A Woman on the Road

Sunset Valley — a small, hollow-pocked stretch of terrain — would, every afternoon when the fading western sun swept in, transform entirely. The whole valley blazed with strange, shifting light and color. Some said rare flowers grew there, varieties that burst into full bloom all at once at dusk, and the tale sounded so enchanting that adventurers had been known to brave the place just to photograph it...

The truth, however, was enough to make anyone's skin crawl. Once the western light had warmed the valley's rich soil to a sufficient temperature, the brown-skinned Lizard-Skull Giant Demons — secretors of a greasy, keratinous oil — would crawl from their swamp pools in massive swarms and carpet every sun-drenched slope with their bodies. Rough-skinned as they were, the oil they produced caught the light like scales and threw it back as brilliant reflections. And so Sunset Valley would blaze with unearthly radiance, glittering as though strewn with jewels from end to end.

For generations, the legend had enchanted countless people. Elders spoke with certainty of buried treasure somewhere in that mysterious valley, waiting for a brave Hunter-mage to uncover it and share it with the world. But after the deaths of heaven-knows-how-many treasure-seekers, the beautiful veil was finally torn away — and what lay beneath disgusted just as many as the legend had once enchanted.

As the Dongting Lake Tribe continued to expand its territory, people gradually abandoned the region and relocated to safer cities. The foul reputation of Sunset Valley persists to this day...

Along the muddy road that ran straight toward the valley, a squad of fully armed hunters moved slowly forward.

It was precisely dusk. Sunset Valley glittered as it always did, breathtaking in its splendor. Perhaps, if the truth were never exposed, this place could have become a scenic destination — the light pouring from the valley really was too beautiful.

"Trust me on this — there's definitely something valuable inside Sunset Valley. I'd stake my manhood on it." The red-haired youth thumped his chest as he spoke.

"Oh, give it a rest — can you say anything decent? There's a lady present!" said the man in the headscarf, shooting a pointed look at the woman in black form-fitting clothes who had joined their group halfway through the journey.

She wore olive-green trousers — loose and comfortable, yet entirely incapable of concealing the generous sway of her hips as she walked. Her legs were long and straight without any heels to help them, the kind that sent the imagination into overdrive...

The heat had apparently gotten to her. She'd shed her jacket, leaving only a black athletic chest-wrap on top. The effect on the squad's testosterone-laden male members had been severe: each of them had, every single day, invented some excuse to disappear into the trees — ostensibly to relieve themselves — and deal with their escalating personal situation in private. Better that than commit an actual crime out here in the wilderness. They were a respected team of Mages and Hunter-mages, after all...

She was unbothered by formality — having apparently forgotten a hairpin, she'd simply pinned her black hair up with a twig, perfectly exposing her fair, faintly perspiring face and neck. The line of her pale throat drew the eye downward to the shadowed valley beneath the black wrap, and the whole thing was frankly irresistible. What made it worse was that casual, effortless look: it lent her an untamed quality that was driving every man in the group quietly out of his mind.

"You know, that woman's got some nerve, wandering the Dongting Lake plains all by herself," Captain Liang Dacui murmured to the men around him. "Lucky she ran into us. If she'd stumbled across some unsavory Hunter-mage crew instead — use her and kill her, leave the body bare out in the wilds — who's going to do a thing about it?"

"Captain, please stop." Huang Zhuosi's eyes drifted helplessly back toward her. "The more you talk, the more I feel like becoming exactly that kind of man. She's just way too—"

"Ahem. Can we please focus on something that matters? The treasure in Sunset Valley could make us all very rich." The redhead forced a businesslike expression.

As it turned out, the five-man squad led by Liang Dacui was none other than the reputable Big Hammer Hunting Squad. Every member had the strength of an Intermediate-Level Mage, making them one of the better-known Hunter-mage outfits out of Biyi City. Whether hunting treasure on their own initiative or taking bounties and contracts, their completion rate was exceptional.

This time, a tip from an informant had come through: something valuable was hidden in Sunset Valley — worth tens of millions at minimum, possibly far more. They had set out without a moment's hesitation, and despite the long road, not one of them had found the journey difficult.

What no one had expected was to encounter a lone female hunter partway there, claiming to have lost her way. Seeing that she was no pushover, the group had — out of the kindness of their hearts — brought her along for the rest of the trip. The woman said she had no interest in treasure; she was investigating a strange incident as part of some assignment.

The entire squad was made up of seasoned experts, so there was nothing to worry about from her side. The problems she created were of an entirely different nature — their paper supply had been decimated over the course of the journey, and at this rate they'd soon be resorting to rocks and twigs for personal hygiene...

"We're almost there," said the redhead, the squad's strategist. "We need a plan. Charging straight in from the front is out of the question; the Lizard-Skull Giant Demons in there are numerous enough to keep us fighting for seven days and seven nights."

"Give me the terrain map," the woman said.

"Ah Li Man — don't tell me you're a squad analyst?" The redhead's eyes brightened with interest.

"I generally handle problem-solving," Ah Li Man replied simply.

A squad analyst was the team's brain — responsible for drafting strategy, with plans ratified by the captain and executed strictly by every member. A Hunter-mage squad without a brain could be as powerful as it liked and still end up buried in the wilderness. In most situations, experience and intelligence counted for far more than raw strength.

"It's already getting dark. We'll enter the valley tomorrow at dusk," the redhead continued.

"At dusk? Red Bird, didn't you just say all the Lizard-Skull Giant Demons crawl out of their Nests at dusk? Wouldn't we be walking straight into their mouths?" Huang Zhuosi demanded.

"That's exactly why you don't understand strategy."

Captain Liang Dacui trusted Red Bird completely and proceeded according to the plan as laid out.

The following evening, the Hunter-mage squad appeared at the eastern edge of the valley. They followed what looked like a treacherous path inside — and encountered almost no Lizard-Skull Giant Demons along the way. Huang Zhuosi found this completely baffling.

"How did you know there'd be none of them here?" he asked.

"They love sunbathing, don't they? Look at the terrain — the western face of Sunset Valley sits lower than the east. When every Lizard-Skull Giant Demon crawls out of its Nest to soak up the sunlight, they all naturally cluster on that lower western slope, mud-bathing, basking to their hearts' content. The eastern side is completely clear, obviously." Red Bird delivered this with ill-concealed pride, then couldn't help stealing a glance at the woman called Ah Li Man, searching her expression for some gleam of impressed recognition.

Ah Li Man's face was its usual composed, unreadable mask. Not a flicker.

What occupied her attention was not the valley's treasure at all. She had crouched beside several Lizard-Skull Giant Demon corpses that had appeared nearby for no apparent reason, murmuring to herself: "Pierced by lightning force, killed in an instant... I must be getting closer to that guy."