Shen Ye, a newly graduated job seeker who's out of work, rents a cheap partitioned room in the western part of the city. He thinks the place is just a little run-down, until he discovers it's haunted. One night, he wakes up freezing and finds a young male ghost in a black Tang suit floating over his bed. The ghost introduces himself as Beiming, a “Ghost King” who has been dead for six or seven years. Beiming says Shen Ye has a special constitution and not much time left to live, and offers to take him on as an apprentice to keep him alive. In a daze, Shen Ye kowtows three times, and from then on steps into a bizarre and wondrous world.
The master and apprentice take over an old shop called “No Three Ways,” which specializes in dealing with all kinds of supernatural incidents. From a complete novice who knows nothing, Shen Ye gradually learns to draw talismans, catch ghosts, and lay the restless dead to rest. He takes in Xiaodie, a little ghost who was used in evil cultivation, and rescues Xiaoyue, a mute girl whose soul has been damaged. The four of them, one human and three ghosts, live a noisy, lively life in the little shop.
As the secrets of the seven Calamity-Crossing Jades come to light, Shen Ye discovers that there was more to Beiming's death than meets the eye. His soul was split in two: one half was trapped where he died, while the other was attached to a jade and had been following Shen Ye all along. To bring his master back to life, Shen Ye sets out to find the Calamity-Crossing Jades, unaware that an ultimate test of love and redemption awaits him.
This is a story about companionship and protection. Humans and ghosts may belong to different worlds, but love transcends life and death. When Shen Ye grows old, dies, and becomes a ghost himself, he can finally take Beiming's hand and say, “From now on, we'll be together forever.”
