Underworld Beauty

No rating yet

Word count: 1.7M words

Summary

At twenty, Ding Fan had spent his life following his master, who ran a candle-and-shrouds shop in town while also practicing feng shui, performing rites, and guiding souls to the afterlife. Ding Fan secretly joined Li Laosan, the mortuary's corpse collector, to retrieve the bodies of a fisherman couple from the reservoir. When he touched the corpses, their eyes opened. He barely subdued them with a bagua mirror and soul-guiding incantations. It turned out the couple had eaten earthworms while alive, and after their violent deaths they latched onto the two men. Li Laosan was possessed at the mortuary, drinking water uncontrollably, while corpse-blue patches spread across Ding Fan's body. When his master returned, he used salt and yellow wine to drive out the evil and had Ding Fan sleep in a coffin in the backyard to evade a death substitute. From then on, Ding Fan entered the trade of the yin and yang, forming a bond with the corpse girl Murong Yan in the coffin. Fighting vengeful ghosts, braving the Shangcang Temple, and contending for the Soul-Locking Pearl, he grows steadily amid the entanglements between the living and the dead.

Editor's review

A standard male-oriented folk-horror power fantasy. It opens with corpse collection and an evil encounter, with the master stepping in to save the day at a tight pace; tropes such as water corpses, substitute death, and ghost marriages feel grounded and suit readers who like folk tales and ghost-hunting plots. The appeal lies in episodic eerie incidents and the underdog's rise; the protagonist has a lineage and a backer, balancing danger and satisfaction. Weaknesses: the later leveling-and-monster-fighting sections grow long and repetitive, the romance line and prose are fairly plain, and readers seeking depth may find it thin.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers who enjoy folk horror and ghost-hunting exorcism themes
Male-oriented readers who prefer a male protagonist and a master-lineage growth path
Readers who like Chinese-style eerie elements such as ghost marriages and zombies

Not a good fit for

Readers averse to gory corpse descriptions and horror atmosphere
Readers seeking serious literature or refined prose

Reading tips

Read the first twenty chapters in order; the foundational setup such as corpse collection and substitute death is all there
Those afraid of horror descriptions can skip heavy passages such as the cremation room and the night in the coffin
Later battle chapters can be skimmed; focus on the puzzle-solving in each episodic ghost case

About the publisher

Qidian

Qidian is a platform whose catalogue brings together online literature, with about 45,000 titles in the library spanning categories such as male-oriented fiction, Eastern fantasy, xianxia and wuxia, science fiction, selected fiction and quality web novels. Representative titles include Reincarnation Paradise, War Soldier Leon, The Fairy Is Fierce (also known as Tai Mang), The Expert Is Right Beside Me, Dragon Herder, You Should Cross the Mountains Like a Hero, The Adventures of a Clever Girl and Summoning Heroes of All Ages in Another World, with themes extending from fantasy and xianxia to science fiction and adventure. Representative authors available in the library include Na Yi Zhi Wen Zi, Chi Gua Zi Qun Zhong, Guan Guan Gong Zi, Chenxing LL, Luan, Chen Mo De Ai, Piao Yi Dao Zhang and Dong Tian Bu Leng. Their works mostly appear as serialized web fiction aimed at readers who prefer long genre fiction. Public information on its founding background and scale is limited, so no inferences are made here; the description is based solely on the library's titles and categories.

FAQ

What is the relationship between this book and Corpse Girl?

Underworld Beauty is also known as Corpse Girl; they are different titles for the same work.

Does the protagonist Ding Fan share the author's name?

Yes, the protagonist and the author share the same name, both Ding Fan.

Is this book completed?

Platforms show it updated to over a thousand chapters, with the final chapter titled "A New Beginning."

Comments

Find this book

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

丁凡 Author

Ding Fan, about whom little public information is available, writes mainly on attention deficit and distraction as well as on philosophical subjects. In applied psychology, Ding Fan addresses the everyday situation and developmental needs of people who are easily distracted, and is the author of works including It's Not My Fault That I'm Distracted, A Life Guide for the Distracted, and A Good Life with Distraction. Written for general readers in plain language, these books offer practical perspectives on understanding and coping with distraction. In philosophy, Ding Fan has also engaged with Hegel's thought, producing an interpretation of The Phenomenology of Spirit and The Philosophy of Right. Ding Fan's works span categories such as applied psychology and Marxist philosophy, and are intended both for distracted readers and their families and friends seeking self-help and for readers interested in philosophical texts. Overall, Ding Fan's writing is problem-centered, combining accessibility with close textual interpretation.