Eastern Sequence: Starting as a New Year’s Eve Keeper

[Folk Traditions] [Complete Advancement Sequence] [Eastern Cosmic Horror]

In the early years of the Republic of China, the realm was in turmoil. An unknown evil force known as the Yin Ruins emerged, bringing ancient practitioners out into the open.

The lonely Yearwatcher carried a bronze clepsydra, faithfully upholding the centuries-old duty of hunting down the Nian Beast.

“Yearwatchers never cross into a new year. We are the boundary of the year itself.”

The mysterious Nuo Mask Dancer wore a Nuo mask and performed dances passed down from antiquity.

“Putting on the mask is an invitation to the gods. Taking it off is when you become a demon.”

The Stove Lord cooked delicacies with hellfire, like an emissary of the flames.

“When the last kitchen fire goes out, so will my life.”

…

Chu Jingzhe, a Yearwatcher awakened to the “Wheel of Time,” set out in search of his lost memories, only to become embroiled in one bizarre, mysterious incident after another.

The puppet-maze of a Hunan village, the ancient road of ghost soldiers in a mass grave in Shaanxi, the stirring of a Nian-devouring fetus in Shanghai, the Tai Sui fungal carpet atop Jade Emperor Peak on Mount Tai, the remains of the first Yearwatcher in the tomb of the Year God…