A child whose entire family has been slaughtered escapes into the mountains under the protection of a loyal servant, finding shelter in a hunter's home. During more than a decade in the wilderness, a great Confucian scholar educates him. He keeps his talents hidden, waiting for the day he can enter the world and clear his parents' names.
He astonishes everyone with his policy essay at the autumn imperial examination and joins the Ministry of Justice as an official, only to find himself caught in an even deeper maelstrom. Clues about illegal salt in an old case, the cruelty beneath his superior's calm facade, a mysterious faction that attacks him during a nighttime investigation, and a purse embroidered with green bamboo become the only warmth on his frigid path of revenge.
As he investigates the criminal network at the lowest levels, he encounters an injured man wearing a bronze mask. He slips into a secret chamber to search for evidence, only to be saved from assassins by the "Night Owl." And in a house with no writing on its doors, he discovers a lost ancient formula connected to palace secrets. When he uses poetry as bait to play a game of wits with a mysterious woman in a pavilion, their open hostility makes the situation even more perilous.
Stealing a secret key confirms that his superior is an underling of the mastermind, but also draws deeper suspicion. Just as he maneuvers through the narrow gaps of officialdom, an urgent message arrives from his old home: a stranger has been asking about the past. Even that peaceful refuge, filled with warm memories, is now shrouded in danger.
His blood feud remains unresolved, and the people he wants to protect are already in peril. Clutching the purse, he gazes at the dark clouds gathering over the capital: should he continue to expose the corrupt network, or turn back to protect the last light in his life? The secrets behind the ancient formula, an information broker who operates in the gray areas, and a colossal force hidden in the shadows are drawing him into an even more inescapable web...
