"Thud, thud, thud."
Cao Lin was looking around in bewilderment when a jumble of footsteps suddenly sounded outside the hall.
A group of officials in crimson and black robes appeared outside.
At a glance, they saw the emperor lying in a pool of blood, and Cao Lin, his face covered in scarlet blood, his eyes bewildered.
Disbelief swept across almost every face in an instant.
Regicide!
They could not believe, dared not believe, and refused to believe what they were seeing.
This was regicide.
There had been records of regicide in the ancient Zhou State period, but that had been an age when rites crumbled and music fell into ruin, an age that made everyone pale at its mention.
Even in that age, anyone who committed regicide would ultimately be rejected by all under heaven, nailed to history's pillar of shame, and brought to account by righteous men everywhere.
After the founding of Great Han, the morality and consciousness of all under heaven had been reshaped. What passed down from generation to generation were the words loyalty and righteousness.
These were principles everyone under heaven observed.
Among the Jingnan Feudal Lords, why had only Luo Shi, the Peerless Marquis Wuxiang, departed for the distant Western Regions as soon as the Pacification ended? Why had Emperor Han Xuan worried over his rewards alone? Because many people with simple convictions believed he bore a stain, and he himself thought so too. This was the Luo Clan's insistence on upholding what they preached.
The previous instance of regicide had been Dong Zhuo's. In fact, no one had known Dong Zhuo had murdered the emperor. Emperor Min of Han had died in a dark chamber, and everyone involved had been Dong Zhuo's own men. It was simply that Luo Kong, the Peerless Marquis Zhongwu,