Soul Land — the original novel

Before becoming a donghua, Soul Land started life as a web novel (小说) by Tang Jia San, serialized on Chinese web-fiction platforms. The story follows the same core plot as the animated adaptation, with the pacing and detail typical of the long-form web novel format.

Tang Jia San is one of China's most prolific web fiction authors, and Soul Land remains one of his most widely adapted works, alongside its sequel Soul Land II: The Peerless Tang Sect.