Illustrations 134: The Hundred-Flower Saintess Who Deceived the World

Sena arrived very quickly. He had already been in Star City discussing work with Jun Shi when he received the news.

The origin of White Star is not gestation?!

How could that be?

"Is this the specific data on White Star's origin?" Sena stared at the strings of runes on the virtual light screen, unable to believe that someone as foolish as the Saintess of Hundred Flowers could have kept such a secret for so long. He had considered himself clever, yet he had been deceived time and time again.

"Check it yourself." Sang Sang directly condensed a small space-time sphere, extracted a wisp of the health-cultivation law she had stolen from the Saintess of Hundred Flowers, infused it into the sphere, and handed it to Sena.

The laws Sena mastered were not as diverse as Sang Sang’s, but he could still distinguish the difference between health-cultivation and gestation. In particular, the nauseating aura within the law was exactly the source of the thick, warm fragrance that had permeated White Star whenever she was stirred by emotion. He gritted his teeth, his voice raspy: "Mainframe, purchase the detailed analysis data of the law."

The Mainframe’s voice rang out: "The law source belongs to intern Saintess Sang Hongye. It cannot be analyzed without her permission; even a guardian cannot override this authorization."

Without waiting for Sena to request again, Sang Sang said directly: "I agree, grant him authorization."

"Analysis requires one thousand contribution points. Confirm deduction?" The Mainframe continued without pause: "Reminder: This data only helps in understanding the specific attribute composition of the law and cannot assist in comprehending the law itself. There is a certain probability of causing cognitive impairment in the future. Please use this function with caution."

Sena took a deep breath: "Thank you for the reminder. Confirm deduction."

There were no light or sound effects. The space-time sphere remained as it was, but the Mainframe provided the answer: "Data sent."

Sang Sang once again marveled at the power of the Mainframe. Xiao Jin's eyes flickered with green light, and a humming sound emanated from its body as it performed high-speed calculations, attempting to deduce the principles of the Mainframe's operation.

Sena was long accustomed to the idea that the Mainframe could do anything as long as there were enough contribution points and faith energy. He opened his personal terminal to review the information he had just received. The data within was more detailed than what Sang Sang had explained, down to the attributes of every individual rune array.

"Good, very good. To think you have deceived me for so long. I overestimated your determination to climb the ladder, but I still underestimated you... From start to finish, you have only ever cared for yourself."

Sena imprinted the complex data images into his soul over and over again. His eyes were bloodshot. After speaking in a disjointed voice, he closed his eyes to steady his breathing.

After a long while, Sena opened his eyes.

He was once again the seemingly refined yet fox-like guardian nanny, only now he seemed to have shed a burden, an edge of sharpness added to his demeanor.

Sena smiled and closed the light screen: "Thank you for telling me, Your Highness. Otherwise, the festering sore in my heart would have had no hope of healing. So, that child was never going to be born from the beginning—not before, and not now. No wonder Saint Jian Kong did not perform a C-section to extract the infant, but instead secretly headed for the Soul Clan."

The Soul Clan had the deepest research into souls; perhaps they possessed secret techniques or divine abilities capable of severing a tether.

Sang Sang was puzzled: "Isn't it true that unless one reveals it themselves, others can at most probe the basic attributes of an origin? Did Saint Jian Kong know that the Saintess of Hundred Flowers' origin was not a normal gestation?"

"That is under normal circumstances. There is an abnormal situation: soul-searching." Sena paused and asked, "What did the origin star-core dharma body you saw in her consciousness look like? Was there a void or a gap?"

Sang Sang recalled, her fingers tracing in the air to manifest a space-time reversal. The scene in the mirrored space-time flashed with the origin star-core dharma body of the Saintess of Hundred Flowers; it was a flower.

"Her origin star-core is a flower. The shape of the flower changes frequently. If you're talking about a gap, all the flowers lacked stamens."

The scene in the mirrored space-time paused. Sang Sang pointed to the flower in the center: "Thinking about it now, the aura fluctuations here are unstable. Was it plucked away when she was being soul-searched?"

"It is possible." This was the first time Sena had seen the appearance of the Saintess of Hundred Flowers' origin; he had never seen it before, even when their passion was at its peak. On the other hand, his own origin dharma body had never been hidden from her. Indeed, love affects intelligence, and romance leads to brain damage. "White Star does not have any magical treasures to protect her soul, and she couldn't bear to self-destruct her origin star-core. Since part of her origin was plundered, it seems she realized the severity of the problem and, in her desperation, turned to me."

Sang Sang’s focus was elsewhere: "Saint Jian Kong soul-searched the Saintess of Hundred Flowers. Isn't that behavior a crime?"

"It is, naturally, a crime." Sena paused before carefully explaining: "He must have blocked the Mainframe’s surveillance at the time. White Star wouldn't dare report him, so no one would know, and no one would be punished."

Sang Sang nodded. So, it is important to keep one's domain open and close to the body at all times. As long as others didn't possess her talent for simulating soul fluctuations—tricking her domain into misidentifying their consciousness as the master—at least a basic level of safety was guaranteed. If they tried to break through by force, she wouldn't mind triggering a space-time collapse.

Sang Sang remembered the collection of interstellar court cases provided by Xiao Jin, which included cases related to soul-searching. She felt that she would never be as careless as the victims in those cases. She used the space-time law to reinforce her domain once more, feeling a bit more relaxed.

Sena made a decision: "Your Highness, do not concern yourself with this matter. Just act as if you don't know the true origin attributes of White Star. Saint Jian Kong will solve the problem of the child's soul himself. It's just that he originally intended to put her on the front lines as a vanguard. I wonder if the Saint will keep her around until then?"

Sang Sang pursed her lips, looking somewhat embarrassed: "However, my *Book Mountain and Sea of Learning* accidentally affected her, which might have caused the child to be born early. Based on the current situation, it will likely reach its peak in about..."

Sang Sang looked at Xiao Jin.

Xiao Jin was still in the midst of high-speed deduction and split off a wisp of data to provide the answer: "Twenty days, half a month at most."

Sang Sang looked up, her eyes clear and pure, filled with apology: "Unless the Saintess of Hundred Flowers uses special means, the child will be born in half a month at most."

Sena stood there with his mouth open, speechless for a long moment before rubbing his forehead: "I have read *Book Mountain and Sea of Learning*, and it shouldn't have caused such an impact. Your Highness, did you do something to it?"

Sang Sang naturally would not admit it: "I didn't do anything. *Book Mountain and Sea of Learning* is meant to improve my own learning ability. Because my soul is synchronized with the Saintess of Hundred Flowers, affecting me means affecting her, and the child in her womb could naturally not avoid it. Fortunately, I had this consideration at the time; the attributes of *Book Mountain and Sea of Learning* are very gentle, and the influence is subtle. It’s just that the child's soul is still weak and happens to have a devouring talent, so it was affected more significantly."

Sena did not believe the facts were that simple. Although he always called White Star foolish, she still had a few tricks up her sleeve. And the child in her womb, protected by the profound power left by Saint Jian Kong, should not have been so easily affected unless the influence reached deep into the child's soul; otherwise, it wouldn't have been possible to trigger an early birth.