When excessive human greed and pettiness take precedence, it is impossible to learn from history, and so they perish, as they have here for 200 years, distant great-grandparents, grandparents, uncles, and fathers in search of treasure. Infinite riches that were hidden by General Nian Gengyao when he was betrayed by Emperor Yongzheng during his third year in power. In other words, the legend—born of an emperor’s betrayal and ambition towards his right-hand man in the military—is of the same human folly as that of the expeditionaries who betray and murder each other to reach the city of the devil. At the beginning, it is narrated how two centuries ago, during the Qing dynasty, General Nian Gengyao hid an enormous treasure in the desert, in a place called the Devil’s City.

To keep the secret, he had almost everyone who helped him executed, but some details, such as links, testimonies and clues about the hiding place, managed to leak out and survive over time. The expedition is led by a crowd of people under the command of the ruffian Lu Dadao, who is always accompanied by his military advisor, a shrewd man who waits for the best moment and, in the end, admits that he has been longing for the ancient jewels for 30 years.

Separately, the journey is also undertaken by Liu Qing, a stern explorer who, as we will learn at the end, is doing it for his grandparents and father, who died trying to find the treasure of the city in the desert. In the meantime, the bloodthirsty Lu Dao kidnaps Ayiguli, a beautiful Uighur girl who becomes the centrepiece of the conflict between the factions of treasure hunters because she is taken as a slave but closely followed by a boy who is clearly kind-hearted, Wang Hongshui, a healer.

The map, or essential pieces of information needed to reach the Devil’s City, are passed on clandestinely among families, former guards and accomplices of the imperial court, as well as merchants and nomads travelling through the desert region. Over generations, these papers pass into various hands, becoming mixed with legends and forgeries. The military advisor (a character who acts as an opportunist and manipulator) obtains the map by intercepting one of the former guardians, a descendant of those who survived the massacre ordered by the general. It is suggested that he obtains it through deception, bribery and by taking advantage of the chaos of tribal fighting in the region. The map is partially damaged, which increases the tension among those seeking the treasure, as each faction has only part of the information. Unfortunately, since Ayiguli delays the expedition with a time limit because the reliable map says that the entrance to the cave must be made on the summer solstice and there are only ten days left before the journey begins, Liu Qing, no less evil than Lu Dao, leader of the caravan, cuts a sensitive part of her wrist and leaves her to her fate in the middle of the desert dunes.

Wang Hongshui decides to accompany her even though he knows that this will also be a death sentence for him, due to thirst and inclement weather. The film offers one of its sweetest and most beautiful scenes here, albeit brief, as the two young people forget their imminent death for a moment and slide through the sand until the young man pretends to eat her earring (1:01:14) and she swallows hers, dying first from the infection and the cut she already had. Finally, Liu Qing manages to arrive alive and observe how the others have been killed along the way. He confronts Lu Dao, shoots and wounds him, then ties him up to die alone just outside the cave with the treasures. However, Liu Qing did not count on the military advisor, who pretended to be a beggar and ambushed him, tying him up. When the advisor enters the cave, ecstatic at the sight of so many pearls and necklaces, he dies immediately in front of Li Qing, who has already freed himself. Qing understood that everyone who came there died when they bent down or knelt to pick up the precious stones and gold because the gases are lethal. In any case, Qing did not prove to be less greedy than Lu Dao because he was able to leave at that moment, having fulfilled the promise he made to his father and grandparents, saving the treasures from the hands of others. However, he succumbed to greed and died trying to extract the jewels. The elders of Jingbian said the same thing they had said since time immemorial, that to the west there is a Devil’s City that hides treasures, especially highly prized emeralds, but none of the seekers have ever returned.