Father of the Boss

Emperor Feng Zhang had often thought about finding the legendary Void technique where he could go back in time. If he could perform such a technique, Feng Zhang would have traveled back into time and beat the shit out of his stupid younger self for trying to create a harem of one thousand maidens. Thankfully, he did not have enough money to support such a large number at that time and only managed to get about one hundred and twelve maidens.

He would have also lectured to his past self to take the time to get to know his Empress. However, Feng Zhang knew that he had been a wild young deity who had just made into emperor by the Legendary Kirin. Who cares about one maiden when he could get a sea of them with a single order.

Apparently he had overestimated the amount of work it requires to be Emperor of the Heavens.

With meetings with various factions, dealing with the military, and fighting off the most powerful of enemies, the young emperor soon found that the last thing he wanted to do was deal with the schemes of his concubines. The household was always dealt by the Empress and she had done her best to make sure his harem was in order. There were a few concubines who try to rebel and slip fertility drugs into his food and tea, but for those wretches, Feng Zhang dealt with them personally.

Most men with harems would have to worry about women causing all sorts of problems, however he was lucky that the marriage between himself and his wife was an amicable one. There was no love between them at the time and it was she who offer to lay terms for their marriage.

The terms were simple. One was that his first born child would be her first born. Two was that she would not interfere with his desire for other woman. Three was that they would support each other in everything - be it family, politics, or war. Any other man would be horrified at the idea of being on equal grounds with their wife, however Feng Zhang's Empress was the second most powerful deity in the kingdom before she married him.

As time went by, Feng Zhang grew tired of maintaining and dealing with a large harem that he started to thin it down. He had arranged marriages to concubines he felt deserve good lives for their loyalty to the Imperial family and sent those who were troublesome to households that were near the borders of the kingdom. Soon he managed to whittle his harem down to four concubines who all managed to birth his children.

Each concubine had managed to birth a least one son and Feng Zhang cursed himself when that had happened. He had came from a family with many sons and the kingdom suffered from the civil wars for the succession of the throne. It only ended when the Legendary Kirin bowed its head to him and destroyed those who tried to attack it.

He had already declared that the Crown Prince was to be the next Emperor the moment the Empress gave birth to their first born. Both he and the Empress had made sure their son had grown and educated properly. Luckily the Crown Prince was easily the strongest of his children and his faction was the largest. Feng Zhang's first born was also a great deal more sensible than his father when it came to females.

The Crown Prince was known to have eyes only for his fiancee - the daughter of a noble man from the North and a childhood friend. While her rank was lower than other available young maidens, Feng Zhang gave support to his son as one of the few things he could do as a father.

With seven sons and eight daughters, it is difficult to find a balance. Especially when one discovers they do not like half of their children. It may be cruel to have such thoughts, but Feng Zhang did have them when it come to the children born from his concubines. Maybe it was from the fact that he often compared their children with the son and daughter he had with the Empress or the fact that at least two of his concubines may have attempted to undermine his decision for the heir; sometimes Feng Zhang wished he only had two children.

The birth of the seventh son with the Empress was actually an accident. Both he and the Empress were satisfied with one son and one daughter for many a century until they got drunk during the Black Sun festival, slipped out to a private garden, and made love in said garden while a phoenix was being born right above them. The residual magic from the phoenix's birth helped with the creation of the seventh prince.

Feng Kai was born to be the most beautiful of all his children and the Empress adore him so much that Feng Zhang was worried about possible jealousies within the main Imperial family. However, it appeared that having such a young sibling was a novelty to the Crown Prince and Imperial Princess that they too spoiled their baby brother.

Feng Zhang was willing to admit that he often spoil his youngest son with gifts and favors. However to his horror, Feng Kai's older brother and sister brought their young sibling gifts so impressive that it brought shame to Feng Zhang as a father. The Crown Prince had gifted his baby brother a full set of armor made from the scales of a golden dragon and lined with silk made from Cloud worms when the child was able to stand on his own. His older sister gifted Feng Kai with an entire collection of clothing designed by her own hand as well as many accessories.

It was shameful to admit that Feng Zhang had only commissioned some toys for his young son.

Despite the great amount of joy his youngest son brought, there was also a great amount of resentment. With a second son from the Empress, the line of succession had change greatly. Already there were several nobles and officials who were interest in creating a faction for the young prince. The main Imperial family banded together to keep their youngest member from the political world and it worked for almost two hundred years. However it would only take one chance for danger to fall upon Feng Kai and it did.

Two of the maids assigned to Feng Kai had led the young prince to the room where several old and harmless artifacts resided, however the Mirror of Exile was not one of them. It was an ancient artifact that was used to punish deities in the past. The deities' medrians were destroyed before they were thrown into the mirror which leads into a different world. Without any qi, the ex-deities could not escape from their prison.

From there, the two maids had thrown the seventh prince into the mirror and tried to hide it, however a young guard had followed them discreetly under the orders of the Empress. Fu Dishi captured the traitorous maids before he jumped into the mirror to follow the young prince.

It was almost a day before he return with the seventh prince along with a mortal spirit. If that was not bad enough, the Mirror of Exile shattered when the mortal spirit passed. Feng Zhang could handle the situation with just his son being saved and the mirror shattering, but the fact that a mortal spirit from that world had crossed into his kingdom has caused problems with his court.

Somehow, rumors have already spread about the disappearance of the seventh prince and the mortal spirit that had escaped the Mirror of Exile. Feng Zhang suspects it was one of his children from either the second or third concubine. However due to their high status, it is difficult to prove and expose them for their deceit.

To make matters worse, Feng Kai insisted that the mortal spirit is to be his personal attendant. Out of all the eligible and skillful young maidens, his son demanded that the mortal spirit to be a part of his household in a public setting with several witnesses.

The Emperor decided to have the mortal spirit sent to the healing hall to stabilize the qi before she disappeared. He hoped that by the time the mortal spirit was healed, Feng Kai would finally agree that she should be sent to the reincarnation hall and a new proper maid would be promoted. Except, that mortal must be cursed because no one at the healing hall had received a mortal spirit as a patient.

He was going to have to ask the Empress to look into testing these maids if they are unable to perform a simple order.

It got worse when he got the maids to confess what they did with the mortal spirit. To think that they actually dump their charge into the Forbidden room. After ordering their punishment of being boiled into the Cauldren of Hell, Feng Zhang went over to the Forbidden room to see the Great Sage cursing in front of the door. He had to stop the Monkey King from trying to blast the door with his strongest qi attack.

It appears that the Great Sage had stolen one jar of peach wine that was recently brewed and decided to try out an experimental seal that could speed the pace of time in order to make the wine age into a thousand years in under a minute. The Monkey King decided that he wanted to add another jar and had left to steal one while leaving the door open. When he came back, the Great Sage discovered the door closed and he was unable to open it.

The seal appeared to have a flaw that made it impossible to break with outside force. In fact, Feng Zhang had tried to use his own qi to destroy the seal, but it only crinkle at the edges before it smoothed out. After studying the components of the seal, the Emperor discovered that while it was powerful, it had a very short active life. He was pleased to see that he was correct and the seal disintegrated after another five minutes.

Feng Zhang did not expect to find the mortal spirit in the room. Under the power of a seal which sped the flow of time, the Emperor believed that the spirit had perished. So it was a surprise for both himself and the Great Sage when upon opening the door, a powerful qi blew the Monkey King to the opposite wall and nearly had the Emperor take a step back.

"Impossible." Feng Zhang murmured. The qi was inside the room was just as powerful as his own. However no one was allowed to be in this room without his permission - with the exception of the Great Sage who does what he wants. This would mean that the mortal spirit survived?

Upon entering the Forbidden room, he felt wave after wave of power that it filled the entire room. Whoever it was, it was obvious that they have no experience in controlling their qi. He rush over to where the strongest concentration of the qi resides. However when he finally found the origin, Feng Zhang did not know if he should be amused or horrified at what he saw.

At his feet were the broken shards of a wine jar and the body of a young maiden wearing white clothing of a spirit. The maiden was unconscious and he took the time to study this mortal spirit who had enchanted his son into wanting her for a personal attendant.

She was quite plain for a maiden. Feng Zhang remembered that being his first thought when he saw the mortal spirit. To be fair, the poor girl had just died and an ancient artifact had shattered while she was passing through it; so the Emperor tried to be kind in regard to her looks. However, now in the pink of health, the mortal spirit still looked plain compared to that of the maidens in his kingdom. Her looks consisted of a small nose that was not delicate, cheekbones that barely protrude from her round face, and eyebrows that were neatly shaped but not in the delicate lines that are favored by the female species. Also, she had the shortest length of hair he had every seen on a female or even male. After another minute of studying, he decided that the mortal spirit was just a little pretty and simply ordinary.

That changed once the mortal spirit awoke from her slumber.

Everything about her manners and her speech was foreign. Although her bow was proper, it was also the most graceful and efficient bow the Emperor has ever been given in his long career. While is was obvious that she was shock and anxious about meeting him; it did not stop the mortal from being collective in her manner and she had the actual gall to look at him in the eyes when he gave her permission to rise. He was amused by her expression in concerning with the broken wine jar.

Let that be the lesson to the Great Sage in trying to cheat his way into drinking 1000 year old peach wine.

However the real problem is the qi the mortal was releasing. While the air only felt slightly stuffy to Feng Zhang, the amount of power from the qi was enough to throw back the Great Sage who was powerful enough to rival all the armies in his kingdom. If he allowed this mortal spirit permission to serve his son, Feng Zhang was going to have to teach this young one how to control it.

"It is good that you have developed your qi here, for if any other were able to enter this Forbidden Room; they would have been killed."

"Excuse me?"

The mortal replied in confusion and disbelief. If any other had answered to him in that way, Feng Zhang would have been insulted. However, the strong rules over the weak and this mortal spirit may be his equal in power. Despite her earlier anxiety, the mortal spirit was still calm. The wine was not the only thing in this room to mature well. This mortal was quite the character to maintain her composure at her age - several of his children were still struggling despite their centuries.

"Your qi is powerful. It is so powerful that you knock the Great Sage off his feet. That is quite the feat for a mortal spirit."

The mortal spirit blinked a few times before pointing to herself.

"Mortal spirit?"

Feng Zhang then realized that this mortal spirit was ignorant about herself. Based on what he had pieced together from the maids and Dishi, the mortal spirit had no idea what she was. He was going to have to start from the beginning.

"When you saved Our seventh prince, you were slain by another mortal. At that time, the seventh prince had demanded that your spirit to go with him when his guard escorted him home. His wish was granted and you suffered greatly since the portal was not meant for spirits. Without a physical body, your spirit would have perished into the ether."

She opened her mouth to reply before closing it and frowned in thought. Then the mortal stood up and picked up the fallen chair before silently offering for him to sit. This pleased Feng Zhang at the natural deference the mortal spirit applied in her actions in marking him the superior despite the level of power. Quite refreshing in comparison to the Monkey King who kept making trouble at times. She then offered to pour water for him and Feng Zhang accept it.

Odd as the mortal spirit was, she did have some skills in serving guests. Once that was finished, the mortal spirit stood in front of him before she finally spoke.

"Why does his imperial majesty still call me a mortal spirit? If I have powerful qi, would that not make me a fairy or deity?"

He chuckled at the naive question of a mortal.

"Deities are created in two ways. One is that they are born from deities. The second is when a mortal has cultivated to the highest level in the Immoral Circle of cultivation and drinks the Jade Peach Elixir which is heavily guarded. It has been over a millennia since a mortal has gain the title of deity. However as a spirit, you have no body in which can ascend. While you have cultivated your qi; you are nothing more than a powerful spirit. It makes you no different than a powerful spirit beast."

He had expected to see some anger from being called a beast, however all the mortal spirit did was raise her eyebrows before shrugging her shoulder as if pushing the issue aside.

"Do I really have qi?"

Now that was an odd question. The air around them was thick with her qi and she was questioning its existence. Feng Zhang must have shown some sign of incredulity at her question before she explained about how where she lived, there was no one with the ability to cultivate qi. He found that pitiful and lamented at the loss of the Mirror of Exile. If he had known that it led to a world where no one can cultivate, it would have help rid of many of his enemies with little bloodshed.

"Give your hand to Us." He ordered as he offered his own to be placed upon. The mortal spirit did so promptly without any sort of hesitation. The Emperor was surprise at the quick response since he was used to his subjects hesitating a little whenever he order them to do something that involve with his person. Slowly he placed a small amount of qi onto her hand.

"Waoh." the mortal spirit gasped.

She studied the small amount of qi in her hand for a moment before turning her attention to the free hand. Slowly, a small marble of qi flickered in the palm of her hand before it grew to the same size as the Emperor's. Then she moved her hands in quick twist and the two energies turned into the two parts of the yin and yang suspended in the air.

"Damn, that's cool." the mortal spirit murmur as she poked at her creation.

"We are impressed, mortal spirit." Feng Zhang stated in agreement. Not only did the mortal spirit was able to find her qi, she was also able to manipulated it along with another's qi. Anyone can manipulate qi with time, but to manipulate qi that did not originate from them is another matter. "What is your level in martial arts?"

"On the level of completely and utterly shitty."

This was said in a distracted tone as the mortal spirit was more interested in qi that she created. Feng Zhang however was shocked at the language before he shook his head in despair. For someone to have such power with no martial arts was unfathomable. With a flick of his wrist, he destroyed the yin yang which earned a grunt of displeasure from the mortal spirit before he stood up.

"Show me."

She was right. The mortal spirit's marital arts were absolutely deplorable. The only passable skill she had was blocking his strikes with her arms and sometimes her feet. There was no discipline her in movements and her grappling skills were too easy for him to break apart. However, Feng Zhang saw that his strikes did not faze her, she was able to keep up with his speed, and she was learning very quickly how to use her qi.

Raising his hand to signal the end of their spar, the Emperor studied the mortal spirit who stood on guard. He was beginning to understand why his youngest son wants this mortal spirit.

"What were you called, mortal spirit?"

"Yuen Chi was my name, imperial majesty. Your son calls me Chi."

"Then it shall continue to be your name. Yuen Chi, We have a request for you to officially become the personal attendant to Our seventh prince, Feng Kai. Your position will be the highest within his household and your orders will be second to the prince's. Will you accept Our request?"

***

Stay calm and do...what?

That was the thought running through her mind as she tried to process what the Emperor of Heaven was requesting of her. The request alone was enough to blow her mind but what was implied was what shocked Chi to the core. Information of the classes in ancient China ran through her brain and she knew that the Emperor's request was something unusual. First, he allowed her to keep her own name, marking her as a free person. Second, he granted her a high position in his son's household. Last, he granted her authority that topped just about everyone with the exception of the Imperial family.

This was too much for someone who was recently compared to a spirit beast instead of a deity. Chi's mortal life had given her enough experience to know that there had to be a string attach to the benefits.

"May I speak with your imperial majesty frankly?"

"Speak."

"I am a complete stranger and based on what I have been told, I would be consider to be lower than a commoner in this kingdom. Why are you giving me so much freedom and authority?"

The Emperor looked both pleased and annoyed however was willing to answer.

"Your power is on par with this One. Your pedigree is low, but the law is the strong rules the weak. Your martial skills make you incapable to defeat Us in battle should you wish for the throne."

Chi made a face at the idea of being the next ruler of a kingdom. She could easily imagine all the work required to deal with a large population. There was no way she was going to work more than she had to. Working for one person is better than working for everyone. Her thoughts must have shown on her face because the Emperor simply shook his head before continuing.

"We cannot adopt you to the Imperial family. A spirit having an imperial title has never been done and the backlash should We attempt it is not worth the effort. We also cannot allow any of the noble houses try to adopt you into their households. If any one of the noble houses have such power in their hands it would disrupt the peace in the kingdom. It may even incite them to a civil war."

The answer instantly calmed her down. Politics. The reason why she was given a high position in the seventh prince's household was to keep her connected to the Imperial family. This she could accept. It was like keeping someone talented in a company by offering them more power and money instead of them trying to strike it rich on their own.

"Also, it will comfort Our Imperial Family with such power connected to Our seventh prince. Due to his actions, We must set a punishment to set an example to the rest of Our children."

What?

"Punishment, your imperial majesty? What has the seventh prince done to require punishment?"

"The portal you have travel through was an ancient artifact called the Mirror of Exile. No one is allowed to return from the mirror. While the seventh prince's circumstances has allowed Us to give leeway to excuse his return, the matter of him returning with a mortal spirit from the mirror is another matter. It is made worse that the news of the seventh prince's deeds have circulated in court."

She could easily read between the lines. Gossip was something Chi had to deal with for Lillian and it appears it is the same even in Heaven. Someone had led it slip about Feng Kai's disappearance and him returning with her in hand. It was an act to either completely destroy Feng Kai's chance at the throne or to make the Imperial family eat mud if they did not take action against the seventh prince's actions. Either way, it was not looking too good for the Emperor who had to make the decision on what to do.

"What kind of punishment will the prince receive, your imperial majesty?"

"Exile from the Palace for the next three hundred years. He will be placed in an estate outside of the Capital City and will remain there until his sentence has been completed. In additional to that, his household will only consists of his personal attendant and one guard."

The look on her face must be one of incredulity and WTF. She knew that it was not a look meant to be given to an emperor, but Chi felt she had to. There was no way that it was socially acceptable for a prince to have just one attendant and one guard in their household. This type of punishment was not just meant for the prince but it was also meant for herself and the poor guard being dragged into this mess. Even worse, the Emperor said he was going to exile them to an estate. She cannot imagine how big the property was going to be.

There were many things she wanted to say, however Chi decided to say the least insulting one.

"Your imperial majesty, is it safe for the seventh prince to have only one guard?"

"Not at all. Our Imperial Family has many enemies including the ones inside the Imperial Family. With one having such power as yourself, you should be more than enough to protect Our son."

"I just learned how to use qi." she pointed out in a deadpan expression. The Emperor returned it with one of his own.

"Learn faster."