Seven Seas revealed the cover for Vol. 1 of their hardcover re-release of Mo Xiang Tong Xiu’s smash hit danmei novel, Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation: Mo Dao Zu Shi.
The five volume re-release matches the original English paperback count and chapter split, and promises foil-lettered dust jackets with exclusive art, linen-texture graining covers with foil imprints, illustrated edges, and a ribbon bookmark. These features are similar to those included in Seven Seas’ hardcover releases of Heaven Official’s Blessing and The Scum Villain’s Self-Saving System.
Artist Ruthie (kkcoocool) will be providing the covers for all five hardcover dust jackets, as well as the design for the endpapers, painted edges, and the hardcover itself. Ruthie has also provided covers and interior illustrations for other Seven Seas danmei releases, such as Legend of Exorcism.
The original black & white interior illustrations by artist Marina Privalova will still be used. However, Seven Seas’ website does not credit the original cover artist Jin Fang, or artist Moo (who provided the bonus color piece for paperback Vol. 1). For each volume of the Heaven Official’s Blessing hardcovers, the original covers have been included as bonus interior art, and original cover artist tai3_3 has been credited on Seven Seas’ website accordingly.
Although Seven Seas has made no official statement on this subject, this may indicate that the original paperback covers and the paperbacks’ interior bonus art by guest artists will not be included in Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation’s hardcover release. All five original paperback covers are pictured below.
In response to fan questions, Seven Seas confirmed that fixes to the editorial errors present in the series’ first run will be included in the hardcover release. Most of these corrections were made available on the Seven Seas Danmei website as errata and subsequently included in the various reprints of the paperback volumes, but not all fixes could be accounted for despite this.
Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation was originally picked up for English release in 2021 by Seven Seas Entertainment, and saw staggering success on sales charts; netting multiple New York Times Best Seller placements across its run. Fans have clamored for a hardcover treatment of Grandmaster ever since Heaven Official’s Blessing‘s hardcover re-release was announced in May 2024. The original announcement for the Grandmaster hardcovers was made in April 2025, and the announcement for the hardcover edition of The Scum Villain’s Self-Saving System followed a month later in May; thus completing the beloved MXTX trio of series.
Seven Seas provided the following volume summary:
RESURRECTION AND REVENGE
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 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.
Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation: Mo Dao Zu Shi (Hardcover) Vol. 1‘s release is slated for October 2025; just in time for the series’ tenth anniversary. Preorders are now live with select retailers:
U.S.:
Canada:
International:
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Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation: Mo Dao Zu Shi (魔道祖师) is a danmei novel series written by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu (also known as MXTX). It began serialization on jjwxc in 2015 and ran for 113 chapters (plus 13 extra chapters). It has inspired numerous adaptations, including a donghua, a completed Chinese manhua, an ongoing Japanese manga, an audio drama (dubbed in Chinese and Japanese), a Japanese stage play, and a live-action (known as The Untamed).
DanmeiNews provides the below summary from its catalogue:
The powerful necromancer Wei Wuxian, despised across the land, awakens in a stranger’s body thirteen years after his death. He is drawn into a supernatural murder-mystery and must investigate alongside the straitlaced Lan Wangji, with whom he shares a very tangled past.
Seven Seas announced in 2021 that they had acquired the license to publish the work’s manhua adaptation, and have been steadily releasing volumes since.
Mo Xiang Tong Xiu has also written two other hit danmei series that are available in English: The Scum Villain’s Self-Saving System (人渣反派自救系统) and Heaven Official’s Blessing (天官赐福).
Source: Seven Seas Bluesky
