Guessing the Empress's Motives

At those words, Meng Haoran of the Xinghua Village Meng Family, Gray Robe Jiang Lao Jiang Haifei, and Granny Yu of the Black Market fell briefly silent. Before coming to Qinghe Commandery City, the three of them had discussed how power was divided among its factions.

They had thought Baili Shouxi, an elder of the Sixth-Rank Cultivation Family Baili Family, might be laying a trap by assigning the Xinghua Village Meng Family a role in managing commerce in Qinghe Commandery City—or using them as cannon fodder. But now it seemed there was no trap at all. This was genuinely a matter of policy.

Meng Haoran said, "Elder Shouxi, if my guess is right, whoever could make Commandery Governor Lü Qingxuan change his mind must hold an extremely high position in the Imperial Court. And whoever that person is, they ultimately serve the revered empress. Have I got that right?"

Baili Shouxi nodded. "Well done, Haoran. I didn't expect you to guess so accurately. When the heads of several Ranked Families heard Commandery Governor Lü Qingxuan's policy and returned home, we discussed it and came to the same conclusion: whoever changed his mind must be someone at the heart of the Imperial Court, someone with access to the empress. Qinghe Commandery Territory lies within Yangzhou, a province of the Southern Region under the Great Yu Immortal Dynasty's territorial divisions. The empress intends to bring every cultivation family in the Southern Region under her command and make them one source of strength in her struggle against the crown prince's faction!"

Meng Haoran had seldom ventured beyond Qinghe Commandery Territory. He knew little about the empress or the crown prince Baili Shouxi spoke of. Everything he had heard about them was secondhand, and all his guesses came from his own thoughts.

"Elder Shouxi,