The last years of the Shang dynasty. King Zhou burns incense at the temple of the goddess Nüwa and writes a lewd poem on her wall. She sends three spirits to ruin him, and the fox among them takes over the body of Su Daji, a marquis’s daughter on her way to the palace. The king builds the ‘burning pillar’ torture and listens only to Daji; ministers who object are removed one by one.
Far away on Mount Kunlun, the Heavenly Venerable Yuanshi has a list of 365 posts for the gods, and someone must go down to hand them out. He sends an old disciple, Jiang Ziya, who has spent forty years on the mountain without becoming an immortal. Jiang Ziya goes to fish by a river and waits. Meanwhile the king jails Ji Chang, Lord of the West and the future King Wen of Zhou, at Youli.
Then the book turns into a war. Nezha, born a ball of flesh after three and a half years in the womb, grows up to fight for Zhou. Immortals of two schools take sides, fight with magic treasures and set traps with names like the Ten Absolute Formations. Wen Zhong, the Shang grand preceptor, marches his armies west against Xiqi, the Zhou base.
