When Han Li arrived at the rendezvous and met the special envoy sent by Governor Lord Yong of Bamboo Province, she found him in tattered clothes and utterly bedraggled, resting like a beggar beneath a large tree beside the mountain road.
The sole remaining guard held a battle saber and watched the approaching woman in white warily. Only after Han Li identified herself did he raise a hand to invite her forward.
Han Li asked, "What happened to you?"
The envoy said, "Our movements were leaked. Prince Yong's men intercepted us and tried to kill us."
Han Li murmured thoughtfully, "Prince Yong..."
The envoy said, "The late emperor's third son, and the elder brother of His Majesty."
Unlike a Commandery Prince such as Hu Ze, whose title had arisen from imperial in-laws meddling in state affairs, Prince Yong was an imperial prince of Great Qian, a member of the imperial clan and the direct line of the Dragon Family. Only the emperor's paternal uncles and brothers could receive that title.
Bamboo Province lay within Prince Yong's fief. As in the Flat Hill Demon Kingdom, he too was kept in check by local officials. For him to dare send elite troops to intercept and kill an envoy this time was anything but ordinary.
However, Han Li knew nothing of the precise details of Governor Lord Yong of Bamboo Province's communications with her master. She could only guess that they concerned the rumors circulating in recent years.
It was said that Prince Yong had long harbored treasonous ambitions. Now that the Great Qian Emperor lay bedridden with a lingering illness, he had grown even more brazen.
Taking advantage of his remote fief, he stockpiled weapons and armor, recruited men willing to die for him, courted prominent figures, and bought the people's loyalty,