Novels like Insect Life: A Journey to the Brink of Death
Books Chinese readers most often put in the same booklists as Insect Life: A Journey to the Brink of Death, best match first.
- 1 The Pawnshop of the Dead 冥物典当行 Netherworld objects are the belongings of the dead. They carry the habits their owners had in life, along with the resentment and malice they harbored after death. Such objects can accompany ordinary people, causing anything from mental instability to the destruction of entire families. Pawnshops are terrified of getting involved with them. But our shop is different. We specialize in buying this sort of thing, and we even offer a handsome price... 173Reads8.2Score—14d adds
- 2 I'm Broke, Why Should I Be Afraid of Ghosts? 我穷鬼，岂会怕鬼？ [Goofy] [Funny] [Irreverent] [Mystery] [Supernatural] [Hop in] [No System] [A fish that slipped through nine years of compulsory education] Wang Ling landed a job paying 18,000 yuan a month as a security guard at a private hospital. On his first day, he was left completely stunned! Each floor of the hospital's inpatient wing had a special passage enshrining one of the underworld's yin deities. The morgue even had butcher's knives inexplicably lying around. Wang Ling put up with all of that. Then 3Reads—Score—14d adds
- 3 Wayfarer Between Yin and Yang 阴阳行者 The ultimate truths of heaven and earth are two: death and parting, and the way between yin and yang. I protect the living in the world of light, driving out evil and subduing demons until every specter is vanquished. I guide the dead across the Yellow Springs, and set foot upon the Bridge of Helplessness without hesitation. A traveler between the realms of yin and yang, I bear the balance of life and death on my shoulders. Have you ever seen an old sheep knock at your door, or a paper figure sp 268Reads5.6Score—14d adds
- 4 A Fading Lamp Shines on the Lonely Dead 残灯照孤冥 (Mystery + supernatural + no female lead) (Ghost case files + Taoist arts) (Tomato Original) The male lead is born under the fate of a lone star of calamity, destined to walk alone. A dying lamp lights the lonely darkness, and that darkness lights me in turn. 331Reads—Score—14d adds
- 5 Mysterious Curse 1 神秘诅咒1 [Supernatural Mystery + Urban Cultivation + Folk Taboos + A Passionate Coming-of-Age Story] Enter a sinister world concealed beneath the bustle of the modern city! I have no control over life or death. My name is Zhang Wen. I thought getting into college would let me escape that bleak village in the southwest. Then my grandfather died suddenly, with these words written in cinnabar on his palm: "Dig three feet down at the southeast corner of the wall." I unearthed a bloodstained notebook. Its fir 6Reads—Score—14d adds
- 6 Someone New Appeared in the Footage 录像里多出一个人 The test shoot’s discarded footage was four seconds longer. Everyone in the frame held the same poses they had at the end of filming. No one moved. I counted three times. There were six people every time. But only five people had been there that day. On the hard drive my mother left behind, there was an empty folder with a four-character name: Do Not Fast-Forward. In the recycle bin was a deleted video, four minutes and twenty-five seconds long, which couldn’t be recovered. Our production crew w 3Reads—Score—14d adds
- 7 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... 3kReads8.5Score30514d adds
- 8 Ghost-Hunting Yin-Yang Master 捉鬼阴阳师 On the day I was born, the clear sky suddenly filled with lightning and thunder. A bolt struck a tree in our yard, and everyone in the village decided my birth was an ill omen. They all kept their distance. One villager accidentally offended me, and that night he mysteriously hanged himself. The body could only be taken down if someone knelt before me. On the day of his funeral, his brother died a violent death and the coffin fell to the ground. That was how the whole story began… 214Reads8.8Score10014d adds
- 9 Lord of the Spirit Realm: From the Start, Bound to a Horror Short-Drama System 灵境主宰：开局绑定恐怖短剧系统 [Soul Transmigration to the Modern World + Cultivation Expert + Unhinged CEO + Demon-Fallen Buddhist Monk + Horror Short-Drama Instances + Yandere Villain + Love Rival Showdown] Li Xinghua, a Mahayana cultivator, was ambushed by a Buddhist monk who had fallen to the demonic path. Her soul transmigrated to the modern world, where she became a freshman at Huaqing University who had died from staying up too late. Stripped of her cultivation and stranded in an unfamiliar world with scarce spiritual 3Reads—Score—14d adds
- 10 I'm a Merchant in a World of Horror 我在惊悚世界当商人 Some people trade in the living, while others trade in the dead. I deal in the business of the dead, but I don’t sell coffins, joss paper, burial clothes, or paper offerings. I sell things you’ve never seen before, things far stranger… 2.6kReads8.8Score25814d adds
- 11 Death on Delivery 死亡外卖 Never try to save money when ordering takeout! After ordering a meal that wasn't clean, strange events keep happening, and his coworkers begin dying one by one. Some takeout costs you money. Some takeout costs you your life. My other completed novel, The Hell Company, is over a million words long. Come check it out, dear readers~~ 2.4kReads8.7Score22614d adds
- 12 Hearse 灵车 A hearse is a vehicle used to transport coffins or urns. You could also call it a vehicle exclusively for the dead. I was a bus driver for four years, and for all four years I kept a secret bottled up inside. Now I'll tell you firsthand about the terrifying things that happen on trains, things you don't know about. Maybe you've never heard of hearses being converted into buses, but the buses you've ridden may not have carried only the living... 1.5kReads8.0Score14114d adds
- 13 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. 2kReads8.3Score15914d adds
- 14 The Yin-Yang Exorcist 阴阳摸诡人 I have two mothers, and neither of them is alive. The moment I was born, a heavenly dog swallowed the moon, blood rained from the sky, every beast bowed its head, and ghosts wailed... 781Reads8.7Score10114d adds
- 15 Thriller Game: Slaughtering the Entire Village from the Start 惊悚游戏：开局屠杀全村村民 [Romance + not overpowered + one female lead] A mysterious cloud suddenly appears at Jinghai City's Central Primary School in Gaojing. Ye Tianming's father, the head of the universe's number one meteorology team, hurries to the scene with the entire team. A man dies mysteriously in the mist. His son, Ye Tianming, arrives at the scene wearing a suit and tie. The boy's consciousness grows hazy. When he wakes again, he finds himself transmigrated to the day of the college entrance exams. A strange —Reads—Score—14d adds
- 16 The Haunted Houses I’ve Experienced 我经历的凶宅 The older generation often says that people who die violent deaths cannot enter the cycle of reincarnation. Their souls endlessly haunt the places where they died, seeking substitutes. Only then can they be reborn. That’s why we often hear in the news about car crashes that keep happening at certain locations. Sometimes the place isn’t even a proper intersection, yet terrible accidents leave cars wrecked and people dead. Some streams aren’t even as deep as a person is tall, yet every year there 2.1kReads8.9Score19914d adds
- 17 I'm Xie, a Yin-Yang Guide, Not a Taoist Priest 阴阳开路人谢邀，不是道士 I've seen too many lonely spirits trapped in corners, unable to move on, and too many people hell-bent on harming others. Sometimes I can't tell whether I'm imagining it in the throes of a psychotic episode or witnessing something real. The truth is far darker than fiction. “Absurd” is the only word for it. 21Reads—Score—14d adds
- 18 The Yin and Yang of the Mist 迷雾阴阳 The Municipal Public Security Bureau's Special Cases Investigation Division, or Special Investigations Division for short, specializes in supernatural incidents that defy rational explanation. Shen Yanzhi, an officer in the division who is calm, rational, and skilled in talismans and spells, meets Lin Mo, a descendant of a family of yin-yang masters whose bloodline can suppress evil forces and whose gentle nature conceals a stubborn streak, while investigating a case. Together, they gradually un 29Reads—Score—14d adds
- 19 A Genius of Yin and Yang 阴阳鬼才 A calamity when I was fourteen changed my whole life. Then, at eighteen, I was set firmly on the path of yin and yang, where I mastered top-tier secret arts and went ever farther along the road of slaying demons and vanquishing evil. 1.6kReads8.8Score11314d adds
- 20 Jiangshi: A Wandering Taoist in Uncle Jiu’s World 僵尸：在九叔世界做游方道人 [Coming-of-age + comedy + mild horror + satisfying + scheming + decisive and ruthless] After transmigrating into Uncle Jiu's world, Gu Feng had no idea what was going on when he unexpectedly encountered his first zombie. Thanks to all the Uncle Jiu movies he'd watched, Gu Feng put his long-preserved virginity to use. As the zombie approached, Gu Feng grinned, holding a handful of virgin boy's urine. “Heh heh heh, little zombie, heh heh!” After binding himself to the “Wonderful Sign-in System,” c 8.9kReads7.0Score49214d adds
- 21 A Feng Shui Master with a Bachelor's Degree, Class of 2000 00后本科风水师 [The rating has just come out and will rise later. Updates are steady, so you can read with confidence, friends!] [Small-town supernatural tales + true experiences + folk legends + ensemble cast + thrilling adventures] I'm Fang Kai, a feng shui practitioner with a bachelor's degree, born in the 2000s. I never dreamed that after graduating from college, I'd end up on the path of catching ghosts. Think ghost-catching is all about fighting and killing? Wrong. It's just as much about dealing with pe 5kReads8.6Score37314d adds
- 22 The Coffin Walks at Night 灵棺夜行 I was carrying a coffin up the mountain for a burial when they stuffed me inside and buried me alive. Then, in a single night, all three hundred or so people in the village vanished. Only at night was the place alive with voices. I crawled out of the coffin, only to discover... 5.7kReads8.2Score37314d adds
- 23 Young Feng Shui Master 少年风水师 When Grandpa died, the whole city was in an uproar... 9.8kReads9.0Score1.1k14d adds
- 24 The Midnight Spirit Shop 深夜灵店 I'm neither a yin-yang master nor an exorcist, but I do have an unusual left eye. I run a shop that opens only at midnight, serving customers who have run into special troubles. A little shop, a cup of tea for a guest, and so my story begins... 1.7kReads8.6Score19414d adds
- 25 The Demon Taoist Breaks Through the Underworld Pass 妖道破阴关 (Supernatural horror, feng shui and geomancy, warding off evil and misfortune, one heroine) My parents used forbidden magic to conceive me, but on the day I was born, my strange appearance frightened them away... My third uncle raised me in a cage. I barely managed to grow up on borrowed yin virtue and incense offerings... On my eighteenth birthday, I was buried alive in the ancestral graveyard. She saved me... but she wasn’t human... 5.4kReads9.1Score47014d adds
- 26 The Mountain Wanderer 走山人 Three years after I died, I climbed out of my grave. I set out on the path of a spirit medium and made my name roaming the mountains. Grandpa said I was half-dead, with no taboos to hold me back! 2.2kReads8.7Score19514d adds
- 27 The Cursed Girl with a Doomed Fate 诡命煞女 Ever since I was little, I was a child my mother hated. Born with an overwhelming concentration of the Seven Sha, I made every demon and monster flee at the sight of me. It wasn’t until I was twelve that I learned the truth: my birth had been part of a massive conspiracy... 10.1kReads9.2Score1k14d adds
- 28 The Vengeful Spirit Notebook 凶灵笔记 I've slept in a coffin since I was little. It wasn't until the woman in red appeared that I learned the truth. I was born on Ghost Festival. I don't want to die. 1.3kReads8.7Score22314d adds
- 29 The Ghost Physiognomist in Hemp Robes 麻衣鬼相 Some say it's difficult to understand another person, but to a face reader, understanding someone is easy. Others say you can't judge a person by appearances. I think it depends on who's doing the judging. My grandfather was a famous face reader of ghosts. He could read disaster and fortune, life and death, heaven and earth, and even uncover a person's past lives and future incarnations. When I was little, egged on by a group of friends, I kicked over the mound of an old grave. Luckily, my grand 1.4kReads8.5Score18014d adds
- 30 My Years as a Yin-Yang Master 我当阴阳先生那些年 An entanglement of karma inherited from my ancestors and an ancient, wondrous book made me a Yin-Yang Master. From that day on, burdened by the curse of the Yin-Yang Master, I embarked on a path of slaying demons and suppressing ghosts. 3.8kReads8.2Score35914d adds
- 31 Insomniacs' Forbidden Tales: 444 Midnight Ghost Stories 失眠者禁忌：444个午夜鬼谈 A horror anthology with a bonus at the end of every story. I have 444 folk ghost stories guaranteed to keep you awake until midnight, terrify you, make you break out in a cold sweat, and pull the covers over your head! At the end of every chapter, the “Author’s Note” will include an illustration or bonus! But before you open it, brace yourself. The author accepts no responsibility for what happens next! [Supernatural Horror] [Folk Horror] [Rural Ghost Stories] [True Cases] [Urban Oddities] [L 4.2kReads—Score36914d adds
- 32 Folktales of the Mountains and Wilds 民间山野怪谈 The hidden truths behind ten major unsolved mysteries, revealing a host of terrifying taboos that will send chills down your spine! 14.2kReads9.1Score94114d adds
- 33 Borrowing Yin Lifespan 借阴寿 Have you ever slept wearing burial clothes? Don’t try it. I did once, and that night... My name is Li Yiliang. I was born with a shortened lifespan, and my birth caused my mother to die in childbirth. But one night when I was eighteen, my mother came back and said she wanted to take me with her... My grandfather told me to sleep in burial clothes, then gave his own life to help me escape that fate. From then on, my life was never free of strange and uncanny things... 4.7kReads8.9Score40114d adds
- 34 The Ghost Way, Midway Through Life 半路鬼道 Smart male lead + one heroine On the night of the Ghost Festival, the living send off the dead, burn incense, make offerings, and burn joss paper. But that night, I heard a ghost calling for a soul… The gong sounds, the night grows dark, and the road to the Yellow Springs is hard to travel… With talismans to guide the way and the departed to show the path, summon the gods and command the ghosts: only then can one master the Ghost Path between Yin and Yang! 6.8kReads8.9Score49114d adds
- 35 Coffin Shop No. 44 44号棺材铺 Everyone knows what a coffin shop is, but would you dare enter one where someone has died? Ever since I took over a coffin shop, strange things have been happening all around me. Only then did I realize that the people who come to buy coffins aren't necessarily alive… 2.2kReads8.0Score25314d adds
- 36 The House of Deadly Peril 死亡凶间 I work as a specialist crime-scene cleaner, tasked with cleaning up after murders, suicides, and accidental deaths. I’ve seen more than my share of partings and grief, as well as the other side of death. Then, on the Ghost Festival, I encountered something terrifying... 18.1kReads9.2Score1.8k14d adds
- 37 The Divine Son-in-Law in Hemp Clothes 麻衣神婿 The day I was born, strange omens appeared in the sky. To keep me alive, my grandfather came out of retirement and arranged an engagement to prolong my life. Twenty years later, thanks to the great fortune my grandfather bestowed on her family, my fiancée had become the richest woman in the land, yet her family broke off our engagement. They had badly underestimated my grandfather’s power and my background. Then karma came knocking... 9kReads8.5Score92514d adds
- 38 Painting Yin and Yang with a Single Stroke 一笔绘阴阳 As I gazed down the shadowy corridor and across the empty hall, the strange order of light and darkness stirred a fear of the unknown deep inside me. The elders always said, “The ancestral hall is home to spirits that have yet to depart.” “Don’t step on the threshold, don’t touch the ancestral tablets, and don’t whistle in the ancestral hall.” “The names on the tablets weren’t carved there. They moved in.” When the wind blew past the row of wooden windows, the latticework let out a mournful wail 209Reads—Score10114d adds
- 39 The Empty Grave 空坟 Don't mess with the mirror in the house! After my favorite mirror disappeared, I began to fear the light. The doctor said I was allergic to sunlight, and I thought I was just sick. Until one day... I saw... my own grave! 1.1kReads9.0Score10614d adds
- 40 Back to 1985: Don't Call Me Comrade, Call Me Husband! 重回85叫什么同志叫老公！ In Northeast China in 1985, an era known as the darkest of times: a young man, a hunting rifle, a heart full of passion, and a jianghu shrouded in gun smoke... In an age when might makes right, a man’s fierce devotion and true-to-life nature are what it takes to get ahead in the Northeast. A period novel, the rise of an ordinary man, one heroine, dual transmigration. 11kReads9.1Score78414d adds
- 41 A Notebook of Folk Taboos 民间禁忌笔记 I was born with a pair of snake eyes, and everyone at the forest farm said I was a demon child born of a snake. The night I was born, thunder crashed again and again. The next day, a huge, gold-scaled python was found dead from a lightning strike outside Laolingou. Something was squirming inside its belly. Master Sang sliced open the python with a single stroke and carried out a blood-soaked baby. He named me Lin Shisan. From that moment on, my fate was bound to Master Sang’s for life… 19.5kReads9.3Score1.5k14d adds
- 42 Out of Control 失控者 [Anthology stories + supernatural horror + folk customs + feng shui and mysticism + subtle scares + jaw-dropping twists] Open a paper box sealed away for many years, and one terrifying incident after another begins to surface. The massacre that wiped out an entire family in Nanhua Estate, and the deaths of everyone connected to the case! A bride in a red qipao appearing by your side in the dead of night! Strange legends circulate through a dilapidated high-rise, where hands reach out of the dark 39Reads—Score314d adds
- 43 The Sobbing Maitreya 哽咽的弥勒 A truly thrilling horror fantasy, with a master like Lin Zhenying guiding you through terrifying adventures, slaying demons and monsters, exploring forbidden arts, and cultivating as a demon immortal. Once you start reading, you won't be able to stop. It's pure exhilaration from beginning to end! 14Reads—Score—14d adds
- 44 Taboo of the Living 2 活人禁忌2 Heaven Official's Blessing, no taboos under heaven. The second installment of Living People’s Taboos! 7.9kReads9.1Score1.2k14d adds
- 45 Borrowed Corpse, Stolen Life 借尸命 When a plague swept through my mother’s village, she was the only one who escaped alive and made it to Chen Village. My mother was graceful and beautiful, but after arriving in the village, she went mad. There’s something wrong with this village. Every night, we hear strange noises. My father’s name is Chen Jiu, and mine is Chen Lintian. I suspect he isn’t my real father... 1.8kReads9.0Score13014d adds
- 46 Horror: From Puppet to Demon God of Fear! 恐怖：从木偶到恐惧魔神！ When Lin Qi opened his eyes, he had become a puppet of the “paranormal” type. All he had to do was earn fear points to grow stronger and stronger. “When you see me, it means fear has arrived!” “Struggle! Scream!” “I am the Demon God of Fear!” An era of resurgent terror, an era when ghosts roam the night. Lin Qi commands fear! 1.8kReads8.5Score18214d adds
- 47 The Feng Shui Diviner 风水神相 [The short drama and comic adaptation are now available] First comes fate, then luck, then feng shui; fourth, accumulate good karma; fifth, study; sixth, choose a name; seventh, read faces; eighth, honor the gods; ninth, make friends with benefactors; tenth, maintain your health. Eighteen years ago, an old Daoist priest found an abandoned baby in the mountains. Eighteen years later, a young feng shui master left his temple and came down from the mountain. Over the years, Jiang Chen learned all m 10.9kReads9.0Score1k14d adds
- 48 The Secret Treasures of Mountains and Seas 山海秘藏 I have stood atop mountains and descended into the vast seas. I have ventured into every mysterious corner of China! Could a distant ancient kingdom in the Western Regions really be home to a stunning queen who lives forever? Could the vast mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang really conceal the greatest sword under heaven? Did hundreds of people really witness a legendary dragon on a misty island in the North Sea? In a dark old coffin in western Hunan, the King of the Undead stirs restlessly. I venture i 3.2kReads8.9Score45414d adds
- 49 Folk Tales: One Chapter, One Horror Story 民间怪谈一章一个恐怖故事 [Anthology of stories] [Folklore horror] [Supernatural horror] [Village legends] [Chinese-style horror] [Old-time storytelling] There is no overarching plot. Each chapter is a standalone horror story adapted from folk tales, with eerie, unsettling plots that grow more terrifying the more you think about them. Note: This story discourages superstition and encourages belief in science. It is entirely fictional, so just enjoy it as a bit of fun. 25.6kReads7.5Score1.1k14d adds
- 50 There Are Ghosts in These Words 话里有诡 They say everyone has a few little secrets they can't bring themselves to talk about these days. But if you really want to hear something out of the ordinary, go find Old Bu. Old Bu runs a little tavern set inside an abandoned train carriage. From the day it opened, he laid down one rule: One interesting story in exchange for a night's worth of drinks. Sounds like a good deal, doesn't it? Too bad he doesn't give you much to drink, and the stories just keep getting stranger. An intelligent wristb 10Reads7.6Score614d adds
