After the Bone Demoness Broke Off the Engagement, the Holy Monk Went Mad

Five years ago, in the main hall of Mount Ling, I tore up my marriage contract in front of everyone and dumped Jin Chanzi. The Three Realms laughed at me for overestimating myself: what right did a White Bone Demon have to dream of a holy monk? I offered no explanation. I went back to White Tiger Ridge, got hold of a construction System, and laid flagstones, dug hot spring pools, and built guesthouses. I turned a barren wilderness into the Three Realms' top-tier star resort, booked solid in advance. Life was peaceful, until one evening, as I crouched beside a hot spring pool checking the water temperature, a blood-red System alarm suddenly filled the screen: the Ten-Lifetimes-Winning-Back-Your-Lover System had activated. Its target, Jin Chanzi, had broken through Mount Ling's defenses and was three miles from the mountain gate.

A person I hadn't seen in five years stood outside the mountain gate. His gray-white monk's robe was stained with mud. His kasaya lay folded on a stone pillar, and his monk's staff had cracked the flagstones. His right hand was clamped around his right knee, five fingers digging into the fabric. Those were the marks left on his bones by ten lifetimes of searching for me and coming up empty each time. He raised eyes that had held back for five years, for ten lifetimes, and fixed them on me through the mountain gate. His voice was hoarse. “You broke off our engagement five years ago, and I accepted it. Now, five years later, I've come to find you. Are you going to stop me?”

Once, he had fingered his prayer beads and recited the rules, pushing me into the abyss with a single “Please, benefactor, behave with propriety.” Now he'd abandoned his kasaya, shattered his prayer beads, and renounced his rank as a Buddha. He crouched at the entrance to my resort, hauling bricks and doing odd jobs. When Heaven tried to carve up my business, he stood against all the gods and Buddhas with his kasaya. When the System tried to separate us, he broke the bones in his hand and tore apart the barrier. I lowered my eyes to the half-missing ring finger on my left hand, then looked up calmly. Want to get back together? Start by clocking in. Take a number and wait in line.

An abstinent holy monk × a White Bone Demon who called off the engagement. A one-of-a-kind story: I dumped him, he went mad, and spent ten lifetimes trying to win me back.