Novels like The Forbidden Gate
Books Chinese readers most often put in the same booklists as The Forbidden Gate, best match first.
- 151 The Last Soul-Quelling Master 最后一个镇魂师 I grew up at my grandfather's house in the countryside. He was the most respected suona player in our village. One day, Li Dashan, a fellow villager, beat his pregnant wife to death and came to ask my grandfather for help. My grandfather tried everything he could, but still couldn't calm the resentment of Li Dashan's wife. In the end, he had no choice but to play a suona dirge to forcibly pacify her soul. On the night of the Lantern Festival, Li Dashan and his family turned into vengeful ghosts 117Reads8.5Score—Shelves
- 152 The Yin-Yang Hot Pot Restaurant 阴阳火锅店 I took over a hot pot restaurant from my second uncle. He told me never to serve customers a yuan yang hot pot after midnight! After I took over the place, everything I believed in began to crumble... One night, I wasn't paying attention and served a couple a yuan yang hot pot. The next day, I saw in the newspaper that the couple had died! They'd jumped to their deaths together! After that, every night at midnight, a strange couple would appear in my restaurant and ask me to make them a yuan yan 676Reads7.7Score—Shelves
- 153 The Eerie Apocalypse: I Play a Fake Human, and I Am Calamity! 诡异末世：扮演伪人，我即灾厄！ [New premise] [New setting] [Infinite Flow] [Not a power fantasy] “Don't trust him! He died three days ago!” “Ye Kai, are you a fake person or not?” Facing his neighbors' terrified questions, Ye Kai calmly shook his head. “I can't prove that I'm not a fake person, but I can tell you this.” “Your memories have been altered. The fake person... is among you.” [Not invincible] [No System] [The protagonist has no cheat abilities] The uncanny descended, shattering the world into countless fragments. H 8.6kReads8.7Score849Shelves
- 154 The Heaven-Ordained Spirit Medium 天命出马仙 When I was five, an old beggar showed up at our door and insisted that one day I would marry a snake as my wife... 11.9kReads8.8Score1.2kShelves
- 155 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 2.7kReads—Score255Shelves
- 156 Dark Face Reading 黑相术 After I lost my sight, a matchmaker set me up on a date, and I met a girl. She wasn’t human… One night, as we slept, I touched her tail. 23.3kReads8.9Score2.8kShelves
- 157 Invitation from Hell 地狱邀请函 [Ghost Escape + Supernatural Horror + Infinite Flow + A Clever Protagonist] An invitation and an abandoned bus drag a group of people into a haunted realm… Lin Mo barely makes it back to the real world alive, only to discover that the horror has just begun. One invitation after another arrives before him, and one eerie world after another comes calling… The Dusk Spirit Hotel, the Dead Return, Vengeful Ghosts Invade: what is the truth behind it all? Who is a friend? And who is an enemy? Shh… Watc 18.2kReads8.6Score1.4kShelves
- 158 Strange Tales from Western Henan 豫西诡事 You may think I’m telling a story, but these are things I’ve experienced firsthand over the past ten-odd years. You don’t have to believe me, but are you sure everyone you’ve met was human? Science can’t explain everything… 28.7kReads8.4Score3.6kShelves
- 159 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. 4.2kReads8.8Score217Shelves
- 160 I Might Have Changed the Wrong Fate 我可能改了个假命 When I was little, my mom asked a Taoist priest to tell my fortune. He said I'd face a calamity at 26, and that he'd come help me get through it the day before my 26th birthday. When the day finally came, the priest really did show up to change my fate. He even gave me a “Fate-Changing Ruler” and told me I had to change the fates of seven people with different destinies to survive the calamity. Otherwise, I'd only have five years left to live. So much for changing my fate for me! Did he only cha 76Reads8.9Score—Shelves
- 161 Zombies Descend Across the World, and You Say the Taoist Class Is Useless? 全球僵尸降临，你说道士序列没用 Purple-hair zombies, white-hair zombies, black-hair zombies, green-hair zombies, fur-covered zombies, flying zombies, wandering zombies, lurking zombies, unrotting-bone zombies, and drought demons… This is a world overrun by zombies across the globe! Xu Yi arrives in this world and awakens the Taoist path. But people accuse him of being inferior to those on the fire-element path. Xu Yi scratches his head and looks at his Dragon-Tiger Evil-Slaying Talismans, Golden Light Incantation, corpse-dr 257.7kReads8.8Score30.4kShelves
- 162 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... 2.7kReads9.0Score152Shelves
- 163 The Last Descendant of Zhong Kui 最后一个钟馗传人 I was cursed by a thousand-year-old fox demon the moment I was born. As a child, I couldn’t see or hear, and everyone said I was born disabled. But when I was five, a master took me in as his disciple. He said I was a reincarnated ghost god, a tempting morsel in the eyes of ghosts and monsters. The fox demon’s revenge, a frozen corpse in a dry well, a water ghost claiming lives, a hundred ghosts roaming by night... Strange events followed one after another. To protect myself, I had no choice but 5.5kReads9.0Score481Shelves
- 164 The Years I Spent as a Funeral Mourner 我当哭丧人的那些年 Some people must be mourned loudly when they are laid to rest. Otherwise, according to old folk customs, it is considered an act of filial impiety. After I was born, everyone in my family except my grandfather died because of me. My grandfather fell gravely ill, and to earn money for his treatment, I had no choice but to join Zhang the Elder, a man from my village, as a professional funeral mourner. From then on, I set out on a path of mourning with no return! 126Reads8.5Score—Shelves
- 165 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 38.7kReads9.4Score3.8kShelves
- 166 Corpse-Walking Notes 2: The Myriad Forms Celestial Palace 《赶尸笔记2》万象天宫 Corpses driven along by corpse herders are known in the martial world as "corpses traveling ten thousand miles." It is said that in the Xiangxi region, some people make a living herding corpses. The Corpse Sect is one such group. Qin Shuang runs a funeral business; Brother Jiu has ties to both the underworld and the police; Haozi has just gotten out of prison; Baldy makes his living robbing and relocating tombs; and mute A-Wu is a skilled fighter shrouded in mystery. What kind of extraordinary s 122Reads8.7Score—Shelves
- 167 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 829Reads8.9Score105Shelves
- 168 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... 22.8kReads8.9Score2.5kShelves
- 169 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... 42.1kReads9.2Score3.4kShelves
- 170 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 6.1kReads8.5Score324Shelves
- 171 Yin-Yang Eye Realtor: Selling Haunted Houses in Chongqing 阴阳眼中介：我在重庆卖凶宅 A novel inspired by local Chongqing legends and historical anecdotes. This story is entirely fictional. As a child, the protagonist gained the ability to see yin and yang from a Qing dynasty skeleton. His family’s ancestral ledger is filled with secrets of old Chongqing. The folklore is meticulously researched, with traceable details ranging from place names and historical anecdotes to traditional remedies and feng shui formations. Each haunted house seems like a self-contained case, but in trut 194Reads8.3Score—Shelves
- 172 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 22.1kReads9.3Score2kShelves
- 173 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 201Reads8.8Score—Shelves
- 174 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. 10.7kReads9.4Score876Shelves
- 175 EN Heavenly Calamity 劫天运 I was schemed against before I was even born. I was born with all five yin traits and naturally attracted vicious ghosts. A knowledgeable fortune-teller said I wouldn’t live past seven, and that after I died, someone would turn me into a blood-clothed child ghost to harm others. To save me, my grandmother arranged for me to marry a child bride, and I was able to live in peace... I’d been scraping by since childhood, and had long since grown used to enduring whatever came my way. But my grandmoth 12.3kReads9.0Score1.3kShelves
- 176 Ashtray 烟灰缸 [Mild horror + affair + twists] A stunning woman from the south, a knock at midnight, a silent delivery guy, someone crouching beneath the bed... Qin Song’s life is plunged into a living hell by an affair. 104.1kReads9.5Score19.1kShelves
- 177 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 912Reads8.8Score108Shelves
- 178 The Miaojiang Gu Chronicles 苗疆蛊事 The calamity of witchcraft and poison is spoken of only by people in the countryside. Many people who are unknowingly caught up in it have no idea it exists. Friends, do you really think there are no extraordinary people in this vast land of China? You do? No! No! No! Do you want me to tell you that I’m a poison-raising practitioner from the Miao borderlands? All right, come on in and let’s dish… 13.9kReads9.3Score2kShelves
- 179 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 4.3kReads8.6Score450Shelves
- 180 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 96.7kReads9.3Score8.8kShelves
- 181 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 420Reads8.7Score—Shelves
- 182 I Have a Hypnosis App for Female Ghosts 我有一个女鬼催眠APP Qin Ming meant to download a hypnosis game app, but ended up with a female ghost hypnosis app instead. As he gazed at the app’s dazzling array of female ghosts he could romance, then watched one actually appear in the real world, he fell silent. If he wanted to stay alive, he had no choice but to romance the female ghosts! Female Ghost Hypnosis App: Activate! 202kReads8.5Score27.1kShelves
- 183 Deadly Haunted Grounds: The Death Countdown Begins! 致命诡地：现在开始死亡倒计时！ [Infinite-flow + horror instances + survival + mild scares + no romance] The curse of the Bronze Ghost Mask descends. Those chosen must embark on one deadly journey after another. Time is running out, and death is drawing near. Who will make it out alive this time? [The B&B Butcher] In a creepy old house, ghostly figures appear whenever night falls. Anyone who enc 28.6kReads8.5Score2.9kShelves
- 184 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... 8kReads9.3Score984Shelves
- 185 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? 10.4kReads8.5Score1.1kShelves
- 186 The Clue System: No Criminal Can Escape 提示线索系统之犯罪分子无处可逃 (Urban crime investigation + System + mystery and deduction + team investigations.) The protagonist, Song Mozhou, unexpectedly awakens a System that provides clues to criminal cases. Follow along as he solves one baffling case after another with the System’s help. This is a pure crime-solving novel, with no romance, featuring a series of standalone cases. All cases and characters in this book are fictional. Any resemblance to real people or events is purely coincidental. Here’s hoping you’ll enj 264Reads—Score—Shelves
- 187 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? 9kReads8.0Score1.2kShelves
- 188 Eerie Tattoos 诡纹 My grandfather was a tattoo artist, but the things he tattooed were seriously sinister… 7.5kReads9.1Score783Shelves
- 189 Urban Demon Martial Arts: Where Martial Arts and Monsters Coexist 都市妖武：武道和妖怪共存 Urban Demons and Martial Arts: Martial Arts and Monsters Coexist 5Reads—Score—Shelves
- 190 The Records of Qingxu’s Exorcisms 清虚伏魔录 A traditional Taoist novel based on real events. This is not a power fantasy. The first forty-seven chapters lay the groundwork for the grand story to come, so please read them patiently. Nine to five, I’m an office worker tapping away at a keyboard in a high-end office tower, walking through the city’s central business district in a shirt and leather shoes, using office software to bustle between reports and proposals. At dusk, I’m a Qingwei Taoist of the San Tian Gate, carrying ritual implem 7kReads9.5Score1.1kShelves
- 191 Secret Art: I Transmigrate and Fight to Survive in a Bizarre World 秘法穿越:我在诡异世界极限逃生 Secret Art Transmigration: My Extreme Escape in a World of the Uncanny 95Reads—Score—Shelves
- 192 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… 28.1kReads9.0Score3.3kShelves
- 193 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. 3.8kReads9.0Score367Shelves
- 194 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... 243Reads8.7Score—Shelves
- 195 Collecting Corpses, Ghosts, and Immortals 收尸，收诡，收仙人 (Supernatural horror, cultivation, ordinary protagonist, no System, no transmigration) A poor young man from a small town becomes a corpse collector to earn enough to marry. Before long, he stumbles into a strange and magnificent world of immortals and gods... 848Reads—Score103Shelves
- 196 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 416Reads8.7Score—Shelves
- 197 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 2.5kReads8.9Score192Shelves
- 198 Snake Immortal 蛇仙 [The animated series Seven Days of Snake Entanglement is now streaming] My name is An Xin. On the day of the “Azure Dragon Wedding,” my great-grandfather killed a green snake and a white snake. The villagers said they were about to grow horns, transform into flood dragons, ascend, and become snake immortals. The night I was born, my grandfather knelt in the Snake Temple all night before my mother could give birth to me. He died in the temple. Ever since I was little, a snake has appeared in my d 5.1kReads9.3Score1kShelves
- 199 The Last Female Mystic 最后一个女玄术师 When Ye Simei was five, a fortune-teller told her she was born with a bewitching beauty and destined to become a canary in some powerful man's cage. Ye Simei: Have the powerful gotten too cocky, or do you think I, Ye Simei, can't wield a blade anymore? 1.9kReads9.0Score263Shelves
- 200 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—Shelves
