In my previous life, I killed my whole family. In my next life, I killed the royal family.

After the emperor died, thick smoke suddenly billowed out of the back hall of the palace, followed by a raging fire.

Captain Niu, the guard, escaped from the fire in the back hall on the pretext of capturing the assassin, and he and his men disappeared without a trace.

"Oh no! There's a fire!" The palace servants shouted in fear, and the sound spread throughout the palace. Everyone rushed over and saw the raging fire raging in the palace, and they couldn't help but panic.

"Hurry up and put out the fire!" someone shouted anxiously, and everyone took action. Some picked up buckets of water, some picked up wet cloths, and rushed to the fire scene.

The concubines, princesses, and princes in the harem stood up, hugged their most precious possessions and ran to the empty square of the palace, anxiously looking at the blazing fire.

They knew that the emperor was resting in the back hall that was on fire tonight, and they didn't even ask "Is the emperor safe?" They all thought to themselves: "The emperor has so many people protecting him, he will be fine."

The maids and eunuchs in the harem worked together to put out the fire. They shuttled between the flames, regardless of their own safety, and tried their best to put out the flames.

After some intense and arduous efforts, the fire was finally brought under control and extinguished. Fortunately, the fire did not spread to other palaces and only burned down one hall.

When the emperor was killed and the palace caught fire, Captain Niu and his men quickly did two things.

He first went to the prince to report the news and take credit for it. Then he gave the prince a plan to find a scapegoat.

Otherwise, Captain Niu and his team of guards who are on duty tonight and their entire families will be executed.

How could they just sit there and wait for death?

In order to save themselves and their families, they can only let others die.

Team Niu and his guards ran to the Second Prince's residence and reported, "The Emperor has spoken, Your Majesty is seriously ill and wants to see the Second Prince."

When the second prince heard that the emperor had summoned him overnight, he had to get up and leave the palace with a few guards.

He stood at the gate of the prince's mansion, looked up at the palace, and saw the fire rising to the sky. He was shocked, "Oh no, the palace is on fire."

Captain Niu behind him swung the hilt of his knife and knocked the second prince unconscious.

His men knocked out all the second prince's guards, threw them into a carriage and took them to the palace. The guards were thrown into the fire and burned to death.

The second prince was unconscious and was killed by Captain Niu who stabbed him in the chest with a sword and then threw his body into a corner of the fire scene.

They quietly guarded the fire scene, making sure that the fire would not burn down the bedroom, and that the second prince's body would be burned while his head remained intact.

They saw that the fire had consumed the body of the Second Prince, and when it was about to reach his head, they shouted, "Hurry up and put out the fire." They scrambled to put out the fire and move the burning wood away.

During this period, several guards were injured.

They couldn't help but groan, "It hurts."

"Bear with it, the pain is better than death." Captain Niu whispered.

"I understand, Captain." The guards were very grateful to Captain Niu for saving their lives.

They were on duty tonight and saw the emperor being killed by someone unknown, and the palace was set on fire by Eunuch Fu. If they didn't help the prince to ascend the throne, Captain Niu and his men would die miserably.

They shuddered at the thought of how the Third Prince's guards had died.

So, they helped the crown prince kill the second prince to frame him.

Commander Zuo rushed to the scene upon hearing the news and the fire in the palace was finally put out.

"What happened?" Commander Zuo was terrified and walked over to ask.

"Commander, it seems someone set the fire." Captain Niu's face was covered in black ash. He said in a mournful voice, "We were almost burned to death."

Commander Zuo looked around and asked again, "Has His Majesty been rescued?"

"No, no." Captain Niu covered his face and cried loudly.

"Ah!" Commander Zuo was so frightened that he sat down on the ground. "His Majesty was burned to death? What should I do?" The hairs on his body stood on end. He was terrified and at a loss.

"Commander, come and see, this is the body of the arsonist." someone shouted.

Commander Zuo got up from the ground, took a closer look, and sat down on the ground in fear again, "It's the Second Prince."

Captain Niu said, "Commander, I'm afraid that the Second Prince was imprisoned in the palace by the Emperor, and he was dissatisfied and came here to kill and burn people, and put the blame on His Royal Highness the Crown Prince."

His subordinates and the palace servants on duty all testified, "Before one person was killed, he shouted, 'Your Highness, I failed.'"

None of them said that the man was Eunuch Fu, they just said there was one person.

Commander Zuo quickly said, "His Royal Highness the Crown Prince will not kill the Emperor."

He thought that the emperor was dead and the second prince was also dead, and the truth could not be found out, so he might as well put the blame of the fire on the second prince.

Commander Zuo arranged, "Please ask the prince to come." As soon as he finished speaking, the prince's anxious voice rang out, "Father, are you okay?"

Commander Zuo hurriedly whispered to the prince, "Your Highness, the emperor has passed away. The situation is urgent. Why don't we..."

The prince smiled as he wished and nodded, "Okay."

Commander Zuo ordered, "Ring the death knell."

Someone went to the Buddhist temple in the harem and rang the funeral bell. The whole capital was awakened by the bells of the imperial palace, and then shocked by the series of bells.

"The emperor has passed away." The officials hurriedly got dressed. They had no mourning clothes, only inner garments.

Everyone in the Qi Mansion stood up.

Qi Wan hurried to the upper house with his men and sent his father and brother to the palace.

She heard Wu Yi sneak into the palace to get information and come back and say, "The palace is in chaos now. The crown prince wants to put the blame for the emperor's death on the second prince."

She wanted to remind her father and brother.

Pei took out three white clothes and asked Qi Lu and his son to wear them. "I'm afraid you will have to wear mourning clothes when you enter the palace."

Qi Ze waved his hand, "If we wear this now, people will say we were cursing the emperor."

"What should we do then? Wear official uniform?"

"Just wear a middle-length shirt." Qi Lu said.

Qi Ze nodded, "If the emperor really passed away, the court will uniformly distribute mourning clothes to the officials. Starting today, we will go to the government offices to mourn."

Qi Yuan was surprised and puzzled, and asked in a low voice: "Why did the palace suddenly catch fire and the emperor is gone?"

Qi Wan then whispered, "I'm afraid there is a fight for the throne within the royal family. Father and two brothers, please be careful."

Zheng was smart and knew that her sister-in-law's men were skilled, so she tried to find out, "Who won?"

"The prince has Commander Zuo to help him, so I'm afraid he will win." Qi Wan said.

"Trouble." Qi Yuan muttered softly.

The prince hates the Qi family the most. If he were to ascend to the throne, he would probably cause trouble for the Qi family.

Qi Wan comforted him, "We don't know what the situation is outside right now, so we should take one step at a time and be cautious in everything we do."

"My sister is right." Qi Ze agreed.

Qi Lu and his three sons went out first and entered the palace to check the situation.

Qi Wan motioned Wu Yi to follow, "Protect them quietly."

"Yes, Master."

After Wu Yi went out, he met Fei Yang in a corner of the palace. The two talked quietly in the corner for a while.

"Do you know how the emperor died? Who set the fire?" Fei Yang asked.

He added, "My master asked me to check. The fire was out. After listening to the guards, I learned that the emperor and the second prince were both dead."

Wu Yi shook his head, "I don't know."

She said, "I heard the bell ringing and got the master's order to go to the palace to check the situation. I only knew that the emperor was killed by the second prince, and both father and son died in the fire."

"What a coincidence?" Feiyang was puzzled.

Wu Yi was also puzzled. The emperor had just issued an order to set fire to the West Mountain and the Ghost Valley, but he was killed. Or was he burned to death?

This made the people in Ghost Valley suspect that an insider who stayed in the palace knew the news and took the initiative to get rid of the emperor and burn him.

But Feiyang asked the insider, and the man said: "I wanted to take action, but I couldn't get close to the emperor."

Feiyang muttered, "Who is that person?"

"I don't know." Wu Yi shook his head.

They both sighed at the same time, "We don't even know who did the good deed."

All of Captain Niu's men knew who set the fire, but they didn't know how the emperor died.

But in order to survive, they will never tell what happened tonight.

Civil and military officials rushed to the scene and were shocked as if struck by lightning.

There was clearly a charred corpse on the dragon bed.

There were several large pieces of black charcoal on the ground, which could barely be recognized as the shape of a corpse.

Another body was half burned, leaving only the head recognizable. It was the second prince.

The guards and palace maids who had escaped from their duty cried and pointed, "It's His Majesty who is on the dragon bed."

"The ones on the ground are Eunuch Fu and several guards." The guard cried, "Eunuch Fu was burned to death while trying to save the emperor."

Those guards were the Second Prince's men. They were knocked unconscious by Captain Niu's men and thrown into the fire and burned to death.

The scene was so tragic, and the emperor died so horribly, that everyone who saw the scene couldn't help but say in horror, "Oh my God, how tragic!"