The Prayer Master

The Prayer Master is an urban supernatural novel by Lang Xiangru. The protagonist was abandoned at the gate of a children's welfare home at the age of two, thin as a bean sprout, wearing a ragged hospital gown printed with a square tree pattern and the characters "GU47." After he learned to speak and walk, he would always huddle up with his knees hugged to his chest, staring wide-eyed at the dark corners of rooms or courtyards, his eyes filled with both surprise and fear. Occasionally he would shrink into the corner of his bed at midnight and scream, pressing a pillow tightly over his face. Brain disease, psychological problems, severe mental trauma—doctors and teachers made various guesses but never found the real cause: he was healthy, and his only difference from others was that he could see the souls of the dead in those shadowy corners. The work claims to be not a supernatural horror novel but a pure urban supernatural genre piece, set in a modern city and advancing layer by layer around the protagonist's special ability to "see the dead." The book has about three hundred chapters, beginning with the protagonist's daily and campus life and gradually drawing out mysteries, conflicts, and larger hostile forces; later chapters involve clues such as Shidanli, the Death Hand system, the Fierce Spirit Unit, and the launch base, concluding with "The Final Battle." The writing leans toward a dark style; the protagonist is calm, decisive, and values logic and efficiency of action, neither deliberately playing the victim nor acting as a saint.