故事发生在清朝雍正年间，民间能人志士对雍正（江洋 饰）的暴政口诛笔伐，为了肃清这些反对的声音，雍正大兴文字狱，凡有忤逆者，皆满门抄斩。与此同时，雍正集结了一支护卫队，使用残酷的处刑器具血滴子，杀尽天下胆敢说出真话之人。
谢天富（汪禹 饰）是护卫队中的一员，很快，他便发现，自己所杀之人，竟然皆是正义勇敢的有志之士，遂对雍正的真正意图产生了怀疑，之后，谢天富死于非命。同僚的死让马腾（陈观秦 饰）看清了事件的真相，他决心金盆洗手，连夜潜逃出京。之后，马腾来到了地处偏远的深山村庄之中，隐姓埋名，并娶了玉贞（刘午琪 饰）为妻，就当他以为平静的生活即将继续之时，雍正派出的杀手已经步步逼近。

A SLICE OF DEATH / ABBOT OF SHAOLIN (1979) is another Shaw Bros. kung fu film with a Shaolin Temple theme. David Chiang stars as the monk Chi San, who survives the burning of Shaolin Temple and travels south to Kwangtung to raise money to re-build the temple as forces loyal to the Ching Emperor follow in close pursuit. He meets a merchant in Kwangtung who becomes his patron and he develops a group of followers, including Hung Si Kwan, a familiar character from Shaolin lore. There are lots of good fight scenes and a well-written script with interesting encounters between the varied characters.