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

Zhu Dijun's cold, hard concluding remarks echoed in the live stream.

The myriad worlds and timelines fell into a long period of deathly silence.

There was no angry roar.

There was no sound of anything being smashed or broken.

All the emperors were processing this extremely absurd yet incredibly real ending.

The era of Hongwu in the Ming Dynasty.

The sound of the water clock inside the Fengtian Hall could be clearly heard.

Zhu Yuanzhang sat on the large dragon throne.

His back was slightly hunched.

The founding emperor, who had spent his life in bloodshed and crawled out of mountains of corpses and seas of blood, showed no anger on his face at this moment.

There was only a deep weariness and sorrow.

He looked at the young but lifeless face on the sky.

Thirty-six years old.

This is the golden age for an emperor to realize his grand ambitions.

Just because of a moment of soft-heartedness, just because of concern for that ridiculous sense of dignity.

He lost his life.

They handed over the Ming Dynasty's empire to those ruthless wolves who devour people without spitting out the bones.

"Biao'er".

Zhu Yuanzhang's voice was very soft.

Zhu Biao quickly stepped forward and bowed to listen to the instructions.

Did you see that?

"This is the consequence of mercy."

Zhu Yuanzhang pointed to the light screen in mid-air.

"You always advise us to kill less."

"They always say that scholars are the pillars of the nation and that the country should be governed with benevolence."

"Let's put our words here today."

Zhu Yuanzhang stood up and walked to Zhu Biao.

He looked directly at his eldest son, whom he loved most.

"Emperors can implement benevolent policies for the people."

"But we must never show mercy to the officials!"

"The imperial court is a battlefield, and the officials are the wolves on that battlefield."

"If you have meat in your hand, they will wag their tails at you."

"Once you lose the meat in your hand, or if you show even the slightest bit of cowardice."

"They will pounce on you without hesitation and tear your throat open!"

Zhu Biao kept his head down.

A fine layer of sweat appeared on his forehead.

He couldn't refute it.

The bloody lesson in the sky is right before our eyes.

Zhu Youcheng yielded for four years, only to be met with an even more ruthless power grab.

Zhu Youcheng retaliated by flipping the table, but at the last moment he sheathed his knife.

In return, they received a bowl of steaming hot poison.

Yongle Time and Space.

Zhu Di slammed the wine cup in his hand heavily onto the imperial table.

The drinks splashed everywhere.

He turned to look at the Crown Prince Zhu Gaochi behind him.

Zhu Gaochi trembled and quickly knelt on the ground.

"Boss, you usually like to hang out with those intellectuals."

Zhu Di's tone carried an undisguised warning.

"I didn't interfere with you before because I felt you needed to cultivate your own team."

"But you've shown me clearly today."

"These self-righteous gentlemen who spout Confucian and Mencian doctrines are more ruthless than the Mongols with their scimitars when it comes to killing the emperor!"

Zhu Di walked to the entrance of the main hall and looked at the clear blue sky outside.

"Zhu Youcheng is an idiot."

"He thought that by not killing anyone, he could be remembered for all time."

He was wrong.

History is written by the victors.

"He's dead, the civil officials have won."

"Therefore, civil officials would praise him highly in the history books, calling him a benevolent ruler."

"Because only by praising him can the legitimacy of the civil service's power grab be proven!"

"I'd rather not have this empty fame earned with my life!"

In a parallel Zhengde era of the Ming Dynasty.

The leopard enclosure reeked of blood.

Zhu Houzhao stood amidst a pile of broken furniture, carrying a embroidered spring knife.

His eyes were bloodshot.

The muscles in his face were contorted with extreme anger.

He finally learned the whole truth.

The father he had resented countless times, the father who always forced him to study and listen to the Grand Tutor's lectures.

It turns out that he had been enduring so much humiliation and despair all along alone.

The father wanted to rebel.

But my father was too weak.

So weak that they couldn't even save their own lives.

"His Majesty……"

Liu Jin, the Grand Eunuch of the Directorate of Ceremonial, knelt on the ground, his voice trembling.

He had served Zhu Houzhao for so many years and had never seen his young master show such a frightening expression.

"deliver an imperial order."

Zhu Houzhao's voice was as cold as ice.

"Mobilize the Beijing garrison to blockade the nine gates."

"The Imperial Guards mobilized in full force and surrounded the Zhang family residence."

"Arrest Zhang Heling and Zhang Yanling and throw them into the imperial prison!"

"Go to the Imperial Hospital and lock up that old dog Liu Wentai's entire family, including his nine generations of relatives!"

Liu Jin kowtowed violently.

"This servant obeys the decree!"

Zhu Houzhao looked at the sky, and tears streamed down his face again.

"Father."

"If you can't do it, I will."

"Those you dare not kill, I will kill."

"I will smash this mess you left behind to pieces, even if it costs me my life!"

Inside a modern live streaming studio.

After a brief pause, the barrage of comments erupted in a frenzy.

The viewers were utterly shocked by this cruel historical truth.

"This is so frustrating! It's making me want to explode!"

"Zhu Youcheng's actions have served as a bloody and cautionary lesson for all future rulers!"

"If you don't kill the snake, it will harm you instead. The ancients were right!"

"To be merciful to the enemy is to be cruel to oneself. Zhu Youcheng was not only cruel to himself, but also cruel to the fifteen-year-old Zhu Houzhao!"

"Losing his father at fifteen, with a scheming mother who favored her brother, and the court full of enemies who wanted to kill his father—Zhu Houzhao's starting point was beyond hell!"

Zhu Dijun watched the scrolling comments on the screen.

He picked up the water glass on the table and took a sip to moisten his throat.

"Family members, you are all right."

"The death of Zhu Youcheng brought an extremely bad consequence to the Ming Dynasty."

He proved one thing.

"That means in the Ming Dynasty, the civil service could not only sideline the emperor, but could even physically eliminate him!"

Zhu Dijun's fingers tapped rapidly on the keyboard.

A vast network of relationships appeared on the big screen.

"Let's take stock of what Zhu Youcheng left for his son Zhu Houzhao after he passed away."

"First, a national treasury so empty that even a rat that goes in would come out with tears in its eyes."

"The salt, iron, and tea mines in Jiangnan were completely divided up by civil official families, and the national treasury was utterly bankrupt."

"Secondly, a border defense line riddled with holes."

"The military affairs in the Northwest are corrupt, and the generals are rampant with corruption. The Tatars can easily sweep in at any time."

"Third, an extremely arrogant and domineering maternal relatives family."

"The Zhang brothers forcibly seized women and land in the capital, showing no regard even for high-ranking officials of the first rank."

"Fourth, and most terrifying."

"A civil service group that has grown immensely and is completely unchecked!"

Zhu Dijun magnified the circle representing the civil service group infinitely.

It took up the entire screen.

"Liu Jian, Li Dongyang, Xie Qian."

"These three old foxes not only successfully outlived Zhu Youcheng."

"They also naturally obtained the status of regents!"

"Family members, do you know what a regent minister is?"

"That is the supreme entity entrusted by the late emperor on his deathbed, to exercise imperial power on behalf of the Son of Heaven!"

"At the age of fifteen, Zhu Houzhao was facing such a tight and flawless dead end."

The background music in the live stream became extremely depressing.

It was as if an invisible net was enveloping the fifteen-year-old boy.

"The civil service group had even devised a perfect life plan for Zhu Houzhao."

"They planned to keep this new emperor confined in the Forbidden City like pigs."

"Every day I listened to them talk about the Four Books and Five Classics, and every day I reviewed and stamped the memorials they had written."

"As long as Zhu Houzhao dares to have even the slightest thought of resistance."

"They can bring out another bowl of herbal soup prepared by Liu Wentai at any time."

Zhu Dijun looked directly at the camera.

His eyes flashed with an extremely sharp light.

"but."

"Those old foxes calculated everything, but they overlooked one thing."

"They thought they had been given a pushover."

"Little did they know, they were being confronted with the most unconventional, rebellious, and utterly domineering figure in Ming Dynasty history—a true devil!"

The phrase "mischievous devil" instantly ignited the atmosphere in the entire live stream room.

The viewers, who had been holding back for an entire chapter, finally caught a whiff of the exhilarating feeling of a counterattack.

"Holy crap! Is it finally Emperor Zhengde's turn to appear?"

"The Great Ming Dynasty's Number One Player! The God of War of the Leopard Chamber!"

"The nightmare for the civil service has arrived! Those old foxes are going to be in deep trouble!"

"Jun-ge, tell us quickly! I can't wait to see how Zhu Houzhao deals with these beasts!"

The emperors of countless worlds and timelines all sat up straight.

A glint of light flashed in Zhu Yuanzhang's eyes.

He wanted to see what his great-grandson was capable of, to break this seemingly hopeless situation.

Zhu Di even drew his long sword and struck it on the imperial desk, creating a rhythmic sound of clashing swords and galloping horses.

"What a troublemaker!"

"The descendants of the Zhu family should have this kind of crazy spirit!"