Till the End of the Moon

Till the End of the Moon (Chinese: 长月烬明; pinyin: Chángyuè Jìn Míng) is a Chinese television series based on the novel Black Moonlight Holds the BE Script (黑月光拿稳BE剧本) by Teng Luo Wei Zhi (藤萝为枝), starring Luo Yunxi and Bai Lu. The series aired on Youku with 40 episodes on April 6, 2023. The drama was an international and domestic success breaking several records.
In order to save the world from Devil God Tantai Jin (澹台烬), Li Susu (黎苏苏), daughter of Hengyang Sect's leader, travels back 500 years and takes over the body of Ye Xiwu (叶夕雾). She is tasked to destroy the mortal Tantai Jin to prevent his transformation into the Devil God which was inhabiting his body via an evil bone embedded inside him. Unbeknownst to her, Ye Xiwu is married to Tantai Jin, who is currently a hostage prince from the Kingdom of Jing (景国). The two develop romantic feelings for each other, and Tantai Jin who was born without the ability to love, started falling in love with Li Susu. Li Susu who had intended initially to destroy him ended saving him repeatedly instead and even sacrifices herself in her attempts to change the fate of Tantai Jin and the world.
After losing Li Susu, a grief-stricken Tantai Jin searches for her soul for 500 years and was rescued by a cultivation sect. He becomes a disciple of the Xiaoyao Sect and meets the reborn Li Susu again. Just as the two rekindle their love, the revelation of Tantai Jin's birth nature nonetheless brings the three realms into danger again and Tantai Jin finally understood why Li Susu was often in a predicament when facing their relationship. Facing a brutal fate, Tantai Jin sets in motion a plan to stop the end of the world. This time however, he will decide the outcome.
The series began filming on October 16, 2021, and finished on March 26, 2022. This series marks the second Otter Studios production with Luo Yunxi in the leading role. It also features Huang Wei as costume director, Zeng Minghui as styling director, Luan Hexin as art director, and commissioned Huatian Studio to do worldbuilding.
Till the End of the Moon is a commercial success in China, helping Youku reach the highest number of downloads on the App Store since 2018, and netted a premiere day market share of 22.76% to become the most-watched period drama since 2020.
The drama has broken the record to become the drama with the highest official merchandise sales earning over 21 million yuan in overall sales as of May 2023. Mingye's bracelet was the most popular item, earning over 5 million yuan as of 18 May 2023.
Till the End of the Moon has been praised for its innovative storyline that emphasises the hero's understanding of his existence and the strength of the hero's internal locus of control. Its exquisite costumes, depictions of Dunhuang culture and Chinese mythology have been credited with promulgating classic Chinese culture. It is credited with boosting tourism direct GDP for relatively unknown cities of Bengbu and Xuancheng due to similarity to existing statues and place names. Bengbu for example, received a record amount of tourists during the end of April and the 2023 Labour Day holiday period with tourism GDP totalling to 2.594 billion largely due to the popularity of the series.
The drama was included in Alibaba Group's June Quarter 2023 Results as a contributor to Youku’s total subscription revenue growth of 5% year-over-year and revenue of RMB5,381million (US$742 million) for the Digital Media and Entertainment Group.
Till the End of the Moon was included as the third most popular Chinese cultural intellectual property of the year, wholly representing the keyword gufeng xianxia in the 2023 Annual Report on the Chinese Cultural Symbols International Communication Index released at the World Internet Conference.