I’m An All Stars System - Chapter 24 2.9 Star Painter

Tian He concentrated on using only a small amount of soul strength each time she dabbed onto the canvas to paint the small details, but she increased that amount when she used a bigger brush to paint the bigger details. Sometimes her movements were extremely slow due to the control she had to do and sometimes they were fast when she wanted to paint something larger.

Each time Tian He inputted her soul strength into the painting, her body would give off a golden glow, but as she continued her painting, the golden glow would be continuously be released from her body, glowing minutely bigger as her painting continued its journey onto completion.

While Tian He was diligently getting ready for the upcoming annual Arts Contest, the Qi clan in the neighboring territory finally received the news of the Shi clan’s ‘cooperation’ with them to deal with the Wang clan’s leader.

“Haha, the Wang clan’s leader finally has today, I’ve been waiting for this day for a long time now and to think that a mere adopted girl of the Wang clan would actually win the favor of that cold and indifferent to the opposite sex, Wang clan leader. This is the best opportunity that the Heavens has made for us.” A loud middle-aged man’s voice echoed within a grand hall.

“Congratulations Clan Leader Qi, your wishes of finally getting rid of that annoying pest is finally reaching its goal. Once clan leader is able to gauge the strength of the Wang clan with the help of those fools from the Shi clan, it will only be a matter of time before we could take out the Wang clan’s influence and power.” Advisor Wu happily said to his clan leader.

After calming down from his earlier satisfaction, clan leader Qi erased his smile and looked at his advisor, “Advisor Wu, although that brat has a weakness we can use now, we still have to be careful of his plans, I refuse to believe that he won’t put elite guards around that girl for protection, once the opportunity presents itself to capture her, we mustn’t relax our guard and let that chance slip.”

“Yes, yes, what clan leader said is correct. The Wang clan’s leader is always meticulous in his plans, I will personally guarantee that the forces are enough to capture that miss and use her against him. Although our forces may not be as good as compared to the forces of the Wang clan’s, once we have his weakness in our hands, he’ll think twice before trying to do anything. When that happens, he won’t have a choice but to concede to the forces that we’ve sent to help the Shi clan, his Wang clan will finally be taken care of by us.”

“Hmm, it is good that Advisor Wu understands the circumstances of the matter, since there is an agreement between territory owners that we can’t actively attack each other, I can’t make any moves, but once that girl is within our hands and we have the information on the estimate amount of forces within the Wang clan, we can easily use that to deplete the influence and power held by the Wang clan. By then, it wouldn’t impossible for his territory to be annexed by mine according to the territory power distribution agreement.” Clan leader Qi’s calm voice stated his plans.

Before Clan Leader Qi could dismiss their meeting, he suddenly thought of something and looked at his advisor, “Advisor Wu, this plan cannot have any failure in it, I have planned and accumulated many forces under me and I don’t want any variables to present itself.” His sharp eyes looked at his useful Advisor.

Advisor Wu secretly sweated because of his clan leader’s sudden overbearing aura that came down upon him, he saluted politely towards him and immediately spoke to reassure him, “Please be at ease clan leader, the information we received has come directly from the Shi clan’s young miss, the ambassador we sent has even personally verified the news with his own investigations, there is no doubt that the adopted daughter of the Wang clan is extremely cared for by her brother.” Advisor Wu solemnly spoke.

Clan leader Qi nodded his head in confirmation, “Good, since that is the case, it should be easy for Advisor Wu to deal with the Wang clan’s leader forces, make sure you send enough to distract him before aiming your other forces to capture that girl, I only want this plan to succeed, not fail, do you understand me, Advisor Wu?” Clan Leader Qi’s loud voice and strong soul strength weighed down on his advisor.

Advisor Wu was trying his best to stand straight and just when his knees were about to give in, the soul strength that was bearing down upon him disappeared, relaxing his tight nerves. He turned to his clan leader and promised once more of the guarantee of this successful plan before politely saluting and retreating from the grand hall of the Qi clan.

After he left the grand hall and walked a distance away far enough that his figure wouldn’t be detected by his clan leader’s strong perceptiveness, he finally relaxed his shoulders and let out the breath he’d been holding. He took out a handkerchief to wipe away the beads of sweat on his forehead and rapidly made his way towards his residence.

He needed to quickly dispatch more troops to help the Shi clan’s forces fight and distract that young Wang clan leader, so that they could have the chance to capture that girl, if there’s any mistakes in this time’s plan, his head would be first thing that his clan leader would come after.

Originally, they were just going to use a quarter of their forces to gauge the Wang clan’s strength by using the Shi clan as a cover but now that they had found out the Wang clan’s leader weakness, his clan leader would never let this opportunity slip away and he was forced to send out more than half of their clan’s forces for this time’s operation.

If they lost in this time’s plan, it wouldn’t damage the Qi clan’s reserves, but it would seriously hurt their power, since they were risking many of their forces’ lives to try to capture that girl, he could only succeed, failure wasn’t an option.

..

Soon it was night time and the residents in the Wang clan’s main city prepared themselves to retire for the night. Many candles were blown out, leaving only the darkness to accompany them to sleep in their respective homes. The streets in the main city were devoid of people walking around, only the night watch guards with their handle lanterns could be seen patrolling the many empty streets in the city.

In the Wang clan’s mansion that was located near the edge of the main street, where many other large mansions and residences were also housed, some candle lights could still be seen from the some of the rooms in the mansion. It looks like the master of this residence was still awake thus keeping the rest of his servants awake.

“Report.” A guard dressed in black appeared in a large candlelit meeting room.

Clan Leader Wang looked up from the documents on his desk at the guard and gave him permission to speak.

“The Qi clan has made their move; our spies have detected a large number of their disbursed forces heading this way.” The guard politely replied without getting up from the ground.

After Clan Leader Wang received this news, he sent the guard to keep watch on his territory’s borders and inform him to start gathering his forces in the main city to provide for any contingencies.

A man in his thirties who was also in the room looked at his clan leader in contemplation, “Clan leader, it looks like the Qi clan is serious about their actions to get rid of you this time.” He worryingly said.

“However, I don’t understand something, why pick now to implement their plans, besides using the Shi clan to cover up their ploy and use up their forces, it won’t do any good for them except to gauge the strength of the forces we have.” His fingers tapped the table while he thought of this problem.

Clan Leader Wang also thought deeply about the Qi clan’s move this time. Since he has been fighting that ambitious Qi clan’s leader since he took over the Wang clan as its leader, he knew the schemes and thoughts of him, so their operation this time to sacrifice the Shi clan to gauge their clan’s strength didn’t come at a surprise to him.

However, judging by the reports he received, the Qi clan had actually disbursed out more than half of their forces to his territory, they were making a risky move to try to get his head without even knowing the amount and strength of forces under him. This move of theirs could be said to be stupid, throwing out his forces’ lives only to gauge his clan’s strength, he could directly make plans afterwards and easily annex the Qi clan’s territory once that happened, but would the Qi clan leader be this stupid?

The answer was obviously not, which only leaves the question of what is the true aim of the Qi clan? Regardless of anything, he knew for certain that his ultimate goal was the Wang clan and his territory, so the only way he could obtain that without violating the territory owners’ agreement is to deplete his power and influence.

However, with him as the leader, he would never give any chances for that to happen. The Qi clan leader should be well aware of his tactics and forces that had easily controlled his major territory, or else the Qi clan would have annexed his territory with his constant schemes and forces by now.

Clan Leader Wang looked up from the table at his Advisor, “Advisor Lin, since we can’t figure out their goal right now, I’ll have my spies try to dig deeper for any clues. I’ll need you to act as the leader of our forces until this settles down.”

Advisor Lin politely saluted to his clan leader, “Clan leader, rest assured. I’ll make sure our forces are ready for the Qi clan’s when they strike.” After he had received those orders, he immediately bid his clan leader goodnight before leaving the candlelit meeting room to start gathering their forces to complete the order.

Clan Leader Wang sat back down on his seat and tapped his chin with his fingers in contemplation.

“Clan Leader Qi, what exactly are you aiming for this time?” Cheng Da said in a thoughtful tone.

..

Time went by quickly and only three days remained until the start of the annual Arts contest. Many shops that sold painting related items were busy with the flood of customers that were making last minute purchases to help with their paintings. The city’s main street was packed with people rushing about their activities, most of them were young painters that were getting ready for the upcoming contest, it looks like the importance of it was enormous to them based off of the stressed faces they’re displaying.

Because the paintings they’ve made could be submitted at the last minute, every one of them was utilizing their time and making sure that their individual paintings were perfect before turning it in as their submission piece for the contest.

In the Wang clan’s mansion, a young servant girl could be seen pacing back and forth in front of their Young Miss’s courtyard in nervousness. She was holding a tray of food for her Young Miss’s midday meal, but she didn’t dare enter to deliver it because the Young Miss has given strict orders that no one disturbed her since this morning. The young servant girl was afraid of disobeying her orders but at the same time, she was also fearful of angering their young clan leader for not properly taking care of their Young Miss.

Who knows what has happened to their cold and indifferent young Clan Leader, ever since two weeks ago, he’s been showing up at the Young Miss’s courtyard, sometimes there would be even laughter heard coming from inside the courtyard, when the young servant girl first heard it, she thought she was hallucinating but soon, all the servants that passed by were able to confirm that she wasn’t having an hallucination, because they’ve heard it too.

Now that the young clan leader cares immensely about the Young Miss, she was conflicted on whether to obey the Young Miss’s orders and risk the wrath of the young clan leader or go in and risk offending the Young Miss.

It was already past midday, but Tian He was still inside her small painting room, trying to finish the last details of her painting she was going to submit for the Arts contest. She needed to remain in focus for these last finishing touches because these minute details were the hardest to paint since it would be the key to tying the whole painting together, without it, her painting would look dull and she needed it to look lively.

Since she has given strict orders for all the servants to not disturb her, her concentration was at its max on her painting and of course she wouldn’t notice that is was already past midday.

The golden glow emitted out from her body was subtle but if one looked closely, they could see that it wasn’t fluctuating, like all of its power was gathered together and maintained an equal distribution, demonstrating the great control she had with her soul strength.

Unbeknownst to her, the servant girl who was holding the tray of food outside of her courtyard was now kneeling down on the ground begging for forgiveness from her angered clan leader.

Clan Leader Wang ignored the kneeling servant girl and ordered another servant girl to bring in a new set of the Young Miss’s midday meal from the kitchen, the one the kneeling servant girl was holding had already gone cold from all the waiting.

After giving out those orders, Cheng Da immediately entered his younger sister’s courtyard masking on a calm demeanor to hide the anger he had within him.

“This younger sister of mine is really getting naughtier, just because I have been going easy on her, she could just ignore my concerns about her health and skip her midday meal. If I don’t teach her a good lesson, won’t she just skip her meals whenever she wanted?!” Cheng Da’s angry voice followed him as he rushed towards her small painting room.

After he opened the door to enter, he saw Xiu Ying’s figure by her desk painting, the golden glow that emitted out from her lit up her already charming facial features and contrasted beautifully with the pale red outfit she donned on. She looked like a blooming red flower that glowed beautifully in the rays of a small sun’s fire. His steps paused, and he stood at the entrance to observe her paint.

This was the first time he had entered her painting room since the last time he had that friendly battle with her but seeing her paint while emitting her soul strength was enough to make him astounded. Her pale white skin that subtly glowed golden because of her soul strength added to that already pleasant charm she possessed, causing him to have the urge to forever stare at this scene. It was simply too beautiful and charming to look at. His heart wanted to imprint this scene into his mind, forever remembering the comfort feeling it brought him when he observed her in such a setting.

Tian He didn’t notice that her fuming half-brother had entered the room because all her concentration was on the painting in front of her. She needed to carefully apply her soul strength while she painted the last details of her painting, she couldn’t afford to be distracted, not even by her already growling stomach that she failed to notice.

Cheng Da finally snapped out of his astonishment and immediately marched over to where his younger sister was painting.

When Tian He felt the stirring of another person’s soul strength on hers, she immediately stopped her paintbrush and controlled her soul strength so that she wouldn’t ruin her painting. After making sure that her painting was safe, she relaxed her breath and looked up to see who was daring enough to enter her painting room even when she gave explicit instructions for her not to be disturbed.

However, when she caught the sight of a fuming half-brother looking back at her, she blanked out for a second before cursing underneath her breath, judging by the sun’s rays, it looks like she had missed her midday meal time and now she had to face the fury of this half-brother of hers.

She had listened to so many of his lectures constantly these past two weeks about eating on time and maintaining her health that she swore her ears were starting to grow mold, but now seeing him here, she began to dread the punishment she was going to face.

Suddenly, she realized something and rapidly got a white cloth she had put aside to cover her painting, she wasn’t going to let her half-brother see it until the day of the Arts contest.

Cheng Da saw her nervous movements and paused in his steps.

Why is she covering up her painting?

Could it be that she did not want me to see it?

Heh

He couldn’t help but chuckle playfully, Xiu Ying, my Xiu Ying, the more you try to hide something, the more I have the urge to uncover it. He smiled widely while he continued his steps towards her.

“Xiu Ying, my dear younger sister, it seems that you really like painting so much that you’ve even failed to notice that it has already past the time for your midday meal.” His smiling face never faltered in his speech while he looked at his Xiu Ying that was looking at him with a guilty expression.

Bracing herself, Tian He stood firm and looked at her half-brother that was giving her an evil smile.

“Elder brother, I apologize for not eating on time, I was busy working on my painting for the upcoming Arts contest and I lost track of time.” She tried to smile sweetly at him to get him to go easy on her.

Cheng Da caught her act of trying to be cute to get out of her mistake, he almost fell for it if it wasn’t for his strong soul strength and self-control.

Damn it, she wasn’t playing fair when using that sweet pleasant smile of hers to wind her way out of this. He made a mental note to be careful of her smile from now or else he would really succumb to it one of these days.

Tian He was watching her half-brother’s reaction to her sweet smile, since she has never used it before, she was sure that it was lethal now that he was exposed to it. Call her for not playing fair, but she needed to use anything at her disposal to get out of this mess. She also apologized softly for doing this and hoped that karma wouldn’t come back and bite her for this.

Seeing that he didn’t say anything so far, she felt a bit uneasy and decided she’ll try something else too. She walked towards him while still smiling sweetly at him and looked up into his dark brown eyes with her light brown ones, she stopped once she was only a few inches away from him.

Then, she reached out her hand to touch his arm gently while speaking sweetly to him, “Elder brother, I know that I’ve made a mistake and Xiu Ying is willing to accept your punishment. I hope elder brother sees that Xiu Ying has acknowledged her mistake to go easy me. Please, elder brother.” She held his hand with hers while looking at him with her sincere eyes.

Cheng Da was totally caught off guard with her initiative to touch him, although he had spent most of his time with her these past two weeks, this was the first time they had any skin contact since the time he had tried to force himself on her. He saw her look at him with those clear bright eyes of hers and his eyes couldn’t help but stare into them, he had always liked looking at them because it gave his heart a pleasant and comfortable feeling, warming him on the inside. However, now that she was directing her gaze at him with such sincerity, he didn’t know what to say, he was too captivated by them and combined with her touch, he didn’t want to pay attention to anything else.

Unconsciously, his other hand was making its way towards her face to hold it and his body moved closer to hers, when he caught the whiff of her sweet honey scent, he couldn’t help but move even closer, while all this time his eyes never left hers.

Tian He was watching him, more like she was looking at his dark brown mysterious eyes, whenever she looked into them, she felt that she was looking at a galaxy full of deep stories, they’ve always managed to catch her off guard and she would find herself longing to know the stories told within them.

She didn’t notice when he got closer to her or even felt his touch on her face, somehow, she fell into a trance while looking into those eyes of his, after a while, she even had the misconception that she saw dark flames dancing within them. She couldn’t help but feel that those flames were sentient and were giving off a joyful feeling when they sensed her looking at them.

Her full attention was on those flames, they were so dark and mysterious but for some reason, she felt like she had seen these kinds of flames before, deep down she knew that although these flames were dangerous, they wouldn’t hurt her. It was strange, and she couldn’t really explain why she felt this way, but she knew that her heart was curious about where exactly she saw them before.

Cheng Da noticed that she wasn’t resisting his touch and his heart grew a bit more daring as his desire for her rose, his hand automatically brought up her chin and he bent down his head to capture those soft pale red lips that he’d been thinking about these past two weeks.

At first, he only softly pecked it but when he felt her open her mouth invitingly, he immediately drove his tongue inside of it, gently teasing her small tongue that didn’t resist his advances. His other hand was now behind her head, holding it to bring it even closer to him, he wanted to taste her everything.

Tian He finally snapped out of her thoughts once she felt her half-brother’s lips on hers, she opened her mouth to say something but then she was caught off guard when his tongue suddenly dived into her mouth and before her hands could move, she felt his other hand push her head closer to him, causing his tongue to go even deeper into her mouth.

“Mmm!” Too fast.

Her body was almost plastered onto his because his other hand was now on her waist, pushing it up against his body, her lower body was so close to his that she could feel his engorged desire rub up against her belly and combined with the continued ravaging his hot large tongue was making inside her mouth, her legs started to feel weak and her mind began to feel dizzy from the lack of breath caused by his kissing.

The longer his hot tongue ravaged her mouth, the weaker her already trembling legs felt. Her hands were now tightly clutching onto his shirt, trying desperately to maintain standing. Suddenly, his large warm hand that was around her waist pressed her lower body even closer to his, she could feel him slowly start to rock his lower body against hers, causing his large hot desire to rub up constantly against her core area.

A sudden heat source started to build up beneath her belly as she felt him increase the speed of his powerful lower body’s movements against hers and plundered her mouth even faster with his large scorching tongue. She could also feel her breasts rub against his firm chest, moving in rhythm with his rocking body, making her feel as if they were being massaged. Her heart was madly pounding as each massage would cause a shock through her already increasingly warm body.

His large warm hands that never left her waist and head felt like they were burning her with their touch. She could feel the strength in her body become weaker, her hands were barely holding onto his shirt and her knees were starting to bend as the heat source on her lower belly increased due to the combination of her core area being continuously rubbed against by his engorged hot desire and his large warm tongue that never stopped wrecking inside her mouth. She was so dizzy and weak that she didn’t even know what to do.

Suddenly, she felt the hand that was on her waist glide down her lower back and before she knew it, she felt a sudden strike from his rough large fingers as it ruthlessly inserted itself into her core area between her clothes.

“Mmm!” She felt like something electrocuted her lower body and her already weak legs finally gave in and lost the strength to stand.

Cheng Da felt her legs give way and immediately used his arms to lift her to his embrace. He could feel her hard breathing and trembling warm body against his chest and his already hard desire became even fiercer as he looked at her flushed face and felt her warm body against his. He quickly carried her towards her bedroom that was adjacent to this small painting room.

When he laid her down on her bed, he didn’t join her but sat on the bedside waiting for her to regain herself. He didn’t want to continue this unless he was sure of her feelings, although she didn’t resist his touch and even took the initiative to touch him today, he still wanted her answer to his confession.

Tian He felt the soft mattress beneath herself and finally realized that she was laying on her bed. When she turned her head, she saw her half-brother stare intently at her, but he kept a distance and didn’t touch her. She looked questioningly at him since she felt that his eyes wanted to ask her something.

Cheng Da saw her signal and gathered his strength to ask her about her feelings, “Xiu Ying, you have to tell me, do you like me?” Catching her puzzled expression, he started speaking again.

“Xiu Ying, do you like it when I touch you? Are you happy when I’m with you? Does your heart feel pleasant and good when you talk to me? Do you have the feeling that you want to find out more about me? Do you miss me when I’m not around you?” He wanted to continue but he stopped his excitement when he caught her wide eyes stare up at him.

Tian He was too astounded to say anything. At first, she was confused by what he meant by like but when he asked the following questions, she knew exactly what he meant. Listening to each of them and thinking about the answers in her head, she couldn’t help but feel more shocked with herself, she realized unexpectedly that she could easily answer yes to all of them. This news was too sudden that her body couldn’t help but freeze up and her mind blanked out.

Cheng Da caught the shock in her eyes and his eyes immediately lit up in delight. He smiled widely while slowly reaching his hands towards her face to gently feel its smoothness beneath his fingers. His heart was loudly pounding due to the extreme happiness he felt that he didn’t know what else to do.

“Xiu Ying, oh Xiu Ying.” He couldn’t hold himself back anymore and lifted her up from the bed to hug her tightly.

Haha, his Xiu Ying likes him, she has finally accepted him!

He couldn’t control himself and let out his joyful laughter while hugging her tighter into his embrace.

Tian He finally snapped out of her shocked state when he hugged her, however; before she could say anything, she heard his joyful laughter ring out besides her and the hands that were about to push him away stopped midday.

Her heart jolted with guilt and frustration at herself, judging by his actions and happy laughter, she knew that he saw through her and found her feelings for him.

She was conflicted on what to do now, since he had spotted her feelings for him, she knew that she couldn’t come up with any excuses now to stop his advances and increase their feelings with each other, but since this body wasn’t hers and she was eventually going to leave, she didn’t want to use it since the original owner isn’t in love with him.

Her mind was running at a fast speed to think of a solution. Should she stall until after the Art contest when she completes her task to leave? Would her elder brother notice the difference between her and the original owner?

If he does, then she wouldn’t have to worry about the original owner getting done in by him. But if he doesn’t, then the original owner would probably be so scared that she’ll want to run away.

Either way, since we already have mutual feelings towards each other, once she leaves, she’ll feel the most heartache but if by some chance that he figures out that the original owner isn’t her, then he’ll also feel pained. However, judging by his strong soul strength, she was starting to feel that this possibility was entirely true.

So then, since we’re both going to feel the pain of separation anyways, why not be selfish and indulge in this one-time fantasy?
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