16 2.1 Star Painter

2nd Imperial Prince eventually takes over the throne and 1st Imperial Prince goes out to travel the country, becoming an idle prince.

Chen Su Su and the Emperor was happy to finally acknowledge their daughter and began a nice, quiet life together. The original owner, 'Li Tian He', who suddenly woke up on stage and received the memories of the months that Tian He had occupied her body just thought everything was a dream. The last thing she remembered was being tortured in a cell without knowing why, but when she thought she died, she woke up on a stage to be told that she is the daughter of the famous dancer, Chen Su Su, and the Emperor. She was immensely happy that her original 'dream' of being tortured didn't happen and that she had reunited with her real parents, and with their support, she joined a famous artist company recommended by her friend, Liu Wei, and toured the country to perform her dances, eventually having her name ring throughout its land.

When 2nd Imperial Prince confirmed over and over again that 'Li Tian He' was no longer the person he first met and fell in love with, he was devastated and locked himself inside his residence for months, but when he came out, his whole entire person changed from a hope-filled and ambitious prince to a withdrawn and emotionless sovereign. Nevertheless, he stilled ruled his people fairly and adapted new rules to the justice system to improve the strength of the empire.

In the end, as an Emperor, he never took in any consorts and adopted the original owner's son as the next in line for the throne.

…..

Tian He returned to the white space that she visited when she first met 'Little Stars'. She was a bit sad that she had to leave that world, after all, she made her first friends there. Her only comfort was that the original owner would continue that friendship for her. However, the one thing that she's happy about is that she didn't have to see that annoying shameless 2nd Imperial Prince anymore, she never liked the weird vibes he gave her either.

"Congratulations to Host for a job well done!" Little Stars was enthusiastic that its host's first mission went so smoothly.

Suddenly, Tian He felt a wave of energy fill her soul body, her original faded white soul looked a bit stronger and more visual.

"Host, this is the reward for successfully completing the mission, besides the prizes you get to choose from the 'store', you also receive energy from the world itself. Although you can't take this given energy with you back to your world, the increase in soul strength could be used to help you in completing the tasks in each world. This energy could be used to trade for items in the store now that the beginning package is used up."

Feeling the warm energy that just entered her soul, at least she gets something else in helping her complete these tasks, the last world's mission was more complicated than she thought it would be, but surprisingly, she enjoyed learning all those new dance moves and increasing her dancing skills.

"Little Stars, you said that in every world I'm sent to, the target person will have regrets because they couldn't complete their dreams as an artist, right?"

"Yes, Host. I'm a system that is programed to only send you to specific targets that need help fulfilling their dreams in the entertainment world, no matter their profession, it will always fall under this."

"Exactly how many missions do I have to complete in the end?" Tian He was always worried about this point.

"In replies to Host, based on the energy you received in the first world, it is hard to calculate, but according to what the main system provided, you will be sent back after your soul collects enough energy from each completed mission's world. When that happens, the main system will take that energy to help stabilize its control over the worlds and you will get to pick the items you used in each world in your missions to bring back to your world."

Deep in thought, Tian He's goals are renewed.

At first, she thought she was only going to complete these missions for the sake of taking some of the items in the store back with her to her world, but seeing how much fun she had learning and increasing her dancing skills, she thirsted to increase her other skills as well.

Looking at Little Stars with zealous eyes, she proclaims.

"Alright Little Stars, take me to the next world, I'll do my best to make sure the target reaches their artist's goals."

In the meantime, she could also use the time to increase her other skills, this was killing two birds with one stone. She had never felt so excited to accomplish anything, it felt like her spirit had found its light and a fire of desire to succeed was ignited within her soul.

She wanted to learn everything about being a talented artist! These missions will only get more colorful and interesting now that she could look forward to them. She had a huge weakness for learning new things after all, or else how could she have learnt all those skills back in her world when she wasn't even 17 yet, it was obvious that she kept herself locked up in her room most of her life due to her interests in these skills, honestly, if she didn't have to sleep or eat, she wanted learn those skills all day long without stopping.

.....

When Tian He first opened her eyes, she found herself in a small room, many canvases filled the room, some hung on the four sides of the walls, but most of it was placed on the ground, neatly leaning together against the walls.

She was currently sitting down in a chair with a painting of a shimmering lake on top of a table in front of her. The smell of fresh paint on it was evident that this painting had just been completed. Looking at it, she saw that on top of the lake was a white swan, its wings were tucked in nicely, and its long slim neck was bent downwards. At the end of its neck was a light-yellow beak that dipped itself just slightly in the waters, it was currently drinking the lake's waters. By the details of this painting, it gave her the misconception that she was looking at a real swan, the soft feathers of its body and its shiny beak was portrayed so realistically, even the reflection of it on the shimmering lake was clear. The blurry legs underneath the slight ripples of the waters made it seem like the swan was moving its legs to keep it afloat.

The skies in the painting were a mix of yellow and red-orange colors and a setting sun could be seen in the distance. There were few clouds in the skies and no ground could be seen because the skies and the shimmering red-orange lake that reflected the colors of the skies filled the whole canvas. She thought that the sole swan swimming on the lake looked a bit lonely, diminishing the impression of this skillful painting in front of her. Nothing alive could be seen by the swan, not even fishes, or any plants, just the red-orange skies with a setting sun, the shimmering lake that reflected the skies' colors, and a white but fragile looking swan.

She reflexively reached out her pale white fingers to touch the swan's sad figure, its eyes were painted closed, so she couldn't tell what emotions this lonely swan was feeling, but judging by the empty feeling it was giving off, she could tell that is was seeking for a companion.

Removing her attention from the painting that she was itching to fix, she called out to Little Stars.

"Little Stars, please give me the details of this body and background of this time's mission."

Little Stars appeared in his usual baby form and waved his hands to form a transparent screen in front of her.

"Here you go host." Little Stars said cheerfully.

"Thanks, Little Stars." Smiling at Little Stars already blushing cute face, she reminisced about that small hand she held when she was in soul form, next time for sure, she'll definitely squeeze those white chubby cheeks. She secretly declared that when she's in soul form again, she'll touch all she wanted, because such a cute baby with such pinchable cheeks was beside her but she couldn't even squeeze a bit was simply torturing her.

Besides, since Little Stars was technically 'forcing' her to complete missions, she'll guilt trip him so much that he won't be able to refuse. This is the perfect plan! He…He… Tian He laughed evilly in her mind for imaging Little Stars' future teary face, this could be considered as some kind of pay back for 'kidnapping' her in the first place, so she didn't need to feel bad, not, at, all.

Not noticing the strange glint in its host eyes, Little Stars disappeared into particles of pink light, hoping for its host to call it when she needed it.

Sighing for not having the means to complete her wish right now since she occupied a body, she decided to focus on the screen in front of her.

This world's setting was also similar to her world, but people in this world could use their 'soul strength' to draw and paint pictures and if their 'soul strength' was strong enough, they could use it to summon the paintings into real life to attack the other parties' real summons, basically it could be used to battle others. There were no rulers in this world, just individual territory owners, and each of these 18 territories housed many big to small cities.

This body's name was different from hers entirely, this 'Wang Xiu Ying', is currently an 18-year-old female who was adopted at the age of 5 into a clan that ruled one of the territories, the exalted Wang clan. The only reason she was this 'lucky' was because the Madam of the clan who mourned the death of her 5-year-old daughter already had heart problems and couldn't stand the shock of losing her only daughter, so her husband found a 5-year-old Xiu Ying, who looked similar to their dead daughter to replace her.

Their dead daughter also had an older brother that was 7 years her senior, it was his duty to look after this half-sister of his since her adopted parents already passed away 5 years ago, but since he was busy with his work as the young clan leader and the owner of his own Arts college, he left that task to a nanny he hired. This nanny took advantage of the fact that Xiu Ying's older brother was absence often to bully her, but because Xiu Ying was originally introverted because of her awkward identity and was a bit afraid of this older brother of hers, she never dared to confront him about the nanny's mean actions.

Although she was not given any real parental love or care, her love for painting never faded. Her hard work got her admitted into her half-brother's art college and using the skills she learned there, she qualified to enter the annual Arts contest. But before she could, she was framed for plagiarizing a student's work from her brother's Arts college and was immediately arrested.

In the end, because she couldn't express her thoughts well and was a bit slow in understanding the fast events that happened to her, she never knew who framed her and died suddenly in remorse in the city's jail. Upon her death, all her thoughts were occupied by her unfinished dream to create the most realistic picture using her soul strength and displaying it in the annual Arts Contest.

Closing her eyes, Tian He slowly digested the details of this time's target and her task. Her hands were placed on her forehead, using her slim fingers to minutely massage it to ease the many thoughts in her head. Looks like she was hoping for too much, the details provided by the main system left out some important parts, like who framed her, why did they rush her death, and finally, what in the world does soul strength mean.

Opening her eyes again, she turned determined and a particular brightness could be seen in her eyes, no matter what happened to you, I vow that I will help you fulfill your dreams of painting the most realistic and soul stirring painting. Now that her goal was established, anyone that wanted to get in her way better be prepared to face her active attacks. A resolute glint shone in her eyes and she smiled widely in excitement to learn about using this 'soul strength' to create a realistic painting that could actually come alive and be used for battles.

Since it was already a few weeks before the day the original owner was framed, she decided to first draw up her plan of actions. For starters, she'll expose the bullying nanny, get into good terms with this half-brother of hers in order to use him for protection against the people that 'arrested' the original owner before, then she'll make sure those people suffer for crushing a painter's dreams. After clearing her 'bad' name, she'll enter that annual Arts contest with the best painting she could do and hopefully, win it.

In addition, while doing everything, she had to make sure she doesn't go out of character of a slow introvert or else people will start suspecting her identity. Since the last world's people could wear disguises, she didn't want to end up with the crime of stealing another's identity on top of plagiarizing someone's painting. Plus, when the original owner comes back, she will only have immense trouble adapting to her characteristics if she doesn't want to get exposed for having two souls in her body.

Looking back at the painting of the lonely swan on the lake placed in front of her, she decided it's time she'd fix this painting. Since the original owner always locked the door, she didn't need to be worried that her bully of a nanny would disturb her. It was only when she needed to get food from the kitchen that she had no choice but to step out of the safe haven of her room, giving the nanny a chance to stretch her mean claws at her.

She searched for the paint color she needed and taking a small brush in one of the glass containers on the dark wooden table, she started to dab at the painting. Concentrating on giving life to the swan and its surroundings, she didn't notice that her body was giving off a golden glow, but it was so small that it blended with the natural sunlight that cascaded down on her face and body through the opened window on the right side of her.

Her smooth black hair was safely secured in a makeshift bun with a simple white jade hairpin, her hair was parted in the middle and a few bangs contoured the right and left sides of her pale white face. She had light brown pupils that shone brightly in her concentration and a small thin nose that was as delicate looking as her light red lips. Her rolled up sleeves uncovered her pale white arms and smooth thin fingers. The sun also shone on her pale white neck and collarbone that was slightly revealed due to her flowy style of dressing.

As her concentration on her painting deepened, the golden glow that emitted out from her was no longer being mistaken as the sunlight, its vibrant and gold color was brighter and more alive than the yellowness of the sun's rays. Her light red flowy skirt only complimented the brightness of the golden glow and her pale white skin sparkled like millions of golden dust particles. Finally, she lifted her brush from the painting and the golden glow receded back into her body, diming the earlier bright golden room back to its original sunlight color.

Smiling at the painting, what was once a sad lonely swan on a deserted lake now had three other swans swimming in it. They all had the same white feathers and sleek beak, but this time, their eyes were shining with life as it stared and swam around the lake causing ripples to appear in their trails. Small seaweeds and corals stretched it's stems above the waters, while tiny silver and orange scaled fishes swarm underneath them, spouting bubbles from its mouth with each flick of their tails and fins. The whole painting was bursting with life, she could no longer feel the lonely image of the swan that sat in the center of the shimmering lake, the other swans and fishes that shared the lake with it helped create an image of it in comfort, like it was safely resting in its home.

Nodding in satisfaction with her alterations, she smiled and decided that it didn't need any more touches, to her, this painting was perfect. She relaxed her mind and stretched her aching neck and massaged her strained shoulders. She got up from her seat to get the blood running through her legs again and stretched her tired arms above her head, swinging them across herself and side to side to relieve that stiffness in them. Not even getting to glance at the room she was planning on exploring earlier, her stomach growled and distracted her.

"This princess is hungry." Tian He's voice appeared grudgingly in the small room full of paintings.

She locked the small room's doors behind her and walked out. She needed to keep her room door locked just in case that nanny or anyone else comes in and ruins her paintings, although the original owner had guards for her safety placed outside her courtyard gate, she didn't trust them at all. How else was the original owner framed for plagiarizing her own works? It was obvious that someone took it and copied it for themselves, then the people that came to arrest the original owner and the guards that stood outside were probably bought over by the person who framed her, or else how could events happen so fast that the original owner couldn't explain herself. She was probably in too much shock to speak, and adding to the fact that she couldn't express her thoughts well, it was the perfect scheme.

Also, the original owner was an introvert and didn't interact with anyone at Art college either, and she never invited anyone inside her room, so it could only be that these guards had let people come in, but now that she even locked her windows, no one can think about coming in unless they broke through the doors or windows. If some people were actually stupid enough to do that, then she would be happy to watch them because besides her traitor guards that were bribed, all the other guards in this huge mansion are loyal. This was the result of being specifically picked and trained by her 'competent' half-brother of hers, so at any sound of trouble, those people would be crushed before they could even step half a foot inside her room.

When she quickly exited the small room's area and made her way towards her attached private bedroom area, she saw that the curtains' and decorations' colors were mostly light red and peach in color, although the original owner was withdrawn, she could tell that she was still a young girl inside from the use of these warm youthful colors. Most of the flowers collected were also in these colors, the vases that held them were white ceramic and had small blue designs on them. A small round table with a light pink covering was situated in the center of her bedroom, and at the ends the cover were multiple strings of light red with peach colored beads attached them, it made her want to glide her hands across it just to hear the sounds of them touching each other. After passing her bedroom, she arrived at a small main hall area, there were only three wooden chairs, one at the front with the other two on the sides of it, but this time, she didn't see any colors that represented a young girl lived here, only dark brown wooden chairs with a large old rectangle shaped rug placed at the center.

"This is simply too bland ah." Tian He criticized lightly for the original owner for making her bedroom look so nice but neglected the dreary main hall of hers.

She swiftly left this main hall of hers and headed out her courtyard, seeing the guards standing on the left and right sides of the entrance, she completely ignored them, sooner or later she'll have them changed.

Since the family that adopted the original owner was wealthy and was strict in discipling their servants, she was unsurprised when she saw well-maintained buildings, no cracks on the white stone paths, and nicely trimmed and well-nourished plants along the path towards the main kitchen. The maids and servant boys that she passed by all greeted her respectfully, bowing not too low or not too high.

"Really impeccable discipline ah." Tian He softly whispers to herself as she smiles in 'admiration'.

After just walking half way there, she couldn't help but curse, if it wasn't because she didn't have a kitchen in her courtyard, she would have ordered someone to cook her meals there, her weak body was causing her to breathe hard from just this short exercise to the kitchen.

Damn that nanny, she probably knows about this but still pressured the original owner to walk to the kitchen to get her own food, anyone that's not blind can see that she's being bullied. If it wasn't because the master of the residence was barely even home and the original owner was afraid to complain to him, a mere servant would have never gotten so arrogant.

What was really sad was that she couldn't use the energy she earned to purchase items from the store to help her increase this weak's body stamina because she needed to save it for boosting her 'soul strength' for the upcoming Art's contest, or else she would have already surrendered to using it before even reaching halfway there.

Finally, her quick steps brought her to the kitchen area, although right now was near midday, it shouldn't be that busy since the main kitchen only cooked food for her who's the only one living in the residence, but when she finally arrived outside it's entrance, she was astounded.

Why are there so many servants working inside today? Could it be that her 'competent' half-brother of hers is home? Looking closely, she didn't see that nanny of hers that usually stood outside the kitchen whenever it was mealtime to bar her from entering on the pretense that she was giving her 'helpful' lectures, hell, that nanny is lucky today, she was even prepared to 'fight' against her for her food today too, a hungry Princess should not be underestimated.

Seeing the many servants' shuffling in and out of the kitchen with savory foods on their plates, her eyes follow them for a brief moment, it smells so good, her hunger amplified. Since it was too chaotic for her to enter, she inquired a young girl servant about her meal.

"In replies to Young Miss, this servant was not informed about your midday meal. Please excuse this servant as this servant needs to deliver this plate for Young Clan Leader's meal." The servant respectfully saluted to her with a stone face, and left promptly, not even a bit concerned about her.

She was too shocked, was the whole residence's people like this? Endure, she needs to endure. There's no use in taking it out on the servants because without the master consenting to this, it'll never happen. On the way here, she felt many presences hidden within the residence and the kitchen is no different, these people must be the eyes and ears of that half-brother of hers. She would never believe that as an owner of his own Arts college, he would ever allow spies into his own home, if he couldn't even control his own home, then how could he run his own Arts college full of talented painters.

This half-brother of hers is either not caring at all or is doing this on purpose. Either way, she needs to confront him on this, and looking at the many servants rushing to deliver his meal, a plan comes to mind.

"Since you want to keep your 'good' reputation as Principal of an esteem Arts College, I'll help you." Tian He whispers her thoughts to herself as she smiles slightly and looks forward to finally meeting this half-brother of hers.