Ficorpio
Chapter 1
My amnesiac husband remembered who he was: a heaven-born prodigy of the Emotionless Path.
When we divorced, he left me a chest as compensation.
I opened it and found a man inside.
Ah. A surprise chest, then.
Later, I wrote my ex-husband a thank-you note:
“Thanks for the man you sent me. We suit each other perfectly.”
“He’ll do a backflip at the wedding. Want to come?”
That night, Julian Sterling came riding in on his Spirit Sword, his face so dark it looked carved out of a storm.
“I clearly put Spirit Stones and Magic Artifacts in that chest!”
Before he could finish, the man behind me leaned out, blinked at him, and said, “A Spirit Stone that turned into a man? Never seen one of those?”
Julian had split an entire mountain open just to help me find my missing Mother Hen. That stirred up the Orthodox Sect, and they came looking for answers. The immortals dropped to their knees in front of my husband, crying and begging as though the sky had fallen on them. That was when I learned the man I had picked up was the heaven-sent prodigy who had sealed the Demon Lord away.
Three years ago, during that great battle, he had vanished and somehow ended up as the man sleeping beside me. The elegant, untouchable immortal lord had fallen into the mortal world. From then on, he fed chickens and ducks every day, helped deliver piglets, and grew attached to the warmth of my quilts.
When Julian finally drank the Memory-Restoring Elixir, he opened his eyes slowly. In an instant, the fog cleared from them. He looked at me and apologized. “I’m sorry, Ms. Bennett. I have to go back and save the world.”
I looked at him and asked, concerned, “It’s all right. Harvest season is almost here. When you have time, come back and help me cut the wheat, okay?”
I couldn’t finish the work on my own. Before, Julian had done the labor of an entire village’s strongest men by himself. Every year, he finished the harvest first, and he even helped me win a flock of Mother Hens. With him here, I never had to worry about the crop.
But as soon as I said that, the people around us covered their mouths and laughed.
A woman in white with red-rimmed eyes knelt in front of me and pleaded, “Ms. Bennett, Julian Sterling has already wasted three years here with you. The world is in ruins, and ordinary people are suffering. How can you be so selfish as to keep him all to yourself?”
“You only care about yourself and don’t care about the world. Is that what your family taught you?”
But I was an orphan.
Besides, Julian Sterling worked fast.
Chapter 2
He could harvest an entire wheat field in less than a minute.
Was he truly the only person in the world capable of saving anyone?
Were all these immortal cultivators sitting around us useless?
I was curious, but I kept the question to myself.
Because every pair of eyes in the room had turned on me, as if I were some unreasonable shrew throwing a tantrum in the street.
“Mortals are all like this. Nothing in their hearts but romance and petty desire.”
“She just wants to keep the Immortal Lord all to herself.”
“If not for the Demon Lord, how could she ever have been allowed to defile Lord Sterling?”
I looked at Julian.
Last night, he had still been sitting by our bed, coaxing me in that low, patient voice of his.
“Kiss me one more time, and tomorrow I’ll chop extra firewood. All right?”
Today, Julian only lifted his eyes and produced a set of Divorce Papers.
“Miss Bennett,” he said, “please sign them. I can compensate you.”
The other immortals were immediately displeased.
“Lord Sterling, she is only an ordinary woman. Receiving your grace has already extended her life. That alone is a blessing beyond measure.”
“She should be on her knees thanking you. And you still want to compensate her?”
Before I could flip their tea across the table, Julian sighed and raised one hand, silencing the objections.
For one foolish second, I thought he was going to explain what I had done for him.
For example, how I had dragged him out from the jaws of wild dogs, losing a strip of skin from my arm in the process. The scar was still there.
How I had broken that same arm while searching for herbs to treat his wounds.
How I had hurried home through a night of pouring rain just to boil his medicine.
Back then, Julian’s eyes had gone red as he held my hand and promised we would grow old together, never parted.
But now, Julian looked down at me from above, pity in his eyes.
“It does not matter that I wasted three years,” he said. “But a human life is barely a hundred years. To Miss Bennett, these three years were precious. I should compensate her.”
My ears rang.
So to him, those three years had been a waste?
A man can ascend to immortality and still be coldhearted.
Just like my father, who had barely made something of himself before he turned around and forced his plain, hardworking wife to divorce him.
All those grand words about virtue and righteousness. In the end, he stood so high above everyone else that he could barely be bothered to look down.
But I wasn’t like my mother. She had thrown herself off a cliff when she lost her man.
I was afraid of pain. I was afraid of death. So I hurriedly signed the divorce papers.
Chapter 3
But the immortals standing around us all had swords at their waists, and the gleam of those blades was cold enough to make my hands shake so badly I could barely hold the brush.
I even forgot the characters halfway through writing.
Julian Sterling reached out and, as if it were the most natural thing in the world, supported my fingers and guided me to finish signing.
“You don’t need to drag this out,” he said. “And you don’t need to cling to me.”
After the divorce papers were signed, Julian had someone bring out a chest.
Something inside it made a faint sound.
Seeing my confusion, he explained indifferently, “A spiritual pet for you. It can watch the house.”
Two days ago, our old guard dog had died of old age.
That dog had grown up with me. It had been there when I was learning to walk, and when I had to make my way home in the dark. It guarded the front gate for our family, and now it was only a little mound of dirt in the yard.
I had cried until my pillow was soaked, terrified that from now on I’d be alone, with no one beside me.
Julian had comforted me then and said he would be there.
Looking at the chest, I thought maybe he still remembered what we had been through together.
I tried to find even a trace of hesitation on his face.
But after setting the chest down, Julian turned and left.
He never once looked back.
A cluster of immortals swept out of my little yard.
They trampled the fence flat.
Sword energy sliced through the flowers, shrubs, and young trees Julian Sterling and I had planted together.
Even the chicken coop Julian had only finished building that morning collapsed into a pile of sticks.
The Mother Hen and her flock scattered everywhere.
My yard was a wreck.
Evelyn Hart stopped Julian before he could leave. Pointing at me, she lowered her voice and said, “Why not prove your path now? She’s only mortal. Killing her would be easy enough…”
Julian frowned and cut her off.
“She won’t do.”
Who said I wouldn’t do?!
We were already divorced, and he was still bad-mouthing his ex-wife. Terrible character.
Fuming, I slammed the door shut and stared at the enormous chest Julian had left behind.
My heart felt strangely hollow.
Fine.
Open the chest.
The Orthodox Sect was so rich. Who knew how many treasures they had left me?
They were right about one thing. I was a common woman through and through.
Otherwise, I wouldn’t have dragged Julian out of a pack of wild dogs, hauled him home, and turned him into free farm labor.
I’d had an immortal warming my bed for three years. I hadn’t exactly lost out.