I’m An All Stars System - Chapter 20 2.5 Star Painter

Tian He’s eyelids were trembling in her sleep, and her fingers were minutely moving, it appears that she seems to be dreaming about something.

Suddenly, her eyelids flutter open halfway, she blinks a couple of times as if still trying to discern whether she was still dreaming or not.

Her right-hand wipes away at her eyes, an unconscious action in hopes to help clear her vision. Nope, it’s still looks dark, she blinks her eyes again and looks at her surroundings.

“Oh, this is my bedroom.” She remembered that her half-brother had carried her to rest after their battle.

She gets up from her bed and slips on a thin coat, she didn’t know how long she slept but it looks like the sun has already set with how dark it is in her bedroom, well except for the small amount of moonlight that’s penetrating through the paper window.

She opens the paper window to her left and peers up into the starry night sky.

“What a weird dream.” She couldn’t believe that 2nd Imperial Prince appeared in her dream, she felt that he had told her something, and it seemed it was important since the feeling of anxiety was very distinct within her dream, but as soon as she woke up, she couldn’t remember what it was.

“Sigh.” Since she couldn’t remember it, she wouldn’t dwell on it, she has more important things to do now.

She was about to call for a servant to bring in her meal, when suddenly, she heard a sound outside.

“Servant asks Young Miss for entry, servant is here to deliver Young Miss’s dinner meal.” A young servant girl shouts from outside her bedroom.

How did she know she was awake? She hasn’t even stepped out her bedroom yet. Nevertheless, she still answered the young servant girl and allowed her inside.

After placing the plates of food on the round table in her bedroom, the young servant girl respectfully curtsied before leaving the room.

Tian He watched her leave with curious eyes. She knew that the servant girl wouldn’t tell her anything she wanted to know but she still had a hunch.

“Why is this half-brother of hers a stalker, too?” Tian He said with a helpless tone.

Since the moment the young servant girl placed the plates of hot stemming food on her table, she knew that her half-brother had sent people to keep watch around her courtyard, or else how would he know that she was awake and had people to send her food so promptly.

If she could, she would go and take out her steam on them, but she doubted the original owner was active in beating people up on her own initiative and add to the fact that she’s probably only mid-level in soul strength, she wouldn’t be able to beat these guards.

Fine, this Princess shall be a good girl and not cause any trouble for now. Let’s just eat my dinner.

“Hmm, at least the Cook is pretty decent.” The food in this mansion was simply too good, it’s as good as the imperial chef back in her world.

..

Cheng Da was looking over his daily reports that he received from various city owners in his territory. Since it was night time, his study room had a few candles lit to illuminate the surroundings and to provide lighting for his readings.

“Report, Young Miss has already received her dinner meal and is currently eating.” A guard dressed in black appeared in the room besides Cheng Da.

“Good, go back and keep monitoring, if she doesn’t eat all of it, report back to me.” Cheng Da didn’t take his eyes off of the document in front of him while he replied.

“Yes, Clan Leader.” The guard dressed in black respectfully retreated to his duties.

After the guard left, Cheng Da finally placed down his documents and looked up from his study desk, “Well Xiu Ying, it’s good that you’re eating properly, too bad though, I was looking forwards to joining you, but this is good, too.” He softly smiles before resuming his work.

..

The night life of this territory’s main city is always bustling with people and crowds, especially the restaurants and shops on the main street. Many lanterns are lit and hung across the many rooftops and doors along its streets, helping the many residents and business owners to keep their night activities illuminated.

Along the main street of this city, there are many major businesses of all types, ranging from clothing to peculiar antiques, but the most famous and eye-catching is the store for selling paints and famous artworks that come from all over the territory located right in the middle of the main street. Many customers could be seen constantly going in and out of the store, some actually buying, some only admiring the painting skills of the artworks inside, but all of them have something in common, they were all painters.

Although the profession of being a painter requires not just talent, but also hard work and a painter’s mind, it doesn’t stop the people from becoming one, because not only can it show one’s artistic skills, but it could also be used to become a major fighter. After all, without possessing proper strength, they wouldn’t be able to survive in this world where the strong eats the weak.

However, this doesn’t mean that there isn’t order in the cities, especially this city, one of the reasons many people decide to migrate over to this major territory’s cities is because not only does it possess the esteem Arts College but also the owner is none other than the exalted Young clan leader of the Wang Clan.

They say that at the tender age of 20, he took over the Wang clan as its leader because of his parents’ death, many people thought he was too young to govern the powerful and large Wang clan, however; with just half a year, he proved all those people wrong.

After he became the leader, he was able to immediately control all the forces within the clan, then he used them to make a clean swept of anyone that wasn’t loyal or was taking advantage of the Wang clan’s influence to misuse their power. For minor and major issues, he rectified the Wang clan’s rules, making the people too afraid to start anything. His system prevented anyone from betraying and also anyone from becoming too powerful or too weak, and since every power under him was equal in strength, there was no use in currying favors and creating factions, even if they wanted to, no one wanted to test the power of Wang clan’s intelligence network.

In addition, the Wang clan leader set up a rule that whoever reported a traitor or anyone who had intentions of starting a faction, would instantly be offered more land to control, which would equal to more forces and power in their hands, with this offer, who wasn’t trying to keep an eye on each other to make sure they could catch some traitors. So, with the young clan leader’s altercations, his major territory became one of the ones famous for its order and fairness.

It was a paradise for merchants and business owners because who didn’t want their businesses to be safe from robbers and other powers’ attack. However, not everyone was happy with this outcome, especially the other major territory owners nearby but that didn’t mean they would actively attack other territories since there was an agreement among territory owners that if they do attack, the rest of the other territory owners would gather together and get rid of that attacker. So, unless it was a major personal grudge, the territory owners would usually just mind their own businesses and focus on improving their own control and power in their own territory.

This would usually be the case, but recently, some rumors have sprouted that a Qi clan’s ambassador from the exalted Qi clan that ruled over one of the major territories nearby came to this territory’s main city to communicate and seek relationships with one of the slightly powerful clans in this territory. Although this rumor may not be legit, it had already spread among the residents in the city, creating a lot of speculations on it, some believe it, some think its just people trying to cause chaos, but nevertheless, this information is currently one of the topics being talked about among them.

Near the main street of the city, there’s a place that houses many mansions and large residences for either major families or just wealthy business owners. In one of the mansions with a sign on top of their entrance that read, ‘Shi Family’, loud voices could be heard from one of the tall buildings inside.

“Damn that Qi clan ambassador!” An enraged middle-aged man’s voice filled the hall of that tall building.

“Husband, right now it’s not time to be angry, it’s best if we figure out how to solve the problem.” A middle-aged woman’s worried voice responded in hopes to clam down the person who was enraged.

“Solve?! How to solve? The atrocious Qi clan is going to lead us to our deaths if we don’t follow their orders, and if we do follow them, we’ll still end up dead. Those bastards are just asking us to die.” The middle-aged man was too frustrated and tired by the series of events that happened to their Shi family.

It’s seems like the middle-aged woman and man are the Shi family couple that visited the Wang clan earlier that day.

After Madam Shi heard her husband’s words, she didn’t know what to say in response. She sat in one of the chairs in the large hall which was full of expensive antiques and gorgeous flowers in skillfully crafted vases, but all of this couldn’t mask the dreary mood she was feeling.

If only she knew that the Qi clan would be this vicious, she would never have suggested her husband to cooperate with them, but now that the Qi clan was threatening them with their part of the signed document that stated that the Shi clan was willing to become a minor territory owner under them, they didn’t have any choice but to obey their orders unless they wanted to be eradicated by the Wang clan.

It would have been fine if their orders didn’t involve assassinating the Wang clan’s leader, this was obviously trying to force them into a corner. Who knew that the Qi clan was this ambitious? Even if they were given troops and forces from the Qi clan in disguise, once they’ve failed, they would be condemned by all, and eradicated by the Wang clan.

They were just going to be used to gauge the strength and number of forces underneath the Wang clan. They were basically going to be sacrificed!

However, now that all the family clans in the territory know about their cooperation with the Qi clan, they wouldn’t be able to escape their order, it was either get eradicated now for betraying the Wang clan or trying their chances and using the Qi family forces combine with their own to slaughter the Wang clan’s leader.

Madam Shi’s facial expression was solemn and helpless. She looked up at her husband who was also sitting with his head down in contemplation and couldn’t help but feel that they deserved this in a way. If they have never had intentions of increasing their power and expanding forces to become a minor territory owner, they would have never gotten tricked into becoming Qi clan’s scapegoat for their plans. Now that the Qi clan was using the signed document as their bargain to force them, they couldn’t not obey, they didn’t have a choice.

“Husband” Madam Shi needed to stay strong for her family, since they were going to be wiped out either way, it would be better to take their chances and follow Qi clan’s orders to slaughter the Wang clan leader.

Her expression turned resolute and she called out to her husband again. After he saw her expression, he knew what she was thinking, and closed his eyes for a brief moment, finally, when he opened his eyes again, they were no longer filled with just helplessness, there was also a hint of murderous intentions.

He turned to his wife that has followed him for all these years, and couldn’t help but feel sorrowful for her, if they have had never been greedy to become a minor territory owner and stay contented with the current power they possessed, the worse that could of happened to them after their proposal was rejected by the Wang clan was a reduction in forces by the other clans in this territory.

But now that the Qi clan has ordered for them to act against the Wang clan’s leader, in order to keep the Shi clan from being wiped out by the Wang clan, as the Shi clan leader, he couldn’t back down, if there’s a chance at survival, he’ll take it.

“Wife, I will do everything in my power to ensure that we succeed.” The Shi clan’s leader vowed that he had to achieve his goal of surviving, their Shi clan depended on him to succeed.

Seeing the promise given to her by her husband, Madam Shi couldn’t help her eyes from turning moist, but she quickly stopped herself, this was no time for her to cry, she needed to support her husband.

“Husband, I am with you. But how will we take down the Wang clan’s leader, I heard his soul strength is one of the greatest in all of the territories.” Madam Shi has long heard of this Wang clan leader’s talent in soul strength, even at such a young age, it was remarkable that he could reach such heights.

The Shi family leader wrinkled his brows in contemplation, he has also heard of how the Wang clan leader had reached mastery level in his soul strength just a year ago, now that a whole year has passed, who knows how powerful he is. Even if all the clan leaders in this territory were to fight together, they probably wouldn’t be able to take him down.

The Shi family couple were stumped by this, if they couldn’t assassinate him, then could it be that they had to rely on numbers to defeat him? But who knows how many forces the Wang clan has amassed over the years and the strengths of each of them, even if they were given some of the Qi clan’s forces to aid their own, it was too much of a gamble.

Before they could come up with a decision, they heard their daughter’s voice come from outside the hall.

“Father, mother.” Zhang Li frantically rushed into the hall.

“Li’er, what’s wrong?” Madam Shi heard her daughter’s anxious tone and couldn’t help but feel that something has happened.

When Zhang Li saw her parents’ worried and sullen expression, she didn’t know what to say. She knew that accepting Qi clan’s proposal meant that their family were betraying the Wang clan, but she didn’t worry about it since no one knew, but just when she wanted to shop outside with her usual friends, they ignored her invitation and even said that it was best for her not to see them anymore. At first, she was confused, but when she wandered the streets to go shopping herself, she heard the rumors about the Qi clan ambassador.

She was shocked!

How could they know? No wonder her friends didn’t want to associate with her, her family were seen as traitors now.

But she didn’t worry too much about this now since it had spread, after all, weren’t they going to become minor territory owners with the help of the Qi clan? The other clans in the territory wouldn’t dare lay their hands on them, however; her view changed when she saw her parents worried faces in the main hall.

Could it be that the Qi clan has retracted their earlier proposal? But that’s impossible, we’ve already done so much work for them, they couldn’t have abandoned us.

“Father, mother, please tell your daughter what has happened. I’ve heard the rumors outside about the Qi clan’s ambassador, now everyone knows our family has betrayed the Wang clan, is the offer from the Qi clan still standing? Will we still be able to become minor territory owners?” Zhang Li’s voice was getting more nervous the more she talked because she saw her parents’ sorrowful and helpless faces.

Could the Qi clan have really retracted their offer? If that’s true, wouldn’t they get wiped out by the Wang clan without the protection of the Qi clan on their side? But they are just rumors, as long as we dispose of the signed document of us wanting to become minor territory owners under the Qi clan, the Wang clan wouldn’t dare wipe us out without sufficient proof of their betrayal.

Even if the Wang clan discovered that we cooperated multiple times with the Qi clan, as long as the signed document of us wanting to become minor territory owners isn’t discovered, they would still be safe, the least that could happen would be a reduction of the land that they control.

Seeing their daughter’s anxious facial expression, they didn’t know how to tell her. Madam Shi looked at her husband, but she saw that he nodded towards her to explain instead. She gave a helpless sigh before bracing herself to inform their daughter of their drastic circumstances.

“Li’er, your parents have let you down. Although the Qi family didn’t retract their offer, their stakes have changed, they’re threatening us with their part of the signed document to work together with their disguised forces to gauge the strength and forces under the Wang clan and to take down the Wang clan’s leader, in other words, they were only using us all this time for this moment.” Madam Shi couldn’t help her eyes from turning moist again.

Zhang Li was struck speechless.

How could this have happened? Why would the Qi clan do such a thing?! Don’t they know that once they release that document, they’ll doom our Shi clan, the Wang clan would have a legit reason to wipe them out permanently, and even if we were to follow their orders and attack the Wang clan, there’s only a slim chance of surviving.

No! We couldn’t do that.

“Father, mother, why don’t we just run? Now that the Qi clan is forcing us into a dead end, there’s no point in staying here any longer. We have to leave before the Qi clan releases that document, we still have time.”

Zhang Li was clear that their family only had a slim chance of surviving if their forces clashed head-on with the Wang clan’s, even if the Qi clan gave them help, she doubted that they would send all their forces just to find out the strength of the Wang clan, they were just going to be used anyways.

The Shi family couple was shocked by what their own daughter was saying. How could they just leave? They had the entire Shi clan to protect, they couldn’t just let them get wiped out because of their decisions.

Zhang Li didn’t notice her parents change in expression, she was just anxious to hurry and flee.

“Father, mother, why are the both of you not saying anything? There’s no time to lose, we have to leave now.” She really wanted to drag her parents away, how could they still not be packing and getting ready to leave after all this time.

Zhang Li’s father couldn’t believe his own ears, his own daughter wanted to abandon the whole Shi clan, those were thousands of lives, how could she be so selfish?

“Li’er, how could we leave? As the clan leader, I have the duty to protect the clan, if we leave, both the Qi clan and Wang clan would slaughter everyone, cutting off the troubles by its roots.” He wanted his daughter to know the price they had to pay if they left.

Zhang Li was annoyed, if they don’t leave, aren’t they just going to die either way.

“Father, I respect you as clan leader, but those people will probably end up getting killed when we lose the fight against the Wang clan’s forces, we’ll only have a surviving chance if we leave now.”

“You” He was too angry to continue his words.

Zhang Li ignored her father’s angry face and continued.

“Father, you know what I said is right, we only have a slim chance of coming back alive after fighting the Wang clan, the best choice is for us to leave now and”

“Slap!” He was furious by this ignorant daughter of his.

“Ah!” Zhang Li screams out.

“Li’er!” Madam Shi rushed towards her daughter who had fallen on the ground.

When Zhang Li regains herself from the pain and shock she felt, her eyes couldn’t help but shed tears, this was the first time her father had ever hit her. Why? She was only trying to let her family stay alive. What’s wrong with that?

She directed her eyes at her father as if asking why she deserved to be hit.

Zhang Li’s father saw his daughter’s eyes and knew that she was unresigned for getting disciplined.

“Li’er! I will not abandon the Shi clan as their leader. I cannot become the person that goes down in history as a traitor of his own clan, am I making myself clear?”

“Husband, I’ll tell her later, once she understands more of the situation, she’ll change her mind and”

“No! I don’t understand, why are we sending ourselves to the grave? I really don’t understand, our forces even combined with the Qi clan’s is not enough, it’s obvious that we’ll lose. We can’t assassinate Clan Leader Wang either, his soul strength has already reached mastery level, there’s no way we’ll catch him off guard, he’ll just”

Zhang Li suddenly thought of something, but before she could say it, she saw her father’s angry face and raised hand and knew that he was going to slap her again.

“Wait! I have a plan!” Zhang Li saw that her father’s hand stopped midway from her face and relaxed.

Before she would let him continue his actions, Zhang Li rapidly spoke, “I know how we can assassinate Clan Leader Wang, he has a weakness.”

The Shi family couple were puzzled, how could the exalted Clan Leader Wang have a weakness?

Zhang Li got up from the ground with her mother’s support and looked directly into her father’s eyes with certainty.

“Clan Leader Wang has a half-sister, the last time she displayed her painting’s summons, her soul strength was only at mid-level. We could use her as leverage to take care of Clan Leader Wang. I have seen the way he looked at her when we visited the Wang clan for a midday meal today, I’m almost certain that he doesn’t love her like a sister, but more like a lover.”

Clan Leader Shi was confused, how was she so sure?

Madam Shi seemed like she understood what her daughter was saying and couldn’t help but agree with what she said.

“Husband, I think Li’er is telling the truth. I’ve also seen the way Clan Leader Wang looks at that Xiu Ying girl, now that Li’er has mentioned it, I can verify that Clan Leader Wang has ambiguous feelings towards his own half-sister.” Although she wasn’t sure if it was love, she knew that this young clan leader cares about his sister, she wouldn’t let any chance of survival slip away.

Clan Leader Shi looked at his loved ones and confirmed once again what they were saying. Although he didn’t know if it was the truth or not, it was worth investigating. He let them retreat from the room and summoned his guards to look up the relationship between Clan Leader Wang and his half-sister, if what they said was true, then this Xiu Ying girl could really be used.

When Zhang Li returned to her bedroom after bidding goodnight to her mother, she couldn’t help but mockingly smile.

“Wang Xiu Ying, don’t blame me, who told you to gain the love of Cheng Da? If I can’t have him, then neither could you.” Zhang Li’s eyes turns resolute and vicious, she couldn’t wait to see Cheng Da’s face once he knows that Xiu Ying is taken by them, she’ll make them both regret their actions.

..

Tian He was currently rushing towards her half-brother’s study room in a furious manner.

She couldn’t believe that this half-brother of hers is not only a stalker but a pervert, too. When she thought of how she found weird bite marks on her neck after looking into the copper mirror, she couldn’t help but think that they were insect bites, but after feeling the teeth imprints, she immediately knew who the culprit was.

How could her half-brother be so shameless and perverted? Taking advantage of the fact that she was asleep to touch her, she even had the thought that he was the cause for her swollen lips, or else how could her lips look so red after just a short nap, obviously the answer was that it’s impossible. Which means it could only be the work of this ‘good’ half-brother of hers.

The servants that passed by saw their fuming Young Miss and didn’t dare get in her way.

Who were they kidding? The young clan leader cares a lot about her now, or else why would he deliberately go out of his way to lecture them on treating the Young Miss well and telling them to send her food. Since he didn’t do any of these things before, it could only mean that the Young Miss has gained the care of her elder brother now, no one wanted to offend her and risk feeling the wrath of their young clan leader.

When Tian He finally reached the main study room’s entrance, she composed herself and gently called out for permission to enter. After hearing her half-brother’s confirmation, she pushed the doors open and closed them behind her.

Cheng Da saw her fuming face, and couldn’t help but smile in humor, she really does look the cutest when she’s angry.

Tian He caught his smile and couldn’t hold herself back any longer.

“Elder brother, Xiu Ying has something to report, it’s about my privacy.” She was trying her best to sound neutral even though she was already fuming inside.

“Oh? What does younger sister Xiu Ying want to say.” Cheng Da’s mildly amused voice replied to her.

Hearing his humor inlaid voice, her eyelids couldn’t help but twitch in anger, however; she still composed herself for her next words.

“Elder brother, Xiu Ying wants to move out of the Wang’s clan Mansion and live in the dormitories at the Arts College.” Hmph, once she’s living at the dormitories, she won’t have to be worried about being harassed by this half-brother of hers anymore.

When Cheng Da heard that she wanted to move out, his eyes automatically became darker by a shade, and his soul strength started seeping out due to his anger.

Tian He didn’t notice the changes because she was just too angry and frustrated with this half-brother of hers.

“Elder brother, Xiu Ying is just here to inform you. By tomorrow morning, I’ll head towards the Arts College myself, no need to trouble elder brother to send escorts with me.” She curtsied politely and got up to leave the room.

“Hold it!” Cheng Da rushed towards her and grabs her arm.
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