The Founder of Diabolism: Final Season

Mo Dao Zu Shi, also called The Founder of Diabolism, is a Chinese animated series. Chinese animation is often called donghua. It is based on the web novel Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation by the writer Mo Xiang Tong Xiu, which was first posted online from 2015 to 2016. Tencent Penguin Pictures and B.C May Pictures made the show, and it streamed on Tencent Video. The first season began in July 2018. This third and final season started on August 7, 2021, and the whole series ended on October 16, 2021, after 35 episodes. The same novel also became the hit live-action drama The Untamed in 2019.

The story is set in a world of cultivators. In Chinese fantasy, a cultivator is a person who trains their body and spirit to gain magic powers and long life. The cultivators belong to great clans, such as Gusu Lan, Yunmeng Jiang, and Lanling Jin, and these clans fight over power. Wei Wuxian was once a famous and feared figure called the Yiling Patriarch, known for using dark arts that others saw as evil. Years after his death, a young man named Mo Xuanyu gives up his own life in a ritual that brings Wei Wuxian back in Mo Xuanyu's body. Wei Wuxian soon meets Lan Wangji again. They were classmates long ago. Lan Wangji is cold, strict, and quiet, the opposite of the playful Wei Wuxian, but he stays loyally at his side.

The main thread of the series is a mystery about a body that was cut into pieces and hidden in different places. In this final season, the pair follow that trail to Yi City, a strange, empty town full of fog. There they learn a dark story from the past, about people whose lives went terribly wrong. The trail then leads up to the very top of the cultivation world, to Jin Guangyao, the respected leader of the Jin clan. As the truth comes closer, many of Wei Wuxian's old friends begin to doubt him again. He must clear his name and stop a plan that could hurt everyone.

The show mixes action, ghost stories, and mystery with deep feelings. It moves between the present day and long flashbacks to the past, so the viewer slowly learns what really happened years ago. Sword fights, flute music, and spirit magic make up most of the action. The bond between the two leads is the emotional heart of the story. The original novel is a well-known boys' love (BL) story, a genre about romance between men, and the animation shows their deep bond in a softer way.

The series is one of the most important donghua of recent years. It drew strong ratings in China and many fans abroad, who found it through sites like MyAnimeList, Twitter, and Tumblr. It helped more people outside China discover Chinese animation.