I have a question about Guardian by Priest

So I wanted to read Guardian for a while now because I heard that it was similar to Mo Du/Silent Reading, but a lot of negative NU reviews have put me off—something about the plot being confusing and “esoteric”.

My question is for the people who read the Seven Seas translation: do I need to be familiar with Chinese mythology to follow the plot?

P. S. how similar is it really to Mo Du (crime, investigation, mystery)?