Three Years of Devotion, All for His Lie

Chapter 1

Everyone in the capital knew that the heir, Dorian Montague, was deeply in love with Isabella Everett, the daughter of a minister.

Isabella once accidentally drew a divination at Cloudspire Monastery that declared she was "destined to be childless," and from then on no one in the capital dared to marry her.

Dorian then claimed that he had also drawn a fortune at Cloudspire Monastery saying he too was destined to have no children. He knelt in the ancestral hall for three days and nights, endured thirty-three lashes, and nearly lost half his life before finally bringing Isabella into the Montague family as his wife.

On their wedding night, though he had never believed in God, he sought out a priest for guidance and obtained a way to avert the calamity. Willingly renouncing the world, he went to cultivate in seclusion at Cloudspire Monastery, where he donned the robes of a priest and spent three years striking the wooden fish in prayer.

For those same three years, Isabella lived as a wife without a husband.

Yet she never complained. She had always been waiting for the day they would be reunited.

For 999 days, regardless of wind or rain, Isabella climbed the mountain every single day. From the foot of the mountain she would kneel and bow once every three steps, making her way up all 999 steps to Cloudspire Monastery at the summit. When she arrived, she would copy the Diamond Sutra in her own blood and burn it on the spot as a prayer for blessings.

The senior priest had told her that sincere devotion would bring a response.

Today was the final day, and Isabella arrived especially early.

It was the depth of winter. Even the rain in the sky had frozen into pellets of snow that turned to ice upon touching the ground.

"May my husband Dorian live in joy and peace and reach a hundred years of age."

Isabella bowed devoutly to the ground. Step by step she climbed upward, kneeling and knocking her head every few steps, repeating the same prayer again and again.

Rosie Banks held an umbrella over her, yet it was of little use. Snow pellets covered the fox fur cloak, and white mist escaped from Isabella's lips as she shivered. Still she continued the motion of standing and kneeling without pause.

The endless steps stretched upward without end. One careless slip would send a person tumbling down to certain death.

When she finally reached the Cloudspire Monastery's gate, she stumbled and fell heavily to the ground. A large bump rose on her forehead, and her fox fur cloak was stained with dark mud.

Isabella hurriedly climbed to her feet. It would be disrespectful to copy the sutra in such a disheveled state.

Rosie quickly found her a warm meditation room to change clothes.

As long as she finished copying the final Diamond Sutra in blood, the heavenly fate that declared the two of them "destined to be childless" would finally be broken.

Dorian could then return to the secular world and come home to her. They would have many children and grow old together.

At the thought of this, the smile on Isabella's face grew brighter. She used a dagger to cut open her wrist, and the familiar pain of the past three years spread through her arm.

The brush dipped into warm blood. Before it could touch the paper, indecent sounds suddenly came from the meditation room next door.

"My lord, you come here every day to entangle with me. What if the Heir's Consort finds out?"

"She is busy kneeling and copying sutras in blood. How would she have time to care about us. Be good and turn over."

"But today is the final day. What should I do in the future?"

"It was only so that I could take you in that I arranged for her to draw that childless fortune. Yet on the day she entered the household she still looked down on you and embarrassed you. After three years, she surely no longer has the pride she once had. You watch her kneel here in such a miserable state every day with me. Are you still not reassured?"

Aurora Meadow was Dorian's personal maid.

On the day Isabella married into the heir's residence, Dorian brought Aurora before her.

"This is a concubine my mother chose for me to continue the family line."

Isabella immediately thought of her own supposed childless fate and frowned uneasily.

Dorian could not bear to see her upset. He immediately sent Aurora away and held Isabella in his arms to comfort her for a long time.

But Aurora soon appeared at the door of the bridal chamber. She stood on a chair with a white silk rope in her hand, tears streaming down her face.

"If the Heir's Consort cannot tolerate this servant, then grant me a white silk rope so that I may hang myself cleanly."

Fearing that a death would anger his mother, Dorian spent the entire night coaxing Aurora in a side room. He never came to the bridal chamber, and their marriage was never consummated.

He said, "Isabella, today is our joyous wedding day. It would be better not to stain it with ill fortune."

Yet the next day he took out a very unlucky fortune slip from Cloudspire Monastery.

"The priest said that you and I are destined to have no children. This is heaven's will. But if the one who loves me kneels in prayer for 999 days and copies the Diamond Sutra in blood to pray for blessings, it can be resolved. Isabella, are you willing?"

When Isabella was young she once fell into the water, and it was Dorian who saved her despite the danger. From that day on she had secretly given him her heart.

Later it was also Dorian who fabricated the lie that he too was destined to be childless and took the initiative to marry her.

Ignoring the objections of her parents, Isabella insisted on beginning the prayers for Dorian on the second day after their wedding. She soon became the well known love struck madwoman of the capital.

To show his sincerity, Dorian also waited for her at Cloudspire Monastery every day.

He once said, "Isabella, you have done so much for me. I will never betray you. Having no children is not such a great matter. But now that we are husband and wife, if you were to have no sons or daughters because of me and carry regret in your heart, I would never be able to redeem myself even in death."

He also said, "I will wait for you at Cloudspire Monastery. As husband and wife, we will work together for our children. Isabella, though I have left the secular world, my six senses are not pure. Let God show mercy and allow me to devote myself to you alone."

At that time Isabella had been so moved that she cried. She believed she had found the happiness of her life. She believed that Dorian had willingly taken on the blame of being childless for her sake and could not even bear to reopen her wounds.

But today God had opened her eyes and shown her the truth.

The one he devoted himself to was not her, but the maid who had first shared his bed, Aurora.

Every day he came to Cloudspire Monastery not to wait for her, but simply to watch her miserable state together with Aurora.

God had shown mercy and allowed her to see the truth today.

Three years of devotion had become a joke.

Amid Aurora's soft gasps, the brush in Isabella's hand suddenly snapped. The broken tip fell onto the rice paper and spread into a strange blossom of blood.

She grabbed Rosie, who was about to kick the door open, and shook her head.

So the kneeling and prayers of the past three years had all been nothing but a lie.

A monstrous lie created because of a baseless accusation.

Isabella's face turned pale. She stared at the wound on her wrist that she had cut open day after day for the past three years before it could heal. The scar gaped open like a mouth, and the swollen ridges around it twisted like worms that mocked her foolishness.

She gave a bitter smile and lifted the brush again. She had already copied 998 Diamond Sutras for him. Once this final one was finished, it would be considered repayment for the life he once saved.

The brush soaked in blood as she carefully began copying the scripture with complete focus.

When she reached the final prayer, the familiar words she had written countless times before suddenly refused to appear.

"May my husband Dorian live in joy and peace and reach a hundred years of age."

No matter how hard she tried, she could not write it.

After thinking for a moment, she wrote instead.

"May the benefactor who saved Isabella in her childhood obtain his heart's desire."

Isabella stood up. Suddenly she remembered the young man who had ridden away to the battlefield three years ago. His eyes had been filled with loneliness.

"Isabella, the frontier is full of danger and life and death are uncertain. If one day you change your mind, as long as I am still alive, no matter if mountains collapse or rivers run dry, I will come to welcome you."

Isabella lowered her eyes slightly.

For the past three years he had sent letters every month. They spoke only of daily life in the army and polite greetings. Yet the final two words were always the same, filled with expectation.

Waiting for your reply.

But she had never answered.

Isabella looked at the sutra before her, the blood not yet dry. Her gaze fell on the words "obtain his heart's desire," and something suddenly stirred in her heart.

She said, "Rosie, send a letter to the General's residence and tell them this."

"Seven days from now, I will wait for his wedding palanquin."