Mysterious Lotus Casebook: The Golden Threaded Robe

[Strong male and female leads; the heroine grows stronger later on] After Di Feisheng, leader of the Golden Mandarin Alliance, was gravely wounded in his battle with Li Xiangyi in the East Sea, he went into seclusion to recuperate. That same year, the Alliance carried out a sweeping purge. To cover up what happened with the East Sea thunderfire, Jiao Liqiao slaughtered everyone in the Alliance who knew the truth. Di Yuanxi, a protector of the Golden Mandarin Alliance whom Di Feisheng had brought back from the Di family and personally appointed, was on the list. On the night of the East Sea battle, she learned of the purge and fled toward the East Sea, plunging into its depths. Her whereabouts remain unknown. Rumor has it that the Golden Mandarin Alliance has a notorious female outlaw, as famous as Jiao Liqiao. Though she is not particularly skilled, her golden-thread soft armor is impervious to blades and poison, and is itself coated in deadly toxins, making it even more formidable than the Golden Bell Shield. Many in the martial world have tried to kill her and take the armor, but the Alliance leader is too ruthless for anyone to dare. Since that battle, the hunt for the golden-thread armor has only intensified. Ten years later, Di Yuanxi is still alive, but dares not return to the Golden Mandarin Alliance or reveal what happened in the past. Hiding her identity, she evades Jiao Liqiao's forces and stumbles into the Little Cotton Inn, where she meets Li Lianhua, a physician renowned across the martial world for bringing the dead back to life and restoring flesh to bone, and Fang Duobing, young master of the Heavenly Mechanism Manor. The conflict between good and evil, the fall of a great hero, and the flight of a miserable fugitive are all closely intertwined. The Golden Mandarin Alliance, Li Lianhua, the golden-thread armor, and Di Yuanxi, a killing weapon raised by the Di family: her past gradually comes to light. The surviving heir of the Nanyin Dynasty and a grand plan to restore the throne set the martial world ablaze. Everyone knows the Golden Mandarin Alliance's protectors are the leader's trusted, capable subordinates. In reality, she's just an overworked office drone. They call on her for every little thing, and she hasn't had a day off in over eighty days. Di Feisheng: ...