The two females returned empty-handed. The next day, they came to her door again.

This time they visited, their expressions were grim.

They looked at Jiang Qin suspiciously. "Miss Jiang, have you really never studied any methods of spiritual power attack?"

"No. Isn’t my personal history transparent? I’ve never attended a single day of formal schooling. All the knowledge I have comes from public courses on the Star Network."

That part was true. They had checked over and over, and that was all they had found.

But a large part of Jiang Qin’s childhood was a blank.

’Who could guarantee she didn’t have some kind of special encounter back then? Perhaps she really had studied it after all.’

However, despite their suspicions, they had no evidence. So they didn’t press the issue and simply asked with grave expressions, "Did you know that Lina’s Spirit Sea has gone berserk again?"

"I didn’t know."

Her blunt and straightforward answer left the two of them speechless.

"Yesterday, our seniors had already managed to stabilize her Spirit Sea. But for some reason, it suddenly went berserk last night."

"Right now, it’s like a raging tempest inside her Spirit Sea. She’s rolling on the floor in agony and only calms down after being injected with a sedative."

Hearing about the other party’s miserable state, Jiang Qin’s expression remained unchanged.

"I’m not a doctor. There’s nothing I can do." 𝚏𝐫𝚎𝗲𝕨𝐞𝐛𝕟𝚘𝐯𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝗺

She had a clear conscience. While she did know how to use spiritual power attacks, that was a function of her Superpower.

This time, she truly hadn’t attacked Lina. It was merely a passive counter.

For talents above S-level, each level represents an enormous gap in power. Lina’s attack posed no real threat to her whatsoever.

For Lina, however, it was a completely different story.

The two females sighed. "Because of what happened with Lina, the Angry Snake Clan is furious."

"Whatever you do, don’t travel to any remote planets for a while. Just let us handle communications with them from here on out."

"Okay." Jiang Qin had no intention of fighting this to the death.

After all, Lina had brought this upon herself.

...

Over the next two days, she heard that Lina’s Spirit Sea had stabilized, but not before she had paid a heavy price.

She wouldn’t be able to use her spiritual power recklessly for a very long time.

In the end, Jiang Qin got the result she wanted: compensation and a public apology.

Apparently, the Female Protection Association had made a deal with the Angry Snake Clan.

In exchange for inviting an SS-level female to help stabilize Lina’s spiritual power, Lina had to apologize to Jiang Qin and pay compensation.

This outcome made sense to Jiang Qin.

’It seems they must have figured something out, which is why they didn’t just try to brush me off.’

’Of course, at the same time, they didn’t want to lose Lina either.’

For the next few days, Qi Yi continued to guide them on their tour of Ye Lai Star as planned. As for Lina, Jiang Qin heard she had already been taken back to the home of the Myriad Races to recuperate.

But a grudge had well and truly been formed.

The day Lina apologized, Jiang Qin clearly saw the venom and indignation in her eyes.

But she still offered a weak apology, paid a hefty compensation in resources, and posted an apology video on the Star Network, which also addressed her illegal study of spiritual power attacks.

In accordance with Federation law, the Female Protection Association sentenced her to soothe the minds of three thousand people under the association’s arrangement.

However, the sentence could be deferred until her Spirit Sea had recovered.

This meant she likely wouldn’t have any free time for years to come, and her spiritual power would be in a constant state of depletion.

This was not good news for Lina, nor for the maternal and paternal clans that backed her.

But there was nothing to be done. The eyes of the entire Interstellar community were on them. Whatever schemes they had, they wouldn’t dare make a reckless move at a time like this.

It was right at this moment that a flood of celebrity scandals suddenly appeared all over the Star Network.

There was even dirt on Cang Hong and Jiang Qin.

The dirt on Cang Hong was a blurry photograph in which he was leaning down and saying something to a female.

The angle made it look very much like they were about to kiss.

Jiang Qin, of course, didn’t believe it for a second, but netizens exploded, especially the people of the Federation.

[What? The little lion dares to betray our Qin Bao?]

[I don’t know if this pic is real, but that’s way too close. I’m disappointed in him.]

[What a disloyal male. Qin Bao should dump him and marry me!]

[Exactly! The line of males who want to be Qin Bao’s partner stretches from the Federation to the Empire. Is she really hurting for options?]

[If this one doesn’t behave, just swap him out for the next one who will.]

[Wait, are the Jiang Fans still going nuts over here? Wake up, your precious Qin Bao’s reputation is in the gutter.]

[Heh, "reputation in the gutter"? You mean because of a bunch of random pictures?]

[Besides, most of us are "career fans" of Jiang Qin. We love her for her prolific body of work. Who cares about her private life?]

[That female Lina must be really well-connected. To be able to dig up so much dirt on others just to divert attention from her own scandal... she won’t even spare her own victim.]

[No wonder the Star Network was suddenly flooded with scandals overnight, a mix of true and false. It was all to protect the precious young lady of a certain clan.]

[Everyone, be careful what you post on the Star Network. You don’t want to end up on a certain young lady’s revenge list.]

...

Although many people remained rational, a lot of the dirt being slung was actually true. For most netizens online that day, it felt like their world was ending.

An idol they had admired for years, ruined overnight.

Because Jiang Qin was going to be away for over half a month, Cang Hong had taken the rare opportunity to accept a long-term job.

But as soon as he got online, he was met with a barrage of hateful comments.

His personal page had been overrun by Jiang Fans.

Of course, he didn’t blame the fans. After all, they were just charging into battle for their female master.

What angered him was that they actually believed such baseless fabrications and were telling him to leave Jiang Qin of his own accord.

Cang Hong could live without his career, but he could not live without Jiang Qin!

So he immediately posted a clarification. To make it more convincing, he even secretly went to ask Yuan Ling for a favor.

He asked him to pull the video footage from the exact time the picture was supposedly taken.

Only after proving his innocence on the Star Network did he make a call to cry to Jiang Qin.

"Qinqin, you don’t believe that fake picture, do you??"

In the holographic projection, Cang Hong’s eyes were red-rimmed as he looked at her with a pitiful, aggrieved expression.

Jiang Qin felt she was simply not a person who could resist such a temptation, and her heart immediately went out to him.

So, she didn’t tease him, simply nodding firmly. "Yes, I believe you."

"SOB... I knew you were different from them, Qinqin! They just don’t understand the bond we share!

This kind of slander is just too vicious!"

"It is. It’s despicable, trying to drive a wedge between us."

Cang Hong nodded in agreement and added his own reasonable suspicion, "It must be that vicious female, Lina. She wanted revenge on us, so she deliberately fabricated this lie."

"Don’t worry," Jiang Qin said. "Your ’brothers’ already got some payback for you."

As for how they had gotten payback, Jiang Qin didn’t say. Cang Hong decided he would secretly find out later.