Chen Yan, an auxiliary police officer, studied Taoist spirit-summoning rituals under his master, Zhang Shouzheng, from a young age. After more than a decade of hard work, he finally mastered the incantations and successfully summoned the City God for the first time. He had barely reached the threshold of becoming a ninth-rank Yin deity when news arrived that his master had died under mysterious circumstances.
His master left behind only a tattered handwritten ritual manual, the words “Taishi Que is merely a scribe who took a wrong turn,” and a cold case sealed by the higher-ups. To uncover the truth behind his master's death, Chen Yan joins the Bureau of Paranormal Affairs. He accumulates fortune by solving cases through spirit-summoning, rises through the ranks of the system, and sees his divine rank climb in tandem, from Earth God and City God to a Thunder Department Celestial General.
But summoning spirits always comes at a price. Shortened lifespan, golden divine marks spreading across his body, and a fading sense of self follow one after another. The more powerful he becomes, the less human he seems. Zhou Yuanqi, a disgraced former heir to a consortium, secretly schemes to steal the fortune of the masses through spirit writing. Taishi Que, hidden for a thousand years in the world of books, watches coldly, intent on rewriting the human world and erasing everyone's free will.
Li Qinghe, heir to the Fate Pavilion, accompanies him on his journeys. Shen Shuyan, a mysterious transcriber, secretly bears the fate of a scribe. One guards criminal cases in the human world, while the other protects the Daoist archives in the world of books. Climbing the ranks and gaining divine status may seem glorious, but the price can never be undone. Armed with the art of spirit-summoning, Chen Yan investigates his master's old case even as he confronts a thousand-year-old predicament woven by gods and books.
