With a warehouse full of supplies, I stood alone as king in this chaotic world, gun in hand.

"Your Majesty, Prince Runing has arrived!" Eunuch Hu walked to the dragon bed and helped Emperor Mingde sit up.

"Cough cough cough..." Emperor Mingde coughed violently as soon as he moved.

Nangong Wu's expression changed slightly. "Uncle Emperor, what's wrong?"

Eunuch Hu said, "Your Highness, His Majesty suddenly fainted an hour ago. The Imperial Physician came to examine his pulse and said that His Majesty was suffering from excessive worry and needed to rest properly."

Nangong Wu saw Emperor Mingde's haggard face and lifeless eyes, a stark contrast to the one she had seen that morning, as if all his energy had been drained away.

She was startled; this was definitely not just a matter of excessive worry.

"Uncle, where do you feel unwell?"

Emperor Mingde clutched his chest, speaking weakly, "Runing, please take a look at me..."

"Okay." Nangong Wu quickly took his pulse.

Emperor Mingde shook his head at her, saying, "I am not ill."

Nangong Wu listened to his pulse and realized it sounded like he was overwhelmed with worry. "Uncle, do you know something?"

"Eunuch Hu, I have something to say to Runing. Go out and keep watch. No one is allowed to enter without my decree," Emperor Mingde instructed.

"This old servant obeys the decree." Eunuch Hu bowed and withdrew.

After the bedroom door closed again, Nangong Wu asked, "Uncle Emperor, what do you want to tell me?"

"Ru Ning, my body must be the result of something the Empress Dowager did to me."

"I placed the Empress Dowager under house arrest today, and she kept shouting that she hadn't lost yet and that I would definitely regret it..." Emperor Mingde recounted the Empress Dowager's last words to her.

"The Empress Dowager has contact with people from both the Southern and Northern Frontiers. Xuan Qingzi is also one of her people. She must have used some kind of evil magic on me, just like you."

"Then what do you want me to do?" Nangong Wu asked him.

"Didn't you manage to break Xuan Qingzi's evil magic? Help me take a look." Emperor Mingde took her hand.

"I had the news of my sudden fainting kept secret. If I really fell into the Empress Dowager's trap and let her control the court, the fate of the Western Yan Kingdom is probably about to change. Cough cough cough..." Emperor Mingde coughed again.

"Okay, please wait a moment." Nangong Wu turned and walked out of the bedchamber, whispering a few words in Li Shuang's ear.

They had originally planned to poison the Empress Dowager tonight, but given Emperor Mingde's current condition, they had no choice but to order Bei Chenyan to stop and wait until they could find out what was wrong with Emperor Mingde.

Li Shuang nodded slightly and then left in a hurry.

Nangong Wu returned to her bedchamber, closed the door, and said to Emperor Mingde:

"Uncle, I would like to examine your body, but you need to fall asleep for a while so I can cast a spell on you."

Emperor Mingde cannot afford to get into trouble now, otherwise, something uncontrollable might happen.

Putting aside the question of who the next emperor will be, if the Western Yan Kingdom really descends into chaos, their Zhenyuan Prince's Mansion will not be able to remain uninvolved, and may even find themselves doing more harm than good.

"Alright, I trust you..." Emperor Mingde now completely trusted Nangong Wu.

Nangong Wu took out a small bottle, untied the cap, and placed the bottle opening under Emperor Mingde's nose.

A while later, Emperor Mingde fell into a deep sleep.

Nangong Wu pulled the screen over and placed it in front of the dragon bed, then used her mind to send Emperor Mingde into the space.

She wanted to use a CT scan to examine Emperor Mingde's body to see if he had any Gu worms.

She first injected Emperor Mingde with an iodine-containing contrast agent.

Iodine-containing contrast agents are used to enhance the visualization of blood vessels, tissues, or lesion areas in order to clearly observe the patient's lesions.

If the parasite enters the stomach and intestines, it may not be detectable if it is mixed in with food residue.

But since the Gu worm can control people, she felt that it wouldn't enter people's stomach and intestines.

As long as the worms are not in the stomach and intestines, they can be detected in the liver, heart, lungs, brain, and other parts of the body using ultrasound, CT, MRI, and other examinations.

After working for half an hour, Nangong Wu finally managed to get Emperor Mingde out of the space and then wake him up.

As soon as Emperor Mingde woke up, he asked, "Runing, how am I? Have they found out anything wrong?"

"There is a Gu worm inside you; someone has planted a Gu worm inside you," Nangong Wu told him.

"That Gu worm must have been inside your body for a long time, but it has been in a dormant state. It was awakened today, which is why you suddenly fell into a coma."

"Gu worms? So that's how it is!" Emperor Mingde's expression changed.

He never imagined that one day he would be afflicted by that evil thing.

No wonder the Empress Dowager said those things; it turns out she had a backup plan.

"She is truly my good mother!" Emperor Mingde's face was pained, and his eyes were red.

"Uncle, now is not the time to be angry or upset," Nangong Wu advised him.

"Ru Ning, do you have a solution? What will happen if we don't remove the Gu worms?" Emperor Mingde asked her.

"Uncle, Gu worms are usually nourished by the essence and blood of the Gu keeper and then refined, or bound by spiritual power, so that the Gu worms become tools or symbionts that can be driven."

Generally speaking, the Gu worm in your body is a child Gu, which is closely related to the mother Gu. If it is not removed, you will be controlled by someone and become that person's puppet." Nangong Wu told him about the dangers of Gu worms.

"She just wants to treat me as a puppet, a marionette that only obeys her orders and has no soul of its own."

Emperor Mingde was in great pain. "Runing, help me remove the Gu worm, otherwise, if she takes control of me and the court, the Western Yan Kingdom will be in danger!"

"The Gu worm has entered your heart, and it might be difficult to remove it." Nangong Wu's expression was somewhat solemn.

In her past life, she had undergone multiple heart surgeries, including removing tumor thrombi in her heart, coronary artery bypass grafting, heart valve repair, and heart transplantation. If the worm remained motionless, she could have easily removed it with surgery.

But the insect is alive now, and it's a paralysis-resistant species; it will run around if disturbed.

Therefore, the method of cutting open the heart to remove the worm is not feasible.

"Then you must have other ideas, right?" Emperor Mingde always felt that she had a solution.

"There is a way, but we need to find a medicine to lure out the Gu worms..." Before Nangong Wu could finish speaking, she saw Emperor Mingde suddenly clutch his chest and bite his lip tightly.

"Uncle, how are you?" Nangong Wu hurriedly helped him up.

"My heart aches, and my head hurts too..." Emperor Mingde held his head in his hands again.

Judging from his expression, Nangong Wu knew that the Empress Dowager must have activated the Mother Gu again.

"Ru Ning..." Emperor Mingde raised his head, his eyes bloodshot, his gaze sharp as he looked at her.

Nangong Wu's heart sank. "Uncle, please speak."

"Ah..." Before Emperor Mingde could finish speaking, he let out another painful groan, his lips bleeding from being bitten.

He endured the pain as if fighting against the Gu worm, "Ru Ning... I might be controlled. If I do something irrational, it must be her doing... You must stop her, don't let her destroy the Western Yan Kingdom..."