Tales of the Strange: Cultivating Immortality by Devouring Emotions

This is an age when towering structures collapse and monsters run rampant.

Buddhas have their heads cut off by strange demons, then use their golden bodies to gather followers as they walk the mortal world. The imperial court grants titles to great demons and a thousand evil spirits, which feast on the offerings of the living. City gods and local deities spread their protection across prefectures and counties, while fox spirits and ghosts occupy the lands beyond imperial rule.

Those who raise evil spirits feed demons with their own bodies. Feng shui masters kill with baleful energy. Embroiderers pierce needles to draw tears and blood from ordinary people. Great clans use funerary artifacts to refine blood demons and fight over dragon energy.

The living, driven to desperation, become yin beings and demon-people, resisting the great laws of Heaven and Earth.

The netherworld and the human realm intertwine; evil spirits, gods, demons, commoners, and the imperial clan all coexist.

The golden radiance of Buddhism, the scholarly energy of Confucianism, the Daoist arts of the Mystics, and the sword energy of the Military School take turns appearing, stirring the destiny of the Nine Provinces.

The human realm has become a living hell.

Liang Xun, a young man who had chosen to lie flat, sets out on the path of literature. The strange-tales book in his mind delights in feeding on the emotions of humankind. He awakens the Immortal Art of Reading Qi, wielding a book and a sword: he smashes shadow demons and evil spirits with his book, and cuts down the descendants of emperors with his sword.