Volume One

Prologue

A winter evening.

On the last train of Beijing Metro Line 5.

There were few passengers, with only a handful scattered across the cars. In one particular car, there was only a single woman—or perhaps a girl?—wearing black-rimmed glasses and a white down jacket, nodding off to sleep... In any case, these days, there are as many older virgins as there are mature young women, so it hardly matters whether she’s called a woman or a girl.

“Not a shred of inspiration!” With a jolt of the carriage, the girl suddenly woke up, and began muttering inexplicably. “There isn’t a single urban legend in all of Beijing that’s even remotely convincing, and if you’re alone on the last train of Line 5, you might see the Dragon-Locking Well... There are lights everywhere, modern equipment everywhere, I must be out of my mind to keep wasting time here!”

“But what about tomorrow’s chapter?” After venting, the older girl, holding onto the handrail as she stood up, continued to let her thoughts wander, somewhat feebly. “I’ve already taken two days off, so there’s no way I’ll get perfect attendance this month. The editor probably won’t care about a flop writer like me, but the few die-hard readers I have might be dissatisfied, right?”

“I could be writing a proper transmigration story, but why did I foolishly decide to write urban supernatural fiction instead?”

“Could it be that Grace Carter has run out of talent? Should I change jobs? But what else can a useless Chinese major do besides writing web novels?”

“Maybe I should just go back home?”

Lost in her wild thoughts, the subway doors suddenly opened. Was it... the station?

Shivering in the cold wind as the doors opened, the older girl instinctively stepped out.

All around was pitch black. The subway car behind her paused briefly, then closed its doors and continued on. The dazed older girl never figured out what had happened. But soon, as her eyes adjusted to the light, this female web novelist had no room for any other thoughts. Or rather, she was completely stunned by the scene before her—a perfectly ordinary well, built of stone, dilapidated yet real. Behind the well stood a stone stele, its inscription blurred and unreadable, and to one side of the well stood a stone pillar, from which a thick iron chain stretched out, trailing all the way into the mouth of the well.

In that instant, the older girl seemed to forget fear and terror, and almost with a sense of mission, she strode forward to grab the long chain, just wanting to see if it was really endless as the legend said—after all, coming to the Dragon-Locking Well and not pulling the chain would be a wasted trip, wouldn’t it?

But the moment she grasped the chain, the stone stele behind the well suddenly trembled, then quickly cracked open. The stone pillar at the start of the chain snapped cleanly, and a flash of multicolored light flickered from within the well... Then, this fearless, muddleheaded female web novelist was yanked backward by the iron chain and dragged into the well.

No sooner had she entered the well than the stone stele shattered and fell, covering the mouth of the well.

...

“In the first month of the first year of Han Yongshou, an official from Liaoxi was returning from the prefecture and encountered a woman emerging from a well. She claimed to be from Qiao in Peiguo, had fallen into the well, and in a daze, found herself here. The official examined her appearance, speech, and clothing, all of which were of noble quality, and took her in. Half a year later, the official died, and the woman did not remarry, living as a widow and raising his posthumous child. She was skilled in commerce, knowledgeable about wealth, charitable and kind, helping orphans and widows, and was highly respected by her clan, who all called her: Mary Benson.” — “In Search of the Supernatural”

Chapter One

Lulong Fortress

In the winter of the third year of Han Xiping, 174 AD, at Lulong Fortress, a strategic stronghold in northern Youzhou, the cold wind howled.

Outside the pass, a massive camp capable of housing several thousand Xianbei soldiers stood at a key road junction several li away. To the left was a mountain extending from the Yan Mountains, and to the right, the Luan River. In winter, the mountains looked especially dark, while the Luan River appeared especially white. The two reflected each other, creating an atmosphere of bleakness and killing intent.

In stark contrast to this camp was the towering, majestic Lulong Fortress to its south.

Lulong Fortress, later known as Xifengkou, was a natural pass in the Yan Mountains. The southern side of this place was gently sloping, with an elevation of only about two hundred meters, but on the northern side, it abruptly rose to a thousand meters, with only a massive gap carved out by the Luan River in the middle, allowing carriages and horses to pass unimpeded. It had always been the main route for entering and leaving the North China Plain from beyond the pass.

With such a location, the Han Dynasty was certainly not blind to its importance, so the defenses here were built to be impregnable. Especially at Lulong Fortress, facing the main road, everything was constructed with cut stone, the walls towering over five zhang high, with watchtowers an additional three zhang tall built atop them.

This was the famous Lulong Tower.

Standing at the foot of the tower, the so-called towering majesty and imposing aura—one man guarding the pass, ten thousand unable to break through—this must be what it means.