Evil Cherry

Evil Cherry is a long novel of immortals, spirits, and the supernatural by the online writer Ningcuiya (original name Li Kefeng), published in 2005 by Northern Literature and Art Publishing House in the "Revision Library," with the first volume subtitled "Hua Tuo Sect." The story begins with a hypothesis hidden by the histories: the divine physician Hua Tuo did not die at Cao Cao's hands but escaped by luck and founded the Hua Tuo Sect, whose creed is "defy Heaven and follow your heart," long interacting with gods of the celestial court and the mortal world. Two thousand years later, Li Yafeng, an ordinary student at Leizhou Foreign Language School, becomes the ninth-generation heir of the Hua Tuo Sect at the arrangement of his master Hua Ba, learning medicine, wondrous drugs, and an internal-energy method that can reverse time, while being drawn into a vortex of monsters, immortals, and sect grudges. He does not want to be anybody; he just wants to be an ordinary person, yet trouble keeps finding him, and he faces crisis after crisis alongside companions Cao Mu, Wang Xin, and senior schoolmate Jiang Ran. The book blends mythological material in the manner of Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio and the Classic of Mountains and Seas, esoteric medicine, and campus daily life; the style is light and humorous, with a touch of mockery of tradition and modernity. Note that the complete online version and the print volumes differ somewhat in chapter division and word count; only two print volumes were published, so the story is incomplete in print.