Shuchong Kenshu
In web-fiction circles, more than 100,000 subscribers is the hard benchmark proving a work can become a “masterpiece”: it means at least 100,000 people pay real money to subscribe to every chapter. Calling such a book a “money printer” is no exaggeration.
Today let us round up the first 11, from the “ceiling of comedy” that opened the era of 100,000 average subscriptions to the “Cthulhu masterpiece” that approached 300,000. Each one kept readers “following updates” nonstop with its own unique charm—see whether the book you once stayed up all night for is among them!
1. Spare Me, Great Lord! (Author: Huishuohua de Zhouzi); 2017, 2.8 Million Characters, the Pioneer of 100,000 Average Subscriptions
Spare Me, Great Lord! (Dawang Raoming) was the first novel in web-fiction history to average 100,000 subscriptions. Amid the wave of hot-blooded stories in the spirit of “never look down on a poor youth,” it forced its way through on “comedy and memes.” The protagonist Lü Shu is a high school student who grew up in an orphanage and supports his younger sister by selling boiled eggs. After a car accident he awakens a system that “levels up by absorbing negative emotions”: when others snap at him, he earns emotion points; when others get angry, he secretly grows stronger. His famous comeback line, “How happy are you?”, flooded readers' feeds back then. What moves people most is not the gratification but the bond between Lü Shu and Lü Xiaoyu, “not related by blood yet closer than family”—Lü Shu would rather go hungry himself than fail to save up for his sister's school fees. This everyday warmth gives the comic novel a heart.
2. Lord of the Mysteries (Author: Aiqianshui de Wuzei); 2018, 4.46 Million Characters, the Ceiling of Subscriptions
Its average subscriptions are rumored to have approached 300,000, and it is the only masterpiece that has made readers of both male- and female-oriented fiction chant “Praise the Fool” together. In an age of steam and machinery, the protagonist Zhou Mingrui transmigrates and becomes “the Fool.” The eerie Cthulhu mist, the mysterious tarot-card settings, and the rigorous system of 22 Beyonder pathways have made “the great smog of Backlund” and “Klein's many identities” part of web fiction's collective memory. It did not just make its own plot famous; it launched “Cthulhu web fiction” as a trend, and the market for its e-subscriptions, print editions, and merchandise has exceeded 100 million yuan. To this day it remains a “fixture” on Qidian's masterpiece charts.
3. The First Order (Author: Huishuohua de Zhouzi); 2019, 2.89 Million Characters, the Benchmark of Hot-Blooded Wasteland Fiction
Zhouzi's second book with 100,000 average subscriptions; its anime adaptation broke into the mainstream on Bilibili. In a wasteland world after the Winter, the protagonist Ren Xiaosu starts out as an orphaned refugee struggling to survive with his younger brother Yan Liuyuan, and the cry he raises after awakening superpowers—“Make the Northwest rise!”—became a password among readers. Unlike the pure comedy of Spare Me, Great Lord!, it has the weight of “the survival of civilization”: humanity hides behind fortress walls fighting mutated plants and animals, and Ren Xiaosu goes from “staying alive” to “saving the world,” finally defeating the ultimate AI “Zero” in a plot that is both rousing and tear-jerking.
4. My Senior Brother Is Too Steady (Author: Yangui Zhengzhuan); 2019, 3.64 Million Characters, the Pioneer of Prehistoric “Lying Low” Fiction
Who says the prehistoric-myth genre has nothing left but Buddha Was Originally the Tao? This book renewed the genre with its style of “lying low to the extreme is winning.” The protagonist Li Changshou transmigrates to the primordial age, joins the Chan Sect, and carves “steadiness” into his DNA: he does not grab at lucky chances, makes no mortal enemies, and plans ahead, even dodging most of the danger of the great Investiture of the Gods calamity by “lying low,” yet quietly becomes an auspicious sign of the Taoist gate and a pillar of the celestial court. The comic moments are just right: to hide his strength, for instance, he pretends to be weak to dodge missions, only to be valued more the more he dodges. This “reverse gratification” keeps readers laughing nonstop.
5. Tribulation of Myriad Races (Wanzu zhi Jie; Author: Laoying Chi Xiaoji); 2020, 8.33 Million Characters, the Hot-Blooded Peak of a Prolific “Tentacle Monster”
Laoying is a famous “update machine” in web fiction, having written nearly 30 million characters in six years, and this is his only book to average 100,000 subscriptions. The myriad races of the universe hunt humanity, and the protagonist Su Yu rises from the city, turning the tables through “frantic cultivation plus switching maps,” from infighting within the human race to a final battle of the myriad worlds. The plot is so tight that “you dare not skip a single chapter.” Best of all, it is “hot-blooded with no dull moments”: reading the latest update after work and watching Su Yu thrash alien races, you feel your pent-up frustration vanish at once. No wonder some say, “Read a chapter of this before bed and you'll sleep especially well.”
6. Guardians of the Dafeng (Dafeng Dageng Ren; Author: Maibao Xiaolangjun); 2020, 3.8 Million Characters, a Breakout Masterpiece of History Plus Cultivation
“Nothing to do today—off to the pleasure quarters to hear some songs”: this famous meme from the book still circulates among readers. It combines Ming-dynasty history with cultivating immortality. The protagonist Xu Qi'an (Xu Xinnian) starts out as a night watchman, cracks the tax-silver case, and fights monsters; the clash between modern thinking and the ideas of the ancients—using “chemistry,” for instance, to solve cases—is both funny and fresh. Though controversial, famous scenes such as “arranging flowers and toying with jade” and “in broad daylight” left too deep an impression; the film and TV rights were snapped up long ago, and it was this book that secured Maibao's standing as a platinum-level author.
7. The Naming Art of Night (Ye de Mingming Shu; Author: Huishuohua de Zhouzi); 2021, 3.96 Million Characters, Cyberpunk Plus Identity Reversal
With this book Zhouzi became the only author in web fiction with “three books averaging 100,000 subscriptions,” and it wins on the strength of its “powerful setting.” The surface world is a high-tech city, while the inner world hides the Wall of Time. The protagonist Qing Chen goes from an ordinary person to a disciple of the demigod Li Shutong, solving chess endgames and traversing zones of shattered space; every change of identity brings plot tension. For example, going from a student to a “marvel of the inner world,” his mindset does not change but his situation is worlds apart—this sense of contradiction is especially gripping.
8. Across the Deep Space (Shenkong Bi'an; Author: Chen Dong); 2021, 5.34 Million Characters, a Veteran Platinum Author's New Experiment in Tech-Cultivation
After finishing the Shrouding the Heavens trilogy, Chen Dong used this book to prove that “his imagination has not run dry.” In a future world, humanity has mastered interstellar travel but has also discovered ruins of immortal cultivation. The protagonist Wang Xuan sets out from the Old Earth to explore the secrets of “transcendent power.” The book also hides Easter eggs from Shrouding the Heavens, such as references to the origin of “nine dragons pulling a coffin,” which made longtime readers cry “My youth is back!” Although some say it reads like a “prequel to Shrouding the Heavens,” its premise of “technology colliding with immortal cultivation” is fresh enough, and Chen Dong's trademark “grand worldview” did not disappoint.
9. Unscientific Beast Taming (Bu Kexue Yushou; Author: Qingquan Liuxiang); 2021, 4.03 Million Characters, the Underdog Comeback That Made Beast-Taming Fiction Popular
Before it, beast-taming fiction was an obscure category of web fiction; this book pushed it straight into the public eye. The protagonist raises his pets in “unscientific” ways—feeding his spirit creatures special foods and training them in bizarre skills. Although its prose is controversial, nothing can beat its “Pokémon-style” fun: the surprise when a spirit creature evolves, the strategy in battles—readers who love “pet-raising fiction” paid up in droves. Its significance lies in “breaking out”: afterward more and more beast-taming authors appeared, and Qingquan Liuxiang can be counted as “the trailblazer of beast-taming fiction.”
10. This Game Is Too Realistic (Zhe Youxi Ye Tai Zhenshi Le; Author: Chenxi L); 2021, 6.92 Million Characters, the Most Miserable Protagonist's Wasteland Start-Up
The protagonist Chu Guang is that rarity in web fiction, an “all-round wage worker”: transmigrated into the administrator of a wasteland shelter, he must act as game designer creating quests and as customer service solving players' problems, and he even has to build the currency system by hand; on top of that, the players and the natives do not speak the same language. It is a pure “start from nothing.” But the core of this book is “hope”: the wasteland has its darkness, such as fights over resources and twisted human nature, yet Chu Guang leads the players in building shelters, starting production, and finally rebuilding civilization, showing that “humanity can always find light even in desperate straits.”
11. The Bizarre Immortal of the Tao (Dao Gui Yi Xian; Author: Huwei de Bi); 2021, 2.2 Million Characters, the “God of Madness” of Deranged Cthulhu Fiction
After it was completed, its average subscriptions rose from 100,000 to 200,000; it is the only novel to achieve legendary status through “madness.” The protagonist Li Huowang lives in two worlds, “reality” and “the uncanny,” unable to tell whether he is mentally ill or can really see ghosts. It is packed with Chinese horror and Cthulhu elements—“kowtowing to an idol grants you power,” “going mad after being haunted by a ghost”—and the plot is so oppressive that “you need three days to recover after reading it.” But its power lies in its “sense of reality”: Li Huowang struggles in despair and does not give up even when he has gone mad himself. This drive of “living toward death” leaves readers both frightened and unable to stop reading.