the Emperor as he trailed after her.

The sound of the Emperor's footsteps as he noisily dragged his shoes on the reddish-brown cobblestone stood out from the chirping of the crickets.

Throwing a glance over her shoulder as quick as her heavy deer skull would allow, Xiu Rong gritted her teeth in anger when she saw the Emperor in his yellow dragon robes, strolling in the quiet courtyard with his protruding stomach.

The Emperor placed both of his hands in his back as he glanced around the palace before meeting her gaze.

When the old, balding Emperor noticed her eyes on her, the bastard had the nerve to give a lascivious grin with his crooked front teeth.

He jutted his chin in arrogance.

"What is it, shaman?" He stopped in his tracks as he raised a mocking eyebrow, "Do you plan to take your words back and choose the guillotine?"

'The Emperor wasn't afraid about the possibility that the spell might backfire.' Xiu Rong mused. 'He must have trusted me enough that I wouldn't betray him."

"No, Your Highness." She shook her head slightly at the delusional Emperor who believed that he was God's gift to women when he smiled like that. "I am just making sure that you are still following me."

She didn't forget about the time the Emperor asked her to be his concubine in hopes that he would gain more control over her, but Xiu Rong bowed her head beneath her feet and politely refused.

At least, the Emperor believed the logic behind her reason.

"I didn't want you and our future descendants to be tainted with misfortunes because of my cursed victims' revenge—the people who you asked me to kill, You're Highness." Xiu Rong whimpered in regret. "We are a doomed couple from the start." Suppose their thirty-eight-year age gap was any indication.

"We are star-crossed lovers. You're Highness." Xiu Rong had shed crocodile tears at night the ancient bastard proposed. "Maybe, on our next life."

Her soul was already damned for playing a death goddess among the people in this Earthly Realm, so it would also be impossible for her to bear him a child.

Xiu Rong struggled to explain this to the Emperor in a straight face.

It was one of those times where she was grateful for the deer skull on her face.

At least, she could hide her disgust from the Emperor, who thought she was insanely in love with him. Nevertheless, the old man transferred her from the Palace of Earthly Tranquility, where the shamans (all of them were women) lived, to the Palace of Heavenly Tranquility, where the Emperor stayed.

She didn't understand she and the Emperor lived right next to each other on the Palace of Heavenly Tranquility when there wasn't anything heavenly about an evil master and his assassin.

The Emperor provided her with a secret chamber right next to his for easy access—just in case he decided to kill someone and tell her about it before he fell asleep.

Occupying the Palace of Heavenly Tranquility was a better choice for her, so the 'gu' she will summon would not destroy the pure spirits summoned from the Palace of Earthly Tranquility because her fellow shaman's work was important for the Kingdom's prosperity.

It shouldn't be taken lightly.

Xiu Rong agreed with the Emperor that she should be taken from the premises.

Her lips curled in distaste as she turned her attention ahead of her.

She let out a short gasp as her hand flew to her chest in surprise, her heart beating so fast she swore she almost had a heart attack.

The Ancestral Spirit Guardian of the Crown Prince materialized in front of her as they stared at each other in the skin craters where her eyes should be as pools of blood dripped on her down-turned mouth, a poor imitation of a frown.

She glanced down at her soiled feet. A vision of the reddish-brown cobblestone of the courtyard when she glanced at the Emperor flashed through his mind.

It was the same blood flooding from the Ancestral Spirit's mouth.

As her knees weakened at the horrid image, Xiu Rong halted in her tracks before she could take another step.

"Sha—mannnnnn." The Ancestral Spirit hissed like a snake, and like all snakes, Xiu Rong muscles went rigid when its forked tongue flicked on the holes of her deer skull mask that she almost let out a scream that would stir the entire Kingdom into a panic.

She clenched her fists and fought the urge to do that, allowing the Ancestral Spirit's wet sharp tongue to lick her closed lids. "Don'ttt followwww theee Emperor'sss orderrrssss byyy killinggg myyyy favoriteeeee descendaaanttt. I willll helppp youuuu outttt offff yourr curseeee withhhh yourrrr ownnn guuu."

Xiu Rong responded by raising her hands and waving them above her head blindly, driving the Ancestral Spirit like it was a pesky fly.

The last thing she heard from it was an annoyed grunt before it disappeared into puffs of smoke.

She blinked and coughed as her hands fluttered around the mist.

Xiu Rong and the Emperor continued walking towards the twisting pathways of the Imperial Gardens, passing by twenty pavilions as it harmonized well with the rock gardens, flowerbeds and human-made waterfalls and ponds.

Xiu Rong was surprised that they hadn't met anyone on their way to the most ancient wisteria she could find at the Imperial Gardens as if there were no other people in the Forbidden Kingdom aside from her and the Emperor.

She lowered the strings of her red silk bag and carefully settled it on the ground so that nothing would break by accident.

Xiu Rong made quick work of opening the drawstrings and brought out the jar she had taken from the cabinet, containing the dead creatures she had preserved in her jar where she attached the 'gu' using black magic spells.

She didn't open the glass jar yet when she wasn't ready to activate the curse.

Xiu Rong pulled out a compass from her bag and located the 'West' direction of the ancient wisteria so that the curse she would unleash wouldn't backfire on her.

'West' was the direction that would enhance her luck.

In this line of work as a black shaman, she needed all the luck she could get.

Any minute she could die for the Emperor.

Kneeling on the fallen dried leaves, Xiu Rong didn't bother checking whatever the Emperor was doing as she proceeded to dig a hole at the exact point and alignment in the direction of the West.

She had to get this over with while there wasn't anyone watching this diabolical act of hers.

She opened the glass jar containing the preserved frogs and picked one with a stick her hand found.

The rotten corpse smell so bad that her watery eyes threatened to roll at the back of her head.

How much more if she breathes?

Gagging, Xiu Rong dropped it immediately to the hole, closed the lid of her 'gu' so tight that she probably couldn't open it again and shoved the items back to her drawstring bag.

Still holding her breath, Xiu Rong hurriedly covered the 'gu' with the soil and dry leaves before she prayed.

She could feel the Emperor's presence crouching behind her to check out what she was doing, breathing down her neck.

The Emperor murmured, "Did it work?"

The crickets' chirping went silent, and the wind stopped blowing against the trees' branches surrounding them.

Nothing moved.

'Gu.' Xiu Rong commanded. 'Kill this Emperor behind me.'