Modern forensic doctor Lu Zhao is unexpectedly reborn in the Wanli era, in the body of a penniless scholar with the same name. As soon as he enters the imperial examination, he is caught up in a bizarre murder case: a candidate has died suddenly, his face peeled off in one piece, yet the wound has not shed a drop of blood. Rumors spread that the Painted-Skin Ghost has returned to the world.
Using his modern forensic knowledge, Lu Zhao sees through the use of poison, but this earns him a warning from the mysterious coroner Yu Dansha: "This case involves the Red Lotus heretical sect. It is beyond your ability to solve." Stranger still, the policy essay he writes draws down a torrent of literary energy, catching the attention of great Confucian masters.
In this Ming dynasty, where Confucian cultivators govern the country through literary energy and Buddhists and Daoists subdue demons, Lu Zhao discovers that his transmigration was no accident. A spiritual root uniting the Three Teachings lies hidden within him, while the Western Holy Light Church and the yin-yang masters of Japan eye the Nine Provinces hungrily...
