What Should I Do About My Spendthrift Crush?

Immortal Lord Zhenye has failed to ascend seven times.

After his seventh failure, he decides to give up.

But when he ventures outside, he finds that something about the world seems off.

It still looks clear and bright, full of immortal aura, but what he sees beneath the surface tells a different story:

Three-headed white rabbits; bright green frogs covered in eyes; honest villagers reeking of decay, baring their teeth as they fake friendly smiles;

And that innocent-looking young man, with dark power clawing at the air behind him, yet convinced he’s hidden it well enough that nobody can tell.

There is, however, one thing that comforts the immortal lord.

The spiritual energy around his cave abode is still fairly pure, and there’s an inexhaustible supply of it, available for use...

One day, the extravagant immortal lord suddenly realizes that the spiritual energy near his cave abode is almost gone.

And the young man finally shows his true colors.

Zhu Fantian, a natural-born demon, has been in love with Immortal Lord Zhenye for more than thirty thousand years.

From a world brimming with spiritual energy to one where all life withers and the land becomes a wasteland.

Worried that Zhenye, untouched by worldly dust, might fail to ascend and have no spiritual energy to use after emerging from seclusion, Zhu Fantian draws on his own thirty thousand years of cultivation to store up spiritual energy across every mountain and valley. There should be enough for the immortal lord to use as much as he likes for several thousand years.

As for what happens after those few thousand years, he’ll think of something then!

Things go exactly as he expected: the immortal lord fails to ascend again.

And he emerges from seclusion.

But things aren’t quite as he imagined...

The one he’s secretly loved is far too wasteful.

More than thirty Cleanse Spells every day, a Spirit-Fasting and Scented Pill with every meal without fail, Incense of Peaceful Dreams every night, and a Hundred-Flower Path for his morning strolls...

Every one of them consumes a huge amount of spiritual energy.

At last, the spiritual energy he’d planned to last for several thousand years quickly runs dry.

Immortal Lord Zhenye looks at the black-clad, long-haired young man standing there awkwardly, fidgeting with the hem of his clothes as he timidly asks:

"Although the spiritual energy is gone, I have plenty of dark-world energy. Would you accept it all as my dowry, Immortal Lord?"

Theme: All things wither, but love endures.