Lin Dongzhi, a medical student, never imagined he would go from poring over medical textbooks to becoming a spirit medium beneath Changbai Mountain. A bizarre incident on the seventh night after his grandfather, the Old Stele King, passed away forces him onto the path of spirit mediumship. When he raises the spirit pole and establishes his altar, the one who appears isn’t a renowned immortal spirit, but Bai Xian, the fox spirit his grandfather suppressed for half a lifetime. One demand, “Give me back my original tail,” drags him into the depths of the immortal spirits’ feud.
Together with Huang Xiaopao, a talkative messenger spirit, and Chang Qingyu, a gifted healer and snake spirit, he ventures into Changbai’s secret realm, breaks through the spirits’ maze formations, gathers the troops of the Yin Hall, and unravels the mystery behind thirty years of internal strife among the immortal spirits. He must also contend with developers who hire curse practitioners to steal the dragon veins, and call out online spirit mediums who exploit their connection to the spirits for profit.
He keeps the five rules of the altar in his heart and observes the three things never to accept and four things never to save. The secrets of the twin foxes in his grandfather’s coffin, Bai Xian’s true purpose, and the tangled karma of three generations of Stele Kings are all hidden in Changbai Mountain’s wind and snow and the curling smoke above the incense altar.
This is a story of a spirit medium and immortal spirits choosing one another, and of traditional spirit-medium culture enduring and finding redemption in a new age. The legend of the Stele King of Changbai Mountain begins here, written by Lin Dongzhi.
