The High Priestess held Ning Chen's chin with one hand to keep his mouth open wide, and had two fingers of the other hand down his throat.

Ning Chen's arms and legs twitched. He felt like he was about to die.

Just when he couldn't take any more, the High Priestess let go of him and drew her two fingers out. Pinched between them was a glittering green beetle.

This was the yin gu.

You had to admit, the little thing was actually kind of pretty.

The moment the High Priestess's hands left him, Ning Chen slid off the chair onto his knees and threw up violently.

But nobody paid him any attention.

Right now, everyone was staring curiously at the yin gu in the High Priestess's hand.

After all, they saw Ning Chen every day. A chance to see a yin gu didn't come along often.

The High Priestess fished a small, delicate glazed bottle out of her cloth bag and put the yin gu inside.

Actually, it wasn't glaze. It was a glass bottle.

Glass was being put to wider and wider use in the Wu Kingdom.

The woman emperor beckoned. "Bring it here and let this emperor have a look."

The High Priestess hurriedly presented it with both hands.

The woman emperor took the glass bottle and looked at the glittering green little beetle inside. Then she shook the bottle—hard, with more than a little spite in it—and sent the little beetle bouncing off the glass every which way.

The High Priestess looked pained. The Yin-Yang Gu was the king of all gu, the kind of thing you could come across by luck but never find by looking. Even she, the future head of the Yuliu clan, had never managed to find a Yin-Yang Gu to be her life-bound gu.

To Her Majesty, perhaps, it was just a little creepy-crawly that had hurt her man. But to the people of the Yuliu clan, a Yin-Yang Gu was a treasure.

The woman emperor looked at the High Priestess. "What should be done with this thing? Stepping on it…