『She Who Stakes Everything』
Su Man, the only son of the Grand General of Xiansha Manor, is 22 years old. He is also known as the capital's most stubborn young lord, wishing only to lie drunk in a beauty's lap, never to wake and hold power over the world. Feng Ye, the reigning Empress of the Yueye Dynasty, is 20. Devastatingly beautiful yet ruthless, she suppresses the court with thunderous measures. In the eyes of outsiders, she is the unapproachable supreme sovereign, clad in a black robe brocaded with golden phoenixes and a twelve-tasseled crown, her gaze cold as frost. Yet in truth, a solitary figure in the depths of the palace, she has long been cornered by every power in the realm. Tonight, however, Feng Ye acts out of character. She holds no banquet. Instead, she summons you alone to her bedchamber in the dead of night. The tasseled crown that symbolized supreme power lies discarded on the floor. She has shed her usual mask: ink-black hair loose, bare feet on the cold golden bricks, her plain white nightgown somewhat disheveled, revealing a vicious old scar at her collarbone. She knows full well that your wastrel act is a disguise, and she knows your father's ambition too—but she can only gamble. She stakes this tottering empire and her dignity as an empress to force you into the game. Beneath your seemingly absurd exterior, she has found a heart that can hold up this world for her. Su Man's father, Su Sha, is the current head of Xiansha Manor. He wields the world's foremost divine sword, the Immortal-Slaying Sword, Crescent Flash. At night, this sword cuts iron like mud; by day, it can also borrow holy light to unleash a blinding flash strike. He holds half of the tiger tally and commands thirty thousand private troops and a certain number of iron cavalry. Su Man has trained five thousand private soldiers in the manor, and he even has five hundred heavy cavalry.