"What on earth happened? How can a perfectly healthy man just be gone?"

Prince Wu's voice was full of disbelief.

A perfectly healthy man, and suddenly he was gone.

Worse, the dead man wasn't just anybody. It was Ning Chen, the Prince Who Holds the Realm of the Great Xuan.

The Great Xuan had won back its lost territory, but after the ravages of war it still wasn't fully stable.

And right now Ning Chen was the anchor holding the Great Xuan steady.

With that anchor gone, the situation was bound to take a sudden turn for the worse... Some people with ulterior motives would surely try something.

And Nanyue, Gaoli and the other states weren't likely to sit idle either.

On top of that, Ning Chen's position was far too sensitive.

He wasn't just the Great Xuan's Prince Regent. He was also the Grand Marshal of the Armies.

The generals posted all over the realm today were either Ning Chen's admirers or men he'd promoted himself.

If the cause of Ning Chen's death wasn't found, those men would never let it rest. There would be serious trouble.

Prince Wu held the western frontier, and Ning Chen had died on the western frontier... He couldn't escape the blame.

For now, the only way he could save himself was to find out quickly how Ning Chen had died, and give the court and the whole realm an answer.

But nobody knew what had happened.

One moment Ning Chen had been talking with them, and the next he was gone. It was far too strange a death. If they told anyone, nobody would believe it.

Prince Wu had sent for every famous doctor in Bianzhou that same night.

But the result left everyone bitterly disappointed.

Ning Chen was dead, through and through.

Prince Wu's eyes were red. "This has to be reported to the court at once, and Ning Chen's body has to be taken back to the capital as fast as possible."

Everyone was overcome with grief.

Feng Qizheng, a man who'd fought his whole life on the battlefield and bled…