Panic gripped the people!
In the Central Sacred Nation, at the Hall of All Living Beings, civil and military officials stood in their places in the court, while the Crown Prince and the Seventeenth Prince stood on either side!
With the Sacred Emperor in secluded cultivation, the Seventeenth Prince and the Crown Prince were temporarily handling state affairs.
"Hmm? Why are there so many fewer people in the hall today? Did they request leave?" After the Crown Prince entered the grand and solemn Hall of All Living Beings, he looked back and saw that the number of officials standing in court had been reduced by nearly half!
"That's right. Yesterday, I already felt there were fewer people than usual. I thought they had requested leave, but today, there are even fewer?" The Seventeenth Prince also felt that something was wrong!
The officials throughout the hall were as silent as cicadas in winter, and many of them were even trembling violently.
The entire Hall of All Living Beings was shrouded in a cloud of suspicion!
"What happened? Will someone tell me?" The Crown Prince looked toward the officials and roared.
"Your Highness, please calm down!" The officials knelt and kowtowed, pleading for him to calm down.
Finally, Grand Tutor Bai Ye, who stood behind the Crown Prince, stepped forward and said, "Your Highness, officials have been absent from the morning court over the past few days. I investigated and found that they had not requested leave. Feeling that something was amiss, I went to the residences of several officials, only to discover... that they had already been murdered!"
"What!" The Crown Prince and the Seventeenth Prince both widened their eyes and stared at Bai Ye!
"Yes! Including the more than twenty officials absent today, more than a hundred officials should have