In the Shadow of My Husband’s Ascension

When she was fifteen, Zhao Zhao came upon a young man lying in the snow. He was ethereal in bearing, bereft of all memory, and beautiful in appearance. While he always wore a quiet, solitary smile, this young man was gifted with a rare intellect, he could grasp things at a glance and master them in a single attempt. When she reached the age of marriage, Zhao Zhao slipped quietly beneath his window and asked if he would be willing to join her household and walk with her through the years to come. The young man smiled and said yes. For the next two years, they lived in marital bliss; harmonious, sweet, and tender. Zhao Zhao thought life would always be like this until the day he disappeared without a word. That same night, Zhao Zhao had a dream. In it, she saw her husband as the heartless Dao Lord from the Immortal Realm of Kunwu. He was wielder of life and death in the cultivation world, supreme and unmatched. But he was also the villain of a tale, fated to fall into demonic corruption and be slain by the male and female lead. Not even his bones would remain. Upon waking, Zhao Zhao traveled thousands of miles, climbing the sacred mountains untouchable by mortals, determined to tell him of her prophetic dream and save him from a doomed fate. After enduring countless hardships, the only response she received from the exalted immortals was: “Dao Lord says: All that came before was merely inexorable tribulation. Now that it has passed, mortal ties must be severed. Henceforth, our paths need not cross again.” Only when she received an elixir of longevity as a ‘breakup gift’ did Zhao Zhao realize that what she thought was ‘fated love’ had been nothing more than a fleeting moment in his thousand-year journey. Zhao Zhao: F*ck this! Save him my foot! s*umbags deserve to die! So she turned on her heel, ready to switch sides and join the sect of the female lead. Zhao Zhao vowed to train hard, grow strong, and practice immortality long enough to see the day the male and female leads stabbed that s*umbag through the heart. Unfortunately, she arrived too early. The legendary sect of the future was barely holding together, on the verge of collapse. And the future sword-wielding couple? They were five years old, scrawny and sickly, one breath away from keeling over. Zhao Zhao’s original revenge plan: Live long enough to watch the s*umbag die (crossed out) Zhao Zhao’s revised revenge plan: Save this dirt-poor dying sect and make sure the leads survive long enough to kill that damn s*umbag. *** After surviving his inexorable tribulation, Xie Lanshu returned with newfound power and stood atop the immortal dais, receiving homage from all corners of the immortal world. No one mentioned the little wife from his time in the Mortal Realm. To cultivators, a mortal lifespan was but a fleeting moment. Everyone believed Xie Lanshu would soon forget those short two years and return to being the supreme ruler of the Immortal Realm. Even Xie Lanshu believed so. All of this changed when they once more crossed paths. His wife had grown into a dazzling immortal beauty, now the head of a major sect. Her cultivation was formidable, and she was surrounded by countless admirers. And the two exquisitely adorable children who clung to her side…their countenances… bore an undeniable resemblance to him… #Why does Master’s s*umbag ex-husband keep staring at me and my junior brother# #Whatever, Master said to just kill and be done with it# Reading Notes: 1. Not a ‘feel-good’ novel, not a female-empowerment novel, and the heroine is not OP. 2. Plot revolves around the romance. This is a “wife-chasing crematorium” and the male lead will not change. 3. The heroine did not give birth, she doesn’t get pregnant in either the main text or the extras (tentative). 4. The main text has an open ending (suitable for readers who don’t want to see the leads get together), and the extras have a happy ending. 5. Cultivation logic is unique to the author and the settings are made up for the story.