Gu

'Kill this Emperor behind me.'

Xiu Rong tilted her head back to accommodate the momentum of her life force coming out of her mouth as her open palms faced the leafy canopies of the wisteria trees.

As she continued to chant in a murmur, the life force Xiu Rong released to feed the 'gu' became stronger as they formed into silver-blue orbs—the same color as the moon.

She picked one dried leaf and crushed them in her hand out of impatience.

The Emperor shouldn't figure out that she intended to kill him rather than the Crown Prince.

The 'gu' should come out from the dead frog's form quick as lightning.

In her eyes, the remaining trees seemed to grow taller than before as its thick branches and canopies bent towards the most ancient Wisteria as if it was the center of their world—as if it was the chosen Emperor of the groves of Wisteria around the vicinity.

Her eyebrows knitted in a scowl when they paid their respects to the ancient Wisteria because it also made Xiu Rong feel trapped in a dark prison of trees closing in on her, making her feel like she couldn't escape and come out alive.

Her sole mission was to survive the aftermath of killing the Emperor, who had the same Ancestral Spirit as the Crown Prince.

Xiu Rong halted chanting the spell after giving the required life force the 'gu' need to fulfill her command.

She waited as all the groves' roots came alive as it crawled into the spot where she buried the 'gu'.

The evil spirit she attached from the dead creature came out in a swirling gray apparition.

After it swallowed her precious life force —the glowing silver-blue orbs floating in the air, the 'gu's truest form manifested in front of her as hazy white mists clung to his claws and feet, bounding the dangerous entity to the earth.

At last.

As Xiu Rong stared at the form which the 'gu' assumed, she still wasn't getting used to seeing its ugly head no matter how many times she summoned them equivalent to the number of traitors, rebels who had nothing to lose, deceptive aristocrats, and usurpers of the throne.

The truest form of the 'gu' was a monster with a greenish tint with long and thick hairs on the expanse of their skin and long sharp claws.

Its balding head was in the shape of an egg with four pointy ears on the front and the back, dry wrinkles sagging on its forehead, and white and curved fangs at both the top and bottom of its mouth.

Its nose looked like a large tomato with two decent holes.

Sharp spikes aligning on its scaly spine.

Wait a minute.

They didn't count as creatures because they are demons who inflict curses from the people who knew how to utilize black magic to gain revenge.

As the 'gu' tilted his head towards the Emperor, she realized it was the ugliest creature alive.

It was a daily reminder of how horrible she was for feeding this demon a tiny bit of her life force before allowing him to devour the victim's soul.

As Xiu Rong regarded the demon with an impatient stare, the Emperor blocked her sight of the monstrous apparition when he bent forward.

At the same time, she glanced up at him, her eyes moving back and forth to the Emperor and the 'gu' who watched the two of them with mild interest.

Their eyes met, and Xiu Rong wished she could immediately turn the Emperor into stone.

"Did the 'gu' come out already?" The Emperor yelled at her as he looked for the apparition in the air." Nobody could see the evil demon unless the person was a shaman or someone who carried a shamanic bloodline like the Crown Prince. "Did the 'gu' tell you that he already killed the Crown Prince?"

Xiu Rong rolled her eyes behind her deer skull mask for the nth time tonight.

'Annoying Emperor! I want you to drop dead.' She spat strongly in her mind, pouring all her hatred in her prayers as her hand clutched her drawstring bag.

Her lips pulled back as she bared her teeth, and she glowered at it. 'Hurry up and kill the Emperor, gu.'

She wasn't sure if her intimidation would work since she wore a mask. 'Don't fail me.'

Giving her an obedient nod, the sickening green monster parted its lips until its mouth stretched so wide and devoured the Emperor whole in one go.

Xiu Rong wasn't used to this attack because she was used to having her enemy from a distance, so she didn't have to see the 'gu' kill her victims in horrifying action.

Everything happened so quickly that the Emperor had no time to scream in the silence of the night.

As the elder shamans say, there was more than one way to skin a cat.

The closest thing she witnessed from a 'gu's short-range attack was during that time when the Emperor forced her to torture a young leader of a rising rebellion.

She was still traumatized at the sight of the evil spirit she summoned that afternoon in the dungeons as it forcibly inserted its claws inside the rebel's mouth and ripped it open so that it could reach the depth of its soul before pulling it up and shoving it into its own sharp jaws to consume.

Xiu Rong knew the Emperor was dead.

There was no way the bastard was still alive as the 'gu' took its sweet, sweet time to chew the Emperor's bones in a satisfying crunch that made her happy enough to dance in the forest alone until the sun rose.

The 'gu' didn't like the taste of the Emperor's yellow robes.

It gagged and spat it to the ground, and the flies immediately rested their dirty little legs on it.

A minute later, the 'gu' burped loudly in front of her skull deer mask.

Even if she didn't dare breathe, XiuRong could smell the rotten aroma of dead bodies in its mouth.

Ew.

But, it was alright.

She can endure that as long as her Master was dead.

An unfamiliar voice stopped herself from smiling in victory, "How dare you kill my descendant?"