Heaven Official's Blessing

Is it surprising I giving you another #MXTX related review? Nope! Perhaps it's the Heaven Official's Blessing. Perhaps I'm dragging you down to hell-

If you don’t know how to continue living, then live for me. If you don’t know what meaning there is continuing to live, then for now, please use me as your reason to live, and treat me as your pillar to support you in life. Xie Lian was once upon a time the noble Crown Prince of Xian Le, a country that disappeared 800 years ago. He was born under a lucky star, yet after ascending to godhood at a…

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MXTX

Mxtx has shown signs of life on the jjwxc site! She also uploaded all the new TGCF content (working non stop for hours and hours!!!) Updated March 25, 2024

[Thank you all for the expectations reserved for "SiRi"*. However, it will temporarily remain on hiatus, due to changes in writing conditions, which could lead to a total deviation from my initial idea. Meanwhile I'm hiding the title. I will resume this novel should conditions arise again in the future. Since the title remained available for a long time, receiving many VIP tickets, I will proceed with the refund. PS: This process will take some time, please be patient. I haven't abandoned writing, don't worry. (Hug.jpg)]

*死日 SiRi, the abbreviation for the fourth MXTX novel

My translation from the Italian.

Masterlist and Explaining Idea

So some danmei books like TGCF or MDZS have pictures in the English volumes so I got and wrote down all of the page numbers for the books I own. There are two numbers that will be listed the page number of the actual picture labeled picture and the page that I stuck my sticky note flag on labeled tab.

The Master List Lists the English title, Chinese title, and the author then the link embedded in to it. As well as for MXTX books I have the abbreviated name I generally use to refer to each of them.

Thousand Autumns - Qian Qiu - Meng Xi Shi

Stars Of Choas - Sha Po Lang - priest

The Husky and His White Cat Shizun - Erha He Ta De Bei Mao Shizun - Rou Bao Bu Chi Rou

Remnants of Filth - Yuwu - Rou Bao Bu Chi Rou

The Scum Villian Self Saving System - Ren Zha Fanpai Zijiu Xitong - Mo Xiang Tong Xiu- Scum Villian

Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation - Mo Dao Zu Shi - Mo Xiang Tong Xiu- MDZS

Heaven Official's Blessing - Tian Guan Ci Fu - Mo Xiang Tong Xiu - TGCF

silly little queston but whats tcgf?

It’s Heaven Official’s Blessing! It’s danmei if you know the term (and if you don’t, its basically the Chinese version of BL). TGCF is the abbreviation for the Chinese title of the novel, which is Tian Guan Ci Fu. 10000/10 recommend!

You’ve all been spared. I was going to try typing up Heaven Official’s Blessing with ToG characters, but fuck if there’s a quick way to summarize that book. Just part 1 would have been as long as  the entire Untamed one I type... and there are five parts.

Still though, Heaven Official’s Blessing is a better novel than The Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation (The Untamed), and if you like fairy-tale type stories, you’ll love TGCF (the chinese title abbreviation)

Hi,, I hope I'm not bothering you with this and I'm sorry if my English isn't good, I hope you can understand my questions. I've been thinking about this for a while now and I tried to find information online but I found nothing.

MDZS is the first Chinese Novel I've read and I still haven't finished it yet,,but I've heard about rumors that said that MXTX is in jail, because she sold copies of her books. The rumor isn't true, however it made me wonder something,, I know China's censorship on lgbt related stuff is really heavy and that's why the donghua and drama adaptations of MDZS and other bl works are censored, but I didn't know that authors couldn't sell their novels.

So my question is,, how does MXTX earn money if she isn't allowed to sell her works? She has already finished 3 Danmei novels, and her works are really popular, they even have manhua, donghua or drama adaptations. The adaptations have earned quite a lot of money, but since she's an anonymous writer, does part of it even go to her?

To make the drama, the donghua and the manhua, producers had to ask her permission, I think. So, since the adaptations are doing well, she should get part of the profit, but how does it work? If the Chinese Government really is against lgbt themed works, shouldn't they have done something about her?

I really love her works and I hope that she earns something since she is the one that created all of them. Thanks for considering my question!!

Hi both of you and welcome to the cnovel fandom! Quick intro of the author, MXTX uses a pen name like many webnovel authors, it’s the abbreviation of Mo Xiang Tong Xiu which literally means “Ink Fragrance, Copper [Money] Stench” (墨香铜臭). Fun fact, it’s her mother who coined that name. MXTX wished to pursue a major in literature during university but her mother wanted her to graduate in economy instead while keeping writing on the side, that way she would have the fragrance of ink in one hand and the stench of money in the other.

We also know that she is fairly young, she wrote Scum Villain while she was a university student and she started working on the outline of MDZS in her final year. Tian Guan Ci Fu (Heaven Official’s Blessing) is the third book she completed and a fourth novel is/was in the works, its provisional title is “No rest for the death god” and is supposed to be a supernatural story taking place in a modern setting.

MXTX is one of the most popular webnovel authors on Jinjiang Literature City, the webnovel platform, but her popularity also comes with a great many detractors. You’ve heard some of the malicious rumours circulating in the English-speaking side of the fandom, it’s just a drop in the ocean compared to the outpouring of heated controversies in the Chinese side as the latter can have real-life consequences. There is a different nexus between the creator and the audience and the fandom culture is not the same either, it can be quite deleterious due to the tendency to report any content that one disagrees with.

Censorship in China is... ever-changing and nebulous. How severe it is depends on the medium. Nevertheless, gay literature (同志文学) does exist in China and it is distinct from danmei. I also want to nuance a bit the pervasive idea that anything lgbt is systematically and relentlessly censored in China. The reality is more complex than that and it would be dismissive of the hard-fought gains and visibility that Chinese lgbt activists have obtained these past two decades (some concrete examples: the work of the lgbt centre in Beijing or the pride festival in Shanghai). I don’t know if people are aware of this but lgbt dating apps are thriving in China, the most popular one, Blued, is also the largest lgbt social network worldwide. With that said, the official policy towards homosexuality is the three No’s: “no approval, no disapproval, no promotion”. A stance comparable to the “don’t ask, don’t tell”. It’s not explicit persecution but it manifests in the silencing of public discussion and the limiting media representation of homosexuality. In 2017, the top media regulator that oversaw radio, film and television  issued guidelines banning a number of things, this included obscene and violent content, homosexuality, superstitious pseudoscience (such as reincarnation or spirit possession). On top of that, there is also an ongoing crackdown on online pornography that gets increasingly intense. And that concerns everyone on the internet, it’s astonishing the lengths netizens will go to in order to circumvent the censorship, new slang is developed to refer obliquely to banned words, fanfics are published in image format to prevent text recognition, etc... The censorship might be increasingly prevalent but netizens push back with their resourcefulness. Pushing back is also not without significant risk. Perhaps you have heard of the case of the danmei author that received a severe jail sentence? A few Western media picked up on that and criticised the ruling that was deemed homophobic. Chinese reactions tell a slightly different story, the author's crime was not writing danmei, she was in fact accused of making a profit by illegally producing and disseminating pornographic material. I’m not too keen on the details but it seems she printed the books herself and sold them online. To some Chinese observers, the ruling was not discriminatory because she did break the law. To others, it was absurd because this law dates from an era when internet barely existed and it would have been much more laborious to mass-produce and share porn at that time. There’s a bit of truth in all these points of views. It’s also not disingenuous to say that lgbt content is more likely to be targeted than het content even if the charges are not directly lgbt-related.

Usually contracted authors of webnovel platforms have a more secure status. They get a fee from the purchase of VIP chapters as well as tips from the readers. Other sources of revenue arise when webnovels get popular enough to get the opportunity to be published through official channels or when adaptation rights are sold (I assume that the author receives a share of that deal but perhaps does not get any further financial gain from the adaptation or its merch).

To support the author, I would suggest purchasing TGCF on Jinjiang (guide) or buying the physical versions of her three novels in Chinese (shop, change to English with top-right world icon), the special boxsets of MDZS and TGCF come with tons of goodies!

Hope I could be of service and that my tirade was mildly informative ^^'

Hi, Lise......I can't help but want to ask (if you don't mind), what are your favorite (that you personally like) books or movies/ tv series that contains lesbias and gays? Thanks if you want to answer.....

wow I completely forgot this ask was sitting in my inbox and has been for a long while. and uhhhh the thing is here that I actually...feel like I don't have a separate category in my head, so much, for "media that has queer people in it" and "media that doesn't"? which like. feels weird to say, but when I get questions like this, or requests for recommendations, I always...struggle to parse these things out. and also to parse out, for instance, "books that read as having queer elements" from "books with explicitly queer characters."

but I guess if I'm gonna try...most of these are going to be books, with a few exceptions.

BOOKS

Doctrine of Labyrinths is a four book series that comes stamped with a whole list of content warnings (rape and child abuse chief among them, probably) but is also one of my favorite series of all time, so, you know.

The Masquerade series by Seth Dickinson also comes with a big "IT'S SAD. IT'S SAD AND DARK" warning, along with content warnings for serious societal homophobia, but is another one of my favorite series of all time. it's not that I hate happy queer stories or anything, I just tend to like stories that aren't happy

The Locked Tomb Trilogy by Tasmyn Muir which you've probably heard about by now, but honestly I think the common tagline of "lesbian necromancers in space" really doesn't...cover it? It's funny, it's weird, it's unique in terms of setting, story, and magic system, it's doing some very interesting things and I can't wait to find out where Muir is going with it. it's very much stylistically not something that's going to work for everyone, but I would recommend giving it a go and finding out if it works for you.

I loved the series by Lara Elena Donnelly that starts with Amberlough, but that one's definitely Rise of a Fascist State and therefore might not be everyone's cuppa right at the moment.

Oh, Imperial Radch by Ann Leckie is very queer, not in terms of, like, "these characters are explicitly gay" but more in terms of what she's doing with gender. I don't know that I'd say it's a central part of the book but it's an important enough piece of the worldbuilding at least that I'd put it here. I don't actually remember, textually, but Machineries of Empire also feels very queer to me in a similar sort of way. A queer theory sort of way, maybe? idk.

this one's a sort of...not for me exactly but it was cool rec, but The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon was very classic fantasy in a lot of ways, but gay, and with some fresh twists on old tropes.

COMICS

The Wicked and the Divine by Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie. look, it's just really good and not just for the queer. I need to do a reread from the top.

TV

I am really enjoying Motherland: Fort Salem actually, which I feel like people either aren't aware of or watch the first couple episodes and get turned off, but. one of the three main characters is lesbian, and sticks her hand down another girl's pants in like. the second episode? maybe even the first one, I don't remember.

Person of Interest doesn't introduce its gay until later in the series, but if you're anything like me as far as what you want in relationship dynamics you're in for a treat.

Yes, it is an animated children's show, but She-Ra and the Princesses of Power gave me such a gift it still makes me emotional because I'm going like. is this what it feels like to get what I want, canonically, in a piece of media? wow.

look, I'm putting The Untamed on here because (a) it is based on a gay webnovel and is pretty fucking gay considering the limits of censorship, everybody in the cast knows it and is playing it, and (b) some of the secondary relationships come off, I would argue, even gayer in the live action, probably because there are actor people putting them right in front of your face. (because the discourse is what it is: censorship isn't progressive, etc., but this is my list and I'm putting MDZS on here too.)

THOSE CHINESE WEBNOVELS I WON'T SHUT UP ABOUT

like, seriously. I mean, look, they take some work getting into because reading works in translation that come from a culture that you (general Anglophone you) may or may not be familiar with on one level or another actually does come with having to learn some shit and get used to some new things about genre and style, and reading webnovels maybe even more so, but as far as I'm concerned it's worth it.

so far the ones I've read are (titles in English, with common abbreviation, mostly from the Chinese) Heaven Official's Blessing (TGCF), Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation (MDZS), Scum Villain's Self Saving System (SVSSS), The Husky and His White Cat Shizun (erha or 2HA), and (still finishing but at this point feel pretty comfy recommending) Clear and Muddy Loss of Love (JWQS).

there are several others on my list that I've had recommended and just haven't gotten to yet. my favorites personally are probably TGCF and 2HA, but I'm pending a reread of MDZS with a different translation to do my final assessment there and JWQS is giving me a lot of very good shit.

(I feel like I have to mention, because I'd be remiss if I didn't while I'm talking about ~personal preferences~, that the Coldfire Trilogy is astonishingly queer in my memory for one of the central relationships although it's been years since I read it, admittedly, and the Lymond Chronicles which is a series I love dearly is also incredibly queer, particularly for a series written in the 60s, and is like. juuuuust barely shy of having a canonically bisexual protagonist. and does have an explicitly lesbian secondary character, though fair warning, she, uh, does have it pretty rough.)

there's also some books that didn't make it on here even though they have queer characters because I felt like the queerness of those characters was not really key to the story, for instance the Broken Earth Trilogy by N.K. Jemisin, which is fantastic in its own right and I would recommend to everyone, but didn't quite feel like it fit this post.

I'm almost certainly forgetting stuff, but I did my best.

I find it funny that for mxtx novels, tgcf and mdzs are both abbreviations of the Chinese titles, but svsss is the english title abbreviation

I started SVSSS the other day, and now am on chapter 56... it’s very bizarre, to say the least.

I’ve read MDZS and TGCF already, and right now my favourite is TGCF. Based on what I’ve read so far, I think it’ll stay that way.

Others have most likely pointed this out already, but I find it amusing that everyone says MDZS instead of GDC and TGCF instead of HOB, but no one says RZFPZJXT instead of SVSSS. I understand why (I mean, anyone would, considering the length of the Chinese title), but I still find it funny. Though, the English abbreviations of TGCF and MDZS are also shorter than their Chinese ones.

I’ll post again when I finish, which should be soon. In the meantime, can some people just comment their favourite MXTX book? I’m curious.

welcome to world class trash

the title isn’t self-deprecating. it’s a reference to a robot that I like a lot :)

ryn | they/them | 20+

I tend not to reply or interact with people. I also block a lot of people. Nothing personal. This is just how I survive.

FUB (follow/unfollow/block) free as always

Account is SFW mostly. Lighthearted NSFW text/dirty and mature jokes are to be expected. Content suitable for teenagers.

I tag for suicide, self harm, and sexual assault. Ask to tag for other things. I like media with dark themes, so death, blood, violent imagery will be very common. Stay safe.

Add. note: If you go far back enough in my blog, you'll find Persona 3 content (tagged p3). The media shared doesn’t depict suicide, but the series intentionally uses suicidal imagery/gun-like objects.

I tag by fandom. I use the most relevant and shortest abbreviations for the fandoms.

Add. note: Sometimes I RB without tagging and add tags later. LMK if some piece of media is triggering and shouldn’t be skipped over on the initial RB.

most relevant/used tags for now

danmei media: mxtx, mdzs, svsss, tgcf, woh, 2ha (i talk abt some other pri//est and meat//bun properties too)

games: genshin, persona, p5, p3, fe

heidraws/my art

Hi, I've just seen that post where you rant about Good Omens season 2 (I am also very wary of it, btw), and recommending another book... But you never say the name of said book. And I'm curious. What book are you talking about?

Ah yeah, sorry about that, I left the title (or actually just the abbreviation of the title) in the tags.

The book is called Heaven Official's Blessing (Tian Guan Ci Fu, often referred to as just TGCF). It's a Chinese historical-ish fantasy novel roughly twice the size of The Lord of the Rings. It has a cast of really neat and interesting characters, and a pretty complex story.

make up an mxtx fan: guy who abbreviates tgcf as hob instead for the eng title

Drop your recs girl, I'll give them a try!

1) The Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation (LGBT Protagonists)

Formats: I mainly recommend the novel (available in English HERE, paperback versions will be published very soon but the story will be released in 5 parts so it'll take a couple years), or the live action television show (available on Netflix or for free on the production company's official youtube HERE).

It is also available in these formats: Anime (english and chinese language), chibi anime, graphic novel, and audio drama (chinese and japanese)

Summary: "Who is right and who is wrong? What is black and what is white?"

Wei Wuxian left a complicated legacy behind when he died in battle upon the cliffs of the Nightless City.

To most of the world he was a sadistic monster who led thousands to their doom. A man who weaponized and unleashed the souls of the dead to do his dark bidding- guided by the demonic flute Chenqing. A man who slaughtered tens of thousands on a whim.

To a select few- whose numbers can be counted on a single hand- Wei Wuxian was the tragic genius. A man who turned himself into a monster in order to destroy the evil Wen Clan that subjugated the world... only to lose his way and be seduced by the very power he thought he controlled.

Whatever he might have been, it has been sixteen years since his own brother finally ended Wei Wuxian's wretched life. Sixteen years for the cultivation world to heal from the horrors Wei Wuxian unleashed. Sixteen years since that mad necromancer's soul was ripped to shreds by the very spirits he commanded.

And then- without explanation or understanding- Wei Wuxian wakes up.

Mo Xuanyu- an abused outcast of the cultivation sects- resurrects Wei Wuxian from the dead using a mysterious spell he couldn't possibly know how to cast. Before Wei Wuxian can figure out where he is or what has happened, a powerful evil is unleashed. One that carries the stain of the Stygian Tiger Seal- Wei Wuxian's own demonic weapon.

Lost in a world he no longer recognizes, Wei Wuxian attempts to figure out why Mo Xuanyu used such a horrific spell to rip apart his own soul and stitch Wei Wuxian back together.

What mystery is Wei Wuxian supposed to solve? Why is there an evil on the loose bearing the stain of a weapon that was destroyed when Wei Wuxian died? Who helped Mo Xuanyu resurrect Wei Wuxian, and to what end were the pair working?

The answers lie in Wei Wuxian's past- in the path that transformed a young hero into an abomination worthy of dying on his own brother's blade.

Was Wei Wuxian a cruel villain or a tragic hero? What really led him to war against the rest of the cultivation world? How did brother turn against brother on that blood-drenched battlefield?

And what kind of evil walks the earth that someone would risk waking the dreaded Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation from his eternal slumber?

-----------------------------------------------------

2) Heaven Official's Blessing (LGBT+ protagonists)

Formats: For now mainly just the novel, but a live action show is expected to air next year. As with the above novel, it is being officially published this month and will take a couple-few years to be fully released, but you can google "TGCF English" (TGCF being the abbreviation of the chinese title) in order to find it.

It is also available in these formats: Graphic novel, anime (only covers the first half of the first book so far, available in chinese and english).

Summary:

"He... he fucking ascended again?!"

Xie Lian, former crown prince of the now-extinct Xian Le Kingdom, is the laughingstock of the realms of Gods, Humans, and Ghosts. In a world where humans of extreme virtue or skill can ascend to the heavenly realm as Gods, Xie Lian has been banished to the mortal realm not once, but twice.

Eight hundred years after his second banishment- trapped in an immortal body that cannot cultivate the power gods typically possess (part of his punishment from his previous banishments), Xie Lian somehow manages to ascend for an unprecedented third time.

The once glorious and shining Darling Of Heaven is now the god of junk, misfortune, and scrap-collecting. He has fallen as far as it is possible for a god to fall- until he became something even the gods don't like looking upon.

Endlessly optimistic and courteous- even when wronged- Xie Lian is eager to prove himself and make up for his previous sins. He therefore takes on the mission of identifying an emerging evil upon a haunted mountain.

While there, Xie Lian runs across the path of a strange young man- one whose face he cannot see. A man who radiates more power than most gods possess in a lifetime.

Xie Lian will discover that what he has found is not a man at all, but the most terrifying evil in the world: The Ghost King Hua Cheng. A Devastation-Level demon who has slaughtered millions, including wiping out thirty-three gods in a single night. An event so horrendous, it left an unhealed scar upon the heavens themselves.

Hua Cheng is not to be trusted, never to be believed, and always to be avoided... So why did he gently take Xie Lian's hand and guide him through the dangers of the haunted mountain?

As Xie Lian works hard to make his way in life with a smile a positive attitude, he will run across Hua Cheng more and more.

The Demon King of the Land has been searching for Xie Lian for eight hundred years, but why? Why has he woven Xie Lian so wholly into himself? For what purpose is he pursuing the God Of Misfortune? Is he the friend Xie Lian thinks him to be, or the foe the heavens all say he is?

Which realm is filled with more danger for the naiive young god: The realm of ghosts, the realm of humans... or the heavens themselves?