Dinghai Fusheng Records Vol. 1 by Fei Tian Ye Xiang

Chen Xing is the last living exorcist charged with stopping the resurrection of Mara. To do this he must find his Protector so after his shifu passes he sets off into the world with only the heart lamp to guide him to find the person who will become the Protector Martial Guard. Not long after he leaves the heart lamp points him to Xiang Shu, who is currently being held prison in Xiangyang, after staging a daring (and mostly lucky) rescue of Xiang Shu Chen Xing assumes things will be smooth sailing from there, turns out that Xiang Zhu wants nothing to do with him though and sets off on his own. As the resentment builds in The Divine Land Chen Xing knows he must find some way to convince Xiang Shu to work with him or the entire world is doomed. 

Oh wow! I just finished book 2 of Legend of Exorcism which was absolutely amazing so I kinda figured this would be good but it was exceptional! Honestly, I thought at first that Xiang had maybe gone a little too hard on the enemies to (hopefully) lovers thing, but by the end, I was totally on board. Xiang Shu isn't just a lone wolf type character, he is essentially, a king in his own right. So his standoffish demeanor makes sense. He's used to giving orders and not having to be beholden to anyone. Whereas Chen Xing has this very naive and extremely reckless view of the world. He's got valid reasons for this don't get me wrong but his attitude of "Everything will work out in the end" is the antithesis of Xiang Shu's more realistic world view. You can feel Xiang Shu rolling his eyes more than a few times. 

Side characters were awesome as well, all of them and there are quite a few of them that play integral roles in the story. If any of them had been less fully realized than they were this simply wouldn't have been half as good. Fu Jian especially was interesting. As the Emperor he is a strong leader who doesn't seem to take advantage of his position often but he never lets anyone forget that he's the guy in charge. This allows for an undercurrent of tension that has to be there to make this story work as well. 

This was incredibly fast paced and the world building was excellent. What I really loved about this though is that Xiang truly ensures that if anyone thought that Danmei is just smut, they haven't been paying attention. Endless wars have allowed resentment and hatred to fester, while in Chang'an everything is peaceful on the surface if you peel back the cover you find that its not. Outside of Chang'an it's even worse and just like in real life the more Fu Jian tries to conquer this by force the bigger that resentment grows. This was a very timely release given the current state of our world and Chen Xing makes a speech towards the end of this that drives the point home that you can't expect after decades of war people simply aren't going to be happy. 

Highly recommend this one and personally I think this would be a great danmei for someone is interested in starting to read this niche genre.