By I-Huan, translated and adapted by Lobelia Cheng & Sue Yang (DrMaster)
ISBN: 978-1-59796-174-5
Celestial Fox Demons are nearly extinct: only females survive and they have enacted a desperate plan to propagate their kind. Stealing a baby deity, they have trained Cai-Sheng over centuries until now she is able to turn into a male at will. But now her abductors are unaware that she/he is matured: able to mate with the fox women; to continue and even elevate their celestial species.
Because Cai-Sheng has other ideas.
When she was still a child two hundred years previously her life was saved by two mortal children, and more importantly, for one glorious afternoon, she learned of play and freedom from duty and destiny. Now after centuries she is reunited with them – or at least their latest reincarnations, beautiful Su Ping and apprentice priest/exorcist Han Yun-Shi. To repay them for their kindness Cai-Sheng has determined to act as matchmaker for the pair, but Ping has seen Cai-Sheng’s male form and become obsessed with “him”.
To further complicate matters Wei Zi-Qiu, an envoy from the goddess of dawn, childbirth and destiny sought out Cai-Sheng, tasked with purifying her and returning her to Heaven whilst in the wings debased fox-demonYu-Niang made her opening move. She had grown strong on two centuries of blood taken from boy children and now she wants the power tied up in Cai-Sheng’s male form…
Yun-Shi is smitten with Su Ping but can’t understand why the frankly weird Cai-Sheng is always hanging around, making herself a nuisance. Moreover, while performing his appointed duties for his disreputable master the apprentice realizes he has a rival in Cai-Sheng’s male form, even if the transforming neo-deity doesn’t…
Zi-Qiu is also constantly turning up, distracting her, and insulting the mortals. He calls Yun-Shi a fraud and questions his motives and honour. When the apprentice is dispatched to find an herb that confers immortality, with Cai-Sheng annoyingly tagging along as usual, he decides to destroy the mystic flower instead, but all the celestial envoy can think of is that Cai-Sheng was alone with the mortal all night, and jumps to the wrong conclusion…
Cai-Sheng returns to the lair of the fox-demons contemplating her designed destiny, but looking at them with new eyes, can’t find any that she loves enough to mate with. Can she save them and be true to her newfound self?
Naming his male self Qin Cai-Sheng, the troubled would-be saviour clashes again with Zi-Qiu, learning the envoy’s tragic history just as the mortal Hui-Niang (a former fox demon who chose humanity, love and children over debased immortality) confronts the wicked Yu-Niang and warns her that her schemes will always be opposed…
And all the strands inevitably draw the cast into a showdown with Yu-Niang and her demonic hordes…
This second volume of the enchanting shÅjo tale of legendary China consolidates the characters whilst setting up a portentous clash to come. Even so, Taiwanese creator I-Huan’s flawless blend of mythology and soap-opera temporarily sacrifices comedy for romance and especially action to move on the plot in this saga of duty versus free-will, and familial expectation battling personal desire.
As ever the lyrical art perfectly captures the sense of a lost age whilst horror and fight-fans will revel in the exotic combat scenes (especially against the shadowy demons of Feng Xia) in what is becoming much more than the enduring trials of three people falling in love. A perfect manga for the romantic adventure lover, this is a series that can clearly deliver on all it promises.
This book is produced in the traditional Japanese format and should read from back to front and right to left.
© 2003 I-Huan/Tong Li Publishing Co. Ltd. English translation © 2009 DrMaster Publications, Inc. All Rights Reserved.