The Vigilante In The Mask

Stung by his loss in the sedan chair race, AUYEUNG HING, son of the wealthy and influential Hekou County businessman AUYEUNG KWAI, falsely accuses carrier LEE TAI KWONG of scheming with rival FAN KEUNG HO TSUN to manipulate the results. KWONG and his family are sentenced to ten years of slavery at the AUYEUNG household by the corrupt magistrate LAI CHI KOK. His father LAI PANG CHUNG, head sheriff, and fiancee CHUNG WAN, an herbal doctor, reprimand him for failing to restore justice. Later, HING is arrested by CHUNG for harassing the talented YUEN KAI SA. Threatening to expose his bribery, KWAI presses KOK to dismiss CHUNG, and urges him to announce the legalization of gambling and speed up the construction of the Daotou passageway. KOK’s unpopular policy provokes mass protests. KOK and KWAI visit Duming Monastery hoping that ABBOT MISERY will consent to the construction of a passageway that passes by the monastery……

The black-garbed vigilante gives HING a good beating and leaves the scene. KOK hurries back to WAN’s herbal clinic upon learning from his fast friend LOK FU, Chief Secretary of the Yamen, that WAN has narrowly escaped from an attempted rape. When WAN refuses to treat HING’s wounds, KOK turns to her father CHUNG YUEN for help, ignoring her hard feelings. Village folks hail the chivalry of the black-garbed vigilante and dub him the “Plum Blossom Valiant”. Since CHUNG and his men fail to track down the Plum Blossom Valiant, KWAI offers one thousand taels of silver to information leading to his arrest, much to KOK’s dismay. CHUNG receives home PO KWONG, son of a late friend. KWONG pours scorn on the apparently corrupt KOK. In their younger years, KWONG and KOK were fellow disciples of the Wudang School but the latter was expelled……