The Arbiter

The Classic of Mountains and Seas is supposedly a book of geography, yet it records countless spirits and strange beasts. Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio is supposedly a collection of supernatural tales, yet it tells love stories that have endured for the ages. That’s just like Mo Xiaochuan: he is supposed to shoulder the heavy responsibility of protecting order in the human world, yet he insists on being an obscure little bar owner. Then one day, a famous actress comes to the Shanhai Bar, and Mo Xiaochuan discovers that she is actually a nine-tailed fox in disguise... From then on, the Shanhai Bar gradually stops serving drinks. It becomes the police squad’s go-to consultancy, a temple worshipped by the rich, a sacred ground adored by the entertainment industry, and a hellish lair feared by every mountain spirit and strange beast in the world. As the saying goes, the Daoists capture demons, the Buddhists subdue devils, and when Shanhai is absent, ghosts and monsters run rampant. And Mo Xiaochuan is the last member of the Shanhai lineage, its Arbiter.