The Bone Shrine on Salty Mountain

[Upcoming novel: I Accidentally Bought a Combat Bionic Human. Please add it to your reading list~] [This story has many twists. Please don’t spoil them in the comments❗️ Try not to search for spoilers on other platforms before reading, either. They really will ruin the reading experience❗️] No piracy, please. Anyone who reads for free is presumed to be taking away the bad luck of every reader who bought the official version. (Northeastern Chinese folklore | horror sci-fi | strange tales from the Classic of Mountains and Seas) The cover was drawn by my best friend. Thank you, bestie 💞 That day, she finally saw her hometown clearly The decaying city opened its ancient eyes, gazing at the white bones of the Northern Ridge Mountains. The abandoned factory raised its pitch-black ears, listening to the lonely whispers of the snowy forest. An old altar bore a bizarre idol, with fox eyes, a wolf’s tail, a snake’s body, and a rat’s back. The devout danced in eerie steps, singing songs beyond description. They sang: “King Wen’s drum, the spirit-chasing whip, Raise the whip and beat the drum, invite the spirits here!” [😡 Tsundere little girl X 🧵 chaste, nurturing man] ❄️🗻🥩🦴🏯🐭🐺🐍🧜🪬🩸🥁💓 ❄️ [Important]: The male lead is not a mere background character. The story contains a massive dose of romance between a man and a woman. If you think the romance is bad, drop the story immediately. Don’t force yourself if it’s not your thing, and stop urging the author to write a story without romance. The author is very happy with the romance as written and does not accept writing instructions or revision suggestions. Please don’t keep reading just to attack it. ❄️ Not a power fantasy | not a strong heroine | a heroine who grows | no golden finger | the anomalies have no solution ❄️ Tagged sci-fi, but at its heart this is a sci-fi story set against a backdrop of folklore and mythology. ❄️ The heroine is extremely strong, has a terrible temper, loves swearing and hitting people, and is tsundere and childish. But she’s all offense and no defense, and cries a lot. If you need the heroine to be calm, rational, and unemotional at all times, please don’t read this. The entire plot revolves around her, so if you dislike this type of heroine, you’ll be miserable. ❄️ If you enjoy nitpicking the heroine as you read, I don’t recommend opening this story. The author won’t be able to resist arguing back point by point (sorry, I’m a contrarian. If you don’t mind getting into arguments, ignore this warning). ❄️ The male lead is a cliched, unrealistic romance-novel hero, with a strong paper-doll quality. The author’s personal taste is that men shouldn’t be carbon-based, so if you want a realistic romantic atmosphere, definitely steer clear. Nothing about this is realistic! ❄️ The romantic interactions include a lot of sanity-destroying descriptions of nonhuman beings. Please steer clear if you’re sensitive to nonhumans. *References: Classic of Mountains and Seas, The Starry Kingdom, Stargazing at Night, The Right Bank of the Argun, and Shuowen Jiezi. Please don’t mention other authors’ works in the comments or praise this story that way. Thank you for your support. (To reiterate, please don’t keep bringing up other authors’ works or saying that characters in this story resemble characters written by other authors. I don’t like that kind of praise, and hope we can show each other some respect.) Check out my completed stories in the same genre: [Folkloric cosmic horror set in Sichuan and Chongqing: The Unnameable Town] [Horror sci-fi road story: Descent from Deep Space] [Nonhuman story with a monster heroine: Monster Girlfriend] [Upcoming novel: I Accidentally Bought a Combat Bionic Human] (Cold-faced, cute, broke researcher X cool, highly capable bionic human) Cyberpunk + post-apocalyptic wasteland in an era of superabundant oxygen + road adventure A change in the sunspots caused atmospheric oxygen levels to skyrocket from 20 percent to 40 percent in just one month. This disaster became known as the Month of Golden Crow. The survivors built a utopian palace where spring lasted all year, but only first-class citizens were allowed to live there. Sheng Yang, who was studying Turing at Rex University, was a second-class citizen. If she graduated successfully, she would earn a permanent residence permit for the palace. To complete her graduation project, she ventured into an underground city in a high-risk zone, determined to spend a fortune on a domestic companion bionic human. She first saw him in a corner of a crowded, chaotic trading post. The young man was chained up. Red marks ringed his pale neck. His features were beautiful and refined, but his eyes were wild and untamable, like a ferocious wolf locked in a cage. The boss selling him enthusiastically introduced him to Sheng Yang. “He’s one of the last batch of bionic humans made before Puppet Life went bankrupt. He’s handsome, strong, and can keep you warm in bed. Since he’s already been activated, I’ll give you a huge discount.” Sheng Yang: His eyes are a little fierce, but at least he’s cheap. … [Observation Log, Day One] The subject’s body temperature can be adjusted to suit the owner’s preferences. No unpleasant odor, and he can communicate without difficulty, but why is a companion-type bionic human so quiet? [Observation Log, Day Two] The subject is always expressionless, but his lips are soft when we kiss, and holding hands is even better. [Observation Log, Day Three] We ran into a giant oxygen-mutated insect. The subject pulled a long knife from his arms, charged at it, and won with ease. I opened the chip slot at the back of his neck and discovered that his model was listed as a combat-type bionic human… Sheng Yang had tried to save money but ended up losing big. She stared in silence at the combat-type bionic human she’d been kissing for several days, planning to resell him to a mercenary group and make her money back once she got her diploma. Later [Observation Log, Day N] Even though he’s not a companion-type bionic human, he’s an excellent cook, can handle all the housework, is quiet and obedient, and really is unusually strong. If I work hard, I should be able to afford to keep him… Combat-Type Bionic Human: To avoid being abandoned, I act demure every day. A short romance with a love-story flavor of the suspension bridge effect. Pure-love fluff. The worldbuilding is fairly complex, but there’s not much plot. The story is very simple. Theme: If you look at things in terms of their constant change, then heaven and earth cannot last even a moment unchanged.