I Started a Lam Ching-ying Ghost-Hunting System in the Devil’s World

Chen Aiguo is reborn in a Western fantasy world ruled by devils. Here, humans who want to cultivate immortality have to pay the devils an “idiot tax”: a monthly test of magical runes. Fail, and you're stuck as a mere mortal for the rest of your life.

Armed with a ghost-hunting System modeled after Lin Zhengying, he wields exorcising glutinous rice in his left hand and a child-sized peachwood sword in his right, with expired black-dog blood tucked in his pocket. He breaks into an exorcism square dance in Chinese style inside the devils' trial tower. When the noble lords draw their magic circles with bat blood, he pulls out a dialect version of the Rebirth Mantra. When the proctor summons a hellhound, he whips out a blessed donkey hoof. Even the devil statues start dancing like robots when he plays a remix of the Great Compassion Mantra.

“Contestant, why did you attack a nightmare beast with fried rice?”

“It's glutinous rice to dispel evil. Even the devils love it!”

“Then why does the talisman in the trial tower say ‘demolish’?”

“That's the ancient Eastern seal script for ‘suppress’... probably?”

In this world where steampunk and talismans soar side by side, and potions dance with black-dog blood, Chen Aiguo joins forces with a half-elf apothecary, a zombie sidekick who can dance the yangge, and a System that always plays “The Most Dazzling Ethnic Style” at crucial moments. Together, they rewrite the devils' cultivation rules as The Maoshan Taoist's Guide to Surviving in Another World.

When the devil at the top of the nine-level trial tower opens its blood-red eyes, it finds the young man carrying a spirit-summoning banner drawing the character for “king” on its forehead with cinnabar.