The film tells the mythological figure of Jiang Ziya, who is a Taoist adept in Chinese folk religion and Taoism, and its story is loosely based on the literary version of the myth that forms two chapters of "Investiture of the Gods", a Ming-dynasty (1368–1644) "shenmo" novel, traditionally attributed to Xu Zhonglin, which incorporates various existing myths into a wider narrative.