I’m Hunting Ghosts, and You’re Asking What I Do for a Living?

Karmic debts of the Underworld? A bizarre string of deaths tears through the stillness of the night: livestock are drained of blood, villagers die mysteriously, and the dead wear expressions of utter terror. Seven-year-old orphan Chen Ping’an is passing through the area with his master, Ye Xuanzi, when he witnesses the first battle between a living person and a corpse in his life. That night, Ye Xuanzi slays a hairy corpse with one stroke, but also uncovers a secret that should never have been disturbed: someone had refined that corpse. A seal marks its brow, a dragon vein runs along its path, and it is only the beginning. That same night, Chen Ping’an has a dream. He sees the gates of Fengdu City open before him. A figure in white, holding a chain, tells him, “Your allotted years are not yet over. You don’t belong here. But remember this: you owe the Underworld a karmic debt.” From then on, Chen Ping’an sets out on a path from which there is no turning back. His master, Ye Xuanzi, appears to be an ordinary wandering Taoist priest, but hides a past he does not even want to speak of. He teaches Chen Ping’an to draw talismans, form hand seals, and slay demons, but there is one thing he refuses to teach him: what the Soul-Quelling Talisman pasted over Chen Ping’an’s heart is actually suppressing. Years later, Chen Ping’an leaves the mountain to travel. He befriends the wealthy young master Wu Yu, meets Tang Yanran, who is possessed by a vengeful ghost, and is drawn into one conflict after another among humans, ghosts, corpses, demons, and devils. From hairy corpses to flying zombies, from wandering ghosts to ghost kings, from the mortal world to Fengdu, from the banks of the River of Forgetfulness to the Asura battlefield, he moves step by step toward the city gate from his dream. “What you owe the Underworld isn’t your life.” “It’s the truth!”