before the completion, there were murder cases: jia yi, minister of works, and xue yong (played by liu jinshan), the minister of works, died of death after being burned down. supervisor sha tuo (played by leung ka-hui) said that the two were condemned by heaven for moving the talisman of the heavenly pillar. the young minister pei donglai (played by deng chao) of dali temple and shangguan jinger (played by li bingbing) of the empress of wu were ordered to investigate, but the national teacher lu li pointed out that the case needs to be investigated by di renjie (played by andy lau). empress wu issued an order that di renjie, who had been imprisoned for eight years, was released as an imperial envoy in charge of the case, but was attacked by an assassin. fortunately, he was prepared for a long time, and with shangguan jing'er's care, he was able to escape. di renjie ruled out the suspicious object of langya king li xiao (played by yao lu), and rejected his appointment to fight against the empress of martial arts. di renjie discovered that the deceased had poisoned the red flame golden beetle, so he led pei donglai and shangguan jing'er to visit the ghost market at night, hoping to get the truth from the former imperial physician wang lu. he did not want to be ambushed. he was suspected of showing up and the killers gathered, making it difficult for the three of them to escape. however, after a fight, the case seemed to have a turning point...
