Novels like I Came from the Water
Books Chinese readers most often put in the same booklists as I Came from the Water, best match first.
- 51 A Dragon's Son, Carried in a Ghost's Coffin 龙生子，鬼抬棺 My name is Ding Lin, and I was born covered in dragon scales. The villagers said my mother wasn’t human. When she died, a hundred ghosts carried her coffin, and the River Earl wept at her funeral. My mother said I was the child of a dragon, born extraordinary, blessed by a hundred ghosts and immune to every taboo... 5.2kReads8.8Score522Shelves
- 52 You Were Told to Guard a Village, So Why Did You Make the City God Cry? 让你守个村儿，你把城隍打哭了？ After the old madman died, I always thought I was the only person left in the village. Then one year, two men showed up carrying a camera and said they wanted to film a documentary about walking marriages... 469Reads8.5Score—Shelves
- 53 Frightening Folk Tales of Ghosts and Monsters 民间吓人的鬼怪故事 This book collects folk tales about ghosts and monsters from China and around the world, both ancient and modern. They include deeply moving love stories, myths where good and evil are repaid in kind, and eerie tales that will leave you trembling with fear. We hope you enjoy them. This story is entirely fictional. Any resemblance to actual events or people is purely coincidental. 22Reads—Score—Shelves
- 54 Huang Daxian 黄大仙儿 The Huang Daxian of Northeast China, also known as the Huangpizi, are weasels that have cultivated into spirits. This is a terrifying story about the shamanic traditions of Northeast China, told in the region’s authentic style. A supernatural tale rooted in the everyday life of Northeast China. 3.1kReads8.6Score337Shelves
- 55 The Eerie Coffin Bearers 诡抬棺 Nine peaks, a sea of blood, mountains of bones... Murderous danger lurks everywhere. Every step is fraught with peril, and I never know how much longer I'll survive. It wasn't until I deciphered the nursery rhyme I'd heard when I became someone's disciple that I uncovered a shocking secret... 63Reads9.0Score—Shelves
- 56 Heir of the Classic of Mountains and Seas 山海传人 When I was nine, a horde of ghosts surrounded our house, all intent on taking my life! To save me, Grandpa went and found me a female ghost to be my wife… 208Reads9.0Score103Shelves
- 57 The Uncanny One 邪门儿 In the old days, bandit gangs had four pillars and eight posts. The foremost pillar was called the Heaven-Supporting Pillar, and its holder served as the gang's strategist. Since strategists tattooed goshawks on their chests, they were also known as Mountain-Circling Eagles. A Mountain-Circling Eagle is neither monk nor Daoist, yet can discern yin and yang, communicate with spirits, and foretell fortune and misfortune. Neither immortal nor shaman, yet can cast talismans, drive out evil spirits, 1.4kReads8.6Score154Shelves
- 58 EN Otherworldly Merchant 阴间商人 I’m a merchant who specializes in collecting sinister, supernatural objects. Anything that belonged to the dead is valuable! In the hands of ordinary people, these things can bring anything from a haunting to the ruin of an entire family. But in my hands, they can help you get promoted, make a fortune, defy fate, and meet every need a client could have. Want to know why? Shh. If you’re brave enough, come hear about the first terrifying deal I took after entering the business... 188Reads8.9Score—Shelves
- 59 Grudge-Locked Patterns 怨气锁纹 Dai Xiaochao, the protagonist, is a college graduate in architecture from the 1990s. Under heavy financial pressure, he moves into a tenement building where a locked-room murder took place two years earlier. Surveillance was scarce in those days, so the police had to investigate door to door, and the case made little progress. Then the ancient Taotie jade pendant inherited by Dai Xiaochao’s family, along with its Taotie patterns, begins to react... And that is where the story begins. 7Reads—Score—Shelves
- 60 The Coffin Bearer 抬棺匠 My family has dealt with the dead for generations. Following in my father’s footsteps, I became a coffin bearer. Before carrying a coffin, I always offer the deceased five incense sticks. When offering incense to the living, three long sticks and two short ones are taboo. When offering incense to the dead, three short sticks and two long ones are taboo. That day, I carried a coffin, and the dead pregnant woman inside gave birth to a pair of twins, a boy and a girl! [Shh, keep quiet! We’re settin 2.9kReads8.3Score194Shelves
- 61 Terrifying Folklore: It Begins with the Weasel Spirit 恐怖民俗：从黄皮子开始 The day I was born, I bore the burden of the Five Ghosts, and my soul was bound. I was destined to die, but my grandfather used an evil folk ritual to borrow a life for me. When I was twelve, weasels surrounded the village. They told me the life I'd borrowed had to be repaid... 100Reads9.0Score—Shelves
- 62 The Spirit-Sealing Corpse Shroud 镇灵尸衣 On the day I was born, ghosts surrounded our home. I only survived because a master gave his life to save me. Only later did I learn the truth: I was born on a yin year, yin month, and yin day, making me a Yin Child. My master said that anyone born under all three yin signs would have a life full of misfortune and spend their days wandering from place to place. 140Reads—Score—Shelves
- 63 The Yin-Yang Courier 阴阳快递员 After graduating from college, I became a delivery courier to make ends meet. Who knew I'd have to work nights, and that none of the people coming to collect their packages would be human… 153Reads8.1Score146Shelves
- 64 I Won’t Survive the Night 活不过今夜 At some point, a strange old beggar showed up in our neighborhood. The strange thing was, he never spent the money people gave him. He’d burn it or destroy it instead. Then one day, the woman downstairs was burned to death, and the butcher was brutally murdered. That was when I finally realized the truth. He wasn’t begging for money. He was begging for lives! 1.1kReads8.2Score102Shelves
- 65 Strange Yin-Yang Tales: A Half-Immortal’s Records 阴阳诡事：半仙诡录 [This is no ordinary supernatural story. It’s all about horror and suspense: no mindless power fantasy, just yin-yang taboos, the Grinning Fiend, the Ghost Bride’s Gown, eerie shadows in an ancient mansion, and the Mandarin Duck Pendant. If it’s not good, you can break my legs!!] There’s no shortage of bizarre happenings between the worlds of yin and yang. The Grinning Fiend: what unknowable resentment lies behind that sinister face? The thousand-year-old fox: what cunning schemes hide beneath h 1.2kReads—Score—Shelves
- 66 The Deadly Taboos of Horror 惊悚死人禁忌 [Definitely not ordinary paranormal fiction. Focused on horror and suspense, not mindless wish fulfillment. Folk tales of the supernatural, ghost babies. If you don’t like it after reading, feel free to criticize it.] A mountain village shrouded in mystery is beset by one strange incident after another. A coffin that cannot be lifted at a funeral, children mysteriously drowning, and the question of why a water ghost has appeared. What truth lies behind the deaths? A baby’s anguished cries ring o 154Reads—Score—Shelves
- 67 My Pale Life 我苍白的一生 My name is Zhang Yuan, though my childhood nickname was Ergou. I'm male, born in 1990. Everyone encounters all kinds of strange, inexplicable things in life. By the way, do you believe in ghosts? 473Reads8.4Score101Shelves
- 68 The Haunted Shroud 诡寿衣 My family sells burial clothes. Every seven days, a woman comes to order a set. Only at the end did I discover she had been ordering burial clothes for all four members of my family. 1.1kReads8.8Score117Shelves
- 69 Shattered Yin-Yang Jade 阴阳玉碎 [Supernatural + horror + suspense + first person + no idiots in the story + clever protagonist + a touch of angst] "I'm turning eighteen soon. I should die, too." Yu Yue and I are twin sisters, born eighteen years ago on Ghost Festival. A fortune-teller gave us each a jade pendant and said that on our eighteenth birthday, whoever's pendant broke would die. We're seventeen now, and suddenly both pendants have shattered. How can we possibly survive? 43Reads—Score—Shelves
- 70 Corpse Driving in Western Hunan: The Soul-Calling Guide on the Night Road 湘西赶尸：夜行引魂人 A sudden disaster at a mass grave! Wu Liangzi is struck on the back of the head and wakes among rotting coffins and bones, clutching a bloodstained piece of yellow paper. It bears the name of the man he has spent three years tracking down for murdering his father! Seven corpses in black robes dance around him all night, their lifeless eyes seeming to “acknowledge their master.” A mysterious corpse driver tosses him a life-and-death contract. “Four of your seven souls have scattered. If you can’t 240Reads—Score—Shelves
- 71 Stay Away, Spirits 阴人勿扰 Someone dug up our family grave and put the newlywed daughter-in-law who’d just died in their family in there. My uncle told me to go get her out in the middle of the night... 496Reads7.1Score—Shelves
- 72 Nightmare of the Strange Realm 诡界噩梦 [Infinite Flow + Horror + Mystery + Survival] A strange ticket dragged Yan Yu onto a bus bound for the abyss. Only after stepping into the world of ghosts did he realize he had been drawn into one brutal survival game after another. Night falls, monsters roam, and every step is a choice between life and death. Yan Yu thought it was all a random twist of fate, never knowing that the destiny set in motion from the moment he was born had been quietly unfolding all along... 41Reads6.2Score—Shelves
- 73 Running a Flower Shop in a Horror Game 人在惊悚开花店 [Infinite-loop horror game, with a touch of rule-based horror + no romance + horror] [New book, so the rating and reader count are a little low. Please don't mind. The ratings and readers will come!!] Huh? I transmigrated? Let me see, am I a royal relative or a rich young lady? Oh my god, why am I in a horror dungeon? I want to go home! I don't want to transmigrate! Waaah! At Cachtice Castle, gazing at Lady Bathory, who sleeps forever among the roses: “I am Li Yi, but you need me, so I am Ottili 368Reads7.1Score103Shelves
- 74 Classroom of Despair 绝望教室 What began as a prank voting game set off a string of tragedies. One classmate after another died, yet the voting continued. I knew that maybe I would be the next one to die… 671Reads8.2Score—Shelves
- 75 The Unlucky Heavenly Master Walks the Mortal World 冤种天师走人间 The Maoshan Celestial Master holds yin and yang in check, slays ghosts, banishes demons, and dispels ill omens. A three-foot peachwood sword, a stick of incense for virtue! My fate is unusual: I court death but never die, so my master took me in as a disciple and taught me the secret arts of Maoshan. After descending the mountain, I met a beautiful older girl I knew as a child, and she led me down a road of no return. A beauty in an ice coffin, a snow-mountain witch, a fox spirit beneath the moo 729Reads7.4Score101Shelves
- 76 The Forbidden Island of Human Nature 人性禁岛 I couldn’t get a ticket for the Spring Festival, so I took an unlicensed car home. I never expected the woman in the car to keep staring at me. I wanted to call the police... [Deep Dive] The horrifying truth behind going missing after getting into the wrong car during the Spring Festival. Don’t ride in unlicensed cars carelessly, because it’s not just your money that disappears, but your life! 1kReads8.6Score100Shelves
- 77 Please Don't Give the Dead a Name 请不要替死者取名 Zhou Jin is on night duty in the morgue when a body arrives in freezer nine, registered one minute before it was brought in. The dead man has no facial features, no fingerprints to identify him, and yet the name written on his form is… Zhou Jin. After daybreak, one strange thing after another begins to happen. The security system no longer recognizes him. His coworkers gradually forget what to call him, and even his mother can no longer remember her son’s name. Yet every day at mealtimes, she 3Reads—Score—Shelves
- 78 Cultivation Is All About Seeing Who Can Keep a Low Profile 修仙就是看谁活得苟 [System] [Transmigration] [Cultivation] After awakening a lifespan system, Jiang Fei had a head start from the moment he transmigrated. Isn’t cultivating immortality just a matter of seeing who can live the longest? When your talent is lacking, all you can do is grind. Amid the relentless flow of time, he alone kept moving forward. Ten thousand years passed. Dynasties rose and fell, and the years flew by. This is the story of one man’s journey through ten thousand years. 40Reads9.4Score—Shelves
- 79 The Corpse Leaps Over the Wall 尸跳墙 I’ve been blind since childhood, so I work as a massage therapist for the blind. Then one day, I met a terrifying woman who said she could restore my sight. The price was... 140Reads7.8Score—Shelves
- 80 The Final Sequence: My Heart Can Simulate the Future 最终序列：我的心脏会模拟未来 [My name is Xu Ye. I died of a sudden heart attack at the age of eighteen.] [I transmigrated.] [I opened A Brief History of the World, only to find that this world had just a hundred years of history.] [I walked over to the mirror. A pair of hands appeared inside it and grabbed me by the throat. Maybe he was jealous of my good looks?] [I lay in bed to sleep. A face appeared on the ceiling and stared at me, unblinking. I slowly took off my pants, and she looked away.] [I’ve been thinking for five 557Reads8.7Score—Shelves
- 81 The Iron Fan, Famous Detective of Bianjing: Strange Tales of the Song Dynasty 汴京名捕铁扇子：大宋诡事录 At night, an empty coffin floats on the Bian River, and water ghosts come to claim lives. Apparitions haunt a mansion, and ghosts knock at the door on rainy nights. Qi Guan Shanyu, the youngest renowned constable of the Six Gates, known as the “Iron Fan,” joins forces with an adversary more terrifying than ghosts: the human heart. A coffin rises from the water by itself, and the dead man’s face wears an eerie smile… Bianjing is in an uproar! Each case is more bizarre and mind-bending than the la 4Reads—Score—Shelves
- 82 Folk Horror Taboos 民间恐怖禁忌 Do you know the stories old people tell? Do you know there are many things in folk tradition that people say must not be spoken of? Do you know what the elders say about dreams? The elders say there are things you mustn't talk about at night. Did you know that? 130Reads6.3Score—Shelves
- 83 The Night-Sealed Door 夜封门 Seven months pregnant, the woman was brutally hounded to death, and her seven-month-old baby was thrown into a well. Her wronged soul is cut off from the road ahead, and evil spirits come to claim their due. The gates of hell swing open, and the underworld seals its doors in the dead of night. 2kReads8.3Score159Shelves
- 84 The Ghost Emerges from the Coffin 鬼出棺 Xie Bangui is secretly recruited into the Ghost Yamen and, on his master's orders, serves there, making a living by hunting demons and ghosts. Yet he has no idea that he carries a world-shaking secret. Leading the Ghost Yamen's warriors, Xie Bangui launches a night raid on a prison for evil spirits, fights a bloody battle on the execution platform against a demon, encounters a soul-snatching carriage, and cleverly breaks a skeleton lock. He survives evil spirits' attempts to claim his life, outw 1.5kReads9.1Score139Shelves
- 85 Paranormal Encounters: What I Saw and Heard 灵异事件之所见所闻 No System + no transmigration + no power fantasy + no harem + no invincible protagonist + no sweet romance + no clichés + no female lead + no cultivation. Important notice: if this isn’t for you, don’t read it. If this isn’t for you, don’t read it. If this isn’t for you, don’t read it! Do you believe there are things in this world that science cannot explain? Have you ever experienced anything supernatural yourself? Treat the events in this novel as stories, and remember: Fear and respect the sp 130Reads—Score—Shelves
- 86 Forbidden in the Mortal World 人间禁忌 When rules are twisted and order corrupted, when the Three Realms become a chessboard and all living beings its pieces, there will always be pioneers who raise their sickles and question the immortals, gods, and Buddhas enthroned above. Then they overturned the board, pulled down the beings who stood high above, and built a new board from scratch. And so, I appeared. 1.3kReads8.7Score109Shelves
- 87 I Can Rewrite My Epitaph After I Die 我能修改自己死后的墓志铭 Did the gods create the world, or did humanity unwittingly create the gods? One god after another emerged from dreams and claimed territory as forbidden zones. Was this the gods' return, or had humanity accidentally replicated their genes? Winter descended, and the long night drew near. Chen Fan kept dreaming of his own solitary grave. Was it an ill omen, or a prophecy from the future? When Chen Fan bowed once before his own grave, all the gods began to tremble! 2kReads8.9Score205Shelves
- 88 Records of Yin and Yang Mysteries 阴阳诡录 Ji Rendong was born with Yin-Yang Eyes and brought misfortune to her father, her mother, and her entire family. Since childhood, she has been able to see a girl who looks exactly like her, following her everywhere. At the age of five, her grandmother abandoned her, and a mysterious man took her away. She thought she would finally have a home, but it turned out the man only wanted her extremely yang blood. Her blood could save his son, in exchange for her life. Should she save him or not? That is 241Reads8.5Score102Shelves
- 89 Folktales of the Northeast: The Household Guardian Immortal 民间故事之东北保家仙 In folk tradition in Northeast China, people believe in household guardian spirits. Those who worship them receive blessings, and my job is to help people invite these spirits into their homes… 341Reads8.2Score100Shelves
- 90 Night Talks at the Threshing Ground 打谷场夜话 Long ago, in the countryside, there were no phones, televisions, air conditioners, or fans. When darkness fell in summer, people would head to the threshing ground to cool off, sit in a circle, chat, and start telling strange and terrifying ghost stories… 1.7kReads—Score103Shelves
- 91 The Skinning Ghost 扒皮鬼 (Traditional supernatural horror + extreme horror + multiple twists + mystery + entirely handcrafted) Lately, I've been having nightmares every night. A fortune-teller said I might have a ghost clinging to me. He told me about a forbidden folk ritual: Put on a pair of worn underwear over your head, and it will block a ghost's sight. That night, I got home and followed his advice, half believing it. My girlfriend came back to the room after washing up and stared blankly at where I was. "Where... 64.7kReads8.3Score7.2kShelves
- 92 The Ghost King Is Sealed Inside Me, Yet I’m a Good-for-Nothing 体内封印鬼王，我却是个废柴 A rainy night in a cemetery, a man-eating black cat, a man searching for his late daughter, a school guard hanged on the stairs, a wedding coffin sealed with red paper, a grotesque face hiding in a mirror... What secrets lie behind it all? What other mysterious events will Wang Shier, the gravekeeper, have to face? As terror and dread slowly close in, those secrets seem to be steering his fate. (The stories in this book are all adapted from real events. If anything sounds familiar, it is pure co 7Reads6.4Score—Shelves
- 93 The Corpse Keeper 守尸人 The morgue is where life and death meet. At this boundary, there are many taboos to heed. I grew up beside a hospital morgue, and I'll tell you about the hospital's taboos from a different perspective. Taboo 1: If you see a patient being resuscitated, don't gather around to watch. Taboo 2: If a patient's family throws away something the deceased used while alive, don't toss your own trash on top of it. Taboo 3: If you hear a cat meowing at night, don't go outside to look, whether you're a patien 917Reads6.3Score100Shelves
- 94 The Demon in the Coffin 至棺重妖 The new novel, The Fragrance of the Living Dead: Handling Ghostly Affairs Among the Living, is now being serialized. The excitement never stops, with new chapters every day. If you enjoy it, please support the author, Ye Wei. Thank you all! [Mystery + Horror + Supernatural + Folk Tales of the Strange + Female Ghosts + Monsters + Mountain Spirits + Corpses] This is a strange little village hidden deep in the mountains... Ever since he was nine and encountered the dead rabbit crouched on his windo 1.6kReads9.2Score113Shelves
- 95 Snake Sacrifice 蛇祭 Two virgins + Sweet romance + Strong female lead leveling up The Snake Lord is fearsome. A promise made a thousand years ago, a meeting in dreams, a bracelet carved from nine dragons’ bones, protection for his wife, a Soul-Devouring Demon Blade, souls scattered to the winds, old grudges brought to an end... On the night of the Ghost Festival, the fifteenth day of the seventh lunar month, Old Song carried me back from the village’s Spirit Snake Mountain. Strange changes swept across the sky: ligh 343Reads9.1Score116Shelves
- 96 One Goal: Stay Alive 唯一目标：活着 (Survival + high intelligence + deduction + no saintly protagonist + mild horror. Read with caution if you’re sensitive to these elements.) A stream of fire pierced the atmosphere and struck the ground. In an instant, the world was plunged into chaotic darkness, and the buildings of civilization people had once taken pride in became lifeless ruins. Yet among the ruins, one building alone remained standing, like a watchtower surveying all the darkness. Beneath the apocalypse, strange phenomena we 6Reads—Score—Shelves
- 97 The Corpse Carrier 背尸工 My name is Chen Feng, and I work as a corpse bearer at a funeral home. After a class reunion, I spent the night with Jiang Lixin, the school beauty. I never expected to see her corpse at work the very next day, or that I'd have to carry her on her final journey... 5.4kReads7.0Score327Shelves
- 98 This Spirit Medium Is No Ordinary One 这个出马仙不一般 [Paranormal tales from Northeast China, adapted from true stories] A three-foot strip of red cloth bears the names of a hundred or so immortals. Incense smoke curls before it, and the disciple is known as a spirit medium. My name is Jin Laimi. A weasel calling itself the Yellow Immortal once possessed me, and from then on, I became a spirit medium. I opened an agency specializing in feng shui and all kinds of “paranormal” cases. A father who guards his daughter with his spirit even after death; 382Reads8.9Score—Shelves
- 99 60 Chilling Stories from Real Life 来自现实的60个惊悚故事 (Purely written by hand, not AI) Schemes! Poisoning! Possession! Framing... evil spirits! Returning from the dead! Ghosts! Curses... Terrifying and chilling stories based on real events, showing you the things that lurk in the dark world! Every story is a horror short drama! 21.2kReads8.9Score2kShelves
- 100 Carrying the Dragon Coffin 抬龙棺 The First Emperor's coffin was called the Dragon Coffin. By rights, everyone who carried the Dragon Coffin should have been buried alive with him. But my ancestor somehow escaped. Was the elixir of immortality really just a legend? And where did Xu Fu go after sailing east? My ancestor was the only person who knew the secret of Qin Shi Huang's mausoleum... 2.9kReads8.5Score297Shelves
