Brotherhood of Blades II: The Infernal Battlefield
The film starts with the Battle of Sarhu, where the Ming dynasty army has been overrun by the Later Jin forces. A Ming soldier, Shen Lian, saves Lu Wenzhao from Jin soldiers who were rounding up and executing any remaining Ming soldiers.
8 years later, Shen Lian (Chang Chen) is a Captain of the guards in Southern Beijing. Lu Wenzhao is his superior officer who endears himself to the higher-ups by using any possible way. On a case related to the death of Master Guo, he is forced by a rival Lieutenant Ling, to pursue and arrest his subordinate Yin Cheng for an alcohol-induced rant against the Emperor. However, Yin Cheng commits suicide. To pray for his subordinate's soul to be released from purgatory, Shen Lian buys Bei Zhai paintings from a monk, Master Jinghai, who commends Shen Lian on his frequent purchase of Bei Zhai paintings. On his way, he gets caught in the rain, and is offered shelter under an umbrella by an unknown woman, who, despite him being in the Imperial uniform, is not afraid of him.
At the same time, Lu Wenzhao is trying to appease the powerful court eunuch Master Wei to gain his favor. Accordingly, he orders Lieutenant Ling, Master Wei's nephew, to kill Bei Zhai, who is maligning Master Wei's reputation through her paintings. Shen Lian tags along to see if its Bei Zhai, the painter. On reaching the house, they discover that Bei Zhai (Yang Mi) is a woman, the same one who gave Shen Lian shelter from the rain. When Lieutenant Ling tries to rape Bei Zhai before killing her, Shen Lian protests, and a fight erupts between the two, which culminates in Shen Lian accidentally killing Ling. Bei Zhai, having witnessed this, escapes, with Shen Lian too injured to pursue her. Shen Lian covers up his role in Ling's death and gives a statement that two assassins ambushed them and killed Ling. The case is being handled by Captain Pei Lun, who seems to have a dislike for Captain Shen Lian. It is later revealed that Yin Cheng was Pei Lun's only friend, and that he hates Shen Lian for the death of Yin Cheng.
A group of assassins contact Shen Lian to reveal that they know of his role in Ling's death, and that they will expose him using Bei Zhai if he does not set fire to the Imperial Archives. Left with no other choice, Shen Lian complies, but deduces that the assassins were actually targeting the construction log book of a dragon ship that sank on Lake Taiye with the Emperor on board. The log book could furnish evidence that this was an attempt on the life of the Emperor, who has been bedridden with pneumonia ever since the sinking. Shen Lian burns the archive, but keeps the log book. When the assassins, having seen that the archive has been burnt, try to kill Shen Lian, he threatens them with the exposure of the log book if anything happens to him. He offers to exchange Bei Zhai for the log book and leaves. Shen Lian later encounters Bei Zhai at his home; she is looking for the log book, which is important to keep the name of the man she loves being maligned. Captain Pei Lun mistakes her for Shen Lian's wife.