Novels like Rural Taboos
Books Chinese readers most often put in the same booklists as Rural Taboos, best match first.
- 1 Folklore Mystery: My Watch Can See Ghosts 民俗悬疑：我的手表能见鬼 Fragmented narrative + layered foreshadowing + not a power fantasy + folk customs + mystery + no invincible hero Entirely hand-crafted, no AI. My name is Yang Yan. I owe gambling debts. I married a ghost bride. I put on a watch that had been tossed to me. It said that if I couldn’t find out how I died, I would die. —Reads—Score—Shelves
- 2 The Living Ghost King 活诡王 A mysterious fragment of a map, a strange jade gourd, a grandfather who vanished nineteen years ago, and a person dying mysteriously after every QQ message I receive. Together, they set off one bizarre and eerie event after another... To uncover the truth, I have no choice but to embark on a series of strange and perilous investigations. It seems as though I’m merely reacting to events, yet everything seems fated to happen. From a haunted dormitory to a ghost village deep in the mountains, and t 153Reads—Score—Shelves
- 3 The Last Horse-Riding Shaman 最后一个出马仙 A drought demon descends, throwing the mystic arts into chaos. Rumor has it that whoever obtains the Golden Pearl of Nüba can break through to the Celestial Rank and command the world. Before long, turmoil erupts. The five great schools of mystic arts descend on Yulin Village in search of Nüba. Five renowned, revered “hypocrites” from that era end up driving my grandmother to her death. To avenge her, I become the last shaman in the world! 123Reads8.3Score—Shelves
- 4 Opening the Sparrow Gate 开雀门 While my mother was carrying me, I was sitting upright in her womb. The doctors all said the birth would be difficult, but my grandmother traded my life to a spirit messenger. My Xuanwu even went so far as to strip off his skin and bones for me! My relatives sought out one master after another to protect me, but sadly, they all said the good fortune I was born with was nowhere near enough to keep me alive. If I wanted to survive, I had no choice but to embark on the path of cultivation. From Sha 34Reads7.1Score—Shelves
- 5 The Divination Gate 卦天门 Twenty years ago, Lin Yue was born into a family of feng shui masters, covered in white hair from head to toe. To prevent rumors from spreading, she was abandoned on a stormy night in the unfathomably deep Jiuli Ravine. A silent Heavenly Gate Bell brought her back into the world. Twenty years later, on her wedding day, someone kicked Lin Yue into Jiuli Ravine. As she hovered between life and death, a mysterious man pulled her out, setting the Heavenly Gate Bell ringing as well. The golden bell r 214Reads8.8Score—Shelves
- 6 Exorcising Evil 诛邪 When I was twenty, I went into the river to catch fish, never imagining I’d pull out… It became the nightmare of my life! This is a book about the strange things in rivers that you probably never knew about! 789Reads6.7Score109Shelves
- 7 The Dragon Raises the Coffin 龙抬棺 There is an ancient stone stele in Qinglong Mountain. Its inscription reads: “The living must not enter; the dead must not be buried.” The local county records state that during the Hongwu era of the Great Ming, a coffin pulled by nine dragons descended from the heavens and landed on Qinglong Mountain. And I am the child of the person in that coffin. 408Reads9.0Score—Shelves
- 8 The Hundred-Ghost Storyteller 百诡传人 To solve the mystery of the Seventy-Two Ghost Mounds, Yang Tianming descends the mountain with the Hundred Ghosts Register, ventures into the city, and meets beautiful women. He rescues a Corpse Sister, practices forbidden arts, and guides wandering spirits to the afterlife. With the Soul-Whipping Whip in hand and the Hundred Ghosts Register at his side, when the Dragon Soul returns to his body, he won’t be alone! 74Reads8.6Score—Shelves
- 9 The Great Red Coffin Shop 大红棺材铺 In an old house in Liuzhou, I inexplicably fell asleep inside a red coffin. From that moment on, my fate, already weakened by my extremely poor Eight Characters, set foot on a road of no return. 309Reads6.7Score—Shelves
- 10 The Boundless Way 道法无边 From the moment I met my godfather, my life was destined to be extraordinary! Strange things are just part of everyday life for me, and all my friends are unusual too! There's the handsome, aloof cat demon, the seductive fox spirit, and the honorable Ghost King! Watch as I lead my powerful companions to slay evil demons and crush every wicked path! When the talisman rises, demons fall; when it descends, heaven and earth are set in order! 88Reads8.3Score—Shelves
- 11 The Yin-Yang Affairs Office 阴阳事务所 The Yin-Yang Affairs Office is closed during the day and open at night. We don't take cases from the living, only from ghosts. I'm a man of principles. What? A pretty young lady wants to come visit? Yo, I might consider it! A bewitchingly beautiful, sultry red-robed female ghost; a headless ghost whose head was chopped off with an axe; the Black and White Impermanence from the underworld... They're all regulars here. To tell you the truth, even the King of Hell was raised by me! 354Reads7.8Score101Shelves
- 12 The Coffin Bearer 抬棺人 Those who carry coffins are also known as the “Eight Immortals” or the “Eight Vajra Warriors.” Only people with a strong birth chart, courage, and abundant yang energy can do the job. According to folk belief, the living use their own life force to carry the dead on their final journey, inviting yin energy into their bodies. Carry one coffin and you accumulate blessings and virtue; carry ten and misfortune clings to you; carry a hundred and you die an unnatural death. I’m a professional coffin b 3.4kReads8.6Score209Shelves
- 13 Who Let Him Cultivate to Immortality?! 谁让他修仙！ [Comedy] + [System] + [Cultivation] + [Ensemble cast] Who let him cultivate?! Song Shuhang: I'm Tyrant Blade Song Yi. Don't call me the Great Demon Song. To be honest, I've never killed anyone in my life! I haven't even stepped on an ant while walking. How can you call me that? Demonic cultivators: I think you're more demonic than we are. We just kill people, but you torture them. Cultivators: Who let this guy cultivate? He's led the whole cultivation world astray! The day Song Shuhang becomes a 18Reads—Score—Shelves
- 14 The Horror Supply Shop 恐怖用品店 An adult shop in a cemetery, and a brick-thick guide to running an adult shop. I started running a bizarre little store. My very first customer wanted to buy my human skin... 272Reads7.3Score—Shelves
- 15 The Northeast Paranormal Investigator 东北灵异先生 Fangshi, spirit mediums, exorcists: these professions are famous, but their abilities are limited. There is one calling that stands above them all: its practitioners are known as paranormal masters. My name is Huo Jie. When I was nine, I encountered a vengeful spirit and nearly died of fright. To survive, I became a paranormal master! From then on, I roamed between the worlds of yin and yang, wielded the art of feng shui, and guided ghosts and gods through their trials! 230Reads8.5Score—Shelves
- 16 Chronicles of the Supernatural 异灵实录 At three in the morning, check the list of the dead; let the ferryman guide your soul. Chinese horror stories, spirit-summoning, death notes. Some things can be explained, while other feelings defy description. A terror that makes you shudder as you think it over rises from the depths of your heart. After reading these 99 stories, you'll find yourself questioning your own life. There's a rumor that you should never stay in the last room on the ground floor of a hotel. The author once traveled ou 24Reads9.2Score—Shelves
- 17 The Sleazy Celestial Master 猥琐天师 A brand-new fantasy novel featuring ghost-hunting, exorcism, demon capture, treasure hunting, immortal cultivation, and more. The protagonist's cultivation techniques are based on traditional Taoist magic, including turning beans into soldiers, fire talismans, and palm thunder, among other things... World structure: Mortal Realm → Cultivation Realm → Immortal Realm (Demon Realm, Devil Realm, Underworld, and more) → Divine Realm... Cultivation stages: Qi Refining → Foundation Establishment → Gold 19.5kReads6.6Score1.4kShelves
- 18 EN Otherworldly Merchant 阴间商人 I’m a merchant who specializes in collecting sinister, supernatural objects. Anything that belonged to the dead is valuable! In the hands of ordinary people, these things can bring anything from a haunting to the ruin of an entire family. But in my hands, they can help you get promoted, make a fortune, defy fate, and meet every need a client could have. Want to know why? Shh. If you’re brave enough, come hear about the first terrifying deal I took after entering the business... 196Reads8.9Score—Shelves
- 19 Ghosts Knock at the Door: From the Start, I’m Rewarded with a Max-Level Golden Light Mantra 厉鬼敲门，开局奖励满级金光咒 Shen Yun woke up one day to find that the world was undergoing a strange resurgence. A cat-faced old woman outside his peephole, a hanging ghost standing on someone’s shoulders, demons and monsters bent on turning the mortal realm into hell... Fortunately, his lottery System awakened. With a max-level Golden Light Spell from the start, golden light enveloped him as he manifested invisible sword qi, decapitating demons and monsters from a thousand miles away. “Ding! Congratulations, you’ve drawn 4.2kReads6.9Score194Shelves
- 20 I Won’t Survive the Night 活不过今夜 At some point, a strange old beggar showed up in our neighborhood. The strange thing was, he never spent the money people gave him. He’d burn it or destroy it instead. Then one day, the woman downstairs was burned to death, and the butcher was brutally murdered. That was when I finally realized the truth. He wasn’t begging for money. He was begging for lives! 1.1kReads8.2Score102Shelves
- 21 The Yellow Springs Pawnshop 黄泉典当行 The Underworld Pawnshop has existed since time immemorial, with a long and storied history. It can travel between the worlds of the living and the dead, reaching the far shores of the Yellow Springs to trade with ghosts and gods. It stands somewhere in the modern city. Find the Underworld Pawnshop, and any wish can be granted, but only at an equal price. You can pawn anything you own: organs, years of your life, ancestral treasures, even your soul. In exchange, you can get whatever you desire: m 127Reads7.4Score—Shelves
- 22 Spirit Village 灵村 Thrills and the supernatural! There's an ancient village called Lingzhuang, also known as Bagua Village. I was born there. Lingzhuang is always shrouded in an atmosphere of terror: Enormous pythons, centipedes, black spiders, strange birds, and ferocious beasts roam about, attacking people... Lingzhuang is also rife with strange tales and bizarre happenings: A female ghost haunts the village; a cave in Longmian Mountain holds an arsenal from the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom; a mysterious master live 75Reads—Score—Shelves
- 23 The Soul Ferryer Between Yin and Yang 阴阳渡魂人 Soul-snatching ghost weddings, bathroom hauntings, the legend of the red-clad senior, Thai black magic, ghost soldiers borrowing the road, man-eating mountain demons, nightmare fiends that enter your dreams, the mystery of the headless woman, a bizarre bride in an escape room, vengeful child spirits, games that summon ghosts, human organ trafficking, a shocking exhibition of human deformities, and long-lost Maoshan secrets... Do these things send a chill down your spine? - The truth is, this wor 186Reads9.2Score102Shelves
- 24 Tales of the Supernatural 灵异怪谈 Yin-yang masters are fated to suffer the Five Evils and Three Deficiencies. Is there any way to escape their fate? A life-and-death romance with a bloodthirsty vampire zombie! After desperately searching for the Strange Records of Yin and Yang, he discovers it is all part of an even bigger conspiracy! The Mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang, bloodthirsty vampire zombies, an inn in the underworld, an ancient Warring States tomb, and the Strange Records of Yin and Yang all feature in Strange Tales of the S 1.6kReads8.8Score137Shelves
- 25 The Blood-Binding Corpse Scripture 血引尸经 The world of Changbai’s demons, home to the northern immortals. I was just an ordinary village boy from Changbai Mountain until I accidentally obtained the strange books Blood Guide to the Corpse and Soul-Eating Blood Eyes. I wanted to save people, yet somehow I was always killing them. My father’s bizarre sect legacy, the thousand-year secrets of the Twelve Strange Sects, the shadowy depths of the Tomb That Moves Mountains. Just how many plots and mysteries are hidden all around me? The bronze 1.2kReads8.8Score158Shelves
- 26 Case Files of Unusual Investigations 异案调查录 Throughout the vast world, from ancient times to the present, there have always been mysterious events that humans cannot explain. And there is a group of people who endure countless hardships in their pursuit of the truth. The cases they investigate are all considered paranormal… 522Reads7.4Score—Shelves
- 27 Corpse Driving in Western Hunan: The Soul-Calling Guide on the Night Road 湘西赶尸：夜行引魂人 A sudden disaster at a mass grave! Wu Liangzi is struck on the back of the head and wakes among rotting coffins and bones, clutching a bloodstained piece of yellow paper. It bears the name of the man he has spent three years tracking down for murdering his father! Seven corpses in black robes dance around him all night, their lifeless eyes seeming to “acknowledge their master.” A mysterious corpse driver tosses him a life-and-death contract. “Four of your seven souls have scattered. If you can’t 240Reads—Score—Shelves
- 28 Jiangshi World: The Healer Celestial Master 僵尸世界：济世天师 Qin Song transmigrates into the world of Uncle Jiu and his zombies, only to become Uncle Jiu's junior fellow disciple. Bound to the Celestial Master System, he can both slay demons and save lives. Maoshan Taoist arts, an iron body, and the healing arts of a benevolent physician. Evil spirits cannot trouble him, and countless ghosts come to pay homage! Uncle Jiu: “Junior Brother, stop turning down the vacant position of Celestial Master.” Ren Tingting: “You promised you'd take responsibility for 346Reads6.4Score—Shelves
- 29 The Yin Deliverer 送阴人 A burial master, also known as one who sends the dead into the shadows. When Li Mazi from my village died suddenly, I was drawn into the affair. I thought it was an accident, but later I learned it had been plotted for a long time. To stay alive, I began studying the Burial Scripture my grandfather left behind. The Burial Scripture has three volumes: one on burying people, one on burying ghosts, and a third whose whereabouts are unknown. Blood corpses in the Southern Ridges, ancient monsters in 668Reads8.4Score101Shelves
- 30 I Am a Feng Shui Master 我是风水师 I thought I would follow the three instructions my parents left in their will, but everything changed after I rescued a female classmate… 9.1kReads7.4Score684Shelves
- 31 The Yin-Born Child 阴生子 Before I was even born, someone plotted against me. I was cut from my mother’s womb before I was full-term, born with a congenital defect, and prone to attracting evil spirits. My fate was cursed, and I was destined not to live past a hundred days. To stay alive, I went to live with my maternal grandfather, a medium who could travel between the worlds of the living and the dead. After years of learning from him, I became a medium myself. From then on, I could communicate with the gods, enter the 108Reads8.9Score—Shelves
- 32 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... 812Reads8.7Score101Shelves
- 33 The Eerie Coffin Bearers 诡抬棺 Nine peaks, a sea of blood, mountains of bones... Murderous danger lurks everywhere. Every step is fraught with peril, and I never know how much longer I'll survive. It wasn't until I deciphered the nursery rhyme I'd heard when I became someone's disciple that I uncovered a shocking secret... 57Reads9.0Score—Shelves
- 34 Reborn in the West, I Became an Unorthodox Exorcist 重生到西方，我成了不正经驱魔人 What? This world has demons, ghosts, werewolves, vampires, and all kinds of other creatures? There are also priests from the Church, the largest openly opposed faction; mages who believe in the power of nature; independent groups who call themselves exorcists; and heretics devoted to the gods, among others. And I, Xu Damao, am the most unusual person in this world. I have a golden finger system that lets me maintain my powers without faith. I'm also gradually uncovering more of the world's secre 19Reads—Score—Shelves
- 35 Calling on the Immortals 请仙儿 In our village, every adult child in the family has to visit the graves during the Qingming Festival and weigh down paper offerings on the graves. But when I went to pay my respects at Grandma's grave, I put the paper on the wrong one... 526Reads8.7Score111Shelves
- 36 The Fatal Rule 致命法则 A rich guy in the group chat sent out a red envelope and said the person who got the most money had to play a game with him. The game turned out to involve the class belle... 314Reads8.9Score—Shelves
- 37 The Coffin Bearer 抬棺匠 My family has dealt with the dead for generations. Following in my father’s footsteps, I became a coffin bearer. Before carrying a coffin, I always offer the deceased five incense sticks. When offering incense to the living, three long sticks and two short ones are taboo. When offering incense to the dead, three short sticks and two long ones are taboo. That day, I carried a coffin, and the dead pregnant woman inside gave birth to a pair of twins, a boy and a girl! [Shh, keep quiet! We’re settin 2.9kReads8.3Score194Shelves
- 38 The Corpse Keeper 守尸人 The morgue is where life and death meet. At this boundary, there are many taboos to heed. I grew up beside a hospital morgue, and I'll tell you about the hospital's taboos from a different perspective. Taboo 1: If you see a patient being resuscitated, don't gather around to watch. Taboo 2: If a patient's family throws away something the deceased used while alive, don't toss your own trash on top of it. Taboo 3: If you hear a cat meowing at night, don't go outside to look, whether you're a patien 917Reads6.3Score100Shelves
- 39 The Soul-Returning Soup 还魂汤 I was born in a remote village. The day my mother gave birth to me, she died a horrible death! I was born disabled, missing an arm, and with a red birthmark shaped like a coiled snake on my foot. My master said I had been cursed by an evil spirit, and that the curse could only be lifted if I found the one who cast it. Otherwise, I wouldn’t live to see twenty... 83Reads—Score—Shelves
- 40 The Incense of the Underworld 走阴香 [Spirit Medium + Supernatural] The year I turned ten, my grandmother passed away. Not long after, I came down with a strange illness. Days of injections and medicine did no good, and every night I became unusually alert, often babbling incoherently. After five days of continuous fever, my parents had no choice but to take me to the countryside to see a woman they called Auntie, who they said could treat me. Here, “Auntie” didn’t mean a relative on my father’s side. It was the respectful title we 1kReads9.1Score170Shelves
- 41 A Young Feng Shui Master Betrothed to a White Tiger at Birth 少年风水师，出生就和白虎定亲 At the Human Skin Inn, a hundred ghosts carry a coffin. A yin corpse borrows a life. A demon child lies hidden in a Buddhist womb… From the moment I was born, my father pledged his life to arrange my engagement to a White Tiger. Because of that, I embarked on a little-known path… 5.9kReads9.2Score541Shelves
- 42 The Yin Tattooist 阴纹师 May you be blessed with wealth and long life, and travel safely in and out. I’m the heir to a special kind of embroidery, commonly known as “tattooing.” You’d think this craft would be quite profitable in a modern city, but before my master died, he forbade me from using it to make money. I always did as he said, but recently, something happened, and I had no choice but to go against his dying words. From then on, all kinds of strange things began happening around me. 968Reads8.8Score116Shelves
- 43 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. 1.7kReads8.8Score112Shelves
- 44 The Corpse Leaps Over the Wall 尸跳墙 I’ve been blind since childhood, so I work as a massage therapist for the blind. Then one day, I met a terrifying woman who said she could restore my sight. The price was... 140Reads7.8Score—Shelves
- 45 The Spirit Burying Master 葬灵师 Every year since the year I was born, someone in the village has died. To keep me alive, Grandma arranged a marriage for me, and my betrothed was supposed to come for me when I came of age. On my eighteenth birthday, I discovered that the one who had come for me wasn't human... 146Reads7.9Score244Shelves
- 46 Walking Between Yin and Yang 行走阴阳 To carry on the family line, Grandma forcibly brought home a madwoman... Ten years later, someone came to our door and delivered five bright red coffins, each bearing the name of a member of our family... 2.8kReads8.7Score257Shelves
- 47 Demons and Monsters: From the Start, I Unlocked the Old Celestial Master 妖魔：开局解锁老天师 [Monsters + Everyday Life + Lighthearted + No Single Female Lead] Lin Fan transmigrates into a world overrun by monsters and finds himself in danger from the start. Just as disaster strikes, a voice rings out: “Ding! Character Template System successfully bound!” “Ding! Congratulations, Host. You’ve drawn a character template: Zhang Zhiwei, the sixty-fifth Celestial Master of Longhu Mountain, ‘An Ordinary Mortal’!” And so... Bathed in golden light and lightning, Lin Fan stands atop a heap of mon 2.5kReads7.2Score145Shelves
- 48 The Yin Messenger's Wife 阴差夫人 Twin sisters, one human and one ghost. My parents were brutally murdered before my eyes. I sought help from a ghost-catching official to avenge them, but he demanded I catch three thousand ghosts for him. I never imagined I would end up becoming a ghost-catching official myself... 3.9kReads9.0Score335Shelves
- 49 EN Apprenticed to Uncle Nine: I Became a Generation's Taoist Master 拜师九叔：我成了一代天师 Han Qiusheng transmigrates, bringing an Evil-Repelling System with him. In this life, his soul inhabits Qiusheng, the eldest disciple under Uncle Jiu. He vows to follow his master's footsteps, rid the world of every demon and evil spirit, and become a Celestial Master of his generation. 2.5kReads8.2Score117Shelves
- 50 The Western School's The Grave Robbers' Chronicles 西派盗墓笔记 [Tomb Raiding + Mystery + Supernatural] A child born under an ill omen is one Heaven dares not claim and Earth dares not nurture. When I was born from a corpse’s belly, a yellow immortal fox worshipped the moon and the wild beasts wailed. It was decided then that I would spend my life dealing with the dead, never seeing the light of day. To escape this fate, I joined forces with my taciturn master and a jovial fat man, forming the West Faction’s iron-triangle tomb-raiding team. Over the years, I 1.4kReads8.8Score127Shelves
