Half an hour passed in the real world.
"What's wrong with him?"
Dean Fu noticed that Lu Ling's expression seemed somewhat pained.
"Only he knows. I don't know anything about this ability of his either." Dean Xiao shook his head and said no more.
Ding Yumian kept her eyes on the person holding her hand, faint worry stirring in her heart.
Meanwhile, in the mental world.
These negative emotions did not affect Lu Ling. Rather, his joy outweighed them.
The rate at which his mental strength grew was still accelerating, still accelerating!
An hour passed in the real world.
Whew... that really packed a punch.
Mental strength at the Eighth Realm!!!!
Lu Ling opened his eyes and released Ding Yumian's hand.
No matter how fragrant and soft this hand was, he would have long since tired of playing with it after an hour. If he had not deliberately restrained himself, he probably would have squeezed it until sweat broke out in its stifled palm.
"How do you feel?" He looked at Ding Yumian.
"Mm... the same as before. I feel very relaxed." Ding Yumian considered it carefully. That was the only difference she could feel.
"Then that's enough."
"That's all it takes, Lu Ling?" Dean Fu and Dean Xiao were both somewhat doubtful.
After all, from beginning to end, all they had seen was Lu Ling's slightly pained expression. They knew nothing else.
"Yes, it's done. I don't think she'll lose control now."
If this still didn't work, wouldn't I have absorbed all that mental strength for nothing!? Wouldn't the pressure I just endured have been pure suffering for nothing?
Using his own constitution to give Ding Yumian control followed the same principle as Lu Ling controlling the Ice Crystal Bow.
Now, Lu Ling felt that his Mind Element Magic had undergone an earth-shaking transformation. There was no way it would not work.
As he thought about it, Lu Ling raised his hand and unleashed a Mind Shock.
"Eighth Realm!" Dean Xiao's gaze sharpened. He immediately sensed Lu Ling's current mental realm. At the same time, a new question arose.
"Come to think of it, how do you have the Psychic Element?"
"Uh... I awakened it ages ago. I just never used it."
When fighting mages out in the open, he had to hide his strength, so he had no use for it.
Against the Black Vatican? Usually, he was even more underhanded than the Black Vatican's people. Almost every time, he launched a sneak attack!
As for demon beasts... there was little point in influencing their emotions. He could simply kill them.
"Then what about your mental realm?"
"Your mental realm is even stronger than Ding Yumian's now! And it can remain this stable. Truly... the world is vast, and nothing is too strange to exist." By the end, Dean Xiao's capacity for speech was almost paralyzed.
Since Lu Ling could master such powerful mental strength without losing control, then Ding Yumian...
"My mental strength was originally still at the Seventh Realm. Just now, I seem to have absorbed the excess power inside Ding Yumian and broken straight through to the Eighth Realm," Lu Ling explained simply.
Ding Yumian closed her eyes and felt the power within her, delight appearing on her face.
"Compared to before, it seems much more stable. I can feel it very clearly."
"That's wonderful!" Dean Fu was so excited he wanted to shout. Ding Yumian's problem had always given him headaches. He had feared that she would be unable to live a normal life, and also feared that she would bring disaster upon others.
If this tremendous power stabilized, then all of this would no longer be suffering, but unparalleled talent!
"Go ahead and cultivate without worry. Your Psychic Element is the strongest," Lu Ling said with a smile.
"Thank you." Ding Yumian once again revealed one of her rare smiles, an especially uncommon sight for someone so often melancholy.
"Lu Ling... although I don't know what method you used to control this power, I have a question. Is your control permanent?" Dean Xiao asked gravely.
"Huh?" Lu Ling froze for a moment.
This... I hadn't considered that! Recalling Mu Ningxue's previous condition, it clearly was not permanent.
"Uh... apparently not." He was slightly embarrassed.
The joy that had only just flared to life was instantly doused by more than half a bucket of cold water.
"It's better than nothing! Being able to stabilize it is already the greatest blessing amid misfortune," Dean Fu said.
"Since you can control it once, how long would the interval need to be before the next time?" Dean Xiao asked.
"Hmm... this time, I needed to bring it completely under control in one go, so it took longer. After this, as long as we touch for a little while occasionally, there probably won't be much risk." Lu Ling reached this conclusion by referring to the effects of his control over the Ice Crystal Bow.
"In other words, this is a long-term treatment?" Dean Fu murmured, then asked, "My young friend Lu Ling, where do you live?"
"Ah... Jinyuan Apartment, west of the institute."
Before Lu Ling realized why Dean Fu had asked this question, the latter immediately dropped a bombshell.
"Yu Mian, why don't you go live with Lu Ling? As long as you're with him, you'll be able to live a truly normal life."
Huh?
Lu Ling was surprised. He had not expected Dean Fu to be so determined.
Dean Xiao, meanwhile, wore the smile of an old fox. If he remembered correctly, that brat Lu Ling had just been privately praising how beautiful Ding Yumian was.
"All right." Ding Yumian agreed decisively, then turned and asked, "Lu Ling, are you willing to let me stay with you?"
Ding Yumian's reaction also left Lu Ling bewildered. In this situation, weren't women usually supposed to be shy or feel some other emotion?
"I don't really have a problem with it... are you okay with it?" Lu Ling's tone held some uncertainty.
"I am. For this, I'm fine with it, as long as you don't find it troublesome." Ding Yumian's gaze was earnest, and she looked ready to brave boiling water and raging fire.
She knew what terrifying disasters her ability could cause. If there was someone who could stop her, then everything else could give way to that.
"What a surprise. Aren't you shy at all? This is only our second meeting."
"I'm very shy right now."
Ding Yumian's earnest tone nearly made Lu Ling laugh. He finally understood why she did not get shy.
"I really wish you could show that through your actions instead of describing it in words."
It was not that Ding Yumian could not feel shy. Rather, after controlling her emotions for so many years, she had long since grown used to it. To outsiders, this made her seem like an indifferent, heartless woman who was ice-cold all day long.
"You don't need to control your emotions anymore. From now on, you can cry, and you can laugh. Your emotions no longer belong to the world. They belong only to you," Lu Ling said with a smile.
Hearing this, Ding Yumian looked stunned.
How long had it been? She could not remember. But ever since that time she had nearly killed a group of children, she had never again experienced any major emotional fluctuations. All this time, she had lived like an ascetic.
"Come on. I'll take you back..." Lu Ling held out his hand, pausing briefly. "Home."
Ding Yumian lowered her head. A faint rosy cloud slowly climbed onto her face, coating it in an almost imperceptible cherry-blossom pink.
"Mm..."
Home? What an unfamiliar word.
PS: I previously saw someone in the reviews say that with high mental strength, cultivation couldn't possibly be this slow. I'll give this issue proper consideration. For now, it's a matter of his constitution: the protagonist needs stronger mental strength to cultivate. For example, his Summoning System only broke through to the Intermediate Level when his mental strength reached the Fifth Realm.