Neon Incense: A Taiwanese Cyberpunk Fantasy: Cyber Temple Taiwan, #1

Kaohsiung has outsourced faith. Wanying, the world's largest prayer platform, promises instant fortunes, digital offerings, and an answer to every plea. The temples still stand. Their incense burners are cold.

Eighteen-year-old Lin Zi-an performs as one of Taiwan's Ba Jia Jiang, ritual generals meant to frighten away spirits. The problem: An-zai sees the dead, and he is terrified of them.

When a police officer dies protecting him and presses a blood-wet badge into his hand, An-zai becomes the only vessel available to Xing Wang, an old judgment god who was meant for a better man. Their Divine Descent forms wrong: half armor, half frightened teenager, two minds fighting over every step.

As forgotten grief mutates into digital wraiths, An-zai, a grieving ritual master, and an army of named dead must cross neon Kaohsiung to stop Wanying from giving the city's pain a body. To win, the boy must teach a god that justice is more than cutting evil down—and learn that courage does not mean the fear goes away.

NEON INCENSE is a fast, grief-charged Taiwanese cyberpunk fantasy about gods in the network, martial arts written into character, and the difference between preserving a person and remembering them.