The Yellow River stretches for thousands of miles, its muddy waves surging into the sky. The water beneath its surface is no ordinary water: it is filled with the bodies of people who died unjustly.
The Yellow River has been the site of many strange happenings since ancient times, and corpse retrieval is the coldest, darkest trade of all.
Before entering the trade, you must first obey the three rules of the Underworld River: never retrieve a corpse standing upright, never retrieve a woman in red, and never retrieve a soul at night. Break a rule and you will lose years of your life; violate one and you will meet your end. Generation after generation, corpse retrievers cannot escape the river’s fate.
My name is Chen Yan. I was born with two lives, and my Eight Characters carry a baleful yin energy. I was destined from birth to retrieve corpses from the Yellow River.
When I was eighteen, my elder brother sacrificed himself to bind my soul and sink to the riverbed, sealing away the evil. My father posed as a lackey of the Ghost Sect and fed himself to a demon, enduring the torment for decades just to keep the Ghost Lord, whose chaos had plagued the world for a thousand years, under control.
A coffin surfaced at Eagle-Beak Cliff, its eyes opening. A black-sailed ghost ship blocked the river. An ice dragon sealed the waterway. Stone statues bound the souls of the dead. Hidden agents of the Ghost Sect were scattered along the banks. Deadly traps in the Underworld River claimed lives at every turn, and folk taboos came true one after another. Strange incidents from beneath the river erupted in succession, followed by long-buried feuds steeped in blood.
A young man takes up his hook and ventures into the Underworld River. Every step brings a brush with terror; every stretch of river means life or death.
All I wanted was a quiet life retrieving corpses and guiding souls to rest. Instead, I was forced to shoulder the Zhao family’s generations-old duty of guarding the river, venturing into forbidden places, breaking sinister formations, slaying corpse demons, and wiping out the Ghost Sect. Father and son faced one another with life and death hanging in the balance; brothers fought side by side, one in each world.
Blood debts must be avenged. The lights of countless homes must be protected. The rules of the Underworld River must endure. The root of a thousand years of calamity must be cut away.
With a single hook, I drive back ten thousand evils. With my flesh and blood, I hold the land together.
Two generations of fathers and sons give their lives to suppress the supernatural. Two brothers, sharing two souls, stand guard over the Yellow River. They trade their lives for the river’s peace and their blood for peace in the world.
The river is stilled, the ghosts destroyed, and the living return. No more hauntings beneath the passing years.
A passionate new work from Mang Sha of Nanjiang Road! Packed with thrills from beginning to end, it delivers folk-horror chills and a fiery finale, with no disappointing ending!
Clear logic and rich content