The Li Tai route in Road to Empress is one of the most passionately debated paths in the entire game. Players on community forums and review sites consistently call it the most emotionally satisfying storyline — a route where the Prince of Wei, a character who appears as a dangerous political operator in the main campaign, transforms into something far more complex when you walk beside him rather than against him. If you are looking for the Road to Empress Li Tai route walkthrough, this guide covers every critical choice, affinity milestone, and QTE sequence from the prologue branching point to the route’s defining endings, with specific choices highlighted so you never fall into a Bad Ending by accident.
The Li Tai route does not begin in the middle of the game. It begins at the very first major decision — the prologue’s “Make or Break Choice” that splits Road to Empress 2 into two entirely separate storylines. This is not a minor divergence. Choosing one path permanently locks you out of the other for the entire playthrough.
The critical choice: When the game presents the Make or Break Choice after the prologue summary, you must select “Leave this place and start a new life.” This is the Liu Xi’s Terms branch, which sends Wu Yuanzhao away from the palace and into the side story where Li Tai is the central figure.
If you select “Return to the palace and claw to the top,” you enter the main Li Zhi campaign — the empress route. You will never encounter Li Tai as a route partner on this path. He appears as a political rival only, and his story arc is one of defeat and exile rather than partnership and freedom.
The immediate consequences of choosing to leave:
After committing to escape, you face a compressed sequence of decisions and QTEs that determine whether you survive the transition from palace life to the outside world. Failing any of these early QTEs drops you into a Bad Ending immediately, so pay close attention.
Seize the Hairpin. When Liu Xi confronts you at Ganye Temple, choose “Seize the hairpin and take Liu Xi out.” This triggers the Ultimate Showdown QTE sequence. Do NOT choose “Beg her not to ruin your face” or “Give up to protect Prince of Wei” — both are instant Bad Endings (BE 1 and BE 2 respectively).
Ultimate Showdown QTE. There are two rounds of QTEs here. You must pass both. Failing either round leads to a Bad Ending. If you are struggling with this sequence, use the coin-based Time Rewind feature to retry without replaying the entire chapter.
Handling Liu Xi’s Body. After defeating Liu Xi, you must decide what to do with the body. The safest option is to dress as Liu Xi and escape in the night — this maintains your disguise and gets you out of the temple. Hiding the body is risky and can lead to discovery. Staging it as an assassination is dramatic but politically dangerous.
What Will You Leave Behind? You need to leave an item to create the impression that Wu has fallen into the well and died. Choose the amulet — it is the least valuable item, making it the most plausible accidental loss. The sun and moon hairpin and the soaring red kite silver sculpture are both too valuable to “accidentally” drop, and choosing them can trigger suspicion from temple officials later.
Official Xia’s Arrival. When Official Xia approaches and sees the evidence of your “death,” you must pretend to be Liu Xi and force her to keep your secret. Running away or revealing your true identity both lead to Bad Endings.
Pawn an Item for Money. Choose the Soaring Red Kite to pawn. It gives you the most money for survival outside the temple, and pawning the amulet or hairpin yields too little to sustain you.
Yue’s Daughter Crisis. When you witness Yue’s crisis, intervene and save her daughter. This is not optional — saving Yue’s daughter directly affects later branching points in the side story. If you skip this intervention, the game skips a crucial scene later and can lock you out of the best endings on this route.
Inner Resolve. When the A Choice Within moment arrives, select “No way! I’m not giving up!” This is the only option that continues the route without falling into a Bad Ending.
Surviving this prologue sequence earns you the Ganye Temple, No Escape achievement and officially enters you into the Li Tai side story. For the full prologue walkthrough with every alternative choice mapped, see our Road to Empress 2 side story guide.
The Dangerous Reunion chapters are where the Li Tai route truly begins to differentiate itself from the main campaign. These chapters establish the emotional foundation of Wu Yuanzhao’s relationship with Li Tai, and the choices you make here directly determine how much affinity you build — which in turn affects which endings are available later.
Reason to Be Here. Li Tai asks why you have appeared at his location. All three options are valid here — “I wanted to see what was beyond the palace walls,” “I wanted to meet Your Highness,” or “I came to see Your Highness for the last time.” The second option (“I wanted to meet Your Highness”) provides the strongest affinity gain with Li Tai, showing direct emotional motivation rather than abstract curiosity or dramatic farewell.
The Assassin’s Identity. When asked about the woman who tried to kill you, choose “One of the agents of the Mirage Pavilion.” This reduces Mirage Pavilion suspicion by 1 point, which is critical for later chapters. Do NOT choose “She admired Prince Wei for many years” (Bad Ending 27) or “The less you know about me, the safer you will be” (Bad Ending 28).
Find a Way to Stay. Both options here are acceptable, but “I don’t want to become someone from your past” gives a stronger emotional signal to Li Tai and is the preferred choice for maximum affinity.
The Dagger That Kills. When Li Tai offers you a dagger, choose “Your Highness, I like this dagger.” This builds affinity and creates a meaningful symbolic exchange. Choosing “No one is around, perfect time to kill him” leads directly to Bad Ending 29.
Guard’s Suspicion. When a guard questions your presence, select “We sell not only products, but also stories.” This maintains your cover as a merchant while subtly impressing Li Tai with your quick thinking. Choosing “Be careful. My true identity might scare you” leads to Bad Ending 30, and “A small token of goodwill” leads to Bad Ending 31.
Gaoyang’s Interception. This is a significant affinity moment. Choose “Gaoyang, come with me!” — this grants Li Tai +2 affinity and creates a shared adventure moment. The “Calculated Retreat” option has an automatic branching consequence that depends on whether you saved Yue’s daughter earlier, making it less reliable for affinity building.
For the complete chapter-by-chapter breakdown including all branching paths, visit our chapter walkthroughs.
Dealing with Yuan Lichen. Choose “Stay.” Leaving triggers a chain of events that makes later affinity-building harder.
Scatter Dust QTE. You must pass this QTE. Failing it leads to a Bad Ending sequence that derails the chapter.
Throw the Wine Jug QTE. Another mandatory pass. The QTEs in this chapter are tightly clustered, so stay alert through the entire sequence.
Win Over Yuan Lichen. Choose “Have you forgotten your comrades?” This appeals to Yuan Lichen’s military honor and is the most effective way to bring him into your network. It also signals to Li Tai that you can recruit allies through persuasion rather than force — a quality he values deeply.
Yuan Lichen’s Concerns. Choose “You should have said so sooner.” This is warm and encouraging, reinforcing trust with your new ally.
Apply Medicine? This is one of the most important affinity choices in the entire Li Tai route. Choose “Yes, he was injured because of me.” This is the moment where Wu Yuanzhao’s care for Li Tai becomes explicitly personal rather than political. The “active medicine application” scene is one of the most emotionally charged moments on the entire side story path, and it directly feeds into the intimacy that makes the Li Tai route’s endings so resonant. For more on Li Tai’s character and why this moment matters, see our Li Tai character page.
Time to Deliver Intel. Choose “Met General Lichen.” This keeps the intel relevant and actionable, reinforcing your value to Li Tai as both a companion and an operative.
A Deadly Choice. Choose “Honor your promise and help Li Tai.” This is a defining moment where you publicly commit to standing with Li Tai over the Mirage Pavilion’s objectives. It is the clearest signal yet that Wu Yuanzhao has chosen a personal alliance over institutional loyalty.
Your Dagger. Choose “Send a signal to the Prince of Wei.” This creates a shared tactical moment between you and Li Tai, reinforcing the partnership dynamic.
Completing these chapters builds Li Tai affinity to a strong baseline and earns the Dangerous Reunion chapter completion ending. The choices above are the optimal affinity path — deviating from them does not always produce Bad Endings, but it reduces your affinity total, which affects which endings are reachable later.
Chapter 21 is the Li Tai route’s most critical branching point. The marriage proposal from Xu Minghui’s family creates a scenario where Li Tai’s political obligations clash directly with his personal feelings for Wu Yuanzhao. The choices here determine which of the route’s two major endings you reach.
Li Tai’s Question: “Why do you care about me so much?”
This is an affinity check disguised as a conversation. Choose “Because some people are worth everything.” This gives Li Tai +2 affinity — the maximum available at this node. “Because you have what I want” gives only +1 and is less emotionally resonant.
Reveal His Location?
Choose “Keep to yourself.” Telling others raises Mirage Pavilion suspicion by 9 points and triggers Bad Ending 41 with two voice messages. Keeping the information private protects Li Tai and demonstrates trust.
Remind Prince Wei?
Choose “Show kindness.” This gives Li Tai +2 affinity. The alternative (“Don’t say anything”) is safe but yields no affinity gain.
Why Do You Care About Me So Much? (follow-up)
Choose this option when it appears — it grants Li Tai +1 additional affinity and deepens the emotional dialogue between the two characters.
The Marriage Proposal Sequence:
This is where the route diverges toward its two most important endings. The sequence is:
Set His Mind Straight. Choosing this gives Li Tai +9 affinity but triggers Bad Ending 42 with three voice messages. This appears to be the “bold rejection” option, but it actually leads to a Bad Ending — Li Tai’s forceful refusal creates a political crisis that cannot be resolved.
Ask Xu Minghui What She Wants. This returns you to the choice menu, allowing you to reconsider. This is the correct path — it opens the next branching options.
Prince Wei’s Questions. These are three flavor choices that do not affect the ending, but they shape the emotional tone of the scene. Choose the options that reflect genuine care for Li Tai’s feelings rather than political calculation.
Convince Xu Minghui. This is the real decision point. The options here are:
The only viable path through this sequence is to not convince Xu Minghui to return home and instead let her go. This preserves the possibility of the route’s good endings.
Letter from Xu Xiaode. The final branching point of the marriage crisis:
Choosing “I’m already married to Danlichi” completes Chapter 21 and unlocks the Beyond the Chains ending, one of the Li Tai route’s two major conclusions. In this ending, Wu Yuanzhao helps Li Tai escape his arranged marriage by declaring herself already married to Danlichi — a bold declaration of independence that frees both characters from political obligations they never chose. For the full ending breakdown, see our Beyond the Chains ending page.
If you carried maximum Li Tai affinity through the previous chapters and made the right choices at the marriage crisis, the final chapters of the side story lead toward the Another Life ending — widely considered the most emotionally powerful conclusion in the entire side story, and arguably one of the best endings in Road to Empress 2 as a whole.
Side Chapter 22: Another Life 1
The opening choice here is a “To be or not to be” moment — a philosophical question about whether to continue fighting for freedom or accept the constraints of the world. Choose the option that affirms continued struggle. Passive acceptance at this stage closes off the best ending.
Take the Evidence. This is a key tactical choice. Choosing to take the evidence that exposes the political conspiracy surrounding Li Tai’s arranged marriage keeps you on the active path toward Another Life. Surrendering the evidence or ignoring it leads toward intermediate endings that lack the emotional payoff of the full route.
Key Decision Nodes in Chapter 22. Several choices in this chapter involve protecting Li Tai from political threats that emerge after the marriage escape. Consistently choose options that prioritize Li Tai’s safety over political advantage. The game tests whether your commitment to Li Tai is genuine or merely strategic — the “correct” answers are the ones that show personal loyalty, not political calculation.
Side Chapter 23: Another Life 2
This chapter is the emotional climax of the entire Li Tai route. The choices here are less about survival mechanics and more about emotional resolution — whether Wu Yuanzhao and Li Tai can sustain the bond they have built outside the political structure that once defined both of them.
The Final Choice. The culminating decision asks whether Wu Yuanzhao truly chooses a life with Li Tai over any remaining connection to the palace and the power she once pursued. Selecting the option that affirms life with Li Tai leads to Another Life — the ending where Wu Yuanzhao and Yuan Lichen leave the palace behind entirely, choosing ordinary life over extraordinary power. They disappear into the countryside, nameless and free.
This ending is the emotional counterpart to the Empress Ascendant path in the main story. Where the main story’s best ending is about supreme power, Another Life is about supreme freedom. Both are valid conclusions to Wu Yuanzhao’s story, and both are worth playing. The Li Tai route’s version of freedom is specifically about choosing personal connection over institutional ambition — a theme that resonates throughout the entire side story.
For the complete ending breakdown and how it fits within the broader ending tree, see our Another Life ending page and our endings directory.
Understanding the Li Tai route requires understanding what it is not — the Li Zhi route. These two paths are fundamentally different in tone, theme, and emotional resolution, and the choice between them at the prologue is the single most important decision in Road to Empress 2.
The Li Zhi route (main story) is about power. Wu Yuanzhao returns to the palace, navigates court politics, builds factions, and ultimately determines whether she rules alongside Li Zhi, above him, or is destroyed by the system she tried to master. The emotional stakes are political — who controls the empire, and at what cost.
The Li Tai route (side story) is about freedom. Wu Yuanzhao leaves the palace, builds a life outside the political structure, and discovers that the Prince of Wei — the character who was a threat in the main campaign — becomes a partner who understands what it means to reject the system rather than conquer it. The emotional stakes are personal — can two people who were defined by political ambition find meaning in a life that has none of it?
This thematic difference explains why the Li Tai route has such passionate fans. In the main story, every victory comes at a political cost. Every alliance is transactional. Every relationship is shaped by the power dynamics of the court. The Li Tai route offers an escape from all of that — not a fantasy where everything is easy, but a genuine exploration of what life looks like when you stop playing the game of thrones entirely.
Li Tai himself undergoes the most dramatic character transformation across the two routes. In the main story, he is ambition incarnate — charismatic, decisive, ruthless, and ultimately defeated. In the side story, stripped of his political framework and forced to relate to Wu Yuanzhao as a person rather than a player, he becomes something his main-story incarnation could never be: vulnerable, honest, and genuinely caring. For a deep dive into both versions of Li Tai, visit our Li Tai character page.
For a comprehensive comparison of both games and how their route structures differ, see our Road to Empress II vs I comparison guide.
Unlike the main story, where faction reputation and court standing are tracked through the Memorial Review system, the Li Tai route uses a simpler affinity tracker. Your affinity with Li Tai is the primary variable that determines which endings are accessible at the route’s conclusion.
How affinity works:
Each choice that involves Li Tai directly either adds affinity points (+1, +2, or +9) or has no effect. There is no negative affinity in the side story — you either gain affinity or you do not. However, missing affinity gains at critical nodes can leave you below the threshold needed for the best endings.
The critical affinity thresholds:
How to verify your affinity level:
After each side chapter, check the Trait Sketch in the lower-left corner of the chapter-end screen. The blossom visualization fills petals based on your accumulated affinity and exploration. If the petals related to Li Tai’s route are filling steadily, you are on track. If they are stagnant, you need to backtrack using the Storyline Map and recover missed affinity at the nodes identified in this guide.
For the complete affinity system breakdown across both games, see our characters guide.
The Li Tai route contains more than fifteen Bad Endings, most of which are triggered by a single wrong choice at a critical node. Here is a comprehensive list of every BE on this route and the exact choice that triggers it:
| BE # | Chapter | Trigger Choice | What Went Wrong |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Prologue | “Beg her not to ruin your face” | Submitting to Liu Xi’s threat at the hairpin scene |
| 2 | Prologue | “Give up to protect Prince of Wei” | Surrendering instead of fighting |
| 5 | Prologue | Fail the hairpin QTE | Not completing the QTE in time |
| 6 | Prologue | Fail the Clutch Moment QTE | Physical failure at the escape sequence |
| 24 | Ch.17 | Fail the “Put It On Her” QTE | Failing the disguise QTE |
| 25 | Ch.17 | Did not save Yue’s daughter → skip | Missing the earlier intervention |
| 26 | Ch.17 | Fail the Fight Back QTE | Physical failure during escape |
| 27 | Ch.19 | “She admired Prince Wei for many years” | Misidentifying the assassin |
| 28 | Ch.19 | “The less you know about me, the safer” | Alienating Li Tai with secrecy |
| 29 | Ch.19 | “No one is around, perfect time to kill him” | Attempting to assassinate Li Tai |
| 30 | Ch.19 | “My true identity might scare you” | Revealing too much to a guard |
| 31 | Ch.19 | “A small token of goodwill” | Bribe fails, guard reports you |
| 40 | Ch.21 | Split into two groups | Disorganized defense strategy |
| 41 | Ch.21 | “Tell them” (reveal Li Tai’s location) | Betraying Li Tai’s position |
| 42 | Ch.21 | “Set his mind straight” | Overly forceful rejection of marriage |
| 43 | Ch.21 | “Hide in the nearby box” | Getting discovered while hiding |
| 44 | Ch.21 | Fail the stun QTE | Physical failure during confrontation |
| 45 | Ch.21 | “Your father misses you” or “Don’t reply” | Failed persuasion of Xu Minghui |
| 46 | Ch.21 | “Prince Wei is more attractive” | Inappropriate argument with Xu Minghui |
| 47 | Ch.21 | “His Majesty is more attractive” | Wrong appeal to authority |
| 48 | Ch.21 | “Convince Xu Minghui to return home” | Wrong approach to the marriage problem |
| 49 | Ch.21 | “I’m already pregnant” | Fabrication that collapses under scrutiny |
The pattern is clear: most Bad Endings on the Li Tai route come from either physical failure (QTEs), misplaced trust in institutional authority, or political calculations that override personal loyalty. The route’s design philosophy is that personal connection must come first — every time you choose political logic over emotional honesty with Li Tai, the game punishes you.
For the full endings catalog across both games, visit our endings directory.
The Li Tai route is not a side quest. It is a complete alternative vision of what Road to Empress is about. Where the main story asks “Can a woman conquer the palace?” the side story asks “Can a woman reject the palace entirely?” — and both questions are equally valid.
The route’s emotional power comes from the transformation of Li Tai himself. In the main campaign, he is the prince who would have killed his brothers for the throne — a figure of pure ambition whose defeat is historically inevitable. In the side story, stripped of the political framework that defined him, he becomes someone who can be honest about his fears, tender about his injuries, and genuinely invested in a future that has nothing to do with imperial power. The contrast between these two versions of the same character is one of Road to Empress 2’s most sophisticated narrative achievements.
If you have only played the main story, the Li Tai route will change how you see the entire game. The Prince of Wei is not just a villain or a rival — he is a person whose ambition was a response to a system that demanded it, and who becomes something fundamentally different when that system no longer controls him. Walk his path, and you will understand why fans call this route the heart of Road to Empress 2.
You can verify your progress through the Li Tai route using the in-game achievement tracker and the Road to Empress Steam page, where Steam achievements sync automatically. For official details on Li Tai and other characters, the Road to Empress official site provides the developers’ own character descriptions. For the complete chapter walkthroughs that complement this route guide, see our chapter directory.
This article is part of Palace Ledger’s ongoing series exploring the world of Road to Empress. For the complete character roster and how affinity works across all routes, visit our characters guide. For the full endings catalog, see our endings directory.