Sky Curtain: The opening scene explains the four major cases of the Ming Dynasty plus the early Ming

The ruins of Nangong still emit choking black smoke.

The towering flames have been extinguished, leaving only ruins in the pre-dawn darkness, like the skeleton of a giant beast, ferocious and silent.

Hundreds of eunuchs and imperial guards, carrying torches, frantically dug through the ankle-deep ashes and scorched earth.

Their movements were filled with an almost desperate urgency.

Yu Qian, Chen Xun, and Wang Wen stood outside the ruins, their faces increasingly grim.

A night wind blew by, stirring up a cloud of dust mixed with the smell of burning, which landed on their stiff faces, but brought them no relief.

They have been standing here for a full hour.

From initial shock and suspicion, to the chilling realization that we'd been tricked, and now, all that's left is a numb wait for judgment.

"Found it! Found it!"

A hoarse shout suddenly came from deep within the ruins.

All three of them shuddered simultaneously!

They rushed forward without prior arrangement, trudging through the scorching embers.

Several eunuchs were seen carefully brushing away the ashes around a burnt-down beam.

Amidst the charred blackness, the faintly visible bright yellow stung everyone's eyes.

"It's...it's a fragment of the dragon robe!"

A trembling eunuch used fire tongs to pick up a piece of cloth that was already burned beyond recognition.

Although most of it has been burned, the dragon claw pattern embroidered with gold thread still stubbornly proclaims the identity of its owner!

Chen Xun's body swayed.

Wang Wen's lips trembled, unable to utter a sound.

Finding the dragon robe means...

"And there's more! Here... here's another charred corpse!"

From another direction, another exclamation came.

Yu Qian's heart sank to the bottom.

He strode over and saw a completely carbonized, curled-up humanoid object being dragged out from under the ruins of the collapsed palace.

The body was unrecognizable, but the melted and deformed gold hairpin remaining in her hair indicated that she was a woman.

"It's...it's Consort Wu..."

One of the eunuchs responsible for serving the Southern Palace knelt down on the ground, his face ashen, after recognizing the style of the hairpin.

Consort Wu?

Chen Xun and Wang Wen exchanged a glance, but instead of feeling relieved, they felt an even deeper chill.

A concubine died...

What about His Majesty and the Emperor Emeritus?!

"Keep searching! Dig three feet into the ground, find him for me... find him!"

Chen Xun roared in a fit of rage, his voice sharp and piercing with fear.

Time is passing by, second by second.

The darkness before dawn is the deepest.

But even deeper than the darkness of the night were the hearts of the three central leaders.

They both anticipated finding the body and feared finding it.

But what terrified them most was... that they couldn't find anything!

"Your Excellency the Grand Secretary... Your Excellency the Minister..."

After searching three times, a commander of the Imperial Guards finally came running over, covered in sweat and with tears in his eyes.

"The entire Nangong... every single ruin has been searched..."

"Besides...besides Consort Wu's remains, and some fragments of dragon robes and clothing..."

He knelt down with a thud, his voice filled with despair.

"No...no trace of His Majesty or the Emperor Emeritus has been found!"

boom!

This statement was more devastating than the fire at Nangong.

It was like an invisible giant hammer that slammed down on the tops of Yu Qian, Chen Xun, and Wang Wen!

No bodies found!

Wang Wen's vision went black, and he almost collapsed to the ground.

"Impossible! Absolutely impossible!"

He grabbed the commander's armor like a madman, his face contorted in pain.

"Such a huge fire! How could someone just vanish into thin air! You didn't search carefully enough! Go search again!"

"My lord, it's really... really all gone!" The commander was on the verge of tears.

"What about the Crown Prince?!"

Yu Qian, the Minister of War who had maintained his last shred of rationality from beginning to end, suddenly asked a question that plunged everyone into an icy abyss.

"Where is Crown Prince Zhu Jianshen?!"

Yes!

Where is the Crown Prince?!

The retired emperor's son, the future crown prince!

Last night, Empress Qian held the Crown Prince in her arms in this Southern Palace!

Everyone panicked.

They then realized that, under the immense pressure of searching for the two emperors, they had actually... neglected the most important child!

"Quickly! Go find His Highness the Crown Prince!"

Chen Xun let out a scream that sounded inhuman.

However, half an hour later.

The result was still the same...

Nothing was gained!

Empress Qian and Crown Prince Zhu Jianshen vanished without a trace, as if they had evaporated into thin air!

It’s over.

Chen Xun's body went completely limp, and he plopped down on the cold ground, his eyes lifeless.

Wang Wenze seemed to have all his strength drained away, leaning against a charred pillar, muttering to himself.

"It's gone...it's all gone..."

If the emperor's body could not be found, it would only make them suspects of "attempted regicide."

So, with even the crown prince missing, the situation has completely changed!

This is no accident!

This was a premeditated...escape!

Moreover, they fled with their legal heirs!

Yu Qian stood still, motionless.

In his mind, Zhu Dijun's words at the Fengtian Hall echoed.

"My sword will teach them how to hold a pen."

Now, he finally understood completely.

That knife wasn't aimed at an enemy.

It's "Zhu Qiyu" and "Zhu Qizhen" themselves!

With their own "death" and a massive fire, they firmly pinned an indelible crime on all of them: the crime of "monarchy and usurpation"!

They became Chengji!

They became Sima Zhao!

They became the most despicable and shameless traitors in history!

The real mastermind, however, took the crown prince and the noble cause, slipped away unnoticed, and disappeared into the darkness!

Where will he go?

What will he do?

Yu Qian dared not think any further.

All he knew was that from this night onward, the Ming Dynasty would never have a peaceful day again!

"puff--"

A mouthful of blood suddenly spurted from Yu Qian's mouth!

His tall body swayed violently. This Minister of War, who had turned the tide and protected Beijing, now resembled a gambler who had lost all his chips.

A smile that looked more like a grimace appeared on his face.

"us……"

"We've become the biggest clowns in the world..."

Just then—

"when--"

"when--"

"when--"

The distant and heavy tolling of the bells broke the silence before dawn.

That was... the court bell from the Fengtian Hall.

The bells that once represented power and authority sounded like death warrants to Yu Qian, Chen Xun, and Wang Wen at this moment!

Attending court?

What do they use to attend court?

Go tell all the officials that the Emperor and the Retired Emperor "accidentally" perished in a fire the night before they decided to "take action," leaving no trace of their bodies.

Go tell them that even the future crown prince has disappeared without a trace, neither alive nor dead.

Who will believe?

No one, not even a fool, would believe that!

Chen Xun and Wang Wen looked at Yu Qian with deathly pale faces.

Yu Qian slowly wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth.

He looked at the eastern horizon, at the pale light of dawn breaking, his eyes filled with nothing but endless emptiness and deathly stillness.

he knows.

Dawn is breaking.

And their end has come.