Inkborn

Inkborn is a suspense-adventure novel by the web novelist Lafeng de Shu. It was first serialized exclusively on 17K.com, runs to roughly one million Chinese characters, and was completed in November 2020. The story centers on a jade slip passed down for a thousand years: guarded by generations of Mohist descendants, its hidden secrets draw multiple factions into a struggle for possession. The novel transforms the Mohist creed of "universal love and non-aggression, upholding righteousness and punishing evil, never retreating even unto death, passing the torch from generation to generation" into a modern urban mission—the Inkborn are night watchers who walk in darkness, battling zombies, werewolves, dark wizards, vampires, and other supernatural beings in the small hours unknown to the world, and confronting organizations such as the Dark Council. The story's map extends beyond China: from ancient Babylon, Egypt, Greece, and India to ancient China, the novel uses a hidden thread of inheritance to link the myths and ruins of different civilizations, explaining that unfulfilled religious prophecies and prophetic warnings had another cause. The narrative moves between tomb raiding, legends of the demonic codex, expeditions into forbidden lands, and clashes of gods and demons, following the growth and guardianship of the protagonist Gu Zheng and his companions, offering both an eerie atmosphere and the pleasure of suspenseful puzzle-solving. This entry describes the serialized online version, specifically the carefully proofread e-text circulated on platforms such as Zhixuan Cangshu.