Mo Dao Zu Shi (Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation: Mo Dao Zu Shi)

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Alternative Titles

Synonyms: MDZS, The Master of Diabolism, The Founder of Diabolism

Japanese: 魔道祖师

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Information

Type: Novel

Volumes: 4

Chapters: 27

Status: Finished

Published: Dec 8, 2016

Genres: Action, Adventure, Boys Love, Mystery, Supernatural

Theme: Historical

Serialization: None

Authors: Mo Xiang Tong Xiu (Story)

Statistics

Score: 8.63¹ (scored by 2,907 users)

¹ indicates a weighted score.

Ranked: #88²

² based on the top manga page. Please note that 'R18+' titles are excluded.

Popularity: #3345

Members: 6,195

Favorites: 628

8.63

Ranked #88Popularity #3345Members 6,195

NovelMo Xiang Tong Xiu (Story)

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Volumes: /4

Chapters: /27

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Synopsis

Plaguing every corner, rumors of the deceased Wei Wuxian never end. Able to control the dead, Wei Wuxian left an epochal dent in the cultivation world, still both feared and revered 13 years later. But when he awakens in the body of a bullied young man who sacrificed his soul to take revenge on his cruel family, Wei Wuxian is faced with trouble once more.

However, Wei Wuxian was a mischievous yet brilliant cultivator, and he is not one to be constrained. Using his dark skills, Wei Wuxian interrupts a ritual to capture a powerful cursed arm handled by Lan Sect—a prominent cultivation sect of Gusu, the home of his former acquaintance, the esteemed and poised Lan Wangji.

Despite wishing to hide his past life, Wei Wuxian inevitably gets entangled in the sinister web of the ruling cultivation sects' deepest secrets. With Lan Wangji, he attempts to solve the mystery of the demonic arm, but it is soon apparent that they are only scratching the surface—and the truth may just hold the key to his once disgraceful downfall.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

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Background

Mo Dao Zu Shi is a web novel released on Jinjiang Wenxue Cheng (晋江文学城) from October 31, 2015 to March 1, 2016; and published in print in Taiwan by Pinsin Studio (平心工作室) on December 8, 2016. The series was published in English as Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation: Mo Dao Zu Shi by Seven Seas Entertainment under the Seven Seas Danmei imprint in 5 volumes from December 14, 2021 to May 2, 2023. As of May 2022, the novel has been officially translated into 10 languages.

The series was awarded the Rising Star Award (뉴‎ 스타상) by the South Korean e-book platform Ridibooks in February 2020. The novel ranked first in the Best Novel category of NextFComics' BL guidebook Kono BL Ga Yabai! in December 2021. During the same time, the English release of the first volume placed ninth on The New York Times Best Seller List for Paperback Trade Fiction. The series ranked second in the Best Novel category of BL website Chill Chill's 13th annual BL Awards in 2022.

Mo Dao Zu Shi was adapted into a live-action web series titled Chen Qing Ling (陈情令); produced by Tencent Penguin Pictures and New Style Media, it aired in China on Tencent Video from June 27, 2019 to August 20, 2019. A mobile game based on the series is slated to be globally released in 2022.

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Related Manga

Alternative version:	Mo Dao Zu Shi
Adaptation:	Mo Dao Zu Shi Q, Mo Dao Zu Shi, Mo Dao Zu Shi: Xian Yun Pian, Mo Dao Zu Shi: Wanjie Pian
Side story:	Mo Dao Zu Shi Fanwai Ji

More characters
Characters

Wei, Wuxian

Main

Lan, Wangji

Main

Jiang, Cheng

Supporting

Wen, Ning

Supporting

Nie, Huaisang

Supporting

Lan, Sizhui

Supporting

Jin, Ling

Supporting

Lan, Xichen

Supporting

Jiang, Yanli

Supporting

Jin, Guangyao

Supporting

Reviews

Jun 22, 2023

abystoma2

Mixed Feelings

On paper, the story sounds interesting. I’m sure many people actually enjoyed it. But for me, I had to constantly force myself to keep paying attention. So keep in mind this is more of a personal rant rather than an attempt at objective review.

First, to give some context: I’ve seen some wuxia series, but I’m still fairly new in the genre. I’ve read my fair share of BL, but rarely do I actually like any of it. And lastly, this is one of the first Chinese novels I’ve read. Yes, this is going to be relevant.
Now, an attempt to explain the reasons for my ... disenjoyment: you see, the three main aspects of this novel are all that aren’t exactly friendly to readers that aren’t already fan of the categories, and two of them make the work straight out confusing if you aren’t. First, the two confusing ones – Chinese novel, and wuxia. The writing style is just… weird. Maybe it’s just a style of a different culture that I’m not much familiar with, but it’s quite hard to keep track of not just the story but even the sentences itself. If feels like it’s written in a style that is both overly complicated and somehow lacking the artistic poetry value of good writing. Imagine something like a young adult novel but the author attempts to emulate speech pattern from the original Beowulf. And apparently that’s normal for Chinese fantasy novels, or so I’ve been told.

Now, wuxia. If the language wasn’t already reader unfriendly, the wuxia tropes would make the text such anyway. I know, I know, the original audience is assumed to be familiar with concepts such as cultivation, Confucianism etc., but again, I’m writing about my personal experience and despite some familiarity with Eastern philosophies I still felt like the novel made almost no attempt to explain its worldbuilding, as it too common with wuxia stories. Stuff just… happens. Sure, I guess it might be weird if a western work would set aside some time to explain what are zombies, dragons, fireball etc., but when almost every sentence in the novel reads like “Grand Wiseman Xiung-Zhe ascended the Mountain of Three Grievances to cultivate a Cheese Tree Spirit that would end the patriarchs of Seventh Day Advent Hoppist sect so that Smol Dik Xian may reign again” (with it being the first time the reader sees most of the names mentioned), it’s very hard to pay attention and almost impossible to develop any care for the story. Maybe there are some interesting plotpoints under all that buzzword spam, but I’m surely not one to spend the time trying to find them. I like books that I can lose myself in, that transport me inside of them, not books that make me stop after each sentence.

And finally, the BL aspects. I’m not saying that BL can’t be good, but the standard of what passes as a story can be… quite low. However, Mo Dao Zu Shi is surprisingly fine in this regard. Which is to say, there would be a story even if you took the yaoi out of it, which is more than I can say about the average boy love title. Well, sometimes it does feel like the author can’t decide whether to focus on the story or on the pretty boys. This difference is most seen in the side stories where after the pretentiously high-sounding main plot, once you get to the sexual side of things the dialogue changes to style that sounds like the author just found out about the existence of the word “fuck” (or maybe I should blame the translator for that, honestly it sounds plausible for either of them being at fault). But well, it is the genre.

To summarize: if you like BL and wuxia, you will likely like this. If you like just one of those, it might still work out. However if you don’t care about neither BL nor wuxia, I really can’t recommend this one. But hey, try it out for yourself and see, maybe I’m the only one who feels this way.

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Sep 2, 2023

CandleHoarder

Not Recommended

Well-written

Spoiler

Here I was expecting a spicy mystery plot with some BDSM CNC porn attached. This is the version mom had at home.

(Spoilers ahead, you've been warned.)

MDZS is a tepid, meandering and disjointed road trip story, served with a side of M/M smut roughly as lifeless as the corpses the protagonist manipulates. I refuse to call it romance, because as we will see in a minute, MDZS does not have anything even mildly resembling a coherent romance arc. Set in mystical ancient China, the oft-vaunted worldbuilding feels more a product of its adaptations than anything concretely laid down in writing. At best, tidbits of the setting ...

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	Question about the length of the novels caesarsalad4361 - May 9, 2022	6 replies	by Alexioos95 »» Aug 1, 2023 6:36 AM
	Doubt about The extra volume. Vivian_Lira666 - Mar 11, 2023	1 replies	by Alexioos95 »» Mar 11, 2023 7:18 AM

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