Bronze Tree of Death

The Grave Robbers' Chronicles #3

by Lei Xu, Kathy Mok (Translation)

Uncle Three is nowhere to be found and to make matters worse, there’s convincing evidence that he may be a liar and a killer. Exhausted and discouraged, his nephew decides to abandon the family business of robbing ancient graves with the intention of resuming the life of an honest man. Then his childhood friend emerges from prison with a scheme that promises treasure and adventure—along with the possibility of finding Uncle Three, as well as savage monkeys with a tendency toward kleptomania, gigantic rats who hunger for human flesh, a band of rival grave robbers who believe murder is a justifiable step to take when trying to achieve success, and a mysterious bronze tree that conceals deadly secrets.

Genres: Horror, China, Adventure

264 pages, Paperback

Published April 12, 2025

Reviews

[Sandra J · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this book. The main protagonist is in search of his uncle, and for that very reason accompanies his childhood friend (who is fresh from prison), to a grave robbing expedition. This time without Uncle Three, Poker Face or Panzi, they have to fend for themselves.
On the road they meet many adversaries; other grave robing gangs, monkeys, zombies Atlantic Salmons resembling piranhas and many more. Nothing and no one is as they seem in the cave of the Bronze three. The bronze three of death. got its name due to being made of bronze and being a sacrificial subject for pleasing/tempting the deities, guarded by more than legends, and creatures far more worse that ever imagined.

[ZhuoYan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book deserves a higher rating if it's a standalone novel, because of its' themes and horror, I feel like it has the highest literary value in the whole series. But I recommend you to skip this novel and read it after completing the series, because it is not related to the main story line. Think of that: after the second book, the relationship of the golden trio starts to form, the secrets of the past starts to show, you open the third book, desperate for the new adventures of Wu Xie, Zhang Qiling and Pangzi, and you see: not related to the story line? your favorite characters nonexistent? I bet you can feel my rage when starting on this book. However, this story turns out pretty nice and it has a solid ending, which is pretty rare for this author.

[reni · Rating 1 out of 5]

COME ON, I WANT TO ENJOY THIS

the first book was okay, i loved the second one, and then came this one and i just.... dragged myself through it. I am so sad.

i'm gonna be honest: wu xie annoyed me to death, and i just couldn't bring myself to care about any of the side characters. i just couldn't do it. none of them were even remotely interesting or likeable and i was just basically waiting for them to die. i feel so bad about saying this because i'm still very fond of the adaptations but this one just didn't work for me at all. the book felt directionless, the first 150 pages were so slow i considered dnf-ing, and the rest was packed with so many twists and turns that after a while i was just tired of them. i see the potential in the story and as i've said before, i have a feeling that i would be able to appreciate it much more if i could read it in chinese, but there are some things that i just can't blame on the translation.

[Jordan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book!

I sincerely missed Kylin and Fatty but Wu Xie really is a magnet for supernatural creatures, isn't he? I found the story very interesting and quite puzzling...On to the next!

[Stephanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Still pretty dumb and fun. This one didn't have Pangzi and Xiaoge but it was nice to see Wu Xie coming into his own.

[Evelyn · Rating 2 out of 5]

This one felt like such a slog. Most of this wasn't interesting at all until about 80% in? And that's not actually because I already know the plot from the drama - The Lost Tomb 2 didn't feel like this at all, but then again they also added Xiao Ge and Pangzi into the plot and worked in a lot more elements to justify their presence. Let's go drama!

I'm done talking about the quality of this translation, the conclusion is that it isn't good. It's ok sometimes, but ultimately it drove me up a wall how many times it cut entire paragraphs of explanation from the original text and made up dialogue in between to bridge the gap. Just why. I feel like I'm missing half the story when I try to just read the book for an extended period of time without checking it against the fan translation. Who approved such big cuts? Someone allergic to context?

The Bronze Tree is truly a boring adventure, I'm sorry Wu Xie. The interesting parts were at the end because I didn't know how they would resolve without Xiao Ge's presence. It's actually quite stand-alone too since nothing that's happening here is actually relevant to the larger plot.

Side note, I wonder if Lei Xu just adds things in sometimes and doesn't wonder about the long-term consequences on his series. Like... the implication that Wu Xie will, for several years, probably be able to lowkey subconsciously alter reality due to his contact with the bronze tree is absolutely wild. And I don't like it. It'll add this element of "is this really happening organically? Did this people truly come to save him or is this just what Wu Xie wants to have happening?". Though I'm placing my bets that moving forward it'll be explained that he has to be close to the bronze tree or something like it for it to actually work. Idk. Just to fix this. Since this story actually doesn't work into the larger plot of the series and is mostly stand-alone in this form. And how can Lei Xu actually keep an ability like that. He may have gone a bit far introducing it with Lao Yang in the first place. It's one thing to say that being close to the tree had those weird altering effects, but to imply that even away from the tree, having been near it you will be able to alter things subconsciously? It's too much. it makes me skeptical about all things happening after - do things work out for Wu Xie just because of this? Again, I think this plot point is going to be done away with, but why bring it in at all?

Also, another rant about things I know will happen because of the dramas: Knowing Wu Xie gets sick later on in the series, it kinda pisses me off that here we're told the qilin blood is just really good medicine with no known side-effects. Sure, the "no known" leaves a little room for Lei Xu to make him sick later, but I still can't accept that something developed as medicine would somehow leave the bad things in your body long term. Like, it's only holding it back, not actually getting rid of the poisons as they attack your body? And so as soon as the medicine wears off all of the things it was saving you from just attack you together and leave you dying? Some things I swear to god I'm learning and just closing my eyes too because I prefer my plot without them lmao... Like, I would prefer the qilin blood just keep working tbh. And if it stops working you just go back to normal, since it should've been doing its job all along eliminating the threats trying to poison you. Idk idk just ugh.

[Nina Waters · Rating 4 out of 5]

I feel like I should write a "real" review but honestly I can think of no reaction beyond the incredulity I wrote in my blog so I'm just going to copy and paste that (and edit out the curse words, and block out the entire thing as being spoiler-ridden.)

I finished reading the third book of the Graverobber’s series last night (as in, the books by Lei Xu that the Lost Tomb series’ are based on) and can I say, from the bottom of my heart,

WHAT THE ACTUAL HECK

did I read?

Like, I don’t know what about that book is more abso-dang-lutely insane. Is it that we’ve now gone THREE ENTIRE BOOKS without the protagonists name ever being said? Is it that there’s never any explanation for how this entire other group of grave robbers know so much about this place, yet it never occurs to Wu Xie that this might become a problem again in the future? Is it the fact that I’m absolutely positive based on how the first two books went that none of this will ever be relevant again? Is it that once again, they’ve gone an entire book without getting basically any loot? Is it the absolutely ridiculous amount of random stuff that’s perpetually in their bags, yet somehow Wu Xie NEVER seems to put together that that’s because of the tree, even at the last extreme when he oh-so-fortunately finds a flare gun? Is it the realization that Wu Xie finds this tree that can grant any wish, learns it can control people, knows that it’s powers can be extended by carrying parts of it away, and then just kinda shrugs, goes, “well that’s a thing that happened” and never talks about it again? Is it the casual, “oh, look, the bronze tree reincarnated undead youthified corpse of my oldest friend’s mom kinda looks like she has an evil gleam in her eye and I know they’re both impossible hell beasts that will likely murder people just for funsies and then feed their blood to a snake god so they can make lamp oil but I guess I’ll just never think about it again” which is a LITERAL PARAPHRASING of the last sentence of the book? LIKE THAT’S LITERALLY WHAT HAPPENS WHAT?????

WHAT. THE @$^@$%. IS THIS BOOK???

[Darcy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reading and reviewing as a fan of the drama series:

The drama took liberties writing Xiao Ge and Pangzi into this particular story as they are completely absent from this book. While I love my iron triangle, this version of the story is definitely more cohesive although not vastly different from the drama. It was also fun to see Wu Xie starting to come into his own without his friends there to save his ass.

I’m still not a major fan of this translator’s writing style. Everything feels very dry and I don’t think I’d be able to detect the nuances of emotion in various scenes if I weren’t already familiar with the storyline and the characters. Wu Xie’s particular brand of deadpan sarcasm truly isn’t done justice. Translating a foreign work is never easy though it certainly feels like this translator went for a literal translation without bothering to capture the vibe and atmosphere of the story. However, I still appreciate the effort!

Looking forward to seeing the iron triangle back together in the next book!

[Ari · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wu Xie managed to stay alive without Zhang Qilin and Fatty Wang by his side :))
Wu Xie's biggest threat this time came from human, who's even more lethal than zombie, vampire or carnivorous insect he's been encountered before.

And honestly I found this third book story was rather sad. Imagine your childhood friend wasnt the person you knew anymore because of some ancient artifact damned power.

Onto book three and I have to give my all four thumbs for Xu Lei and the translator. Mr. Xu Lei wrote great dialogues and the translator delivered it perfectly!

[Jennifer Mae · Rating 4 out of 5]

Even better than the first two books in the series and one heck of an adventure. In the earlier novels it seemed like others characters were driving the story while Wu Xie was just carried along with them. With this entry he comes into his own and drives the story. It was also more of a complete story with it's own beginning and end showing that the author is coming into his own as well. I'm really looking forward to what happens next.

[G · Rating 3 out of 5]

With the third installation of the series, we unfortunately miss the "friends" acquired in the first two books. I found the childhood friend much less interesting than Panzi, Fats, and Qilin, so I'm looking forward to their return. It also seems like a mostly irrelevant interruption to the story of the other books, though maybe later it will become evident that that wasn't the case.

The writing is getting better throughout the series, though, so that's helpful.

[Autistic Goblin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting

Well this book won’t be my favourite in the series it was at least an interesting read. It also helped to explain parts I didn’t quite understand in the tv show Lost Tomb 2. I missed having the team together and can’t wait to read the next book.

[L. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kinda of weak as a stand alone story, but as part of the larger series I hope the events that happened here will have some impact on the larger puzzle/story. Unsure of how at the moment, as this book seemed like a complete diversion from the overall plot, but I am eager to see where it goes.

[Pascale · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked it. Action is good, you can't think too much about how logical things are but it's entertaining :)

I admit I missed Poker-Face & Fats though...

[Hillary · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one was spookier than the previous novels, and felt a bit more tightly plotted as well. I did miss Poker Face and Fats, though.