Audio Drama art
From the end of the horizon, a phoenix led millions of birds in flight. Behind it, a sky filled with billowing clouds that looked like a sea of flames skimmed over Chang’an. A golden-winged roc perched loftily atop the roof of the Xingqing Palace. In its eyes was reflected the splendor of the common people who lived in this Divine Land. In silence, dynasties rose and fell, and the tides ebbed and flowed.
Li Jinglong dragged along his wound-riddled body. From the palm of his hand, a brilliant light shone as he relentlessly drew closer to Hongjun.
“The living… are merely passing travelers…”
His deep voice resounded through the depths of the world, as the black fog that covered the sky and blanketed the earth receded before that light.
“The dead… return to their eternal homes.”
That light was the blazing sun that illuminated the heavens and the earth. It was the light of the stars that twinkled in the night sky. It was an everlasting Heart Lamp that pierced through the darkness.
“The heavens and the earth are… an inn; for all our grief we inevitably return… to dust.”
— Summary
Tian Bao Fu Yao Lu
(天宝伏妖录) is a historical fantasy Boys' Love novel set in the Tianbao era of the reign of Emperor Xuanzong of Tang, written by Fei Tian Ye Xiang and first published on the Chinese webnovel site JJWXC.
The novel is 221 chapters long, with an unofficial English translation currently ongoing on Chrysanthemum Garden. It has an audio drama, with 3 seasons so far aired on Maoer FM (Season 1, Season 2, Season 3), and an Animated Adaptation (official English name The Legend of Exorcism) airing on Bilibili July 5th, 2020. A manhua has also started.
Tian Bao Fu Yao Lu provides examples of:
- Big Brother Instinct: Mo Rigen. He's taken care of Hongjun from basically their first meeting, saying that Hongjun reminds him of his younger siblings.
- Born Unlucky: Li Jinglong, with the novel page itself describing him as "a gong (top) who has terrible luck wherever he goes". Whenever something happens and he's involved, everyone immediately assumes the worst of him, often leading to public humiliation or other social repercussions.
- Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Ah-Tai. Oh Ah-Tai...
- Cast Full of Pretty Boys
- Dark and Troubled Past: Most of the main cast, really. Hongjun was dropped off on the lap of his eldest uncle and current adoptive father, Chong Ming, who initially didn't want anything to do with him and told the person bringing the child in to throw him out. Li Jinglong is an orphan with a long history of being a public laughing stock. Even the cousin that took care of him didn't believe his words.
- Friendless Background: Hongjun probably counts, having grown up in a gilded palace where the only people ever shown to have advanced enough intellect are his parental figures and a talking fish with limbs that only recently was able to speak.
- Fire-Forged Friends: The members of the Exorcist Department form strong bonds with one another.
- Happy Flashback: Mid-story, Hongjun finally faces his real childhood, which was one where he met and became very close friends with Li Jinglong. Even then, there are still sad elements to these happy times.
- Historical Fantasy: Tian Bao Fu Yao Lu is set in a real era with plenty of real historical figures as its side characters and main drivers of the human parts of the plot. Of course, some of them end up... rather magical, compared to real life. The author is a history nerd who has written numerous works with rather detailed historical settings, and reading them is often easier with a Wikipedia page ready.
- Hordes from the East: Mo Rigen is from the Shiwei tribe, which is a historic Mongolic people, and Ah-Tai claims to be a noble of the Tocharian tribe, which inhabited Tarim Basin in Central Asia.
- Light 'em Up: The Heart Lamp, which in the story has integrated into Li Jinglong's soul, gives off light that both purifies and just blinds everyone present, in general.
- Nightmare Weaver: There is a blurring between dreams and memories in this novel, and you can imagine what this can lead to.
- Official Couple: Li Jinglong and Kong Hongjun, Mo Rigen and Lu Xu...
- The Captain: Li Jinglong. He's the Exorcist Department's superior officer, and though at first his men didn't respect him, they quickly grow to as he's incredibly competent and has experience leading to boot.
- Voluntary Shapeshifting: Mo Rigen, as the reincarnation of the guardian deity Gray Wolf, is capable of shapeshifting into a giant, well, wolf. Lu Xu is also capable of shapeshifting into a stag, being the White Deer.
