Imperial examination candidate Ning Shuyan seeks shelter at Lanruo Temple on a rainy night and encounters the sword cultivator Yan Jingpeng. Demons and evil spirits successively appear in the temple to cause mischief, but Ning Shuyan, possessed of soaring righteousness, defeats all the demons with bare fists alone. Nie Youluo, a subordinate under the tree demon Granny, is ordered to seduce the scholar but cannot bear to harm him, revealing the agony of being imprisoned by Granny for many years. To save her, Ning Shuyan destroys Granny's lair and breaks the soul-altar restriction on Nie Youluo to restore her freedom. Before dying, Granny lures the Black Mountain Old Demon to forcibly seize Nie Youluo, and Ning Shuyan chants scriptures to deliver ten thousand ghost soldiers, defeating the millennium-old demon with righteous power. Yan Jingpeng is thoroughly subdued and willingly follows him, and Nie Youluo accompanies them as well, with the three embarking together on the road to the capital for the examinations.