"Speak, quickly. What has happened to His Majesty?"

Ning Chen asked it fast, the words tumbling out.

Lin Shijiu said, "His Majesty has passed from the world!"

There was a buzzing in Ning Chen's head. His face went chalk white and his whole body froze.

His heart felt as though an unseen hand had closed on it, and grief spread through his chest and stopped up his breathing.

Pan Yucheng could not come back to himself for a long time either.

All at once, like a man gone mad, one of them caught Lin Shijiu by the throat, eyes bloodshot, and roared, "What nonsense are you talking? Who taught you to say this? What are you really after?"

Lin Shijiu's neck bones cracked under the grip. His face and ears went red and he could not breathe.

Pan Yucheng came back to himself, saw it and hurried to steady Ning Chen. "Calm down first and hear him out... Ning Chen, let go, quickly. You're about to crush the life out of him."

"Spare me, my lord marquis. Spare me, my lord marquis..."

Lin Shijiu got it out with difficulty.

"Ning Chen, calm down and let him finish what he has to say... Otherwise crushing him will do you no good."

Some clarity came back into Ning Chen's eyes, and then he slowly let go.

Lin Shijiu was like a catfish half dead on the bank, clutching his throat and pulling in great mouthfuls of air.

Pan Yucheng said, "Speak, quickly. What has happened?"

Lin Shijiu looked at Ning Chen in fear, and then said, breathing hard, "Some days ago, His Majesty took the civil and military officials to the imperial park on Mount Jade Dragon to escape the heat and hunt."

"Then one night an accidental fire broke out in His Majesty's traveling palace. The wind that night was very strong and the fire spread too fast. By the time it was put out, His Majesty and Eunuch Quan had already been buried in the sea of flame."

Ning Chen's face was as pale as paper.

Pan Yucheng said, low,…