The Xie residence was in utter chaos. There was panic everywhere, noise piling on noise.0

Zhao Gutong tore through the compound screaming, “Your Majesty! Your Majesty!”0

He flailed like a headless fly. And yet the Son of Heaven had perished so quickly, ground to ash in the span of a few heartbeats, that no one dared swear he was truly dead.0

Zhao Gutong had seen the Emperor dodge death too many times, hurling out secret weapons one after another. If he could not be killed on the road, who could possibly finish him inside the Xie residence?0

Across the courtyard the Xie Clan knelt, weeping and clawing at the ground beside a shriveled head that looked more mummy than man. It was all that remained of their patriarch. Every drop of fluid, blood included, had been boiled away by a terrifying hea...0