Shen Ji buys a porcelain pillow at an antique shop. He dreams for a thousand years, then wakes to find himself transmigrated into a ruined temple.
A giant serpent is wreaking havoc in a cave on North Mountain in Jianglexian County. The young girl Li Ji is offered as a sacrifice, but she encounters Shen Ji, who assists her with magic. Together they slay the serpent and find nine skeletons in its lair. Shen Ji later settles in Jianglexian County.
He befriends the fox girl Yingning, then encounters a sinister innkeeper, Third Madam, who turns her customers into livestock. He subdues her and makes her his mount. The county magistrate falls unconscious from illness, and his soul becomes a red carp in East Lake. A fisherman catches and cooks it. Stories found only in strange-tale collections become reality, and Shen Ji guides people toward goodness and maintains order in the world.
