In an age when myths invade the world, I use livestreams to popularize Chinese folklore and win the recognition of hundreds of millions, turning my funeral home into the world's strongest myth affairs center.
Chen Ping'an owns a funeral home and moonlights as a folklore educator on a video platform nobody watches. During a late-night livestream in an urban village, a Painted-Skin Ghost reveals its true form, and his peachwood sword proves useless. But the cracked Mountain Spirit Flower Coin in his hand awakens his shamanic bloodline.
He binds himself to the Chinese Civilization Lineage System. The more recognition he earns, the stronger his conceptual armaments become.
He draws Zhong Kui during a livestream watched by tens of thousands. Once his believers surpass a thousand, Zhong Kui manifests and tears the Painted-Skin Ghost apart.
He uses a ritual mirror to explain Han dynasty rites and seal a ghost inside the mirror.
He scatters beans that turn into soldiers, sending paper-armored troops charging into battle to defeat vampires head-on.
From a tiny streamer watched by just 237 people to a cultural guardian with over a hundred million viewers online.
From a funeral home on the verge of closing to a global chain of myth affairs centers.
Popularizing knowledge is how you charge your weapons, and livestream education is the strongest way to fight.
The more familiar a piece of folklore is, the more effective it becomes in battle. Beans can take down vampires, Door Gods really do work when posted on the door, and the Kitchen God really does watch over the stove.
Chinese civilization has never been severed, and its firewall is the strongest of all.
Without belief, the heavens split apart. With belief, they close again.
This is the story of how one man guards a door, weaves a net, and repairs a wall.
Not by himself, but with every person who chooses to believe.
