In the fourth year of Yongzheng's reign, the situation in Jingning Mansion at the junction of Yunnan, Sichuan and Guizhou was treacherous. The old dream of the chieftain was shattered by the iron hooves of returning from the native land. The conflict between the exiled officials and the native people was undercurrent in the mountains. Murder cases exploded like thunder in this wild land.
Shen Wenyuan, the prefect of the Han nationality, was originally a loyal practitioner of the imperial reform, but due to the suspicion of "poison" at the welcome banquet, he was forced to form a temporary investigation team with Yi doctor A Yue, old widower Shi Grandpa, and street boy Zhao Xiaoyi. From the innocent souls in the depths of the salt well to the bloody wedding dress on the dark wedding night, from the robbery on the Tea Horse Road to the fall from the academy tower, fifteen strange cases are like puzzle pieces, piecing together the cruel truth of the struggle for power and the collision of cultures in the torrent of reform.
When the "Mountain Master", a dark alliance composed of remnants of chieftains, powerful Han people and corrupt military officers, surfaced, Shen Wenyuan discovered that he was not only tracking the murderer, but also the evil that grew under the sharp edge of reform. The secret words beside the fire pit, the mysteries in the autopsy notes, and the secrets of the runes of the Yi village. Four people with different identities have experienced the test of blood and fire together. They are not only the crackers of the case, but also witnesses of the pain of history. In the conflict between the will of the empire and the local tradition, justice is illuminated with a faint light, and an epic about justice and protection is written in the high mountains of the southwest.
