Young Detective Dee: Rise of the Sea Dragon

Drama, Action, Fantasy

Empress Wu, who rules with her husband Emperor Gaozong, orders the Navy's warships to Baekje Kingdom. They are to aid its old ally who is in the midst of an invasion by aggressive Buyeo forces that may target China next. Before they can leave port, however, the commanding warships are sunk by a mysterious black shadow that rises to the surface of the water.

The citizens of Luoyang, the Eastern Capital, believe that the Sea Dragon is responsible and that a maiden must be sacrificed to appease it. The most beautiful woman in the city, Courtesan Yin, is to be imprisoned in Sea Dragon Temple and kept chaste for three years. She has angered the upper reaches of society by refusing to sleep with them and this will be her punishment.

The Empress, who has no time for superstition, commands the fiery-haired Yuchi Zhenjin, Chief Commissioner of the Supreme Court, to investigate the act of sabotage against her fleet and her rule. She herself suspects Buyeo sympathisers behind the plot. If Yuchi cannot explain the case and find the culprits within ten days, he is to serve his head to her on a plate.

By chance, Dee Renjie arrives in Luoyang that very day to join the Supreme Court as a district magistrate, a high level government posting with the functions of detective, prosecutor, judge and executioner. After exposing corruption among officials in Bingzhuo, he has been sent to the Eastern Capital by the Construction Minister to set an example at the Supreme Court.

Dee and Yuchi both witness the ceremonial procession of Courtesan Yin through the city streets as she enters Sea Dragon Temple. Both are mesmerised by her beauty. On his way to the Supreme Court, Dee further spots a group of foreign men leave a teahouse, wrap themselves in Taoist monk's robes and head towards a canal that leads away from the Temple.

When Dee reaches the heavily-guarded Supreme Court, he examines the names plates of its officers and a map of Luoyang on the entrance walls and realises that the canal is in fact another route to the Temple. The memory of a hundred details come back to Dee, including the shape of weapons under the fake monks' robes and the mouthing of a command to kidnap the Courtesan.