11 1.10 Star Dancer

Tian He laid in her bed while thinking about Chen Su Su, since she's the original owner's mother, she'll give her a chance to recognize herself, after all, the real 'Li Tian He' would want to at least try to get acquainted with her biological mother. It made her curious what kind of person was Chen Su Su, will she be loving and caring like her real mother, or withdrawn and alienated like a stranger? Whatever person she was, she at least didn't want the original owner to miss the opportunity to acknowledge her own biological mother.

After a moment, Tian He fell soundly asleep , dreaming about her warm and kind biological mother's face, I wonder how she'll react once she sees my improved dancing skills? She'll definitely be surprised, and when she thought of her biological mother's proud face, she couldn't help but smile slightly before letting sleep overwhelm her.

The moonlight's rays penetrated the paper window and shone nicely on Tian He's sleeping face. Her eyelashes were slightly trembling, and before long, deep breathing of someone soundly asleep could be heard coming out from Tian He's small room.

The night passed quietly in the safe boundaries of the academy, but that could barely apply to the rest of the places in the capital. When the streets emptied, and the people were sound asleep in their respective homes, figures dressed in black could be seen coming out from the direction of the imperial palace and 2nd Imperial Prince's residence.

These people were responsible for eliminating the secret forces hidden within many of Dai family's businesses across the capital. It looks like 2nd Imperial Prince and the Emperor had already investigated which stores were owned and occupied by the Dai family. Since the Dai family has been in power since the last generation of the Emperor, their forces could be said to be enormous, even closely rivaling that of the imperial families.

The many figures dressed in black split themselves into groups, each responsible for a store or area where the Dai family's forces were hidden. Their mission was to eradicate their target's forces within the shortest time period, apparently, they were only allocated two hours of time to finish their task.

In one of the many stores owned by Dai family, a guard was heading out to relieve himself, "Ha ha, father has finally become a part of Dai family, soon all the other guards in the capital will have to turn the other way when I'm patrolling. No one will dare mess with me now that the Dai family is at height of power." He said smugly to himself.

But before he finished bragging about his 'bright' future, he suddenly heard rustling sounds beside him, "Who?!" When he peered into the direction of the sound, he didn't find anything there, and let out a sigh of relief. However, just when he was about to return to his quarters, he saw a flash of metal in front of him, and suddenly he felt warm liquid spilling out from his neck area.

"Ah…" When he tried to scream, no sounds were able to be produced by him, his shaking hands were clutching the deathly slash on his neck, trying hopelessly to stop the bleeding, but soon his consciousness went out and he quickly passed away . His eyes were wide open in regrets, until the time of his death, he wasn't even able to catch a glimpse of the one who killed him.

Very soon, similar sounds of people falling, and weapons clashing could be heard throughout the many stores on the streets of the capital. Since the Emperor and 2nd Imperial Prince's preparation has long been accumulated to its peak, these measly forces didn't put up a fight for long until the sounds of fighting diminished. After the figures dressed in black finished one area, they immediately left after disposing the corpse by sprinkling a special type of water given to them.

When only a few seconds had passed just after the black figures disappeared from their respective areas, one could see that blue smoke was emitting from the fallen forces of the Dai family, suddenly, the corpses' flesh could be seen withering at a fast pace, their skins, muscles, and bones were disappearing silently, not even their clothes and the grass underneath were spared. It looks like this special liquid was a type of corrosive solvent that was terrifying enough to melt even the bones of human bodies.

Finally, the two hours of slaughter has passed, and most of the black figures that managed to survive returned to their respective master's place. The only evidence that was left of their actions were blue smoke that rose up from various places in the capital, but soon, that also started disappearing as the night wind blew it away, leaving nothing behind that would suggest a slaughter had happened. It was also strange that no sounds of animals could be heard, it looks like the pressure from the fight had scared them into quietly whimpering, or directly made them unconscious due to the black figures' strength.

It was an eerie night, so silent and quiet that one could only hear the sounds of the night's wind strongly blowing; it sounded like thousands of ghosts were howling their regrets and resentment of the world.

Soon, the first rays of sunshine landed on the high rooftops of the imperial palace, spreading until it covered the whole capital's many rooftops. Sounds of people waking up and exiting their houses could be heard throughout the streets of the capital.

Near the center of the capital, where many wealthy large residences occupied their long streets, there lay an extravagantly huge residence with huge towering doors and stone tiger statues on both sides of its main entrance. Just the red diamonds embedded as its eyes emphasized the enormous wealth of the owners of this huge residence. Sounds of guards running around the many courtyards patrolling non-stop could be heard within. It sounded like the owners of the residence placed their guards on high alert, as if predicting that dangers were about to beset them.

At the center of this residence was a large building that housed the main hall, normal sized chairs occupied the left and right sides of the hall, while a large chair was stationed in the center at back of the room, it looked like whoever sat there would occupy the commanding position of the others sitting on the normal sized chairs.

Right now, a man that looked like he was in his sixties was sitting in the main commanding position, looking over his other companions who sat on the right and left sides of him. This man emitted an aged aura but if one looked closely, they could see the greed and cunningness hidden within his eyes. These eyes scanned the people beside him, most of them hung their heads low, as if afraid of meeting eye contact with the man's angry eyes.

The atmosphere in the room was oppressing, apparently the furious restrained aura emitted out from the man sitting in the main position was weighing down upon their bodies, causing them to feel suppressed, no one dared to make a sound.

Only one of them directed their eyes back at the man, he sat directly to the man's left side, and looked like he was in his late seventies, his aged face and layers of wrinkles was evidence that his vitality was already dwindling out of body. However, his figure was straight, and the wisdom and ruthlessness were still evident if one were to gaze into his eyes. Although he was aged, his mind was still clear, and his body still had the confidence to sit straightly.

The aged man who looked back at his companion began talking in a low aged-old voice, "Minister Dai, since the news of our wiped-out auxiliary forces has already been confirmed, I suspect our enemies would want us to gather our remaining forces and eliminate them at one fell swoop, it would be unwise to take action right now. Once the rest of our forces congregate, they wouldn't miss the chance to completely eradicate us." The many wrinkles on his face were scrunched up in worry and trepidation.

The man who sat in the middle of the room didn't immediately reply to his companion, he rubbed his long bread which had some streaks of white within it while contemplating their dire situation. He was lost in his thoughts, thinking about what kind of powerful enemies did he offend that would be so ruthless and strong enough to wipe out every remaining auxiliary force he had amassed over the years. He was also immensely angry at their actions, but more so, he knew that now was not the time to take his anger out on his companions in front of him.

He looked back at the wrinkled filled face man to his left, "Minister Wu, I agree with your suggestion, but what if the enemies already know where our other forces have hidden? Acting late could result in all of our forces and even us to fall by their hands." He said with a firm, but solemn tone.

After hearing what Minister Dai said, Minister Wu didn't have the words to answer his question, it looks like he was also aware of this problem. If their enemies were only waiting for their main remaining forces to show up, that would be good because they could stay low for a while to avoid them, but if they didn't strike back now, there's also a chance that they could be passively slaughtered.

Once the remaining people in the room heard their faction's head's question, they also voiced out their opinions, "Minister Dai, I also agree that waiting for them to slowly take us out is not a good choice, we should gather our remaining forces to counterattack them."

"True, Minister Dai, the remaining forces that are hidden in the main residence of your family are not weak and if we wait passively, how will others see us? The small forces that have aligned with us are already growing uneasy and want to break away from our control."

"I also agree, we should rally together our forces to strike at them, I'm furious enough that they dared touch our forces, this is directly threatening and insulting us."

Very soon, the others in the room echoed their companions' earlier words and started agreeing that waiting for their enemies to strike at them was not a road they wanted to take. Minister Dai, who sat in the center position looked calmly at all the leading people of his faction's powers that he had won over to his side for a few years now, they had all went through many schemes and troubles to get to their positions. Although, he couldn't trust them if he ever fell in danger, he still knew that what they said contained the truth. As head of his faction, he couldn't back out once trouble started coming, or else the other small factions' leaders would start to think that he was lenient to people who dared threatened his control and power.

After contemplating for a moment, he came to a decision, since they were doomed either way, it would be better strike now then wait for their enemies to continue to eliminate them. He turned towards the people in front of him and raised his hand in the air for them to cease talking, after a moment of silence, he began stating his decision, "Since our enemies have already decided to take us down, we'll make sure to let them know that trying to get rid of us won't be that easy."

When Minister Wu heard his faction's head choice, he sighed and closed his eyes, looks like his warning did nothing to help with the situation, he sunk deep into his thoughts, internally hoping that their enemies weren't waiting for them with a trap in their hands.

As the wrinkled filled face man sat there listening to the discussions around him on how to deal with their unseen enemies, he was also wondering who could have taken down their forces within such a short period of time. There were many powerful forces in this country, but only a handful of them could rival their forces, after skimming through several famous artist company's names and other court official's names, he suddenly thought of someone.

2nd Imperial Prince!

Although he has been quiet these past ten years, his forces have brought news of his hidden activities and he knew that 2nd Imperial Prince wasn't the type of person to wait silently for his enemies to perish. However, if it was him, Consort Dai would have already sent news ahead of time to warn Minister Dai before their forces could be eliminated.

After contemplating for a moment, he thought it would be more advantage to them if they were to send news to Consort Dai to inquire about the recent activities in the palace. He knew 2nd Imperial Prince wouldn't dare make such a major move against them without the approval of His Majesty, and the only person who had enough power to investigate events in the palace was Consort Dai.

Eventually the hall's discussions ended, and the people returned to their respective residences. They concluded that they would first investigate their enemies' background before deciding to take immediate actions, without knowing the strength and amount of people they were up against, they would be at a huge disadvantage when facing them. However, none of them were panicking, it looks they were each confident in their information networks.

When most of the day had passed, Minister Wu could be seen sitting in his study room with a skeptical expression, he still hasn't received a reply from Consort Dai, and he couldn't help but guess that something must have happened to her. Usually her replies would at most take half a day to be returned, however; when he just was about to send news to Minister Dai about Consort Dai's late reply to him, he heard the fluttering of wings beside his window.

It was the reply pigeon that was usually used by Consort Dai, after reading the message, he renounced his earlier thoughts that 2nd Imperial prince was behind this time's event. Apparently, Consort Dai was bedridden and didn't realize that time was already this late before she sent a reply.

After burning the message and sending the pigeon back, he sat back onto his chair in front of his study's desk and began thinking about the other possible suspects, but somehow, he couldn't get his thoughts straight because he kept having an ominous premonition. His many years of operating behind the scenes with Dai family seems to be telling him that this time's actions against them were different from the rest. Unfortunately for them, their enemy was in the dark, masking their location while watching their every move, and what made their situation more drastic was that their circumstances didn't allow them to take actions to counterattack them yet.

…..

In a blink of an eye, about two weeks have passed, and it was the morning before the day of the capital's most famous artist academy's new student's competition. Although this year's new students were all busy getting ready for it, they still kept up with the news of the capital. Apparently, in these two weeks, several businesses and stores were shut down or bankrupted for various reasons. The talk of the city was that most of the owners who had their stores taken down were either long lost criminals or swindlers that have supposably vanished years ago, but they only surfaced now after their identity was exposed after their capture by the city enforcement officers.

Of course, this had nothing to do with Tian He who devoted her time to practicing her dance moves and voice with her friends together in Yu Yan's peony filled courtyard.

Beautiful golden lotus blossoms, blue water-like peonies and roses, and green transparent glowing flutes floated around the garden as Tian He, Yu Yan, and Liu Wei were evoking each of their sacred powers. When the song finally ended, they all wiped the sweat off their faces and decided to take a break. Since the competition was tomorrow, anymore practicing than this would just be superfluous.

Tian He went back into her room in Yu Yan's courtyard while Yu Yan and Liu Wei went out of the academy to buy some last minute items. When Tian He sat on the small couch in her room, and rested her body briefly, she suddenly heard her room door opening. Could it be that Yu Yan came back to ask her about something? However, just when she got up to meet her, she saw the person's facial features that came in, and her face immediately turned gloomy as she glared at the tall figure intruding inside her private room.

"2nd Imperial Prince, who knew that besides being a stalker, you're now a shameless pervert who has no qualms of intruding into a lady's room." Tian He said mockingly. She thought that of all the people she had to rescue, she just had to save this kind of person, was her luck value always this low?

Chuckling deeply with his masculine voice, 2nd Imperial Prince didn't bother with her mocking speech and looked at Tian He before playfully replying, "Tian He, believe or not, this is the first time I've visited a female's room." As he speaks, he casually takes a look around, he saw the simple but well-organized furniture in her room, nodding approvingly of the nice colors that they each displayed.

However, when his eyes fell on her bed behind the screen that depicted a scene of butterflies surrounding lilies, his eyes couldn't help but darken and began to wonder how it felt like if he laid there with her.

Not noticing the dangerous glint in his eyes, Tian He stepped in front of him, blocking his view from her bed, "2nd Imperial Prince, I would like to politely ask you to leave, I'm exhausted and I would like to rest now." Tian He said firmly while still glaring at this shameless person in front of her.

When he heard her exhausted voice, he grew a bit worried but before he could say anything, he caught that nice sweet honey scent from her again, his lips couldn't help but turn into a small smile. Then, his eyes looked down upon the small but beautiful featured face in front of him. As always, her eyes were very bright and clear, except this time, they were looking at him with a bit of dislike.

He didn't like how she was always so alienated towards him, it made him feel a bit nervous, even though so far, his behavior was that of a 'gentleman's'. His eyebrows couldn't help but wrinkle while contemplating her reasons for disliking him. If Tian He knew what he was thinking right now, she wouldn't even think twice before using all her strength to pummel him, it was obvious that 2nd Imperial Prince was ignoring the fact that he sent people to watch over and even his current actions of intruding into Tian He's room without permission was ignored by him.

Right when Tian He was about to ask 'politely' again to make him leave, she saw him take big strides closer to her, his tall robust figure couldn't help but tower against her small slim self, his manlike breath could be felt while she looked up at the perfectly sculpted face in front of her. When his face was almost near hers, she couldn't help but feel that they were a bit too close, so her legs naturally retreated backwards to give herself some private space, however; with each step she took back, he followed, until she realized she had no more room when her back suddenly felt the wall behind her.

Not thinking twice, she naturally tried to get away by moving around him, however; strong arms quickly incased both of her sides, locking her in and preventing her from escaping. She was surprised at their reaction speed, even though her response wasn't slow at all, but judging from what she just saw, his level of strength was definitely above hers. She ignored these thoughts and looked up at him, menacingly glaring at him for trying to take advantage of her, she was about to kick him in the abdomen when his legs suddenly moved first and locked her legs in place. She was furious as she struggled to regain the freedom of her legs, however; she didn't notice that her movements had caused her face and neck to blush a nice pink, increasing the charm she already emitted.

2nd Imperial Prince chuckled softly to himself when he saw her struggling in front of him, he scanned her flushed face and furious eyes, and thought that they looked boomingly beautiful and cute at the same time. His gaze couldn't help but deepen as he took in the charming appearance she was currently displaying. Suddenly, he somehow felt a bit thirsty when his gazed landed on her red lips. Currently, they were being bitten by her, making it even redder than normal, it was making him wonder how those soft sweet lips of hers tasted.

Since her efforts were futile, she stopped struggling and directed her eyesight back at the 'culprit' that's currently trapping her. However, as soon as she lifted her head, she saw his face was just inches above hers. Too close!