Only happen toward the end.

The time skip of 300 years is totally unnecessary.

It's not even explained well: "Oh no host, something went wrong."

The whole point of this novel and the friendship/love of the two main characters is that Xiao Mo roots for Chu Jinglan to live a happy and sucessful life after going through so much. Those 300 years felt like unneeded suffering, just to make the gong more yandere. Even if Xiao Mo unties those knots in his heart shortly after, why did the author think that this is a good idea? Maybe she couldn't come up with a good way to finish off the big boss and made it as anticlimatic as possible, by saying Chu Jinglan already finished all the work while Xiao Mo was forced to skip 300 years. This could have been a really solid novel with enemies to lovers who worked together and got a well deserved happy ending. It did not need so much extra pain in between. A timeskip that was shorter would have been totally fine.

The 9 Floor Pavilion arc ending... sigh. The whole conflict of XM being CJL’s inner demon had been building steadily, and I was looking forward to the inevitable confrontation between the two. Instead there’s nothing because XM ends up mind-controlling CJL into killing him, and CJL isn’t even conscious during the process. Like okay, that’s anticlimactic... hopefully the timeskip we know about from the summary isn’t too long and we get to the juicy fallout soon.

The timeskip is 300 goddamn years long. This ruins everything, and I’m only being a little overdramatic. A 300 year timeskip is a pacing issue in and of itself. All the previously interesting conflict is shelved and replaced by the new issue of CJL being a crazy obsessive mu*der hermit. One of the things I liked most was that XM and CJL were equals: in age, power, intellect. They balanced each other out. Now CJL is 300 years older and the unchallengeable god-king of the entire realm, while XM hasn’t lived half a day past 20 in any of his previous lives; maybe this isn’t too egregious a gap in the xianxia world, but for me (a lowly mortal) this is a ridiculous power imbalance. The final arc basically just being XM healing CJL with ~the power of love~ does not resolve this for me, and what started as a realistic relationship forged from mutual trust and affection ended up being kind of cliché and definitely off putting.

The Fortune Butterfly suddenly appeared out of nowhere and apparently gave them a mission to defeat a spider that also came out of nowhere??

The MC lost his spark. He became good at just about everything (except teaching, cause he's a genius and they Think Differently) --a generic and tragic silhouette with misty eyes and a forlorn figure. The author put more effort into traumatizing the male lead and giving him a yandere personality transplant. The MC became the most submissive/"devoted" partner out of guilt/love? For something that wasn't his fault. It felt really disingenuous: I felt like I was reading about a new doormat character instead of the MC. It's also frustrating because that's not how you treat that kind of trauma.

It would have been so much more fun if their cat/dog dynamic continued where they have small bickering arguments over meaningless things, but are still so cold/unaffected by everyone else.

Ironic how the author writes a book about subverting tropes like a white lotus harem, but had no problem giving us this weird yandere dynamic that feels forced? Author should have saved it for a different book or written better suited characters.

OP 'inner demon' skills—pass through walls, teleport back to host, super effective mental attacks against demonic cultivators!

Multiple secret realms that just help them get more and more OP & rich. Like suddenly gaining a lot of wealth from a random Moon Lord without much build up (if any?)

the hand holding runes marker thing (so obvious pls)

The sudden 300 year time skip just to create more trauma for ML so he can pull out the 'I wanna lock you up in my s*x dungeon (LOL) trope

1.5 marks butterfly thing. It was a little confusing and more 'uh ok... ' than 'omg, what do you mean by this!'

That the demon overlord could sense MC in his spirit form, so some close shaves, impending hurt would make it richer.

The heaven's will thing. Mildly confusing, apparently wrecked so much havoc, but so easily resolved?? Come on, give a bigger challenge.

Building Su Baimo up so much, as a negative example of similar blessing circumstance but human greed, etc. but he's quite pathetic and just an eyesore that didn't seem to add much.

The inner demon tribulation thing... I wish there were more solid reasons why it had to happen. It felt like the MC was coerced to traverse that mental logic of 'separate first to resolve then get back together' when the 1st half's MC wouldn't do that s*upid thing

Yeah there was a 300yr timeskip and it was cheap as shit. Whatever whatever MC fixed everything with the power of love... but Oh My God was it insufferable to read. Like I almost dropped it after seeing ml's inner dialogue about some yandere baloney I DID NOT SIGN UP FOR THIS !!!!

The ending was rushed I admit, but the characters did not necessarily become one dimensional. The way Xiao mo left him hurt him so much of course he’d become a sucker for love and go insane, it wasn’t because the author ONLY needed drama but also because of how his trust easily shattered. He planned to spend his life with Xiao mo and never even break through his cultivation but Xiao Mo in a moment of vulnerability took advantage of his trust and killed himself with his hands. Killing your beloved, who has been with you since you became crippled, when your mother died, when everyone has left him- with your hands? Who wouldn’t go insane? But that doesn’t mean Xiao mo is to blame (he had his own reasons.), but how he takes it upon himself to restore his beloved memories as a way of repayment for waiting so long and dying without even telling him shows how much he cares. Xiao mo wanted to show him that he’s back, wanted to show him that he didn’t waste 300 years being insane for nothing. Xiao mo wanted to HEAL Chu jinglan of the trauma he gave him even if it meant wasting another few years. Both protagonists were very good characters till the end.

The romance wasn’t necessarily out of nowhere too, the pace could be considered fast but again with their situation it was bound to be paced fast.