Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation: Mo Dao Zu Shi (Novel) Vol. 1
by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu
Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation (1)
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Wei Wuxian was once one of the most outstanding men of his generation, a talented and clever young cultivator who harnessed martial arts, knowledge, and spirituality into powerful abilities. But when the horrors of war led him to seek a new power through demonic cultivation, the world's respect for his skills turned to fear, and his eventual death was celebrated throughout the land.Years later, he awakens in the body of an aggrieved young man who sacrifices his soul so that Wei Wuxian can show more exact revenge on his behalf. Though granted a second life, Wei Wuxian is not free from his first, nor the mysteries that appear before him now. Yet this time, he'll face it all with the righteous and esteemed Lan Wangji at his side, another powerful cultivator whose unwavering dedication and shared memories of their past will help shine a light on the dark truths that surround them.. show less
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Member Reviews
Listen. I LOVE THIS STORY SO MUCH. I know there are problems with this translation. With translation in general. Within the specific culture of how publishers value translation in this country. I know there are problems with this specific publisher. But, listen. I LOVE THIS STORY SO MUCH.
So much that I read eleventy billion pages of fan translation on the internet. Then started reading the fan fiction. Then created a fandom twitter account. Then started reading meta-thread on this story, the product not the TV show The Untamed, Chinese culture, Chinese language, the various translations, Chinese diaspora, etc, etc, etc. Then I started WRITING fan fiction. And joining Discord communities. And buying merch.
Let's just say -- I am show more invested.
So when I heard someone was publishing this -- that paperbacks would exist as physical objects I could hold and put on my shelves? That there would be a new complete translation that I could read afresh? Like I wasn't going to buy it?
Listen. This book contains multitudes. I cannot to any reasonable extent begin to explain, to corral, to justify the expansiveness of my love for this story. Is it the intergenerational trauma? Yes. Is it the grumpy one secretly loves the sunshiny one? Yes. Is it the floating swords and long hair and pretty pretty boys? Yes. Is it extremely bitter revenge plots that take years and years to enact? Yes. Is it the sprawling stories with so many characters with such conflicting values/desires/motivations -- nearly all of whom are completely sympathetic when the story is considered from their viewpoint? Yes. But it is so many more things.
This volume is just the first of five, but I have spent so much time with this story, these characters, it is impossible for all the feels to not be bursting out of me from the very first page.
I cannot be objective about this story. show less
So much that I read eleventy billion pages of fan translation on the internet. Then started reading the fan fiction. Then created a fandom twitter account. Then started reading meta-thread on this story, the product not the TV show The Untamed, Chinese culture, Chinese language, the various translations, Chinese diaspora, etc, etc, etc. Then I started WRITING fan fiction. And joining Discord communities. And buying merch.
Let's just say -- I am show more invested.
So when I heard someone was publishing this -- that paperbacks would exist as physical objects I could hold and put on my shelves? That there would be a new complete translation that I could read afresh? Like I wasn't going to buy it?
Listen. This book contains multitudes. I cannot to any reasonable extent begin to explain, to corral, to justify the expansiveness of my love for this story. Is it the intergenerational trauma? Yes. Is it the grumpy one secretly loves the sunshiny one? Yes. Is it the floating swords and long hair and pretty pretty boys? Yes. Is it extremely bitter revenge plots that take years and years to enact? Yes. Is it the sprawling stories with so many characters with such conflicting values/desires/motivations -- nearly all of whom are completely sympathetic when the story is considered from their viewpoint? Yes. But it is so many more things.
This volume is just the first of five, but I have spent so much time with this story, these characters, it is impossible for all the feels to not be bursting out of me from the very first page.
I cannot be objective about this story. show less
I ordered this before knowing what it was about. Amazon recommended it (I buy a lot of Yaoi) and I’d never read Danmei before. However, I didn’t read it until after I watched and fell in love with “The Untamed”. I was actually surprised at how faithful the show was, to this volume at least. And knowing the general events didn’t diminish my enjoyment at all. The structure is different, since the book sprinkles flashbacks amidst the main mystery while the show did all the flashing back at once. Both worked well in their respective mediums. While the show has to avoid any obvious romance between the two leads due to China's censors, the book has more latitude and is more satisfying in that way.
Wei Wuxian, the reviled and feared show more Yiling Patriarch, has been resurrected into the body of Mo Xuanyu. Mo has sacrificed his soul and given his body so that Wei can exact revenge on his behalf. As Wei adjusts to his situation, Cultivators from the Lan Clan arrive to deal with Walking Corpses, but a far more vengeful spirit wreaks havoc drawing the attention of Lan Wangji – former friend and comrade of Wei. The spirit is a disembodied left arm, and leads to a mystery of who the arm belongs to and where the rest of the body is. Along the way, Wei encounters former friends and family from before his fall from grace and subsequent death. He tries to hide is identity, but Wangji quickly deduces the secret. He and Wei begin an investigation, but Wangji’s behavior toward Wei is drastically different compared to from before he died.
I loved the book. The romance is only hinted at in the Volume (since Wei is kind of clueless), but the exchanges between the two are an absolute delight. The mystery is strong and there’s plenty of action. There is literally only one negative: there are five expected volumes, 3 still pending release and I hate waiting. show less
Wei Wuxian, the reviled and feared show more Yiling Patriarch, has been resurrected into the body of Mo Xuanyu. Mo has sacrificed his soul and given his body so that Wei can exact revenge on his behalf. As Wei adjusts to his situation, Cultivators from the Lan Clan arrive to deal with Walking Corpses, but a far more vengeful spirit wreaks havoc drawing the attention of Lan Wangji – former friend and comrade of Wei. The spirit is a disembodied left arm, and leads to a mystery of who the arm belongs to and where the rest of the body is. Along the way, Wei encounters former friends and family from before his fall from grace and subsequent death. He tries to hide is identity, but Wangji quickly deduces the secret. He and Wei begin an investigation, but Wangji’s behavior toward Wei is drastically different compared to from before he died.
I loved the book. The romance is only hinted at in the Volume (since Wei is kind of clueless), but the exchanges between the two are an absolute delight. The mystery is strong and there’s plenty of action. There is literally only one negative: there are five expected volumes, 3 still pending release and I hate waiting. show less
At the time of his death Wei Wuxian was widely known as the Yiling Patriarch, the feared and skilled commander of a vast undead army. Thirteen years after his death, Wei Wuxian reawakens in the body of Mo Xuanyu, a young man who was expelled from the Jin cultivation sect for being gay. After a bit of investigation, Wei Wuxian figures out that Mo Xuanyu was abused to such a degree by his family that he turned to demonic cultivation, freely offering his body in exchange for revenge.
This essentially means that Wei Wuxian is being given a second chance at life, but it's not long before he's once again drawn into the orbits of those he knew during his first life. The Yiling Patriarch burned a lot of bridges, and Wei Wuxian figures most of show more these people would want to kill him if they knew who he really was. Unfortunately, for some reason Lan Wangji, a cultivator who was his polar opposite when they were growing up, seems determined not to let him out of his sight.
I've made multiple efforts to get into this story. I watched some of the animated adaptation, got several episodes into the live action adaptation, and tried a fan translation of the original novel. In all cases, I eventually gave up. The live action and animated adaptations both started at the same spot (Wei Wuxian waking up in Mo Xuanyu's body) but then went in their own direction. I lasted longer with the live action version, which took what I assume were originally a series of flashbacks and stitched them together into one giant and seemingly unending flashback. I eventually couldn't stand all the death and tragedy and ended up quitting.
I was a bit nervous about reading this. The fan translation I'd previously tried was rough and difficult to follow. It didn't help that many of the characters were referred to by multiple names - bless Seven Seas for including a detailed name guide and glossary at the end of the book, because it was very helpful. Now that I've read the whole thing, I can say that, so far, this isn't my favorite MXTX story or couple, but I'm definitely itching to read Book 2.
I love the supernatural aspects of this series. Wei Wuxian comes across a rage-filled severed arm that seems determined to get itself a body by force, if necessary. He and Lan Wangji gradually find more body parts, but the mystery of who the body is, why all these body parts are scattered around, and who's involved in it all is still unsolved by the end of this first book. I want to know! Especially if it involves more messed up discoveries like the Nie Sect's doomed existence.
Wei Wuxian is another fun aspect of this series. He's mischievous, a quick thinker, and loves getting a rise out of anyone he views as "too serious" (prime example: Lan Wangji). We don't see much of his evil Yiling Patriarch self in this volume - while it's clear that he did some genuinely horrible things, there are also indications that there's more to the story. Even at 15, Wei Wuxian was the sort of person to constantly think outside the box - because it was fun, because there were easier or more efficient solutions, etc. At least some of his ideas took him down what would be considered blasphemous routes, which I'm sure we'll hear about in more detail later.
As far as the potential romance aspects go, there isn't much yet, just moments here and there that stand out if you've got your m/m romance glasses on. Although Wei Wuxian is completely oblivious, there are indications that Lan Wangji has spent at least the last 13 years nursing some feelings for him. How that happened despite Wei Wuxian's Yiling Patriarch period (during which Wei Wuxian very definitely killed some of Lan Wangji's fellow sect members) should be interesting to find out. The one thing I'm not wild about so far: Lan Wangji appears to have an enormous jealous streak. At one point Wei Wuxian notes that a severed torso has great abs (which is weird in and of itself), and Lan Wangji does his best to take the torso back and wrap it up, presumably to keep Wei Wuxian from admiring the abs.
This first volume only has one extended flashback - about 100 pages long, showing us how Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian met. I'm still nervous that the series will plunge into an enormous tragedy-filled flashback the way the live action series did, but I'm more hopeful that the novels will at least give me a chance to wallow in some more enjoyable story moments first, similar to Heaven Official's Blessing (which also has some long and awful flashbacks that I somehow tolerated better).
And now that I've reviewed Book 1, I can finally start Book 2 without worry that I'll mix up or confuse events even more than I already am. My prior exposure to the live action TV series is almost certainly the reason I cheer every time Wen Ning makes an on-page appearance, because he hasn't had a chance to do much of anything in the books yet.
Extras:
Black and white illustrations throughout, two full-color illustrations (one of them is used for the volume's cover art), occasional footnotes, and a lengthy character & name guide and glossary.
(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.) show less
This essentially means that Wei Wuxian is being given a second chance at life, but it's not long before he's once again drawn into the orbits of those he knew during his first life. The Yiling Patriarch burned a lot of bridges, and Wei Wuxian figures most of show more these people would want to kill him if they knew who he really was. Unfortunately, for some reason Lan Wangji, a cultivator who was his polar opposite when they were growing up, seems determined not to let him out of his sight.
I've made multiple efforts to get into this story. I watched some of the animated adaptation, got several episodes into the live action adaptation, and tried a fan translation of the original novel. In all cases, I eventually gave up. The live action and animated adaptations both started at the same spot (Wei Wuxian waking up in Mo Xuanyu's body) but then went in their own direction. I lasted longer with the live action version, which took what I assume were originally a series of flashbacks and stitched them together into one giant and seemingly unending flashback. I eventually couldn't stand all the death and tragedy and ended up quitting.
I was a bit nervous about reading this. The fan translation I'd previously tried was rough and difficult to follow. It didn't help that many of the characters were referred to by multiple names - bless Seven Seas for including a detailed name guide and glossary at the end of the book, because it was very helpful. Now that I've read the whole thing, I can say that, so far, this isn't my favorite MXTX story or couple, but I'm definitely itching to read Book 2.
I love the supernatural aspects of this series. Wei Wuxian comes across a rage-filled severed arm that seems determined to get itself a body by force, if necessary. He and Lan Wangji gradually find more body parts, but the mystery of who the body is, why all these body parts are scattered around, and who's involved in it all is still unsolved by the end of this first book. I want to know! Especially if it involves more messed up discoveries like the Nie Sect's doomed existence.
Wei Wuxian is another fun aspect of this series. He's mischievous, a quick thinker, and loves getting a rise out of anyone he views as "too serious" (prime example: Lan Wangji). We don't see much of his evil Yiling Patriarch self in this volume - while it's clear that he did some genuinely horrible things, there are also indications that there's more to the story. Even at 15, Wei Wuxian was the sort of person to constantly think outside the box - because it was fun, because there were easier or more efficient solutions, etc. At least some of his ideas took him down what would be considered blasphemous routes, which I'm sure we'll hear about in more detail later.
As far as the potential romance aspects go, there isn't much yet, just moments here and there that stand out if you've got your m/m romance glasses on. Although Wei Wuxian is completely oblivious, there are indications that Lan Wangji has spent at least the last 13 years nursing some feelings for him. How that happened despite Wei Wuxian's Yiling Patriarch period (during which Wei Wuxian very definitely killed some of Lan Wangji's fellow sect members) should be interesting to find out. The one thing I'm not wild about so far: Lan Wangji appears to have an enormous jealous streak. At one point Wei Wuxian notes that a severed torso has great abs (which is weird in and of itself), and Lan Wangji does his best to take the torso back and wrap it up, presumably to keep Wei Wuxian from admiring the abs.
This first volume only has one extended flashback - about 100 pages long, showing us how Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian met. I'm still nervous that the series will plunge into an enormous tragedy-filled flashback the way the live action series did, but I'm more hopeful that the novels will at least give me a chance to wallow in some more enjoyable story moments first, similar to Heaven Official's Blessing (which also has some long and awful flashbacks that I somehow tolerated better).
And now that I've reviewed Book 1, I can finally start Book 2 without worry that I'll mix up or confuse events even more than I already am. My prior exposure to the live action TV series is almost certainly the reason I cheer every time Wen Ning makes an on-page appearance, because he hasn't had a chance to do much of anything in the books yet.
Extras:
Black and white illustrations throughout, two full-color illustrations (one of them is used for the volume's cover art), occasional footnotes, and a lengthy character & name guide and glossary.
(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.) show less
The translation was a little rough in some places. Other than that, my review of this volume is quite similar to my review of TGCF Vol. 1, that is, it sets up the story well, introduces a lot of new concepts and characters, and does a LOT of the building-block leg work for the rest of the series. It does make it a little dry in parts.
More than anything else, I was surprised by how funny the book is. I love how unreliable a narrator Wei Wuxian is. We really can't trust that boy with anything.
More than anything else, I was surprised by how funny the book is. I love how unreliable a narrator Wei Wuxian is. We really can't trust that boy with anything.
[b:Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation: Mo Dao Zu Shi (Novel) Vol. 1|58701673|Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation Mo Dao Zu Shi (Novel) Vol. 1|Mò Xiāng Tóng Xiù|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1633385186l/58701673._SX50_.jpg|92367991] is the MXTX novel I was most excited for, as getting obsessed with The Untamed was probably the best thing that happened to me in 2020 (tied with escaping academia). I'm feeling a strong desire to watch it for a third time, in fact. I already knew that the novel and TV adaptation diverged in various ways, which are of course fun to spot. The novel begins less bafflingly than the show, for one thing. Like the other two MXTX first volumes, the lack of protagonist show more self-awareness is very funny in MDZS. 'Wei Wuxian didn't think he'd shared any sort of deeply consequential friendship with Lan Wanji in his past life', ha! Wei Wuxian's point of view is delightful and the alternation between flashbacks and the present works very well. I know only too well that deeply upsetting events loom ahead, but this initial volume is largely youthful shenanigans at the Cloud Recesses, mystery investigation with Lan Wanji, and back talk from the endearing juniors. It was tremendous fun to read in one sitting and the illustrations are beautiful. show less
I was first introduced to this story through Tumblr. First I saw some fanworks for the TV adaption The Untamed. Some research led me to the initial English translation online, which no longer existed at my time of finding. That quickly led me to the ‘official’ English translation published by Seven Seas. Because the workers of Seven Seas were striking at the time, I ended up buying my copy secondhand.
Despite all these hurdles, I was pretty excited about the book. The series had a huge following on Tumblr, and, for some reason, my brain interpreted this as a sign of quality. After my brief time watching Supernatural, I should have known better.
It wasn’t a terrible book. Aside from some cultural differences and some overt show more homoerotic moments, it was a pretty standard adventure story. I didn’t love it. I didn’t hate it. Honestly, if I hadn’t gotten my expectations up so high, I might have liked it better.
If you like it, great. I’m happy for you. If you are interested in reading, try going in blind. But I would say don’t expect anything fantastic. show less
Despite all these hurdles, I was pretty excited about the book. The series had a huge following on Tumblr, and, for some reason, my brain interpreted this as a sign of quality. After my brief time watching Supernatural, I should have known better.
It wasn’t a terrible book. Aside from some cultural differences and some overt show more homoerotic moments, it was a pretty standard adventure story. I didn’t love it. I didn’t hate it. Honestly, if I hadn’t gotten my expectations up so high, I might have liked it better.
If you like it, great. I’m happy for you. If you are interested in reading, try going in blind. But I would say don’t expect anything fantastic. show less
Great story, but I already knew that going in. I must say, it’s only in combination with the other media forms—the live-action drama, the manhua, this novel—that I’m able to really get a solid understanding of everything. Good thing I like the story enough to consume all those forms! Lan Wangji in print is by far the most overtly expressive characterization, but I like being able to take that information then and apply it to the visual media: “Oh, that’s what I was supposed to interpret from the minuscule twitch of his eyebrow!”
Anyway, I’m in for the duration.
Anyway, I’m in for the duration.
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- Canonical title
- Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation: Mo Dao Zu Shi (Novel) Vol. 1 (Novel)
- Original title
- 魔道祖師 1
- Alternate titles
- Mo Dao Zu Shi Volume 1
- Original publication date
- 2016-12-12
- People/Characters
- Wei Wuxian; Lan Wangji
- Related movies
- The Untamed (2019 | IMDb); Mo Dao Zu Shi (2018 | IMDb)
- First words
- "Rejoice, Wei Wuxian is dead!"
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)And it was a ghost city that the locals avoided at all cost.
- Original language
- Chinese
- Canonical DDC/MDS
- 895.136
- Disambiguation notice
- English language publication (Seven Seas) from December 2021 was based on the original Chinese release (Pinsin Publishing) in 2016. LT Helpers: There are multiple adaptations of the novel. Do not combine the novel with... (show all) the webcomic, animated series, live-action drama series, or radio dramas.
Contains web serialization chapters 1-32.
Classifications
- Genres
- LGBTQ+, Fiction and Literature, Fantasy, Romance
- DDC/MDS
- 895.136 — Literature & rhetoric Asian Literature Literatures of East and Southeast Asia Chinese Chinese fiction 2010–
- LCC
- PL2949.7 .O49 — Language and Literature Languages and literatures of Eastern Asia, Africa, Oceania Languages of Eastern Asia, Africa, Oceania Chinese language and literature Chinese literature Individual authors and works
- BISAC
Statistics
- Members
- 1,024
- Popularity
- 25,226
- Reviews
- 16
- Rating
- (4.39)
- Languages
- English, German, Italian
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 5
- ASINs
- 2
