Daomu Biji (The Lost Tomb) Universe – The Right Order To Read & Watch Everything

(Last Updated: July 2022. This is a frequently updated post to reflect the most recent status of the Daomu Universe.)

As you may know, Daomu Biji, or The Lost Tomb / Grave Robbers’ Chronicles in English, is an epic novel series. The world building is extensive and the story expands into more and more mysteries as the timeline moves along. Apart from the Main Story which spans 9 parts, there are a number of sequels, prequels and extra stories. As of July 2021, author Nan Pai San Shu has built the universe to grow over 1600 chapters.

This post will talk about the chronological order of the books as well as other media adaptations, with the book titles translated by me. Please note that: 1) These English titles are not official. There may exist other versions of translations, and 2) Some of my title translations have been diverted slightly from the original meaning, since direct translation would unlikely make sense in English context.

Also, to provide an overview on the main events that take place in the Daomu universe, the blog is currently writing up English summaries for each book.

Allow me to also take this chance to answer a million-dollar question that I was once asked on Tumblr ^^: “How many volumes of Daomu Biji are there actually?”. Each line item below is actually one part, not one physical volume. The reason for this is because each part has a different number of chapters, thus it would be challenging to squeeze each into a separate volume. To help you better understand and gauge the length of each part, I have noted the number of volumes right below its Title. For easy estimation, each volume contains about 50-60 chapters.

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Daomu Biji The Novel

Main Story – 盗墓笔记 (Dàomù Bǐjì)
9 Parts/Books – 8 Volumes

Book 1. 七星鲁王宫 (Qī Xīng Lǔ Wáng Gōng): The Seven-Star Palace of Lu Shang Wang
Book 2. 怒海潜沙 (Nù Hǎi Qián Shā): Sands Hidden In The Raging Sea
Book 3. 秦岭神树 (Qín Lǐng Shén Shù): Qinling’s Sacred Tree
Book 4. 云顶天宫 (Yún Dǐng Tiān Gōng): Heavenly Palace On The Clouds
Book 5. 蛇沼鬼城 (Shé Zhǎo Guǐ Chéng): Ghost Kingdom of The Snakes
Book 6. 迷海归巢 (Mí Hǎi Guī Cháo): Homecoming
Book 7. 阴山古楼 (Yīn Shān Gǔ Lóu): Ancient Mansion Down Under
Book 8. 邛笼石影 (Qióng Lóng Shí Yǐng): Deadly Mansion, Mystic Cave
Book 9. 大结局: The Grand Finale

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Sequels

藏海花 (Zàng Hǎi Huā): Tibetan Sea Flower
2 Volumes & Unfinished

沙海 (Shā Hǎi): Sand Sea
4 Volumes & Unfinished

十年 (Shí Nián): Ten Years Later
1 Volume

重启之极海听雷 (Chóng Qǐ Zhī Jí Hǎi Tīng Léi): Reboot: Listening To Thunder At The Distant Sea
4 Volumes

灯海寻尸 (Dēng Hǎi Xún Shī): Finding Corpse In A Sea of Lights
+
万山极夜 (Wàn Shān Jí Yè): Final Night At Vast Mountains
3-4 volumes (TBC)

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Prequels

老九门 (Lǎo Jiǔ Mén): The Old Nine Gates
2 Volumes & Unfinished

南部档案 (Nán Bù Dǎng Àn): Archives of The South
1 Volume & Unfinished

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Extra Stories (to be updated)

Since 2009, Nan Pai San Shu has written many, many extra stories revolving around the families, organisations and individuals in the universe of Daomu, which spread across many different timelines.

Almost all of these are posted on his personal WeChat and not yet published as physical volumes. The Extra Stories are a mix of single-chapter and multi-chapter ones, totaling roughly 400+ chapters (and increasing).

Even till today, Extra Stories are still being released almost on a yearly basis (one could even say that Nan Pai San Shu writes a new extra whenever he feels like). Since I have not read all of them, the Extra Stories section will be continuously updated as and when I finish any new extra.

The Extra Stories below are listed in the order of the year that they came out (as much I could try to, since they are really all over the place).

Multi-Chapter Extra Stories

吴邪的私家笔记: Wu Xie’s Private Notes
贺岁篇 2009: New Year’s Writing 2009
贺岁篇 2014 · 幻境: New Year’s Writing 2014 · Illusion Realm
贺岁篇 2015 · 七指: New Year’s Writing 2015 · Seven Fingers
贺岁篇 2016 · 钓王: New Year’s Writing 2016 · Fishing King
贺岁篇 2017 · 盲塚: New Year’s Writing 2017 · The Blind Mound
贺岁篇 2018 · 南部档案: New Year’s Writing 2018 · Archives of The South
千面: Thousand Faces
雨村笔记: Rain Village Diary

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Single-Chapter/Short Extra Stories
(there are a lot of these, at least 50 or so)

三日静寂: Three Days of Silence
追忆@张起灵: Zhang Qiling’s Memories
解语花的一天: A Day of Jie Yuhua
黑瞎子师傅: Master Hei Xiazi
新春賀歲篇 2015 · 此時彼方: New Year’s Writing of Spring 2015 · Of Here, and Of There
原来随时死是这么一种感觉: Sometimes Death Is A Sort of Feeling
他们在干什么集: What Are They Doing
铁三角的雨村日常: The Daily Life of Iron Triangle in Yu Village
中秋段子 2019: Mid Autumn Festival 2019

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Daomu Biji The Dramas & Movies

With the understanding that many of us get to know Daomu via its drama adaptations, and the fact that I’ve been asked this question about a million times now LOL, I’m adding this specific portion to talk about the Order of watching all Daomu drama & movie adaptations till date.

I can imagine that Daomu dramas are rather confusing, because:

1. It changes the cast every single season.

2. The adaptations don’t smoothly connect to each other, for eg, season 2 ends at a cliffhanger but season 3 never follows it. Not to mention the time gap.

3. Each adaptation may come out whenever they feel like, adapt whichever part of the novel they feel like, and insert whatever random elements that the novel never mentions at all, as they feel like…

Saying that, sharing an important fact that the very author of the novel, Nan Pai San Shu, opens his own production company Nan Pai Entertainment to produce and supervise a number of adaptations for the books. However, the Main Story adaptations (aka The Lost Tomb 1 (2015), The Lost Tomb 2: Wrath of The Sea (2019), The Lost Tomb 2: Heavenly Palace on The Clouds and Ultimate Note (2020) dramas), are done by Huanrui Century, the company which Nan Pai San Shu sold the copyright of Main Story to. Now that may help to briefly explain why there is a gap in production quality between certain adaptations *ahem*, and why the drama adaptations’ order is all jumbled up. There’s a long, complex story behind all this copyright issue, if you are interested to hear more details, feel free to drop me a DM on my Tumblr.

So, even if you watch the dramas according to the exact order below, note that there won’t be a continuous story ( •́ ∧ •̀ ). With all that long-winded explanation, here’s the rough order:

Adaptation	Which part of the novel does it adapt?
The Lost Tomb 1 (12 episodes, 2015)	Main Story, Part 1: The Seven-Star Palace of Lu Shang Wang.
The Lost Tomb 2: Wrath of The Sea (40 episodes, 2019)	Main Story, Part 2: Sands Hidden In The Raging Sea, Part 3: Qinling’s Sacred Tree and first half of Part 4: Heavenly Palace On The Clouds.
The Lost Tomb 2: Heavenly Palace On The Clouds (24 episodes, 2021)	Main Story, Part 4: Heavenly Palace On The Clouds.
Ultimate Note (36 episodes, 2020)	Main Story, Part 5: Ghost Kingdom of The Snakes, Part 6: Homecoming, Part 7: Ancient Mansion Down Under and Part 8: Deadly Mansion, Mystic Cave.
Mystic Nine (48 episodes, 2016)	Prequel The Old Nine Gates, which takes place many years before Main Story. It mainly tells the story of the first generation of The Nine Gates, which includes Wu Xie’s grandfather Wu Lao Gou. Watching this will help you better understand the backstory of Daomu Biji Main Story.
Tomb of The Sea (52 episodes, 2018)	Sequel Sand Sea, which takes place 8-9 years after Main Story.
Time Raiders (1 movie, 2016)	Not part of the novel, but timeline-wise, it should be almost 10 years after Main Story. Specifically, the movie happens right before Wu Xie goes to the Bronze Gate to bring Zhang Qiling home after the latter has completed his duty of guarding the gate for 10 years.
Reunion: The Sound of The Providence (62 episodes, 2020)	Sequel Reboot: Listening To Thunder At The Distant Sea, which takes place 12 years after Main Story.

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Daomu Biji in Major Media

As one of the most influential and well-known webnovel series of China, it is no wonder that Daomu Biji has been adapted into various formats over the years. Dramas, movies, comics, animations, games, stage plays, original songs, concerts… you name it, we have it.

The below lists down all the major adaptations in the order of the year that they came out.

━ 2013 ━

━ 2014 ━

━ 2015 ━

━ 2016 ━

━ 2017 ━

━ 2018 ━

━ 2019 ━

━ 2020 ━

━ 2021 ━

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Daomu Biji in English

In English, Daomu Biji novel is published under the name The Grave Robbers’ Chronicles, also alternatively known as The Lost Tomb. So far, 6 paperback books of Main Story have been released and could be purchased from Amazon as a box set or Kindle e-books. The English volumes go under the following names:

Vol.1: Cavern Of The Blood Zombies
Vol.2: Angry Sea, Hidden Sands
Vol.3: Bronze Tree Of Death
Vol.4: Palace Of Doom
Vol.5: Deadly Desert Winds
Vol.6: Graveyard Of A Queen

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Something interesting to also share is that as of today, many of the sequels and extra stories, most notably Tibetan Sea Flower and Sand Sea, are actually not completed. The last-written chapter for Sand Sea came out in 2015. It is unsure whether Nan Pai San Shu will finish them one day. Considering that he is largely involved with a number of adaptation projects – such as supervising the animation series and producing the different dramas and movies – it is no surprise that he cannot write as often. After all, there is a long-running joke in the fandom that our dearest author loves ‘digging pits and leaving them unfilled‘ – meaning that he likes writing more stories of Daomu Biji but would never actually finish them. Way to leave your readers hanging in the air, Mr.Author.

It was reported that the latest sequel novel Daomu Biji: Reboot would have 2 more parts. In addition, up until today, the ever-burning question “WHAT REALLY IS BEHIND THE BRONZE GATE?” has never been answered…

Well then, guess we probably still have a long way to go.