The Divine Corpse Codex: Beholding All Beings at the Twilight of the Gods

In the spiral system of the Three Realms, the Divine Domain suppresses the human world beneath an inverted pyramid, yet rests upon the bones of mortals. The Nether Ruins imprison fragments of human nature and breed evil spirits. Every time a cultivator in the human world undergoes tribulation, they spend the karma of their next life. Pei Hongyao, a lame herb peddler, stumbles upon a god-slaying mushroom and uncovers the Divine Domain's brutal law: advancing one's divine rank requires overcoming inner demons. Lin Shuangjing, a deaf and mute embroiderer, reveals layer upon layer of ancient seals with her silver thread, exposing heaps of bones in the foundations of the Divine Domain. Huo Jiulin, a retired executioner, seeks to prolong his daughter's life, only to discover that the fuel for the life-borrowing incense is divine fire. Sang Wanling, an insect-witch, turns herself into a living gu and attempts to devour the Divine Domain's pyramid... When the protagonists pierce through the thirty-third heaven, they discover that the Divine Domain is merely a weapon of causality left behind by ancient cultivators, and that the bones of the first Creator God are still holding back an invasion by outer gods. In the end, they must choose between "restarting civilization" and "inheriting the divine remains." Whichever path they choose, they will become either new tyrants or eternal prisoners. The story uses a nested "dual-text" structure, concealing interrogation records from the Divine Domain. Amid acts of god-slaying and moral dilemmas, it reveals the eternal struggle between human nature and divinity.

This novel and its characters are entirely fictional. Any resemblance to real people or events is purely coincidental. Do not imitate.