The Night Parade of a Hundred Demons

In the twenty-second year of the Republic, demonic disasters plagued Jinghu County in Jiangnan: children were drained of their blood and vital essence, and a rotting corpse was found hidden in a bridal sedan. Every clue pointed to the destruction of the Demon-Sealing Stele at Xuanqing Temple twenty years earlier. Lin Zhaozhao, the last heir of Xuanqing Temple, carried the deep-seated hatred of her parents, who had died protecting the stele. Armed with a peachwood sword and talismans, she set out to uncover the truth. Lu Chenzhou, a Western-educated forensic reporter, did not believe in ghosts or gods. But after witnessing a water demon overturn a boat and a blood fiend dog attack, he joined forces with Lin Zhaozhao in an unusual partnership combining mystic arts and science. Together, they searched for the seven pieces of the Demon-Sealing Stele and fought the powerful Lord Song, who used children’s blood and vital essence to refine Blood Fiend Pearls, as well as Japanese onmyoji Fujiwara Hideaki, who sought to aid the Japanese invasion of China by harnessing the ancient great demon Jiuying. From the dying request of the blind elder who told stories at the City God Temple to their life-or-death battle against Jiuying on Mirror Lake Mountain, they held fast to their belief that “hunting demons means saving people” amid the upheaval of a war-torn age. In the end, they sealed the demons once more with their flesh and faith, and uncovered the deeper truth: the greed in people’s hearts is the most fearsome demon of all.