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

The studio lights were completely turned off, replaced by a dark red, blood-like ambient light.

Zhu Dijun stood in front of the holographic screen, which displayed a black-and-white sketch of the execution ground in the Western Market of the Ming Dynasty. The executioner, expressionless, threw out the talisman, and the executioner brought down the blade.

"On the 24th day of the third month of the 44th year of the Jiajing reign, Yan Shifan, the most intelligent man in the Ming Dynasty and a one-eyed powerful minister, was beheaded in the West Market. His father, Yan Song, who had held power in the court for twenty years, had his family property confiscated and was stripped of his official rank. He lived in a dilapidated cemetery, surviving on the cold food offered to the dead, and eventually died of illness."

Zhu Dijun turned around and broke the silence with an extremely efficient tone.

"A great relief? The purging officials have cleansed the court? Don't be so hasty. The series of deadly moves Xu Jie laid in this fire—the lives of the Yan family father and son—are merely appetizers. The main course is the Jiajing Emperor, who spends his days chanting sutras and striking the chime in the Western Garden."

He wrote two words on the whiteboard: "Backlash".

"When the Yan faction was still in power, the upright officials impeached corrupt officials, and no matter how vehement their words were, they never dared to directly target the emperor. This was because they had to consider the owner before beating the dog. Now that the dog has been slaughtered, the last buffer wall between imperial power and the civil service group has collapsed."

Zhu Dijun picked up the pointer and tapped the words on the whiteboard.

"Xu Jie secretly untied the reins around the necks of the censors. After the fire at Qianbu Corridor, the political climate in the court underwent an extremely strange and out-of-control shift."

On the holographic screen, numerous memorials from Ming Dynasty officials flooded down, taking up the entire screen.

"Under the guise of 'Heavenly Prohibition,' the upright officials began a frenzied campaign of veiled criticism. Their memorials no longer detailed how much money Yan Shifan had embezzled; instead, they subtly and indirectly explored a taboo topic: Was the Ming Dynasty's financial decline due to the Yan faction's abuse of power, or was it caused by the current emperor's twenty years of absence from court, his massive construction projects in the Western Garden, and his lavish spending on Taoist temples and alchemy?"

Zhu Dijun sneered.

"Someone wrote in the memorial: 'If the emperor had not been so fond of Taoist practices and wasted the nation's resources, how could treacherous officials have taken advantage of the situation and deceived the emperor? The fire in the Thousand-Step Corridor was not only an omen of punishing the rebellious minister, but also Heaven's final warning to the Taoist practitioners in the Western Garden!'"

He pointed to this ancient document, a genuine archival record, and said:

"In the past, anyone who submitted such a memorial would have been dragged to the Meridian Gate and beaten to death by the Imperial Guards. But now, Jiajing dares not touch them. Why?"

Zhu Dijun spread his hands, his face displaying an extreme mockery that showed he had seen through the dead end of politics.

"This is the destructive power of the 'Heavenly Fire Situation' created by Xu Jie. Lan Daoxing said that Heaven sent down disaster. If you, Jiajing, do not heed the advice of your officials and continue to cultivate Taoism and refine elixirs, then you are being stubborn and going against the will of Heaven. If you kill people because of such a memorial, then you are admitting that you are in the wrong, and that you are guilty and immoral."

He walked to the screen and swiped his fingers across the slides.

"The emperor was placed on the powder keg of morality and divine will. If he didn't kill, his imperial authority would be tarnished, and the civil officials would press him relentlessly; if he did kill, he would be a tyrant, defying the will of Heaven. This is called a calculated scheme. Xu Jie used a cage woven from fire to trap Jiajing to death."

Parallel universe. Zhengde reign.

Leopard room.

Zhu Houzhao held a wine cup in his hand, listening to the analysis in the sky, and unconsciously increased the pressure in his hand.

With a sharp "crack," the glass shattered in his hand, the fragments embedding themselves in his palm. Blood mixed with wine dripped onto the Persian carpet.

The eunuch next to him was so frightened that he knelt down and took out a handkerchief to bandage the wound, but Zhu Houzhao pushed him away.

"What a vicious method." Zhu Houzhao ignored the wound on his hand and stared intently at the sky.

He lived a life of unbridled indulgence, even proclaiming himself a mighty general and personally leading troops out of the capital to fight the Mongols. The entire court wept and wailed daily, condemning his absurdity, and he outwardly complied with the rewards given to his followers for their military achievements while secretly defying them. At that time, he believed he held absolute power, and no matter how much the officials cursed him, they couldn't change his ways.

It now appears that civil officials never used knives to kill people.

"They used divine will to coerce imperial power, forcing the emperor to issue an edict of self-reproach, and even shifted the blame for all the country's collapse onto the royal family."

Zhu Houzhao wiped his face with his bloodied hand.

"My cousin, who prided himself on his cleverness, manipulated his ministers for forty years. In his old age, he was stripped of his cane, naked, and thrown before the world for moral judgment. This is more devastating than being torn to pieces."

On the celestial screen, Judy Jun's autopsy enters its most cruel finale.

"It's not enough to just verbally abuse them; we also need to carry out a final strangulation on material grounds."

He operated the holographic keyboard and brought up the Ministry of Revenue's financial ledgers.

"After Xu Jie took over the cabinet, his first act was to halt all non-essential Taoist construction expenditures at the Western Garden under the pretext of 'an empty treasury and compassion for the people.' Ostensibly, this was to appease the wrath of the emperor, but in reality, it completely cut off Jiajing's financial lifeline."

Zhu Dijun stared at the camera.

"Without Yan Song, the 'white glove' used to amass wealth, Emperor Jiajing was horrified to discover that not a single upright official in the court was willing to help him raise money. The Ministry of Revenue would ask if he had any, and the Ministry of Works would ask if he had stopped construction. He, the emperor, couldn't even approve funds to buy the finest cinnabar and agarwood."

"To destroy the spirit. This is the most thorough way to destroy the spirit."

Zhu Dijun's voice was deep and had a metallic quality.

"What Jiajing was most proud of in his life was his control. He thought he had the lifeline of the empire firmly in his grasp. Until this moment, when the fire at the Great Ming Gate shattered the Yan faction, when the memorials from the officials piled up like snowflakes, and when the accounts of the Imperial Treasury could not be found to yield more than a few taels of silver."

On the screen, the silhouette of the Jiajing Emperor hunched over in a hazy, indistinct mist.

"He finally understood. The fire that pierced the night sky above the Forbidden City destroyed more than just the power stronghold of the Yan faction. It was a sacrifice, and he himself was the highest offering made by Xu Jie and the Qingliu clique in order to appease the wrath of the emperor and control the court."

Zhu Dijun drew several diagonal lines heavily on the whiteboard, resembling an iron cage.

"Under the weight of endless suspicion, the fear of losing control, and the pressure of 'divine will,' Jiajing's health rapidly deteriorated. He stopped seeing anyone and spent his days in his hermitage refining elixirs filled with heavy metal toxicity, trying to regain his lost sense of security in the illusory void. In December of the forty-fifth year of Jiajing's reign, this extremely arrogant emperor who had reigned for forty-five years succumbed to poisoning in despair and resentment."

The red light in the studio faded, replaced by extremely restrained incandescent light.

Zhu Dijun grabbed the blackboard eraser and wiped away all the complex deductions on the board, leaving only one name: [Xu Jie].

"The Jiajing Emperor is dead. Who will reap the rewards?"

He dropped the blackboard eraser.

"Xu Jie, as a trusted minister entrusted with the care of the young emperor, rightfully took over the reins of government. He drafted the famous Jiajing Emperor's edict overnight. In that edict, Jiajing himself denounced his own forty years of corrupt practices related to cultivating immortality and completely negated everything from the past. The Jiangnan civil official group celebrated like never before. Under the guise of redressing wrongful convictions and implementing new policies, they quickly redistributed their power."

Zhu Dijun looked directly at the millions of viewers outside the camera's view.

"In the final chapter of this conspiracy theory, there are no absolutely loyal ministers, nor purely treacherous officials. This is the bloodiest law of power shifts. Xu Jie used the fire at Xiyuan Garden and the heads of the Yan family to complete the ultimate backlash against imperial power."

He braced his hands on the edge of the table.

"He killed Jiajing, framed Yan Song, and eliminated the Prince Jing's lineage without bloodshed. In the end, he quietly allowed the highest decision-making power of the Ming Dynasty to slip from the hands of the Zhu family emperors into the pockets of the Jiangnan gentry and civil officials."

The live stream screen went dark as Zhu Dijun made that move.