The Queen gave a soft laugh after she finished speaking.
She raised her hand and lightly tapped her index finger against the air.
There was only the faintest sound.
"Tap."
As though she had tapped a cup.
The next moment.
"Urgh-!"
A female official suddenly doubled over.
She clutched her throat with both hands, her knees slamming into the floor. Something seemed to have lodged in her throat; her mouth hung open, but all she could manage was a short, muffled groan.
Thud!
Then came the next.
The second, the third.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
A string of dull impacts spread from the imperial table all the way to the hall doors.
The female officials and palace maids in the hall shuddered violently almost in unison, then collapsed in swaths.
One knocked over a low table with her shoulder; another lost her grip on a wine jug.
Crash! Porcelain shattered.
The Grand Tutor, standing at the very front, turned deathly pale in an instant.
She staggered a step sideways and instinctively reached for the Queen.
"Your Majesty..."
Only half the words escaped before her legs gave out.
Bam!
Clutching her throat, the Grand Tutor dropped heavily to her knees as well.
An exceedingly thin, bluish-black mark bulged out from beneath her collar and crept up the blood vessels along the side of her neck.
The Grand Tutor clenched her teeth, cold sweat quickly beading on her forehead. She tried to lift her head, but the moment her neck straightened, those fine, bluish-black threads abruptly surged upward.
Her body shuddered at once, and she could only bow down again.
Xuanzang immediately swept his gaze across the hall.
Everyone was the same, as though living creatures were slowly wriggling beneath their flesh.
The hall was no longer quiet. Wave after wave of agonized