#62It's just not strong enough.AI Model: gemini-3.0-flash
Chapter 14: Just Not Strong Enough
No response was received.
"..." Zhao Liuyun finally understood what it meant to have "a bit of a personality issue."
No wonder Aunt Yun had specifically told him to be patient earlier.
She said they should spend time together slowly, but from beginning to end, she never mentioned when he could officially meet Ye Lingling.
This is purely a depressed young girl!
He could read the fluctuations in her emotions; amidst the coldness, there was a hint of social anxiety she was unwilling to show.
It must have been hard for her to join the Tiandou Royal Academyteam... Thinking about it, was it to avoid blind dates deepening her prejudice?
Zhao Liuyun sighed inwardly, then perked up.
He just happened to be an expert in this field!
[Hypnosis] was a divine psychological skill; even Tang San could have his mind swayed by him unknowingly, so it could naturally relieve the pressure accumulated in Ye Lingling's heart.
He only slightly nudged that faint trace of confusion toward strangers in her heart, without further entanglement.
Social anxiety needs time to adapt slowly, while cold isolation needs confusion to turn into curiosity and then overwrite it.
Like a pool of stagnant lake water, it always has to wait for the right breeze to ripple again.
Correcting a personality isn't a one-time effort; forcing it is likely to backfire.
Take it slow... The first contact with Ye Lingling didn't cause the slightest ripple in Zhao Liuyun's heart.
He continued his consultations as usual, as if this brief encounter had never happened.
But the doubt quietly amplified by [Hypnosis] was like a silently sprouting seed, stimulating Ye Lingling's slight desire to understand the Reserve Guest Elder from just now.
On her way back to her room, she happened to run into the manor's butler. With a thought, she softly called out to him: "That Zhao Liuyun, what is his background?"
The butler said: "In reply to Miss, Young Master Liuyun was recommended by Elder Wenxi. He is a genius Spirit Master recruited by the Master and Madam. Due to his extraordinary talent, he was granted the position of Reserve Guest Elder."
"Extraordinary talent..." Ye Lingling murmured softly, a hint of indifference flashing in her eyes, before she withdrew all emotions and returned to silence.
No matter who it was, as long as they didn't disturb her peace, it had nothing to do with her.
Yun Ying, watching from the shadows, couldn't help but press her hand to her forehead and sigh. Her daughter's personality was truly a headache.
Zhao Liuyun didn't know someone was troubled.
Day after day, he buried himself in the Ye family's library, hungrily reading various Spirit Master classics, like a mouse falling into a rice jar, never tiring of it.
Every afternoon, he also went to the Medical Hall on time for consultations. His [Physician Profession] Professional Experience steadily accumulated... Time flowed like water, and two months slipped through his fingers.
"Sister Lingling." Zhao Liuyun met Ye Lingling under the corridor once again.
She returned home every week. Over the past two months, they had encountered each other many times, and the two had gradually become a bit more familiar.
"Mhm." Ye Lingling responded faintly.
Her voice was as clear and cold as shattered jade, yet it carried an air of detached emptiness, as if nothing in the World entered her eyes.
Empty and cold as always.
Habitually using [Hypnosis] to stir that trace of emotion in her heart that had long since turned from confusion to curiosity, Zhao Liuyun was about to leave after greeting her when he heard a soft call from behind.
"Hey—wait."
Ye Lingling hesitated for a moment but eventually called out to him.
"Does Sister Lingling have anything else?" Zhao Liuyun turned back, showing a perfectly timed hint of surprise on his face, while secretly rejoicing in his heart: "Finally!"
Their meetings over the past two months had already dissolved the initial awkwardness.
That nurtured curiosity had finally overcome her habitual coldness.
Following Ye Lingling to a pavilion in a corner of the courtyard, a breeze brushed past the eaves, bringing a few fallen leaves.
He heard her ask: "Both Father and Mother praise your extraordinary talent. I wonder what your current spirit power is?"
Zhao Liuyun replied plainly: "Level 24, Spirit Grandmaster."
In two months, with the rhythm of diligent Meditation every night, making steady progress and non-violently increasing experience, it wasn't enough to gain one level.
This level seemed ordinary to him, but Ye Lingling's eyes widened, unable to hide her shock.
This was the result of Zhao Liuyun's two months; in front of someone she was relatively familiar with, she wasn't entirely without emotional fluctuations.
Ye Lingling was 14 years old and only at Level 27.
She was extremely surprised, unable to restrain her shock: "You, how old are you?"
Zhao Liuyun said: "Ten years old, almost eleven."
"..."
Ye Lingling felt like she had taken a critical hit and couldn't speak for a long time.
"Oh, chatting? My Lingling would actually take the initiative to talk to someone. This is truly a rare occurrence." A gentle female voice suddenly intervened.
"Mom~!"
Seeing the newcomer and feeling the teasing in her words, a faint pink glow appeared on Ye Lingling's cheeks hidden under the black veil.
"Aunt Yun." Zhao Liuyun stood up to greet her and prepared to leave. "You two talk, I'll take my leave first."
"Ah~ Liuyun!" Yun Ying called out to him.
Zhao Liuyun's footsteps paused.
"A person isn't made of iron; you should take a rest."
"You've been in Heaven Dou City for over two months. Have you ever carefully appreciated the city's scenery? Have you ever had a moment of leisure?"
"The path of cultivation values a balance between tension and relaxation. Do you understand?"
Yun Ying smiled, her tone gentle but firm: "Let Lingling take you around."
Since the Mistress had spoken, there was naturally no room for refusal.
The two, along with two Spirit King guards, stood in front of the manor gates in a daze.
Zhao Liuyun looked at the girl beside him: "...So, Sister Lingling, where should we go now?"
"Let's just walk around..." Ye Lingling replied softly.
She had always lacked her own opinions, accustomed to going with the flow and rarely making her own decisions.
When she said "just walk around," she truly walked aimlessly.
Walking slowly along the long street, they unknowingly reached a sparsely populated riverbank.
The water's surface glittered with broken gold, rippling gently with the breeze, reflecting the light of the sky and the shadows of the clouds.
Ye Lingling stopped by the river, gazing at the gurgling water, suddenly remembering the question she hadn't asked before her mother interrupted.
"Zhao Liuyun, why can you cultivate so fast?"
Zhao Liuyun's thoughts raced like lightning, and he replied in a deep voice: "Because I have no other choice."
His voice was low and firm.
"I come from a humble background and have seen how people without power crawl like grass."
"I am unwilling to be like that. I want to hold my destiny in my own hands!"
"Besides having a firm conviction and working hard at cultivation, there is no other path to take."
Actually, there's also the path of death... Zhao Liuyun silently complained in his heart.
"Oh~" Ye Lingling fell into silence again, seemingly deep in thought, but actually her mind was drifting, her soul wandering.
When she reached a certain age, her father would choose to die voluntarily so she could give birth to the next successor of the Nine Heart Begonia.
Ye Lingling was unwilling to bear this heavy destiny. Whenever she thought that she too would one day follow the same path, her heart felt like it had fallen into an ice cellar.
She only wanted to break free from these invisible shackles and escape this suffocating cycle.
But with her parents above, how could she discard the responsibility of inheriting the Nine Heart Begonia?
The road ahead was vast, and an unknown mist shrouded her heart. Ye Lingling felt a bit at a loss.
Zhao Liuyun captured the fluctuations in her thoughts and continued, his voice like metal striking stone, resonant and powerful: "The most important thing is conviction. You must believe in yourself unswervingly!"
"Believe in myself?"
"Exactly!"
Zhao Liuyun's voice was like a great bell: "I firmly believe that I will eventually reach the peak of Spirit Masters!"
"A Titled Douluo is but a starting point, and a super Douluo is not the end. I want to go higher and touch the realm that no one has ever reached!"
"For this, I am willing to give my all, day and night without stopping."
"And conviction will eventually reward me!"
Ye Lingling remained cold and aloof, but her heart was like a stone thrown into a lake, with ripples spreading out layer by layer.
[Hypnosis]!
Zhao Liuyun did not hesitate to amplify this thought.
Otherwise, as time passed, he feared it would be suppressed again by her lonely nature.
"Let's go home..." Ye Lingling lost interest in wandering.
Nine Heart Begonia, conviction... these words kept colliding in her mind, her thoughts tangled like a mess... A week later, Ye Lingling returned to the manor again.
She had obtained more information about Zhao Liuyun from her father and came to find the person who had made her feel uneasy.
"You're only at Innate Level 5. Where do you get the confidence to talk so arrogantly about the Titled Douluo realm or even higher?"
It seemed like a question, but it faintly revealed a hint of wavering—her mind, which had always gone with the flow, had a crack torn in it for the first time.
Her voice was no longer as indifferent to everything as before; instead, it carried some irrepressible turmoil.
The stagnant water was beginning to stir!
Zhao Liuyun's eyes were as bright as stars. Without flinching, he said seriously: "This isn't a conflict. Innate spirit power isn't the yardstick to measure everything."
"If one draws a prison for themselves just because others deem it 'impossible,' that is truly cutting off all possibilities."
"Even... even with the Spirit restrictions of the Nine Heart Begonia?" Ye Lingling sighed softly.
Zhao Liuyun was silent for a long time, then suddenly looked up, his gaze sharp as a blade: "Even with the Spirit restrictions of the Nine Heart Begonia!"
"On the path of cultivation, one must hold the thought that 'just because predecessors couldn't do it, doesn't mean I can't.'"
"If there's no solution for now, it's just... that you're not strong enough!"
"If a Titled Douluo is not enough, then go for Peak Douluo; if that's still not enough, then step into the Level 99 super realm."
"Further up, there are still legends of becoming a god at level 100."
"The heavens and earth are vast, and the World is grand. There is no such thing as an absolute."
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