Novels like Folk Taboos: I Cultivate Merit in the Mortal World
Books Chinese readers most often put in the same booklists as Folk Taboos: I Cultivate Merit in the Mortal World, best match first.
- 151 Upholding Justice in Heaven's Name 替天行道 Yin cannot thrive alone, and yang cannot exist by itself. I grew up in the countryside, left behind by my parents and raised by my grandfather. All his life, Grandpa was either helping widows and orphaned girls or on his way to help them. So, for as long as I can remember, I heard the villagers cursing him behind his back. Then one day, a stranger in a burial shroud asked me a question. A tree without bark but with a soul is bound to die. What happens to a person with skin but no soul? The relat 3kReads8.9Score24914d adds
- 152 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
- 153 Grandma's Yin-Yang Notes 2 奶奶的阴阳笔记2 Mystery and the Supernatural + Copper Coins to Find the Way + Paper Effigies That Hear the Dead + Locust Wood to Bind Souls I work as a temporary hire at the Special Investigations Bureau in the Dragon Kingdom. I’ve seen madmen capable of rewriting fate. That day, a gigantic black hand came crashing down and the air froze. I thought I was as good as dead. But my mother burst out like a streak of red lightning. In the look she gave me over her shoulder, I saw reluctance, concern, and a fierce re 205Reads9.4Score—14d adds
- 154 The Ghost-Hunting Qingfeng Lodge 捉鬼清风居 “Clear Breeze Hall” is a shop specializing in exorcising demons and driving away ghosts. A strange couplet hangs by the door: First line: If you’re free of disaster and trouble, don’t come in. Second line: If you’ve got ghosts or demons, come on in. The shop’s owner is a 21-year-old young man named Zhang Qingfeng, the thirty-ninth-generation heir of the Zixiao Sect. Some say the owner is obsessed with money and cares about nothing else. Others say he’s a living bodhisattva who came into the worl 6kReads8.8Score49014d adds
- 155 I’m Just an Ordinary Woman 我只是一个普普通通的女子 The rating has only just opened, so it’ll keep going up! [Supernatural + Strong Female Lead + Feng Shui and Metaphysics + Horror + Episodic Stories + Spiritual Qi Revival] A metaphysical ghost-hunting story featuring supernatural tales. The female lead is the strongest fighter, bar none! The pairing is with her master. Set against the backdrop of spiritual qi revival, the mortal world and the underworld work together. The world unfolds as the stories progress. The female lead has already been re 709Reads8.1Score11114d adds
- 156 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 1.1kReads8.8Score14214d adds
- 157 I Am a Maoshan Corpse Driver 我是茅山赶尸人 Gu Yuan transmigrates into a zombie world overrun by demons and zombies, and accidentally binds himself to a Celestial Master System. Thus begins his journey in another world as an amateur corpse-handler. Uncle Jiu: “Xiao Yuan, you have an excellent build and remarkable talent. Would you like to become my disciple?” Shi Jian: “You can use Lightning and Thunder Fist too? Dare to test your skills against me… Gu Yuan, I was wrong. Please go easy on me.” Gu Yuan: “Miss, would you care to play Pai Go 274Reads6.0Score—14d adds
- 158 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 277Reads—Score—14d adds
- 159 Stay Away, Spirits 阴人勿扰 Someone dug up our family grave and put the newlywed daughter-in-law who’d just died in their family in there. My uncle told me to go get her out in the middle of the night... 477Reads7.1Score—14d adds
- 160 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
- 161 The Life of a Spirit Medium’s Disciple 出马弟子的人生 A novel about real experiences and nothing but facts, centered on the real practice of spirit-mediumship! I hope you enjoy it! No fantasy power trips or immortal cultivation: every bit of it is based on real experiences! 259Reads8.1Score—14d adds
- 162 Ghost Corpse Refining, Bearer of a Deadly Fate 鬼炼尸，背命人 Song Yuanqing is a former soldier. After leaving the military, he turned down a government-assigned job and chose instead to become an adventure tour guide. Because of the dangers of the profession, people like him are also called “edgewalkers,” meaning they are always walking on the brink of death. In just a few short years, Song Yuanqing has guided clients through the Amazon rainforest and into Lop Nur, the “Sea of Death.” He has also traversed the Bewitched Marsh of Wawu Mountain, known as th 2.1kReads9.3Score21414d adds
- 163 The Coffin of Life and Death 生死棺材 In our line of work, there’s a type known as the miscellaneous school. They follow unorthodox paths, dabbling in everything but mastering nothing. They have no sect above them and no helpers below them, and nobody takes them seriously. I’m an heir to the miscellaneous school, yet I turned their world upside down and left them in chaos. Only when I decided to retire did I discover a shocking mystery hidden within me... 491Reads8.7Score10014d adds
- 164 The King Wen Drum, the King Wu Whip, and the Five-Dragon Flower Staff Summon the Immortal Elder 文王鼓，武王鞭，五龙花杆请老仙 “Cultivate your character deep in the mountains, then emerge from your cave and make your name known across the land.” A year after I began working as a spirit medium, my life took a completely different course. On the sixth day of the sixth month, I took charge of the altar. The old spirits took their seats, but brought a long-buried case to light. An unremarkable woman was haunted by several infant spirits. In the dead of night, the one who said “Hi” to me was actually a paper doll. An old man 1.9kReads8.8Score20014d adds
- 165 Yin and Yang: The Book of Life and Death 阴阳：生死簿 Lin Zhao spent ten years as an outer disciple Taoist at Longhu Mountain and learned only one spell: the Soul Summoning Art. > Until one night, the voice of Heaven rang out in his mind: “Ten zhang ahead, a wronged spirit seeks help.” > Following the voice, he found an old woman clutching a black cat and sobbing that her son had gone missing. > He formed a hand seal to investigate and discovered that the cat's eyes reflected the scene of her son's death: the neighbor butcher's hideous face. > When —Reads—Score—14d adds
- 166 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
- 167 The Northeast Spirit Medium 东北出马仙 [Rural life + folk legends + strange tales + horror + Northeastern China + adventure + crime and deduction + solving cases] [A police officer with a special constitution × a shaman grandmother: an ensemble mystery-solving tale as they team up to uncover the secrets of spirit mediums!] Northeastern China is the birthplace of shamanism and a thriving home to spirit mediums, including the Fox, Weasel, Hedgehog, Snake, and Rat spirits. Since ancient times, it has been full of people with extraordina 3.1kReads9.3Score15314d adds
- 168 The Gatekeeper of Two Worlds 两界看门人 Gu Ke’s family has been guarding the gate for generations. By his time, he is the forty-ninth generation. What does a gatekeeper do? He guards the passage between the mortal world and the spirit realm, keeping anything that doesn’t belong in the mortal world outside. He has been a gatekeeper for three years, living a quiet, secluded life in an old house with an old dog. Then one day, his father, whom he hasn’t heard from in ages, calls to ask Gu Ke to look after his four half-sisters. The four s 2kReads8.2Score12114d adds
- 169 The Female Spirit Medium 女出马仙 We read the fortunes of the dead and the living, settle debts with aggrieved spirits, and handle lost souls, hysteria, and demonic possession! If it’s anything out of the ordinary, there’s nothing our shamanic spirit medium, Wu Mei, can’t handle! Jealous colleagues come by to challenge us? No problem. We have powerful connections up above... Lord Tu Tanyue, emperor of the Qingqiu Nine-Tailed Fox Clan and so handsome he has no rivals, spoils his wife without limit. His half-fox spirit medium brid 841Reads8.8Score10014d adds
- 170 Miss, Wait Up, Little Taoist 女施主：小道长留步 Witty and humorous + grounded in reality and rich in metaphor + ghost hunting and the supernatural A Taoist priest descends the mountain + an utterly doting big brother + a collection of short stories + long-term foreshadowing + guiding souls to the afterlife In 2026, I hunt ghosts and guide souls in the city. Only later did I realize that human hearts are far scarier than ghosts. I have just two kinds of clients: the living and the dead. The living pay me to solve their problems. The dead pay w 30Reads—Score—14d adds
- 171 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
- 172 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 685Reads8.4Score10114d adds
- 173 The Icy Campus Belle Wants a Ghost Marriage? This Celestial Master Is Just the Man for the Job 高冷校花下冥婚？本天师专业对口 [Mystery] [Supernatural] [Horror] [Decisive and Ruthless] [School Beauty] [Invincible] Zhang Jiuxiao, a Celestial Master in a purple robe, perished in a mutual destruction with a fierce ghost one moment, only to be reborn as an ordinary senior high school student the next. After a previous life of bloodshed and turmoil, he considers it the greatest blessing to live an ordinary, peaceful life this time around. That is, until his cool and aloof school beauty deskmate turns deathly pale and tremble 857Reads—Score16314d adds
- 174 Haunted Taoist Temple: I Only Hunt the Most Ominous Things 恐怖道观：我只抓大凶之物 “My good apprentice, you've completed your training. You may leave the mountain now.” “Rest assured, Master. Once I descend the mountain, I will vanquish demons and exorcise evil, restoring the glory of our Daoist tradition!” “To temper your character, I have a small test for you.” “I won't let you down, Master!” “Excellent. There's a young woman down the mountain. Go marry her!” “What?!” … 2.6kReads8.9Score30114d adds
- 175 Young Feng Shui Master 少年风水师 When Grandpa died, the whole city was in an uproar... 9.8kReads9.0Score1.1k14d adds
- 176 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
- 177 Sashimi Celestial Master: They Mistook Me for the Ultimate Villain 刺身天师：我被错认成究极大反派 Don't get a dragon tattoo above your shoulders, and don't get a tiger tattoo below your waist. With her eyes closed, Guanyin cannot save the world. With his eyes open, Guan Gong will surely kill! A tattoo marks a new beginning, but if you violate the taboos associated with its design, you will suffer the backlash. And one more thing: if your fate isn't strong enough, never get a tattoo by force. Otherwise, disaster is sure to follow! After Gu Xing fused with the System, he successfully advanced 1.4kReads7.7Score10014d adds
- 178 The Forbidden Island of Human Nature 人性禁岛 I couldn’t get a ticket for the Spring Festival, so I took an unlicensed car home. I never expected the woman in the car to keep staring at me. I wanted to call the police... [Deep Dive] The horrifying truth behind going missing after getting into the wrong car during the Spring Festival. Don’t ride in unlicensed cars carelessly, because it’s not just your money that disappears, but your life! 994Reads8.6Score10014d adds
- 179 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
- 180 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
- 181 The Ghost Emerges from the Coffin 鬼出棺 Xie Bangui is secretly recruited into the Ghost Yamen and, on his master's orders, serves there, making a living by hunting demons and ghosts. Yet he has no idea that he carries a world-shaking secret. Leading the Ghost Yamen's warriors, Xie Bangui launches a night raid on a prison for evil spirits, fights a bloody battle on the execution platform against a demon, encounters a soul-snatching carriage, and cleverly breaks a skeleton lock. He survives evil spirits' attempts to claim his life, outw 1.6kReads9.1Score14414d adds
- 182 Paranormal Encounters: What I Saw and Heard 灵异事件之所见所闻 No System + no transmigration + no power fantasy + no harem + no invincible protagonist + no sweet romance + no clichés + no female lead + no cultivation. Important notice: if this isn’t for you, don’t read it. If this isn’t for you, don’t read it. If this isn’t for you, don’t read it! Do you believe there are things in this world that science cannot explain? Have you ever experienced anything supernatural yourself? Treat the events in this novel as stories, and remember: Fear and respect the sp 129Reads—Score—14d adds
- 183 What Do You Mean the Corpses I Sew Together Are All Cursed? 什么叫我缝的尸体都是大凶之物？ [Chinese folk customs] [Corpse seamster] [Traditional supernatural horror] [A clever protagonist who isn’t an idiot] My name is Chen Yang. I’m a mortician, or rather... a corpse seamster. I can sew up corpses no one else can. I can take jobs no one else dares to accept. I’ve handled all sorts of bizarre cases: people who jumped from buildings in red clothes, corpses missing arms and legs, and even one person who was holding their own head... Everyone says the corpses I sew up are all terribly un 219.6kReads9.1Score29.1k14d adds
- 184 Summoning the Immortals 招仙 A successor to the Corpse-Measuring tradition, the Ma Immortals return! The Ma family’s disciples can divine fortune and misfortune and ward off evil. Wave the spirit-summoning banner, and the immortals will gather; lower the Immortal-Suppressing Seal, and every demon will be destroyed! I died for three days, then came back to life. From that moment on, I experienced a series of untold stories... 731Reads8.7Score10014d adds
- 185 Transmigrating to Uncle Nine's World: Becoming an Ancestor at Last 穿越九叔世界之终成老祖 After accidentally transmigrating into the mysterious and terrifying ghost-filled world of Uncle Jiu, Xu Shiming becomes a member of Maoshan. In this world overrun by monsters and demons, he encounters one extraordinary opportunity after another and earns a reputation as the Child of Destiny. When he first arrives at Maoshan, he is young and inexperienced, but gradually masters powerful Taoist arts. He fights shoulder to shoulder with his fellow disciples, joining them in the battle against evi 1.2kReads6.5Score—14d adds
- 186 Exorcism Records: The Supreme Judge of Yin and Yang 镇鬼实录：阴阳第一执宰人 [Traditional supernatural horror + ghost hunting + no romance] The city is full of tricks. I want to go back to the countryside. After losing his job, Jiang Bai returns to his rural hometown, only to find that a wicked spirit has begun tearing out people’s hearts. More and more villagers are being killed, and the whole village is helpless. Ignoring his late grandfather’s prohibition, he inherits his grandfather’s legacy and enters the world of the mystic arts. In a once-quiet town, accidents kee 80Reads—Score—14d adds
- 187 Hall Master, Please Wait 香主，请留步 On her master’s recommendation, Ruan Xiaojiu took a job as a fragrance master. But soon after, her master mysteriously disappeared. She discovered that the employer behind the job was the Pei family of the capital, a clan with deep roots and influence that could summon extraordinary talents from across the land to crack all manner of strange cases. Even stranger, while working, she could communicate with her master through their consciousness. She could even create a fragrance domain and refine —Reads—Score—14d adds
- 188 The Yellow Weasel Asked Me to Grant It a Title, So I Wore the Old Immortal as a Scarf 黄狼讨封，我把老仙当围脖系上了 [Traditional supernatural] + [No System] + [Drunkard] + [Comedy] “Kid, do I look like a human or a god to you?” “Uh... well... you look like a fur scarf to me! Hand it over!” “Yow!” A drunkard who read only half a web novel before daring to open a spirit altar; A weasel who cultivated powers by blindly practicing on its own and loves to brag; A wild fox that trains hard to attain enlightenment, but has to sneak down the mountain every so often to steal a chicken and whet its appetite; And a 1.6kReads8.7Score12814d adds
- 189 Huang Daxian 黄大仙儿 The Huang Daxian of Northeast China, also known as the Huangpizi, are weasels that have cultivated into spirits. This is a terrifying story about the shamanic traditions of Northeast China, told in the region’s authentic style. A supernatural tale rooted in the everyday life of Northeast China. 3.1kReads8.6Score33714d adds
- 190 The Corpse Walker: I Brought Your Ancestors Back 赶尸人：我把你们祖宗找回来了 Han Tian was a killer who bound himself to the [Corpse-Driving System] at the brink of life and death. From then on, he embarked on a very different path. A Fourth Master who turns to people's ancestors whenever he can't make up his mind? A Black Panther who can draw talismans? A corpse driver who uses brute force to deal with ghosts? He brought back a group of ancient corpses from a tomb deep in the mountains. Going from house to house, he said, “Come on, I've brought your ancestor back.” Now t 1kReads8.2Score10614d adds
- 191 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... 63Reads9.0Score—14d adds
- 192 I Command the Ghost King and Become the Mastermind Pulling the Strings 我驾驭鬼王，化身幕后执棋者 [Slow-paced + ghost control + satisfying read + invincible protagonist + daily life] This story follows Mo Bai, who accidentally falls into a supernatural realm while out in the suburbs. After meeting a teammate, he successfully gains control of the Ghost King and returns to the real world. He gradually grows stronger through one supernatural incident after another, eventually becoming the mastermind pulling the strings. This is an invincible-protagonist type of novel, so please don't nitpick th 17Reads—Score—14d adds
- 193 I Asked You to Read the Feng Shui, Not Dig Up Their Ancestral Grave! 让你看风水，你刨人家祖坟？ Also known as "The Folk Feng Shui Secrets". [Supernatural + Feng Shui Master + Unmatched Skills + No System + No Saintly Hero] An old man dies full of resentment and is buried in a dangerously inauspicious ancestral grave. Disasters strike one after another on the day of the burial. Wang Nan, a yin-yang master, spots the problem and immediately tells the descendants to dig up the ancestral grave and choose a new feng shui site for a deep burial, only to discover that this was all part of a plot 313Reads8.9Score10014d adds
- 194 The Master Feng Shui Practitioner 顶级风水师 Heaven and Earth are dark and yellow; the universe vast and primordial. The sun and moon wax and wane; the stars are arrayed across the sky… 1.7kReads8.8Score34114d adds
- 195 The Mountain and Sea Coffin 山海棺 Wooden coffins bury the dead, iron coffins conceal ghosts; silver coffins nurture demons, and golden coffins seal gods. After Grandpa dies, all spirits pay their respects at the shrine, and he is buried in a coffin among the mountains and seas... 371Reads8.2Score10014d adds
- 196 Having a Son Is Like Having the King of Hell 生个儿子是阎王 Five years ago, I gave birth to a child. Everyone who saw what the child looked like died. Five years later, I met a man who told me he was the child's father. 16.4kReads8.9Score36314d adds
- 197 Maoshan Ghost-Suppressing Records 茅山镇鬼录 The gates of the underworld shatter, and ten thousand ghosts emerge! Enchanting ghosts steal souls, birth ghosts claim lives, zombies devour people, painted-skin demons steal faces, and water ghosts drag people under... The mortal world has become a living hell. Everyone fears ghosts and monsters. Only the Maoshan priests take up talismans and tread the Big Dipper steps! Talismans subdue the dead, swords cut down vengeful ghosts, incantations slay a hundred evils, and dark spirits are sealed awa 5.6kReads8.4Score48614d adds
- 198 Snatching Immortality 抢仙 [Mystery and adventure + occult battles + a nontraditional path to immortality + ruins around the world] I've practiced Daoism for twenty years and watched my master ascend with my own eyes. Becoming an immortal has become an obsession. But the Heavenly Dao has run out of opportunities for me. I'm just one step away, yet the gap is as vast as heaven and earth. The chance to become an immortal should be somewhere between the highest heavens and the deepest underworld, but I can find it nowhere. I 55Reads8.5Score—14d adds
- 199 Folk Tales of the Mountain Wilds 民间山野怪谈 A lifetime spent roaming the martial world, telling tales of ghosts and strange happenings from the countryside. Stories of spirits and monsters in the wilderness have always been a staple of people's conversations over tea, and folk tales about mountain ghosts and gods come in every variety. There is a kind of extraordinary man who can help people choose burial sites and homes, divine life and death, reveal the secrets of fate, dispel evil spirits, travel to the underworld, save lives, and ward 1.1kReads8.9Score15114d adds
- 200 The Dream of the True Page Tao: A World Made Real from Illusions 真页道之梦化虚界 The supernatural returns, alongside alchemical arts, thunder magic, talismans, the 749 Bureau, and battles between Chinese and foreign practitioners. This is a secret chronicle of cultivation, ghost slaying, demon-smiting, and god-killing. Mysteries are gradually awakening. Where do ghosts, monsters, spirits, and demons come from? Immortals have attained the Dao, but the gods are hard to summon. The world is mired in desire. How can anyone cross over to safety? With the power of the Dream Realm, 227Reads8.0Score10014d adds
