"Save them, quick..."

Li Zhixing snapped out of his shock with a roar and broke into a run toward them.

His shout jolted the others awake too. They rushed over, and together they hauled the Xuan Emperor and Consort Zhao back up.

The Xuan Emperor looked at Eunuch Quan and sighed helplessly.

"Emperor Emeritus, this old subject is guilty. To have let the Emperor Emeritus suffer such humiliation... this old subject deserves to die..."

"Your subjects deserve to die!"

The high ministers of the court dropped to their knees in a crowd.

The De Emperor's head was buzzing. Everything kept going black, and he very nearly passed out.

It was over. It was all over!

He would be nailed to the pillar of shame in history and stink for ten thousand years.

Ji Mingchen turned to face the De Emperor, his eyes ready to split, and roared, "Your Majesty, your subjects need an explanation!"

The assembled ministers stared hard at the De Emperor.

Below the wall, the common people were in an uproar. They tried to storm the gate tower, but the imperial guards and the garrison held them back with everything they had.

When the Xuan Emperor ruled, the Great Xuan had been at peace and its people content.

Now the Great Xuan lay in ruins.

The Xuan Emperor had been driven to seek his own death, and neither the ministers nor the people would stand for it.

The De Emperor's lips trembled. His face was deathly white, and he couldn't get a single word out.

He whirled on the Xuan Emperor and screamed, "Why? I'm your own son! Why would you do this to me? Why make me carry infamy for a thousand years?"

Li Zhixing roared, "Your Majesty, your subjects demand an explanation!"

"Insolence!" Zong Sibo stepped forward, bellowing. "You dare interrogate His Majesty? This is gross disrespect.

Emperor Emeritus, there is one thing this old subject does not understand... His Majesty has always been most filial. If he had truly imprisoned and mistreated you, how could you be in such good spirits now?

Even if His…