The Ragtag Savior

Miscellaneous Savior is an urban supernatural fiction novel written by Qidian author Du Xiaomutong and serialized in 2010. The book runs approximately 1.03 million Chinese characters across 288 chapters and concluded its serialization in November 2010. Set in a modern metropolis, the story follows Yang Yun, the lobby manager and waiter at Shanhai Bar, a struggling establishment whose seats are often occupied by retired old men playing chess. On the surface, he seems like nothing more than an odd but ordinary young man—one who survives being struck by a massive falling billboard without a scratch and still insists he merely has "a bit of a special ability." It is not until the "colleagues" around him reveal their true natures one after another that he gradually realizes he, Yang Yue, Wang Dehai, Li Jieke, Bi Fang, and the others are all far from ordinary: they are the reincarnations of ancient great demons and mythological figures, drawn into a string of absurd incidents surrounding a "Miscellaneous Savior Plan" devised by Wang Lao'er and spanning three thousand years. Figures such as the nine-tailed fox, the heavenly dog, the one-armed King Zhou, and a time-traveling version of Jiang Ziya are reimagined, shifting back and forth between the petty routines of urban life and the karmic debts of past lives. Told in first person, the novel uses black humor and episodic chapters to portray the survival predicament of pseudo-monsters in modern society, writing of fateful choices and human warmth amid laughter and banter. It is the earliest work in the author's "Savior—Sword Immortal—Administrator" shared universe.