The Exorcism Universe Explained: What's Actually Out

If you're starting the Exorcism Universe now, start with Dinghai Fusheng Records. It's the first story in the timeline, it's the shorter of the two series already in English print, and it's one volume from finished. Legend of Exorcism is the bigger and better-known book, and you can read it first without getting lost. You'll just meet the world's history in reverse.

The author is Fei Tian Ye Xiang (非天夜翔), credited in English as Arise Zhang. Seven Seas has licensed three of the novels set in this world. DanmeiNews counts two more in Chinese, and nobody official has said a word about them.

Image: Seven Seas Entertainment covers, left to right: Dinghai Fusheng Records, Legend of Exorcism, Legend of Metempsychosis

Exorcism Universe Reading Order

Both of the first two are finished in Chinese; JJWXC marks each one complete. The two unlicensed books are Post Training Notice: National First-Class Registered Exorcist (国家一级注册驱魔师上岗培训通知) and Record of All Things (万物风华录). We haven't placed them in the timeline because no source we opened does.

Why the English Order Runs Backwards

Fei Tian Ye Xiang wrote the middle book first. Legend of Exorcism ran on JJWXC through 2017, and Dinghai Fusheng Records didn't start until two years later. English print kept that order: Tianbao's first volume reached shelves about three months before Dinghai's. So plenty of English readers met Hongjun and Li Jinglong before they ever heard of Chen Xing.

Seven Seas' pages only say the books share a world. Dinghai's series page calls it "set in the same universe as Legend of Exorcism", and the Anime Expo announcement sells Metempsychosis as "from the fan-favorite author and universe of" the other two. The numbering, first, second, third, comes from DanmeiNews' series pages, which put Dinghai first and Metempsychosis third. When the third license landed in July, u/swiftnissity92 on r/DanmeiNovels spotted the pattern: "Seems like they're licensing the Exorcist universe in timeline order over publication order for whatever reason."

DanmeiNews went a step further and read the license as a hint that, depending on series sales, Seven Seas "would be open to publishing the remaining two entries in the universe". That's a fan news site's reading, not a Seven Seas promise, and we wouldn't plan a shelf around it.

Does the order matter much? Put the three premises side by side and the shared parts are easy to see. Chen Xing's only power is a heart lamp meant to find his destined Protector. Hongjun is sent to join the Great Tang Department of Demonic Exorcism. The Metempsychosis leads, under the Song, set out to find the heart lamp and revive the Department of Exorcism. Different couples, different centuries: we'd expect reading out of order to cost you lore, not a cliffhanger.

The newest book in the timeline, its leads and its 2027 date.

Legend of Metempsychosis License Wave →

What Chapter 1 of Each Book Is Like

We read the first chapter of both finished books in Chinese on JJWXC on October 15, 2026: the free chapters, not the Seven Seas translation. They open in completely different moods.

Screenshot: JJWXC book page for 定海浮生录 (Dinghai Fusheng Records), October 15, 2026

Dinghai Fusheng Records starts in a snowstorm over Xiangyang, a starving city held by Jin troops with a Qin army of two hundred thousand outside the walls. Chen Xing, sixteen and blindfolded, has talked his way in to see the governor, Zhu Xu, and keeps correcting everyone: he isn't a sorcerer, he's an exorcist, and this is the third time he's said so. The officers want miracles. Can he turn beans into soldiers? Read the stars? He points at his blindfold. What he wants is every able-bodied man lined up so his heart lamp can pick out his destined protector. Twelve thousand soldiers stand in the square and the lamp ignores them all. Instead it drags him to the deepest cell of the prison, to a chained prisoner nearly starved to death. Chen Xing takes the blindfold off to get a better look, and an official yells that he's been faking it. The JJWXC blurb adds the sting: Chen Xing will end his own life at twenty, so he has four years. It's a comedy about a hero nobody believes, and it moves fast.

Screenshot: JJWXC book page for 天宝伏妖录 (Legend of Exorcism), October 15, 2026

Legend of Exorcism opens bigger and sadder. A great black bird lands at a golden palace on the snowbound Taihang peaks with a bundle: the four-year-old orphan of Kong Xuan, left for the palace's ruler, Chongming, to raise. Chongming orders the boy thrown off a cliff, then sheds a tear over him anyway. Twelve years later that boy is Hongjun. He has spent three years hunting down snow-lotus powder to cure his adoptive father's fire poison, blows it into the throne room, and sets off a sneezing fit of fireballs that puts the whole palace in flames. His reward is three strokes of a ruler and standing facing a wall until dark.

One chapter each can't tell you how the books end. It does tell you Dinghai's voice is lighter and quicker, and Tianbao's is warmer and more mythic.

Where to Read and Watch It Officially

• English print: Dinghai Fusheng Records and Legend of Exorcism from Seven Seas, dates in the table above. Legend of Metempsychosis is listed at $20.99 for its first volume.
• Audio: Seven Seas has a Legend of Exorcism Vol. 1 audiobook, out since December 18, 2025 and just under ten hours long.
• Comics: the Dinghai Fusheng Records manhua is also out in English from Seven Seas.
• Chinese: both finished novels are on JJWXC, where the opening chapters are free.
• Animation: both books have donghua adaptations. Bilibili's official YouTube channel has the whole first season of Legend of Exorcism in one English-subtitled compilation:

Video: Anime Made By Bilibili, Legend of Exorcism (天宝伏妖录) season 1 compilation, English subtitles

Never read danmei before, or not sure what JJWXC is?

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What Readers Say About the Exorcism Universe

A September thread on r/DanmeiNovels asked whether anyone had read Fei Tian Ye Xiang's other novels, and the answers split usefully:

• u/smugjong ranked the two after Joyful Reunion: "Dinghai is my personal second favorite. I adore how he writes relationships."
• u/AlwaysTheNerd put Legend of Exorcism "pretty close" to Joyful Reunion and called Dinghai "more goofy".
• u/Gold_Strength didn't get on with Dinghai: "It got a little too confusing towards the end."

"Goofy" matches the chapter we read. The confusing late chapters are the risk we'd flag, and a first chapter can't test it.

Our Take

Read Dinghai Fusheng Records first: it's where the story starts, and it's the one you can finish in English soonest. If you already own Tianbao, don't wait: start there and treat Dinghai as the prequel. Leave Metempsychosis for 2027, and ignore talk of the last two books until Seven Seas announces something. The author's other Seven Seas license, Seizing Dreams, is a different animal: Seven Seas pitches it only as "From the author of" Legend of Exorcism, and its premise is a modern dreamscape story, not exorcists.

How We Checked This

Release dates and volume counts come from the Seven Seas series pages and its Anime Expo post; chapter counts, dates and length from the two JJWXC book pages; the timeline and the two unlicensed titles from DanmeiNews. We read chapter 1 of Dinghai Fusheng Records and Legend of Exorcism in Chinese on October 15, 2026, and nothing past it. Seven Seas dates can still move.

Related Reading

• Legend of Metempsychosis Gets a Seven Seas English License
• Seven Seas Anime Expo 2026 Licenses: All 15 in One Place
• Priest Danmei Author Profile: What to Read After Sha Po Lang
• What Is Danmei? A Beginner's Guide

References

• Seven Seas: Dinghai Fusheng Records official series page
• Seven Seas: Legend of Exorcism official series page
• Seven Seas: Legend of Metempsychosis official series page
• Seven Seas: 15 new licenses at Anime Expo 2026
• JJWXC: 天宝伏妖录 (Legend of Exorcism)
• JJWXC: 定海浮生录 (Dinghai Fusheng Records)
• DanmeiNews: Dinghai Fusheng Records series page
• DanmeiNews: Legend of Exorcism series page
• DanmeiNews: Seven Seas announces four new danmei and baihe licenses (July 5, 2026)
• r/DanmeiNovels: Legend of Metempsychosis announced by Seven Seas