Tales of the Supernatural

Tales of the Supernatural is a long-form supernatural mystery novel by the web author Wu Jiu, roughly 1.97 million Chinese characters long. It was serialized on platforms such as Yuelu Novels and 17K Novels and is now complete. The protagonist shares the author's name: Wu Jiu, a young man from Chongqing raised from childhood by his master Liu Boqing, and fated to bear the 'solitary destiny' among the 'five afflictions and three lacks.' After graduating from university, he meets Fang Yaozu, deputy chief of the Chengdu police bureau, and joins the Chengdu Paranormal Investigation Unit; later he resigns to run his own supernatural agency. The book unfolds along two main threads: the search for the legendary book The Yin-Yang Record (also called The Yin-Yang Ledger, said to have originally been the Hetu Luoshu), which is believed able to break the curse of the five afflictions and three lacks; and the maneuvering and conflict with factions including blood-drinking zombies, the Miao Witch Cult, Maoshan, and Dragon-Tiger Mountain. The story ranges across university campuses, ghost markets, the Qin Emperor's mausoleum, an inn in the underworld, and Warring States tombs, linking key artifacts such as the Drought Demon Bone, the General's Sword, the Houqing Tear, and the Yinggou Lock, and gradually drawing out a conspiracy far larger than the search for a book. Told in first person, the work is packed with streetwise banter and humor, blending folk Daoist arts, talismans, spirit summoning, and ghost raising with urban life. Its pace is brisk, and it is one of the more widely circulated representative works of Chinese web fiction's supernatural genre. Note that the book has not been published in print and is distributed mainly through online literature platforms.