The workers of a dye factory have their pay cut by 20% when the factory owner brings in some Manchu thugs to try and increase production. Desperate to reclaim their full wages, the workers hire an actor to impersonate a priest and kung-fu expert from the temple of Shaolin. The factory owner proves the actor a fraud, and punishes all those involved. The young actor feels he has let the workers down, and promises to atone. He sets out for Shaolin, determined to be accepted as a kung-fu pupil at the elite temple.

A powerful crime syndicate known as the Chi Sha clan is a vast network of deadly criminals proficient in martial arts. Growing in number at an alarming rate, the Imperial Court orders Yang Chen-yu and his followers to wipe them out at all costs. Doing this proves difficult as no one knows the identity of the mastermind behind the Chi Sha, not even its own members. Spies infiltrate the organization in an effort to destroy them from within. But then, no one knows who the spies are and after a few ambushes and security breaches, the clan deputies begin suspecting one another of being traitors. With the Chi Sha dwindling in numbers, it's a matter of time before the mastermind must reveal himself.