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.
- 51 Suppressing the Dragon 镇龙 For one person, he dug up an ancient grave, broke into a dragon's tomb, and wielded the Yang Sword to slay yin spirits! An heir to a family of secret arts, he joins a group of men and women bound together by fate. Together, they travel far and wide, fighting monsters in the mountains, slaying evil in the cities, breaking into the underworld, and robbing ghost messengers... To change our fate, we defy the heavens! 2.4kReads8.8Score50714d adds
- 52 Horror Descends: The Ghost Gate 恐怖降临【鬼门】 Horror + supernatural + suspense + survival + infinite worlds + twists A world of horror descends, and countless Gates of the Dead suddenly appear. Those selected must enter the gates and make a desperate escape. Some gates are formed from horror novels. Some are formed from horror movies. Some are formed from tales of evil spirits. Some are formed from bizarre imaginings. Entering a Gate of the Dead means your life has started counting down. Who can make it out alive? “If you're curious abo 1.8kReads6.3Score12614d adds
- 53 Ghostly Eyes 鬼灵瞳 A reclusive man known as Little Master, along with several strange people brought together by coincidence but united by their shared interests, gradually uncovers a history buried for many years: the five great clans of the ancient world and the Yin-Yang adepts who could do anything. It seems that fate has long been leading them into one thrilling fantasy adventure after another... 1kReads9.1Score7214d adds
- 54 Followed by Ghosts 与鬼随行 Immersive, terrifying, and packed with suspenseful mystery and deduction. I have a strange world, and I want to take you there! After the college entrance exams, I took a fatal blow meant for my friend and lost my sight. By chance, I ended up at a bizarre vocational college. My classmates are dying one after another under strange circumstances, and there seems to be a much bigger secret behind it all. This world seems so strange... so strange... I have to solve the mind-bending challenges one by 3kReads—Score30314d adds
- 55 Calculating Fate Through Yin 算阴命 My mother was snatched away by a beast when she gave birth to me. Twelve years later, my father brought home a woman. Three days after that, my father died… 1.8kReads8.9Score25514d adds
- 56 I Have 36,524 Folk Horror Stories 我有36524个民间恐怖故事 [Standalone stories] [Supernatural suspense] [Folk horror] [Mountain spirits and monsters] [Adapted from real cases] [Rural legends] There is no main storyline. Each chapter is a self-contained story adapted from folk rumors, with eerie, gripping plots. Note: This story discourages superstition and encourages belief in science. It is entirely fictional, so just enjoy it as entertainment. 4.1kReads8.8Score21014d adds
- 57 The Netherworld Inn 阴间客栈 My name is Qin Yu. While on a business trip, I checked into a uniquely styled inn called the Yin Room Inn. It even offered “special services” in the middle of the night. Little did I know it was an inn from the underworld. I began having nightmare after nightmare, and my friends kept getting into trouble... 2.9kReads9.0Score16814d adds
- 58 Tales of the Supernatural 民间怪谈录 [Rural Horror Stories + Anthology + Folk Horror Tales + Chinese Supernatural] Supernatural happenings are most likely to occur in mountain villages, and the stories we've heard may well have really happened. In the eerie night wind, Granny Hao, the midwife who receives the dead, is like a messenger from the underworld, guiding the spirits of helpless mothers and children home. Locust trees commune with spirits, and poplars attract yin energy. Beneath the village's ancient trees lie secrets that 810Reads8.9Score6014d adds
- 59 Calculating Your Fate to the End 算死命 When I was born, I was nursed by a wolf for a few days. I thought of her as my mother, and believed I'd never see her again. Then one day, a woman came looking for me... 23.3kReads8.9Score2.6k14d adds
- 60 The Heavenly Coffin 天棺 Because of a joke, my grandmother’s spirit refused to leave after her death and insisted on taking me with her to the grave. Otherwise, my whole family would die. To save my family, I went into the grave with my grandmother... 21.8kReads9.0Score1.9k14d adds
- 61 The Midnight Gravekeeper 午夜守墓人 A desolate mountain. An ancient tomb. A woman in white. A blood-red moon at midnight. A corpse monk on the move. I’m a high school senior. With the college entrance exam just around the corner, I suddenly came down with a fever that wouldn’t break and missed the test. After recovering at home for more than half a year, I found a job guarding the gate at a cemetery. Seeing how frail I was and how weak my yang energy was, Old Zhang, the gravedigger, found me a protector. But she wasn’t human. She 5.6kReads8.5Score30414d adds
- 62 The Fragrance of the Coffin's Beauty 棺香美人 When I was born, the river swelled and washed a coffin right into my home. Fifteen years later, the coffin opened, and inside was a woman... Feng shui, fate and destiny... There are endless folk legends to tell, and more bizarre wonders than words can describe. 32.2kReads9.4Score76114d adds
- 63 Ghost Sightings at the Nightclub 夜场见鬼录 A Long is a DJ at a bar with a legendary “Stage of Death.” Many people have died there under mysterious circumstances. The cause of death could never be determined, and some bodies were never even found! The strange incidents stopped only after the bar was shut down. As the legend of the deaths gradually faded from memory, someone opened the stage once more! After that, disaster struck again and again! A terrifying ghostly figure appears in the girls’ dormitory, a faceless baby clings to a chand 242Reads8.8Score—14d adds
- 64 No Living People Allowed 活人勿近 [Inspired by real events, but the setting is entirely fictional] [No cultivation] [Supernatural horror only] The countryside is different from the city. Rural areas are vast and sparsely populated, with too little human presence to suppress what lurks beneath the ground. That's why ghost stories and strange legends keep cropping up. Ask anyone from a village in Sichuan, and they'll have plenty to tell you about supernatural happenings in the mountains and fields in years gone by. Some people 97.2kReads9.3Score8.8k14d adds
- 65 My Years as a Buddhist Nun 我当师太的那些年 I was born a girl with a Pure Yang fate into a family of feng shui masters. For generations, my family had practiced feng shui in the countryside. My grandfather had hoped his eldest grandchild would be a boy, so he could pass down his skills to the eldest son and grandson. But I turned out to be a girl. Grandfather never took a liking to me, so my parents could only take me to live in the city. No one expected that, during the Ghost Festival in the year I turned twenty-five, Grandfather would s 425Reads8.7Score—14d adds
- 66 Terror in the Haunted Dorm 诡寝惊魂 I got a job as a dorm supervisor in a university women’s residence, but the girls there were a little too friendly… Crying in the middle of the night, dorm rooms catching fire, rooms that don’t exist. Hidden in the deepest corners of memory is a bizarre and fantastical world… The night is deep, the dream unfinished. A mountain spirit blows out the lamp. Where can a lonely soul return? 10.4kReads8.5Score1.1k14d adds
- 67 Tales of Folk Taboos 民间禁忌杂谈 A pig butcher never slaughters a pig with five toes. The village guardian never guards a village with a temple. A feng shui master never selects a lair of an evil dragon. A midwife must wash her hands in rooster’s blood. There are three hundred and sixty trades in the world, and every one has its rules. Are these ancient, mysterious rules really nothing more than empty formalities? If I told you that some rules must never be broken, because breaking them means death, would you believe me? 9kReads8.0Score1.2k14d adds
- 68 The Master of Ma Yi Divination 麻衣相师 My great-uncle had all kinds of abilities. One day, he told me he’d buried a treasure for me in a feng shui paradise… 28kReads9.0Score3.3k14d adds
- 69 The Corpse Collection Files 收尸档案 Since ancient times, the dead have been left with their bodies. But few people know that corpses hold many secrets that remain hidden from the world. Cursed corpses, living corpses, bodies left where they fell, vengeful corpses, bisected corpses... Every corpse has a story of its own! My name is He Yongheng, and I collect bodies for a funeral home. 3.7kReads9.0Score38414d adds
- 70 Tales of a Haunted Village 荒村怪谈录 [Rural Mysteries + Folk Customs + Chinese-Style Horror + Feng Shui and the Supernatural + Anthology + Shocking Twists] There is an old well in Jiulitun that has been sealed for thirty years, and one eerie incident after another keeps occurring. Why has a little girl become unbelievably strong and deranged? Why do villagers keep drowning, and why is the village taboo so difficult to speak of? It all goes back thirty years... 262Reads8.7Score1914d adds
- 71 Midnight Wonders 午夜惊奇 At the stroke of midnight, amid a terrifying atmosphere, strange ghost stories begin to unfold! A bluish-white hand suddenly appears on the window in the middle of the night. Is it looking for someone to take revenge on? A bus still running in the dead of night: does it lead to the world of the living or to hell? The shapewear hanging in the wardrobe at home is made of human skin! During the Qingming Festival, a figure appears in the glass of the bathhouse. After returning to her room, a beautif 426Reads8.7Score3414d adds
- 72 Horror's Edge: 100 Absolutely Terrifying Ghost Stories 恐怖边界：100个绝对惊悚的鬼谈 [Standalone Stories + Supernatural Horror + Folk Customs + Feng Shui and Mysticism + Mild Frights + Shocking Twists] Horror tales beyond anything you could imagine. Each story is like a dark door swinging open, drawing you into moments that will make your skin crawl. Listen. A faint whisper, an indescribable shadow creeping closer. Danger by the river, terror in the cemetery, ghost babies in the maternity ward, evil headhunting magic, apparitions at the hot springs, a bloodstained umbrella... On 2.4kReads8.7Score18614d adds
- 73 Grandpa, I Was Reborn, I Swear I'm Not Possessed 爷爷，我是重生，真不是鬼上身 [Traditional Mystery and Supernatural Fiction] [One Female Lead] [Period Novel] [A Funeral Master’s True Accounts] [Northeastern Chinese Funeral Customs] [Rural Life] Adapted into the short drama Eighties Funeral Master (Disclaimer: The folk techniques in this book, including Zhuyou healing rituals, are entirely fictional. Please do not imitate them. The author bears no responsibility for any problems that may arise.) Good grief, I’ve been reborn in 1986, and from the start Grandpa thinks I’m a 58.1kReads9.3Score4.8k14d adds
- 74 Midnight Terror: Human Nature Stories That Will Haunt You 午夜惊魂：让人细思极恐的人性故事 At midnight, let's listen together to the little stories that circulate all around us. Maybe they're true. Maybe you've heard them too, or even experienced them yourself. Those moments that grow more terrifying the more you think about them go perfectly with the pitch-black night beyond the window. Red brick walls are common in many places. But we've never stopped to wonder: why are those bricks so red, so vivid? Rideshares at night aren't necessarily safe. Passengers have their concerns, and dr 537Reads8.8Score—14d adds
- 75 The Female Medium of Guandong 关东女先生 [The animated drama based on the novel is now a huge hit] A suspenseful supernatural tale rooted in Northeast Chinese folklore! The first season of the animated drama adapted from the original novel is now available on Hongguo, Tomato, and Douyin! When the rules of the Northeast are broken, a hundred ghosts roam the night, and the yin energy can no longer be contained. My name is Ren Xue. I'm a director who makes supernatural dramas. Fate brought me back to Changbai Mountain, where I became a G 558Reads—Score11714d adds
- 76 Notes on Folk Spirit Mediums 民间出马仙笔记 [Spirit Mediums + Chinese-Style Horror + Episodic Stories + Supernatural Mystery + Karma + Mind-Blowing Twists + Feng Shui and the Occult] "Unraveling one strange and unpredictable tale of karmic retribution after another" In a remote suburb of the city lies a cemetery. Few people know that a shop dealing in the supernatural stands there, run by a spirit medium who can communicate with the dead and the living. The owner specializes in paranormal cases beyond ordinary people's understanding, but 512Reads9.3Score3514d adds
- 77 The Haunted Cabinet Opens by Itself Every Night, Long Hair Drags People Inside 凶柜夜夜自开，青丝缠人拖入柜 The sinister cabinet opens by itself every night, and strands of black hair coil around people and drag them inside. 33Reads—Score—14d adds
- 78 The Manga Prophecy Murder Case 漫画预言杀人事件 [Comic artist X avenger] A flop comic Chen He had abandoned three years ago suddenly went viral because it had predicted a murder. Netizens trembled in the comic's comments: [Have you seen the news? Why is this scene exactly like what they're showing on TV?!] [Am I seeing things? They only just found the body, but the comic was published three years ago!] [How did the artist come up with a burial site like that? What are the odds?] [I have a pretty wild theory...] [Could the author actually be t 56.8kReads9.5Score11.8k14d adds
- 79 From the Start, I Ate the Campus Beauty 开局我吃了校花 Everyone has imagined that there might be something mysterious in this world, right? Have you imagined taking a train to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry? Have you imagined a beautiful senior pulling up in a Ferrari to hand you an acceptance letter from Cassell College at the school gates? Have you imagined that when you feel lost and alone, a swordsman from an ancient sect will descend from the sky and tell you, “You’ve been chosen!”? Congratulations. Your fantasies have come true. Th 13.5kReads9.1Score1.4k14d adds
- 80 The Last Paper Effigy Maker 最后一个扎纸人 The art of paper effigies can bridge the worlds of yin and yang, perform rites for the dead, and summon the King of Hell. Cut yellow paper, weave bamboo strips: paper horses travel a thousand miles, and paper figures summon spirits. With one stroke to paint their eyes, the King of Hell appears, striking terror into all directions and sending ten thousand ghosts into hiding! By the time the art of paper effigies reaches Chen Mo, he is its last practitioner. He assumes this ancient, mysterious cra 16.7kReads8.5Score1.7k14d adds
- 81 Tales of a Spirit Medium 出马仙往事 “First, invite Hu; second, invite Huang. Third, invite Mang; fourth, invite Chang. Offer incense in the hall, and let all the immortals come forth.” With an entirely yin birth chart, I suddenly became the village's most despised madman when I was eight years old. Ten years later, I recovered from my madness and took charge of the Hu family's altar, one of the five great immortal clans of Northeast China. From then on, the Five Evils and Three Deficiencies followed me everywhere. I thought I had 32.4kReads9.5Score3.4k14d adds
- 82 The Sound of Nightmares: 60 Horror Stories That Wake You from Your Dreams 噩梦之声：60个做梦吓醒的恐怖故事 [Standalone Ghost Stories + Supernatural Horror + Not for the Faint of Heart + Rural Tales] When night falls, terrifying ghostly figures emerge. Step into all kinds of bizarre and unbelievable tales, and spend your nights screaming! Haunted houses, ghostly shadows outside the window, a deadly lipstick, someone beneath the mattress, an umbrella that hunts people... Every corner conceals inexplicable phenomena and secrets that will fill you with dread! Every page will make your hair stand on end, 2.1kReads8.9Score18114d adds
- 83 Ghostly Whispers at Midnight 夜半鬼语 [Rural + Supernatural + Ghost Stories] Back when my grandfather was young, he learned carpentry. As Old Zhao put it, a sixth-grade carpenter these days was worth half a scholar. But things were different back then. Carpenters belonged to one of the lowest trades. They had to carry their tools around every day, get up before dawn and stay out until the middle of the night, traveling from village to village to find work. And because they went so many places, and made coffins and dealt with the dea 5kReads9.0Score20414d adds
- 84 The Supernatural Returns, and I Am the Greatest Fear in the World 诡异复苏，我是世间最大的恐惧 [Villain] [Dark] [Invincible] [No female lead] Qin Yu died, and his soul arrived in another world, merging with a haunted house. In this age of supernatural resurgence, he continually grew stronger and evolved, creating his own kingdom of terror. Whether human or supernatural, everyone saw him as their greatest fear. 13.8kReads8.4Score92814d adds
- 85 I'm a Funeral Officiant, So Summoning Immortals Is Only Natural 我个殡葬司仪，会请仙也很正常吧 [One heroine + the author conducted on-site research at funeral homes, crematoriums, and cemeteries, striving for realistic details + traditional supernatural tales + professional knowledge of funerals and spirit-medium practices] (The humorous setups and parody scenes in this book, as well as the original Qingfeng spirit-medium altar, where spirits other than ancestors are invited to take up residence, were published with the approval of the author's own guardian spirits. Readers, please believ 39.6kReads9.4Score3.9k14d adds
- 86 A World Out of Balance 人间失衡 [Mind-bending suspense + short stories + no overarching plot + crime + criminal investigation + shocking twists + stories of ordinary people] The deepest wounds are often inflicted by those closest to us. A bloody case at an old family home, shrouded in mystery. Who is the real killer? After her father dies of illness, her sister-in-law sells her to northern Myanmar! The body of a baby girl is found in the woods. A kidnapping case turns into a murder investigation. Who would target an innocent i 224Reads8.3Score—14d adds
- 87 No. 81 on the Yellow Springs Road 黄泉路81号 Night blankets the city, and the things lurking in the shadows begin to stir. The raccoon dog granny who eats raw meat, the fitness girl with fish scales growing on her back. The wild foxes who approach people by the roadside, and the little convenience store in the cemetery. I've experienced all of these. And it all began after I witnessed a car accident... 42.2kReads9.2Score3.4k14d adds
- 88 Midnight Nightmare 深夜噩梦 [Infinite Flow] [Hell Difficulty] [Original Dungeons] [Multiple Twists] Note: The dungeons are extremely difficult, so proceed with caution. The first two are only warm-ups. They say that “Ghost Eyes” can see a person’s “good and evil.” Wang Cheng was born with a pair of Ghost Eyes. But he discovered that this claim didn’t tell the whole story. Because Ghost Eyes can see more than people. They can also see cats, dogs, houses, mountains, and rivers… Or perhaps a strangely lifelike doll, or an old 231.2kReads9.4Score39.9k14d adds
- 89 The Midnight Ghost Market: Living People Keep Out 午夜鬼市，活人回避 [Mystery + supernatural + ghost market + narrow escape from death] My name is Tang Chao. I’m a broke young man scraping by in the antiques business, with hundreds of thousands in debt hanging over me. An ordinary porcelain-buying deal led me to pick up a strange Jun ware bowl at an unexpectedly low price. I thought I’d found a bargain. Little did I know, it was the beginning of my nightmare... On a bus, I met a burly man calling himself Jue Mingzi, who warned me that “a calamity is sure to befal 3.6kReads9.1Score20814d adds
- 90 A Country Bumpkin Comes to the City, Nothing Is Off-Limits 山炮进城，百无禁忌 Dapao guards the village. Evil spirits stay away, and a hundred ghosts give it a wide berth! Chen Dapao was born and his parents died. At four, he sent off all twenty-four members of his clan. Raised on meals provided by the villagers, he leaves for the city after guarding his village for eighteen years... His motto in life: Make money, make money, and make more money; chase women, chase women, and chase more women... Now, please join us in enjoying this rare and refreshingly unconventional nove 12.1kReads8.8Score1.1k14d adds
- 91 I Am a Female Physiognomist 我是女相师 I was born in the twelfth lunar month of 1991, and came into the world with six fingers. The saying that people born in the Year of the Sheep have bad luck somehow became attached to me. Before I could even speak, my family sent me to live with my grandaunt, who ran a shop selling paper offerings and burial clothes. My grandaunt said I had a star spirit in my fate, and the Vermilion Bird would come to my aid. What did it matter if my destiny was cursed? As the saying goes: The Azure Dragon and W 13.1kReads9.4Score1.4k14d adds
- 92 The One Who Borrows Lives from the Underworld 阴间借命人 [Standalone Stories + Supernatural Horror + Suspense + Folk Customs + Playful Tone + Ensemble Cast + Nonstop Ghost-Hunting Thrills!] Ever since I borrowed a life from the underworld, I’ve known no peace. My name is Quan Ning. I’m a lawyer, and one day I was in a car accident on a mountain road. As I lay dying, I saw a ghostly judge from the underworld come to claim my soul. I struck a deal with him and borrowed a sliver of hope for survival. The price of this life I borrowed was becoming 2.5kReads9.1Score23614d adds
- 93 The Paper Effigy Shop: Everyone Around Me Is a Big Shot 扎纸铺，我身边都是大佬 In our ancient land of China, many professions have their own rules and taboos. The older and more mysterious the craft, the more this is true. For example, when “asking the rice,” you must never ask how someone died; a coffin maker must never make their own coffin; a paper effigy maker must never draw eyes on a paper figure; and a spirit medium must never conduct a ceremony without all the members of their altar present... If any of these rules and taboos are broken, something terrifying will h 22.6kReads9.3Score2k14d adds
- 94 The Woman in the Closet 柜子里的女人 The Woman in the Cabinet 49Reads—Score—14d adds
- 95 Supreme Taoist: A Calamity of Bloodshed 道门太上：血光之灾 Offer blood to Heaven, and slay every evil thing. The Daoist arts are the strongest of all. All the great paths beneath Heaven come from Taishang. The Taishang lineage belongs to my Li family alone. The protagonist, Li Changsheng, makes a solemn vow to eradicate every evil demon beneath Heaven: he will never ascend, but remain in the mortal world for thousands of years. 11kReads9.4Score86414d adds
- 96 Northeastern China's Forbidden Secrets 东北禁忌手札 [Extreme horror + a folk-horror story set in the countryside] In a remote mountain village, deep within the forest, countless taboos remain unknown to outsiders. The people here follow ancient rules of life and death: pregnant women must never encounter a coffin, and anyone who dies of old age at a hundred years old is destined to become an evil spirit. But in a single day, the old Yu family breaks both taboos, drawing every kind of demon and ghost to their door! At midnight, someone hears the s 912Reads8.8Score10814d adds
- 97 I Evolved Billions of Curses 我进化了亿万诅咒 [Chinese-Style Horror + Twists + Humans Scaring Ghosts] The supernatural returned, ferocious ghosts broke loose, and unimaginable horrors appeared in the real world. As night fell over the city, nightmares engulfed everyone. Jiang Fan gained the power to develop abilities by studying ghosts. As long as he kept scaring them, he could become the greatest terror in the darkness. The more terrified they were, the greater the power he gained. Then he discovered that his potential had been unleas 4.2kReads8.6Score43014d adds
- 98 The Grand Feng Shui Master 大相师 Ten years ago, nine snakes crawled into my bed. Grandpa said someone was trying to steal my life. To keep me alive, he arranged an engagement for me to extend my lifespan... 7.7kReads9.3Score92014d adds
- 99 Tales of Strange Happenings in the Countryside 乡村诡事录 The strange happenings in a mountain village. I was born and raised in the countryside. Deep in the mountains, there are always ghosts and spirits, and my village was no exception. Heaven, earth, black, yellow, the cosmos vast: demons and ghosts send shivers down your spine. One year, the start of spring fell on the fifteenth day of the eighth month. That year, so many strange things happened. Just bringing them up is enough to scare people. Meeting the Black and White Impermanence on a night wa 2kReads9.0Score13614d adds
- 100 Strange Tales from the Min Tiao Bureau: Mian Zhuan 民调局异闻录之勉传 This is the story of an immortal man spanning two thousand years. In every corner of history, he left his name behind. To some, he was a nightmare. To others, he awakened them from the nightmares that haunted them. At the beginning of the story, his name was Wu Mian. By the end, his name was Invincible. 22.5kReads9.4Score2.2k14d adds
