Xie Lian, once the darling of the heavens, is a twice-banished god infamous for his fall from grace. Eight hundred years have passed since his mortal life as the Crown Prince of Xianle, and he's now the laughingstock of the three realms. So when he ascends to godhood for a third time, it causes an uproar among his divine peers. Ascension may be nothing new to Xie Lian, but this time he has no followers, little power, and less luck. To repay his heavenly debts, Xie Lian must descend to the Mortal Realm to hunt ghosts that prey upon the living. There, he encounters a mysterious stranger—but is this newcomer friend or foe . . . or something else entirely?

Heaven Official's Blessing has story and art by STARember, based on a work by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu. English translation is done by Mimi and lettering by Viet Phuong Vu. Published by Inklore (December 2, 2025). Rated 16+.

Rebecca Silverman
Rating:

This is the most beautiful book I've gotten to read for the guide since Inklore's hardcover editions of Under the Oak Tree. This is a publisher who knows how to make you feel good about buying a thirty-dollar comic book. Not even getting into the interior art, the book jacket is exquisite and made of a material that's thick and doesn't show fingerprints, and it covers a striking red cover with peonies lightly illustrated and the series' Chinese title in gold. The edges are black with red flowers and butterflies, and it's hefty without being painfully heavy. It is a showpiece.

And inside? Even if we were to discount the thick, glossy pages, the artwork is beautiful. Artist STARember manages to create art that's somewhere between ethereal and vivid, full of flowing, delicate lines and excellent use of light, particularly for any scene with the color red. It's the sort of book you could just stop reading and enjoy as an art piece, and the artist captures Xie Lian, the protagonist, particularly well. There's always a faintly apologetic air to his beauty, which absolutely works with who he is as a character, something the story only just starts to explore in this volume.

That's where things stumble a bit, although if I wasn't familiar with (and a fan of) Mo Xiang Tong Xiu's original novels, I don't think I'd notice it. This is very much an introductory volume, with a prologue that outlines how Xie Lian has ascended to heaven as a god not once, not twice, but three times, briefly touching on the fact that he's become persona non grata among the other gods. His adventures in this third go at godhood are important, starting with his attempt to find out what's going on with a so-called ghost groom who is capturing brides on their journeys, but novel readers will recognize that it stops short of truly introducing the other protagonist/romantic interest. (He's there, if you know where to look.) While this doesn't give the volume a disjointed feel, it is a mildly awkward start, even as it does a good job of showing us that Xie Lian is a better person than most of the gods and mortals he interacts with.

Despite the slightly slow start to the story, I do recommend sticking with it. And if you're already a fan of the series, I think this will make you very happy, plus you'll have an idea of where things are headed, which I suspect will help. Although it can be a bit of a slow burn, Heaven Official's Blessing is worth your time.

Lauren Orsini
Rating:

Have you ever seen a manhua so beautiful it took your breath away? The gorgeous full-color illustrations that make up the entirety of Heaven Official's Blessing belong in a museum. This is a collector's copy of the now well-established BL manga from Mo Xiang Tong Xiu, the author of Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation. Since the Heaven Official's Blessing novels received both a webtoon adaptation and a two-season donghua release in 2020 and 2023, I was already familiar with its content, but its reliance on Chinese wuxia tropes like heaven officials and martial gods makes it a bit unwieldy as an introduction to the genre for English speakers. Fans will enjoy seeing this story with excessively beautiful imagery, but its in-the-weeds introduction is not only challenging to understand, but barely introduces the BL ship at the center of the story.

Xie Lian used to have it all; he was a crown prince so accomplished, he ascended to godhood in his teens. But this and that happened and (record scratch) “Yeah that's me, Xie Lian, junk collector. You're probably wondering how I got here.” That's a mystery for another time since this volume launches right into the next chapter in Xie Lian's immortal life: as a spirit detective solving problems the other gods can't be bothered to deal with. Trivial stuff like… 17 brides going missing on their way to meet their new husbands. And Xie Lian is wondering: could the alluring ghost king Hua Cheng be the culprit behind it? I've seen this initial arc both novelized and animated before, and it's still a little tricky for me to follow because it relies on fantasy tropes I was entirely unfamiliar with before I read any danmei (Chinese BL) works. Some of the story elements, like the altar to a specific martial god being in poor repair, would be huge clues to people familiar with the genre, but flew right over my head. Plus there's the unsavory element of 17 dead young women and a profoundly petty ultimate reason they had to die. Also, the lifetime-spanning romance between Xie Lian and Hua Cheng is the central appeal of this story, but it isn't a major part of this initial volume, making for an inaccurate first impression.

I would recommend this book predominantly to fans of Mo Xiang Tong Xiu's other works (just give it a little time and it's a tearjerker slow-burn romance) as well as to people who are already fans of Heaven Official's Blessing in other formats. The beauty of this book is undeniable. It's just a bit too esoteric to capture uninvested readers with its looks alone.