"Ah!"
A thick stick struck Chu Nanli's womb viciously, and a large pool of fresh blood flowed down her thighs.
"Concubine Lin Fuying is gravely ill and needs the fetus for medicine. Princess Consort, you'd better cooperate with this old servant to suffer less!"
Pinned down on the ground by a group of nannies and maids, Chu Nanli couldn't move. She lifted her head, looking in agony at the man in front of her dressed in a dark-colored brocade robe, exuding supreme dignity.
This man was the War God Ye Yunting, commanding both respect and fear in the court; he was also the man she had loved for three years.
"Aye, can you really be so heartless?"
"Yingying's illness is critical," Ye Yunting said with an indifferent expression, looking down at Chu Nanli with irritation. "If you're sensible, just cooperate."
"Ye Yunting, this is your child too! She's three months old and already has a heartbeat; how can you be so heartless!" Chu Nanli covered her stomach, her eyes filled with sorrow and despair.
"Only Yingying can bear my child. Chu Nanli, your child does not deserve to live!" Ye Yunting's sinister gaze was almost murderous.
"Continue until the fetus is dislodged!"
"No!" Chu Nanli instinctively protected her abdomen, but the next moment, the vicious nanny Hua pried open her bloodied hands and struck her womb mercilessly with the heavy stick.
Chu Nanli felt so much pain that her scalp went numb, yet it was nothing compared to the heartache. The vivid life inside her was slipping away…
Until a flesh-like clot of blood fell from between her legs, Ye Yunting glanced at the filthy object with disgust, "Take it away, instruct the kitchen to prepare some tonic for the Princess Consort."
"No, don't take away my child!"
Chu Nanli was down to her last breath; she mustered all her strength, trying to crawl towards the direction Ye Yunting had gone, only to be held down by nanny Hua.
"Princess Consort, don't chase after him. Your child, just like you, is worthless! Even if it had lived, it would have had no good life. Better to contribute to the Concubine's illness," nanny Hua mocked.
Chu Nanli bit her lip so hard that regret mixed with tears and blood, spilling like a broken dam onto the ground.
She regretted, that three years ago, just because of a promise from Ye Yunting, she had gone against her family's wishes, hiding her identity as the Goddess of Chu Kingdom and marrying far into Xia Kingdom.
She hated, Ye Yunting betrayed his initial vows, treated her with cold disdain, and even personally caused the loss of their child for the sake of Concubine Lin Fuying.
"Child, it is your mother who has wronged you!"
A single teardrop of blood slid down Chu Nanli's cheek. Now, all she could do was to bury her child, refusing to let its tiny body suffer the agony of decoction…
Enduring the intense pain all over, she tried to stand up desperately, only to be flipped onto the ground by a slap the next second.
Nanny Hua held Chu Nanli down and slapped her several times in succession.
"Slut, on the brink of death and you still try to ruin the Concubine's good fortune!"
As nanny Hua spoke, she pulled out a fire starter.
"Chu Yingyue, you are but a lowly commoner from Chu Kingdom, yet you didn't know your place and usurped the position of Princess Consort for so long. Our Concubine is the daughter of the Prime Minister, skilled in poetry and painting since childhood; why should she be beneath you?"
"I might as well tell you that Concubine Lin Fuying is not actually ill; your mistake was merely getting in her way—so die!"
Nanny Hua lit the curtain and left. Chu Yingyue's consciousness began to blur; she didn't hear clearly what nanny Hua had said, only remembering that sentence, Concubine Lin Fuying is not actually ill!
She had been blind! Initially, she had brought Lin Fuying into the residence, treating her like a sister, even using her own dowry to treat her illness, only to end up with both herself and her child being sentenced to death!
"Cough—"
Overcome by hatred, Chu Nanli coughed out a mouthful of blood. Below the thick smoke, she felt like she was about to suffocate.
In the second before her consciousness faded, she bit the tip of her tongue and using her blood, drew the ancient curse from the legends of Chu Kingdom.
"I, the Goddess of Chu Kingdom, Chu Nanli, today I summon the gods using my blood as the medium and my soul as the sacrifice, with my death as the appeal."
"First wish: may my child rest in peace, find a better life in their next birth, and not encounter an incompetent mother like me."
"Second wish: may those who harmed me suffer unbearably, with tears of heartache, and meet a bitter end!"
"Third wish..." Chu Nanli's lips curled into a bitter smile, "Third wish, may Ye Yunting never obtain true love, may everything he desires elude him, living a life of gloomy despair!"
Boom—
The sky suddenly cracked with several peals of thunder as the stars began to align…
"Why has the weather suddenly changed…"
"Never mind that, let's hurry up and go!"
Unnoticed by anyone, the seven stars began to form a special totem…