Nine Gates Mystery

In Beijing during the Guangxu period, the first prostitute was found disemboweled in the depths of the ghost market. Her abdomen was engraved with blood-written writings and strange Tai Chi diagrams. Yichen, a rundown clan, realized that this was not an ordinary murder—it was a perfect crime that blended cruel methods from the East and the West. At the same time, female medical officer Su Jiuer sneaked into the capital as an apprentice. The scent of medicine lingering on her sleeves and her precise anatomy techniques were exactly the same as those used in the serial murder case. When Liulichang is surprised to find a dismembered female corpse that has been put up as a puppet, with the zodiac code engraved on her skin, the household bank is robbed by kite thieves, and the chessboard killing array at Baylor Mansion leads to the theft of the military aircraft department - the two are forced to form a life-or-death alliance amid suspicion and temptation. Traditional martial arts compete with Western anatomy, the Feng Shui compass calculates ballistic trajectories, and the secret book of Peking Opera deciphers the codes of constellations. And as the truth approaches, the shady story of the power struggle in the Forbidden City is slowly revealed. The astrological charts of the foreign priests of Qin Tian Jian, the chess game of the old minister of the Ministry of Punishments, and the secret techniques of the Nanyang Sect of the White Lotus Sect all point to a shocking experiment that overthrows the dynasty...