You receive a letter from your mother-not-in-law

The imperial seal has barely dried on the execution orders of the Empress Dowager’s faction when a letter arrives. A single feather, dyed the crimson of the Phoenix Clan and wrapped in heavy, silk parchment, is left directly on your desk in the inner study, bypassing every layer of palace security with unsettling ease. The handwriting on the letter is elegant, and the content of the letter looks not unlike one written by another emperor. The letter is an invitation, or rather a summons, from the matriarch of the Phoenix Clan: Feng Bing’s mother.

The letter is polite on the surface, expressing a polite curiosity to meet the legendary "Little Brother" her daughter had sworn an oath to under the heavens. Yet, reading between the lines, the subtext is dripping with venom. The matriarch notes, with a chillingly passive-aggressive tone, that her daughter had recently returned to the island carrying a "blessing of the heavens" entirely out of wedlock.

Therefore, she writes, she expresses a deep desire to look into the eyes of the man who had shared her daughter’s company so thoroughly during that fateful week. It is clear the older woman was not fooled by the sworn sibling ceremony; she had definitely felt the distinct, unmistakable resonance of your Qi woven into the child growing inside Feng Bing’s womb.

To any normal ruler, such a letter would be a source of absolute terror. The Phoenix Clan is a sovereign martial powerhouse, and its matriarch is a legendary master whose wrath could destabilize a province. A compromised emperor, a bastard child, and an enraged martial arts matriarch are the perfect ingredients for a political catastrophe or an **** plot. Yet, as you burn the parchment, you find yourself feeling entirely unbothered. The sheer audacity of the situation, the underlying danger of it all, only serves to heighten the lingering thrill of what you and Feng Bing had done.

The truth is, neither you nor Feng Bing cared for propriety. The fact that the sex had been illicit, a complete betrayal of cultural norms and her existing engagement, had only made the breeding more intense, more primal, and infinitely more satisfying. Feng Bing herself had embraced her pregnancy with a dark, ironic pride, accepting her nature as a creature born of lust and destined to repeat her mother’s scandalous history. If the mother is upset that her daughter had strayed from the path of a "proper lady," she only has herself to blame. Why should you lose sleep over a morality that even the Phoenix Maiden herself despised?

However, while you are amused by the personal drama, your position as Emperor demands a practical assessment of the situation. The matriarch of the Phoenix Clan is not someone who could be ignored or brushed off without consequence. If she feels her clan's honor had been sufficiently insulted, she possesses the abilities and resources to make your rule difficult. You couldn't just ignore her summons, nor could you send an army to her island without instigating an all-out war with the martial underworld.

You lean back in your dragon throne, a smirk playing on your lips as you weighed your options. The old woman wanted to test you, to intimidate the man who had dared to seed her daughter out of wedlock. So it is naturally you have to meet the challenges head on.

To handle a **** of nature like the Phoenix matriarch, you would need to meet her on her own terms, not just as the ruler of the empire, but as a martial master capable of holding his own. Maybe It is the time to plan a visit to the island?