Master of Time

The question startles XI Shi, as she did not expect to return to China any time soon, at least not at the moment, right after she has defected to another organization. My organization.

"Senior brother…"

Xi Shi begins, but I gesture my hand-fan dismissively. Her fear of retribution is unwarranted, given the fact that her defection is a completely secret.

"You do not need to fear, junior sister. Nothing will happen to you when you return to China. The Party will not know of your defection, as long as you do not tell anyone about it. The Master will know if you do, as he has eyes and ears everywhere. He is watching us right now in case you have not noticed."

I point out. That is more or less the truth, as Legion is always watching. There is a cloaked drone every dozen or so square meters. Meters! Not kilometers. It doesn't really cost me any to manufacture those spy drones, and if I wanted, I could duplicate them with my power.

My statement causes Xi Shi to tense up. She looks around the now rather quiet area, just trying to see whether someone is actually watching her. She doesn't see anything or senses anything, and I do not need to show her otherwise.

"Do you not trust my words, junior sister?"

I question, regaining her attention.

"I trust everything you say, senior brother. Please don't be offended."

Xi Shi bows to me deeply, lowering her dark eyes to the ground as her long silky jet-black hair streams around her shoulders. Her rather feminine shoulders despite her height and weight.

I smile and continue to fan myself, retaining my calming disposition and scanning her up and down. In my opinion, Xi Shi looks very much like one of those fairies who are so prominently described in wuxia-type Chinese literature.

It is especially true with her current attire and long sleeves. She even adorns a lovely bow around her waist to match her persona.

I admit that Xi Shi has a very good sense of fashion, knowing exactly what colors and stylings will bring out strong lustful desires and emotions, not to mention it also accentuates her already beautiful form.

Xi Shi is quite beautiful, as long as she doesn't speak. A doll by any other name is still a doll.

And the effortlessly way that she had glided through the air and danced to spin her spider silk also add to the illusion she is trying to convey. That is her talent.

Everything that Xi Shi did was quite enjoyable and pleasurable to watch, to the point that I would not mind resurrecting everyone that she had killed here just to watch her do it all over again.

It is probably due to her training as a very effective assassin.

Being one of the Four Great Beauties within the Party, named after their historical counterpart, even if just an imitation, Xi Shi must know how to seduces men and women alike, bringing them to towards their own downfall.

She honestly deserves the title femme fatale, for it is no different from actual history. All peerless and heavenly defying beauties have toppled mighty empires, and it did mot matter whether those beauties were from ancient China or any part of the world.

Didn't Helen of Troy indirectly cause the Trojan War?

It might be just a myth, but like the Olympian Gods themselves, if it didn't exist in this prime timeline, then it must exist in another timeline, in another reality.

Maybe I should have asked Zeus himself whether Helen of Troy is his daughter or not. The one that he fathered with Leda, the Queen of Sparta, by impersonating a swam.

It seems quite plausible, considering the mythical tale about Helen of Troy is part of the ever-changing Greek Mythology.

And please don't ask me how a physical swan can impregnate a fully-grown woman, actually causing her to lay eggs, to which Helen of Troy was hatched from.

That is just crazy.

In any case, Zeus was such a huge dick, fucking lots and lots of married women, including some of his daughters. Well. He is still sort of a dick right now, but not really any more than me.

Guess that is one reason to why we are associates. Not friends. Just associates. Our goals are not quite aligned, but our paths of getting there are entwined. Might as well help each other as long as it is very beneficial to do so.

Maybe I should bed some married women just to even the score with Zeus. Oh wait, Eliana is married in some weird elvish manner. It is more like a union of convenience than actual marriage really. I never ask whether she has any children with her husband.

Wouldn't mind making her children worships me as well, and considering her extreme age, if she has any children, she likely has many grandchildren as well as great grandchildren. Probably.

It is hard to use science to explain magical creatures, just like it is unreasonable to logical explain things in myths and legends.

And there isn't really a need to. Just accept it with a grain of salt.

Speaking of myths and legends, one of the four Great Beauties of Ancient China might not exist, since there is no evidence of her existence in all historical books. The one named Diao Chan, whom I, Lu Bu had an affair with.

How bizarre is that, considering as Lu Bu, I am actually having a relationship with Xi Shi. Well. The start of one anyway, but I am certain it will evolve into something more illicit.

I actually don't mind as Xi Shi is quite beautiful not to mention elegant when she wants to be. I guess that is expected, considering who she is.

Or more precisely, what she is.

I smile faintly at her before the surrounding changes. Darkness of the night swiftly changes into bright afternoon due to the time difference between the United States of America and China.

Xi Shi tenses up as she realizes she has been teleported again. She is unable to explain how it is possible to do so.

"I can do far more things that that, junior sister. All thanks to the Master. Even though he appears as a man, you should consider him as a God. A God capable of unimagine horrors."

I comment as Xi Shi remains bowing. Even though, she is aware of where she currently is. It is obvious from the noises and signs and buildings.

No one seems to notice us since they are shooting a movie, a Chinese drama.

"Walk with me, junior sister."

I request and begin touring the Forbidden City.

It was the home of many Chinese Emperors and their vast households. It was also the ceremonial and political center of the Chinese Government for almost 500 years.

Visiting the Forbidden City is on my list of things to do, just not in this time period. I want to see with my very eyes the wonder of the ancient world, but my plans are sidetracked when I become frustrated with humanity and their ingrained nature.

But it is probably due to the environment that they are born and raised in, just like Xi Shi.

I am glad that I didn't straight up murder her for being disrespectful to me on multiple occasions. It all started when I first met her in the Triad build. I actually wanted to bitch-slap her several times simply due to her lack of intelligence.

If Xi Shi was anyone else, it wouldn't have bothered me so much, but she isn't. She is more than human even before she is a Chimera. That fact makes me more pissed off than before, mostly at those morons who had modified her biology without truly realizing what she is.

Ignorance is not an excuse!

A Hybrid is never better than an Evolved.

Turning the latter into the former is a huge downgrade. A step back from the evolutionary progress in my opinion.

And the Chimera genes introduced to her genetic makeups has contaminated her so much that she is unable to unlock her psionic potential in the future. Not her, but her descendants, assuming that she is able to have any children.

She might not due to the very slobby work.

That alone warrant me to wipe out all the Hybrids. Their bloodline can contaminate the future of the human race. Something that I didn't know possible until now.

To think that the hybrid genes actually devolved her, making her lose the ability that I have gifted her from the moment she was born. Whatever that superhuman ability was, Legion is unable to determine from her genes alone.

But I do have a good idea, considering she was unable to die despite being poisoned and burned alive, not to mention being experimented upon so many times.

I also blame myself for the oversight, for I didn't even realize that she was an Evolved, not even when I had examined her blood. That M-strain within her genetic makeups has been corrupted and stripped away due to the hybridization project, to the point that I had thought it was an unintended mutation.

They obviously didn't strip everything since doing so would have killed her. Maybe it is better off that Xi Shi had died, considering that I cannot help but feel greatly disappointed in her.

In my daughter. Yes. She is my daughter as my blood still flows within her despite the M-strain within her has been nullified due to becoming a Chimera.

I am already working towards a solution to this problem. It is the least that I could do for her.

Honestly, if Xi Shi wasn't my daughter, I would have reduced her to dust already. There is no point of going through all of this trouble to test her abilities and powers. Her hybrid ability is craptacular when comparing to her evolved ability.

Yes. I am biased in regard to my offspring, regardless of how they manage to carry my bloodline. And besides, it is due to me that her life is actually a living hell.

And as much as seeing Xi Shi dances around and kills people, it is actually a waste of time, and it might not be as interesting as the first around should I resurrect people.

In addition, I don't want Xi Shi to know that I have the power to resurrect people.

Not yet anyway.

The same with me being her father.

Too much shocking revelations too quickly is not a good thing.

Xi Shi believes that she can reach my level of power one day if she tries hard enough, and it is also that belief alone enforces her loyalty to me.

Or more precisely, her loyalty to QAI, the Quantum Artificial Intelligence in control of Legion.

It is just another alias for Legion himself.

It is weird for Legion, the virtual intelligence, to be leader of Legion, the organization itself, but it isn't really Legion who is in control. I am.

In retrospect, I should have named the organization as something else, but I am trying to kill as many birds with one stone as possible. It also makes everything connected.

Hydra is somewhat aware of the name Legion originating in China due to the number of Chinese slaves that I had enslaved. It is all to build the first iteration of the micromachines.

But someone must have talked, as I had expected them to. It wasn't possible to stop everyone from running off their mouths unless I make them all into mutes.

Doing something like that is lunacy instead of just plain evil, so I didn't. Pointless too since they could probably write shit down instead.

Anyway, Xi Shi fears my QAI persona more than my Lu Bu persona, but that is my actual intention. An unseen boss is more dreadful than one that is seen and known well.

In fact, what people can imagine due to their fear is far more effective than the actual truth. It is how movies play on fear. A monster shrouded in darkness with unknown abilities is far more terrifying than ones that completely visible and known.

How did I know that? I have been reading up on some film making process. Not actual reading. Selene uploads and integrates whatever I needed into my memory. It still requires me to comprehend all that information, however.

And as to why I tell Xi Shi where I am living, it is for her own safety. I don't want her to stir up troubles in New York City out of some sheer stupidity.

Even if she is family of sort, if she causes me problem, I will dissect her while she is conscious. I actually was about to, and that is the reason why she wakes up on an experimenting table.

I change my mind once it is confirmed without slighter of doubt that she is my daughter. Some traces of the M-strain remain within her genes.

Her current appearance and attire are also my intention. Mostly just because I want to see what makes her so alluring and desirable to so many men that they are willing to shower with everything that they have. Including dying for her.

Kind of ironic, considering that Xi Shi is a Black Widow Spider Hybrid.

She is no longer an Evolved, but a Hybrid.

Black Widows are considered to be one of the most poisonous spiders in the world. Their venom is 15 times stronger than venom of a rattlesnake, which is hemotoxic, destroying tissues and cells, causing necrosis and coagulopathy.

The latter term means basically bleeding to death due to the disrupted blood clotting.

Something that my biological weapon, Black Death, does. It shouldn't be called a weapon as I haven't really weaponized it yet. It will be considered one when it is modified to be airborne and contagious.

At the moment, the biological compound is only effective through injection and ingestion only, and as for how her parents get their hand on it, that is a question I want answer to.

I am not one to leave my wares around for other to loot. Even if I did, the looter will be in for a world of hurt as everything is booby trapped.

The Black Death isn't the only side project I had in China. The name is actually a reference to the real bubonic plague that also originating from China. A lot of things originate from China if history is to be believed. Tea and silk for example. Gunpowder too.

Regardless of how her parents got their hands on a sample, they actually did a good thing, giving it to Xi Shi as a child. The superhuman ability she has when she was a child assimilate the compound within her system, allowing her body to not only become immune but to replicate it.

It gives her a poison body. Not a true poison body, as it only affected her blood. Maybe that is a good thing since I don't want to get poisoned by touching her. Also, she doesn't poison everyone nearby by breathing.

[Stage 2 is synthetized, Father. It can be taken right now.]

Legion informs me, making me smile. I stop moving at the stone railing and look at the beautiful layout of houses and buildings below. People can build some breathtaking things when they are motivated.

Xi Shi stops behind me, bowing, like my attendant. It just fits the setting greatly.

I am the emperor, and she can consider as a princess. She has lost her status right now, but I will help her regain it.

It also fits our position.

"Junior sister, please drink this serum. It will help you grow stronger."

I tell Xi Shi after producing the serum in my hand. I did not lie. It should restore her back to her Evolved status and my rightful daughter, all while retaining her Chimera powers.

Xi Shi accepts the serum with little hesitation and consume it. She trusts me explicitly, and being what I am, her progenitor, also helps.

To serve for me as long as she lives is literally within her gene.