Chapter 114: Skye’s Origins

I’m a superhuman?

Skye was momentarily stunned, unable to process the sudden revelation.

Wait a minute...

Alien blood flows through my veins... No, I have alien genes?

Then what about my father and mother...?

“Your father is American, your mother is Chinese... superhuman. Not the one from two thousand years ago.”

Old Wang’s eyes held no pity, nor envy—only a serene calmness like the starry sky.

His broad chest seemed vast enough to hold dozens, even hundreds of races, perhaps even the entire world of magical beasts. Naturally, it could hold the superhumans as well.

Old Wang placed his left hand over Skye’s left hand, gently stroking and kneading it, marveling at how soft and smooth it felt. “You have inherited your father’s intelligence and your mother’s beauty—a perfect blend of East and West, avoiding their flaws... You are the favored child of God and the Jade Emperor, beloved of the Virgin Mary and the Queen Mother of the Western Heavens.”

Two divine lineages combined like that—if they found out, they’d kill you. Skye’s mind was a tangled mess.

All she wanted now was silence.

Though she had vaguely suspected something from the beginning of Old Wang’s story, guessing and hearing it straight from his mouth were entirely different matters.

Fortunately, Old Wang had long since filled her mind with knowledge of aliens, so that part was less troubling.

Her deepest obsession was her parents.

“Wang...”

Skye hesitated for several minutes before she spoke with difficulty. “What do you know about my parents? Are they... still alive?”

“Your father was a remarkable doctor and a scientist with outstanding achievements in medicine. Your mother is the leader of the superhumans—the guide for all of them, a living encyclopedia of their history.”

Old Wang sighed, clearly sympathizing with the tragic fate of this good girl. “Let me tell you a story.”

He rubbed Skye’s head and began to speak softly.

The story began during World War II.

In Chaves, Portugal, Hydra discovered an obelisk hidden deep within a secret cave. Whitehall commenced research on the obelisk.

He and the Red Skull believed the obelisk possessed the power to “explain death itself,” for anyone who touched it turned into black stone, embracing death... Truly, ignorance is the original sin.

Whitehall ordered his men to capture large numbers of people, attempting to lift the obelisk, trying to unlock its secrets this way. All failed—until he found a Chinese woman:

Jia Ying.

After fierce resistance, Jia Ying touched the obelisk but did not die.

Instead, the obelisk changed—the flowing light revealed enigmatic patterns.

Whitehall intended to use Jia Ying as a test subject.

But at that moment, the Red Skull disappeared, and Hydra was defeated.

Agent Carter and the Howling Commandos captured Whitehall and seized all those involved in the experiments, along with all related materials:

The obelisk, and Jia Ying.

For 44 years, S.H.I.E.L.D. studied the obelisk, closely monitoring and protecting Jia Ying.

During those long years, at some point—perhaps before, perhaps after the war—Jia Ying’s genes were activated, granting her the ability to “absorb life.” As long as she kept absorbing life, she would never die.

She connected with other superhumans and gradually became their leader.

When the elders of the superhumans neared death, they allowed her to absorb their life force to sustain her immortality.

One day, Jia Ying met a man named Carl Zabo. They quickly bonded and gave birth to Skye.

Soon after, Hydra found Jia Ying again.

With the permission of former S.H.I.E.L.D. director and Hydra leader Alexander Pierce, Whitehall was freed and, by dissecting and transplanting Jia Ying’s organs, reversed his aging.

Jia Ying, by then reduced to a dismembered corpse, was discarded like trash, later collected and stitched back together by Carl.

In a village in Hunan, China, after absorbing massive life energy, Jia Ying slowly revived. The villagers all died afterward—not simply because she absorbed their life, but due to a Hydra massacre.

S.H.I.E.L.D. discovered Jia Ying’s secret and, for some unknown reason, took Skye away—but during their escape, Skye was pursued and attacked by her own parents.

Skye became an orphan.

For over a decade afterward, Carl and Jia Ying searched tirelessly for Skye.

Jia Ying wielded the power of the superhumans and, deeply wounded by her dismemberment and the loss of her daughter, harbored a profound hatred for Hydra and S.H.I.E.L.D.

Carl felt the same.

Until now.

It was clearly a sorrowful and hopeless tale, but Old Wang recounted it calmly.

He simplified the story as much as possible to ease Skye’s pain.

Yet it was evident she was far stronger than he had imagined.

After hearing the story, she fell into silence.

The tale was simple yet harrowing, filled with countless details, touching on human nature and evil.

What kind of person could dissect another alive, transplant organs, and somehow succeed in 1989—when medical technology was far from advanced?

What kind of person would gather countless fragments of a corpse, stitch them together bit by bit, like the “Abercrombie” in Old Wang’s story did to his wife “Elisa”?

A person who had endured boundless suffering, resurrected—how would their personality and emotions change? Would they become a grotesque patchwork monster like the revived “Elisa”?

In those long years, what had her father and mother endured in their search for her?

Skye did not know.

But she knew one thing: the man named Whitehall had to die.

She also knew that parents are parents.

People often say, “Blood is thicker than water,” but they rarely consider the pain and love that biological parents feel for their children.

No one abandons their child without unbearable reason—and she was not abandoned, she was taken away.

Putting herself in their place, she could imagine her parents’ pain, but only imagine.

Their suffering was ten, even a hundred times greater than she could fathom.

Had she lived a happy life these past years, she might have long forgotten her biological parents.

But the truth was, though adopted several times, each experience was unhappy. These tragic events made her understand better than anyone else:

A child with a mother is a treasure.

Thrown into a mother’s embrace, happiness is endless.

No matter how many mistakes they made, how many sins they committed, they were still her parents.

They were, aside from Old Wang, her last warmth, her safest refuge.

“Wang, do you know where they are?” Skye looked up, tears glistening like blossoms in the rain.

“I don’t know. But someone does.”

Old Wang smiled gently, wiping away Skye’s tears. “Come, I’ll take you to embrace your future... When we return, we’ll find Whitehall and bring him to your father and mother. I think that will be the best way to meet.”

“Where are we going?”

“Puerto Rico. San Juan.”