There was no response.
"..." Zhao Liuyun finally understood what it meant to have "a bit of a personality issue."
No wonder Auntie Yun had specifically instructed him to be more patient earlier.
She had suggested getting to know each other slowly, but from beginning to end, she had never mentioned when he would actually get to have a formal meeting with Ye Lingling.
This was a classic case of a girl suffering from depression!
He could read the fluctuations in her emotions—beneath the cold indifference, there was a layer of social anxiety she was unwilling to show. For her to join the Heaven Dou Imperial Academy team, it must have been quite a struggle...
Thinking about it, was she avoiding the blind date to prevent the prejudice in her heart from deepening?
Zhao Liuyun sighed inwardly several times, then braced himself.
He happened to be an expert in this field!
[Hypnosis] was a divine psychological skill. Even someone like Tang San could be unconsciously influenced by him; naturally, it could also alleviate the pressure accumulated in Ye Lingling's heart.
He merely nudged the faint trace of confusion she felt toward this stranger, without pushing further.
Social anxiety required time to adapt, while cold isolation needed confusion to turn into curiosity, which would then override the previous state. Like a pool of stagnant water, it had to wait for the right breeze before ripples could spread again. Correcting a personality was not the work of a single moment; forcing it would only lead to the opposite of the desired effect.
Slow and steady would win the race.
The initial contact with Ye Lingling did not cause a single ripple in Zhao Liuyun's heart.
He continued his clinical duties as a doctor as if the brief encounter had never happened.
However, the confusion quietly amplified by [Hypnosis] was like a seed silently sprouting, stimulating a slight desire in Ye Lingling to learn more about the newly appointed "Reserve Guest Elder."
On her way back to her room, she happened to run into the manor's butler. Her thoughts shifted, and she softly called out to him, "That Zhao Liuyun... what is his background?"
The butler replied, "Reporting to Miss, Young Master Liuyun was recommended by Elder Wenxi. He is a genius soul master recruited by the Master and Madam. His talent is extraordinary, which is why he was granted the position of Reserve Guest Elder."
"Extraordinary talent..." Ye Lingling murmured, a flash of indifference passing through her eyes before she suppressed all emotion 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.
Watching from the shadows, Yun Ying couldn't help but rub her forehead and sigh. Her daughter's temperament was truly a headache.
Zhao Liuyun was unaware that anyone was troubled.
Day after day, he buried himself in the Ye family's library, hungrily scanning through various soul master records, like a mouse that had fallen into a grain bin, never tiring of it. Every afternoon, he arrived punctually at the clinic to see patients, and his [Physician] class experience grew steadily alongside it.
Time flowed like water, and two months slipped through his fingers.
"Sister Lingling." Zhao Liuyun encountered Ye Lingling under the corridor once again.
She returned home every week, and after two months, their "accidental" meetings were not few. The two had gradually become somewhat familiar with each other.
"Mm," Ye Lingling responded faintly.
Her voice was as clear and cold as shattered jade, yet it carried an aloof emptiness, as if nothing in the world could enter her eyes.
Empty and silent as always.
Habitually using [Hypnosis] to stir the curiosity in her heart—which had long since shifted from confusion—Zhao Liuyun prepared to leave after the greeting, only to hear a soft call from behind him.
"Ah—wait."
Ye Lingling hesitated for a second, but ultimately called out to him.
"Is there something else, Sister Lingling?" Zhao Liuyun turned around, a perfectly measured look of surprise on his face, though he was inwardly delighted: Finally!
Their meetings over the past two months had long since thawed the initial awkwardness. The curiosity he had been nurturing finally outweighed her habitual isolation.
He followed Ye Lingling to a gazebo in a corner of the courtyard. A breeze brushed past the eaves, bringing with it a few fallen leaves.
He heard her ask, "Both Father and Mother praise your exceptional talent. I wonder, what is your current soul power level?"
Zhao Liuyun replied calmly, "Rank 24, Grand Soul Master."
In two months, with the rhythm of diligent nightly meditation and gradual, non-violent experience gains, it wasn't enough to go up a full level. This level seemed ordinary to him, but Ye Lingling's eyes widened, unable to hide her surprise.
This was the result of Zhao Liuyun's two months of effort; in front of people she was relatively familiar with, she wasn't entirely devoid of emotional fluctuations.
Ye Lingling was fourteen years old and was only at Rank 27.
She was utterly stunned, unable to suppress her shock: "You... how old are you exactly?"
Zhao Liuyun said, "Ten. Almost eleven."
"..."
Ye Lingling felt like she had been hit by a critical blow and remained speechless for a long time.
"Oh, chatting, are we? It's quite a rare sight for my Lingling to take the initiative to talk to someone." A gentle female voice suddenly intervened.
"Mom!"
Seeing the newcomer and sensing the teasing tone in her words, a faint pink glow appeared on Ye Lingling's cheeks behind her black veil.
"Auntie Yun." Zhao Liuyun stood up to greet her, preparing to leave. "I'll take my leave while you two talk."
"Wait, Liuyun!" Yun Ying stopped him.
Zhao Liuyun paused.
"A person isn't made of iron; you need to rest. You've been in Heaven Dou City for over two months. Have you ever looked closely at the city's scenery? Have you had a single moment of leisure?"
"The way of cultivation lies in balancing tension and relaxation. Do you understand?" Yun Ying smiled, her tone gentle yet firm. "Let Lingling take you around for a walk."
Since the Lady of the house had spoken, there was naturally no room for refusal.
The two of them, along with two Soul King bodyguards, stood at the manor gates in a daze.
Zhao Liuyun looked at the girl beside him. "...So, Sister Lingling, where should we go now?"
"Just walk around..." Ye Lingling replied softly.
She had never had a mind of her own, accustomed to going with the flow and rarely making decisions. When she said "just walk around," she truly meant walking aimlessly.
They strolled along the main street and unknowingly reached a secluded riverbank. The water's surface glittered like crushed gold, rippling softly in the breeze and reflecting the light of the sky and clouds.
Ye Lingling stopped by the river, gazing at the gurgling water. She suddenly remembered the question that had been interrupted by her mother.
"Zhao Liuyun, why are you able to cultivate so fast?"
Zhao Liuyun's mind raced, his thoughts flashing like lightning as he replied solemnly, "Because I have no choice."
His voice was low and resolute.
"I come from a humble background. I have seen the way those without power crawl on the ground like weeds."
"I refuse to be like that. I want to hold my fate in my own hands!"
"Aside from firm conviction and hard work, there is no other path to take."
Actually, there's always the path of death... Zhao Liuyun complained silently to himself.
"Oh..." Ye Lingling lapsed into silence again. She appeared to be in deep thought, but in reality, her mind was drifting, her soul lost somewhere else.
When she reached a certain age, her father would choose to die voluntarily so that she could give birth to the next successor of the Nine-Hearted Begonia. Ye Lingling did not want to endure this heavy destiny. Every time she thought about how she would one day follow the same path, her heart felt as if 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 there, how could she abandon the responsibility of the Nine-Hearted Begonia inheritance?
The road ahead was vast, and an unknown mist shrouded her heart. Ye Lingling felt somewhat at a loss.
Zhao Liuyun captured the fluctuations in her heart and continued to speak, his voice as powerful as the clanging of metal on stone: "The most important thing is conviction. You must believe in yourself unswervingly!"
"Believe in yourself?"
"That's right!"
Zhao Liuyun's voice was like a resonant bell: "I firmly believe that I will eventually reach the peak of soul masters!"
"Titled Douluo is just the starting point; Peerless Douluo is not the end. I want to go higher, to touch a realm that no one has ever reached!"
"For this, I am willing to give everything, working day and night without ceasing."
"And conviction will eventually reward me!"
Ye Lingling maintained her cold exterior, but her heart was like a lake into which a stone had been thrown, ripples spreading layer by layer.
[Hypnosis]!
Zhao Liuyun did not hesitate to amplify this specific thought. Otherwise, given enough time, it might be suppressed again by her lonely nature.
"Let's go home..." Ye Lingling lost her mood for wandering. Nine-Hearted Begonia, conviction... these words kept colliding in her mind, her thoughts tangled like a mess of hemp.
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 caused her such mental unrest.
"You are only at Innate Rank 5. Where do you get the confidence to speak so arrogantly of Titled Douluo or even higher realms?"
It sounded like an interrogation, but it faintly revealed a hint of wavering—for the first time, a crack had been torn in her habitual drift. Her voice was no longer indifferent to everything as it once was; instead, it carried a trace of suppressed emotion.
Stagnant water was starting to stir!
Zhao Liuyun's eyes were as bright as stars. Without flinching, he said seriously, "There is no conflict. Innate Soul Power is not the only yardstick to measure everything."
"If one draws a prison for themselves just because others claim it's 'impossible,' that is truly cutting off all possibilities."
"Even if... it's the martial soul restriction of the Nine-Hearted Begonia?" Ye Lingling sighed softly.
Zhao Liuyun was silent for a long time before suddenly looking up, his gaze as sharp as a blade: "Even if it's the martial soul restriction of the Nine-Hearted Begonia!"
"In the path of cultivation, one must hold the mindset of: 'Just because predecessors couldn't do it doesn't mean I can't.'"
"If there is no solution right now, it's just... that you aren't strong enough!"
"If Titled Douluo isn't enough, then strike for Peak Douluo; if that's still not enough, then step into the Rank 99 Peerless realm."
"And above that, there are the legends of reaching Rank 100 and becoming a God."
"The heavens and earth are vast, and the world is grand. Nothing is absolute."