Ning Tsai-Shen, a humble travelling tax collector, arrives in a small town, but, the inns all being full, he ends up spending the night in the haunted Lan Ro temple. There he meets Taoist swordsman Yen Che-Hsia, who warns him to stay out of trouble, and the beautiful Nieh Hsiao-Tsing, with whom he falls in love. Unfortunately, Hsiao-Tsing is a ghost, bound for all eternity by a hideous tree spirit with an incredibly long tongue that wraps itself round its victims and sucks out their life essence (yang element).