"No wonder I'm so bold. To be honest, I didn't expect to meet you, the Holy Maiden, before I came. I thought you'd been busy looking for the token. I never imagined you'd become the Holy Maiden so brazenly just with your silver tongue."
As they performed the ritual, the two were sizing each other up with their words. In the end, because Yu Wenshan was still worried about not having the token, and here in the Yu Wen family, she wasn't the undisputed choice for the Holy Maiden as the rumors outside said. So she gave up the idea of going to the Grand Elder to report and expose Si Junlin, the Queen of the Jin Kingdom.
But she was really too angry to just let Si Junlin go like this. After all, she had failed twice. She hated this extremely cunning Queen of the Jin Kingdom to the core, and there was nothing she could do about her. And today, she had even come here on her own initiative. In the Jin Kingdom, it was understandable that she couldn't deal with her when she went to launch a sneak attack. But today, on her own turf, how could she let her go so easily?
"The Queen needs to jump over this brazier. Remember, your feet mustn't touch the fire. After that, you need to catch a larva of the gu worm from the jar on the altar in front and eat it."
What a strange rule. It was simply disgusting. Catch a gu worm and eat it? Were all the Southern Border Queens in previous generations such bug - eating monsters? Didn't they find it disgusting? Naturally, Si Junlin was resistant in her heart.
"What? Doesn't the Queen know the principle of 'when in Rome, do as the Romans do'?" Seeing that Si Junlin didn't move, Yu Wenshan quickly urged her.
"I warn you not to play any tricks. I'm the Queen you've invited with great difficulty. If anything happens and the Jin Kingdom blames us, you'll be the sinner of the Southern Border."
After Si Junlin finally managed to eat the worm with great difficulty, Yu Wenshan laughed extremely arrogantly. "If I let you, a spy from the Jin Kingdom, stay in the Southern Border Palace, then I'd really be the sinner of the Southern Border."
Sure enough, Si Junlin began to have a sharp abdominal pain. That worm was by no means a young gu worm. It must have been a trick played by Yu Wenshan, a vicious gu worm prepared in advance.
But at this moment, she had left Su Wan'er alone in the sleeping chamber. She herself was now weak and unable to exert any strength. Yu Wenshan had sent everyone away. Now the hall was empty. It seemed that Yu Wenshan was just happily watching Si Junlin being isolated and helpless. So she wasn't in a hurry to kill her. Instead, she laughed extremely arrogantly there, watching Si Junlin cover her abdomen in intense pain and couldn't help moaning.
"Hahaha. Aren't you, the Queen of the Jin Kingdom, very powerful? I've never seen such an unruly woman like you. You're already a queen, but you still dare to run onto the battlefield and act recklessly, wounding tens of thousands of our Southern Border recruits! And now you even come to the palace. Do you really think I can't do anything to you?"
Yu Wenshan had originally been unable to succeed in assassinating Si Junlin for the first time because she was tricked by Su Wan'er. She was also seriously injured and had to flee. She hated Su Wan'er so much that she gnashed her teeth. Now that Si Junlin had fallen into her hands, naturally she wanted to make her life a living hell.
"Get out of the way! Where's the Queen?!" A scolding voice came from outside. "Why are all of you outside? What's the Queen doing inside?"
Suddenly, Qing Cao's scolding came. Then Su Wan'er also came in and blamed the maids.
Si Junlin heard it, and Yu Wenshan naturally heard it too.
"How dare you! You even brought the Emperor of the Jin Kingdom here. You're going too far! Do you think you can just come and go as you like in our Southern Border Palace?" So she accelerated the speed of her spell - casting. Soon, Si Junlin was caught in another even more intense pain. This pain was so excruciating that it seemed to be taking her life.
At this moment, she finally experienced the insidious and cruel nature of the Southern Border's gu art. At this moment, it wasn't just a matter of life and death. She felt as if she had fallen into hell. "Wan'er," Si Junlin murmured Su Wan'er's name. At this moment, her mind was already getting fuzzy. She knew that Su Wan'er was outside, but she just couldn't call out. She could only weakly hold on to prevent herself from fainting and keep chanting Su Wan'er's name over and over again.
Finally, Su Wan'er felt that something was really wrong, so she rushed in regardless. When she came in, she saw such a scene. Yu Wenshan thought the spell - casting was too slow, so she directly reached out and grabbed Si Junlin's neck.
Su Wan'er kicked her away with one foot. But when she saw that Si Junlin was covering her stomach, she knew that Yu Wenshan must have not only attacked her physically but also cast a spell.
Su Wan'er immediately took off her bracelet, but Yu Wenshan pounced on her desperately, trying her best to tear the bracelet apart.
"You crazy woman! Get away from our young lady!" Seeing Yu Wenshan pouncing on Su Wan'er, Qing Cao naturally stepped forward to fight against her.
But a seemingly critical remark made Yu Wenshan notice something strange. This little girl was clearly the maid of the Queen of the Jin Kingdom, but now she had come here with the Emperor of the Jin Kingdom, and she even called Su Wan'er "young lady".
Yu Wenshan knew that she couldn't fight against these three people alone. And now in this holy temple, on the surface, she was bullying the Queen during the ritual. So she chose to escape.
"How are you? Are you okay? Where does it hurt?" After using the bracelet to draw out the gu worm, Si Junlin finally fainted there due to physical exhaustion. Su Wan'er didn't care about the ritual of the Queen's blessing. She quietly asked Qing Cao to lead the others away and then helped Si Junlin back to the palace. It was a while later that Si Junlin just woke up.
"It hurts! Everywhere hurts!" Si Junlin's face was extremely distorted, showing how intense the pain was. Su Wan'er just rubbed the parts Si Junlin pointed to. But the pain didn't seem to ease much. Instead, Si Junlin seemed to be in more and more pain, and her whole face was wrinkled up.
"What on earth is going on? How many worms did she feed you?" Could it be that the gu worms hadn't been completely removed? Why was she still in so much pain? Su Wan'er tried with the bracelet for a while, but she didn't find any movement. But Si Junlin still kept crying out in pain, asking her to rub here and there.
After a while, Su Wan'er finally came to her senses. "Si Junlin?! Are you doing this on purpose?"
As the saying goes, "know when to stop while you're ahead." Si Junlin naturally knew that Su Wan'er had understood, so she immediately changed her words. "It doesn't hurt anymore. It doesn't hurt anymore. Your rubbing really helps. Now the pain has eased a lot."
Nonsense. "Qing Cao is still outside keeping watch. You were secretly brought here from the temple where the Queen was performing the ritual. How can you still play such a joke? If others find out, it'll be a big violation of the rules." Su Wan'er was really angry. The people of the Southern Border were so enthusiastic about holding this and that ceremony for the Queen, but Si Junlin was still pretending to be in pain here.
"Yes. How are you now?"