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

[Modern Live Streaming Room]

On the holographic screen, fragments of Journey to the West were scattered all over the ground, and the tragic white skeleton metaphor was like a thorn, firmly stuck in the hearts of all modern netizens.

After a brief silence, the dense barrage of comments erupted into an unprecedentedly oppressive and chilling atmosphere.

"I'm numb... I'll never be able to watch Journey to the West the same way again!"

"This isn't a classic at all; it's basically a 'Cannibalistic Guide to the Ming Dynasty Officialdom' packaged in mythology!"

"I'd rather you hadn't said it, Jun-ge! If I didn't understand it, at least I could treat it as a lighthearted monster-slaying story. Now that I do understand it, I just feel a chill down my spine!"

"How desperate must Wu Cheng'en have been to portray the loyal ministers of the Ming Dynasty as monkeys who could be banished at any moment with a single decree, and the common people as the White Bone Demon!"

The scarlet lights in the studio gradually faded, turning into an extremely ironic dark gray.

Standing behind the podium, Zhu Dijun looked at the screen filled with exasperated comments, his expression extremely complex. It was a bizarre, twisted look, as if he didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

"Family members. The Ming Dynasty is just that magical; reality is always more absurd than Bi Yao's novels."

He took a deep breath, turned around abruptly, and ripped off the holographic projection of "Journey to the West" from behind him.

Then, he slammed a thick, yellowed ancient book, which smelled musty from years of wear, onto the podium.

"Stop your tears and despair!"

Zhu Dijun grabbed a black marker and violently drew a black line on the whiteboard.

"Let's continue! Having seen the bones of the Ming Dynasty's underworld and the monkey who was tricked to death, let's turn back and look at this 'Tang Sanzang' who hid in the Western Garden cultivating immortality and chanting the Tightening-Headband Mantra—our Taoist master, Emperor Jiajing of the Ming Dynasty!"

"God has truly been blind, leaving no way for ordinary people to survive."

A near-maniacal mockery suddenly flashed in Zhu Dijun's eyes.

"But Heaven really showed Jiajing a special kind of 'favor'!"

He flipped open the ancient book on the table and slammed his hand on the page: "The Veritable Records of Emperor Jiajing of the Ming Dynasty! Volume 446! Family, let's fast forward to the 36th year of Jiajing's reign!"

"In April of that year, the Ming Dynasty, having just experienced a major earthquake in the northwest and the Japanese pirate raids in the southeast, was once again confronted with an epic and unprecedented event!"

The holographic screen suddenly lit up, and a classical Chinese text was imprinted in the center like a branding iron.

[April 13th, 36th year of Jiajing (1557), Bing Shen day. Fire broke out at the gates of Fengtian Hall and other buildings. A thunderstorm struck at Shen hour (3-5 PM) that day, and by Xu hour (7-9 PM), flames suddenly erupted, initially starting at Fengtian Hall and spreading to Huagai Hall, Jinshen Hall, Wenwu Hall, and the entire complex. Fengtian Hall, Zuoshun Hall, Youshun Hall, the Meridian Gate, and the left and right corridors outside the Meridian Gate were completely destroyed. The fire was extinguished by Chen hour (7-9 AM) the following day.]

Zhu Dijun grabbed a laser pointer, and the red light spot circled wildly over the eight characters "Thunderstorm raged, fire suddenly erupted".

"Did you understand?! Struck by lightning!"

Zhu Dijun roared out, his laughter echoing like thunder in the studio.

"April 13th! A torrential downpour, accompanied by lightning and thunder! A bolt of lightning struck squarely, directly onto the most central and sacred hall of the Forbidden City—the Hall of Supreme Harmony!"

The special effects on the big screen were absolutely amazing!

Above the Forbidden City, where dark clouds loomed, a bolt of eerie blue lightning, like a raging dragon, tore through the sky and slammed into the golden roof of the Hall of Supreme Harmony.

"boom!"

A towering fire instantly erupted from the ground. Gale-force winds and torrential rain did nothing to extinguish the divinely aided flames!

"Burn! Burn it all the way from Fengtian Hall to Huagai Hall and Jinshen Hall! The three main halls of the former dynasty have all been burned to the ground!"

"The fire, along with the second floor of the civil and military buildings and the entire long corridor outside the Meridian Gate, burned for a full day and night! It wasn't extinguished until the next morning!"

A parallel Hongwu era of the Ming Dynasty.

"puff--"

Zhu Yuanzhang had just caught his breath when he saw the raging fire of the Forbidden City soaring into the sky, and he spat a mouthful of blood directly onto his desk.

"Father!"

Zhu Biao's soul was scattered.

"Our Fengtian Hall... the very embodiment of the might of our Great Ming Dynasty..."

Old Zhu convulsed, his withered hands gripping his hair tightly, and he nearly collapsed as his vision blurred.

"The three main halls are all gone?! Those were the symbols of our rule over the world! Zhu Houcong... what terrible things did you commit that made the heavens send lightning to strike down our Zhu family's main hall during a torrential downpour?!"

A parallel Chongzhen era of the Ming Dynasty.

In the cold wind of Coal Hill, Zhu Youjian sat slumped in the mud, watching the three main halls turn to ashes, and suddenly let out an extremely mournful laugh.

"Well done! Well done!"

Emperor Chongzhen frantically slapped his thighs, tears streaming down his face. "Cultivating immortality? Immortality? Heaven will just strike you down with lightning! The faces of our ancestors have been burned clean by this fire!"

On the backdrop, the dim gray lights of the studio resembled flickering flames.

"The three main halls were burned down, and the outer court and central government offices were completely destroyed. Emperor Jiajing was terrified!"

Zhu Dijun pressed his hands firmly on the podium, staring mockingly at the camera.

"You think he realized his mistake? The next day, when his ministers presented him with a memorial of condolence, our Taoist Emperor replied with an extremely shameless statement—'Heaven has warned me; the fault lies with me, how can I shift the blame to others?' He immediately issued an edict of self-reproach!"

Zhu Dijun grabbed the blackboard eraser and swung it hard in mid-air.

"Then, Jiajing ordered all civil and military officials to wear mourning clothes and reflect on their mistakes! Officials of the fourth rank and above had to write memorials stating their faults! Even censors were required to speak frankly about the malpractices of the government, and he even issued an edict ordering all imperial relatives, princes, and nobles throughout the country to reflect on their actions!"

"They seem genuinely sincere; it's like the CEO of the Great Ming Cultivation Sect is leading a forced overtime team-building-style self-reflection campaign!"

The live stream chat was instantly flooded with the phrase "team building-style self-reflection".

Zhu Dijun pushed aside the recorder and furiously typed out a dense list of fires on the holographic keyboard.

"Family members, do you really think this thunderstorm was an accident?"

He grabbed a red pen and wrote a huge Arabic numeral on the whiteboard—[6]!

"This is the sixth major fire that Emperor Jiajing personally experienced in his life, one that could be recorded in official history!" Zhu Dijun's voice carried a chilling undertone.

"Today, let's take a look at the 'daily life of fire' of this number one cultivator in the Ming Dynasty!"

The large screen suddenly displayed "Chronicle of Major Fires in the Imperial Palace during the Jiajing Reign".

"In the first year of the Jiajing Emperor's reign! His very first year on the throne! The three rear halls of the Qingning Palace, where the Empress Dowager resided, were completely burned down!"

"In the fourth year of the Jiajing reign! The Renshou Palace, a royal retreat used by the previous emperor for his retirement, was destroyed by fire!"

"Around the thirtieth year of the Jiajing reign! The main hall of Jiajing's Taoist practice in the Western Garden, the Da Gao Xuan Hall, caught fire several times, burning down and rebuilding repeatedly!"

"In the thirty-fifth year of the Jiajing reign! Just one year before the three main halls were struck by lightning! The Wanshou Palace in the Western Garden, where Jiajing had lived for many years, also burned down, forcing him to temporarily reside in the Yuxi Palace!"

The pointer in Zhu Dijun's hand moved like a phantom, frantically tapping across the screen.

"But that's not the worst part! What makes people feel that this emperor wasn't human was the great fire at Kunning Palace in the twenty-sixth year of the Jiajing Emperor's reign!"

The holographic scene instantly shifted to a sea of ​​fire. From within the raging inferno of Kunning Palace, the faint screams of a woman could be heard.

"During the Renyin Palace Coup, palace maids tried to strangle Emperor Jiajing. Who saved him? It was his Empress Fang! And it was also Empress Fang who wanted to kill Jiajing!"

Judy Jun's eyes were bloodshot, and he gritted his teeth.

"Then, in the twenty-sixth year, a fire broke out in Kunning Palace, and Empress Fang was trapped inside. What did Jiajing do? He just stood outside the fire and watched! When the eunuchs requested permission to rescue her, he didn't utter a single word!"

"The reason is simple. As mentioned before, it wasn't just that Jiajing's beloved concubine was executed, but also that he was left to die. If it weren't for Xu Shen's desperate rescue, Jiajing would have died that year. And Empress Fang is highly suspected of regicide, so this time she was sent away in one fell swoop."

The studio was deathly silent, save for the dull thud of Judy Jun slamming her hand on the control panel.

"This is just the main palace! What if we include the smaller fires that occurred in the imperial city, the imperial gardens, and the inner palace warehouses!"

He drew two heavy circles on the whiteboard and wrote down two glaring numbers.

"During the Jiajing reign, there were a staggering 20 fires of all kinds within the Forbidden City! That's an average of one fire every two years! This is the dynasty with the highest density of fires in the Forbidden City during the entire 200-year history of the Ming Dynasty!"

Viewers across the entire live stream were absolutely thrilled when they saw these figures.

"Holy crap! They only burn fires once every two years on average?!"

"Is the Forbidden City made of paper? Or did Emperor Jiajing set off firecrackers in the palace every day?!"

"Incredible! Zhu Houcong truly deserves to be called the reincarnation of the Fire God!"

"Others cultivate immortality to become immune to water and fire, but Jiajing Emperor's cultivation of immortality resulted in him inviting fire upon himself!"

The parallel Zhengde era of the Ming Dynasty.

Leopard room.

Incense wafted through the air, and a woman from the Western Regions swayed her hips below. Emperor Zhu Houzhao of the Ming Dynasty lay sprawled on a large leather chair, a glass of wine from the Western Regions in his hand.

He stared at the long fire chronicle on the sky, especially when he saw "the three main halls were struck by lightning" and "more than twenty fires". He was stunned at first, and then suddenly burst into a maniacal laugh.

"Ha ha ha ha!"

Zhu Houzhao laughed so hard that he spat out a mouthful of wine onto the face of the eunuch Liu Jin in front of him.

"Incredible! Absolutely incredible!"

The Zhengde Emperor kicked over the wine table, pointed at the sky, and laughed heartily.

"Back when I was in the Leopard Chamber, the civil officials set fire to several side halls of my Qianqing Palace! My cousin, on the other hand, has been burned down more than twenty times in his forty-five years on the throne! The three main halls were all shattered by lightning!"

He wiped away the tears of laughter from the corner of his eyes, looking at Jiajing's pale face illuminated by the firelight on the sky with a mocking expression.

"Zhu Houcong, oh Zhu Houcong."

Zhu Houzhao sneered repeatedly.

"Ever since you ascended the throne, there's been palace maids strangling me, earthquakes, and now these twenty-odd continuous fires. If it were me, I would have been burned to death in these chain fires long ago!"

He raised his empty wine glass and offered a distant toast to the void.

"Such a resilient life, such incredible resistance—impressive! This throne truly belongs to you!"