The action-packed prequel to Fist of the North Star is set in the dangerous Shanghai of the 1930s, where governmental and factional powers have divided the city into different quarters, each with their own set of laws, rampant with corruption and shrouded in mystery. The streets are ruled by the local gangs and death is always lurking around the corner. Yan Wang, otherwise known as "the King of Death," walked these hazardous streets in the past battling against evil forces. He was a Hokuto Shinken master, a deadly martial art, yet no one knew who he really was. After putting an end to the city's worst gangsters, Yan Wang vanished, and rumors about his whereabouts in Japan began to circulate. With different people on the hunt for him in Japan, who will find him first remains unknown.