Having heard nothing in months, Sun Mingsan and Yu Hongzhen anticipate word from Pei Leiping about the hungry ghost problem in the afterlife, finally receiving a long-awaited message from a passing talismanic bird . . . only to discover that it is not from Pei Leiping, but the Jade Empress, and that they're under arrest by order of the Heavenly Court. When faced with a sentence of 3,000 years in the musty jails of Heaven Realm, two of Yu Hongzhen's old companions, now turned gods-in-training, vouch for them and open up a path of freedom for them-that is, if they reverse the tumult they've caused in the Spirit and Mortal Realms alike. The Jade Empress puts the four of them on an assignment to catch the three most malevolent ghosts terrorizing the three realms: The Covetous Bride, No-Face Gao, and The Metal Maelstrom. With no choice but to agree to their new sentence, they embark on a new journey through the three realms. Unbeknownst to the others, Sun Mingsan discovers something that's been kept under wraps for the past year. The old god of the underworld, Gui Shen Wang, has returned, in the form of an old confidant that had long since turned on them.