The Hungry Bones Return [Infinite]

Chinese horror and underworld aesthetics + Chinese-style Lovecraftian horror + food mystery, with folk customs, feng shui, gu poison, witchcraft, and curse magic. The gong has an inhuman, Lovecraftian tentacle form. As long as he isn’t chopped into tiny pieces, he can survive: cut off a few slices and each one lives. A truly sliceable gong. (This novel is not misogynistic. I’ve been harshly criticized and have to explain: I wanted the opening to feel like a typical infinite-flow dungeon, so the female characters start out weak. Their story is about growth and awakening. The historical storyline also has no rivalry between women.) You’re welcome to bookmark the blurb for another novel in the Hungry Bones series, Evil Erosion Cleanses the Bones, which is currently updating. You can also bookmark Please Invite the Spirit to Possess Me, another novel in the same series, though it’s a romance. The gong has lived through three lifetimes. In the first, an ascetic monk who breaks his vows at the end and a mischievous little hungry ghost. In the second, a sickly young master and a bride who disguises himself as a woman to marry him and bring him good fortune. In the third, a deceptively innocent-looking Yin-born child and a widowed-sect patriarch who grows stronger with every death. Synopsis: A ghostly evil formation, as the name suggests, is created when feng shui shifts. To make it out alive, you must figure out what the ghostly master wants, and never trust the people around you too easily. Zhong Yan wakes from a coma and discovers, quite by accident, that he has entered a ghostly evil formation. Everyone around him is panicking and harboring their own schemes. Fortunately, he is half human and half ghost. Seeing through the illusion of red candles filling the room, he grabs the red-clad female ghost off his shoulder and yanks her away. But he never expected the Yin-born child inside the formation to be hiding in his stomach, following him into the outside world. Everyone is willing to do anything to get the child, but the child only clings to him. After leaving the formation, Zhong Yan holds the wailing Yin-born child. Unable to resist, he squeezes out a drop of blood from his fingertip and feeds it to him. Zhong Yan: “You were born in a Flying Silk Formation, so I’ll call you Fei Lian. But you were born at an extremely yin hour, so I can only raise you as a girl.” Fei Lian: Cries and crawls back into Zhong Yan’s stomach, gripping the stomach lining tightly with his tentacles. Zhong Yan: “Can you stop grabbing my stomach?” Fei Lian: Carsick, nervous, and helpless, but willing to kill for his grand-master. (To capture a man’s heart, first capture his stomach.) Half a year later, the teenage Fei Lian pushes a wheelchair, dressed in a uniform skirt and black knee-high socks. “Grand-master, is this skirt you bought me a knockoff? You’ve been buying fakes again.” Zhong Yan fumes: “I made it myself!” When enemies attack, they hack Fei Lian into eight pieces. Before Zhong Yan can even cry, all eight Fei Lians stand up. Zhong Yan: You all take your time fighting. I’m getting out of here. The eight Fei Lians: Grand-master, don’t go. You can’t play favorites. You have to love every one of us. Zhong Yan: Hah, you devious Yin-born child. Meanwhile, Zhong Yan is posing as a bride with a red veil over his face. He’s about to marry a rooster and has to put up with his brother-in-law’s disrespect. Just as the humiliation becomes unbearable, the eldest young master of the Qin family, who has been bedridden for ages, gets out of bed. With only a few breaths left in him, he comes to Zhong Yan and takes his hand. “Just stay with me.” Zhong Yan grips his withered wrist in return and is startled. No wonder they arranged this wedding to bring him good fortune. The eldest young master of the Qin family has reached the end of his allotted years, and probably has only a few days left. This novel has two timelines. [Yin Side] (Present life): Zhong Yan is a half-human, half-ghost who practices ghost cultivation in a living human body and is always hungry. He carefully raises the Yin-born child he brought out of the ghostly evil formation, gradually bringing up the unruly little brat. [Yang Side] (Past life): Zhong Yan is a fake bride who married into the family to bring good fortune. Unable to bear seeing the unwanted, sickly young master die so soon, he complains about him to his face while risking his life to keep him alive for three years. Yin and yang sustain each other. Through countless cycles of reincarnation, fate begins and ends. ---Blurb for the next novel, please add it to your want-to-read list--- College Swimmer, Why Pick a Fight with Him? Two butterfly swimmers, the gong is 192 cm, the shou is 187 cm, and they are each other’s first love. Everyone’s first impression of Xiao Xing is that he has the face of a man whose ex-boyfriends are more handsome than all the good-looking guys you’ve ever met, broad shoulders like double doors, legs longer than your life, and an empty wallet. So everyone tells Yao Dong: If you broke up, don’t chase him. He’s got nothing but his looks. With him, there’ll be no three meals a day, just sex and no food. Yao Dong shakes his head, unconvinced. Later, he finds out it’s true. Synopsis: During winter swim training in their first year of high school, Xiao Xing is cornered by Yao Dong in the locker room, and they exchange WeChat accounts. Their two-and-a-half-year long-distance online relationship never lacks video calls, and they’ve seen everything of each other. They agree to get a room and meet in person after turning eighteen. But when Xiao Xing arrives in Yao Dong’s city, full of excitement, Yao Dong doesn’t show up. A connection made online can lead to a breakup in a single thought. After starting college, Xiao Xing runs into Yao Dong by chance in an elevator. He hears someone ask Yao Dong, “You know each other?” Yao Dong says to his face, “My ex from four exes ago.” Xiao Xing: ??? They broke up in June and met again in September. So in those three months, you found time to date three people? Only after a later incident, when Xiao Xing sees Yao Dong forced to give a speech onstage, does he realize that the person he thought was an aloof, silent beauty is actually a severe stutterer. When he’s most nervous, he can’t get a single word out. His verbal skills are poor, and he’s a little “slow” on top of that. After the speech, he corners Yao Dong in the locker room. “Is that why you only say two words every time you talk?” Yao Dong nervously picks at his fingers. “If I say three words, I’ll give myself away.” Xiao Xing: “Then why didn’t you come that day when we were going to get a room?” Yao Dong: “I was ne-ne…” Xiao Xing: “Got it.” Yao Dong: “Nervous.” That night, in the early hours, Xiao Xing adds his ex-boyfriend back and receives a new message: [Wanna get back together?] Xiao Xing replies without a second thought: [Not a chance. I’ve completely forgotten everything that happened between us.] Later that night, Xiao Xing receives a photo from his ex, wearing nothing but a T-back swimsuit: [Wanna get back together?] Xiao Xing replies without a second thought: [Be honest. Don’t try to pass off an old photo. Got any new ones?] Later still, Yao Dong sits on the basement bed, naked under a blanket and covered in marks. He takes half a boiled ear of old corn from Xiao Xing and makes a request while gnawing on it. “Next time we do it, can you not take so long? Three and a half hours. I’m starving.” Xiao Xing, shirtless and covered in scratch marks, bites into the other half of the corn. “I’ll let you have a drink of water halfway through next time.” Notes: * I made up this horror story. There are no ghosts in the real world. * The cover I commissioned is gorgeous. I open it from time to time just to admire it. It’s packed with details and pretty scary, so I warmly invite you to open it too! * I’ve researched a lot, but there are definitely some very unprofessional parts. Please bear with me. * This work is a fictional literary creation inspired by myths and legends and has nothing to do with reality. It’s purely made up, so don’t apply it to real life. Don’t believe in superstition. Believe in science. Theme: Superstition is no good, and wasting food is unacceptable