The Mad God

The Mad God is the second full-length fantasy novel by Tang Jia San Shao, following his debut The Son of Light. It was first serialized online around 2005, and in December of the same year Baihuazhou Literature and Art Press published it in print. The story is set on the war-torn Jinyuan Continent, where humans, demons, and beastfolk have fought for centuries over land and resources. The protagonist, Lei Xiang, is of mixed human, demon, and beastfolk blood. Raised among the beastfolk in loneliness and bullying, he resolves to grow strong after his grandmother's death and trains hard in the arts of Heavenly Thunder Armor Removal and the Heavenly Demon Manual. At sixteen, because he looks no different from a human, he is sent to the human world as a spy, and so enters Tiandu Academy, where he meets the Zi Yan and Zi Xue sisters of the Dragon God Empire and the demon princess Mo Yue; in the course of his trials he uncovers the secret of his birth and receives the legacy of the Mad God Art. Told in the first person, the novel follows Lei Xiang from a bullied boy to a powerful warrior who gathers companions, unifies the divided continent, and ultimately inherits the title of Mad God, interweaving other-race conflicts, love, and comradeship. It is one of the representative works of early Chinese web fantasy. The online edition runs to more than 1.4 million Chinese characters, while the print edition was issued in six volumes, each with its own title.