The story opens with the fall of Weihai in 1938. When the Japanese army beats Taoist priest Bi Yun for refusing to bow, his temple is destroyed. He buries his master's memorial tablet, takes up a dagger, and enters the secular world to repay blood with blood. Lost in his pursuit of revenge, he witnesses injustice and is eventually rescued by Communist forces fighting the Japanese. There, he comes to understand the true meaning of the Great Way: not to seek salvation for oneself alone, but to serve all under heaven. He burns his Taoist robes and devotes everything he has learned to saving the nation, remaking his faith from “cultivating the Way for oneself” to “entering the world for the people.” In the winter of 1942, he gives his life beneath G Pine Hill, pouring out his blood to cover the people's retreat and living out the heavenly principle of “benefiting without harming.”
