Novels like The Water-Taming Beast
Books Chinese readers most often put in the same booklists as The Water-Taming Beast, best match first.
- 1 Thirteen Taboos 十三禁忌 Thirteen folk taboos: the first is killing cats; the second, walking close to walls at night; the third, killing beneath a tree; the fourth... They say cats have nine lives, but most people don't know what that means and simply assume it refers to cats' strong vitality. There are many ancient texts that discuss the origins of the nine-lived cat. In the East, for example, the Buddhist text Sayings Above explains it this way: a cat has nine lives, corresponding to insight, spirituality, stillness, 5Reads8.0Score—14d adds
- 2 The Supernatural Returns? I Rule the World of Black Rain! 诡异复苏？我在黑雨世界当主宰！ [System] + [no female lead] + [not a power fantasy] + [Thriller] + [conflict] + [Eerie Revival] Ye Jingshan grew up amid all kinds of eerie incidents. From the start, he was chased up eighteen floors by something uncanny! 2Reads—Score—14d adds
- 3 I Tour the World to Offer Sacrifices, and All the Gods Bow 我巡天下祀，诸神皆叩首 [Chinese Folk Customs + Supernatural Cultivation + Eerie Mystery Cases + A Cast of Human Characters + Mutual Redemption + One Female Lead] A bowl of hot rice suddenly appears in the General’s Shrine, which has been sealed for sixty years. Pei Zhaoye is ordered to open the shrine and inspect it. To his surprise, the statue that has never opened its eyes steps down from the altar and bows before him. “Your sinful god welcomes... Mr. Lu.” But Pei Zhaoye’s surname is not Lu, and he remembers nothing 1Reads—Score—14d adds
- 4 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 2Reads—Score—14d adds
- 5 The Secret Wilds 秘野奇域 In 2035, the global archaeological community was rocked to its foundations. Mysterious bronze solar wheels, unearthed one after another across the world, linked humanity's ancient civilizations together. To solve the astonishing mystery behind the bronze solar wheels, a secret field unit was urgently called into action... 173Reads—Score—14d adds
- 6 The Last Glow of the World Has Yet to Fade 人间余晖未凉 A game that will decide the fate of all humanity. With one ghost-ridden, wildly different scenario after another, how will the [Awakener] bearing everyone's hopes clear them? This so-called divine "gift": salvation or the abyss? Dream or reality: which will you choose? Will Dusk (SUN) be the last spark of hope? Let's find out together whether the setting sun can change the night. Dreamweaver x Yan Luo 3Reads—Score—14d adds
- 7 Parasitic on the Three Paths 三途寄生 A flight of fancy + urban legends + mystery: a female lawyer, a wandering spirit, and a rat demon form a trio to perform human sacrifices for foundation stones, bind earth spirits, battle corpse immortals, and drive off puppet masters. Together, they take on the thousand-year schemes of the Nine Shamans, shatter the fantasy of the “Witch Ancestor” descending to be reborn and wreak havoc on the world, and stop him from being reborn. Also known as Reborn: I Won’t Let You Be Reborn. —Reads—Score—14d adds
- 8 Painted Walls 画垣 When my village was demolished, I returned to sort through the belongings left behind by my grandfather, a painter, and took away a cigarette case decorated with mysterious patterns. The old house had long since been razed, but every nightfall, the entire village reappeared among the ruins. Maybe what my grandfather painted back then wasn’t a painting at all… 2Reads—Score—14d adds
- 9 Grimm's Fairy Tales, Reimagined as Horror 诡异格林童话 Lin En, a folklore graduate student, wakes up in another world only to be swallowed by a tide of rats from the start! At the brink of despair, his research notes on Grimm’s Fairy Tales, which he’d brought along, transform into a golden finger: the [Book of Truth]! [Warning! The fairy-tale incident “The Pied Piper” is about to occur!] [Truth erosion initiated... “Piper” erased! New entries revealed: “Astral Worm,” “Sonic Neural Control”!] When the whole town hails the Pied Piper as their savior, 21Reads8.2Score—14d adds
- 10 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... 328Reads6.6Score—14d adds
- 11 Strange Tales from the Teaching Mission 支教诡事 I'm an ordinary teacher at a key secondary school, but after I talked back to the principal, I was “volunteered” for a long-term teaching assignment at a middle school in the countryside. I was furious, but to keep my job, I had no choice but to accept being “volunteered.” What I never expected was that this school would be anything but ordinary. (Note: This book is set in a parallel world. Any resemblance between its place names, characters, or events and those in real life is purely coincident 3.9kReads8.2Score40414d adds
- 12 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… 153Reads5.8Score—14d adds
- 13 Supernatural Infiltration 灵异渗透 [Not a power fantasy] [Light infinite-flow] [Urban strange phenomena] [Supernatural horror] [Multiple POVs for the male and female leads] [Lighthearted and humorous] [Realistic style] The real world is invaded by the supernatural. How will rookie Fang Jing and policewoman Li Zi solve the mysteries, struggle to survive, and uncover the truth? 517Reads6.0Score—14d adds
- 14 The Midnight Corner Store 午夜小卖部 The vast world is full of wonders, with all kinds of people and all kinds of professions. Perhaps one day, in some corner of the world, you’ll meet me... My name is Ling Yi. I was born with a pair of Yin-Yang Eyes, and my family owns a little shop passed down through the generations. When I took it over, I turned it into a convenience store, but it only opens at midnight... One paranormal incident after another takes place during business hours. Then, one day, the convenience store suddenly disa 341Reads6.8Score—14d adds
- 15 Driver of the Underworld 幽冥司机 Bus Route 206 is hiring a night-shift driver. Liu Hao eagerly applies, only to discover that the job not only pays well but also has short hours. It’s only after he signs the contract that he realizes there’s something wrong with the bus… Strange passengers and eerie lost property leave Liu Hao wondering if he’s driving the last bus of the underworld! 388Reads6.3Score—14d adds
- 16 A Collection of Bizarre Horror Stories 怪诞恐怖故事集 My stories have magic, blood and tears, the evil side of human nature, and the horror you’re looking for. 1. Mother’s Bottles and Jars: A single drop of blood can turn one grain of rice into a whole pot of rice. A hundred drops can conjure a bicycle... What kind of magic is hidden in the bottles and jars Mother prepared for him? 2. The Toilets in Dreams: If you fall asleep while desperate to pee, you’ve surely dreamed of all kinds of toilets. If you write down the toilets you see in your dreams, 13Reads—Score—14d adds
- 17 Infinite Flow: Surviving the Game by Eating Fetal Dumplings 无限流：从吃胎婴饺开始求生游戏 [Two male leads + horror + hilarious comedy + mind-bending puzzles + lots of sweetness] My name is Jiang Yunyin, and I'm an apprentice mortician. I never thought I'd die one day by “freezing to death in a bathroom.” After I died, I came to the Horror World. To be reborn, I began taking on the horror trials the System told me about. It was supposed to be just a survival game, but it was far more difficult than I imagined. A maternal and child health hospital where women's wails and babies' cries 2Reads—Score—14d adds
- 18 Geological Survey File No. 0: The Dragon-Seeking Map 地勘0号密档：探龙图 A dragon-seeking map sketches out wealth, but it also lays out life and death. As the saying goes, fortune is found in danger, and whether you live or die is up to fate. 1.5kReads8.9Score10514d adds
- 19 The Coffin Bearer 压棺人 Carriage duty, also known as sitting on the coffin, means that when a funeral procession takes a body to its burial site, someone must ride on top of the coffin all the way up the mountain. But not every coffin is fit to sit on. I agreed to ride on one to help someone out, never expecting it to bring me trouble... 562Reads8.4Score—14d adds
- 20 Before the Strange Things Begin 在一切诡异之前 [Supernatural resurgence + horror + no System + semi-infinite survival + no saintly protagonist + not dark + no female lead] When ghosts invaded reality, a group of survivors gained the protection of the “Rules.” They became employees of the “Rules,” and to keep enjoying their protection, they had to complete tasks. But the power of the “Rules” was limited... I didn't really care about any of that. I didn't want to bother figuring out what was the cause and what was the effect. So what if this w 11Reads—Score—14d adds
- 21 The Supernatural Incident Investigation Bureau 灵异事件侦探局 I was just an ordinary junior police officer, but I couldn't fight fate's wheel and got swept into a department I'd never heard of: the Paranormal Investigation Bureau. Joining the Bureau opened the door to a whole new and exciting life, but as one bizarre case after another came along, I gradually realized that everything had been predestined. None of it was a coincidence. 14Reads6.7Score—14d adds
- 22 The Terrifying Asylum 恐怖疯人院 [Traditional supernatural fiction] + [Traditional mystery] + [Twists] + [Deduction] A tribute to The Last Bus on Route 13. My girlfriend, Tian Wenjing, was an intern doctor at a psychiatric hospital, but she died mysteriously while working there. To investigate what happened, I somehow ended up at the same hospital. After experiencing all kinds of bizarre events, I discovered a tremendous conspiracy lurking behind it. And somehow, this conspiracy was closely connected to me... 656Reads8.0Score—14d adds
- 23 High Martial: At Bureau 749, I Refine Demons into Gods! 高武：人在749局，炼妖成神！ [Decisive and Ruthless] [Modern Urban Martial Arts] [Demon-Refining Maniac] [Explosively Satisfying] After being reborn, Zhou Xie discovers that a vile ghost has drained his health bar and his body, leaving him on the brink of death at any moment. Luckily, there’s a black gourd in his mind that can forcibly keep him alive! Demon refining, forging, contracts... As long as he kills a strange demon, the black gourd will refine it into slag, turning it into nourishment for his growth! “Is that Zhou 66Reads6.0Score—14d adds
- 24 Bureau 749: The Special Heroes Unit 749局之特殊英雄组 The world isn't as calm and peaceful as it looks. Just like in the sci-fi movies you've seen, there are a handful of strange people, strange events, monsters, and paranormal phenomena in this world. Some of them, however, can easily cause social unrest and inspire fear. Our 749 Bureau was established to deal with such things. 1.7kReads5.9Score10114d adds
- 25 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 —Reads—Score—14d adds
- 26 Thriller Paradise: Jurassic Park from the Start 惊悚乐园：开局侏罗纪公园 The protagonist has no cheat. Everyone in the reincarnation instances has a talent, though some are stronger than others. The first instance is terribly written, but things gradually improve afterward. [The endless trials have begun. There is only one rule: survive.] After a strange “recruitment game,” Lin Feng and more than ten others are drawn into a series of reincarnation instances known as the “Trial World.” First instance: Jurassic Park 1. Welcome to the dinosaurs’ territory. They arri 87Reads5.8Score614d adds
- 27 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… 4.5kReads8.4Score30014d adds
- 28 Multiple Fears 多重恐惧 An invitation to a party brings together nine writers, each with a very different style. At the party, the novelist who invited them traps everyone inside and demands that each guest tell a story. With no other choice, they comply. One story after another unfolds at the party: will they reveal the clash of human nature or unleash ghostly terrors? Everything will come to light here. "This is my debut work. I hope you'll show it plenty of support." 10Reads—Score—14d adds
- 29 Adventure Livestream: My Gods Are a Little Different! 直播探险：我的神明有亿点不同！ After an accident, Lin Qi transmigrates to a parallel world and activates the Live-Stream Exploration System! From then on, Lin Qi embarks on a journey to find the mysterious, bizarre, terrifying mythical beasts from legend, the kind that make your sanity plummet. From the snow monsters of the Himalayas to the mysterious temple deep in Lop Nur; from the dragon tribe in the Mariana Trench to Ning'en, a humanoid behemoth in the deep waters of Antarctica; death worms, lizard people, butterfly peopl 170Reads—Score—14d adds
- 30 You Asked Me to Form a Special Cases Unit, So Why Did I Recruit a Bunch of Tomb Raiders? 让你组建特案组，你搞一堆盗墓贼 After transmigrating to a parallel world, Lin Fan awakened the Paranormal Case System! Solving unusual, supernatural cases earns him rewards! After helping the police solve a case involving a stolen infant from an ancient tomb, one strange case after another quickly came to light! With no other choice, the police set up a Special Cases Unit and invited Lin Fan to lead it. But the members Lin Fan selected left the police completely dumbfounded! A corpse driver, a yin-yang master, a tomb raider, a 11Reads6.6Score—14d adds
- 31 The Half-Baked Feng Shui Master: I Became a Legend Through Hands-On Ghost Hunting 半吊子风水师：撞鬼后靠实操封神 Lin Jingran, nicknamed Dogshit, is the most hopeless half-baked feng shui master in the old district. He has no real skills and is a coward, getting by on the old notes his grandfather left behind. That is, until his childhood friend kneels before him, crying that the secondhand house he bought is haunted and his wife and son are close to dying. For two thousand yuan, Lin Jingran steels himself and goes over. He steps on wet hair as soon as he walks in, hears a woman crying by his ear, and watch 4Reads—Score—14d adds
- 32 At Bureau 749, I Predict the Apocalypse 我在749局，预言末日 Urban fantasy + wild imagination + horror + the supernatural + Superpowers + Doomsday + no saintly hero. Lin Yi is a descendant of Yuan Tiangang and Li Chunfeng! Born with the ability to foresee the future and glimpse the scenes of people's deaths! Whenever danger approaches, he receives a "Reaper's Secret Message"! It's his talisman for staying alive! Now, the world has changed dramatically, and a bizarre apocalypse has arrived. The 749 Bureau has come knocking. "Lin Yi, we're out of options!" 1.5kReads—Score—14d adds
- 33 Wrathful Love in Western Hunan: The Bell of the Gu Spirit 怒情湘西之蛊魂铃 [A power fantasy about a strong female lead's growth + metaphysics and destiny + chilling unsolved cases + a fiery heroine + male leads who all know how to flirt] The heroine is a sharp-tongued little firecracker. As the reincarnation of Tanlang, she has incredible luck with men and a maxed-out charisma buff. She fights her way through one challenge after another, growing stronger all the while, and is as cool as she is dashing. Her destiny has been stolen, and all she wants is to get it back. U —Reads—Score—14d adds
- 34 I Transmigrated and Joined Bureau 749 穿越的我加入749局 Wu Jun, who had just lost his job, transmigrated to the ancestral planet. Carrying three major theories and one troublesome problem, he returned to Earth. The first thing he did was hand over all his secrets to the nation, then join Bureau 749 and set out on the path to uncovering the truth. Bureau 749: We hide among the people. We are willing to make sacrifices. We bear the darkness. We believe that the interests of the nation come above all else. The three theories about Earth from the ancestr 25Reads—Score—14d adds
- 35 Horror and Terror 恐怖，惊悚 A classmate by the bed calls out softly. A cat's cries echo through the woods. Shadows flicker at the edge of the street. A piercing scream comes from inside the restroom. Are all the things you see and hear real? And are they all human? 697Reads—Score—14d adds
- 36 Strange Tales of Houqiu 厚邱怪谈 This is a novel only those who have truly seen ghosts can understand. When water reaches the brim, it spills; when the moon is full, it wanes. If you learn too many of the world’s secrets, the only person you’ll hurt in the end is yourself. Some people are born able to see strange things, or to experience what ordinary people never do. Such people are either born with a defect or destined for a difficult life. So, would you be willing to have a pair of Yin-Yang Eyes? 1Reads—Score—14d adds
- 37 I Use Astrology to Divine Heaven's Secrets and Crack Paranormal Cases in Seconds 我以星盘推演天机秒破诡案 [Survival in the Mist]+ [Thriller Game]+ [Omniscience and Omnipotence]+ [No Romance]+ [Strong Female Lead]+ [Not Romance]+ [Ruthless and Decisive]+ [Lovecraftian]+ [Dungeon Survival]+ [Eerie]+ [Ensemble Survival] A strange mist descended, dragging humanity worldwide into an infinite survival game. Yan Jiuxiao, a black-lotus astrologer who transmigrated from another world, bonded with the Starfall Compass System and awakened an all-knowing, all-powerful talent. A deadly mission appeared every sev 1Reads—Score—14d adds
- 38 Don't Be Afraid, She's the Person Closest to Me 别怕，她是我最亲密的人 [Handcrafted from Scratch] [Flesh-and-Blood Vengeful Ghosts] [Chinese Horror] [Character Growth] [Not Mindless Wish Fulfillment] [Tightly Plotted] [Absolutely Ruthless] [50,000-Word Outline] If you were given the chance to change your fate, would you rather keep working hard as a delivery driver, or suddenly become a 182-centimeter-tall, golden-haired older man who never has to worry about food or clothing? Yu Fa had no choice. He was forced to transmigrate into the latter. But before he could e —Reads—Score—14d adds
- 39 Tales of Strange Happenings Among the People 民间诡事杂谈 Never enter a temple in the barren hills alone. Never talk about ghosts and spirits on a night road. Never bury the dead in the center of a burial plot. Pork butchers often can't draw their last breath when they die. The world is full of strange things. What seems ordinary can be deadly. Don't believe me? Turn around and take a look. 277Reads—Score—14d adds
- 40 Burying Mountains and Seas: The Nine-Tailed Bone-Erosion Map 葬山海：九尾蚀骨图 Grave Robber × Antiquities Expert × Mysterious Descendant of the Tomb Guardians Between a breathing bronze coffin and the bones of a dream-eating tapir, take one more step, and the grand feast begins. A bronze compass points to a cursed tomb a thousand years old, while mythical beasts from the Classic of Mountains and Seas awaken in the murals. Deep within an imperial mausoleum, under the gaze of a nine-tailed fox, a map drawn on human skin and a blood-amber relic of Zhulong point to the same cu 25Reads—Score—14d adds
- 41 The Yellow Springs Occultist 黄泉诡术师 My name is Yan Fu. Yan as in King of Hell, Fu as in floating clouds. A corpse of a woman from the Yellow River protects my life; half a volume of ghost records conceals my whereabouts. My double pupils see the worlds of yin and yang, and I wield evil arts to command ghosts and corpses. I hunt female ghosts in an abandoned mansion in the eastern mountains and capture demons on the western desert frontier; I travel far to the Miao borderlands to battle blood gu, and pass through the Southern Seas 514Reads—Score10214d adds
- 42 The Paper Effigy Shop: The Figures I Make Can Catch Ghosts 祖传纸扎铺：我扎的纸人会抓鬼 There were no ghosts in the world to begin with. The more people believe in them, the more real they become! In truth, human hearts are a hundred times more sinister than evil ghosts. Every ghost was driven into being by people. My family’s paper effigy shop is so poor it’s about to close. My ancestors passed down three ironclad rules: never make an effigy in the likeness of a living person, never make one in the likeness of the dead, and never make one of anyone named by a customer. To make end 244Reads—Score12414d adds
- 43 The Last Sand Diver 最后一个淘沙官 [Tomb Raiding]+ [Mystery]+ [Supernatural] There is a group of people in this world who understand the balance of yin and yang, know the past and present, and brave deadly dangers in search of secret treasures buried with dragons, lost cities, and ancient palaces said to house immortals. With their own hands, they piece together fragments of the unknown world. They are the Sand-Seeking Celestial Officials. I am the last inheritor of the Sand-Seeking Celestial Officials, and I have decided to reco 1Reads—Score—14d adds
- 44 The Ultimate Supernatural Horror: The Ghost Card Train 终极灵异：鬼牌列车 [Supernatural] + [Horror] + [No Female Lead] + [No Sanctimonious Hero] + [No Mindless Decisions] Ghosts cannot be killed. Every ghost has its own unique rules for killing. Every card represents a vengeful ghost. Find a way to control the ghosts and escape the supernatural incidents. An old, eerie train stained with blood runs toward a terrifying supernatural realm. Where is the train’s final stop? No one knows. Or rather, no one has ever made it to the final stop. 27Reads—Score—14d adds
- 45 You Found Me 你找到我了 Modern Supernatural + Female-Led + Fresh Premise + All-Rounder + Wild Imagination + Reincarnation + Spirit Speech + Runes and Formations + Fictional Modern Setting + Pure Wish Fulfillment in the Middle and Later Parts Abandoned and cast out? No. Her god reincarnates for her, life after life. Following the usual formula and old clichés? No. The Heavenly Dao is nothing to her. An ordinary girl dealing with a life that’s a complete mess? No. Other people are the ordinary ones. She is the unique one 5Reads—Score—14d adds
- 46 The Haunting of the New Home 搬家诡事 [Mystery + Thriller + Supernatural + Horror + No Female Lead + Smart Protagonist] His name was Yi Jibo. After he was wrongfully imprisoned, his mother fell ill and died. To pay off his gambling debts, his father sold her ashes to the Japanese through a crematorium driver. To get his mother's ashes back, Yi Jibo went to work at a Japanese funeral home. And so he burned Japanese corpses while searching for his mother's ashes… 19Reads—Score—14d adds
- 47 Yin-Yang Ruoxie 阴阳若邪 On the day Xie Ruoxie was born, the family home was surrounded by countless poisonous insects. His mother took it as a bad omen and abandoned him at birth. Fortunately, his grandparents raised him. He only wanted to get into college and repay their kindness, so why are the things happening to him getting stranger and stranger? And who am I, really? Why can I command poisonous insects and drive away ten thousand ghosts? (This story is adapted from real events.) 19Reads6.6Score—14d adds
- 48 Midnight Ghost Stories 午夜鬼话 Can't sleep alone at night? The kind of story that makes you more hooked the more scared you get? I've prepared a bedtime companion for you. Pick one according to your courage. New updates every night at ten, see you there. “Turn off the lights and put on your headphones. You hear breathing behind you, but you're supposed to be home alone. Don't turn around. Just listen while I finish this story…” Which story would you like to wander into tonight? I'll do my best to tell each one well! 9Reads—Score—14d adds
- 49 Don't Talk to the Comments 不要和弹幕说话 [Horror + Supernatural + Mystery + Mind-Bending + Anthology (first four volumes complete) + Dread That Gets Under Your Skin + Not for the Fainthearted + The Villain Is the Smartest Character in the Book + Growing Female Lead + No System, No Cheats, Plot-Driven] Have you ever replied to a historical comment on a video, even just for fun? Hu Jia accidentally comes across a web series from ten years ago. It depicts a real case from that same year, but its ending is completely different from what 20Reads8.1Score—14d adds
- 50 Grandpa Started the Trouble, Three Generations Must Pay 爷爷闯下的祸，三代来还 The trouble Grandpa caused will take three generations to repay. 3Reads—Score—14d adds
