Chapter One: Lady Golden Flower

This time, as the team-building event went on, Liu Yi felt increasingly uneasy. In previous years, company outings were just excuses to dine out; everyone ate, drank, and enjoyed themselves as they pleased. But ever since a few middle managers with impressively polished résumés joined, the team-building activities had changed completely. Now, they were deliberately scheduled for weekends, disrupting work, and the whole event was infused with motivational speeches and relentless positivity. Worse still, they always ventured into desolate places. Liu Yi suspected that if this continued, they might even start deducting the team-building costs from their salaries.

This time, they’d come to Lanzeshan, a half-abandoned tourist site, and the company had even saved on the entrance fees. Liu Yi feared if this kept up, he’d have to start looking for a new job. This place was so remote—even his phone had no signal!

Before coming, Liu Yi had done his homework and knew Lanzeshan was an abandoned attraction, with even the ticket booths removed. But to find it completely cut off from the internet was absurd; there was no signal at all, not even for calls. These penny-pinching managers had truly gone overboard!

But since he was already here, Liu Yi could only grit his teeth and keep moving forward. Yet after wandering for a long time, he hadn’t seen a single soul; all he found was Old Zhang’s discarded backpack. This was beyond strange. Lanzeshan might be a bit remote, but there was never any talk of supernatural incidents or urban legends. How could nearly a hundred people from the company, along with their families, simply vanish without a trace?

The further Liu Yi walked, the more uneasy he felt. Though Lanzeshan was abandoned, the main road was choked with waist-high wild grass. Occasionally, he glimpsed wild pheasants, rabbits, and even ominous white bones, which chilled him to the core.

Just as he was about to turn back, he glanced behind him and was startled by a sudden black shadow, scrambling and tumbling forward in panic.

What on earth—a wild boar with sharp tusks? Wild pheasants and rabbits were one thing, but a giant boar? Liu Yi had never seen a live wild boar before, not in real life. He was so terrified he nearly dropped Old Zhang’s backpack.

He knew something was bound to go wrong. Even if he himself escaped unscathed, the company’s dozens of people were surely in danger. If only he’d stayed home and risked offending the managers, he could have slept in peace!

He checked his phone again, confirming there was still no signal. At last, the solar-powered flashlight and multipurpose entrenching tool he’d bought online proved useful. These gadgets had sat unused for years, and but for this trip, would have remained idle.

He struggled for ages to assemble the entrenching tool, then picked up Old Zhang’s backpack and walked several hundred meters down the path, his brow furrowing ever deeper.

Though he followed the path, it was utterly submerged in wild grass. Signposts, guardrails, markers—all had vanished. Liu Yi scanned his surroundings; aside from mountain birds, wild pheasants, rabbits, and those unsettling bones, there was nothing.

In emergencies like this, the city’s rescue teams ought to have mobilized by now. The company had chosen Lanzeshan to save on ticket fees, but after this ordeal, they would surely have to pay dearly. The thought almost made Liu Yi laugh aloud.

But before he could finish, he heard the distant murmur of voices ahead.

Could the rescue team have arrived so quickly—in just a few hours? Or was it Old Zhang and the others?

Whoever it was, it was welcome news. Liu Yi hurried forward to join them, but soon his hands and feet turned icy cold.

On the riverbank ahead, a fierce battle was underway. At a glance, Liu Yi could tell this was no film set—it was an authentic ancient battlefield.

The most striking figure was a female general, resplendent in a golden helmet and silver armor, clad in red. She was both commanding and dazzlingly beautiful. With a thrust of her mighty spear, she felled a soldier in blue, who collapsed into a pool of blood.

This confirmed for Liu Yi that this was no costume drama. While real life might produce such heroic women, nothing could replicate the lethal power of her strike.

The opposing force consisted of a dozen fully armed soldiers in blue. They weren’t slowed by their comrade’s demise; instead, their expressions grew fiercer. “Shoot her down! Kill this woman!”

“Lady Jin Hua, you’ve wounded another of our brothers—today we’ll finish you!”

“Lady Jin Hua, today is your death day. I’ll make you suffer, make you beg for a swift end!”

Though Lady Jin Hua was formidable on the battlefield, these blue-clad soldiers were no pushovers. They closed ranks and pressed in, attacking with spears, swords, and arrows without mercy.

Lady Jin Hua, as fierce as a leopardess, plunged into their midst. Her spear danced; blood sprayed forth—some from her wounds, some from those she felled.

Yet no matter how skilled, she was still just a mortal woman—not a six-armed deity. Surrounded, she couldn’t defend against every attack.

After several rounds of close combat, Lady Jin Hua managed to wound two more soldiers—one with a thrust of her spear, another with her thrown dagger—but she herself had suffered at least a spear and a sword wound. Despite her armor, she staggered, on the verge of being overwhelmed.

Seeing this, Liu Yi’s limbs grew colder still. As a staunch admirer of beauty, he desperately hoped the dazzling Lady Jin Hua would triumph, but her defeat seemed inevitable—and now he was caught up in this deadly struggle.

The soldier wounded by Lady Jin Hua’s dagger, as he retreated to bandage his injury, suddenly noticed the unpredictable Liu Yi.

He shouted, “Careful, brothers! She has help! Kill him! Kill!”

Liu Yi had just wanted to explain he had nothing to do with Lady Jin Hua, but the blue-clad soldier, wound freshly bound, charged at him with a single-edged sword.

For these men, killing was as natural as eating or sleeping. Nursing his fury from Lady Jin Hua’s dagger, he would take it out on this stranger first. Regardless of whether Liu Yi was truly her ally, since their aim was to destroy Lady Jin Hua, this suspicious interloper was doomed.

Liu Yi never expected the battle’s focus to shift to him. Lady Jin Hua, though wounded again, managed to hold her own, while he was thrust into mortal danger, still clutching Old Zhang’s backpack, barely able to run.

The blue-clad soldier’s grin turned even more twisted.

His wound had been hastily bandaged, but pain fueled his rage. He intended to make Lady Jin Hua’s supposed ally suffer every torment, but in the next instant, he was blinded.

Though Liu Yi’s flashlight was a cheap online purchase, its beam forced the soldier to shut his eyes. Already disoriented from Lady Jin Hua’s thrown dagger, he flailed helplessly, and Liu Yi’s entrenching tool struck him several times.

In terms of life-and-death combat, Liu Yi was an absolute novice, and he held back, not daring to use full force. Fortunately, the soldier was already dizzy from the flashlight; after three or four blows, he dropped his sword and fled.

This gave Lady Jin Hua a desperately needed respite. Though unsure who this newcomer was, she knew not to waste the opportunity—she must wield her spear with every ounce of strength, navigating the razor’s edge between life and death.

She’d survived countless deadly battles, aware that a single blink could mean becoming a lonely ghost.

But the formation of spears and swords before her was almost impenetrable. To break through, she could only trade wound for wound—yet she was already bleeding.

As the battle reached a stalemate, the blue-clad soldiers were once again blinded, either involuntarily closing their eyes or shielding their foreheads. Lady Jin Hua seized the chance; her spear flashed, and she struck down three more soldiers.

Liu Yi never imagined that the solar flashlight’s glare would so thoroughly disrupt the enemy, or that Lady Jin Hua would prove so heroic—her lone spear sent the blue-clad soldiers fleeing in terror, their formation shattered.

Lady Jin Hua chased them for several steps, then turned back to finish off the fallen soldiers with unhesitating thrusts. At last, leaning on her spear and bandaging her wounds, she spoke, “Thank you, young master, for saving my life. As long as Jin Hua lives, you will not want for glory and riches!”

Young master? The term was oddly archaic.

Liu Yi, still shaken, took a long moment to recover from the shock before asking the question that most troubled him: “What dynasty is this? Who is the emperor? What year is it?”

Lady Jin Hua hadn’t expected the young master to ask such a thing. She hesitated for a while before replying, “This is the fifth year of Zhiping, under the Great Song Dynasty.”