The Tang dynasty is at its height, and Chang’an is thriving. Thirty years after Wu Zetian ascended the throne, dark currents swirl beneath the surface of the court. Demons and ghosts run rampant, and strange cases occur one after another.
The Directorate of Heavenly Affairs is a secret government office set up to handle supernatural cases. Officially, it investigates crimes; in secret, it exterminates demons. Its director, Xiang Tianxing, is known as the “Black Judge.” Cold on the outside but warm-hearted, he solves cases with uncanny skill and carries the late emperor’s imperial “Demon-Slaying Order,” which lets him execute first and report later. Alongside him are the female coroner Luo Xinqiu, the defrocked monk Xuanzhen, the fox spirit and famous courtesan Qiu Qian, the thousand-year-old flower demon Hua Qiniang, the ghost-market assassin Black Crow, the butterfly spirit Bai Xiao’e, and Shigandang, a mute gatekeeper with immense strength. Together, they face off against demons, evil spirits, and corrupt court officials in a series of thrilling battles across a haunted martial world.
From the ghost-market dealer who sells years of life, to the Painted-Skin Lady who peels off faces and wears them; from the man-eating flowers of the Hundred Blossoms Pavilion, to the ghost in the red silk bedchamber who claims lives; from the paper effigy shop that lends years of life, to the headless monk at Ci’en Temple; from a ghost striking the night watchman’s gong like a funeral bell, to a hundred ghosts roaming the streets of Chang’an... Behind every strange case lies an even greater conspiracy.
Xiang Tianxing is investigating more than the demons causing chaos. He is also trying to unravel his own mysterious origins. His father, Xiang Shouzhong, was implicated in the Luoshui silver robbery case thirty years ago, ruining his reputation. After his death, he fell into the animal realm and was reborn as a black pig. The true mastermind behind it all is the Faceless Lord, a conscious entity formed from resentment and yin energy. He began laying his plans thirty years ago, intending to exploit Xiang Tianxing’s ill-fated destiny as a “lone star of heavenly calamity” to open a passage between the realms of the living and the dead when the Ghost Gate opens on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, allowing the Netherworld’s Underworld King to descend upon the human world.
