Following Fan Xian's gaze, they saw a torrent of black armored cavalry galloping across the distant horizon.
Judging by their equipment and appearance, they were unmistakably the Black Riders, the strongest army in the realm, directly commanded by Chen Pingping, dean of the Supervision Yuan!
But unlike the Black Riders' official limit of no more than a thousand men, there were a full five thousand before them!
This made it clear that Chen Pingping had long harbored rebellious intentions. He had endured in silence for decades to build up such an overwhelming force.
Behind the Black Riders followed a dense formation of more than a hundred thousand border troops.
Where the royal banner stood, there was a heroic young man of burly build, clad in armor.
His features bore a slight Eastern Barbarian cast, while his facial structure somewhat resembled Fan Xian's. Without question, he was Li Chengru, the First Prince who guarded the frontier!
According to the original plot, after Fan Xian returned from his northern journey, the First Prince would return to the Capital and marry the Northern Qi princess who had come with the diplomatic mission.
But on this timeline, Fan Xian had somehow contacted the First Prince and reached an agreement with him. On the surface, he was returning to the Capital under imperial orders to marry, but in truth, he was leading his army to join the Black Riders and submit to Fan Xian.
Ten thousand horses raced together, kicking up towering clouds of dust.
The members of the diplomatic mission panicked and hurried toward Fan Xian's tent.
But before they could ask anything, the foremost unit of black-armored cavalry came into view.
"Those are... the Black Riders?!"
The deputy envoy's eyes lit up, and his heart settled slightly.
But immediately afterward, he grew puzzled