Years after his defeat, Dongfang Qingcang--the ancient and powerful Demon Lord--has been resurrected. Hell-bent on settling the score, he nabs the first scapegoat unfortunate enough to cross his path: the bubbly orchid fairy Xiao Lanhua. As if becoming the Demon Lord's accomplice wasn't shocking enough, Xiao Lanhua has her soul ripped from her body and loses her physical form to a lethal self-inflicted slap. Forced to share a vessel with the Demon Lord himself, Xiao Lanhua is horrified by her luck. What's a fairy to do?!

Still, for a former flower, Xiao Lanhua isn't faring so bad; she now has the power of the Demon Lord at her disposal. Yet as the unlikely duo wrestle for control over their body, will they be able to find Xiao Lanhua a new vessel? Or will they be forever bound together?

Love Between Fairy and Devil is written by Jiu Lu Fei Xiang, with English translation by Yu. Published by Seven Seas (May 6, 2025).

Rebecca Silverman
Rating:

Although it's not necessarily a fair statement to make, it feels like most of the Chinese popular fiction we see in this sphere is danmei. There's nothing wrong with that; there's a lot of very good danmei out there, but sometimes we need to remember that other genres are worth reading too, and that's where Seven Seas' release of Love Between Fairy and Devil comes in. Even if it wasn't the source material for a very popular TV adaptation, Jiu Lu Fei Xiang's fantasy novel is a plain old good read.

Set in an ancient China that will be familiar to readers of series like Heaven Official's Blessing with its emphasis on the heavenly and ghostly realms, the story follows hapless orchid fairy Xiao Lanhua as she gets entangled in the affairs of Dongfang Qingcang, the demon lord. And by “entangled in,” I mean “ends up sharing his body.” It starts out with them simply swapping physical forms, but while in Dongfang Qingcang's body, Xiao Lanhua accidentally kills her own. Unwilling to give up all her years of cultivation and her life in general, Xiao Lanhua refuses to leave Dongfang Qingcang's body…and he's not willing to just let her have it. Thus the two of them end up sharing a physical form, with Xiao Lanhua in charge of the left half and Dongfang Qingcang in charge of the right. You know, like an Ancient Chinese version of the 1984 Steve Martin and Lily Tomlin movie All of Me.

The story is light and fun without feeling fluffy. Dongfang Qingcang really doesn't quite know what to do with Xiao Lanhua, who for her part is aghast at how he lives alongside little things like “bathing while owning a penis.” She's trying her best to live up to the ideals her master taught her, but she's really not sure how to do that while sharing a body with the demon lord, and all she truly wants is to get back into a female body. Since hers is out of the question, being very dead, she needs Dongfang Qingcang to find her a new one. But they of course have differing opinions of what that body ought to be and where it should come from, creating further obstacles on their already very rocky path towards presumptive love.

Although the prose is dense, the story is a lot of fun, and that helps to keep it readable. The characters can get annoying at times, especially Xiao Lanhua, who can be prone to overexaggerated histrionics at times, but honestly, the story is just a blast. If you've been interested in reading a Chinese fantasy novel but weren't into danmei, this is a great book to pick up.