From the Start, a Paper Effigy Came to Claim My Life, and I Held Power over All Under Heaven

Shen Yan opens his eyes to find himself the most wretched down-on-his-luck scholar in the capital of Great Yao. His father died on the road to exile, someone has been poisoning his mother with arsenic for half a year, and he himself has been framed for "paper effigies claiming lives" and tied up at the City God Temple to await his death.

Fortunately, in his previous life, he was a forensic technician at the municipal public security bureau.

No mud on the paper effigy's shoes? Its bamboo frame was freshly cut? The corpse's fingernails are clean, and the facial injuries show no signs of having healed in life?

He exposes the fake supernatural tricks in front of everyone and wins himself three days to solve the case.

Starting with the disappearance of the Lu family's bride, he examines corpses, checks accounts, and digs into old cases. He discovers that his father's death, three thousand shi of military provisions, and a salt license all point to the same person, hidden deep within the imperial court.

And the empress on the dragon throne listens from behind a screen as he strips away layer after layer of lies told by the entire court.

Others kill with blades. He kills with evidence.

From a down-on-his-luck scholar to a secretary at the Court of Judicial Review, from the capital to the Eight Wilds, he will make every dead person speak.