As an undertaker in an ordinary funeral home, Mo Shei has been hearing a strange "cicada chirping" since he was a child - it comes from the remnants of the deceased and the hidden obsessions of the living. He had always regarded this as a stubborn disease that troubled his soul, until a mysterious and dying cultivator broke into his workshop, pointed at his ear and said: "You are the last 'cicada listener'... The 'Ten Thousand Cicada Tribulations' are coming, and only you can survive the tribulation, or... Be swallowed up by the tribulation."
Mo Sheo is forced into a hidden world. He discovered that he could see the scene formed by obsession through the "cicada sound", and even absorb the weak power from it. However, this ability is also coveted by various forces: the orthodox cultivation sects regard him as a walking "source of calamity" and want to get rid of it quickly; the dormant evil cultivators want to seize his ability and refine the obsessions of all living beings in order to achieve the great success of the devil; and in the shadows of the city, the "tribulation demons" transformed by obsession have begun to quietly breed, accumulating strength for the upcoming "Thousand Cicada Tribulation".
From overcoming the lovers' resentment in a love-murder case to quelling the curse of greed accumulated by a century-old business family, Mo Shen grew up with difficulty in overcoming the tribulation. He gradually discovered that his life experience was closely related to the demise of the ancient cicada listeners and the truth of this periodic "ten thousand cicada tribulations". He must find his own way to "overcome the calamity" between all forces before the cicadas boil completely and the boundary between reality and obsession collapses: Should he cut off his obsessions, or... Understand and carry them?
