Andy4477
Ethan Zhang spent eight years locked inside the Seventh Institute, a psychiatric hospital full of failed prophets, delusional actors, broken geniuses, and people far more dangerous than they seem. Officially, he is just another unstable patient. Unofficially, he is a self-proclaimed reincarnated Daoist master, a gifted con artist, and the sharpest mind in the building.
When death and chaos begin spreading through Ward 3 exactly as Ethan predicts, he does the only sensible thing-he escapes.
But breaking out of a madhouse is only the beginning.
Armed with nothing but a stolen Daoist robe, a talent for reading people, and survival instincts sharpened among lunatics, Ethan plunges into the real world-where comic conventions, ghost markets, antique scams, tomb raiders, shady businessmen, and hidden opportunities are waiting for him.
While everyone else sees a madman on the run, Ethan sees something else: a ladder.
Deal by deal, scam by scam, he begins carving out a place for himself in normal society-until it becomes increasingly unclear who truly belongs in an institution, and who was born to rule the chaos outside it.
Darkly funny, eerie, and wildly unpredictable, The Mad Daoist of the Seventh Institute is a supernatural antihero story about madness, deception, and the art of thriving where no one expected you to survive.