Novels like Northern Horse Notes: The Incense Bearer
Books Chinese readers most often put in the same booklists as Northern Horse Notes: The Incense Bearer, best match first.
- 51 Tales from the Folkways of Northeast China 东北民间轶事录 [The new book, The Northeast Folk Tales: An Account of Zhong Kui, is now being serialized] [Ensemble cast + folk legends + the customs and character of Northeast China] The land and skies of the Northeast; its folk customs and its people Set in the rural Northeast of the 1990s, this book is adapted from remarkable folk legends and true events widely told across the vast lands of Northeast China. It recounts the hardships protagonist Xu Liang faced in his youth, along with the many legendary expe 3.4kReads8.8Score403Shelves
- 52 The Last Wild Maoshan Master 最后一个野茅山 During the Republican era, my great-grandfather brought a bowl of executioner's rice to a death-row inmate who was about to be beheaded. On a rainy night in late autumn, the beheaded convict knocked on the courtyard gate... [Traditional supernatural horror + Maoshan magic + no System] 19.9kReads8.4Score1.8kShelves
- 53 Flowers Bloom from Withered Bones 枯骨生花 This story is also known as The Spirit Medium’s Diary. Little Hu Rong holds incense in her hands, born to take her place in the main hall. Though it was shortly after five on a June morning, the moment she was born, darkness swallowed everything. At seven, she made a mistake that cost the life of a Willow Immortal. Like oil catching fire, it set off a disaster that had been building for years. At eighteen, she fell ill, and a fortune-teller declared: “You were born to make your living as a spiri 71Reads8.2Score—Shelves
- 54 Sun Wuji of the Northeastern Immortal Sect 东北仙门孙无极 The Northeast Ma Xian series: Sun Wuji, a disciple of the Immortal Sect, is born to face a tribulation and is the chosen one. He endures trial after trial, forging a path to invincibility and reaching the supreme pinnacle of the Immortal Sect. 15Reads—Score—Shelves
- 55 Word Game 文字游戏 Nan Xiaolou, a university lecturer with a mysterious past, receives a photograph after class. It evokes the Tang dynasty poem “A Face Like Peach Blossoms, Glowing in Each Other’s Reflection” and bears an uncanny resemblance to the back of her missing friend, Yue Wuhua. Nan Xiaolou travels to the place where Cui Hu’s “Written at the Southern Villa of the Capital” was set. Following clues hidden in the poem, she finds Yue Wuhua in grave danger and uncovers a treasure from the Northern Qi dynasty, 331Reads8.6Score101Shelves
- 56 Scheming Corpse 谋尸 When I was seven, my second uncle told me, “Only those who deal with corpses can seek immortality.” I didn't want to live forever, but fate forced me into the underworld, gun in one hand and incense in the other. The gun is for helping the living cross over. The incense is for helping evil spirits move on. 1.5kReads8.2Score175Shelves
- 57 The Legend of the Horse Immortals of Jinan 济南马仙传记 (Original title: Strange Tales from Jinan) An obscure nobody has set out on a path whose destination no one knows. No one knows how far he can go, either. So he’ll just keep going for as long as he can. 45Reads8.2Score—Shelves
- 58 Notes of a Spirit Medium: I Set KPIs for My Spirit Hall 出马仙笔记我制定堂仙考核KPI [Humorous] [Supernatural] [Spirit Medium] [No System] [Not a Wish-Fulfillment Novel] [Treasure Hunt] [Growth] [Defying Fate] I died after falling for a beauty’s trap, but then I came back to life. I even got to experience a trip to the underworld. What’s it like down there? Look, there’s a young lady standing by a pink doorway up ahead, dressed in something so revealing it looks ready to burst. She’s waving at me. “Hey, handsome, wanna come have some fun?” But I’m a model young man. “Go have fun 34Reads—Score—Shelves
- 59 The Spirit Medium: The Old Immortal Wants Me to Be a Taoist Priest 出马仙：老仙让我当道士 At first, the Old Immortal taught me about the Four Pillars of Destiny in my dreams. Three years later, I set up an altar and began spirit-medium work, becoming a disciple of the spirit mediums. Then, for reasons beyond anyone’s control, the Old Immortal had me enter the Daoist path and study under a master! This book doesn’t have many fantastical tales. It’s made up of the true stories I experienced during my five years in the profession, along with plenty of tips on how to avoid scams! It will 464Reads—Score—Shelves
- 60 Northern Horse Notes 北马笔记 The Five Immortals of the Northeast are chiefly the Hu, Huang, Chang, Mang, and Hui. After cultivating their powers and attaining the Dao, they descend the mountains to take disciples, borrowing their bodies to do good deeds among humans and earn their way to ascension. This story is told in the first person. 414Reads8.8Score—Shelves
- 61 Northeastern Tales: The Shaman’s Heir 东北往事之萨满传人 Heaven’s secrets are revealed, calamity cannot be escaped, fate is set, and fortune follows its course. Some things can’t be said out loud, but I can’t keep them to myself. Today, I’ll take a chance and tell you about the many things in this world that defy explanation, yet truly exist… 782Reads—Score—Shelves
- 62 Those Years I Served as a Spirit Medium 顶香出马的那些年 I was born at midnight on July 16. A white fox and a black snake blocked the door when I was born. My second aunt, a shaman, read my fate: I was never meant to be born, but was a little ghost who escaped from the Underworld. I was born with an evil bone, possessed yin-yang eyes, had all seven apertures open, and was fated to have my life claimed by the King of Hell. To survive, I eventually chose to become a shaman. After experiencing many paranormal events, I encountered an evil organization ca 144Reads8.4Score—Shelves
- 63 Tales of a Northeast Chinese Spirit Medium 东北出马仙实记 [Fantasy + Supernatural Mystery + Northeastern Chinese Folk Customs + Light Comedy] My name is Hu Xiaohua. On the twenty-third day of the twelfth lunar month, a weasel squatted on top of the corn stack in my yard. With a tattered red flower perched on its head, it asked me whether it looked more like a person or a god. I took one look at it and said, “You look like your grandma’s grandson.” Ever since that day, my altar has never known a moment’s peace. My maternal uncle is the altar’s wanderin 1kReads8.5Score103Shelves
- 64 Tales of a Little Spirit Medium 出马仙之小小传 Everyone wants to get their spiritual powers quickly, but no one knows how hard the trials are to endure. If you haven't experienced anything strange, if you haven't suffered through the kind of misery that's hard to explain, why would the immortals choose you? 203Reads—Score—Shelves
- 65 I Run a Spirit Hall in Henan 我在河南领堂口 I cultivated my character deep in the mountains, then emerged from an ancient cave to make my name across the land. Who says the Hu and Huang spirits never cross the Shanhai Pass? That rule is long gone. When I was in college, the spirits enshrined in my family's ancestral hall sought out my mother. But illness kept her from becoming a spirit medium, so the whole spirit retinue eventually came to me. After enduring countless hardships, I was forced onto the path of a spirit medium. A true accoun 474Reads8.2Score—Shelves
- 66 Supernatural: I Bring Home an Old Immortal in Inner Mongolia 灵异：我在内蒙领老仙儿 My name is Li Tianshu. I was originally called Li Chengcai. I was sickly from childhood and plagued by hardship. I was so familiar with the gates of death that even the King of Hell knew my face. My grandparents said I had been cursed just like my great-grandfather, and planned to abandon me in the mountains to be raised by wolves. It was my maternal grandfather who gave me back my humanity and renamed me Li Tianshu, hoping Heaven would forgive me and free me from the curse. From then on, my fat 322Reads8.6Score—Shelves
- 67 The Divine Charlatan Meng the Blind 神棍孟瞎子 Northeastern China in the late eighties and nineties, a time of upheaval and uncertainty. I, Meng Qinglong, once roamed the world with Huang the Lame’s southern expeditionary band. My life was a mess, riddled with mistakes. A calamity blinded me in both eyes, leaving me with just one weak, partially sighted eye and nothing but a dead end ahead. A Taoist master saved my life. Then, with my streetwise swagger, I passed myself off as a charlatan to make a living. Alongside Huang Xiaobao, a weasel 23.7kReads8.9Score1.9kShelves
- 68 A Young Taoist Moonlights as a Spirit Medium, and Every Demon and Ghost Rushes to Offer Him a Smoke 小道兼职出马仙，精妖鬼怪忙递烟 What? The little treasure is facing a life-and-death ordeal at six? How could the old immortals let their beloved little darling come to harm? Protect! Spoil! Help! Oh my... How is this kid getting more and more capable? Now she's protecting the old immortals' little brats instead?! Who cares what kind of monster the Hu family is? If they mess with my old immortals, I'll kill them without a second thought! Hu Xianxian is the prettiest, I'll praise her, praise her, praise her! Liu Xian is the tou 21.9kReads8.8Score2.5kShelves
- 69 I Cultivate the True Five Thunder Method and Crush the Evil Ghosts of the Spirit Realm 我修五雷正法，力压鬼界恶鬼 Xu Fan was born different. His natural Yin-Yang Eyes could suppress every evil spirit and demon. After Old Xu died, Xu Fan inherited the family’s ancestral spirit hall and became a shamanic medium. He battles Japanese invaders and evil spirits! Beats up the island nation’s Yin-Yang masters! Bullies the shikigami You Chizi! And marries a thousand-year-old White Snake Immortal! 615Reads7.1Score—Shelves
- 70 Strange Tales from the Countryside 农村里的奇异怪谈 [Traditional supernatural horror + third-person narration + one female lead + no immortal cultivation] In a strange, gloomy bamboo forest, evil forces claim people’s lives. A university graduate has just returned to his village when he becomes embroiled in a series of bizarre events. In the end, he takes a master and learns the Dao. Is the mysterious woman good or evil? What other strange events will the protagonist encounter? Find out in the book. 21Reads—Score—Shelves
- 71 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 1.9kReads8.8Score200Shelves
- 72 A Road of Feuds and Revenge 出马情仇路 Clinging to attachments traps you in the cycle of rebirth; letting go awakens the self within. Lost in delusion, you don't know who you are. Only upon awakening do you know your true self. This book is based on the author's real experiences. It was written only to retrace the path they once took. The book focuses on questions of human nature and exposes countless problems in the spirit-medium community. Readers who enjoy making moral judgments should think carefully before reading. The book 2.3kReads9.4Score216Shelves
- 73 Thirty Years of Strange Tales from the Northeast 东北异事三十年 Forty years ago, the old man ventured into Ghost Mountain at night and negotiated with the ghosts, winning Dongshan Village forty years of peace. Forty years later, a lone grave has thrown the whole village into chaos. A tragedy from forty years ago has claimed nearly a hundred innocent lives! What started it all? Why has a corpse's white hair turned black, and what is the red-clad female ghost trying to point to when she appears at midnight? 178Reads7.3Score—Shelves
- 74 Fallen Phoenix 落凤 [Pure feel-good fun! The heroine is a total psycho who'll fight anyone! She never takes a loss!] My sworn sister sent me a message: "We'll never be separated." Then she disappeared. My big brother and I packed our suitcases and went to her hometown, Ancient Phoenix City, to look for her. But I kept feeling as if a pair of eyes were watching me from somewhere unseen. Those eyes, however, didn't belong to the "Golden Dragon" I'd known since childhood... 561Reads8.8Score105Shelves
- 75 The Qilin Boy Sets Out as a Spirit Medium 麒麟童子出马仙 Looking for book reviews! [First-person + mystery and the supernatural + cultivation + comedy] My new work is here. Everyone is welcome to read it, and I hope you'll enjoy it. The main story: The protagonist, Yang Chongwen, is the reincarnation of a fragment of a Qilin's soul. His unusual constitution combines yin and yang, making him the prize everyone fights over among the wandering cultivators of the Northeast. Later, he sets up a spirit altar and deals with all kinds of supernatural incident 718Reads8.4Score—Shelves
- 76 Supernatural Tales: Twenty Years as a Spirit Medium 灵异怪谈：出马二十年 The Great Immortal takes his place, and sinister forces lurk in haunted lands! When I was 19, my parents laid out a banquet for ghosts, inviting a living corpse and the Eight Great Immortal Clans. For the next twenty years, I relied on my craft of raising ghosts and posing as a Great Immortal to make my way in the spirit-medium trade. I kept company with ghosts and monsters, consorted with wild immortals, and crossed blades with strange and dangerous people, always with my life on the line. 83Reads9.1Score—Shelves
- 77 I Was Scammed Into Buying a Haunted House from the Start, So I Invited a Fox Immortal to Subdue All Evil 开局被骗买凶宅，我请狐仙镇百邪 From the Start, I Was Tricked into Buying a Haunted House, So I Summoned a Fox Immortal to Suppress Every Evil Spirit 2Reads—Score—Shelves
- 78 The Confessions of a Spirit Medium, Part Two 一个出马仙自述经历第二部 This book is the official sequel to "The True Story of a Spirit Medium's Experiences". The entire work is fictional, so please don't take it as a reason to believe in superstition! As a sequel, this book recounts several strange experiences from a spirit medium's cultivation. The tale of my soul entering the body of the spirit tablet king at my own altar is just one of its central plotlines. I was a spirit medium in the human world, setting up altars, investigating cases, and helping clients. I 32Reads—Score—Shelves
- 79 The Shaman's Records 萨满出马录 A true-to-life chronicle of spirit-medium practices in Northeast China. It's incredibly authentic, and everything in the book is the truth! Reader review: “Essential reading for anyone in the field!” Every pit the Longfeng Hall has stumbled into and every tear we've shed along the way: each experience can teach you how to read people, avoid traps, and steer clear of needless detours! All the scams and tricks people in the field use are laid bare and explained in full. We tell you everything o 6.6kReads8.9Score510Shelves
- 80 Northeastern Spirit Medium: This Apprentice Is Such a Spendthrift 东北出马仙：这个弟马太败家 [Comedy] [Supernatural mystery] [Witty] [No womanizing] [No saintly protagonist] Li Pingfan, a graduate of a top-tier 985 university, just wants to be an ordinary corporate drone. But her grandmother forces her to take over a spirit-medium altar, along with a bunch of eccentric immortal spirits: Huang Dudu, a chatterbox with nine hundred years of cultivation who can’t go a day without running his mouth; Uncle Song, a stingy wandering spirit who fled famine and won’t accept even one coin less in 21.1kReads8.3Score2.9kShelves
- 81 Morgue Mysteries: Lord Huang Santai’s Manhunt Order 太平间异闻：黄三太爷的追凶令 No one believes that an immortal fox lives in the hospital morgue, much less that this immortal is the meddlesome “Third Master Huang.” But ever since I took over the bizarre case of a “corpse moving by itself,” I keep seeing a flash of yellow beside the autopsy table. I even caught the reflection of a weasel in the dead person's pupils. As a disciple who can communicate with the immortals, I know this case is part of Third Master Huang's scheme, and a hunt for the culprit that crosses the bound 1Reads—Score—Shelves
- 82 Corpse Town 千尸镇 Today, we're not talking about anything else. We're just telling a story. They say that somewhere in Hebei, there's a very strange paper effigy shop called the Yin-Yang Shop... 524Reads7.3Score113Shelves
- 83 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... 731Reads8.7Score100Shelves
- 84 The Spirit Medium's Road: My Adventures with the Old Immortal 出马仙，我跟老仙的江湖路 A disciple of the spirit mediums of Ghost Street, in his tenth year practicing the art. His greatest wish at first was to become the biggest local thug. He never expected to become a spirit medium, and only after taking it up did he discover that people in this line of work are worse than gangsters. What kind of person you are determines what kind of spirit you get, and the spirits follow their hosts. Zhao Zhengyang’s spirit companions are all like slick socialites in leather shoes. Then he runs 3.4kReads8.2Score392Shelves
- 85 The Spirit Medium of the Three Realms 三界通灵人 From spirit medium to spiritual cultivator to primordial spirit, I slowly unveil the mystery. Born with an extraordinary destiny, I endured trial after trial. A strip of red cloth, three chi and three cun long; the elders of the clan and the old spirits of the mountain. My grandmother was a famous village shaman, and the Fox, Yellow Weasel, Porcupine, and Python spirits accompanied me, making me a medium between yin and yang. I roam the Three Realms, helping people avert disaster and driving out 292Reads—Score—Shelves
- 86 Love's Tribulations Between Immortals and Mortals: A Matchmaker Disciple's Firsthand Tales of Karma and Romance 仙凡情劫：出马弟子亲历的因果姻缘 Love and Tribulation Between Immortals and Mortals: The Karma and Romance Personally Witnessed by a Spirit Medium’s Disciple 10Reads—Score—Shelves
- 87 The Spirit Medium 出马仙 Have you heard of a weasel possessing someone? Have you heard of a gui taking over someone’s bed? Have you heard of returning infant spirits? How much do you know about the Five Great Clans of Northeast China? Open this book, and I’ll tell you all about the little-known stories of Northeast China’s spirit mediums. 499Reads8.4Score—Shelves
- 88 The Yin-Yang Geomancer’s Legacy 阴阳地师传 At ten years old, I slew a white serpent and subdued a hundred ghosts. The generals of the underworld called me “little brother.” Using feng shui, the art of Qimen, and Taoist magic, I solved one strange murder case after another! It all began with the corpse of a man in a cornfield! 6Reads—Score—Shelves
- 89 Folktales of the Northeast: The Household Guardian Immortal 民间故事之东北保家仙 In folk tradition in Northeast China, people believe in household guardian spirits. Those who worship them receive blessings, and my job is to help people invite these spirits into their homes… 339Reads8.2Score100Shelves
- 90 This Spirit Medium Is No Ordinary One 这个出马仙不一般 [Paranormal tales from Northeast China, adapted from true stories] A three-foot strip of red cloth bears the names of a hundred or so immortals. Incense smoke curls before it, and the disciple is known as a spirit medium. My name is Jin Laimi. A weasel calling itself the Yellow Immortal once possessed me, and from then on, I became a spirit medium. I opened an agency specializing in feng shui and all kinds of “paranormal” cases. A father who guards his daughter with his spirit even after death; 382Reads8.9Score—Shelves
- 91 The White Dragon Horse Medium 白龙出马仙 Break through seven trials, meet with sudden disaster, make a blood sacrifice of an infant, refine corpse oil. One by one, long-lost secret arts resurface, and strange, mysterious events begin unfolding throughout my journey... That lantern made of human skin holds captive the youth I can never return to. 1.1kReads9.1Score100Shelves
- 92 Forbidden Ground for the Living 活人禁地 Seek out the world's rare treasures, and plunder its hidden relics. The living should stay away from these places... 1.5kReads7.2Score131Shelves
- 93 The Heaven-Chosen Horse-Riding Immortal 天命出马仙 The day I was born, a blood moon appeared in the sky. Roosters crowed and dogs barked, foxes bowed to the moon, and all nine stars in the heavens fell. As soon as I came into the world, I caused my mother’s death, then scared my father out of his mind. Everyone said I was a bringer of calamity reborn, but only my grandfather said I was chosen by heaven and destined for great things. When I grew up, I took over a shaman’s altar to investigate the mystery of my birth, only to be dragged into an ev 2.2kReads9.1Score174Shelves
- 94 Strange Tales of the Horse-Riding Immortals 出马仙异闻录 The story of a spirit medium’s growth. The first sixty-plus chapters are just a prelude, written to honor the old incense roots of my ancestors. There’s no outline. Whenever I remember something that happened to me, I just write it down. Although most of the stories are based on things that really happened, the details have certainly been fictionalized and exaggerated. Novels about spirit mediums have a drawback: the true stories aren’t entertaining, and the entertaining ones aren’t true. If a s 20Reads—Score—Shelves
- 95 Chasing the Wind by Moonlight 乘月追风 [Mystery and horror + supernatural + ghost stories + not a power fantasy + no heroine] Intern doctor Lu Zhuifeng's family is framed by villains, and from then on, all kinds of spirits and ghosts frequently possess him, forcing him to get involved in supernatural incidents. He has only one unreliable, half-trained young fortune-teller by his side. How will they overcome the crises they face? As they get drawn deeper into the fray, a filthy conspiracy begins to emerge... 77Reads—Score—Shelves
- 96 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 1.6kReads8.7Score128Shelves
- 97 The Sinister Way of the Chuma Immortals 诡道出马仙 Twenty-year-old Lu Yuan couldn't find a job after graduating from college, so he returned to his hometown in Northeast China. There, he joined his great-grandfather and grandfather as a spirit medium. As he practiced, he grew both physically and emotionally, gradually learning the many rules of the spirit-medium trade and encountering all kinds of ghosts and bizarre, uncanny events. 198Reads—Score—Shelves
- 98 The Spirit Medium: My Days with the Immortals 出马仙：与仙家那些日子 (Slow-paced + light humor) A disciple of the Ma Xian tradition takes you into the mysterious world of Northeast China’s spirit mediums. Just an ordinary person, yet bound by an unbreakable connection to the spirits. Everyday mishaps that make you laugh and cry, thrilling battles of magic, and tender protection. See how an ordinary person and the spirits weave a legend together. 1.6kReads—Score—Shelves
- 99 Get Up, Nobody Sleep! I'm Holding a Meeting for Ghosts! 起来都别睡，我给鬼开个会！ [Traditional]+ [Supernatural]+ [Comedy]+ [No Female Lead]+ [No CP]+ [No Cultivation] The animated comic Huang Daxian's Odd Jobs: My Host Is All Talk is now online. When Li Zhengyang was little, he went with his father to visit relatives. They were driving home at midnight when their car inexplicably stalled three times as they passed a graveyard. His relatives had plied him with liquor, but Li Zhengyang was fearless as a newborn calf. He got out of the car and yelled curses at the nearby mounds 6.7kReads8.3Score535Shelves
- 100 My Days as a Disciple of the Spirit Mediums 我当出马弟子的时光 A true account of spirit-medium practices, giving you an authentic look at every little detail! Every story and every person in this book is based on real events! 15Reads—Score—Shelves
