Spotlight on: Daomu Biji Vol 1 - 2 / The Lost Tomb / The Lost Tomb 2
The first two volumes of Daomu Biji, which are adapted into two TV dramas and a donghua, chronicle the beginning’s of Wu Xie’s main involvement with the tomb robbing world and set up the world, characters, and plot.
The official English translation of volumes 1 - 2 are books 1 - 3, and a little bit of book 4.
Summary - Volume 1 (from merebear)
Fifty years ago, a group of earth masters (i.e., grave robbers) from Changsha dug up a silk book of the Warring States Period. The fragment records the location of a peculiar tomb of the Warring States Period, but the group of grave robbers encountered a strange incident underground and almost all of them were killed. Fifty years later, the grandson of one of the grave robbers discovered this secret in his ancestor’s notes. He gathered a group of experienced grave robbers to hunt for treasure, but no one expected there to be so many weird things in this ancient tomb: suspicious seven-star coffins, a green-eyed fox corpse, a seven-headed snake cypress…. Who is the owner of this mysterious tomb, and can they find the real coffin? Why are there so many mysteries in the tomb that cannot be solved? What is the relationship between the strange ship tomb on the seabed, the sacred ten-thousand-year-old tree in the Qinling Mountains, and the snow tomb in the Heavenly Palace in the Clouds located in the lofty mountains? What ancient mysteries are hidden behind them?
Summary - Volume 2 (from merebear)
Uncover the eternal mysteries hidden in the ten-thousand-year old sacred tree in the Qinling Mountains and the snowy tomb of the Heavenly Palace on the Clouds.
Wu Xie, who has been idling around at home after his return from the Xisha undersea tomb, suddenly meets his friend, Lao Yang, who was just released from prison and has some amazing news for him. After hearing about a strange hexagonal bell, the ancient She people, a huge bronze tree, and the distant hinterland of the Qinling Mountains, Wu Xie can’t help but be eager to check it out.
Wu Xie and Lao Yang then head to the mysterious Qinling Mountains alone to explore, but what awaits them ahead? All kinds of strange things come one right after another, from Siberian salmon, a waterfall from hell, a corpse array, and a Zhu Jiuyin…
What was this huge bronze tree used for? Was it a tree meant to grant wishes or a kind of totem of the ancients? Will they find the real answer? The expedition is full of human trials and tribulations, with terrifying characters and loathsome faces intertwined. In the end, it’s a jaw-dropping, beyond all imagination, impossible-to-guess adventure with a real and believable ending.
Summary - The Lost Tomb (from mydramalist)
50 years ago, a group of Changsha grave robbers dug out manuscripts of the location of treasures from Warring states, but an encounter with an undead rendered almost the whole group dead. In the present, the young grandchild of the sole survivor, Wu Xie, discovers a secret within his grandfather’s notes. Together with his third uncle, Wu Sanxing, and a few other experienced tomb robbers, search for the treasure. But what no one expected to find the intriguing mysteries that accompanied their tomb-robbing adventure - just who was the owner of that tomb? Will they be able to find the real coffin? And just where will these puzzles lead the group?
Summary - The Lost Tomb 2 (from mydramalist)
The group of heroes are pulled into another tomb-raiding expedition that takes them beneath the sea. In an ancient Ming Dynasty ship, they encounter monstrous creatures and puzzling traps. Wu Xie opens the box that he obtained from the Seven Star Coffins of Lu Wang’s Palace to discover a snake-browed copper fish. Wu Sanxing recounts the strange occurrences over ten years ago when they went on an archaeological expedition to Paracel Islands. Wu Xie leads a team down to the same place to explore a sunken ship where hidden dangers await.
Summary - Buried Tree Devil / Qinling Sacred Tree (from the daomu-biji wiki)
After the adventures in the Seven Star Palace and the underwater Xisha Tomb, Wu Xie returns home to Hangzhou. He gets a call from Lao Yang who tells him of an adventure in the Qinling mountains and invites Wu Xie to join him in going back. All the while, Zhang Qiling is secretly helping Wu Xie.
If you can read Chinese, you can find Volume 1 and Volume 2 on daomubiji.org.
If you cannot read Chinese, the official English translations are available on Amazon. Honestly, though, they’re… bad. Really bad. You may as well MTL the text from daomubiji.org, at least that doesn’t cut out entire paragraphs.
Merebear has translated Volume 1 and is partway through translating Volume 2.
The Lost Tomb and The Lost Tomb 2 TV dramas are available on YouTube.
The Buried Tree Devil / Qinling Sacred Tree donghua is available on Tencent’s website and YouTube (as 盗墓笔记之秦岭神树)
The following are some of the Vol 1 - 2 / Lost Tomb / Lost Tomb 2 ships currently listed on AO3, and are eligible for the Rarepair Exchange.
As with many of the eligible rarepairs for this exchange, some of these are better known in the Chinese fandom, but aren’t really known in the English fandom yet.
These aren’t the only possibilities, of course! Any ship that you can think of is eligible for this exchange, with the exception of Wu Xie / Zhang Qiling, Hei Xiazi / Xie Yuchen, Wang Pangzi / Wu Xie / Zhang Qiling, Wang Pangzi / Zhang Qiling, Wu Xie / Xie Yuchen, Wang Pangzi / Wu Xie, and Hei Xiazi / Huo Xiuxiu / Xie Yuchen!
Qiu Dekao | Cox Hendry / Wu Xie
Huo Xiuxiu / Wu Xie / Xie Yuchen
Xie Yuchen / Zhang Qiling
romaincrisis
titsay
gummygunk
annaxmalina
stormborns
izzy806
