When Tian He left the safety of the Wang clan's mansion, spies from Qi and Shi clan that surrounded the mansion were immediately alerted and rapidly flew back to their respective masters to deliver this great news. Although they were skeptical about her identity at first because she was wearing a face mask, her voice and stature matched the information they were given after confirming it with the carriage seller she rented her carriage from. Judging by the direction, she was most likely heading towards the Arts college, just like what the young miss of Shi clan said.
After hearing the news, the young miss from the Shi clan, Zhang Li, couldn't help but reveal a mocking smile, "Wang Xiu Ying, you're really stupid to go out at a time like this. At first, I thought you weren't going to the Arts college but judging by how you've escaped the Wang clan through the back, Cheng Da most likely kept you locked up since this morning." She got up from her seating position and rapidly made her towards the main hall where her father was.
When she received permission to enter, she met with a smiling father and knew that he also received news of Xiu Ying's escape from the Wang clan's mansion.
"Father, since that Xiu Ying girl is out of the mansion and is heading for the Arts contest now, I'm ready to follow our forces to go to her. However, since it seems like she escaped through the back with only minimal guards, the Wang clan's leader might have somehow received news of our plans to capture her and had her in confinement until now." Zhang Li was worried that Cheng Da might come after Xiu Ying and rescue her in time.
The Shi clan's leader looked at his daughter confidently, "Don't worry about that, the Qi clan has already informed me that they'll send enough forces to distract him and he won't be able to get there in time." He really wanted to thank that Xiu Xing girl for her rash actions.
Smiling in contentment, Zhang Li spoke, "Alright, since father has already contacted the Qi clan about this, your daughter shall get ready to head towards the Arts college. After all, I'm also one of the contestants, I will use that to coordinate with our forces to make sure there won't be any chances for her to escape." Zhang Li couldn't wait to finally end this once and for all.
…..
Advisor Wu of the Qi clan sat on the main seat of the meeting room with an assured expression. After receiving news of that Wang clan's adopted daughter's escape from the Wang clan's mansion, he knew that it was the right time to strike. Although it bothered him that since she escaped through the back, it meant that the Wang clan's leader already knows of their plans to capture her, so he had kept her in confinement since this morning.
No matter, now that he was given this good chance, he couldn't let anything slip up. He immediately got up from his seat and ordered the various guard captains in the room to begin their operation to go distract the Wang clan's leader and secretly infiltrate the Arts college to acquire that girl.
After they left, he donned a disguise as a merchant traveler and headed for the Arts college.
"If those people from the Shi clan coupled with our forces fail, then I'll have to take action." Advisor Wu was cautious and didn't want to underestimate the Wang clan's leader, so this disguise would be useful once something goes wrong.
…..
Cheng Da was currently standing outside an empty courtyard which was supposed to be full of his elite guards protecting his Xiu Ying but what he sees in front of him made his anger rise to the max. He clenched his fists to restrain his rapid beating heart from the fear and anger he was feeling.
The many servants and guards nearby were all trembling from the strong soul strength his body was emitting, especially the guard captain that was responsible for this area's surveillance. Looking at the fallen bodies of the guards that were supposed to guard the back of their Young Miss's courtyard and the kneeling guards that helped the Young Miss escape, he sweated unconsciously for their dreary futures. Although he empathized with their situation, given that the Young Miss actually used her own life as a deal to force these guards into helping her escape, he still knew that their actions were unforgivable in the eyes of the young clan leader.
Nobody around the young clan leader spoke for fear of drawing forth his anger to them. In their minds, they were secretly praying that nothing will happen to the Young Miss, or else the whole mansion will suffer their cold clan leader's wrath.
Cheng Da was finally able to restrain himself from destroying this whole courtyard, right now he needed to remain calm and think of a way to rescue his Xiu Ying. Since he had heard the news from her that she sent nanny Lan as a spy to the Shi clan and learned of their plans to capture her, he knew that the Qi and Shi clan would stop at nothing to obtain their goals. Although she was adamant on attending, he directly vetoed her choice and locked her up since he knew that she was a stubborn individual. However, never would it had occurred to him that she actually managed to escape after the increase of guards he placed around her courtyard.
"Good Xiu Ying, when I rescue you, I hope you're prepared for the punishment elder brother will place on you." His heart was consumed with so much fear for her safety but at the same time, he felt angered that she was taking her life for granted and deliberately putting him in a position where he'll have to fear for her safety.
He knew she was a smart individual, so she must have understood what the consequences her actions of leaving the mansion at a time like this would be. Yet she still did it, he felt like she was trying to tear his heart apart by letting him get consumed with anxiety of losing her. Unbeknownst to him and the rest of the people near the courtyard, his eyes started having black flames dancing within them, probably caused by the intense emotions of its master's worries.
Cheng Da immediately called for Advisor Lin to have him lead the charge of forces against the Qi and Shi clan.
Advisor Lin was taken aback, "Clan leader Wang, with all due respect, although I also am worried about the safety of the Young Miss, without clan leader leading the charge, I'm afraid our forces might not be able to withstand them."
He knew that the Qi and Shi clan had made ample preparations for this time's operation, knowing that their clan leader is at the mastery level in soul strength, they probably sent out a person who was also in the mastery level to deal with the clan leader. And because people who have mastery level in soul strength are rare, none of the forces they had were in mastery level besides the clan leader.
Cheng Da's furious expression met his Advisor's, "Advisor Lin, do I have to tell you twice? I want you to make sure that you stall their forces long enough for me to take back my younger sister, am I making myself clear?" He released his soul strength upon his Advisor that was wasting precious time by trying to reason with him.
Advisor Lin heard his clan leader's determined tone and was shaken. He knew that without the clan leader holding back the other mastery level expert, their forces would face tremendous pressure, it wouldn't be exaggerating to say that their forces might be killed faster this way. However, it looks like his clan leader cares about his younger sister so much that he is willing to lose an ample number of his forces to rescue her.
Seeing that this Advisor Lin still hasn't replied, he grew impatient, "Advisor Lin, I know what I'm doing, once I have my younger sister, I'll immediately head towards you to deal with the Shi and Qi clan forces but for now, I need you to perform your order." He didn't wait for his reply and immediately summoned some of his elite guards and directly made his way towards the Arts college.
After Advisor Lin saw his clan leader leave in a hurry, he steeled his heart and turned towards the other guard captains around him, "You heard the clan leader, gather the forces and stop the Qi and Shi clan from getting to the young clan leader and Young Miss."
The guard captains only took a moment to respond before they headed out towards their respective positions to stop the Qi and Shi clan's forces. Advisor Lin also headed out with his own escorts while secretly praying that their casualties wouldn't be that serious and his clan leader would make it back it time to help them.
…..
Tian He finally made it to the Arts college in time for the contest. After she submitted her painting to the judges, she realized that there was only a few more minutes until midday, meaning that she could have been disqualified from the contest if she was any slower in getting here. She secretly let out a breath in relief and thanked her fast actions in getting here.
She was now wearing a face mask to disguise herself and blended in with the other students who waited patiently in the main plaza of the college for the contest to begin. Since the original owner didn't have any friends to begin with, she didn't need to worry about socializing to keep up with any appearances.
Right now, the guards that followed her here were all hidden around the plaza with their own disguises to ensure that if anything were to happen, they would be the first one to know about it and take action.
In addition, there was more staff since she arrived because the lead guard that was with her had informed them about their circumstances, so they increased the security around the contest area. This Arts contest was jointly held by important painters and figures of this major territory and other minor and major territories, so they brought an ample number of forces with them in order to ensure the safety of its contestants.
Although the Arts college was owned by her half-brother, this Arts contest that only happened yearly with the enforcement of these many important figures from all over the many territories were only borrowing the Arts college's location to host this contest.
Their job was to increase the competitiveness in each Arts college they hosted their contest in and gauge the strength of future painters, their role played more towards supervising and teaching, and if there are any exceptionally talented or good students that caught their eyes, they wouldn't mind recruiting them under their organization. Overall, they were an organization that focused on providing extra nurture and support towards young painters that deserve their help.
Even if their forces are scattered and could barely rival that of one minor territory, their influence in the painting world was huge, with many of the student painters they helped becoming important figures in various places, so if needed, the organization can always count on them if something were to happen.
However, they will still respect the rules and order of a territory they visited because no one wanted to start any friction with these powerful territory owners. Since their forces were scattered all over the territories, it was better for them and more courtesy of them to do that. They were only a large organization that served as a deterrence force against territory owners' actions since no one wanted to know the depth of it.
So naturally after hearing that there will be a clan war between the Shi clan and Wang clan, they brought more forces with them this time to prevent any contingencies. After all, their reputation of helping young painters would be at stake if anything were to happen to them during this Arts contest.
"Ring!" Finally, the sound of the bell that signaled the start of the painting contest was heard.
Tian He and the rest of the contestants that were with her immediately made their way to their respective places where their paintings were placed. All of the contestants' paintings were covered up and could finally be revealed now.
When Tian He finally made her way towards a stand that had her contestant number on it and her painting neatly held in place on it, she saw that many of the contestants were also able to find their respective positions and released their competitive spirts. Music started playing while the many audience members immediately got up from their seats to witness the contestants' paintings.
The judges would first look at the paintings that caught their eyes first then move onto the other paintings. Tian He was waiting for this moment, once she displays her painting and summons it to life, she had confidence in herself for catching the judge's eyes and be among the first ones to have their paintings judged.
Since this was a contest, there was bound to be a winner and although she had hoped to stay to find out who won, the timing right now did not work in her favor. However, it was a good thing that the original owner's dream was to just paint the most realistic painting and displaying it during the contest, not win it, or else she would really be in trouble if anything untoward happens as the time dragged on.
Finally, she saw the judges move from their spots to look at the paintings all around them. Since there were thousands of contestants, each of them was arranged uniformly so that none of them would be troubled when summoning their paintings. All of the contestants saw the judges disburse themselves into either two-person groups or just singular to wander around the many places that had paintings on stands. Immediately after seeing that, the many contestants began to reveal their paintings and started summoning their paintings to life. They were all competing to capture the judges' attention first.
Tian He did not lag behind them and also revealed her painting. Her canvas was rectangle-shaped that was a bit taller than her waist in height and about her size in length. The whole painting depicted a battle of two painters, one controlling a red glowing white tiger while the other smaller figure controlling a delicate looking white swan that glowed a bit golden.
Although they were in battle, one could tell from the facial expressions of the two figures that it wasn't a life or death battle, but one of learning and support. There was a small smile on the face of the figure controlling the white tiger and if one looked closely, they could see the gaze at which he looked at the smaller figure in the painting was of warmth and care, although subtle, it was able to make the whole painting have a hearty and warm atmosphere.
The smaller figure's expression displayed concentration and attentiveness towards the battle in front of her, totally not noticing the expressions of the opponent she was fighting. Everyone could see the difference of soul strength immediately between the two figures, with the strong red glowing white tiger overpowering the golden glow of the white swan.
However, judging by the non-bloodlust atmosphere, once could tell that this battle of learning was full of trust and encouragement. It created a contrasting scene of fierce auras displayed by their individual summons and a relaxing yet battle spirited aura from the expressions the painters had within.
Tian He had wanted to paint this scene the moment she realized the good intentions her elder brother had for her when he battled against her. Perhaps, it might have been at this moment that her feelings started to change for him but nevertheless, it was something that was memorable to her and she knew that her elder brother would like it too.
When she finished the painting the other day, she realized that she didn't have name for it, so to commemorate their wonderful yet short-lived love together, she named it, 'The Start of Our Beginning'. When she thought of this title, her heart knew that it was perfect, since she'll be remembering him for as long as she could, this title would serve as a reminder of their love and their beautiful yet amusing start together.
As soon as her painting was revealed, she heard some clamors from the audiences but chose to ignore it and began gathering her soul strength to summon it to life. After all, without actually summoning it with one's soul strength, no one would be able to judge the painter's skills and their control of their soul strength. The more accurate a painter's soul strength was inserted when they've painted, the more alive their summons will appear and the more power they could use for battle against other painters.
Tian He took a deep breath and felt her soul strength within her start to emit our from her body. She saw her body start to glow a subtle golden, having made sure that all of her strength was uniformed, she immediately started to increase the output of its release and her body's golden glow became a bit bigger. She concentrated hard on gathering her soul strength so that it wasn't fluctuating, she wanted to compress her soul strength so that only the purest form of it would be used to summon her painting to life.
Once she was certain that it was enough, she aimed her hand at her painting and controlled the output of it, creating a streak uniformed golden light that shot towards her painting, illuminating the surroundings while the painting that sensed her release also floated up a bit to meet her streak of golden light.
Finally, the golden streak of light submerged into the painting, causing the whole painting to glow golden and with a flash of golden light, four figures of golden light shot out from the painting itself and landed right in front of her. It was the figures in the painting that were fighting against each other and their summons.
Tian He smiled happily in accomplishment, "Now then, time for the main event".
She gathered her soul strength and aimed it at the four live summonses, causing them to glow a brighter golden color and immediately they responded to her meaning and began to move. The two human figures started to gather their hands and pointed it at their individual summons, causing the tiger and swan to cry out their sounds for battle, as soon as the figures looked ready, the tiger and swan each pounced towards each other in an attempt to make their counterparts submit.
They were brimming with fighting spirit from the commands of their respective summoner's, their expressions were one of unwilling to submit and strong determination. Meanwhile, the figures that controlled them each displayed different expressions, one being serious yet subtlety happy while the other one being scared yet full of fighting spirit. This summon that she made was the exact depiction of how she remembered the first time her elder brother had forced her to battle against him in her painting room.
This was a memory that stuck to her and wanted herself and her elder brother to always remember, this was the start of her realizing his care towards her and also the start of her painting journey in this world. This first battle with the summoning of her painting was something that she treasured since it not only taught her how to fight with her summons but also the kind and gentleness that was her elder brother.
While she poured her soul strength into her summons to keep them moving, the other contestants did not lag, they each summoned their paintings to life and had them perform their individual commands. Tian He wasn't concerned with what the other students were doing, instead she was searching for the appearances of any judges. Although they could blend in with audience to survey each contestants' work, they all wore the judges badge so with just a quick glance, she should be able to spot them among the crowd.
Tian He finally finished releasing most of the soul strength she needed to keep her summons to life for a while, but she still hadn't spot any of the judges.
"Could they be looking at other students' painting?" She started growing anxious, the more time she spent on this, the more chances that something might happen, and that would also mean she wouldn't be able to complete her task.
Suddenly, when she was about to refocus her attention on looking for them again, she heard a loud cry to her right.
"Wang Xiu Ying! I finally found you!" Zhang Li shouted from within the audience.
Tian He was surprised, how did she find me when I'm wearing a face mask? Even if her summons kind of looked like her and her elder brother, she deliberately made it look a bit blurry so that their faces wouldn't be recognized and yet this young miss from the Shi clan actually managed to spot her within the thousands of contestants in this main plaza.
She didn't know whether to commend her for her efforts or mock her for her obsession to get rid of the original owner.
"Sighs, since I've been found it, don't think I'll go down without a fight." She saw that since her name was called out, the many hidden guards in the audience immediately made their way towards her. At the same time, she also saw other members in the audience that she didn't know of also rapidly made their way in her direction.
"Damn, must be the Qi and Shi clan forces that snuck in with the young miss from the Shi clan." She was really annoyed with this young miss from the Shi clan.
The original owner had never actively offended her in any way, but she just had a death grudge against her for some reason. She really wanted to pry her head open to see what she's thinking to actually want to hurt the harmless original owner.
Her persistence in this whole operation could be said on the border of insane obsession, she would understand if there's some deep enmity between the original owner and her but having going through the details supplied by the main system and the news she obtained from nanny Lan, it turns out that this whole situation was only caused by the active imagination of this young miss from the Shi clan.
"Seriously, what in the world is she thinking?" She couldn't believe that she was currently the prime object for capture just because this young miss from the Shi clan was jealous of her standing and care she received from her elder brother. It wasn't like she stole her elder brother away from her, hell, her elder brother never even looked at her, it was all one-sided!
By this time, she could see that her guards and the forces from the Qi and Shi clan were almost about to reach her area, soon they would clash but the most important point she was worried about wasn't this.
"Damn, where are those judges—" Her voice was cut off because she spotted a judge who hid not far away from her position, however; it also looked like this judge noticed the situation of multiple people approaching her direction but still decided to remain hidden.
She grew contemplative about this judge's actions, then suddenly, she thought of something. She became intrigued and couldn't help herself from softly smiling.
"Since you want a show, I'll give you one." She rapidly turned her attention towards that young miss from the Shi clan who was the closest to her position now and shouted at her.
"Hey, this Young Miss from the Shi clan, I challenge you to a battle with our summons, do you dare accept?" She mockingly smiled at her.
Zhang Li finally reached Tian He's position and heard the sarcastic words directed at her and couldn't help but become even angrier at this adopted daughter of the Wang clan.
How dare she mock her?! Her death is already near and she had the audacity to be arrogant in front of her.
She clenched her hands and pointed a finger at her, "Wang Xiu Ying, today you're going to die no matter what, even if you struggle, your ending has been determined the moment you left the Wang clan's mansion." She didn't know what this wretched girl was trying to do by challenging her to a duel but since she was going to die anyways, she didn't bother paying attention to her words.
Tian He smile became wider, "Oh my, such heavy words coming from the such a weak person, who do you think you are? The forces behind you are probably going to be the ones to capture me, however; as for killing me, I doubt that is their motive." She was goading her into battle, even if she was captured by those forces, she didn't believe that they'll kill her, it was only this young miss from the Shi clan that wanted her dead.
Zhang Li was taken aback by those words and couldn't help her expression from becoming a bit uneasy, if this wretched girl told her idea to kill her to the Qi clan forces that followed her, she would immediately be detained and kept away from her, if that happens, she'll lose all chance at killing her.
She grew irritated, no! This absolutely isn't allowed to happen.
She looked determinedly at the figure of the girl that stole her Cheng Da and made her decision. Since she wants a battle, she'll make sure it will be the last one she'll ever have.
"Wang Xiu Ying, since you want to battle with me so badly, I'll fulfill your wish. However, I hope you don't lose too horribly and survive until I'm done with you." Zhang Li started gathering her soul strength and pointed it to her painting that wasn't far away.
Tian He smiled at her and bravely responded in kind, "Likewise."
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