On a thunderous night in Liyang, a fire burned down the palace; the secret documents of the previous dynasty were burned, and the prime minister of the current dynasty died violently in the palace.
In April of the sixth year of Longwu, undercurrents surged in Liyang City, the thousand-year-old capital. A strange palace fire reduced the dust-covered palaces to ruins and inflamed the strangeness of the court. Hou Mingan of Wuyang, an "idle prince" who was regarded as his own by the emperor and empress but lived freely on the edge of power, was pushed to the forefront by the angry emperor.
He was ordered to conduct a thorough investigation, but clues were looming like ghosts: Shang Gongju's Dianji committed suicide mysteriously, leaving behind Mo Yuanwei's Pisces jade pendant; the prime minister's concubine, Yan Li, the daughter of the guilty minister, was brutally poisoned, and a strange poison that was extinct in the Western Regions was found in her body; the semi-retired powerful minister Ning Guogong, the unfathomable King Guangling, and the eunuchs of the inner court, the forces of all parties are closely guarded, but they are intertwined like coincidence. A piece of borrowing paperwork made the seemingly clear water muddy.
Ming'an walked between the embers of fire and the ghosts in people's hearts. He relied on the blade of Yu Linwei, and the complex and clear eyes of Princess Guangling Yun Qi also made him feel uneasy. When the exotic and poisonous fragrance of Annan Pharmacy fills the air, and when Jiaofangsi sheds a river of blood overnight, Ming'an discovers: the fire case is just a cover-up, the murder case is just a cover-up, and a shocking conspiracy that can overturn the foundation of Dahao is quietly emerging in the prosperity of Liyang City.
The great changes in Annan, the hunted prince, the ambushes of the army, the mysterious Japanese pirates, are Ming'an's frequent encounters with illusions or conspiracies? Where is the truth? Ming'an must tear apart the illusion and find the black hand stirring up the storm between the suspicion of the Holy Emperor and the fangs of the powerful ministers.
