Novels like The Years I Spent as a Shepherd
Books Chinese readers most often put in the same booklists as The Years I Spent as a Shepherd, best match first.
- 1 The Feng Shui Master of the Green Satchel 青囊风水师 Feng shui and the arts of divination, fate ordained by Heaven, reading bones to tell fortunes, and offering guidance to those who have lost their way. The Qing Nang holds its arts, the ancient books their words. Healing ghosts and treating the living, all in accord with Heaven’s will. Fifteen years ago, Zhang Tianming of Qing Nang Dian Xiang shortened his own life to change the Lin family’s fate, and arranged a marriage for his apprentice. Fifteen years later, Zhang Qian followed his master’s 61Reads5.7Score—Shelves
- 2 The Corpse Retriever 捞尸人 In ancient times, there were corpse-drivers. Today, there is the profession of retrieving corpses from the water. The corpse-drivers guide the dead back to their roots, while what I retrieve is my own life. 8Reads—Score—Shelves
- 3 Grand Zombie Master 大僵师 Yu Xiu: “A talisman has a spirit within it, and the mind is used to command it.” Jiang Xiaoling: ‘Nobody is allowed to hurt my big brother! I’m angry, and the consequences will be serious. Understand?’ Wutian: “Amitabha. No killing intent, no Buddha’s light, no bloody shadows, only absolute supremacy.” —Reads—Score—Shelves
- 4 The Folk Treasure Hunter 民间憋宝人 A medicine gatherer's strange experience. Dog treasure is black, ox treasure is yellow, the corpse ginseng doll sleeps on a red bed. The earth-white dragon, the middle of a donkey's hoof, the hundred-foot centipede that stills the black wind. I am a medicine gatherer who travels deep into the mountains in search of hidden treasures. This world is full of secret places untouched by human hands, where rare natural treasures grow. The methods of treasure hunting are beyond imagination: strange arts 251Reads—Score—Shelves
- 5 Funeral Parlor No. 44 44号白事铺 All he wanted was a quiet job and a little extra cash. But by chance, he became a yin-yang master, earning cabbage money while worrying himself sick. His skills were too shallow to tell the living from the dead at a glance... 3Reads—Score—Shelves
- 6 Surviving Death High: I Fear Nothing 死亡高校求生：我无视恐惧 He pushed open the classroom door, only to find himself in a different classroom at a different university. One student, a sealed-off school, a string of terrifying incidents, and a horde of ghosts growing stronger by the day. Escape, division, conflict, and human nature. While everyone else was caught up in this ever-changing spectacle, Ling Chen yawned and found himself standing atop the terrifying university. Because he was a man who knew no fear. 12Reads—Score—Shelves
- 7 The Folk Treasure Hunter 民间憋宝人 As the saying goes: Pangu split the heavens and broke through chaos; the pure rose, the turbid sank, and wondrous treasures were born. Over countless millennia, the sun and moon have crossed the heavens, while rivers flow across the earth. Among the endless mountains, rivers, lakes, and seas, who knows how many rare treasures beyond ordinary imagination lie buried? There are people who, at first glance, seem like homeless wanderers roaming the world. But they move in secret and behave strangely. 285Reads—Score—Shelves
- 8 Have You Ever Held It In? And You're Writing a Book! 你憋过宝吗？你就写书！ Read the signs of heaven and earth, divide the waters, seal spirits, nurture treasures, and suppress evil. The treasure seeker can sense spirits, lead sheep, and coax treasures out of hiding. Find a treasure, and it goes into the Imperial Treasury. A hundred years ago, thirteen gates to the grotto-heavens appeared out of nowhere, suspended above the mountains and rivers and anchoring the four seas. From that moment on, a whole new era set sail! There were martial arts techniques that could keep 885Reads8.4Score102Shelves
- 9 Treasure Hunting: Starting with a Lucky Find 寻宝之从捡漏开始 Obsessed with antiques, Lin Fan was forced to spend seven years in prison. There, he not only met Master Qiu, an expert tomb raider, but also learned his true techniques. A mysterious ancient tomb beneath the prison, a white rhino in a remote mountain village, and the appearance of a blue dragon caused dragon scales to grow all over Lin Fan's body. From then on, he founded his own sect and became invincible! Along the way, Lin Fan experienced every kind of hardship, searched the world for rare t 26Reads—Score—Shelves
- 10 Terror in the Desolate Village 荒村惊魂 I entered a village inhabited entirely by women. I thought I’d found a man’s paradise, but after a series of bizarre events, I realized things weren’t so simple… 158Reads5.8Score—Shelves
- 11 Urban Treasure Hunting: It All Starts with Billions in Jade 都市寻宝从亿万翡翠开始 After years of saving and emptying his family coffers, Chen Mo finally managed to buy a home. But to his surprise, his girlfriend Zhang Lili found fault with everything… Fortunately, the Super Treasure-Hunting System came through, and Chen Mo got his hands on a rough gemstone. He never expected the thing to be worth 200 million… From then on, Chen Mo's life as a Tycoon begins! 44Reads7.1Score—Shelves
- 12 Yin-Yang Ghost Embroidery 阴阳诡绣 Some taboos must never be broken, no matter what. Before my grandfather died, he warned me never to make money from the skills he taught me. But one night, a woman from my hometown collapsed outside my door and begged me to help her keep the child in her womb. My heart softened, and from then on, there was no turning back. 13Reads6.8Score—Shelves
- 13 The Yin Tattooist 阴纹师 A tattoo shop that opens at midnight. The designs aren’t tigers, dragons, or leopards, but... 28Reads—Score—Shelves
- 14 The Mysterious Origami Master: Rising to Power from the Underworld! 诡秘折纸匠：从阴间开始成大佬！ (The protagonist is calm and self-focused, and refuses to be swept along by outside forces. Please understand if that's not to your taste.) After a family upheaval, he awakens as a bizarre paper-folding craftsman. After a paper mansion is burned down, it transforms into a haunted apartment building in the underworld. One paper figure after another becomes a battle-hardened general! With a wave of paper, he summons a river of stars across the heavens. With a drop of paper, the Yellow Springs surg 825Reads6.7Score152Shelves
- 15 Horror: I’m Trapped in a Scripted Murder-Mystery Game 恐怖：我被困在剧本杀中 Lin Mo is a player obsessed with murder mystery games. After receiving an invitation to play, he heads to a little abandoned villa in the suburbs, only to become trapped in a deadly maze. Working together with his companions, they finally manage to escape, but discover that reality and the game have merged, and death lurks everywhere. Only then does Lin Mo realize he is trapped in a world made up of countless murder mystery games... 3Reads—Score—Shelves
- 16 I Livestream Treasure Hunting, and from the Start, My Viewers Lose It 我直播挖宝，开局全体水友破防 (P.S. The book includes pictures of the treasures.) After graduating from college, Chen Shi couldn't find a job, so he had no choice but to go home and lie around. Chen's mother: “Chen Shi, there's a job cleaning toilets. You can start with that.” Chen Shi: “I'd rather die than work for someone else.” Who knew a voice would suddenly sound in Chen Shi's mind? “Treasure-Digging System activated.” Chen Shi immediately decided to livestream his treasure hunting. On the first day, he dug up a gold nu 7Reads—Score—Shelves
- 17 Strange Tales of the Paranormal 异悚之诡 A blood-red gate of despair, with evil spirits waiting to be saved. Push the door open, and you have a one-in-nine chance of survival. Turn around, and death is certain. In the passageway leading to hell, someone must always stand there, arms outstretched, holding back the collapse of heaven itself. 18Reads—Score—Shelves
- 18 Corpse Driver: I Dug Up an Undercover Cop from the Start 赶尸人，开局挖出警方卧底 Synopsis: Li Chengchuan is so busy driving corpses that he accidentally stands up his blind date, enraging his older sister! “I’ll go plead your case again, but you’d better behave this time, or I’ll beat you to death!” “I hope you can give me a reasonable explanation.” “Sorry, I had to go on a last-minute business trip and forgot to tell you.” “So what do you do for work?” “If I say I drive corpses, would you believe me?” “I believe you!” Song Qianqian didn’t take him too seriously, because her 14Reads—Score—Shelves
- 19 The Taoist of Naruto: The Lushan Tradition 火影道士闾山传 Shao Lin knows full well that women only slow down his path to immortality. Every day, he does good deeds like crazy to accumulate merit, hoping to become immortal on the spot so he can go after his enemies. After finally turning down his sweet childhood sweetheart, his ex-wife from nine lifetimes ago shows up asking for a fortune reading. “Oh dear, your birth chart is afflicted by an evil influence this year. There's a faint ring of dark energy around your brow. This is a terrible omen. Since w 7Reads—Score—Shelves
- 20 A Bowl of Meng Po's Soup 一碗孟婆汤 Among strange spirits and monsters, dangers abound. Break bones to uncover secrets and seek the path to immortality. Lin Zemin’s grandmother was a famous village doctor throughout the surrounding countryside. She could not only cure illnesses, but also read the signs. The medicines she used were all folk remedies. They might not have seemed orthodox, but they always worked. Lin Zemin was born late in his parents’ lives, and after his birth, his grandmother declared that he was destined to bear a 116Reads9.0Score—Shelves
- 21 Treasure Hunting and Sheep Towing 憋宝牵羊 A prequel to the novels The Art of Tomb Raiding and Heavenly Spirits and Earthly Treasures. Clouds cloak a thousand mountains, and the earth gives birth to all things. Between Heaven and Earth, amid the sources of mountains and rivers, there is an innate spiritual energy. When this energy gathers around a dragon, it nurtures a heavenly spirit; when it gathers in a burial site, it forms an earthly treasure; when it gathers in a formation, it gives birth to strange herbs. There is a group of peopl 5.2kReads7.6Score379Shelves
- 22 The Ghostly Papercutter 幽冥剪纸人 “You want to make a deal with me? But all I want is your shadow!” Song Xiaohan grinned. 22Reads6.7Score—Shelves
- 23 The Haunted Hearse 灵车诡事 I'm an ambulance driver for the dead. When I first started the job, Third Master told me a few rules every hearse driver must follow. Then one day, to pay off my loan, I transported a bizarre corpse... 316Reads6.6Score—Shelves
- 24 Notes of a Yin Merchant: I Only Buy the Most Cursed Things 阴商笔记：我只收大凶之物 I'm a dealer in occult goods. I had only recently taken over the shop my grandfather left me when I bought a string of human-bone prayer beads from tomb raiders. I never expected a beautiful woman to show up at my door the very next day... 68Reads—Score—Shelves
- 25 My Life as a Corpse Retriever 我的捞尸生涯 [Wulin + treasure hunting + adventure] In 2005, driven by poverty, I became a corpse diver. People say that making money off the dead will bring you retribution. Back then, I was young and reckless, and refused to believe it. Looking back now, I know they were right. Over the past decade or so, I’ve come close to passing through the gates of death several times. I’m lucky to have made it out alive, so let me share some of the stories from my life in the underworld. 14Reads—Score—Shelves
- 26 A Ghost at the Interview: The System Makes Me Play Chu Renmei 面试撞诡，系统让我扮演楚人美 [Supernatural resurgence + no female lead + System + role-playing + horror + decisive and ruthless + urban] Fresh out of college and already unemployed, Lin Ye receives a high-paying job offer from the Afterlife Funeral Home. It turns out to be a death warrant leading straight to hell! The interviewer is a faceless ghost, and HR is a painted-skin demon! The moment a ghostly claw pierces his heart, Lin Ye thinks he’s done for! [Ding! Host’s life is in imminent danger. Critical condition at 100% c 3Reads—Score—Shelves
- 27 Treasure Appraisal: I Got the Treasure-Hunting System from the Start 鉴宝：开局获得寻宝系统 Lu Chuan was an utterly ordinary wage earner, until a treasure-hunting System suddenly came to him! "Ding-dong! Host, you can now search for antiques anywhere within a ten-square-kilometer radius!" "Five li south of Nanshan, large quantities of ancient coins are buried beneath the wilderness!" "In a neighboring village north of the mountain, an abandoned mass grave contains burial goods worth tens of millions!" "Two li south of Nanshan, a farmhouse has ancient handicrafts scattered all over!" ". 18Reads5.3Score—Shelves
- 28 After Graduation, I Became a Corpse Retriever, and Zhou Jie Exposed Me 毕业后当捞尸人，被周姐曝光了 With graduation just around the corner, Lin Yu's girlfriend breaks up with him over the harsh realities of life. Just then, Lin Yu activates the Corpse Retriever System and prepares to start recovering bodies. Some expert: No boat can sail on the River of the Dead. Some authority: No one can identify the corpses in the River of the Dead. Some veteran corpse retriever: Anyone who retrieves corpses from the River of the Dead dies within a year. Yet Lin Yu rows his little boat along the River o 37Reads—Score—Shelves
- 29 The Yin-Yang Twin 阴阳双生人 [Mild Horror + The Supernatural] Ming Ye grew up living in a cemetery. Her parents went missing seven years ago and were eventually found dead under bizarre circumstances in the mountains. Seven years later, she became an emergency room doctor. One midnight, she met the Taoist priest Xu Baoyang on a bus as he was out catching ghosts. Later, while tracking clues about his missing master, Xu Baoyang came to the hospital where Ming Ye worked and discovered that a strange hospital orderly had set up 2Reads—Score—Shelves
- 30 Haunted 撞邪 Can you guarantee that the people around you are really human? A lowly office worker had always kept his head down and worked in silence, until one day he accidentally discovered that his coworkers weren’t human at all… To stay alive, he has to pretend everything is normal, struggling to survive in the narrow cracks of this place day after day… 4.2kReads8.4Score304Shelves
- 31 Eerie Corpse Retrieval: Beating Up a Thousand-Year-Old Water Ghost from the Start 诡异捞尸：开局暴打千年水鬼 As everyone knows, corpse retrieval has three rules: 1. Don’t retrieve bodies during thunderstorms. 2. Don’t retrieve bodies floating upright. 3. If you can’t retrieve a body after three tries, give up! No matter how much the client offers, corpse retrievers refuse to enter the water if any of these three situations arise! Before retrieving a body, they also perform all kinds of warding-off rituals and offerings. If anything seems amiss, they won’t enter the water either! These are precious less 15Reads—Score—Shelves
- 32 A Blind Date Turns into a Ghost Marriage: I Turn the Tables and Livestream the Corpse-Carrying Groom 相亲变冥婚：我反手直播赶尸新郎 [Metaphysics + horror + juicy gossip + comedy + complete] Lin Qingjiu, the disowned daughter of a wealthy family, is schemed against by her relatives and forced into a ghost marriage. Lying in the coffin beside her ghost groom, whose face is deathly pale yet stunningly beautiful, she smiles. Thanks, buddy, for the fresh corpse! She immediately turns around and livestreams herself escorting the groom’s corpse, bringing the whole internet along to feast on the juicy gossip. She exposes the weal 32Reads6.5Score—Shelves
- 33 The Treasure Hunter 憋宝人 The skin shed by a black fish as it transforms into a serpent can be stretched over a drum to carry its sound a hundred miles. The bowl atop a river imp's head can revive the dead when used to hold medicine. The pearl spat out by a giant serpent, the Marquis Sui's Pearl, is worth a fortune. The immortal herb that a yaksha gives you can grant eternal life when eaten. In the eyes of us shepherds, also known as treasure seekers, these heavenly treasures are all fat sheep. Sheep come in red and blac 3.3kReads8.4Score371Shelves
- 34 Eerie: Strange Folk Tales from Henan 诡异：从河南民间邪事开始 My name is Huang Biao. My family says a wandering Daoist priest gave me that name. Not only did he refuse payment, he knelt and kowtowed to me three times. Then my entire family of six died tragically. Searching for the truth, I fell into one mystery after another and endured one bizarre experience after the next. 197Reads7.5Score—Shelves
- 35 The Spirit Guide 送灵先生 A madwoman from the neighboring village died, but even in death her eyes wouldn’t close. No matter how many people tried, they couldn’t lift her coffin. The living face trials in life, and the dead face trials in death. An infant who cannot pass the trial between life and death cannot enter the new world. A dead person who cannot pass the trial of death cannot move on, and remains by their loved ones’ side. A sprig of green bamboo summons the spirits; a three-foot spirit banner sends the souls o 16Reads8.9Score—Shelves
- 36 Command My Body 敕吾身 “Perfect my body, command my body. This body is no ordinary body, but one transformed into the golden body of the Supreme Lord Lao…” (The Edict to My Body, also known as The Xuanpin Academy and The Manifestation of Divine Power, is a prequel to The Xuanpin Teahouse.) I became an apprentice at nine, formally began studying the Dao at eleven, and decided to record my experiences and observations at twenty. This is the story of Feng Cai, a disciple of Master Hu Fawang of the Great Manifestation of 50Reads—Score—Shelves
- 37 Speak No Words of the Three Corpses 三尸勿语 When someone dies far from home and a practitioner uses magic to make the corpse rise, it is called corpse-driving. People have three hun and seven po souls; corpses have three corpse spirits and nine worms. To drive a corpse that died unjustly, one must first subdue the spirits of its three corpses. When the dead pass by, the living must keep away! 52Reads—Score—Shelves
- 38 The Borrowed Blade 借刀人 As a shooting star streaked across the sun, a young man borrowed a blade. The Guigu Seal was broken, the Chiyou Banner appeared, and war erupted. The five immortals of fox, weasel, hedgehog, rat, and snake traveled by night and day, while the five evils of judges, tribute collectors, insects, corpses, and livestock roamed the land. Earth gods and City Gods, zombies and hanging ghosts, dragon maidens, vengeful spirits and monsters, Thunder Gods and drought demons walked between the realms of yin 16Reads8.3Score—Shelves
- 39 I Came Down the Mountain as a Corpse Driver and Scared My Online Girlfriend Silly 赶尸下山，我把网恋对象吓傻了 His shima told Zhang Hao to take his marriage contract and go down the mountain to meet his beautiful fiancée. Then the woman he'd been dating online for seven years sent him a message. Liu Shishi: "Let's break up. I don't want to keep staring at my phone." Zhang Hao: "I'm coming down the mountain." "Then... let's meet in person." "Let's meet in person tomorrow night. Don't keep me waiting." Liu Shishi brought her twin sister and showed up at the designated spot as promised. A young man 1Reads7.8Score—Shelves
- 40 Horror Instances: Follow the Rules If You Want to Survive 惊悚副本：想活命，就要遵守规则 [Clever protagonists + Cthulhu + transmigration + infinite worlds + horror games] The entire city was under the control of a mysterious force, and some people were sucked into eerie spaces. To stay alive, they had no choice but to take part in one bizarre, terrifying game instance after another. There, only those clever and resilient enough had any chance of making it to the end... 139Reads5.6Score—Shelves
- 41 Global Treasure Hunt: It All Started with a Meteorite 全球寻宝：从捡到陨石开始 (I’m a new writer. This is indeed a treasure-hunting story. The farming section at the beginning is now complete, and the protagonist’s treasure hunt is about to begin. If you’re interested, give it a try. If not, feel free to add it to your bookshelf and come back when the treasure hunt starts. Please forgive me, I’m new to writing and bound to make mistakes like this!) The treasure hunt is about to begin: Precious meteorites from beyond the heavens... Colorful antiques and curios... Mysterious 80Reads7.5Score—Shelves
- 42 My Years as a Daoist Immortal 我当仙家那些年 Because of something that happened in the past, I formed a bond with the Immortal Families. The Fox Immortal Family: Helps me master spiritual arts and keeps romance coming my way. The Yellow Immortal Family: Helps me seize souls and read the hidden secrets of the world. The White Immortal Family: Helps me heal the sick and save lives with miraculous skill. The Willow Immortal Family: Gives me the protection of a divine dragon and lets me retrieve objects from a thousand miles away. The Gray Imm 20Reads6.8Score—Shelves
- 43 The Last Paper Effigy Maker 最后一个扎纸匠 Paper effigy crafting is a business of the yin world. Of the many trades, the seventh refers to making paper effigies. My master said our line of paper effigy makers suffers from the Five Banes and Three Deficiencies, and is steeped in bad luck. We can forget about marrying and having children. If a female ghost starts haunting us, that's practically a blessing from our ancestors! “So that's why you told me to marry a paper effigy?” I looked at the paper figure lying beside me and felt a chill r 132Reads—Score—Shelves
- 44 The Greatest Ghost Taoist in the Mortal Realm 阳间第一鬼道 The coffin is raised, the incense still burns, and the grave is moved. The Taoist was once an evil ghost; wicked arts throw the age into chaos. Paper figures harbor murderous intent; living stones imprison evil spirits. Vengeful ghosts don Taoist robes, and the sinister wind never stops blowing. Ning An was a disciple of the Taoist sect, but his master used him as a pawn, while his master’s wife wanted to eat him and turn him into a vengeful ghost. 35Reads—Score—Shelves
- 45 Pranks and Hauntings: Master of Fate 整蛊造诡：执掌命运 A billion years ago, the God of the Supernatural held the balance of fate, but was besieged by the two divine factions of Order and Light. His divine essence shattered, and its fragments scattered across the myriad realms. A billion years later, Chen Yiyao, a high school student in the capital, binds himself to a fragment of the divine essence by chance and embarks on a path of “pranking and creating the supernatural.” He disrupts enemies with an eerie atmosphere, seizes power through ingenious 1Reads6.3Score—Shelves
- 46 The Haunting Broadcast 诡异广播 This is my first novel, and my writing still needs work. I’ve put a lot of thought into the plot, and I definitely won’t use AI. Read it if you like, and thank you! Updates will be irregular. I’m Little Black Umbrella. 1Reads—Score—Shelves
- 47 My Sister-Obsessed Guardian: Becoming a God in a World of the Uncanny 护妹狂魔我在诡异世界封神 [Gory violence + System + dungeons + no female lead + no saintly do-gooder + slow burn + global livestream + doting big brother] Chen Mo: The bizarre world is supposed to be hell for humanity, right? But I always feel like they’re friendlier than humans. They’re not scheming or plotting against each other, and they’re completely open with me. Every one of them calls me Little Boss and scurries along behind me. I have no idea why. All the Ghost Kings: (ಥ﹏ಥ) As long as you’re happy, Your Highness 3Reads—Score—Shelves
- 48 The Omnicompetent Demon Catcher 全能捉妖师 [Urban Fantasy + Superpowers + System] In a world where demon hunters reign supreme, ability is the best proof of one's worth. But he's just a rookie with barely any spiritual power. Then one day, he gets the most powerful spiritual energy absorption System! You cultivate your way, and I'll absorb spiritual energy to cultivate. From that day on, he begins his rise from the bottom. The strongest demon hunter: who can stand against him? 23Reads5.5Score—Shelves
- 49 Yin-Yang Embroidery: I’m the Last Tattoo Artist 阴阳绣：我是最后一个刺青师 My name is Zhou Yiyang. You probably won't believe this, but I make my living tattooing people, though what I do is nothing like ordinary tattooing. My tattoos come in two kinds: yin embroidery and yang patterns. They can change a person's fate and fortune, and help them avoid misfortune and find good luck. I'm a yin-yang tattoo artist, and I feed myself a bag of salt. 43Reads—Score—Shelves
- 50 The Treasure Hunter with a Lucky Touch 桃运摸宝师 I left home when I was young and stumbled into the world of treasure hunting and spirit-reading. From Kunlun’s Hell to the South Sea Dragon Ruins, the Netherworld Ghostwood, and the Sea of Sand’s hidden nest... I traveled far and wide in search of secret treasures. Just as I thought I could take control of my own fate, Heaven played a cruel joke on me. I tried to escape, but only sank deeper and deeper... 32Reads—Score—Shelves
