"Desire" is set in a remote area in Ancient China where a butcher named Chopper (Liu Xiaoye) is in love with Madam Mei (Kitty Zhang) and tries to buy her, but is beaten to her by the swordsman Big Beard (Senggerenqin) who gets her first.

Ignoring the beggar's warning that the cleaver is a kitchen knife not meant for homicide, Chopper steals the blade and seeks vengeance on Big Beard.

[2] In "Vengeance", which is the beggar's story of the cleaver, a master chef (Mi Dan) is instructed to prepare his renowned eight-course specialties for the powerful Court Eunuch Liu (Xie Ning) who will be in the area in a month's time.

[2] In "Greed", which is the master chef's story, the Swordsman Dugu Cheng (Ashton Xu) brings a lump of black iron that was cast by Fatty Tang (You Benchang) by melting down weapons from defeated champion warriors.

A generation before, Dugu Cheng's late father was the victor who routed numerous ambitious pugilists in an attempt to restore peace to the realms and had taken the black iron with him to the grave.

Dugu Cheng wants to become the new champion and manages to force Fatty Tang into forging the black iron into a sabre, just in time to face a host of other of ambitious pugilists who caught up with him.