A warlord coerces a pair of banished Zen monks into exorcising the curse over his salt mine. So many slaves have died there that the rest would rather be whipped than go back underground. For the monks, scheming Rikuzen and his blind companion Hotei, the prospect of trying to appease the man-killing mine sounds only slightly more inviting than trying to appease the mounds of fire ants the warlord offers as an alternative.

But as they enter the mind and learn the true nature of the curse, the fire ants begin to look more cuddly.