My Years as a Great Immortal in the Northeast

My name is Chen Mo, an ordinary graduate student who's useless at everything except folklore. To work on my thesis, I returned to my hometown in Northeast China and moved into the old house my grandfather, a shaman who summoned spirits, left behind. He was once the most mysterious shaman for miles around, but he died under strange circumstances after leaving a strict order: “No disciple of the Chen family may ever summon spirits.” I thought this would be nothing more than fieldwork far from the noise of the city. Then, while sorting through his belongings, my blood accidentally awakened one of them: a notebook called the Illustrated Bestiary of White Mountains and Black Waters. “A weasel spirit asks you to grant it a title. Refuse, and it takes revenge?” The notebook lit up, pointing to the strange madness that had just struck Uncle Li in the village. “A ghost sharpens its knife at midnight. Anyone who hears it is doomed?” The notebook grew hot, pointing to an unsolved string of disappearances in the city. The notebook didn't grant me the power to command the wind and rain. It only gave me rules for “seeing” the truth and the knowledge my grandfather had accumulated over a lifetime. When legends became real, I discovered that the “cat-faced old woman” and “water monkey” from my childhood nightmares weren't just stories. To protect myself and uncover the real cause of my grandfather's death, I had no choice but to defy my family's injunction and step into this eerie world, so seemingly peaceful yet seething beneath the surface. I'm not “summoning spirits.” I'm “answering the call.” Every mystery I solve is a precise deconstruction of an ancient legend. But as the crimes and twisted human nature behind one strange tale after another come to light, I discover in horror that an unseen hand is behind every incident. It is using these ancient spirits and monsters of Northeast China to weave an evil sacrifice that will engulf the entire land of White Mountains and Black Waters... and every step I take is part of its plan.