What's the Scariest Novel You've Ever Read? Which One Made Us Want to Hurt Each Other? 至今看过最恐怖的小说，是哪一本让我们互相伤害
Translated by GPT-6 Luna
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101
I'm Generous: I'll Give You Half My Soul 大方的我，灵魂分你一半
[Supernatural Mystery + Urban Fantasy] [Unmentionable Things Between One Man and Many Ghosts] [Not a Romance for Women! Don't Be Misled by the Title!] My summer job turned out to be helping Taoist Second Master cut souls loose and capture ghosts. Since then, a cool, aloof female teacher, a resentful young woman, a professional assassin, the wronged ghost of a cat… They’ve all moved into my body. Everyone says I’m stingy, but this time I’ve given away half my soul. That’s generous enough, right?
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102
Tianxuan Paranormal Affairs Office 天玄灵异事务所
- [Infinite Flow + Urban Supernatural + Chinese-Style Horror + Folk Legends and Hauntings + Celestial Master Exorcists + Heirs to the Daoist Tradition + Heterochromatic-Eyed Heroine + Haunted House Tales + Episodic Stories + Folk Taboos] - Hidden deep in the bustling streets is an inconspicuous supernatural affairs office called Tianxuan. - No one dares touch the folk taboos of this world. Haunted houses are plagued by unsolved horrors, abandoned villages and ancient mansions seethe with resentm
845Reads—Score101Shelves
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103
Seeking Life Amid Lingering Regrets 残念觅生
[Infinite-flow, rules-based horror, extreme escape, eerie games, no harem, no formula, no invincible protagonist, no System, no mindless plot, not a feel-good power fantasy] I’m a ballet doll, grinning as I watch them kill themselves. I throw people into “my” mindscape and lay out an inescapable path to their doom. But that lunatic Li Yu finds a loophole in every stage. I crank up the difficulty of surviving, but he uses game theory to beat me. I forbid him from speaking, but he has the whole t
122Reads—Score—Shelves
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104
The Bizarre Art of Cultivation 怪诞修仙学
(No heroine, Eastern cosmic horror, no System, not invincible, grotesque aesthetics, not a rules-based horror, science and cultivation) The old man once said that cultivators, demons, and evil spirits turn into a pile of ash when they die. This is called tainted ash. Tainted ash contains all the energy they accumulated in life. Eat it, and you can kindle your life lamp and extend your lifespan. Leave it alone, and it will give rise to a tainted-soil resurrection! But there is one exception: bein
21.7kReads9.1Score2.8kShelves
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105
Immortal’s Hand on My Crown: I Break Through Even While Lying Down 仙人抚顶：我躺着都能突破
Does the path to immortality mean you have to sever all attachments and give up love? Does cultivation mean you have to let the whole world down? After Lin Feiyu was hit by a dump truck, a mysterious stroke of fortune chose him and sent him to the final era of the cultivation world. He didn’t need to cultivate: simply staying alive raised his realm, though the time required to break through doubled with each advancement. He thought fate had granted him a priceless opportunity, but he had no idea
102Reads—Score—Shelves
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106
Ghosts: They Exist If You Believe 鬼魂：信则有，不信则无
[Supernatural + Thriller + The Bizarre + Horror] Do ghosts really exist in this world? Some say they’re hallucinations; others call it delusion. Yet all kinds of bizarre, inexplicable events remain shrouded in mystery, their truth impossible to discern. If you insist on believing there are no ghosts, some things become impossible to explain. That’s why many old folks tell us: Believe, and they exist; don’t believe, and they don’t!
5Reads—Score—Shelves
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107
The Dark Realm of the Uncanny 谲暗物境
Lin Xue, a classmate of Qin Chuan and Ye Xin, mysteriously vanishes inside an abandoned old school building. Even stranger, everyone around them except Qin Chuan and Ye Xin has forgotten that Lin Xue ever existed. Determined to uncover the truth, Qin Chuan and Ye Xin embark on a strange and unsettling investigation. One inexplicable event after another follows. Yet when the truth finally comes to light, it turns everyone's understanding upside down!
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108
Ghostly Tales: The Guide Between Life and Death 诡谈：生死引路人
(Horror + suspense + supernatural + mind-bending + live-action game) This is an urban horror novel with no transmigration and no System. After Jia Wen uncovers his wife's long-hidden secret and the mystery buried deep within his own heart, his life is turned upside down, and he becomes a ghost hunter. While investigating a case involving missing ghosts, he and his senior, Zhong Chuqing, use her powerful spiritual detection abilities to identify the mastermind: Young Master Jie. After careful pla
4Reads—Score—Shelves
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109
Give Me Back My Soul 把老子的魂魄还给我
My name is Lin Zhou, and I'm a security guard. After I lost my job, my childhood friend Erwa found me a high-paying security job at a hotel. I soon discovered that everything about the place was strange. There wasn't a soul around during the day, but at night it was bustling, sending chills down my spine. I tried desperately to escape the hotel, but no matter how far I ran, I couldn't get away...
135Reads6.5Score—Shelves
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110
A World Out of Balance 人间失衡
[Mind-bending suspense + short stories + no overarching plot + crime + criminal investigation + shocking twists + stories of ordinary people] The deepest wounds are often inflicted by those closest to us. A bloody case at an old family home, shrouded in mystery. Who is the real killer? After her father dies of illness, her sister-in-law sells her to northern Myanmar! The body of a baby girl is found in the woods. A kidnapping case turns into a murder investigation. Who would target an innocent i
208Reads8.3Score—Shelves
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111
The Loop 循环
From losing everything to striking it rich overnight, Wang Hao wins at the gambling table for five days straight. But there are no free lunches, and in the end, his greed will make him pay a terrible price! In a single night, Wang Hao vanishes without a trace. Awei, Wang Hao's friend, reports him missing to the police, then secretly investigates his whereabouts. Unexpectedly, one eerie incident after another follows! Someone who died more than twenty years ago reappears! As he digs deeper, he di
257Reads8.3Score—Shelves
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112
Out of Control 失控者
[Anthology stories + supernatural horror + folk customs + feng shui and mysticism + subtle scares + jaw-dropping twists] Open a paper box sealed away for many years, and one terrifying incident after another begins to surface. The massacre that wiped out an entire family in Nanhua Estate, and the deaths of everyone connected to the case! A bride in a red qipao appearing by your side in the dead of night! Strange legends circulate through a dilapidated high-rise, where hands reach out of the dark
15Reads—Score—Shelves
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113
I Was a Detective in the Republic of China 我在民国当侦探
[Republican-era investigations + Anthology stories + Male leads + Strong leads + Folk customs] Gao Ren has been having an awful run of luck lately. He accidentally offended a rich young master and nearly got thrown in jail! Luckily, while making his escape, he ran into a gullible little Taoist priest. The little priest wasn’t just good-looking, he was also willing to be Gao Ren’s money tree! He could perform rituals and solve baffling cold cases, too! Gao Ren stuck close to the little priest, se
255Reads8.9Score—Shelves
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114
Dark Tales 5: The Power Game 恶谭5：权势局
[Mystery + Criminal investigation + Deduction + Case-by-case mysteries + The depths of human nature + No romance + Focused on solving cases] [Beneath the power, there is nothing but desire] A dismembered body is found in an alley, its bones and flesh mixed with pork. The brutal method of killing is appalling, and the victim’s wife has vanished without a trace! A popular young star dies mysteriously in a luxury hotel. The crime scene is covered in blood, but a malfunctioning surveillance system l
153Reads9.2Score100Shelves
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115
Dark Tales 4: Tides of the Sea of Hate 恶谭4：恨海潮
[Mystery + Criminal investigation + Deduction + Case-by-case mysteries + The depths of human nature + No romance + Focused on solving cases] [Love and hate are poison. In excess, they consume flesh and blood and devour the soul.] A student at a foreign studies university carries explosives into a classroom, causing a tragedy that shocks the entire city! A wealthy boy vanishes on a rainy night, and his body surfaces in the river the next day. But the circumstances of his drowning are riddled with
202Reads9.3Score103Shelves
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116
Dark Tales 3: The Abyss of Desire 恶谭3：欲望渊
[Mystery + criminal investigation + deduction + episodic cases + the depths of human nature + no romance + solving cases] [Desire is a wildfire, hard to contain once it spreads. It burns away reason, leaving only ashes behind.] Young Jiang Tingxu was presumed to have died by suicide, but years later he suddenly reappears and mercilessly kills the family members he once knew. A bizarre family history begins to come to light... The shocking discovery of several skeletons brings Longxue Village, a
194Reads9.2Score109Shelves
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117
Dark Tales 2: The Fame and Fortune Circuit 恶谭2：名利场
[Mind-bending mystery + criminal investigation + deduction + episodic stories + the depths of human nature + stunning twists + hard-core sleuthing] “Where fame and fortune reign, disputes are sure to arise.” A woman's corpse hidden inside a Buddha statue in an ancient temple, a mysterious online celebrity, and a group of suspects with tangled connections: Tan Zheng takes on a baffling murder case. As the investigation deepens, he discovers that the case is far more complicated than it first appe
271Reads9.3Score104Shelves
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118
Record of the Spirit Seekers 2: Farewell to the Mortal World 访灵笔录2：入世辞
[Mystery + supernatural + powerful partners + lively humor + episodic stories + ghostly tales + an ensemble cast hunting ghosts] “Nothing brings greater joy than meeting a new friend; nothing brings greater sorrow than parting from a loved one.” A chance encounter with a beauty on Ghost Wasteland Mountain turns out to be a deadly ghost's attempt to claim a soul! Karmic ties from a past life and entanglements in this one: whose mistake is it, and whose fate? Quan Ning and Yin Cangyi are accidenta
36Reads7.9Score—Shelves
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119
The Last Soul-Quelling Master 最后一个镇魂师
I grew up at my grandfather's house in the countryside. He was the most respected suona player in our village. One day, Li Dashan, a fellow villager, beat his pregnant wife to death and came to ask my grandfather for help. My grandfather tried everything he could, but still couldn't calm the resentment of Li Dashan's wife. In the end, he had no choice but to play a suona dirge to forcibly pacify her soul. On the night of the Lantern Festival, Li Dashan and his family turned into vengeful ghosts
157Reads8.4Score—Shelves
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120
Underworld Agent 地府经纪人
I was hit by a basketball at school and fell into a lake, but I survived and became an official employee of the Underworld. I also gained a Ghost Hunter System that helps the Underworld recruit talented ghosts, setting me on the path to turning my life around.
19Reads6.1Score—Shelves
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121
The Years I Spent as a Funeral Mourner 我当哭丧人的那些年
Some people must be mourned loudly when they are laid to rest. Otherwise, according to old folk customs, it is considered an act of filial impiety. After I was born, everyone in my family except my grandfather died because of me. My grandfather fell gravely ill, and to earn money for his treatment, I had no choice but to join Zhang the Elder, a man from my village, as a professional funeral mourner. From then on, I set out on a path of mourning with no return!
122Reads8.6Score—Shelves
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122
The Underworld Calls Me Little Sir 地府叫我小先生
[Supernatural + mystery + power progression] Getting hit by a basketball and falling into a lake was bad enough. Even worse, I got killed by a basketball!! The Black and White Impermanence told me I still had seventy years left to live. To make it up to me, they offered me a job in the underworld. So I became an HR officer on the underworld’s permanent staff and even got a ghost recruitment System! As long as I help the underworld recruit talented ghosts, I can earn all kinds of abilities: talis
565Reads—Score—Shelves
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123
This Taoist Priest Is a Little Too Cool 这个道士不太冷
My name is Niu Dabao, and I’m the only college graduate in Niu Village. I thought that after graduation, I’d get promoted, earn a bigger salary, marry a beautiful, rich woman, and reach the pinnacle of life. Who knew the company would go under and the boss would kill himself? I didn’t get a single penny of my wages, couldn’t even afford rent, and had to sleep at the train station every night! Then a ragged Taoist priest told me I was dogged by bad luck and possessed by a host of ghosts, and that
605Reads7.8Score—Shelves
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124
The Haunted Grave 诡坟
I think I've been possessed! Right before the college entrance exam, I suddenly came down with a high fever that wouldn't break. I missed the exam and had to spend half a year recovering at home. During those six months, I found a job as a cemetery groundskeeper. My coworker, Old Zhang, saw how frail I was and how weak my yang energy seemed, and insisted on finding me someone to protect me. But he didn't tell me that my protector would be a female ghost!! Not only does she want to marry me, she
71Reads7.0Score—Shelves
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125
There Are Ghosts in These Words 话里有诡
They say everyone has a few little secrets they can't bring themselves to talk about these days. But if you really want to hear something out of the ordinary, go find Old Bu. Old Bu runs a little tavern set inside an abandoned train carriage. From the day it opened, he laid down one rule: One interesting story in exchange for a night's worth of drinks. Sounds like a good deal, doesn't it? Too bad he doesn't give you much to drink, and the stories just keep getting stranger. An intelligent wristb
14Reads7.7Score—Shelves
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126
Horror Story: The Empty Room 恐怖故事，空房间
A Horror Story: The Empty Room
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127
Horror Story: The Last Supper 恐怖故事，最后的晚餐
Horror Story: The Last Supper
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128
The Eerie Midnight Mirror 子夜诡镜
The scholar Chou Wuya happened upon a copy of Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio. The stall owner casually included an ancient bronze mirror, named Seeing the Heart. At midnight, Chou Wuya discovered that the mirror could tear apart dreams and reality, drawing him into one eerie, terrifying mirror realm after another. Every mirror realm was a supernatural ordeal with no way out. A woman named Ruoxi was sealed inside the mirror. She told Chou Wuya that every time he entered a dream, he would gai
11Reads—Score—Shelves
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129
My Years of Ghost Hunting Among the People 我在民间捉鬼的那些年
Chinese-Style Horror, No Female Lead My name is Xu Jian. I’m 26, and I studied Taoist arts under a Maoshan priest for several years. Over the years, I’ve seen all kinds of things. After doing this long enough, I realized that ghosts aren’t scary. What’s truly frightening are the things people can’t get past in their hearts. All I do is help them say what needs to be said and settle their debts once and for all. People call me a Celestial Master of the Taoist sect, but I’m really just an ordin
2.7kReads—Score259Shelves
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130
Escaping the Terrifying Kun Kun in the Deep Mountains 深山逃离恐怖坤坤
[Single Protagonist] [Metaphysics] [My Pigeon] On the way home from someone’s funeral, a heavy fog rolled in, making it impossible for me to see the road. A shadow appeared and vanished in the haze, revealing the back of someone doing a Tie Shan Kao shoulder strike. The moment I saw that figure, I knew there was a chance I wouldn’t make it out. After accidentally obtaining a treasure map, I set out to find the treasure.
61Reads—Score—Shelves
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131
Midnight Nightmare 深夜噩梦
[Infinite Flow] [Hell Difficulty] [Original Dungeons] [Multiple Twists] Note: The dungeons are extremely difficult, so proceed with caution. The first two are only warm-ups. They say that “Ghost Eyes” can see a person’s “good and evil.” Wang Cheng was born with a pair of Ghost Eyes. But he discovered that this claim didn’t tell the whole story. Because Ghost Eyes can see more than people. They can also see cats, dogs, houses, mountains, and rivers… Or perhaps a strangely lifelike doll, or an old
58.4kReads9.4Score8.6kShelves
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132
Insomniacs' Forbidden Tales: 444 Midnight Ghost Stories 失眠者禁忌：444个午夜鬼谈
A horror anthology with a bonus at the end of every story. I have 444 folk ghost stories guaranteed to keep you awake until midnight, terrify you, make you break out in a cold sweat, and pull the covers over your head! At the end of every chapter, the “Author’s Note” will include an illustration or bonus! But before you open it, brace yourself. The author accepts no responsibility for what happens next! [Supernatural Horror] [Folk Horror] [Rural Ghost Stories] [True Cases] [Urban Oddities] [L
4.4kReads—Score416Shelves
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133
Tales of the Unextinguished Lights 不熄灯异闻录
More chilling than ghost stories, these tales recount the uncanny happenings secretly passed down by our elders! Children will be too scared to walk alone at night after hearing them, and adults will want to pay their respects to their ancestors. This is a book of taboos that the village elders tried to keep from being written! This collection of short stories features folk horror, supernatural mysteries, thrillers, legends, strange tales, and fantasy from across China and around the world.
11Reads—Score—Shelves
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134
Code of the Killer 逐凶密码
Private detective Luo Jincheng takes on a lucrative job to find a missing girl. While investigating, Luo Jincheng finds himself caught in a kidnapping crisis! His pursuit of the case leads to a vast black-market empire! They monopolize capital and engage in vicious competition. To win favor with powerful officials, they even traffic underage girls in sex-for-power deals! Before one case is solved, another emerges. Coincidence, or carefully orchestrated? Beneath the city’s dark clouds, a massive
228Reads9.3Score—Shelves
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135
A Death Prediction in My Stomach 胃里的死亡预告
My new work is out! You're welcome to read it on Tomato Novel. I hope you'll enjoy it. Your support motivates me to write, and I'll do my best to tell every story well!
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136
Old Tales of Jiangyang: The Evil Dragon of Sanjiang 江阳旧事之三江孽龙
Luzhou, in central Sichuan, was known in ancient times as Jiangyang Commandery and is also called the City of Liquor. The Yangtze, Tuo, and Chishui rivers surround the city, which also borders Yunnan, Guizhou, and Sichuan, making it an important transportation hub for the three provinces since ancient times. The constant streams of mule caravans within the city, cargo boats on the rivers, and merchants lining the streets, along with the local brotherhood halls where sworn brothers trained with f
79Reads—Score—Shelves
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137
Strange Tales from Republican-Era Sanjiang 民国三江诡事集
Whenever Eunuch Li from the teahouse downstairs told stories about the many strange and uncanny things he had encountered in his youth, a crowd would always gather around him. Whenever I was bored as a child, I would run over to listen. A corpse that had been dead for days was pulled from the Yangtze River, yet bled when its relatives came to see it. The owner of Second Brother’s restaurant had a brother who was a sworn brother of the underworld. One night, he followed the gang’s leader to an ab
120Reads—Score—Shelves
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138
One Haunting a Day 一日一诡
Like people, supernatural entities can be good or bad, so the author can’t promise that every story will have an off-the-charts scare factor that keeps you up at night. The only guarantee is that all the stories are entirely fictional. If anything seems familiar, you’re on your own!
458Reads—Score101Shelves
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139
The Strange Immortal Judge’s Record 诡仙判官录
[Dark + Unhinged + Lovecraftian Cultivation + Judge of the Underworld] The Heavenly Dao has come alive. The gods feast on incense offerings, while the court runs the human world like a pasture. And I, keeper of the Book of Life and Death, was torn apart, soul and all, and sent back to the Three Realms for declaring the Heavenly Dao unjust a thousand years ago. I have seen: The souls of loyal subjects nailed into ancestral shrines to serve as lamp oil, chaste women turned into frost on the tiles
8Reads8.0Score—Shelves
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140
Notes on Folk Spirit Mediums 民间出马仙笔记
[Spirit Mediums + Chinese-Style Horror + Episodic Stories + Supernatural Mystery + Karma + Mind-Blowing Twists + Feng Shui and the Occult] "Unraveling one strange and unpredictable tale of karmic retribution after another" In a remote suburb of the city lies a cemetery. Few people know that a shop dealing in the supernatural stands there, run by a spirit medium who can communicate with the dead and the living. The owner specializes in paranormal cases beyond ordinary people's understanding, but
471Reads9.3Score—Shelves
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141
If You're Afraid to Die in a Horror World, What Makes You Think You Can Win? 在恐怖世界怕死，你凭什么想赢啊
[Infinite Flow]+ [Death Game]+ [Apocalyptic Survival]+ [Horror Mini-Worlds] Warning: This may not be well written, so think carefully before diving in! In the orderly world we know, have you ever imagined a chaotic world that was its opposite? Yun Xiao was snatched from his sleep and brought into such a world. Here, there are no laws, no order, no humanity… In short, there are no rules at all. All that exists are terrifying mini-worlds where you can grow stronger! At first, he thought this was
3Reads—Score—Shelves
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142
A Security Guard’s Guide to Survival 保安求生之路
After a phone call and a nightmare, the ordinary life of Qin Yun, a lowly security guard, is turned upside down. He encounters one bizarre event after another, unsure whether the people around him can be trusted or the things beside him are safe. As dreams and reality intertwine, he searches through the unknown for a way to survive.
78Reads—Score—Shelves
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143
Do You Believe There Are Ghosts in This World? 你相信，这个世界上有鬼吗？
[Mind-bending] + [Slow-paced] + [Not for the faint-hearted] Thirty-six years ago, deep in the Tibetan grasslands, a secret research base studying the paranormal was rocked by a massive explosion. Only one person managed to escape alive. The male survivor not only made it out, but also brought a pair of pitch-black eyes from the secret base. Even after being removed from their body, they seemed alive. After this devastating disaster, the man deliberately avoided a mysterious organization and went
30Reads—Score—Shelves
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144
Ghost in the Well: The Woman in Room 704 井底亡魂-704室的女人
Ghost at the Bottom of the Well: The Woman in Room 704
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145
The Prison of Hair 发丝之狱
Prison of Hair
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146
Growing Back a Severed Finger 断指增殖
Severed Finger Proliferation
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147
The Netherworld Inn 阴间客栈
My name is Qin Yu. While on a business trip, I checked into a uniquely styled inn called the Yin Room Inn. It even offered “special services” in the middle of the night. Little did I know it was an inn from the underworld. I began having nightmare after nightmare, and my friends kept getting into trouble...
2.8kReads9.0Score152Shelves
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148
My Years as a Buddhist Nun 我当师太的那些年
I was born a girl with a Pure Yang fate into a family of feng shui masters. For generations, my family had practiced feng shui in the countryside. My grandfather had hoped his eldest grandchild would be a boy, so he could pass down his skills to the eldest son and grandson. But I turned out to be a girl. Grandfather never took a liking to me, so my parents could only take me to live in the city. No one expected that, during the Ghost Festival in the year I turned twenty-five, Grandfather would s
367Reads8.7Score—Shelves
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149
I Might Have Changed the Wrong Fate 我可能改了个假命
When I was little, my mom asked a Taoist priest to tell my fortune. He said I'd face a calamity at 26, and that he'd come help me get through it the day before my 26th birthday. When the day finally came, the priest really did show up to change my fate. He even gave me a “Fate-Changing Ruler” and told me I had to change the fates of seven people with different destinies to survive the calamity. Otherwise, I'd only have five years left to live. So much for changing my fate for me! Did he only cha
74Reads8.9Score—Shelves
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150
The Yin-Yang Hot Pot Restaurant 阴阳火锅店
I took over a hot pot restaurant from my second uncle. He told me never to serve customers a yuan yang hot pot after midnight! After I took over the place, everything I believed in began to crumble... One night, I wasn't paying attention and served a couple a yuan yang hot pot. The next day, I saw in the newspaper that the couple had died! They'd jumped to their deaths together! After that, every night at midnight, a strange couple would appear in my restaurant and ask me to make them a yuan yan
831Reads7.7Score—Shelves