Folk Horror: From the Start, I Had a Black Shrine

A proper spirit medium serves the Five Immortals: the Fox, the Weasel, the Hedgehog, the Snake, and the Rat. They seek to accumulate good karma and attain enlightenment.

But I, Chen Jiu, was born with a fate that leaves me without descendants. I bring misfortune to kin, friends, and spirits alike. Even righteous immortals steer clear of me.

To stay alive, I was forced to set up a spirit altar with a blood-red contract written on black paper.

Others worship immortals to summon them and have them do their bidding;

I worship them to keep them imprisoned.

Not one spirit at my altar is harmless:

There is the Huang family ancestor, who once devoured a feast of a hundred people and has been hunted by the righteous for a century;

A mad dragon whose mind was damaged by heavenly lightning, unable to tell friend from foe;

And the Blood-Sorrow King, forged in the Ten Great Tortures of the Qing dynasty and brimming with murderous fury...

They are greedy, brutal, and cunning, always watching my body and plotting to possess it and be reborn.

We are not master and disciples, but jailer and prisoners, Host and parasites.

We struggle on the edge of a blade, fighting to survive in the narrow gap between yin and yang.

“If the righteous cannot save someone, I will. If they dare not kill a ghost, I will!”

When night falls and all magic crumbles,

I will lead the evil immortals from my mountain lair and grin at this hypocritical martial world:

“Everyone, it’s time for us troublemakers to save the world.”