First published in the seventeenth century during the Ming dynasty, it tells the story of the celestial being Huaguang, who is reincarnated three times as a result of his transgressions.

Sometime later, a demon known as Single Fire Great King[a] gatecrashes a vegetarian feast at Vulture Peak, causing the Buddha's congregation to panic.

[6] He becomes a disciple of the Buddha of Scorching Fire and Jade Radiance,[f] who gives him a triangular golden brick that enables its wielder to transform at will.

[9] Unbeknownst to Huaguang, his mother is in fact a cannibalistic demon who has eaten the real Lady Xiao and usurped her identity.

This eventually leads to an extended skirmish between Huaguang and various Buddhist and Taoist authorities, including Manjushri, Samantabhadra, Guanyin, Nezha, and Princess Iron Fan.

[11] As he resumes his search for his mother, Huaguang is impersonated by a malevolent Taoist—the self-proclaimed Great Immortal of Falling Stones[k]—who accosts a girl in her own bedroom.

[14] Believing that he would be unlikely to do so on his own accord, the arhats resort to trickery: posing as magicians, they greet Huaguang and act as though they were amputating their limbs.

[19] The protagonist in Yu's novel is the Taoist war deity Huaguang, who in turn was likely based on the three-eyed Horse King.

[27] At the same time, the title of Yu's novel is a nod to the Taoist association of fire—the element controlled by Huaguang—with the cardinal direction south.

[8] The earliest surviving edition of the novel, an illustrated woodblock print housed at the British Museum,[26] is dated to the "Xinwei" (辛未) year, probably 1631.