Bound to the Ghost Officer

Li Xin is a skilled Taoist master and the current head of the Li family, a lineage that has preserved feng shui and ritual practices for centuries. Despite his modern appearance as a wealthy, sharp-featured man in his thirties, he is actually over a thousand years old. He resides in a mountain villa with his twin servants, Chang Wu and Chang You, who were originally spotted deer he saved and transformed into humans. Li Xin maintains a cold, authoritative demeanor in public, commanding respect from the upper class, but harbors a deep, secret grief rooted in events from a millennium ago. His life revolves around a singular, obsessive mission: to recover the scattered souls of his senior brother, Chi Yu, and restore him to life.

The story begins at an auction in Rongcheng, where Li Xin purchases a thousand-year-old jade crown. The crown is a sacred artifact crafted by Li Xin himself for Chi Yu, who was historically vilified as a demon Taoist who destroyed the Dongrong Kingdom. Li Xin corrects the public record, asserting that Chi Yu was actually a sage who sacrificed himself to save the people from a tyrannical crown prince. After the auction, Li Xin is summoned to treat Liu Cheng, a real estate tycoon, whose grandfather is suffering from a mysterious illness. Li Xin diagnoses the condition as a curse caused by a "reverse bow" feng shui defect from a newly constructed road, which has been shooting evil energy at the old man’s bedroom for six months. He successfully dispels the curse using talismans and rituals, saving the old man’s life.

That night, a ghost emissary arrives to claim the old man’s soul, claiming his name is on the list. Li Xin confronts the emissary and is shocked to find that the official resembles Chi Yu and calls him "Senior Brother." The emissary, identified as Chi Yu’s Heaven Soul, has no memory of Li Xin and strictly follows underworld protocol. A second emissary arrives to correct the mistake, revealing that the old man’s death was an error due to the lifted curse. During this encounter, Li Xin learns that Chi Yu’s Heaven Soul serves in the Department of Yincao in the Underworld. Meanwhile, Chi Yu, confused by Li Xin’s reaction, visits a fox demon named You Jiang to inquire about his past. You Jiang reveals that Chi Yu was found with a severely damaged soul and only one soul intact, a mystery that drives Chi Yu to request permission to investigate his life before death.

Li Xin returns to his villa and attempts to communicate with the spirit within the jade crown, which contains one of Chi Yu’s souls. The spirit is weak and does not recognize him, but Li Xin remains hopeful. Days later, the Liu family patriarch falls ill again, this time due to a vengeful female ghost seeking retribution for past wrongs. The ghost holds Chi Yu’s Red Jade soul within her body, using it as a shield against Li Xin’s attacks. Just as Li Xin is about to use a dangerous soul-splitting technique to save Chi Yu’s soul, Chi Yu himself appears. He has been granted leave from the Underworld to handle the matter in the human world. Chi Yu binds the ghost, but she escapes, taking Chi Yu’s soul fragment with her.

Li Xin brings Chi Yu back to his villa, where the twin servants recognize their former master and kneel in joy. Chi Yu, however, has no memory of them. Li Xin leads Chi Yu to a secret chamber beneath the villa, revealing three jade statues containing Chi Yu’s Earth Soul and two other souls, which Li Xin has guarded and nurtured for a thousand years. Li Xin explains his use of a forbidden soul-transfer technique that allows him to reincarnate every sixty years to continue his search. He recounts the tragic history: Chi Yu altered a heavenly sacrifice ritual meant to save the kingdom, dying instead to end the Dongrong Dynasty’s tyranny. Li Xin then guides Chi Yu to integrate the restored Earth Soul into his body, marking a critical step toward reuniting all of Chi Yu’s souls and fulfilling his promise to bring him back to life.